The second generation Google smartphone has been out for a year already and the last member of the Samsung S family has been born some weeks ago. This brought up the question – who’s the leader of the tribe now? For sure both phones are on a top-tier level in every aspect among others, but what are the differences and who is better than who?
The decision between both is hard and is individual, but I’ll give you my own perception and what are the main differences – the judging I’ll leave to you. We should also bear in mind that the Galaxy S9 had a year of development advantage, so we’re waiting for an answer from Google with their third-generation Pixel device. I’m sure that it would be incredible! Let’s get into the topic.
What’s the difference in terms of design?
So, starting from the sizing of these two, I gotta say that the Samsung Galaxy S9+ is slightly bigger than the Pixel XL. The S9 is 6.2″ big, while the Pixel is 6.0″ exact. It is only 0.2″ and you’ll notice it if you are able to compare them side to side. The next difference is the curved display, which hasn’t changed at all on the S9 from the previously released S8. The Pixel is not curved at all and doesn’t need to, but the Galaxy S9 looks purely amazing… there’s no need to compare them in terms of aesthetics – the S9 wins in all cases.
This doesn’t mean that the design of the Pixel 2 is not good, I’m not saying this. It has everything, except the attention screaming looks. The fingerprint is in a better position, which looks to be a major issue with Samsung. They could’ve lowered its position, which I agree for with Karl Conrad.
Another downfall of the Samsung Galaxy S9 is the presence of the Bixby button once again… I wish Samsung solve the problem with removing it in this upgrade, but unfortunately, that’s the case. Or they could’ve made it a button dedicated for a shortcut by your own choice?
Display
Okay, I’ve been using my Galaxy S8 ever since its release and I would’ve had a hard time if I had to swap from this device to another, mainly due to the incredible display abilities. This Super AMOLED technology by Samsung is astonishing. When the S9 is compared to the Pixel 2 XL you’ll see to which degree is the Galaxy smartphone better in terms of color, definition, and resolution. The schemes on the Google phone seem a bit off, so my hands go both to the S9. An important thing to note is that in the video by Karl, the Samsung smartphone isn’t even in maxed out display settings…it would’ve been unfair if he did it.
Chipset
Both devices have awesome chipsets inside and each will cope with whatever you’d like. These two smartphones could start any app of your choice without paying attention to its requirements. The Galaxy S9 is younger, so it has the latest generation processor of Snapdragon 845, while the Pixel 2 has a Snapdragon 835. This may not sound like a serious thing to you, but I assure you that the 845 version is capable of more things! I bet that the third-generation Google smartphone will feature the Snapdragon 845 as well – I’ll remind you my words when it pops out soon.
Cameras
This is the biggest difference between those two beasts. The camera. So, the Samsung S9 has a dual-aperture 1.5-2.4, 26mm camera, which means that the low-light photos would be hard to beat by any other smartphone out there on the market. On its own, this is not enough to give the title to the Galaxy.
What Karl thinks is that the Pixel 2 XL takes better pictures overall, and I actually agree with him. I’m not going to lie. By looking at the color-filled and more vibrant photos that the Pixel 2 takes, I admire how a phone that fully upgraded its camera since the last release still can’t beat the competition. Salute to Google and we’ll again see how they’ll upgrade the camera performance in their next series.
Speakers
This is a category that Samsung wines at for sure. They made a really smart step by buying Harman-Kardon last year and the AKG tuned speakers in this S9 are just phenomenal. Any music enthusiast will love the Dolby Atmos experience presented by the device and will chose it over the Pixel 2 every day and night.
