Samsung Galaxy S9 review

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Samsung Galaxy S9 (64 GB)

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Low light performance is amazing

Some photos look oddly washed out

The overall quality is still amazing

Image credit: TechRadar< /p>

According to the marketing materials, the 12MP single-sensor camera on the Samsung Galaxy S9 is the big change that will make you buy this phone.

'The camera. Reimagined.” would be a bold statement from any photography brand, let alone a smartphone maker, and in reality, Samsung has been overly dramatic here.

Samsung Galaxy S9 (64GB) for $399 upfront with 15GB data for just $25 a month from Mint Mobile

The key upgrade is the fact that the sensor can now switch between an aperture of f/1.5 (for great low-light shots) and f/2.4 (for better brighter scenes), while improving the intelligence of the sensor so it can analyze and improve your images more effectively.

On top of that, Samsung has refined the photography modes on offer, allowing you to take a myriad of different shooting styles - and almost all of them are useful and worth using.

Pro mode is the right mix of powerful, yet accessible. Image Credit: TechRadar

Let's focus on Auto mode, because that's going to be the one most Galaxy S9 users will be using. It's still great, but maybe not as big as the Samsung Galaxy S8.

In bright light, images from the Galaxy S9 are unrivaled in terms of clarity; there's a sharpness, brightness and overall quality that still stuns when you learn it's coming from a smartphone camera.

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Clear day photos have incredible detail.

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This detail is preserved in darker conditions.

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Adding a black and white filter doesn't feel cheap, and adds a blackness to photos. #sadswing

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This is a photo taken in broad daylight

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And the same late at night - so much brightness.

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The general shots are a bit lacking in color, but overall impressive.

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Backlit objects still have a lot of foreground detail.

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Candid photos of pets often come out well.

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Here's a meal with the food mode turned off...

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...and with it enabled.

Image 12 of 12 p>

The automatic background blurring is subtle, but nice.

The Galaxy S9 is also adept at shooting in low light, thanks to that lower aperture, which hasn't been seen on a smartphone before.

Yes, the images are a bit muddy, but compared to low-light shots of other high-end phones that came out when it launched (the iPhone X, for example) the lack of noise and higher brightness are amazing.

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If we were to be picky, we'd say that some of the images we took lacked a real pop of color - Samsung has apparently decided that it wants its cameras to produce more natural images, but sometimes that comes at the expense of the dynamism.

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The first image of each pair is unedited, the second with the 'auto-enhance' option used.

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Colors, shadows and overall sharpness improve instantly.

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It is already a beautiful photo, certainly.

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Maybe the automatic settings add more saturation, but to our eyes it's a nicer contrast.

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These books are quite large in color, but are washed out by direct light on them.

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Color is restored with added auto edit function

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We found that just pressing the edit button and selecting the 'Auto Enhance' created such an improved shot...why not have it all the time, Samsung?

There's also some shutter lag when moving quickly from scene to scene, as autofocus and exposure take a moment to recalibrate before it's ready to take a shot.

On a few occasions we tried to take a picture just by taking loads of photos to see if any of them were sharp, but were held up by shutter lag. p>

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A bit of background light can also wash out the image in the auto mode, and even playing around with the pro settings didn't make things much better - although we have to tip our hats to said expert mode's excellent capabilities, as it doesn't. is not the case. only complete but also very easy to use.

These points aside, you'll generally struggle to take a bad photo with the Galaxy S9. The clarity, even when the lens was zoomed in, in some of the photos we took, and the camera's ability to pick up detail in high contrast scenes are impressive.

The variation of light here is well-presented. Image Credit: TechRadar

We had to take a photo several times to get the right result on occasion, but we still managed to get a good photo in the end. The Galaxy S9's ability to handle scenes with strong backlight is also excellent, with sunlight not making the subject in the foreground a total silhouette.

The 8MP selfie camera also handles low light well. , although it doesn't have the wider field of view offered by some other smartphones, such as many high-end models from LG.

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Panoramic selfie lets you either add friends or create your own if you're feeling lonely

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Putting on a filter adds an element of charm

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AR Emoji is, well, shrug-worthy sometimes

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The fake background blur works well, but not as intense as on the iPhone X

This is compensated by a panorama mode which allows you to rotate to bring more people into the picture... it's a bit hard on the wrists, but it produces decent effects.

S amsung has also included a portrait mode that blurs the background for your Galaxy S9 selfies. It's similar to what the TrueDepth camera can do on the iPhone XS

, and the effect isn't all that different, with decent background blur, although you can't take the "studio" shots with the black background that Apple is screaming about right now.

Super slow motion capture

Also new is the super slow-motion camera, which can capture 960 frames per second, turning a 0.2-second instant of motion into a six-second slow-motion clip.

In bright light, it's exceptional...as long as you either hold the phone steady or ready on the trigger. You can set the S9 to detect motion automatically, but that only works in bright light with the phone nearly still. don't expect it to work well in your hands.

When it works it's amazing, but too often we were stuck trying to find something interesting to idle.

But don't think about trying to shoot slow motion footage in low light - it gets very noisy and low quality, which is understandable given the amount of information to process.

You'll also notice that anything that flickers imperceptibly to the human eye - like stadium floodlights or televisions - will be picked up in a very odd way.

You can use flash, but most of the scenes we wanted to shoot had a wider frame and it was difficult to light them with a phone's small LED.

Overall, we expected a little better from the Galaxy S9's camera given the loud noises Samsung has made about its performance, although the low-light capability is sometimes staggering, and it does that the camera is so powerful in all conditions means you'll get some really good shots.

The color reproduction doesn't impress us as much as something like the

Google Pixel 2

did at launch, though, and the iPhone X will sometimes offer fuller image quality - but overall the Galaxy S9 has a simply brilliant snapper for most scenarios, and playing around with the settings is truly rewarded.

That said, other recent handsets have eclipsed it slightly, with the range

Google Pixel 3

, the

Huawei Mate 20 Pro

and the iPhone XS, among others, top our list of

best camera phones

.

Image credits: TechRadar

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Gareth Beavis

Global Editor

Gareth was responsible for phones, tablets and wearables at TechRadar for the better part of a decade and now leads the entire editorial team. He can instantly recommend the best phone for you, or can be found running in the nearest park with the latest fitness tech strapped to his wrist, head, or other applicable body part.