Simply put, the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus is a bigger version of the Samsung Galaxy S9. (Check out our Samsung S9 review to find out more about the S9 Plus's smaller sibling.) And this comes without the S9 Plus being that much different to last year's Samsung Galaxy S8, either.

Standout dual-lens camera system; Luxe 6.2-inch Super AMOLED display; Better-placed fingerprint sensor

Similar to Galaxy S8 Plus; More expensive than S9

The Samsung Galaxy S9+ is possibly the most fully-featured smartphone on the market. It offers out-of-the-box functionality that exceeds most other devices. It's one of the leaders of a new generation of hardware, pushing one of the nicest quality designs with one of the best displays around.

New speakers are amazing; Great camera performance in low light; Great design and display; Out-of-the-box functionality surpasses rivals; 3.5mm headphone socket

You might never find all the features; Display can crush shadows in movies; Camera could be better with HDR; Price

Improving on an already near-perfect phone was always going to be difficult for Samsung, but the Galaxy S9 Plus has fixed the select few problems we had with last year's Trusted Reviews Phone of the Year.

Feels great for a big phone; The OLED display is great and highly customisable; Numerous camera features on offer

Iterative upgrade; AR Emoji are just bad; Some lag with Samsung's software

Plus-sized phones often find themselves stuck in a plus-sized niche – but Samsung's Galaxy S9 Plus is different to most. This time around, it's ready to steal the spotlight from the regular S9.

Dual rear cameras for low-light photography; Unrivalled performance

Battery life isn't as good as last year's; Very expensive

Last year's Galaxy S8+ was slightly held back by a few annoying niggles, such as the awkward fingerprint sensor placement, all of which have been rectified in the Galaxy S9+. Samsung could certainly be accused of simply recycling last year's design, but it was really great in 2017 and is just as...

128GB + microSD card slot; wireless charging; IP68; fantastic screen; excellent camera; iris scanner + face recognition combo; great fingerprint scanner; notification LED; headphone socket

battery life could be better; very similar to S8+ design; Bixby button can't be remapped

It's not revolutionary, but the Samsung Galaxy S9+ sets the bar for smartphones in 2018, with the best hardware features you can get.

Gorgeous screen; Beautiful body; Spectacular network performance; Dual main cameras with excellent low-light capture; Loud audio

Camera software oversharpens images; AR Emoji and Bixby disappoint

You probably don’t need a 4,000-word review to tell you that the Galaxy S9+ is a good phone. Now that everyone’s got all of the Note 7 jokes mostly out of their system, we can mostly agree that Samsung makes good phones. The S8 was great, and the S9 builds on that success in a number of ways.

A big, blockbuster phone that awesome at pretty much everything. It’ll probably be too big for most people though.

Stellar screen; Top-notch camera; Incredibly powerful

Almost unchanged design; Uncomfortable to hold for some

When I first picked up the Galaxy S9+ I was certain it would be the better phone of the two new Samsungs. Now I’m not so sure. Dual cameras aside, there’s barely any difference between the two phones and I just find the standard S9 easier to hold. To me at least, that’s a bigger deal than being able to zoom in a little bit more than normal on your photos. If the S9+ is a better fit for you, then you’ll have quite the phone on your hands. Especially if you didn’t get ahold of a Galaxy S8 last year. ‘Cos when you add up all of this handset’s myriad charms it’s a truly awesome proposition with a superb screen, handsome design and one of the best cameras around. That’s a level of refinement that only the iPhone X and Google Pixel 2 XL can come close to. Plus, this phone won’t set you back a thousand quid. So while Samsung’s Galaxy S9+ truly is a little bit boring, it’s exceptionally good. And one of those qualities outweighs the other by quite some margin.

Stellar screen; Top-notch camera; Incredibly powerful;

Almost unchanged design; Uncomfortable to hold for some;

When we reviewed Samsung's large-screened new Galaxy smartphone last year, the Galaxy S8+ , we described it as "futuristic" for its huge display and edge-to-edge design. But the future arrived quickly afterward as most major smartphone makers, Apple included, adopted some version of a large,...