The year-end gift from Samsung is the new Galaxy A9, world’s first smartphone with four rear cameras. The phone, which was unveiled at an event hosted in Gurgaon this Tuesday, is being seen as Samsung’s bid to disrupt the mid-segment market where it’s always a big challenge to outdo competitors in terms of innovation and affordability. And Samsung is trying to do just that with its recent launch.
The Galaxy A9 features a 6.3-inch Super AMOLED Infinity Display, with enhanced Dolby Atmos for better sound quality. The striking feature in the A9’s design is that Samsung seems to have strictly rejected the notch, in contrast to other big players like OnePlus and Vivo who have stuck by this controversial design feature that was first introduced by Apple with its iPhone X.
Samsung’s previous smartphone in the Galaxy series, the A7, was much appreciated for to its affordable price and decent specs. It had a set of three rear cameras as well. So with the A9, Samsung has clearly taken things a step ahead, both with the design and performance capabilities.
Powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 660 processor, and equipped with a 3800mAh battery, the Galaxy A9 outshines its predecessor on the specs front as well. The handset is available in three colour variants, caviar black, lemonade blue and bubblegum pink.
“As a leader in smartphone technology, we are all about meaningful innovation. For the first time ever, we have brought the rear quad camera with the Galaxy A9. With ultra-wide optical zoom, low light capabilities and live focus, the Galaxy A9 has a camera designed for every moment in the life of the young millennial,” said Aditya Babbar, general manager, mobile business, Samsung India.
The quad camera set is the main reason this smartphone is getting attention the world over. Besides a 24MP front camera, the Galaxy A9 is fitted with four cameras in the rear—of 24MP, 10MP, 8MP and 5MP resolution capacity.
These four cameras work together to capture that perfect shot. The first camera is fitted with a telephoto zoom lens, which is ideal for taking detailed photos. The other two cameras adjust the lighting and help enhance the focus. The fourth camera is there to help you take wide-angle shots, capable of capturing a 120-degree field of view.
According to an official statement by Samsung, “Galaxy A9 automatically recognises 19 kinds of scenes and optimises colour settings to suit the content—whether it’s a nightscape, a field of flowers, or a plate of food. Now you don’t need to worry about tedious details like colour saturation, white balance, and brightness. Enjoy the scenery, and let the Galaxy A9 do t he hard work. Galaxy A9 also intelligently detects when there is a flaw in an image you just clicked (like closed eyes, facial blur or back-light) and notifies you so that you can capture the picture-perfect moment.”
The camera wars have just begun in the smartphone industry. The Chinese brand Huawei was the first to launch a triple-rear camera phone, the P20 Pro, in April this year, which became a huge success internationally. This was followed by the Samsung A7 and the Honor Magic 2, both with triple rear cameras. There are reports that brands like LG, Vivo and even Apple are hard at work on developing their own triple-rear camera handsets. But now that Samsung has upped the game with the Galaxy A9, they may want to return to the drawing board.
Samsung’s Galaxy A9 is available in two variants, 6GB/128GB and 8GB/128GB, priced at Rs 36,990 and RS 39,990 each