Samsung Galaxy A9 First Impressions: Quad Cameras, But Not Much More
We’re setting our foot into an era where smartphones are gettingmoreand morecapablein terms of photography. While a dual camera setup is what we get to see on most smartphones these days, companies likeHuaweiandSamsunghave been stretching their wings out further and have launched smartphones with triple cameras.
And now, Samsung has taken a leap further, accomplishing another industry-first ofdebuting a smartphone with four camerason the back. The Samsung Galaxy A9 wasshowcased last monthand will be available in India from November 28.
Pre-book Samsung Galaxy A9 from Rs 36,990 (Samsung Shop;Amazon,Flipkart)
The Galaxy A9 has beenlaunched in India for a price of Rs 36,990and we were able to get an early preview of the device. So these are our first impressions of the device and let’s start by taking a look at the specification of the device.
Samsung Galaxy A9 Specifications
Here’s a look at the specifications that the new Galaxy smartphone features:
Samsung Galaxy A9 First Impressions
Design and Display
From the front, the Galaxy A9 looks like any other Samsung smartphone with a boxy design that appears to be a hybrid between theGalaxy S9+and theNote 9. For once, we getstriking bright colorsinstead of just black or grey.
We got to use two of three colors i.e the Bubblegum Pink and the Lemonade Blue, and while I’m not feeling blown away, I’m surely intrigued by the Samsung’s efforts to break away from the plain colors of past phones.
Thequad camera setupis obviously thefirst thing you will notice.Besides the colors, the design of the back is fairly standard with no real noteworthy feature.
That is slightly disappointing, seeing that the phone competes with theOnePlus 6Twhich has amuch more premium designand not everyone will like the pink color.
On the front is a6.3-inch Full HD+ “Infinity” Super AMOLEDdisplay. As expected from any display panel from Samsung, this is well-lit, bright, and highly saturated. The display has a wide range in terms of brightness and text is usually crisp.
At the bottom of the Always On Display is the software home button, which can be used to turn the display on with a double tap.
Samsung is still shy of the notch, which results in thicker bezels than the competition, especially on the top and bottom. That is something that makes the Galaxy A9 look like it’s from 2017, but again there’s no notch ruining the symmetry.
Another issue that I have come to notice with the A9 is that it feels gigantic in my average sized hands. Lastly, thefingerprint sensor area seems small, when comparing it to the phone’s large back. , and while I haven’t tested it extensively, it did give me some trouble during initial setup and usage.
Cameras
The cameras on the Samsung Galaxy A9 are undoubtedly the highlight. Breaking it down for you, the quad camera setup consists of – from top to bottom – an8-megapixel wide-angle lens, a10-megapixel telephoto lenswith 2X zoom, the24-megapixel primary sensor, and lastly a5-megapixel depth sensor.
Therear camera is powerful and promising. It does a great job in most lighting conditions. Take a look at some of the shots we clicked using the Samsung Galaxy A9’s rear camera:
Here’s atelephoto shot with standard and 2X optical zoom.
The Galaxy A9 also does fairly well when clicking selfies but I would not call it as impressive as the rear camera. The24-megapixel front camera is also capable of wide-angle selfiesbut instead of using a dedicated sensor, the A9 lets you take panoramas using the selfie camera.
Here are a handful of selfies that we took:
Hardware
In terms of the internal components, theGalaxy A9 does not seem spectacular or surprisingin any sense. For a price at which Snapdragon 845 is a possibility, Samsung has gone with the less-powerfulSnapdragon 660.
The big reason for this is the cost of making the phone, and Samsung presumably didn’t want to cut down on its margins by going with the 845. With the influx offlagship killersandkillers of flagship killers, Samsung might have a hard time justifying these specs and the price.
You get6GB or 8GB of RAMand 128GB of storage. Besides that, you get adedicated MicroSD card slot for up to 512GB of added storage.
Software
In terms of software, theSamsung Galaxy A9 gets Android Oreo 8.0with Samsung Experience 9.0. This interface is what we see on every other Samsung smartphone and seems to be a midway between stock Android and a heavy custom ROM such as MIUI or EMUI.
I’m not exactly a fan of this interface because I don’t like the bloatware. Although Samsung has cleaned up the interface significantly since the disastrous TouchWiz UI, the current Samsung Experience is still far from minimal, which is what I prefer on my smartphones.Upcoming Samsung One UI
Samsung’s upcoming Android Pie update andOne UImight improve things, but I’m yet to try out personally to be able to comment on how it would affect the user experience. There’s also a question of whether this phone will get One UI at all.
Samsung Galaxy A9: Price and Availability
The Samsung Galaxy A9 has beenlaunched in India and will be available via major e-tailersincluding Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm Mall, Airtel Online Store, and Samsung’s online storeas well as major players in the offline segment from November 28onwards. The wide availability gives the Galaxy A9 an edge over the major competitor – OnePlus 6T (starts at Rs. 37,999), which is only available via Amazon India.
While the four cameras on the back obviously generate a lot of curiosity, we’re not sure if the mid-segment processor and the ordinary design adds to that appeal.
While the 6GB variant is priced at Rs 36,990, the 8GB variant comes at Rs 39,990 and the pressure for justifying this high price comes on the shoulders of the quad cameras, so they better take amazing photos without too many complex settings. We will obviously be putting the cameras through our rigorous testing process for the full review. Stay tuned for that one.
Pre-book Samsung Galaxy A9 from Rs 36,990 (Samsung Shop;Amazon,Flipkart)
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