Samsung is widely rumoured to make its upcoming Galaxy S9 competent enough to take on Apple's iPhone X, which is touted as "the future of smartphones." Although the Galaxy S9 is likely to come with many features previously not seen in any Samsung-branded handsets, the device is still expected to lack innovation, according to a new report.
Similar to the iPhone X, the Samsung Galaxy S9 is also likely to feature 3D components for the facial recognition system, which will be more accurate, faster and safer than the one found in the existing Galaxy S8. Despite opting for the 3D hardware, the South Korean tech giant will still stick with the 2D software for face detection in an apparent move to keep the iris recognition onboard.
"3D sensing cameras will be applied to various areas such as unlocking, mobile banking, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)," an industry expert told Business Korea. "However, the fact that Samsung Electronics will maintain the existing 2D system means that the Korean smartphone giant will miss the diversification of smartphones."
Some previous rumours suggested that next year's Samsung Galaxy S9 would have dual cameras on both its front and back. But the new report said that only the rear camera system of the new flagship handset will have dual sensors, which will be more powerful than that of the Galaxy Note 8 -- Samsung's first smartphone to feature dual rear cameras.
Thanks to something called a "3-stack layer" image sensor, Galaxy S9's rear camera will have high-speed functions that are generally found in professional cameras. However, this is not something new to the industry as other manufactures like Sony have already introduced similar features in their devices.
Despite the lack of innovation, the average selling price (ASP) of the Galaxy S9 is expected to be more than that of the Galaxy S8.
"When Samsung Electronics applies 3-stack layer laminated image sensors to smartphone cameras next year, the ASP of camera modules will double or triple to $60 to $90 due to the installation of super high-priced image sensors, camera module parts and design changes among others," Kim Dong-won, an analyst at KB Securities, told Business Korea.
Meanwhile, Samsung is also said to have acknowledged that the Galaxy S9 won't have any innovative feature.
"Although the Galaxy S9 may not have the innovative features expected by the market, we are focusing on enhancing the completeness of the Galaxy S8 hardware and an innovative user experience (UX)," the publication quoted a Samsung Electronics official as saying.
According to on-going rumours, the Galaxy S9 will sport the same 5.8-inch Infinity Display as the Galaxy S8 while the Galaxy S9+ will feature a 6.2-inch Infinity Display similar to that of the Galaxy S8+.
The global version of the Galaxy S9, which is expected to feature Samsung's new Exynos 9 Series 9810 processor while the US-specific model will likely be equipped with the Snapdragon 845 CPU.
