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New leak suggests the cameras may be the Galaxy S9’s biggest upgrade

Published Jan 8th, 2018 10:18AM EST
Galaxy S9 Camera
Image: Zach Epstein, BGR

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The iPhone may be the most popular camera in use by consumers, but it’s hardly the only smartphone that offers great photo video quality. Samsung’s flagship phones including the Galaxy S and Note lines that have launched in recent years are worthy iPhone competitors in the camera department, as are Google’s Pixel phones.

A leak a few days ago said that Samsung may be looking to sell the Galaxy S9 family as a massive camera upgrade. The company’s fresh trademark application reads “The Camera. Reimagined.” A brand new leak further supports this speculations, so don’t be surprised if the “boring” Galaxy S9’s best feature turns out to be the camera.

Early Galaxy S9 rumors said that the new Galaxy S flagship will have a dual camera. Sadly, Samsung will copy Apple’s playbook and only equip the bigger model with a dual-lens shooter. All the leaks that followed further reinforced that notion.

Since then, Samsung unveiled the Exynos 9810 chip that will power some of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ phones that are about to launch. Samsung announced that the chip will have advanced camera features thanks to a new image signal processor.

“With faster and more energy-efficient image and visual processing, users will see advanced stabilization for images and video of up to UHD resolution, real-time out-of-focus photography in high resolution and brighter pictures in low light with reduced noise and motion blur,” Samsung teased in its Exynos 9810 press release.

This brings us to the newest Galaxy S9 camera rumor which reveals purported aperture details for the upcoming phones. According to a tweet, the Galaxy S9+ will have a F/1.4 aperture, while the Galaxy S9 will have a F/1.5 lens.

The lower the number, the bigger the aperture, or the better light performance you can expect from a camera, including better night photography. For example, the LG V30 is the first smartphone with an aperture of F/1.6. Comparatively, the iPhone X’s dual-lens camera has F/1.8 and F/2.4 apertures for the wide-angle and telephoto lenses, respectively. The Galaxy Note 8’s dual cameras both have F/1.7 apertures.

This tweet seems to corroborate Samsung’s previous claim, that Exynos 9810-powered devices will offer brighter pictures in low light with reduced noise and motion blur. That’s where a bigger aperture will surely come in handy

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.