Samsung Galaxy S9

The Samsung Galaxy S9 was announced by Samsung at the end of February and looks like a modest upgrade compared to the S8 a year ago. The design may not have changed that much, but that does not apply to its rear camera. Thanks to various new techniques, it is capable of much more. What exactly are we going to explain here.

Smart camera sees like your own eye

Samsung has clearly focussed on the camera system with the S9. By imitating the human eye, it is now capable of much more. Just as your pupil can get bigger and smaller to let in more or less light, the camera of the Galaxy S9 can do just that. Instead of a fixed aperture, the S9 has a variable aperture, also called Dual Aperture. This automatically selects the best setting based on your surroundings. In the dark, this is the extra wide f/1.5 so that a lot of light can fall on the sensor and you still get well exposed shots. In bright day-light he chooses f/2.4 so you get much more detail and shots remain sharp. It is for the first time that Samsung equips a Galaxy phone with this technique, making your Galaxy phone look more and more like a real human eye. Also new in the camera area is the super slow-motion mode with which you can extremely slow down images. Fun to capture a crashing balloon or splashing water. Also new is the AR emoji feature that lets you turn yourself into an emoji. Create a selfie and the Galaxy S9 turns you into a virtual simulation that you can then send to friends.

Main Samsung Galaxy S9 specifications

• Uninterrupted Infinity Display with sharp Quad HD+ resolution
• 12 megapixel camera with Dual Aperture (best of 2 worlds)
• Selfie 8 megapixel camera with AR emoji
• Available in 64 and 256GB memory expandable with microSD-memory cards
• Octa-core Exynos processor at maximum 2,8 GHz assisted by 4GB of RAM memory
• Unlock with fingerprint recognition, iris or facial recognition
• Away fast mobile internet via 4G
• Dustproof and waterproof IP68 housing
• Quick wireless and wired charging

Intelligent Scan and stereo sound

Samsung has learnt from the awkward spot of last year's fingerprint scanner. Fortunately, with the Galaxy S9 it is 'just' back in the middle, where it belongs. If fingerprint recognition is not really your thing, you can also unlock the Galaxy S9 via facial or iris recognition. There is also a combination of the latter possible, called Intelligent Scan. The combination depends on the circumstances on the basis of which you can access the Galaxy S9. If, for example, there is too little light to do a face recognition, it automatically switches to iris recognition. Also new are the stereo speakers. Samsung has left the adjustment of the sound to the experts at AKG. The stereo speakers on the Galaxy S9 are also capable of playing Dolby Atmos. That is surround sound like you are used to at the cinema, but from your phone.

Not easy to choose

But a lot has remained the same with the Samsung Galaxy S9. For example, there is always the possibility to insert a memory card yourself, altho you can also insert a second SIM card instead. There is still the waterproof IP68 housing, you can still charge wirelessly and there is still a single camera on the back (in contrast to the double on the Galaxy S9+). However, there are still many small improvements such as the slightly faster processor and the slightly faster mobile internet. All of them are not very special but all in all it can make all the difference. Samsung does make it a bit harder for us to choose this year. The larger Galaxy S9+ has more differences compared to the previous year than this S9.