First Galaxy S9+ review comes from a lucky pre-order customer

The first Galaxy S9+ review is now live and it’s not from any tech publication, it’s from a lucky pre-order customer who received his unit way ahead of schedule. It’s not uncommon for Samsung’s retail or carrier partners to mistakenly ship out a unit or two of its upcoming flagship devices. We’ve seen this happen in the past as well and now it appears to have happened again. It’s quite likely that other pre-order customers in markets like the United States will start receiving their units a couple of days before the official March 16 release date.

First Galaxy S9+ review

Reddit user Pinusnigra pre-ordered the Galaxy S9+ the day Samsung started taking them in his country (Turkey) and much to his surprise, the Exynos-powered variant of the device landed on his doorstep on March 1. Samsung is offering a neat little pre-order bonus to customers in Turkey who pre-order the Galaxy S9 or Galaxy S9+, they will get a Gear Sport smartwatch for free. Both devices are shipped in one single box.

He doesn’t claim to be a professional reviewer in any way but his observations are what most average users will feel when they use the device for the first time. Pinusnigra touches on many aspects of the new flagship in his Galaxy S9+ review. This includes the packaging, the AKG-tuned earphones in the box, the various guides and documents that nobody reads and the finish of the device itself. He says that the Galaxy S9+ in Midnight Black has a better matte finish compared to last year’s glossy one.

For those who are wondering if the new stereo speakers live up to the hype, he says that they’re an “enormous upgrade,” with the earpiece functioning more or less like a tweeter while the main speaker completes the sound.

Commenting on the performance, he says that the device is snappy as expected. The Intelligent Scan feature is described as “fast and good but unreliable.” AR Emoji is a feature that’s going to figure prominently in Samsung’s marketing campaign for the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9+. He doesn’t seem to think it works well, though, and his similar thoughts about the much-hyped Super Slow-motion video feature too.

You can read his 2000-word Galaxy S9+ review on Reddit to get a sense of what Samsung’s new flagship is all about. Don’t forget that our full Galaxy S9 review is going to be published in the near future so do check back for that as well.

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No more security updates for the 2016 Galaxy A3, Galaxy J1, and Galaxy J3

Barring Google’s own hardware devices, software updates continue to remain as the biggest drawback of the Android ecosystem. Slow updates and shorter support period have become synonymous with Android devices, particularly the mid-range and budget offerings. Even within the Android ecosystem, the experience varies vastly from one OEM to another in this aspect.

Although far from satisfactory, Samsung has a better track record than most other OEMs in updating its devices. Within Samsung, again, not all devices receive the same level of support. Samsung’s flagship smartphones may get around three years of Android updates, security updates at least, but the company’s budget and mid-range options usually hover around two years of support. Samsung seems to be sticking to this strategy for its 2016 models if we go by the new information on its website.

Monthly security updates to the Galaxy A8 (2018)

Samsung quietly updated the Android security updates page, adding and removing devices from the security updates list. As spotted by Android Police, Samsung has removed the 2016 variants of the Galaxy A3, Galaxy J1, and Galaxy J3 from the security updates page, signaling the end of support for these devices.  The changes may be on expected lines but are still disappointing nonetheless.

Samsung has also added four new devices to the Android security updates page: Galaxy A8 (2018), Galaxy A8+ (2018), Galaxy J2 (2018), and Galaxy Tab Active2. Of these, only the Galaxy A8 (2018) is placed under the monthly update list with the rest filed under the quarterly list.

Recently, Samsung has launched the Galaxy A8 Enterprise Edition promising three years of monthly security updates. The puzzling placement of the Galaxy A8 (2018) in the monthly update schedule, while the Galaxy A8+ is slotted for quarterly updates, is probably driven by that announcement. This only goes on to show the kind of inconsistency plaguing the entire Android ecosystem.

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SamMobile Firmware Update Magazine: March 5, 2018

Welcome to the latest edition of our weekly Firmware Magazine. You can think of it as your go-to resource to find out which of your Samsung devices has received a new update or if it’s going to receive a new firmware update in the near future.

To keep things interesting, we present the Firmware Magazine in new designs every week. It will always include the important details about firmware updates such as the firmware versions, device model numbers, Android OS versions and the country where said update is out already.

SamMobile Firmware Update Magazine

Keep in mind, however, that these firmware details are based on the firmware that are available in our database, and in some cases, the latest updates might not show in the same week as the full firmware files take additional time to make it to our database.

The purpose of this magazine is to bring all of that important information about firmware updates to you, the reader, in a manner that’s easy to comprehend—so even if you’re new to the world of firmware, you’ll have no trouble making sense of it all.

Click on the image below to grab the latest firmware magazine!

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