Now a massive Samsung leak has confirmed the most significant features of its new flagship Galaxy smartphone
Here’s a breakdown of Galaxy S9’s following key core specs:
- 5.8-inch ‘QuadHD+’ (2960 x 1440), sAMOLED display
- Samsung warns display is 5.6-inches allowing for rounded corners
- Single lens 12MP main camera with variable F1.5 – F2.4 aperture, OIS
- “Super Slo-mo” mode (expect regional variation here)
- 8MP auto focus front facing selfie camera
- Stereo speakers tuned by AKG
- IP68 dust and water resistance (unchanged)
- Iris scanner (expect second gen, but not Face ID 3D mapping)
- 64GB of native storage, 4GB RAM (unchanged)
- Wireless charging (expect full 15W fast charging)
- AKG bundled earphones (presumably version 2.0)
The highlights here are undoubtedly the F1.5 aperture on the rear camera (a class leading figure), the introduction of stereo speakers (a first on Galaxy smartphones) and the hint “Super Slo mo” gives to the 120fps 4K video mode which was leaked earlier this month – though it may not be available to US customers.
The obvious downside is storage with 4GB of RAM (low given Samsung uses 6GB in the Galaxy Note 8 and was expected to add this to the Galaxy S9) and 64GB of native storage when the company confirmed 512GB smartphone modules in December. It is also likely to prove contentions that there is no dual rear camera with Samsung expected to restrict this to the larger Galaxy S9 Plus.
As for the specs we are missing: battery capacity, headphone jack retention and what happens to the (woefully positioned) fingerprint reader, they were all revealed late last month.
Consequently it looks like the most radical aspects to the Galaxy S9 – camera aperture aside – will be the old school features Samsung retains (jack, microSD) going against the grain rather than what it adds. That’s disappointing coming straight after the blow to our Galaxy X hopes. So perhaps it will be down to the rather more daring Galaxy A8 and Galaxy A8 Plus to turn heads.