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On Sun., Feb. 25, Samsung announced its new premium smartphone at the MWC 2018 trade show in Barcelona, Spain. Bloggers and insiders leaked many details and technical specifications about the phone before its anticipated arrival, so customers weren’t all too surprised about the technical specs and form of the phone. The biggest leak was when Samsung accidentally posted its Galaxy S9 and S9+ launch video early.
The new Galaxys are similar to their predecessors, the S8 and S8+, maintaining the same Super AMOLED panels with 2960 by 1440 pixel resolution, even though Samsung claims the screens are slightly brighter than the previous generation. One major form factor change is how the company moved the fingerprint scanner from the right of the camera to below it, which should make it more ergonomically-friendly. Samsung decided to keep the 3.5mm headphone jack again, giving it an edge over Apple. Although the speaker upgrades in the phone are not visible, customers will be able to tell the difference as they are 40 percent louder, according to Samsung.
Both the S9 and S9+ run Samsung’s latest Exynos processor and come with 4GB RAM for the S9 and 6GB RAM for the S9+. Both phones come with 64GB of storage, as well as support for microSD cards; when customers reach their storage capacity, they have the ability to supplement it with more. They are also both IP68 dust- and water-resistant and support fast-wired and fast wireless charging.
The highlight upgrade of the phone is the new camera system. The S9 comes with a single lens and the S9+ sports a dual camera lens. Both camera systems allow for manual aperture switching ranging from f/1.5 and f/2.4, but cannot switch to values in between the two. The phone’s second rear camera does not support aperture switching mode but it is equipped with Samsung’s portrait mode, “Live Focus.” In addition, the camera has the ability to record slow-motion video at up to 960 frames per second at 720p resolution.
Samsung has also integrated into the new camera app its own version of Apple’s Animoji feature, called AR Emoji. In Samsung’s edition, the camera creates a 3D character with your features based on a selfie, whereas Apple’s version is more precise and uses animals. Both the S9 and S9+ work with previous Gear VR as well as last year’s DeX Station, which lets you use the phone as a computer with a functioning monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
The phones will run on Android 8.0 Oreo and are available on all major carriers in the US and unlocked from Samsung. Both phones come in black, purple, or blue, and a grey model is available internationally. The pricing for each phone varies by carrier, but the S9 starts at $719.99 and the S9+ at $839.99.
(Sources: The Verge, TechRadar, Samsung)
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