It’s okay that you don’t want to dish out the money for the newest Samsung smartphones. Your S9 is working just fine. Plus, keeping your fully-functional smartphone will make sure your hard-earned cash goes to other responsibilities, like paying off debt or finally visiting the dentist after avoiding cleanings like the plague.
Keeping your S9 doesn’t have to be a disappointment. If you desperately want an upgraded smartphone, here are some ways that you can spruce up the one that’s already sitting in your front pocket:
Get A New Look
Why buy a new phone when you can make your current phone look brand new at a small fraction of the price? Get one of the coolest Samsung Galaxy skins out there to give your S9 a sleek makeover that suits your style. Choose options like bamboo, white leather, black camo or red dragon scale.
As a bonus, a vinyl skin will guard your smartphone against cosmetic damage and ugly fingerprint smears.
Improve Touch Sensitivity
If you grabbed a new screen protector, you might notice that your phone isn’t responding to your commands as quickly as it did before. The safety device could be limiting the touch screen’s responses.
Don’t toss out the screen protector and let your phone go uncovered just so you can get things done. You can improve touch sensitivity by going into the “Advanced Features” section inside Settings and then optimizing the touch sensitivity. Turning on the feature should immediately boost your S9’s response to your fingertips. You don’t have to choose between a cracked screen or a frozen one.
Turn Off Bixby
That’s right — you can get rid of Bixby. Sometimes your finger slips when you’re adjusting the volume of your music, and then the voice of the not-so-helpful virtual assistant pops up. This annoying problem doesn’t have to happen anymore.
To stop yourself from accidentally enabling Bixby, tap the physical key to log into the assistant. Find the icon of three dots in the top right corner, go into Settings and then click on the Bixby Key. Switch the option from “Bixby Home” to “Don’t Open Anything.” To get rid of the voice, go back into settings and look for Bixby Voice. Switch the option from “On” to “Off.” If that’s not enough, Gotta Be Mobile has a simple tutorial on how to disable Bixby Home completely from your Galaxy S9.
Create Secure Folders
Some things are best left private. Whether it’s your banking information or your dating life, you want anyone snooping around in your business. If you have some sensitive information that you don’t want to share with the rest of the world, the only thing you can do is hide it from view.
The best thing about the Galaxy S9 is that you can make secure folders without downloading a third-party app. Go to your settings, then to the option “Lock Screen and Security.” Then, go into “Secure Folder.” You can keep the contents of the folder safe with a PIN, password, pattern, iris scan or fingerprint scan.
Sometimes it’s best to ignore the newest, shiniest tech releases — at the very least it’s best for your bank account. Instead of shelling out cash for a top-price luxury phone, take the S9 you already have and customize it. The price of this personal upgrade will be much easier to swallow.
