Samsung has revealed the Galaxy A9, its latest smartphone, featuring the world’s first rear camera with four lenses.
On Thursday the company said its latest phone will come with 128 gigabytes of storage and up to 512 gigabytes of expandable memory.
The phone also features its fitness tracker Samsung Health, Bixby virtual assistant and payment service Samsung Pay. It will come in three different colors — Lemonade Blue, Caviar Black and Bubblegum Pink.
DJ Koh, president and chief executive of the IT and mobile communications division at Samsung Electronics said that as a global leader in smartphone innovation, the company understands the demand for meaningful innovation in a fast-paced world which is driven by visual communication.
He added, “Building on Samsung’s legacy in smartphone camera development we are introducing next-generation technology across our entire Galaxy portfolio to give the opportunity of experiencing cutting-edge innovation to more consumers.”
Earlier this year, Koh said that the company was planning on including cutting-edge technology to its mid-range Galaxy A line of smartphones, even before it does in the high-end phones. Koh also said that Samsung was set to reveal its rumored foldable smartphone in this year.
Many watchers of the company anticipated the unveiling of its quad camera. Leaks also emerged showing a picture of the phone’s rear this Wednesday.
The phone includes a main rear camera with autofocus and 24 megapixel resolution, a telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom for detailed close-ups and long shots, a depth lens aimed at letting users manage a photo’s depth of field & focus, and an ultra-wide lens with artificial intelligence-powered scene recognition & scene optimization. The primary selling point of a camera with four lenses is that a photographer is able to alternate between different lenses which enables specific features, such as photos taken from a long distance or panoramic shots.
Samsung’s Galaxy A9 is a step up from its A7 model, which was Samsung’s first phone to include a triple-lens camera on the rear. A number of competitors, including LG and Huawei, have also released triple-lens cameras on their phones.
This announcement is followed by the release of Samsung’s high-end Galaxy Note 9 in August, the most expensive phone by Samsung to date, retailing at $999.99 for a standard version and $1,249.99 for the one with more storage.
The firm released its earnings guidance last week, predicting that it would be on track to score record profits in the third quarter. It has been struggling due to a slowing global smartphone market, and said in its second-quarter earnings statement that the operating profit for the mobile business dropped by 34 % from the previous year.
Chinese competitors such as Huawei, Xiaomi and ZTE have given the likes of Samsung and U.S. rival Apple — which unveiled its new high-end iPhone models last month — a rising competition.
