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Samsung A9 is the world’s first quad camera smartphone which allows you to capture the moment just the way you like. Not only that, it comes in trendy design options which makes it stand out from other boring looking smartphones. Apart from these, it houses a great screen and does really well when it comes to performance. Let’s take a closer look at the A9 in our Samsung A9 Review.
Design and Build
Samsung has stepped up its game by offering new color options which are a trend and flashy just as found on some new Honor devices. Though the effects are subtle when compared to the Honor phones but they still look pretty good and clean. The back of the Samsung A9 is slippery and catches fingerprint smudges as well which makes it harder to keep the device clean. There are a total of 3 color options available and while one is the plain black the other two are flash Lemonade Blue and Bubblegum Pink.
While the Samsung A9 look premium, it is not the lightest one. It weighs around 183 gram which is on the heavier side, however, the thickness is 7.8 mm which is average considered to other phones. The back of the device is curved on the edges which makes it easier to grip but still, it feels heavy in hand which some might not like.
Upfront, Samsung A9 houses one of the Samsung’s infinity panel with a selfie camera, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, and an earpiece. On the right, there is the Power key along with the volume rocker. On the left, is the Bixby button which can’t be remapped officially. At the bottom, is the Type-C charging port flanked by a speaker grill and 3.5mm audio jack and on top is the SIM tray which dedicated MicroSD card slot. Flip the device and you will find the main highlight of the device, a Qual camera module. There is also a Flash and a fingerprint scanner on the back. Overall, the design and build quality feels premium but lacks an IP rating and Wireless charging.
Samsung A9: Display
Unlike every other brand who are shrinking down all the bezels using a notch, Samsung is following the more traditional approach. The Samsung A9 comes with an 18:9 ratio screen with borders on above and below the display. It is using a 6.3 inch Super AMOLED display which has a resolution of 1080x2220 and a pixel density of 392 pixels-per-inch. The bezels around the screen aren’t thin but the screen quality is great.
The Samsung A9’s screen is sharp and vibrant with great viewing angles. Also, if you are not satisfied with how the colors on the screen look, you can always adjust them individually. The blacks are inky and the brightness is legit enough to be easily viewable under direct sunlight. We played some games on the Samsung A9 and watched a couple of episodes of Iron Fist and we surely enjoyed the visual experience. No one does it better than Samsung when it comes to the screen. Overall, it’s a solid screen with an amazing viewing experience, however, it’s not just as immersive as other notched displays.
Performance and Software
The Samsung Galaxy A9 comes with one of the best mid-range SoC under the hood. It’s the Snapdragon 660 Octa-Core processor which is capable of reaching a max frequency of 2.2 GHz. Apart from that, it uses an Adreno 512 GPU which might not be the best but is pretty capable of handling some graphics hungry app and games.
Moving on to the performance, we found no issues while using the device for basic tasks like watching videos, switching between apps, browsing the web, using social media apps etc. However, the performance takes a hit when you move to heavy games. While playing PUBG, we noticed that the frame rates aren’t consistent on the max setting and we enjoyed the much smoother gaming experience on Medium graphics settings. There are two RAM options to choose from. One comes with 6GB of RAM while the other comes with 8GB, however, both the models don’t have any issue handling multitasking. Apart from that, the Samsung A9 comes with 128GB internal storage and there is a dedicated MicroSD card slot which supports MicroSD card up to 512GB.
With the Samsung, A9 comes the Experience UI 9.0 which is based on Android 8.0 Oreo. This is a bummer as most of the device in this price range are already running Android 8.1 Oreo or are being updated to the latest Android Pie. Talking about the Experience UI 9, one thing sure, it is way less cluttered as compared to the TouchWiz UI. Yeah, there are some pre-installed apps on the device but there are some helpful features like a gaming mode, one-handed mode, Always-on-Display and more. You can also find Bixby and have a choice to use it as your personal assistant. While it is not running the latest Android version, but Samsung devices are known for great software support even though it takes time.
Camera and Battery Life
There are 4 cameras on the back of the Samsung A9. Talking about each of them, the first one is a 24 Megapixel sensor with f/1.7 aperture. The second one is an 8 Megapixel Ultrawide sensor with f/2.4 aperture. The third one is a 10 Megapixel telephoto sensor with f/2.4 aperture and the fourth one is a 5 Megapixel depth sensor with f/2.2 aperture. The camera app allows you to easily switch between the different lens and there are various modes like Live focus, Panorama, AR stickers etc. However, there is no Manual mode which is disappointing.
Capturing images using the back camera, the quality took a huge turn in all of them. While the images from the primary sensor look great, the wide sensor is vulnerable to noise and the telephoto sensors also work in some conditions. Apart from the primary sensor, no other lens does well than average in low light situations. Hence, you will mostly use the Primary sensor only after you get bored of using the other sensors. The portrait mode images turn out well and you can adjust the level of blur while taking the images. The front camera is a 24 Megapixel sensor with f/2.0 aperture and does a great job when it comes to capturing images. Using the front camera you can record FullHD videos @ 30fps and with the primary camera you can record 4K videos @ 30fps but there is no OIS.
The Samsung A9 comes with a 3900 mAh battery which isn’t removable. In our test, we found that the battery life is great and with moderate to heavy usage, you can easily squeeze 1.5 days of battery life. We played PUBG for like 1.5 hours and watched videos, played with the camera, and done some calls as well. With all such usage, we managed to get through the whole days before we started looking for the charger. Also, the Samsung A9 supports fast charging, however, there is no support for wireless charging.
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