Galaxy S9+ review—Faster specs, better biometrics in a familiar package
Believe it or not, the high-end Android smartphone market isn't super competitive. LG's mobile unit is regularly the company's worst-performing division, so much so that the company is backing away from a yearly release cycle and delaying its flagship smartphone. HTC's January 2018 was the company's worst month in more than a decade—until even worse numbers were reported in February. Google makes the all-around best Android phone, but it is either uninterested in creating or unable to create a competitive distribution and marketing chain, leaving many people unable to buy the phone.
We hear talk about new brands from China, but Huawei was essentially banned by the US government from meaningfully competing here, Xiaomi keeps pushing back a US launch, and LeEco's US arrival was a crash landing with no survivors.
On the other side of the mobile aisle, Apple makes a compelling smartphone, with worldwide distribution and marketing to back it up, but users are largely unwilling to jump between ecosystems; partisanship has taken over the smartphone market.
