Replacement phone from Three, today, Sony XZ2 Premium, Samsung S9+ or Note 9, or P20 Pro - which?

Alexrose1uk · 6 Sep 2018 at 14:55

Hi Guys,

My S8+ died on me today, 14 months in, so Three have come good and agreed to allow me to upgrade my phone as though my contract had expired, cancel my old contract without early upgrade fee, and give me a slight discount on my new contract.

I am out of the country next week and desperately need my phone, and additionally with the rate I currently pay for my S8+ contract, there is little reason for me not to take them up on thier offer, as they will essentially be waiving an early upgrade fee of over £400, only caveat being is they don't offer ALL the current top end phones like the Oneplus 6, nor do I really have the option of waiting.

I use my phone a lot for all sorts of things and tend to watch videos (some of which cannot be hardware decoded so CPU is important), and sometimes game, so it is really important to me that performance is up there. Stereo speakers would also be a plus. I don't really care if the screen is greater than 1080p, because frankly all the screens in the upper echelons are pretty decent.

As it stands it looks like I will have the following options:

S9+ - Exynos 9810, 6GB RAM, 128GB Storage, 3500MAH battery, can take 256GB MicroSD
Galaxy Note 9 - Exynos 9810, 6GB RAM, 128GB Storage, 4000MAH battery, can take 512GB MicroSD
P20 Pro - Kirin 970, 6GB RAM, 128GB Storage, 4000MaH battery,
Sony XZ2 - Snapdragon 845, 4GB RAM, 64GB Processor, 3310MaH battery - can take 256GB MicroSD card
Mate 10 Pro - Kirin 970, 6GB RAM, 128GB Storage, 4000MaH battery,

Normally I'd be tempted to just go for the S9+, as it seems a great price right now, but I am a little dissapointed seeing how frankly **** some of the benchmarks are for the new Exynos vs Snapdragon 845 vs previous gen Exynos, although I believe the S845 and Exynos 9810 are both better than the Kirin, this did however also make me consider the XZ2 despite its other shortcomings. The 1080p screen on it might also actually be even more suitable

What would you do and WHY

Help!

Alexrose1uk · 6 Sep 2018 at 15:45

doodah said:
That's tough and I am biased but if money isn't a factor between them, Note 9. They're all great phones but the bigger battery would be the clincher for me and I believe SDs are typically faster than Kirins.

It's the SD845 v Exynos that is making this more difficult. The S9+ also seems to be priced very aggressively right now which is making this harder.

For clarity right now I'm swaying between the S9+, Note 9 and XZ2 more than the others, primarily as Exynos and SD845 are both better than the Kirin. The fact SD845 has better optimisation than the Exynos is what makes this hard as it seems Samsung has facepalmed a bit with the CPU governor on Exynos and a little with the chip itself.
If the Note 9 in this country was SD845, or the 8GB/512GB variant, it'd have made this decision a lot easier.

I'm already paying 50+ for my SGS8+ old contract so the following prices are all fine for me, but again factor in:

Note 9 - £53pm/£79 upfront
S9+ - £43 pm/£79 upfront
XZ2 - £50 pm/£79 upfront

I will get a small discount but gives a rough ball park above.

Alexrose1uk · 6 Sep 2018 at 20:34

Unfortunately Three only offer what I believe is the standard XZ2.

Am having to go back in the morning due to an internal issue on there end. Gives me more time to think. I am erring towards the Note 9 right now.

Alexrose1uk · 6 Sep 2018 at 21:34

They did try that, but I pointed out that under EU and UK legislation my contract is with them as trader, and highlights that they can ask you to do that unless it will cause you significant and unreasonable inconvenience.
I am out of the country next week on work so I NEED my phone to be working, I cannot wait for 2 weeks to have a working phone, especially as the damn thing is only 14 months old and pay a premium contract. At 14 months old before failing, the phone is certainly not fit for purpose.
I had already approached Samsung directly who confirmed this is a hardware fault and thus would need to go away for repair

Three have made a complaint case and put in what they have offered me as resolution, unfortunately I discovered when I went in this evening, the store cannot see that (they showed me, they weren't lying. The guys in store can see the case ref in the notes but cannot access), so I've got to go back in in the AM so they can liase directly, as unfortunately store closed whilst was on the phone getting back in touch with Three to work out how to get this to work.

Again, I now have to get the store to go through with it, but allowing me to upgrade and waiving the early upgrade fee, and a £3 discount a month seemed a reasonable outcome for me, I'd have been happy if they'd just said they'd offer a direct replacement for a new S9+. I get a working phone, and they get me locked in again on a new 24 month contract so both sides benefit. I've been on them for years and always had a top end phone so they probably know I'm a lucrative customer, I pay over £50 a month, and also have a second phone on my contract for my wife, so they can probably see that and factor that in to some extent. I'm paying for a premium phone and contract, I expect premium service (within reason) to go with it.

Alexrose1uk · 7 Sep 2018 at 11:39

I have gone for the Note 9 in black. Last one they had. Just giving it initial charge at the moment before switching it on. Will probably firmware update and reset again also.

Alexrose1uk · 7 Sep 2018 at 22:03

AndyCr15 said:
I Geekbench 4'd the XZ2 against my Note 9 and the SD845 came up with 8,331 against the Exynos scoring 8,929. I know more factors involved as they are different phones, but interesting I thought.

The Exynos is faster than the Snapdragon on paper, but when you actually look at some of the side by side and deep dives, it doesn't always fare so well due to things like optimisation for the Snapdragon processor, and other factors like CPU governers, which is the frustration as, don't get me wrong, it's one of the best, but its not what it SHOULD be. The SD845 also has a faster graphics chip.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/12615/improving-exynos-9810-galaxy-s9-part-1
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12620/improving-the-exynos-9810-galaxy-s9-part-2

This is a relatively good article run.

One good thing about the Note 9 though is the improved cooling, that should mean sustained performance will be decent and shouldn't throttle too quickly due to heat.