The Galaxy S9 is the new Consumer Reports darling, as the ranking service gave it 81 points in its assessment, more than what the iPhone X commands, chiefly because of Apple's pricing. Thus, the S9 zips ahead of the S8 Active for the first place now, while Apple's newest iPhones take places 6-8.

The vaunted consumer research and testing service cites a few good reason for the high marks that it gave to the S9, such as the souped-up camera, and the tougher, more ergonomic body, but subtracted points for the just-average battery life, the oversharpened photos, and the fact that the phones aren't a big upgrade over their predecessors. It also went unimpressed with a few new features that Consumer Reports calls "kitschy" like the AR Emoji, or the artificially intelligent calorie counter.

These, however, are mostly third-party services appropriated by Samsung to stuff in the S9 just because others have it, or there is a growing trend. Overall, a CR endorsement usually means a good chance that the gear examined will have decent sales in the US, so we'll have to wait and see how many units of the stopgap Galaxy S9 will Samsung manage to move until the anniversary S10 hits the tape.