Samsung unveils Galaxy A9: World's first phone with four rear cameras
Samsung is making good on its promise to bring new features to its mid-range phones first.
Smartphones
The company today announced the Galaxy A9, the world's first 'quad-camera' phone. The rear cameras are arranged vertically on the left-hand side, adjacent to the fingerprint reader.
Images of the Galaxy A9 were leaked ahead of today's launch by Evan Blass and German site AllAboutSamsung, which filled in details of a claim by phone leaker Ice Universe in September that Samsung was cooking up a four-camera phone.
There's an ultra wide eight-megapixel (MP) camera at the top. Below it is a 10MP telephoto lens with 2X optical zoom that sits above the 24MP main camera. The bottom lens is for a 5MP depth camera.
The Galaxy A9 has a 6.3-inch full HD AMOLED display that's edge to edge but with narrow bezels on the top and bottom. It's powered by an eight-core processor, consisting of a 2.2GHz quad-core CPU and a 1.8GHz quad-core CPU.
The phone comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, or 8GB of RAM with 128GB of storage. Both have a microSD slot that supports cards with 512GB of storage to stuff with photos. And the phone has a 3,800mAh battery.
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The Galaxy A9 will cost between €550 and €599 ($635 and $690), according to AllAboutSamsung. Samsung said the phone will be available in select markets from November.
The Galaxy A9 phone will ship with Android Oreo and is available in Caviar Black, Lemonade Blue or Bubblegum Pink.
In September Samsung mobile CEO DJ Koh announced that this Samsung would kick off a 'mid-range first' strategy that would see it deliver "technology and differentiation" to its Galaxy A lineup ahead of its flagship Galaxy S and Note range.
The Galaxy A9 is the first product to spring from this plan, which could help fend off mid-range rivals like Huawei, Oppo, and Xiaomi, while boosting mobile revenues dragged down by sluggish Galaxy Note 9 sales.
"Building on our legacy in smartphone camera development we're introducing next-generation technology across our entire Galaxy portfolio to give more consumers the opportunity to experience cutting-edge innovation," Koh said today in a statement.
"We're excited to deliver on this promise and debut world-leading smartphone camera technology with the Galaxy A9."
Samsung describes the Galaxy A9 as the world's first 'quad-camera' phone.
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