Galaxy S9 review: The compact 2018 Galaxy with a variable-aperture camera.
A compact 2018 flagship, now a legacy device.
The Galaxy S9 refined the S8 design and added a variable-aperture camera. Single rear lens, no 5G and ended software support place it firmly in the past.
01Display
83/10083/100 trails the 85-point cohort average for flagship phones of 2018.
02Camera
72/10072/100 trails the 77-point cohort average for flagship phones of 2018.
03Performance
64/10064/100 is one of the weaker performance results among flagship phones of 2018 — 6 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
04Battery
66/10066/100 is one of the weaker battery results among flagship phones of 2018 — 6 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
05Build
82/10082/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2018.
06Value
64/10064/100 trails the 66-point cohort average for flagship phones of 2018.
- Compact, premium body with IP68.
- Variable-aperture camera was clever for 2018.
- Sharp QHD+ AMOLED.
- Headphone jack and microSD.
- Single rear camera (no zoom).
- No 5G; software support ended at Android 10.
- 3,000 mAh battery; 15 W charging.
- Discontinued.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 11-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .