The Galaxy S9+ is a responsive and well-built flagship smartphone that has some serious photographic chops. The wide-angle lens is great, the video quality is impressive and the screen is among the best we've ever seen. Unfortunately, subpar performance from the telephoto lens, a disappointing portrait mode and blurry low-light results hold it back from being a truly standout mobile photographic experience.

High quality video capture, general photography in good lighting conditions, playback of stills and video on the HDR-capable and color-accurate screen.;

Portrait and low light photography, photography of fast-moving subjects like children;

Though it'd be easy to talk down Samsung's bold claim that the new Galaxy S9 and S9+ "reimagine" the camera, it's hard to argue that putting that particular aspect of their latest flagship smartphone front-and-center isn't a savvy move by the South Korean tech giant.

Great camera for both stills and video; Infinity Display still great

Battery life; Bixby still kinda mediocre; Your mileage may vary on AR emojis

The Galaxy S9+ is an iterative update, but that doesn't stop it from grabbing the top spot, at least as far as Android phones are considered.

Dual Aperture camera; Astoundingly bright display; Superior build quality

AR Emoji; Cluttered UI

With the Galaxy S9 Plus, Samsung has managed to create a great smartphone again that received many sensible improvements but no real innovations. The main camera's two aperture levels are a great thing to have and work well in everyday life. Samsung has also optimized the image quality further.

stylish design, great display, fast SoC, expandable storage, LTE Cat; 18, stereo speakers, IP67, good sensor equipment, USB 3.1 with DP, HDMI, and OTG, wireless-charging, great dual camera, optional dual-SIM (Duos model

no dual-VoLTE; worse battery runtimes than predecessor; long charging time; SoC throttling under constant load; no warranty for damage caused by liquids

It has been the uncrowned king of the Android smartphone kingdom – no phone has been more compared with Android's bête noire, the iPhone, for more than half a decade now. But recent times have seen Samsung's iconic Galaxy S series face an increasing number of challenges not just from Cupertino but...

Great display and sound; Very good cameras; Excellent overall performance

Samsung Experience UI remains cluttered; Camera not "as great" as hyped; On the expensive side

Samsung certainly increases the speed, without much trouble.

Best all-round mobile phone with Android at present. Outstanding camera and fast hardware.

Not the best battery. Facial recognition is slow and inaccurate.

I'm kind of torn about the Galaxy S9+. It improves on the best Android phone of last year in several key ways, including in performance, low-light photography and slow-motion video recording.

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

Every year the Samsung Galaxy flagship is the most anticipated Android device. And Samsung does enough every year not to disappoint hardcore fans and to show direction to the rest of the industry. This year it has launched the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+.