The official build of Android 9.0 Pie for the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ is rolling out in some countries, according to various reports on Christmas Eve. Show SamMobile reports the new operating system, which also includes the One UI revamp has been spotted in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Italy and the UAE. The report says even those users who haven’t been testing the beta are receiving the stable build for the long-awaited OS, which is somewhat of a surprise. The timing is also somewhat of a pleasant surprise considering it wasn’t expected until the new year. There’s no sign of the update arriving in the UK or the US as yet, but you can check by hitting Settings > Software Updates > Download updates. The builds are identified as G960FXXU2CRLI and G965FXXU2CRLI, respectively. The update for the Galaxy Note 9 may not be far behind, but we’re yet to see any reports of that firmware rolling out for the phablet yet. Related: Android Pie review While Android Pie will bring users a number of new and improved features, it’s perhaps the One UI update that’s getting Samsung phone owners excited. Originally due to start rolling out to compatible Samsung devices in January, One UI has been designed to make larger phones easier and more comfortable to use. It will also introduce a Night Mode option, which could be used to extend your handset’s battery life. “Its clean and minimal design keeps the most relevant content on the bottom half of the screen – making it more natural and comfortable for one-handed use,” Samsung says. Pie itself offers an improved Material Design, gesture navigation, better screenshot tools, and adaptive app performance designed to save battery life. Do you think One UI can be a game changer for the Samsung Galaxy range? Drop us a line as soon as you receive the update @TrustedReviews on Twitter. We recently wrote about some Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus Android Pie screenshots that XDA Developers got its hands on. These were taken from a leaked build of the yet-to-be-released firmware, giving us a glimpse of what we can expect from Samsung Experience 10.0 (based on Android 9.0 Pie) when it’s released. Yesterday, XDA took this a step further with a full video walkthrough of the new software. Android 9 Pie review: Closing the gap Reviews  The eighteen-minute video goes over the main points of the new interface. This software is running on the Galaxy S9, rather than the S9 Plus, and it differs slightly from the screenshots previously seen (it seems like a later build but it’s not completely clear). In Experience 10.0, you’ll notice additions like the large menu headers — spaces at the top of the screen that might include the menu name or something else relevant to that particular page. You see this first in the video around 2:25 and it’s an interesting design choice; I’m not sure how I feel about it yet, other than that it doesn’t seem like an efficient use of the space. You’ll also see Samsung‘s heavy use of the full-length bubble icons in menu items. These sometimes contain several lines of information, while others are just a single line, and each bubble is separated by a small blank space (check it out around 10:15). The idea behind this probably to make it easier to pinpoint specific items rather than just see a text wall — the same way my line breaks do in this post — which is a reasonable idea. If you’ve got a recent Android phone, you’ll probably already be familiar with these bubbles from the notification shade too, but I’m not sure how people will feel about its implementation everywhere. It looks like overkill at the moment and, interestingly, it seems to be everywhere but the notification shade on Experience 10.0. HUAWEI P20 Pro too expensive? Say hello to Samsung's new triple camera phone News Meanwhile, the UI’s dark mode aesthetic may also change before the final software rollout, though the video host believes it may remain in the settings menu. Samsung is still working on the UI on the final Android 9.0 Pie build for the Galaxy S9, so aspects of the software may change between now and then. This serves as a nice taster, though, so I recommend watching the whole video if you’re waiting for it on your Samsung phone. As for when the final software will be released, we can’t say for sure. Typically, Samsung doesn’t update its Galaxy S series phones until the year after Google releases new software (which would mean 2019 for the S9 and S9 Plus). As Samsung’s new phones support Project Treble, and the software seems to be well into development, however, it could be much sooner this time around. What do you guys think of how the Galaxy S9’s Android Pie build is shaping up? Let me know in the comments. Is Android 9 Pie good or bad?The Bottom LineThe latest update to Android (9.0 Pie) brings smart quality-of-life improvements that really work, along with visual tweaks that freshen up an already solid mobile operating system. PCMag editors select and review products independently. How old is Android 9 Pie?Android Pie is the ninth major version of the Android operating system. Google first announced it on March 7, 2018, and the first developer preview was released on the same day. The second preview, considered beta quality, was released on May 8, 2018. The third preview, Beta 2, was released on June 6, 2018. Is Android 9.0 Pie better than Android 10?Users using Android 9 Android Pie must have seen improvement in battery life with not quite different from the features' Adaptive battery and Automatic Brightness Adjustment. Moving on to the Android 10 version, the dark mode theme got some upgraded battery adaptiveness setting. What is the latest Android OS for Samsung S9?While the Korean OEM has committed to deliver up to 3 generations of Android OS updates, the policy only applies to flagship models from the Galaxy S10 onward. As a result, both the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9 are officially stuck with Android 10. |
