Speed test: Galaxy S9 Plus vs. S8 vs. S8 Plus vs. Note 8

By Will Nicol and David Cogen June 17, 2018

The Galaxy S9 Plus is Samsung’s latest flagship, and arguably its best. In our S9 Plus review, we characterized it as “a statement of best-in-class hardware,” commending the phone for its svelte design and stunning camera capabilities. The S9 Plus also sports a cutting-edge Snapdragon 845 processor, but does that give it a noticeable edge over the other phones in Samsung’s roster?

To find out, we pitted the S9 Plus and three other Samsung phones — the Note 8, S8, and S8 Plus — against one another, allowing us to see which phones could launch a variety of apps and games the quickest. It wasn’t the most rigorous test, but it did provide some insight into the relative power of these different models.

For the test, we opened a host of popular apps — Twitter, Facebook, Pokémon Go, and Super Mario Run, among others — and timed how quickly they launched.

Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus — Image used with permission by copyright holder

What were the results? Surprisingly, for most apps, the four phones finished in about the same time. The S9 Plus performed the best when it came to Google Maps, and tied for first when launching a few other apps. The S9 Plus was the slowest at opening Facebook and Pokémon Go, however, and clocked in nearly 15 seconds after the S8 when launching the latter. This falls in line with the observations we made in our S9 Plus review, in which we noted the headset’s occasional stutter despite its ability to handle day-to-day tasks with the utmost ease.

How is it possible that the S9 Plus, which has a Snapdragon 845 instead of a last-gen 835, fared so poorly? There are a couple of possibilities. One is that the phone was experiencing issues, such as excessive cached data, which had a direct impact on performance. Another thing to consider is that, although smartphone processors are becoming more advanced, the apps themselves don’t require any more processing power; if the load you’re carrying is small enough, it doesn’t matter how big your engine is.

David Cogen — a regular contributor here at Digital Trends — runs TheUnlockr, a popular tech blog that focuses on tech news, tips and tricks, and the latest tech. You can also find him on Twitter discussing the latest tech trends.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Will Nicol is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends. He covers a variety of subjects, particularly emerging technologies, movies…

Mobile

This is the best Samsung Galaxy S24 leak yet

A close-up render of the Galaxy S24 in violet.

It's almost the start of a new year. How can you tell? Because Samsung smartphone leaks are everywhere. Just one day after a huge Galaxy S24 price leak, we now have new renders of all three S24 phones. And these aren't just any renders — they're the best ones we've seen yet.

Samsung Galaxy S24 renders have been appearing online for months now, but they often come with a caveat: They're based on CAD designs, are low-resolution files, or have unsightly watermarks plastered all over them. That's not the case with these newest S24 renders.

Mobile

Samsung may have a price shocker for the Galaxy S24 series

An alleged photo of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

The much-anticipated reveal of the Samsung Galaxy S24 series is just a few weeks away, and excitement is building as rumors swirl around the Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24 Plus, and Galaxy S24 Ultra. Many interesting details about the new models' appearance and potential features have emerged. However, a critical piece of information has been missing until recently: the price of these handsets.

GalaxyClub says the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus could arrive at cheaper prices than their S23 counterparts in the EU. However, the Galaxy S24 Ultra could see a price hike compared to the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
The Galaxy S24 is getting ... cheaper?

Mobile

This is your best look yet at the Samsung Galaxy S24 series

Leaked renders of Galaxy S24 series in purple.

Just over a week ago, a handful of purported real-life shots of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra appeared online predicting a slightly refined look. Now, the folks over at Windows Report have shared alleged product renders of the entire Galaxy S24 trio ahead of a rumored January 27 launch.
It seems the in-hand photos of the Ultra trim, which appeared on X (formerly Twitter) a few days ago, were the real deal. Samsung hasn’t given any aesthetic makeover to the top-tier model -- the flat sides are here to stay, and so is the floating ring aesthetic for the camera lenses at the back.
The only two key changes are a different material for the frame and a couple of new colors. Shoppers will have the option of a new yellow shade that was recently seen on the Samsung Store-exclusive variant of its Galaxy Z flip foldable phone. Then there's a new purple trim, which looks identical to the same shade on the Galaxy S23 FE, down to the contrasting metal frame polish.
Gray and black will be the other shades on the table. The biggest change is that Samsung, following in the footsteps of the iPhone 15 Pro, is reportedly using Titanium for the Galaxy S24 Ultra. The regular and Plus variants will likely stick with armored aluminum and a glass back with Corning Gorilla Glass protection.

The rumored specification list is your usual flagship-tier affair and includes Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, a 120Hz OLED display, 12GB RAM, up to 1TB storage, and a 5,000mAh battery.
The report notes that the vapor chamber cooling system inside the S24 Ultra will be nearly twice as big as its predecessor's, which was already in a league of its own. Buyers can expect the phone to maintain its cool during demanding tasks such as gaming, high-res video capture, and generative AI-aligned tasks.
The camera hardware also remains the same as this year's Ultra phone, save for a curious change to the zoom camera. Instead of a 10-megapixel periscope camera with an industry-leading 10x optical zoom output that we saw on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, the upcoming phone is said to embrace a 50-megapixel sensor, but with a lower 5x optical zoom range.