While it's not perfect, the Galaxy S9 is a fantastic device. It's got a brilliant display, great camera, brilliant performance all-round, and in a body that's easily one of the most elegant ever released. Its stereo sound makes such a difference to media consumption too.

Brilliant display; Stereo sound is surprisingly powerful; Curved glass and metal is very attractive; Comfortable to use; Super speedy and fluid performance

Battery isn't great; Camera over-exposes highlights regularly; AR Emoji and Bixby need a lot of improving; Expensive

Samsung's flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series, play a pivotal role in the company's ability to dominate global markets. Last year's Galaxy S8 , Galaxy S8+ and Galaxy Note 8 ( Review ) helped Samsung capture a big chunk of the global market in 2017, passing Apple along the way,...

At first glance, the Galaxy S9 looks unspectacular, because apart from the repositioning of the fingerprint sensor, Samsung seems not to have changed anything on the surface. Only after you hold the Galaxy S9 in your hand and compare it side-by-side to the Galaxy S8 are the changes in detail...

Performance; Camera; Display; Bixby

Unoriginal design; Slow unlocking; Battery life; Bixby wake-up

In some ways, the Samsung Galaxy S9 is a serious step up from last year's flagship phone. In particular, its new 12-megapixel f/1.5 rear camera performs far better in low light than its predecessor. Its new Exynos 9810 processor also promises significantly faster performance.

Far from playing it safe, Samsung has further refined an already excellent design language, adding in new features and improving what needed improving. Brand-new Dolby Atmos-grade speakers are among the best new enhancements that will make daily use of the phone better than ever, and the slew of...

Gorgeous; IP68 water and dust resistant build; Industry-leading display; Incredible Dolby Atmos speakers; 3.5mm audio jack; PMA and WPC wireless charging support; Edge panels are ultra useful; Ultra-fast performance; Samsung Pay is still the best mobile payments solution; Great new biometric...

Only supports QuickCharge 2.0; Camera noise processing is still too heavy; Front-facing camera should be better; New camera interface is terrible; Battery life should be better; Having fewer features on the smaller Galaxy S9 camera is lame

The Galaxy S8 was the best phone of 2017. The Galaxy S9 is a little better. The Galaxy S9+ is even better. It's up to you whether the size and cost are worth the power: For us, they are.

Feels great in one hand; Excellent low-light camera performance; Better sound and network support than the Galaxy S8

Not a radical upgrade from the Galaxy S8; Larger S9+ model has better cameras, more RAM, and stronger Wi-Fi performance

The Samsung S9 is an excellent smartphone – one of the best Android phones you can buy today. The screen, in particular, is superb. The colours are crisp and extremely detailed, and the ample screen real estate makes it well-suited to watching videos in horizontal mode.

Good low-light photography; crisp and detailed screen; slick design

No improvement in battery life; Bixby is still not very useful; intelligent scan has high failure rate

It's true what they say - you don't fix what's not broken. And that's what Samsung did for the Galaxy S9 - it didn't change what was already great, it just tweaked specs wherever possible. And it has worked out just fine for them.

Premium water-tight design; Class-leading AMOLED screen; Among the fastest Android phones (in benchmarks; Great audio skills and stereo speakers; Variable aperture camera; 960fps slow-mo; automatic motion detection; Class-leading still and video quality; Excellent retail bundle

The Samsung Galaxy S9 is a continuation of the path the South Korean company started last year with the Galaxy S8. Both devices are very similar and nearly identical in look and feel.

Samsung's promotions ahead of the launch of the Galaxy S9 and S9+ promised "The Camera. Reimagined" – and boy did it deliver. The camera onboard the S9 and the even better S9+ have set a new benchmark. The S9+ was actually judged by DxOMark as having the world's best smartphone camera.

Sleek design; large Infinity Display; excellent camera; Super Slow Mo; low light photography; superb audio quality and Dolby Atmos

Same design as last year; finicky screen swipes in camera mode