A couple weeks ago Samsung announced their newest flagship device, the Galaxy S9, and its everything the smartphone realm needed.
Overall, this device is no iPhone X - there's no complete look overhaul and generally, no one will be able to tell you're rocking the latest and greatest by Samsung unless, of course, you opt for the beautiful new lilac color. Keeping the chassis of the previous S8, the only difference in the look of the device is that Samsung moved the fingerprint sensor under the camera housing as opposed to the horrendous placement on the previous model.
The only other major feature overhaul comes in the camera, a place where Samsung has historically lacked among the competition. Sporting a new dual aperture camera, the S9 can take shots in f1.5 and f2.4 aperture allowing for insanely beautiful lowlight shots.
While I've never been a fan of the oversaturation of the Galaxy's photos, Samsung really hit the mark on this one, virtually closing the infamous camera gap between its competitors.
In terms of other features, the S9 introduces AR Emoji, which, in my experience, is Samsung creating their version of Apple's Animoji but missing the mark and ending up with what appears to be an exact replica of Bitmoji. The other cases where we see Samsung take inspiration from Apple is the new Dolby Atmos stereo speakers and the facial recognition feature. While the facial recognition feature is 2D and thus not even remotely as secure as Face ID on iPhone X, partnered with Samsung's Iris scanners, the duo proves to be fairly secure.
See also: 5 Reasons Why I Won't Be Buying Another iPhone, Yes, I Said It
While the Samsung Galaxy S9 is nothing for tech lovers to gawk at, it does something the smartphone industry desperately needs. Refinement. It takes all that's great from the S8 and adds just a touch of new features to create a beautiful reliable device. Typically we see companies rush to bring new features to their devices and the bugs and issues that come alongside these new features can hurt smartphone companies. Samsung's decision to refine and innovate their phones rather than invent some new technology is really paying off and hopefully inspires other companies to follow suit.
