![\"\"](\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/1-10.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNew and improved camera capabilities are the main thrust of Samsung’s pitch for its latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S9 and larger S9+.<\/p>\n
The handsets gain a super-slow-motion facility designed to make it easy to extend key moments of action. They also gain a type of lens that should improve low-light photography.<\/p>\n
Samsung’s sales rose in 2017 but not as fast as those of many Chinese rivals.<\/p>\n
Experts suggest the new facilities represent minor upgrades.<\/p>\n
That may make marketing the S9 a challenge since the phone’s design also strongly resembles that of the existing S8. Slightly smaller bezels at the top and bottom and a new position for the fingerprint sensor are the biggest alterations.<\/p>\n
The S9+ is only a little more distinct from the S8+. It now features two camera lenses on its rear, providing different fields of view and allowing photo backgrounds to be digitally blurred.<\/p>\n
“I’m not sure if the improvements will be enough to make people rush and upgrade,” commented Francisco Jeronimo, an analyst at market research firm IDC.<\/p>\n
“The quality of the camera is a purchasing driver for many consumers, and Samsung’s does appear better than [Google’s] Pixel 2.<\/p>\n
“But I was expecting to see more development around its intelligence – it still relies on the cloud, meaning you need to be connected to the net to do live translations, for instance.”<\/p>\n
By contrast, he added, Huawei’s latest phones can translate words they are shown while offline thanks to their use of a new chip technology.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Samsung held its launch on the eve of the Mobile World Congress tech show in Barcelona.<\/p>\n
It has priced the S9 at 849 euros (\u00a3750; $1,047) and the S9+ at 949 euros (\u00a3838; $1,170) – 50 euros more than their predecessors<\/p>\n
The biggest hardware change to the S9’s camera is that it now features a variable aperture, with a choice of two settings.<\/p>\n
At its widest setting it allows in more light, which can be helpful in dim conditions, but at a cost of having shallower focus.<\/p>\n
It is not the first handset-maker to do this. Nokia offered a similar technology in its N86 phone in 2009, but the innovation failed to catch on.<\/p>\n
To further improve low-light imagery the S9 now takes 12 images in quick succession to help detect and remove noise – the S8 took three.<\/p>\n
But its standout feature is the capacity to slow down video while keeping it in high-definition resolutions: 960 frames per second in 720p and 480fps in 1080p.<\/p>\n
Sony’s Xperia XZ Premium phone added a similar feature last year, but Samsung says its version is “more usable”.<\/p>\n
In both cases, owners must determine, at point of capture, the 0.2 seconds that get turned into six seconds of footage, at the slowest setting. This can be a challenge to get right.<\/p>\n
While Sony relies on users pressing a button at exactly the right moment, Samsung’s S9 auto-triggers the function when motion is detected in a chosen part of the screen.<\/p>\n
Other camera-related innovations include the introduction of AR Emojis.<\/p>\n These are animated cartoons created from facial scans of the owners that then mimic their expressions. They are similar in concept to Apple’s animal-based Animojis, but Samsung suggests its version is more “personal”.<\/p>\n The Bixby Vision image-recognition app gains the ability to identify foods the camera is pointed at and estimate their calorie content.<\/p>\n And the phone now combines data from its iris and facial-recognition systems to improve their reliability.<\/p>\n Samsung, however, declined to provide a failure rate to permit a comparison with Apple’s one-in-a-million statistic for its Face ID facility.<\/p>\n IHS Technology’s Ian Fogg said the risk for Samsung was that if consumers do not view the new features as a huge leap forward, they might prefer to wait to see what the S10 offers.<\/p>\n “The typical Samsung upgrader probably has an S6 or S7,” he explained<\/p>\n “Samsung has delivered significant incentives to upgrade with the improved camera and the larger display, compared with the older phones.<\/p>\n “But the problem is that those handsets from two to three years ago are still very usable and will still feel pretty good to many.”<\/p>\n By Rory Cellan-Jones, Technology correspondent<\/strong><\/p>\n How keen are you to see the world in ultra slooooooow motion or to have an animated emoji that looks just like you?<\/p>\n Samsung is betting that these are not niche interests and will spark a rush to upgrade, particularly amongst those people whose phones are a couple of years old.<\/p>\n In truth, the Galaxy S9 feels like an incremental improvement on last year’s S8 – the screen stretches a bit further in the same space, the sound system is louder, which means more anti-social noise in public places, and Samsung’s underwhelming Bixby assistant has got a bit smarter at reading foreign menus.<\/p>\n To be fair, smartphones like the Galaxy are already brilliant computers delivering extraordinary performance on the move – and making new models stand out from the crowd is a struggle for all manufacturers.<\/p>\n It is a good bet that the S9 will sell very well indeed and put another rocket under Samsung’s profits – it just isn’t going to make jaded phone-buyers go “wow!” New and improved camera capabilities are the main thrust of Samsung’s pitch for its latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S9 and larger S9+. The handsets gain a super-slow-motion facility designed to make it easy to extend key moments of action. They also gain a type of lens that should improve low-light photography. Samsung’s sales rose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":404409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[106],"tags":[16981,16561],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/3-5.jpg\")
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\n–
\nBy: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"