At first glance the Samsung Galaxy S9 looks exactly like the S8 and that’s because it is the S8 with just a few minor adjustments. In my opinion,  the S9 is just the S8S (isn’t that what Apple would’ve called it) because the updates aren’t drastic enough to be considered a new phone.

Ever since switching from my iPhone eons ago I am a huge Samsung fan. My excitement grew with every new phone in the S Series lineup. Last year the S8 was worth the extra money to upgrade but this year I feel like Samsung hit a wall and felt pressured to put something out. Does the S9 look great in the new colors they’ve included in the lineup? Yes! But is my S9 excitement anywhere near my S8 excitement? Absolutely not.

If you have the S7 or lower, make the jump but if you’re the owner of an S8 hold on to your phone because essentially you have a S9 with very minor tweaks.

The biggest difference between the S8 and the S9 is the camera. Samsung is constantly improving their camera features. Slow motion has gotten slower and cleaner, photos have gotten clearer, and low light photography is getting way better. The camera can also translate foreign languages in real time which is huge but I’m sure will be on the S10.

Samsung also took note to customer complaints and moved the fingerprint sensor under the camera so you’re least likely to smudge your lens trying to find the sensor.

Samsung is seriously focused on trying to out do the iPhone so of course they want to also turn us into emojis also. Their version of the animoji is called the ARmoji. It takes a photo of your face and turns you into an Emoji to send to your friends until you get bored or they get bored of the actual you.

Some other minor fixes include a slightly louder speaker (emphasis on slightly), and they’ve upgraded Bixby as Bixby is not set to disappear any time soon.

Now that we know what to expect from this new-ish Galaxy phone here’s what I wish the galaxy would explore:

Fix the speakers: like really fix the speakers. I swear the speakers on the S5 and S6 were louder. I understand that Samsung cares a great deal about our ears but man. In the words of Meghan Trainor, “I’m all about that bass.”

The Messaging Nightmare: Galaxy phones take stunning photo and video there is no doubt about it. But, sharing those videos with friends get a bit tricky as the resolution will always get worse when you go to text said video to friends because Android doesn’t have a default messaging system beyond SMS capabilities. It would be nice to have an Android version of iMessages. Sure you can download apps and send your previous videos through those apps but wouldn’t it be nice if by default you could send your videos in their true form to all your Android friends?

A distinctive reason to use Bixby: When I first got my S8 I used Bixby for a week and then I realized it was essentially the same thing as my Google Assistant. I need Samsung to one up Google here. Until then let me program my Bixby button to do other things like open my favorite app ( neither of them can order me a pizza but Google is getting really close to being able to do so).

For the price tag of the new S9, I was expecting to be wowed and hoping the leaks maybe forgot a few features but instead we got emojis and camera updates. I’ll just wait for the 8 to get Oreo and build off for the oh so stellar S10. What were you hoping to get with the next Samsung phone? Are you going to take the leap to the S9?