Samsung's New Flagship Smartphones
Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+
With the excitement of Mobile World Congress 2018 now over, and many new smartphones revealed over the last few weeks, we were pleased to add the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ smartphones to our device database. After choosing to release the Galaxy Tab S3 as their flagship device at MWC17, Samsung returned this year with the successors to the Galaxy S8 Smartphone Series and showcased their Galaxy S9 and S9+ devices. Samsung once again took centre stage in Hall 3 hosting an ever impressive set up packed with a multitude of handsets for pundits to test along with a series of VR related activities to test the Galaxy S9 hands on.
Not much changed with the introduction of the Galaxy S9 Series. The display specifications (screen inches diagonal or resolution) and the batteries remained the same. Stylistically the fingerprint sensor has been moved from its previous position adjacent to the camera, now residing below the camera. The Galaxy S9+ now bolsters dual cameras aligned vertically, both cameras allocated with 12MP. The only other significant change lies in the System On Chip implemented in the smartphones, with Samsung implementing the Exynos 9 Octa and the Snapdragon 845 chipset among their devices. One of the most dividing topics over the past year has been the removal of the headphone jack by prominent vendors. For the Galaxy S9 Series Samsung has continued to support the 3.5mm jack to the delight of many. The Galaxy S9 retails at $719.99 while the Galaxy S9+ retails at $839.99.
Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ User-Agents
Here are two examples of Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ User-Agents, the bold text indicates the device ID token.
Samsung Galaxy S9 User-Agent Example:
Samsung Galaxy S9+ User-Agent Example:
51Degrees has detected User-Agents for the Galaxy S9 and S9+ and we've looked into the hardware model numbers in greater detail to discover that the SM-G960 model variants relate to the Galaxy S9 whilst the SM-G965 model variants relate to the Galaxy S9+. With Samsung devices, the last letter of the model number usually indicates to what market or mobile carrier the device belongs to. The 'F' in models SM-G960F and SM-G965F mean they represent the international versions of the Galaxy S9/S9+. These models are also the first to appear as they were the primary units displayed at MWC18. Now that Galaxy S9 Series has been launched globally with the ability to purchase we expect to see User-Agents containing the following models SM-G960V, SM-G960A, SM-G960T for the Samsung Galaxy S9. Last year we identified 10+ different models variants for the Samsung Galaxy S8 and expect to record similar data traffic this year.
Has Samsung done enough with the Galaxy S9 Series to fend off competition from the likes of Apple, Google, Huawei and the rest throughout the year? While fighting off releases from other vendors they are also going against the popularity of the Galaxy S8 Series. Opening sales for the Galaxy S9 series were reportedly lower than the previous year but with an enthusiastic higher sales ceiling set for the first year of launch.
Is that it for Samsung in 2018? Not quite, two more major announcements are potentially lined up for later in the year in the form of the Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy Tab S4. With every Samsung announcement, 51Degrees will be sure to add the new device models to our database as soon as possible.
Test my Device
If you have a Samsung Galaxy S9, or any device for that matter, you can see an example of some of the data we can identify here.
