Why I Love the Samsung Galaxy S9+

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and Samsung. All opinions are mine alone. #AdvanceWithSamsungGS9 #CollectiveBias

I am BEYOND excited to today to be partnering with Samsung to show you some of my favorite and most-used features on the brand new Samsung Galaxy S9+!

Most of you should know by now that I’ve been an Android user for years. I just love the freedom and flexibility Android phones provide. I used the Samsung Galaxy S7 a few years ago and loved it, so I was extremely excited for this opportunity to try out its new big brother!

The Samsung Galaxy S9+ has so many killer features, I had a really hard time narrowing down what to show you specifically in this post. 😂 It was a struggle, but let’s talk about the VERY BEST features I personally love and use the most!

First and foremost - you KNOW I had to go with the lilac purple color option! DUH was there even a question? It’s also available in midnight black and coral blue, but my favorite color is purple, so you know it was destiny. I’m obviously going to cover it with a case, and it just so happens all the cases I love look beautiful with the purple showing through. Great choice Jackie.

I’ve also been LOVING the curved screen, called the Infinity Display! I didn’t think I would care much when I first started using it, but something about the curve just makes the entire phone look so special from across the room, and using it is so much more immersive because it basically doesn’t have side edges.

The Samsung Galaxy S9+ also incorporates a feature into the Infinity Display called ‘Edge Screen’. Basically I set my top 5 contacts as favorites, and I can swipe from the right side of the phone to pull up their shortcuts to either start a call or send them a text. I love having all my favorite contacts close at hand - I can call or text my husband in 2 seconds now (which I’m sure he LOVES 😉)! There are also other features you can set as shortcuts like reminders, weather, a calendar, sports, and my other favorite I have enabled, “smart select” so I can take screenshots in seconds, make gifs, or save something to my clipboard for later.

Let’s skip right to what you and I are both most concerned about on our phone - THE CAMERA!

I watched all sorts of comparison videos on YouTube, checked specs and review websites, and from my research the Samsung Galaxy S9+ has the best camera on the market of any phone available. I’ve been putting it to the test for a few weeks now and I can confirm, it is superb. The quality is outstanding, you almost forget the photos are from a phone! I could do full outfit posts using photos from my phone if I needed to. The Dual Aperture lens adapts like the human eye. This basically means you can capture stunning pictures in bright daylight AND super low light. The shot above shows the “Pro Camera” setting, meaning you can change the ISO, aperture, white balance, shutter speed, basically just like you would on a DSLR!

The other camera features are food, panorama, live focus, auto, super slow-mo, AR emoji, and hyperlapse. These are all built into the camera. The selfie camera is particularly great, I just took THIS Instagram with it yesterday! The live focus setting is what I’ve been toying around with the most lately.

Here are some shots from the phone that my friend Paige took for me:

I love that after you take a photo, you can adjust the amount of “Background Blur” when you use the Live Focus setting. If I want the background totally clear or SUPER blurry, I can adjust it to my taste. (This photo above is about midway between no blur and all the way blurred on the slider setting.)

You can also choose to shoot in RAW, meaning the phone will save the photo you take in .jpg and in RAW (.dng) format. RAW files contain more “information” in the photo file, meaning you can edit more, apply presets, and the file in general is larger. If you’re like me you’re on the preset train right now - so many bloggers and photographers are releasing phone and Lightroom presets, and I love using them on my photos!

Here is an example of a photo we took using the RAW setting, and then I uploaded it to Lightroom on my computer and applied a preset, and tweaked a few settings.

Here is the before and after file in Lightroom on my computer:

I love the flexibility of options with the camera. It also takes a wide-angle and a regular lens photo at the same time, so when you go back to your photo, if you decide you wanted more of the background, BOOM there’s your wide-angle option! Of course you can choose to shoot in regular zoom or wide-angle format at any time. Every feature feels so customizable, you can do so many things and get exactly the shot you want any time, any place.

Here is the photo I took of the flowers:

Taking photos is obviously a big part of what I do here on my blog. I’ve really loved using the camera to take great photos every day to share on my blog and social media!

When taking a photo I try to get it as perfect as I can so the least amount of editing is necessary. Good lighting is key to a great photo, and you can tap on the screen of the Samsung Galaxy S9+ to focus where you’d like, and adjust the exposure if needed.

Here are some of the other stand-out features on the Samsung Galaxy S9+:

• Live Translation - See the world in new ways! The camera that can instantly read what your eyes cannot. Get real time-translation when you need it.
• Intelligent Scan - the camera that recognizes you instantly. It is a new technology that combines face recognition with iris scan to make unlocking the phone simple even in low light.
• AR Emoji allows you to create an augmented reality version of yourself simply by taking a selfie. Then share your real-life feelings as emoji stickers and videos.
• Super Slow-mo Camera - take high-quality slow-mo video and share anywhere!
• Multi Device Experience - Share your screen to other Samsung Screens, hassle-free. Easily share photos and videos you’ve made by syncing your devices through your Samsung Account.
• USB Conversion Connection - Using the included adapter, you can plug a USB flash drive or a hard drive directly into the USB-C connection on the phone! You can then search through the files and copy them directly to the phone in seconds.

I was able to pop into my local Costco and grab the phone there! I even switched carriers while I was at it, and the whole process was a breeze and so fast. Definitely head over and they can help you out! Who doesn’t love Costco?

So I’d love to know, what is the most important feature to you in a phone? Let me know in a comment below!

xoxo

Non-Phone Photos by Paige Nicolle