Samsung Galaxy S9 & S9 Plus Launched; Revolutionary Smartphone Camera!

The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus have finally arrived. The much-hyped smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S9 Duo, were unveiled at the MWC 2018 in Barcelona. With the launch, Samsung is all set to reclaim its leadership in the Android market.

The physical changes between Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S8 are not apparent immediately. The newly launched Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus will go straight up against the likes of Apple iPhone X and Google Pixel 2 Duo in the premium smartphone segment.

So, What’s New In The Samsung Galaxy S9 & S9 Plus?

The Samsung Galaxy S9 and Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus will come with some powerful updates and have new features like a better camera with dual aperture, multi-frame noise reduction, automatic motion detector and a really powerful processor.

Apart from the camera, the S9 and the S9 Plus will come with Augmented Reality Emojis, improved Bixby vision, live translation, enhanced audio with dual speakers (Dolby Atmos 360 surround sound with 40 percent extra loudness), headphone jack and fast wireless charging. The Samsung flagships will support intelligent scanning (special facial plus iris scanning), water and dust resistance with IP68 certification, an all-new and improved fingerprint reader and the super-immersive infinity display.

The Samsung Galaxy S9 will boast a 5.8-inch infinity display, while the bigger Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus will come with a 6.2-inch infinity screen. The S9 will run the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset in North America. Other markets will get Samsung’s latest Exynos 9810 octa-core processor. The Galaxy S9 will come with 4GB of RAM and S9 Plus will have 6GB of RAM. Both of them will have 64GB/128GB/256GB of internal storage and will support up to 400GB external storage.

On the software front, both the smartphones will ship with the latest Android 8.0 Oreo. The Galaxy S9 has a 3,000mAh battery and S9 Plus is backed by a 3,500mAh unit. At the first glance, the batteries seem woefully inadequate for such powerful smartphones. But Samsung is sure to have worked on optimising the software for maximum up-time.

Let’s Talk About The CAMERA

The highlight of the new Samsung Galaxy S9 and the S9 Plus is the new camera system. While the S9 sports a single lens at the back, S9 Plus has a dual-lens setup. The new camera has the world’s first mechanically adjustable aperture in a smartphone.

The Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus can physically switch between a very bright f/1.5 to a smaller f/2.4 depending on the exposure conditions. So, wider the aperture, more will be the light captured. The brighter aperture lets in 28 percent more light than its predecessor. The f/2.4 will prevent overexposure in bright scenes, like outdoors on a sunny day. The camera app can switch automatically between the apertures as necessary, or it can be done manually by the user.

The Galaxy S9 will sport a single 12-megapixel camera sensor which comes with second-generation dual-pixel autofocus technology for faster and more reliable focusing. The new camera has an improved multi-frame noise reduction, which Samsung has claimed to deliver 30 percent better low-light performance than Galaxy S8. The camera has the ability to record slow-motion video at up to 960 frames per second at 720p resolution. The camera app has also been redesigned to provide quick access to several filter modes, just like the iPhone’s camera app.

The S9 Plus has a second rear camera and works similarly to the Note 8 dual camera system. It has a f/2.4 lens and lets you get closer to your subject by up to 2 times. It also allows shooting in portrait-mode with blurring effects called ‘Live Focus’. Both the S9 and S9 Plus have the same 8-megapixel f/1.7 autofocus camera on the front, which is same as last year’s S8 models.

Samsung has also launched new features in the all-new Bixby camera. Bixby will now support the real-time translation through the camera. Indian languages are also supported. The Bixby camera can also tell the number of calories in food, just by pointing the camera at it.

Pricing & India Launch

The Samsung Galaxy S9 starts at $719.99 (around Rs 46,650/-) and the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus start at $839.99 (around Rs. 54,400/-) with EMI options available. As these prices are for US market, India prices may vary. Some of the specifications of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus will vary country-wise.

Samsung is yet to announce a launch date for India. The pre-orders start from March 2 and the smartphones should be available from early March. Samsung has officially announced the launch of Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus on March 16 in some key markets, which might include India too.