Samsung Galaxy S9, S9 Plus coming to India: Android flagships key features, live stream details and more

After showcasing the 2018-series Galaxy S9, S9 Plus at the recently concluded Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 in Barcelona, Samsung is all set to bring the Android flagship series to India on Tuesday.

The company is hosting an event in New Delhi at 12:30 pm and has made arrangements to webcast the entire event online for fans.

In the event, Samsung is expected to announce the price and also the availability details of the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9 Plus. If rumors are to be believed, they are expected to come with prices starting at Rs 62,500 and Rs 70,000 respectively.

Though the new Galaxy S9 series has a moderate upgrade over the Galaxy S8 series, its camera is touted to be of top-notch. Even the world-renowned camera rating agency DxOMark crowned it as the best camera phone in the market, replacing the incumbent Google Pixel 2 series, which was launched in October 2017.

Is Samsung Galaxy S9 series worth buying?

Absolutely yes! Both Samsung Galaxy S9 and the S9 Plus are best of the Android phones available in the market and would give stiff competition to Apple iPhone X.

To provide a better perspective, we have listed five key features with description and help you make an informed decision before you buy the Galaxy S9 series.

Camera:

The highlight of the new Galaxy S9 series is its camera hardware. It boasts Dual Aperture feature.

With this option, Galaxy S9 series can shift between F1.5 and F2.4 apertures depending on the lighting environment. The former will allow the camera to absorb more light during indoor or dark conditions, while the latter can be used during bright sunny conditions.

What's more interesting is that the device's camera app gives the manual option for the user to switch between the aperture range of F1.15 and F2.4

The front-camera of the Galaxy S9 series is also impressive. They have been integrated with Intelligent scan system, which is said to use Iris (eye) and facial recognition sensors, which can be used as biometric screen unlock and also create Augmented Reality (AR) emoji in 3D, which can mimic users face.

Samsung denies the AR emoji feature is a rip-off of Apple iPhone X Animoji, but on the bright side, the former allows users to share them on all messaging apps and social media sites, whereas the latter's utility is very limited, as it can only be used on iMessage app.

Design and build quality:

Though Samsung Galaxy S9 series though look tad similar to its predecessor Galaxy S8 series, the company has made necessary ergonomic changes in the new model.

In the Galaxy S8, the biometric sensor was placed just beside the rear-side camera, due to which users accidentally touched the camera lens often leaving a finger smudge.

Now, the company has shifted it below the camera module, almost to the middle, which is not only easily accessible for the fingers but also avoids the accidental smearing of the camera lens.

The premium Samsung Galaxy S9 comes with a good blend of metal and glass, having an additional layer of Gorilla Glass 5 shield on both front and the back-side, giving a glossy look for the eyes and premium feel when held in hand.

Display:

In 2017, Samsung's Galaxy S8 and the Note8 were rated as the top flagship smartphones with the best display and this year too, the Galaxy S9 series with Infinity Display design, features top-notch screen consisting of super Array Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diodes (sAMOLED) with QHD+ (2960x1440p) resolution, which not only guarantees rich cinematic viewing experience but also longer viewing time.

sAMOLED is very power efficient, as it consumes very less energy to reproduce color on the screen, compared to conventional Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) used in rival branded phones.

Processor, storage, and RAM:

In India, both the Galaxy S9 and the S9 Plus will come packed with Samsung's proprietary 10nm Exynos 9810 octa-core CPU.

As far as the memory configuration is concerned, the standard Galaxy S9 will be offered in three storage variants 64GB, 128GB and 256GB having 4GB RAM, whereas the bigger screen Galaxy S9+ model will be available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB storage options having 6GB RAM in major markets across the world.

But in India, Samsung is expected to launch only two variant each of the Galaxy S9 with 4GB RAM+64GB storage and 4GB RAM +256GB storage and the S9 Plus in 6GB RAM+64GB storage and 6GB RAM+256GB storage.

[Note: In US, China and other select markets, Samsung Galaxy S9 and the S9 Plus will come with0nm class 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 octa-core (2.8GHz quad-core+ 1.7GHz quad-core) series. Rest of the specifications will remain same in both the models in all regions.]

Battery:

Though Samsung Galaxy S9 and the S9 Plus come with 3,000mAh and the 3,500mAh capacity batteries, same as the Galaxy S8 series, the new devices with power-efficient AMOLED screen, will be able to last a full day under mixed usage.

Honorable mention:

Samsung's proprietary digital assistant Bixby has been integrated with Google Translator and will be able to quickly do real-time language translations.

If you are having trouble understanding exotic language menu, you can simply point the camera and tap the Bixby vision (icon resembling a human eye), you will be able to get the fully translated script on your phone screen.

Also, the Bixby Vision can be used to find information of a monument or hotel menu, just by pointing the camera toward it. 

Here's how to watch Samsung Galaxy S9, S9 Plus India launch live stream:

Interested readers can watch Galaxy S9, S9 Plus India launch program live on Samsung India's official webcast channel, here.

Key specification of Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+:

Stay tuned. Follow us @IBTimesIN_Tech on Twitter for latest updates on Samsung products.