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Everything You Need To Know About The Samsung Galaxy S9
Everything You Need To Know About The Samsung Galaxy S9
Only a handful of tech brands can really claim to have a passionate following—the kind that always eagerly anticipates new releases, whether it’s a simple OS upgrade or the latest device to shop for.
Through its years in the industry, Samsung has slowly but surely attained this kind of loyalty in the market. The company offers relatively inexpensive gadgets of diverse types at specs that can rival even the most recent release from other tech giants. And no other smartphone illustrates this better than Samsung’s newest release in the Galaxy series, the S9 (and, to an extent, the S9 Plus).
Image via Samsung
It’s not just a beautiful handset; the Samsung Galaxy S9 also has some killer features to back up its beauty.
Customizable Camera
Image via Samsung
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One of the biggest changes in the camera of the Galaxy S9 is the dual aperture. Basically, the lens automatically adjust depending on the brightness or dimness of the environment when shooting.
The software senses the level of light to switch between f/2.4 if there’s enough light to capture more of the background and f/1.5—the widest aperture for a smartphone thus far—if there’s low light. As a result, it helps users shoot easier with the bokeh effect. If you prefer to switch it yourself though, you can do so under Pro mode (instead of Auto).
Another feature to look out for is the Super Slow-mo, which lets you shoot 0.2-second bursts of 960fps footage for six seconds. Just make sure to have good lighting and record only at 720p.
Topnotch Display
Image via Samsung
The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus have two of the biggest and brightest displays currently in the market. At 5.9 and 6.2 inches respectively with a 18:5:9 ratio, it utlizes the Super AMOLED panels, which sport a 2960 x 1440 pixel resolution from edge-to-edge.
Many reviewers have alred chimed in to say that the S9’s display is one of the best in the market, thanks in large part to the amazing color reproduction, brightness, accuracy and overall sharpness. In fact, the Galaxy S9 can support Mobile HDR10 to stream HDR content from sources like Netflix and Amazon Prime. This in turn allows for better contrast and a wider gamut of colors when watching videos.
The screen is also better protected from knocks and drops because of the Gorilla Glass 5. Moreover, Samsung has kept its signature slim bezels so the screen remains uninterrupted.
Better Biometrics
At this point, there’s no better security measure in a smartphone than biometrics and facial recognition. The fingerprint scanner in the Galaxy S9 is placed at the back, just underneath the rear camera, making it more intuitive as opposed to its predecessor, which sported the scanner at the right side of the camera.
The iris scanner and facial recognition on the S8 were also less reliable, but a combination of these two features created the Intelligent Scan on the S9. Now, unlocking the phone with your face is simpler and faster.
Fortunately, these scanners are intelligent enough that it won’t unlock with a photo either.
Emoji-fy Yourself
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To create your own AR Emoji, you just have to open the front-facing camera, snap and let the phone do all the processing. Once that’s done, you can add in more features to make the avatar look a little more like you, from the hair and skin color to the clothes and accessories.
You can also generate GIFs out of the avatars and send these to your friends and loved ones. The AR even allows the phone to copy some of your features from different angles and correspondingly record a video of yourself as the avatar to give it more personality.
The Jack Remains
Removing the 3.5mm headphone jack has started to become a trend in the market, but Samsung stays loyal to it. The S9 series has kept the jack, making it easier (and less expensive) for those that still prefer wired earphones and headphones.
The Samsung Galaxy S9 still might not be the perfect phone just yet, but it’s definitely a notable step up from its predecessor. And perhaps more importantly, it’s opened up the possibility for even more improvement.
