The Galaxy S9 looks ridiculously good and absurdly expensive too

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

Later this month, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Samsung plans on unveiling the newest version of their Galaxy smartphone. The event won’t pack too many surprises since we already know what goes into each new device and how each of them will look.

Heck, thanks to the leaks published by VentureBeat, we even know what the S9 looks like. And surprise, surprise, it looks like your average Galaxy smartphone. Since all of this is so uneventful, why are we even writing an article about?

The Unpleasant Surprise

Well, according to Gizmodo, Samsung users are actually in for a surprise. And it’s a rather unpleasant one, we might add. As Koran news site ETNews reports, Samsung’s newest Galaxy model may cost you anywhere between, 925K and 1 million won.

This means it will cost around $875 and $925 to own a Galaxy S9. This is a rather noticeable jump in price over the S8 model, which had the starting price of $720. But that’s not the bad news. According to some sources, the phone might even cost more in certain markets

The Cost of Samsung S9 in European Markets

Just last week, TechRadar reported that a UK industry insider said that the phone could potentially cost 789 pounds, which amounts to roughly $1,110. This would be a 100-pound increase over the Galaxy S8. So if the source is correct, does this mean that the phone will cost even more in the United States?

No, not necessarily.

You see, we still have to take into account the import taxes, currency exchanges and many other factors that affect the pricing overseas. Looking at this price, we can even assume that the phone will not cost over $900 in the US. In fact, it will probably fall somewhere into the $800-$850 ballpark.

What’s the Reason behind the Pricing?

All of this might not be surprising to certain people, seeing how last year, we saw the first release of an iPhone with a four-digit price tag. However, the iPhone X came with a ton of upgrades. Apple users saw features like Face Authentication, a dual-cam setup, and an OLED display, just to name a few.

The question now, what is Samsung doing to justify the price of S9. We still don’t know, will the S9 be able to compare to iPhone X, feature-wise. This possibly means that Samsung still has a few surprises up their sleeve that will be able to justify the jump in price.

On the other hand, there’s nothing to indicate that Samsung will make huge changes to their newest smartphone. And is a small increase in battery life or a slightly better screen enough to warrant a 100 dollar increase in price?

The Competition with Apple

The biggest problem with the price bump is the fact that Samsung is possibly charging more for the S9 to compete with their biggest rival, Apple. This might be an unexpected move by the company, and it would be an unwise one as well.

We’ve officially entered the era of expensive devices, partially thanks to Apple’s last year move. Although Apple sold fewer devices in 2017 than they did in 2016, according to The Verge, they managed to make more money on each iPhone.

Of course, this trend didn’t really start with the iPhone X, and from the look of things, it seems like the pattern is only going to become stronger. Moreover, it looks like Samsung wants to change their business model to increase their profits.

Final Thoughts

To conclude, we have to wait and see will Samsung be able to justify the price rise to their customers when the model finally comes out. And yes, Samsung users will probably need plenty of convincing that the S9 is worth more than the S8.

We live a day and age where people expect innovation. In about two weeks, we’ll be able to see just how innovative the S9 is. According to reports, shipping starts on March 16th, so we’ll have to wait a month or so before the reviews start pouring in.

Adam Ferraresi

Adam Ferraresi is a successful web developer from Dallas, Texas and one of the writers of wefollowtech.com. He is twenty three years old, and when he isn’t working on some interesting new article, he enjoys listening to music and watching old movies