Samsung galaxy s9 review

:Pros 

Excellent low-light camera

The fastest Android smartphone yet

:Cons 

Slightly worse battery life

More expensive than Galaxy S8

The Samsung Galaxy S9 is now on the shelves, a phone that promises to be one of the best of 2018 - but at first glance, might not seem to be that much of an upgrade.

That's because it's very, very similar in design to the Galaxy S8 that debuted this time last year - Samsung might as well have called this the Galaxy S8S, if that wouldn't have been too obvious (and unwieldy as a name).

The Samsung Galaxy S9 release date was March 16, with pre-orders being delivered slightly ahead of this around the world - so you're able to buy it now.

The Galaxy S9 is on sale for £739, $719.99, or AU$1,199 SIM-free directly from Samsung, but exact pricing for other markets is currently unclear. 

In the UK, that's a huge price jump over last year's handset, which cost £689 at launch, and it's the same price our sources reported before it was made official.

In terms of a UK cost on contract you can expect to pay between £35 and £50 per month for a decent slug of data, although with many contracts you’ll need to pay a little upfront too.

In the US, we're seeing around $30 a month for the contract, and between $720-$800 for the phone itself. It's actually a little cheaper in the US compared to the Galaxy S8, bucking the trend we're seeing in other regions worldwide.

There aren’t any storage variants of this phone though in the UK or US, with only the 64GB option on sale.