If you thought the Huawei P20 Pro was skimping a little with its triple-sensor rear camera, take a look at the newly unveiled Samsung Galaxy A9 for 2018. It features not three but four cameras around the back, to help you "capture dynamic and beautiful photos effortlessly."
Those four lenses comprise an ultra wide lens, a telephoto (2x optical zoom) lens, a depth-sensing lens and a main 24 MP, F1.7 lens. There's a 24 MP selfie camera around the front too, making five cameras in all.
Elsewhere the specs are a little more modest. The Exynos 7885/Snapdragon 660 chipset (region depending) isn't the best on the market, but the 6 GB or 8 GB of RAM is generous, as is the 128 GB of internal storage (which can be expanded via a memory card). The phone's display is a 6.3-inch, 1,080 x 2,220 resolution affair.
It's not quite as well-specced as the Galaxy Note 9 then, but it'll likely draw more attention when you pull it out to take a photo.
Samsung seems to be aiming the phone squarely at people who take a lot of photos for social media, covering the whole gamut of everything from "a daredevil selfie" to "that perfect panorama" according to the press notes.
We can't comment on the quality of the quad-cam without having a chance to test it out, but with ultra-wide and optical zoom options on board, we're hopeful that it's going to be more than a mere gimmick. Samsung has a strong track record in mobile cameras, and on the software side there's some AI trickery to help identify the best settings for each shot.
The fingerprint scanner stays on the rear of the phone, and Samsung has included a standard 3.5 mm audio jack here too, as well as a USB-C connector. Android 8.0 Oreo is on board, which we hope will be upgraded to Android 9.0 Pie soon. It really is the camera that makes this otherwise run-of-the-mill Android handset stand out though.
Indeed Samsung has been making noises about bringing innovative new features to its mid-range phones first, in an attempt to appeal to younger users who might not be able to afford the price of a fully fledged flagship.
The Samsung Galaxy A9 should put that plan to the test, but as yet it's not immediately clear if the phone will reach the US. Samsung has quoted €599 and £549 prices for Europe and the UK respectively, which works out at around US$690. Caviar Black, Lemonade Blue and Bubblegum Pink are your choice of colors.
Source: Samsung
