Review on 📱 Unlocked Samsung Galaxy S9 G960U 64GB Smartphone with 4G LTE & 12MP Camera - Midnight Black by Gus Pierson

I'm a die-hard Apple fan. All my desktops at home are Apple, the other 4 members of my family are iPhones and we have Apple laptops. I don't quite understand why I decided to try the Samsung Galaxy S9+, but I'm glad I did so far. I was using a 4.5 year old iPhone 5s so I figured any phone would be a huge upgrade for today's world. It still takes some time to get used to how the iOS system works. I'm losing iMessage and FaceTime functionality. It's fine, and I can use Google's DUO app, just like FaceTime. The key point of this phone is that the big and beautiful screen looks great. I like the tactile feel of the buttons when texting, how you feel when you press the buttons (slight hum/vibration). I think the new iPhone X does this too, but then again I'm assuming the 5 series. My only two options for a new phone were this S9+ or on with Apple and an iPhone X. The X would have cost me $1,150 plus a $200 AppleCare warranty. I bought this Samsung (and got the Ultimate Play Bundle) for $840 plus $100 for the bundle. I picked up Square Trade's $108 2-year warranty with only a $99 deductible in case I need to use it. I have used Square Trade warranties on other products in the past and they have always replaced and honored their warranty. Square Trade is owned by Allstate, so I trust them. Back on the phone, the S9+ is VERY fast at loading apps and pages. I use it for many of my home wireless products (Nest thermostat, wireless cameras, LIFX lights, Liftmaster garage door opener) and they all work quickly and flawlessly. The sound when playing music sounds great. Plays very loud and clear for a phone. I love that it still has a headphone jack. I like the Android system as it comes with Google Assistant voice command. Most people hate the Bixby feature on this phone. My only real issue with it is the large button on the left side of the phone, and when trying to adjust the phone's volume I would sometimes accidentally press Bixby. Although I like that I'm voice activated. In the morning I get in my car, tell me to wake up Bixby, and instruct it to open whatever app I need (usually Waze). After opening it, I talk to Waze to drive me to work. And all without having to look at your phone screen or take your eyes off the road. The Bixby AI camera feature is also very cool. There are about 8 or 9 different things he can do with the camera. For example, point the camera lens at a sign in a foreign language and it will translate the sign live into English or another language on the phone (and there are plenty of those on this phone). Point it at a food and it will tell you what it is and the average number of calories. Point it at the label of a wine bottle and it will give you information about the wine (variety, year, etc.). The ONLY thing I don't think I'll ever use again, and of course I've tried, is the Animoji of me or one of my friends. It's terribly strange. Everyone sees it the same way. I personally would like to see an update for the phone where they fix this so it's more of a 3D type and looks more realistic. I've searched online for days to compare images taken with this phone to others. Especially the iPhone X. In my opinion, the X does a lot of pixels better. The contrast is usually better. The real benefit of this phone is that it's a bit overexposed. Dark scenes look a bit brighter than on the iPhone X. The only thing that takes getting used to is that the colors on the Samsung cell phone are oversaturated. The colors are very bright. There is a setting in the display function that gives you 4 display options. I abandoned one of them and now it looks MUCH more realistic. I love the fact that, like the iPhone X, this phone has the ability to record video at 4K 60 fps. Looks great. On Samsung, optical stabilization does not work when recording 4K at 60 fps. Keep a firm hand and it's not a problem. For all other video formats, the stabilization works better on the Samsung than on the X. Overall, I'm glad I chose the Samsung. If I regret it after a few months, I can always keep it for a few more months and sell it to get a new, bigger iPhone X Plus. UPDATE: April 7th, 2018 The language release code is terrible. And looking at the options on the phone, I came to the conclusion that I don't need it. I have Face Unlock or fingerprint reader on the back. I actually choose back fingerprint scanning to unlock more than other methods as it's just quick and easy to use. Battery life has been good so far after using this phone for 3 weeks. One thing I find annoying and didn't realize could be a problem is the video and image quality when someone texts me a large video. Whether I send them a video or they send it to me, it gets so bad it's almost impossible to watch. This is because carriers use compression to send these video files or large image files, so they don't take up much storage space. I'm used to having an iPhone and using iMessage. Send any size video on your iPhone to someone else and it will have excellent quality on both sides of the text. Unlike on Android. Now it's not only Samsung but all Android phones. So right now I need to send videos via WhatsApp or Viber (or a bunch of other SMS apps). Compress, but not much. Oh yes, and one more note. I hope Samsung Corp reads this review. Samsung customer service representatives have to be the dumbest people I've ever dealt with at a tech company. I used to think Comcast was bad until I got a few calls and had to speak to someone at Samsung. They just repeat my question and say they understand how I feel without offering absolutely no answers. They delay you to find out but return without a solution. Simply terrible customer service. 180 degrees from talking to someone at AppleCare when I had a question about my iPhone or iMac. 2. UPDATE: I didn't realize this and it's VERY important to know before you buy. In fact, I'm on the AT&T network with my phone and the people at the factory store didn't know that. Even the best-buy salespeople in the phone department didn't know about it. If you buy an unlocked Galaxy S9 or S9+, your phone will cost $840. However, if you want to buy it through AT&T for their network rather than a factory unlocked phone, it has other options. That means the unlocked phone will NOT have: WIFI calling option, HD audio option, VVM (video voice messaging) and you will not get voice video calls. The option for these features isn't even on my phone. Now you CAN buy an AT&T phone and pay $915 upfront or on schedule (which is $75 more than a factory unlocked phone anyway). After paying $75 and paying full price in advance, you can unlock your AT&T phone and then you will have these features. Nowhere at Best Buy or any AT&T store will you be told this. In my opinion, this is a big mistake to overlook when purchasing. I bought the pack here at Revain for $100 more and got a lot of cool gadgets so I'm keeping my settings. I just want others to know that if you buy the unlocked version, there is a difference in both the price and the feature set you get. I believed the AT&T version had several of their proprietary applications preinstalled. I hope this helps in advance for someone who really wants these features. And I went to the AT&T store because I thought they could show options on my phone. no You cannot update your phone to get these options. 3. UPDATE: April 15, 2018 Today I discovered a great feature. I wish these Galaxy 9 phones had the iPhone X's alarm function. You pick up the phone and look at it to unlock it with your face and you're done. What I found is to set Google Assistant to ALSO open the Galaxy from the locked screen with my voice and unlock the phone and do what you ask Google Assistant to do. I like this function very much. 4. UPDATE April 23, 2018 As I play more with this phone I discover some cool things it can do. For example, it comes pre-configured from the factory so that no matter if you swipe up or down, the phone switches to the app drawer. No repeated swiping up or down is required. There's a setting where swiping up opens the app drawer (because it's from Samsung presets), but the setting changes, and if you swipe down from anywhere on your phone, you've got that favorite settings of your phone in front of you. Even better, a two-finger swipe down from the top of the screen opens the second part of Settings, which controls other features (it's usually a two-part deal, so it makes it a step easier). One thing that Samsung solved in the 9 and 9+ (using Oreo software) is a problem that users of those phones used to hate. You can now customize the volume up/down buttons to control MEDIA volume no matter what you're browsing. And if you want to control the ringer or any other type of volume, just click the down arrow in the top left corner of the screen when you press volume up or down and the MEDIA volume will appear and everyone else will ready to set exactly how you want it. Based on online reading, this problem has been bugging Galaxy phones for a long time, which is now fixed.