Samsung has been the frontrunner in the mobile phone game for a decade or so, and it has shaped the industry into what we see today. In this process, Samsung has popularized many trends – like wireless charging, infinity displays – and defied many others – like the notch. Samsung Galaxy A9 is a device which does both – defies the trend of triple cameras but tries to popularize the concept of four cameras instead. Does it succeed?

So, in this review, we’ll take a look at Samsung’s claims with maximum veracity and least bias. While the quad cameras are arguably its most intriguing aspect, we will take a look at what else the smartphone offers, and whether it’s a good all-round package.

Evidently, the biggest and the most gripping highlight of the Galaxy A9 is its set of four cameras on the back, but that’s not all. Let’s take a look:

The Galaxy A9 also comes with the same specifications that you might find on a Xiaomi smartphone at almost half the price, but that’s what you have to pay for a ride aboard the “brand value” train. While I realize these specifications might not exactly be exciting, Samsung seems to be confident that it will titillate (at least) Samsung fans.

Samsung Galaxy A9 Box Contents

The box packaging of the Galaxy A9 is pretty standard and you get the following inside it:

There’s no harm in pointing that Samsung’s take on design is not too diverse and it almost seems that the entire design team is concentrated on making the next Galaxy S-series or Note series product more appealing than the previous one while almost the same design trickles down to its smartphones intended for lower price brackets.

When I shift my attention towards the front, I find the sight rather soothing. The front of the smartphone accommodates a 6.3-inch FullHD+ Super AMOLED “Infinity Display” panel which has immaculate quality. As we already know, many other leading smartphone brands including Apple and OnePlus rely on Samsung for its OLED displays, and the panel justifies its monopoly in the game. I’m delighted to see that the sparkling colors do not make their way to the front and the minimal bezels here are black.

On the top is the SIM tray, which conveniently accepts two SIM cards and a microSD, along with a noise-canceling microphone. The bottom of the Galaxy A9 is reserved for a USB type-C port, headphone jack, and a solo speaker.

As I noted in the previous section, Samsung is really at the top of its game when it comes to the quality of AMOLED displays which is why we can see that even some of its rather affordable smartphones come with AMOLED displays. Even on the Galaxy A9, we can see that the display is something that you cannot really complain about. It is super bright, very rich when it comes to colors, vibrant, and has a good contrast.

I really enjoyed the display and have no complaints about it at all.

Samsung Galaxy A9 Camera

The camera is not only one of the USPs of the Galaxy A9 but also what Samsung is presumably using to justify the high price. We tried to get a variety of shots with the Galaxy A9 and have attempted to bring you a wholesome picture of what the smartphone is capable of.

Let’s take a look at some of the samples of the Galaxy A9’s cameras.

In daylight, the Galaxy A9 manages to capture colors really well, but falls flat when it comes to details, especially when the object is too close or too far.

Samsung Galaxy A9 Camera Samples: Low Light

When there’s low light, the smartphone really struggles to capture details, especially when the object is moving. Unlike daylight pictures, here the saturation is overblown and makes the image look unnatural. Further, the smartphone often fails at retaining ample light in the image.

Wide-Angle

The wide-angle sensor increases the depth of view from 78-degrees to 120-degrees, offering a wider frame, although at the expense of a slight fish-eye effect. I am really fascinated by this lens and it is probably the only thing that the Galaxy A9 is better at than most other phones in its competition.

In low light, however, details are visibly lost due to the smaller f/2.4 aperture of the wide-angle sensor.

Telephoto (2X Zoom)

The Galaxy A9 also packs in a 2X lens which helps bring distant objects nearer, but it might not be the best option when it comes to low light because of the smaller aperture compared to the main 24-megapixel sensor.

Portrait Mode

The bottom-most sensor on the Galaxy A9 works as a dedicated 5MP depth sensor and despite that, the portrait mode shots are far from impressive. As you can see edge detection is not the best in class.

When there are more than one faces in the frame, the Galaxy A9 focuses on a single person and blurs out the rest.

On the front, there’s a 24-megapixel sensor and to be honest, it is not surprising at all. Often, the front camera feels sloppy and to be able to click the best selfie for your Instagram account, you really need a lot of patience and multiple attempts.

In low light, especially, the front camera fails to maintain a high dynamic range or match the lighting as per the object in focus, leaving the background over or underexposed.

The Galaxy A9 also gets a selfie panorama mode, but I would have appreciated had Samsung put three cameras on the back and one more on the front – like Pixel 3 – for wide-angle selfies. Selfie Panorama

The camera’s struggle with retaining detail is even more apparent when you’re clicking a selfie in portrait mode and it simply struggles to detect edges cleanly. When it does manage to get the edges right, the over-smoothening of images can make you groan.

Video

The Galaxy A9 is capable of capturing 4K UHD videos and has EIS, which only works when you’re shooting at Full HD. The videos are just average and while the stabilization is solid, you’ll be required to lower down the resolution and thus, sacrifice on quality.

Comparison

While Samsung promoted the Galaxy A9 as a camera-centric smartphone, it does not live up to the expectation. Meanwhile, we have looked at how two other similarly priced smartphones – OnePlus 6T and Pixel 2 perform.

As you can see that the Pixel 2 shines out as the best out of the group while the Galaxy A9 performs the worst compared to both smartphones in all situations. The A9 only excels when it comes to exposure.

Samsung Galaxy A9 Performance

Performance is one area where Samsung Galaxy A9 falls short of the competitors. While noteworthy smartphones in the segment come with flagship Snapdragon CPUs, the A9 is still stuck with Snapdragon 660, which has very much made a home for itself in the mid-range segment of smartphones. The processor can be seen usually powering phones in the sub-Rs 20,000 segment, but Samsung still banks on it despite the almost flagship-like pricing.

Playing demanding games such as PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9 on the Galaxy A9 is taxing and almost made me lose my calm. This is because, the graphics appear distorted and there are plenty of frame drops; the gameplay was noticeably jittery. After spending significant time with the Poco F1, I wouldn’t have gone through the pain of playing games on this device if it wasn’t for the review.

The Snapdragon 660 on the Galaxy A9 paired to 6GB of RAM (on our test unit) offers middling performance, resulting in scores on par with other Snapdragon 660 devices. Further, the Samsung Experience can sometimes get overwhelming, which might also lead to lower than expected scores.

In terms of audio or video playback, the Galaxy A9’s solo speaker seems very powerful and punchy, although I found myself longing for more bass. However, the bundled earphones have great audio quality and you also get Dolby Audio support which boosts the output slightly when you connect any wired or Bluetooth headset, so much so that listening to music at the maximum volume can be tough most of the time.

Samsung Experience 9.0 based on Android 8.0 is what drives the Galaxy A9 on the user experience (UX) front. I have to admit that I’m not a fan of this interface, even though it is a gazillion times better than the lousy TouchWiz UI which Samsung phones had a few years ago.

To sum it up, the UI is not terrible but not as clean or simplistic as stock Android. So, upgrading from a smartphone running vanilla Android to another by Samsung could weigh down some users, But if you’re keen on learning new ways of accomplishing the usual chores, you might have an easier time.

Without a doubt, the Galaxy A9 is a great and noteworthy smartphone when it comes to multimedia. Naturally, one of the areas where a great phone for entertainment is expected to excel is in terms of battery life and here, the Galaxy A9 is A-one. Samsung has installed a 3,800mAh battery on this device which lives up to the general trend observed on Samsung devices.

Samsung Galaxy A9 Connectivity

In terms of connectivity, the Galaxy A9 scores all the basic options such as Bluetooth 5.0, dual-band Wi-Fi, LTE, as well as NFC. For wired connections, you get the 3.5mm headphone jack as well as the a USB-C port, which BTW cannot be used for audio playback through Type-C earphones.

The Galaxy A9 gets basic security features such as fingerprint and Face Unlock. The fingerprint scanner on the smartphone feels cramped and is not fast at all. Further, the slow wake up animation makes it almost dreadful. The Face unlocking, too, misses the mark here with very slow performance and high dependency on a bright light source.

I have noticed that using the fingerprint becomes slightly easy if you’re using a cover because it helps you position the finger correctly. But that isn’t very assuring and I hope Samsung improves the fingerprint reader using a software update in future.

The Galaxy A9 is a smartphone is a striking smartphone majorly because of its quad cameras and somewhat because of its bewitching colors. However, after using it for more than 10 days, I can admit that it is not very exciting and has areas where it falls short, and what it does well.

  • Stunning Display
  • Great Battery
  • Appreciably fast charging
  • Still has a headphone jack
  • Wide-angle camera
  • Dual VoLTE and reliable connectivity

Cons

  • Quad cameras fail to impress
  • Average performance
  • No navigation gestures
  • Slow fingerprint scanner
  • Bloated UI

Samsung Galaxy A9: Quad Cameras Fail to Justify the Hype

Samsung pulled an ambitious stunt by launching the world’s first smartphone with four camera but it appears that it made a hasty move. This is because, despite the four cameras, the Galaxy A9 clicks average pictures and the only saving grace is the wide-angle camera which stirs up things slightly, although failing to completely make up for lacking cameras.

The device is great when it comes to connectivity and the dedicated micro SD slot affirms the fact that Samsung still expects its users to carry a lot of media with them on the move. Lastly, in terms of performance too, the Galaxy A9 does not impress, although it would not make you feel restricted either. I’m not a big fan of Samsung’s UI but it can be worked with, if you have the patience.

The Galaxy A9 only makes sense if you’re comfortable with the Samsung ecosystem or use smart devices made by Samsung – such as the Galaxy Watch – and are unwilling to move out of your comfort zone.