Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus First Impressions: Samsung is banking heavily on its dual-aperture cameras for its success

Samsung’s first flagship smartphone of 2018, the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus is finally here there is no escaping the fact that they are the biggest launches at  MWC this year. Following months of leaks and rumours, the launch of the Galaxy S9 finally puts to rest all speculation around it.

Looks wise, the Galaxy S9 and the S9 Plus are almost identical to their predecessors, the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. The S9 comes with a 5.8-inch Super AMOLED display while the larger S9 Plus gets a 6.2-inch panel. What has changed though is the back of both the phones. Samsung has finally fixed the positioning of the fingerprint scanner, which is now positioned directly below the camera module.

The camera UI has undergone a change on the #GalaxyS9. It's now a left and right sliding interface just like iPhones.
For power users, the Pro mode packs in a ton of manual features including the option to choose f1.5 or f2.4 aperture. pic.twitter.com/gQLIC8woK5

— Tech2 (@tech2eets) March 6, 2018

Having spent a short while with both the phones, the highlight to this year’s lineup is certainly the camera implementation. It is also quite clearly that this is the area where Samsung is putting all its money on. The camera on the S9 and S9 Plus feature a dual-aperture (f/1.5 + f/2.6) camera system which is certainly the first time for any smartphone. The f/1.5 aperture is also the lowest we’ve ever seen on a smartphone. The camera is also capable of 960 fps super slow-motion video, which looks absolutely incredible.

On the performance end of things, the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus come with the industry leading Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 and Samsung Exynos 9810 chipsets. You also get 4 GB RAM on the S9 and 6 GB RAM on the S9 Plus.

The front camera on #GalaxyS9 shoots a selfie and creates #ARemoji out of your picture. You can customise features and use it so express yourself across any app. Here’s @ankitv trying to look younger. 😉 pic.twitter.com/3DXLkl9TNI

— Tech2 (@tech2eets) March 6, 2018

Everything else on the S9 and S9 Plus remains the same, including the IP68 water and dust resistance and support for wireless charging. We also get a 3,000 mAh battery on the S9 while the bigger S9 Plus gets a 3,500 mAh battery.

We will put both the phones through their paces once we have the review units, but going by first impressions, the Galaxy S9 sure does promise a lot as far as camera performance goes.

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Disclaimer: Tech2 was invited to MWC 2018 by Huawei, who were responsible for all expenses related to travel and accommodation.