Samsung S9 Plus (VS) Pixel 2 XL

[Sugarphreak]

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[CompletelyNumb]

If she's happy with the Samsung lineup then stick with it. Not everyone needs a factory unlocked phone and root access.

[Xtrema]

I don't think many got S9 Plus on their hands to give their 2 cents.

But other than the nice camera with variable aperture and newer 845 chip, sounds like another carry over of S8 Plus.

If security and patches is your thing, it's hard to recommend against the Pixel. Updates on Samsung is a shit show.

[R-Audi]

Im in the same boat, but also including the Note 8 in the comparison. The S9+ appears to have the best specs, but really liked previous Google phones. (And the Pixel and Note will likely be cheaper)

[Mitsu3000gt]

My brother just ordered an S9+, I will have hands on experience soon but I have't seen it yet. The + has more RAM and a larger battery. Both my parents have an S7 and battery life is fantastic even with the always-on display - sounds like there may have been a rogue app or something causing you problems with yours. Neither one has had any issues to date, and both got them around it's release.

If your wife isn't a power user, she's likely to be indifferent to a Pixel 2 XL or a S9+. The Pixel 2 XL has a better camera than anything else thanks to Google's software, but really they are all so good these days it probably only matters to hardcore enthusiasts. We don't have the info on the S9+ yet but the Pixel 2 XL battery life is absolutely insane. I only charge my phone for ~20 mins twice a day (weekdays only) with a slow-charger in the car to/from work while using Android Auto and the OEM charger is never used. I cannot believe how long it lasts, and it only loses 1% over an 8hr night. It then survives the entire weekend until it hits my car again on Monday.

If you want a raw google experience, immediate updates, the best warranty, and the best camera - go with the Pixel XL 2. If you want slightly better hardware (Samsung is always the first to use the latest processors) and the same interface as your wife is used to, go with the S9+. Both phones are phenomenal, I think you will be thrilled with either one.

The S9 also retains a headphone jack and SD slot if either are important to you.

[jaylo]

I triedthe Pixel 2 XL twice and the camera is good, zoom is lacking and low light (which the S9 will accommodate based from reviews).

What bothered me is the crap screen quality (blue shift, grain, black smear) is far worse than other OLED flagships out there.

The USB C port and the dongle for headphones supplied are flimsy and I don't see it lasting a year of use.

I guess I could not put up with all of these for a $1500 phone.

[Sugarphreak]

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[K3RMiTdot]

I ordered the S9 - I might be a little bit bias since I've owned every device since the S3. Really no issues with my S7 other than the finger prints need to be reinputed after a little bit.

Battery life is great. the S6 was a bit shitty.

[R-Audi]

Yeah, I usually get a full day with my S7 and try to power down at least once a week and run their diagnostic/device maintenance around the same time or if it slows down.

I think for me it will come down to price... I see Telus is offering $150 off if you pre-order, but havent heard of any deals with Bell yet. On their respective websites the S9+ is cheaper, but I havent stopped by a store to confirm. (S9+ $379, Pixel 2XL $449, Note 8 $299 on a $100 plan) Good timing with my contract expiring at the end of March, so we will see.

Their posted used phone trade in sucks too, on the Samsung website they said my S7 is worth $130. Thanks but no thanks.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Wow that is crazy battery life. A lot of those things you mentioned about the XL sound really good

I've never had good luck with Samsung phones and battery life. They always start out life strong, and then 6~9 months into ownership it starts to have problems getting to the end of the day. The S7 she is using now probably has maybe 6 hours on it tops on standby, it constantly needs to be plugged in. I've tried to clamp down on app power usage, but there isn't anything that stands out as an issue. I find sometimes a hard reset will make improve the battery life for a while, but it tends to slip away within a few weeks.

On a side note I am loving my BB Keyone, looking at the battery specs on it right now, I am 13 hours into it with pretty heavy usage all day (a few calls, hours of surfing, text messaging, streaming music, checking my schedule, sending e-mails, etc) and only down to 72%. It says I have 32 hours of battery life remaining at current usage levels. It has been so nice not even giving battery life a second thought.

Yeah I have been super happy with the XL 2. I am very picky about screens so I exchanged 2 of them, but now I have a flawless screen with zero white/pink blooming (common on all OLEDS), and none of the blue tint that was blown so far out of proportion at launch. The phone is lightning fast, battery life is phenomenal, updates roll in monthly, and the camera is as good as it gets. What I don't like is the lack of a headphone jack (the dongles never seem to work that well), and the edges of the screen curve slightly so there are no good tempered glass screen protector options for it, but other than that I honestly don't have issues with the phone and it has been perfect to date.

6 hours of standby time on the S7 (or pretty much any phone for that matter) is absolutely not normal - something else is going on there for sure, whether it be a defective device or something on the phone preventing it from going into a low power state or 'sleeping'. I'd try a full factory reset if you've exhausted all other options. If you still have the issue then it's most likely defective hardware. Between my parents' 2 S7's, one is on Candy Crush all day, taking a million pictures, leaving the screen on, and texting all the time, the other uses it for work and a shitty proprietary work mandated push email app prevents the phone from sleeping, and both phone's batteries easily make it through a full day. I know none of that really helps your situation, but if an app isn't causing the problem, your phone or battery has to be defective with 6hr of standby. It should last for many days on standby, or easily through 1-2 days with mixed/normal usage.

If you can't wait for the Pixel 3 (which will be the first phone the $1B HTC team Google bought will have developed in-house), I would get the S9+ if you want the latest hardware, or the Pixel XL 2 if you want the full google experience, no doubling up on apps, and the 1-year no hassle warranty.

[K3RMiTdot]

I think most if not all phone carriers will have a similar offer. I'm trading in a S7 I have that no longer reads sim cards. For me it's better to take the $130.

[jaylo]

Also, if you pre-order directly from Samsung, $100 off + trade-in value, so even with a crap phone, you are guaranteed $100 off.

[R-Audi]

Had a quick convo with someone at Bell, they can have the phone at $380 or $580 depending on what you want your monthly bill to be ($20/mo swing between the 2) and offering a $250 bill credit, although they are trying for a $350 credit to match telus.

Trade in is $150 for my phone, not worth it for anything somewhat new. (Perhaps I can find a cheap device for under that to help)

[R-Audi]

Following up...
Placed an order for an S9+ yesterday... went back and forth between that and the XL 2 quite a bit, but figured if the costs were the similar why not get the latest and greatest. (Pixel would have been cheaper by $150 over the 2 years) Arrives next week, somewhat excited although I find myself caring less and less about phone tech these days. New toy I suppose.

[BigDL]

S9+ has headphone jack, pixel 2 xl does not. Also typically easier to find cases for a Samsung product than a google one. Never found a Nexus 6p case that I liked, even at Asian kiosks I never found one that held up nicely. I pre ordered mine after looking at a bunch of different phones, I used to flash custom roms all the time but can't be bother as much now so that doesn't matter to me as much as it did before.

[RawB8figure]

Also, if you pre-order directly from Samsung, $100 off + trade-in value, so even with a crap phone, you are guaranteed $100 off.
What is the regular price of the S9? 959? or is that with the 100$ off ?

[R-Audi]

Bell site has S9 at $1,019, S9+ at $1,179.

[Dirty_SOHC]

AHS/Telus Employee Purchase Plan (EPP) has the s9+ for $380.00 with a 200.00 credit and the Pixel 2 XL is $450.00.

Total cost of the s9+ at the end of the two years is $530.00

Minimum service cost is $70.00 a month for 300 minutes and 4 Gb's of data on a two year plan.

[jaylo]

What is the regular price of the S9? 959? or is that with the 100$ off ?

Samsung website pre-order price is $960 for S9 and $1,100 for S9+.

So with the Program, you trade-in your current phone (mine's OnePlus 2 trade-in value is $15), plus $100, I get $115 off the pre-order price above.

[jaylo]

Following up...
Placed an order for an S9+ yesterday... went back and forth between that and the XL 2 quite a bit, but figured if the costs were the similar why not get the latest and greatest. (Pixel would have been cheaper by $150 over the 2 years) Arrives next week, somewhat excited although I find myself caring less and less about phone tech these days. New toy I suppose.

Good choice. I had the Pixel 2 XL and Pixel 2 for about a month, main things that bothered me was the sub-par LG pOLED screen, flimsy USB C to 3.5mm adapter, only digital zoom, and low light performance.

The Pixel 2 XL was amazing in speed and simplicity of the OS, and the live wallpaper and Now Playing features are neat. Also, the unlimited photo/video storage in original quality until Jan. 2021 was neat, but I do have Amazon Drive storage so I am okay without that.

I believe Shazam can "replicate" the Now Playing feature and I have yet to see the Live Wallpapers available for the Galaxy S series.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Good choice. I had the Pixel 2 XL and Pixel 2 for about a month, main things that bothered me was the sub-par LG pOLED screen, flimsy USB C to 3.5mm adapter, only digital zoom, and low light performance.



If you had a problematic OLED you should have exchanged it - granted it's a small hassle (keep the old one, google sends new one, google pays to ship old one back), but worth it and you're never without a phone. I have a perfect OLED now and it's one of the better screens I have used, particularly for color accuracy and white uniformity (the hardest thing to get on OLEDs). There is no more blue tint than any other OLED when you tilt it to extreme angles.

Yes the dongle blows, as do all of them. It doesn't even match the phone color haha. Sad reality of most phones these days. Kudos to Samsung for keeping the headphone jack.

Virtually every smartphone has a digital-only zoom. Low light performance on the Pixel 2/XL (with regards to image quality) is as good as it gets. The professional reviews and objective testing echo this as well. The reason why it's so good is Google's algorithm stacks 9 photos and since photo noise occurs randomly it can get rid of almost all the noise. It's really quite something how they can make an image from a 1/2.3" sensor almost noise-free, relatively speaking. They also used the Snapdragon DSP to process the images, and now they use their own proprietary 'visual core' processor to handle HDR+ processing, both of which are unique to the Pixels. Make sure you have HDR+ turned on. If you noticed particularly bad low light performance, it's very likely that something else was going on.

[Sugarphreak]

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[jaylo]

I had a change of heart and returned the S9+ when Koodo did a $450 off on a Pixel 2 XL a month ago.

Luckily, I received one with better pOLED screen and no issues so far.

[Mitsu3000gt]

I had a change of heart and returned the S9+ when Koodo did a $450 off on a Pixel 2 XL a month ago.

Luckily, I received one with better pOLED screen and no issues so far.

Mine is near perfect as well, probably the most accurately calibrated oled I have used to date, at least for my tastes (natural looking). No more blue tint than any other OLED and the best white uniformity I have seen on a phone display to date. Bad white uniformity plagues almost all oleds and is really hard to get a perfect sample.

Looking at the gmail app, tilting the phone almost 180 degrees the screen just gets darker, it doesn’t go blue. I think some earlier models had bad screens and tech blogs blew it grossly out of proportion.

[avishal26]

Freedom has a steal of a deal for S9+. $0 up-front and $75/mo. for 5GB and unlimited North America.

I made the switch from Telus back in March (and traded in my Note 5 to get an even better deal). I love the new phone (no touchscreen issues that I"ve seen) and the coverage/speed is pretty good.

https://www.freedommobile.ca/plans-and-devices/mobile-devices/device-details/samsung-galaxy-s9-plus

[Sugarphreak]

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