Samsung went a little crazy when it was designing the Samsung Galaxy A9. Instead of the already excessive three rear cameras that were prominent in the rest of the A-Series lineup, including the A50 and A70, this one has four. In comparison, Apple’s latest iPhone 11 is still stuck with two cameras. The additional hardware makes the A9 an extremely versatile camera phone, perfect for the Instagram-obsessed demographic. Not only that, but it also boasts a stunning display, premium look, and speedy performance. If you’re looking for something between a smartphone and a tablet, however, the Galaxy Note 10 is on sale right now at Best Buy — which is one of the best smartphone deals going on right now.
This mid-tier phone is currently up for grabs on Amazon for a whopping $170 off
First and foremost, the Galaxy A9 looks incredible. Its metal back comes in three gradient colors: Caviar black, bubblegum pink, and lemonade blue, all of which are equally gorgeous. The A9 is one of Samsung’s more sizable phones, slightly bigger than the already large Galaxy Note 9. Its size makes it great for people who love watching video content, and its 6.3-inch Super AMOLED display is bright and beautiful. The colors are vibrant, blacks are deep, and most importantly, there’s no notch!
This phone’s bezels are nicely narrow, and the screen curves slightly around the corners and edges. There’s a fingerprint scanner on the back (no in-display sensor though), right next to the camera element. The physical buttons including the power button and volume rocker are found on the right edge, while the A.I. button for Samsung’s virtual assistant, Bixby, is on the left. On the bottom edge is a USB-C port and thankfully, a headphone jack.
As mentioned earlier, the main draw of the Galaxy A9 is its four rear cameras stacked vertically on top of each other. The primary 24-megapixel camera is best for taking photos in low-light conditions. The 8-megapixel camera right below it can capture in 120-degree wide-angle for stunning panoramic shots. There’s the 5-megapixel depth-sensing camera that gathers photographic data which it uses in Samsung’s Live Focus background blur mode. Finally, situated on the low end is a 10-megapixel telephoto lens that provides 2x optical zoom over the primary camera for close-up shots. To top it all off, there’s the front-facing 24-megapixel camera for taking pin-sharp selfies.
The Galaxy A9 packs a lot of power underneath its hood, thanks to an octa-core Snapdragon 660 processor, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of expandable memory. It’s pretty fast when running apps and doesn’t noticeably glitch when you multitask. Unfortunately, this phone runs with the older Android Oreo interface instead of the latest Android Pie.
The Samsung Galaxy A9 is a phone you should seriously consider buying if you’re mad about taking photos. Its quadruple camera system exceeded our expectations. The rest of it is also quite good, from its beautiful display to its snappy performance. This is the kind of phone that offers a premium experience for a close-to-premium price.
For more options, click here for our best smartphones for 2019.
