So we have already had a Reddit user sharing their hands-on review of the Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ smartphones – although comments from the original poster were later removed, you can still access the complete thread here.

Now, we have another Redditor detailing their hands-on experience of 2 hours with the flagship smartphones.

To make this a quick and easy read for you, we have segregated the information revealed as part of this new review into multiple sections. So, let’s get started.

About Redditor

The person, who goes by the name of Wan997 on Reddit, claims they work at a retail location in the US, and underwent a training session with the devices today. They handled Exynos variants (pre-production models).

New info

Of course, you’ll be looking forward to know what new this second hands-on has revealed about the Galaxy S9/S9+. So here it is:

• No Uhssup: Yes, the rumored social network which reports said will be included as an app in the Galaxy S9/S9+ was no where to be seen, nor there was anything related to it in the training session. “No mention of Uhssup during the training and didn’t see it during my hands-on,” the Redditor said.
• Camera changes: The swipe right to change modes has been done away with. “Instead, you can access your different modes by tapping them on the top of the application (it’s similar to iPhones but instead of it being on the bottom, its on the top).”
• No live focus on S9: While the S9+ will have the Live Focus feature, S9 will not. “Users can use selective focus as the next best thing for the S9 model,” the Redditor said.
• AR Emoji: Yes, that’s the name of the Apple Animoji-like feature Samsung recently teased. Here’s how the Redditor explained this functionality: “For AR Emoji, you take a picture of yourself and it recreates it into an animated character (sort of like Bitmoji). After your avatar is created, the phone creates stickers/gifs that you can use of your AR emoji to share via social media/text messages.”
• Real-time translation with Bixby: Bixby Vision has been improved to include real-time translation feature (utilizes AR to translate font). “You can literally point your camera at a sign and it will in real time translate it and paste the translation over the actual text itself.”
• Live Lock Screen: Another new feature in the Galaxy S9/S9+ will be the ability to take a video and set it as your lock screen. “They autoplay as soon as you turn on the phone. You can crop I believe a 7 second video onto the lock screen.” The Redditor said the Samsung trainer claimed this feature barely uses battery.
• Trade-in offer at launch: While pricing info wasn’t revealed by Samsung during training, the comany did reveal they’ll be “pushing a trade in offer where you get $350 off of the S9/S9+.”

Confirming rumors

Now comes the information that we have already heard as part of rumors and reports. Here’s what all that was confirmed:

• Headphone jack stays
• Screen size remain same at 5.8-inch and 6.2-inch
• “The super slow-motion feature was the only mode mentioned that shoots 960 fps.”
• Devices run Android 8.0
• The S9+ features dual camera setup, while the S9 only comes with a single rear camera.
• S9 and S9+ battery capacity is 3,000mAh and 3,500mAh respectively.
• AKG tuned stereo speakers “which are similar to that of the iPhone X where it uses one front-facing speaker and one bottom facing speaker. “

Final words

Here’s how the Redditor summed up their experience:

• “Phone runs a lot smoother than the S8”
• “Camera seemed similar to the Note 8/S8/S8+ cameras to be honest”
• “UI was pretty similar to last years models.”
• All in all, the guy says it’s not worth upgrading if you already have the S8 or Note8:

I’ve used the S8+/Note 8 for quite awhile now and I have to say that the S9 is NOT worth upgrading to. The phone is very similar to the S8 and while the new features are promising, they don’t justify spending more money to get. If anything, I’d say wait for the S10 earliest. The S9 from a general perspective has the same footprint as the S8″

Feature image credit: Evan Blass

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