Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016) Review

Interface and Functionality

For experienced Samsung users, the Galaxy A9 will be nothing new: it comes with the newest TouchWiz interface on top of Android 5.1. You heard that right – there is no Android 6 on the A9, which is a glaring omission. With the the A9 being such a high-profile phone, however, I'm hopeful Samsung will not take too long to update it.

Anyway, the Galaxy A9's user interface is colorful and lively. It moves quickly enough, though it tends to be somewhat jerky and not as fluid as the software experiences found on some rival products like those from HTC, Motorola, or Apple.

The Galaxy A9 is on the clunky side, so using it will require at least two hands and some extra attention, so that it won't accidentally slip from your hand.

So how's typing on a display this big? Unfortunately, typing with a single thumb is next to impossible – you'll need Shaq-level hands to pull it off. The upside is typing with two hands in portrait mode is more convenient than it is on smaller handsets. However, for me and my medium-sized hands, typing in landscape mode was quite bit of a stretch. Of course, since this is TouchWiz we're talking about, there's a ton of added functionality to the stock keyboard, like a relatively quick-to-access track pad, built-in T9 keyboard that makes single-thumb typing possible, large selection of emoticons, and easy access to attaching all sorts of items to your messages, including pictures, video, audio, calendar notes, map locations, etc. Truly hardcore stuff.

Processor and Memory

Ticking inside the Galaxy A9 is the intriguing Snapdragon 652 chipset, with its octa-core CPU and Adreno 510 GPU, both of which are actually quite capable. The A9 with its Snapdragon 652 can almost rival the performance output of top smartphones from last year, such as the Galaxy S6 and Note 5. Which means it's quite powerful.

Indeed, as I played around with the phone and tried to put it through its paces, the Galaxy A9 remained stable and speedy. I'm sure the generous 3 gigs of RAM inside also help here. If you happen to play games a lot on your smartphone, the Galaxy A9 shouldn't disappoint.

Storage is also taken care of: internal memory is 32 GB, which is sufficient in most cases, but just in case, there's also a microSD card slot for additional storage potential.

Camera

The Galaxy A9 features a 13-megapixel rear camera with optical stabilization (OIS) and wide, f/1.9 aperture that allows more light in than your average smartphone. Up front, there’s a sizable 8-megapixel selfie shooter.

The camera experience is one of the best you can have on a smartphone in this class. The phone supports quick launch for the camera: just double click the home button from any place (even when the phone is locked) and the camera app starts right away. The camera interface is very convenient: it has separate video and photo capture buttons, and allows you to pause and resume a video recording. It is all well laid-out, but of course, the massive 6" display means using the Galaxy A9's camera will always feel a bit clumsy.

It’s worth noting that by default, the phone captures images in 16:9 aspect ratio and 9.6-megapixel resolution. You can switch that to capture in 4:3 aspect ratio and 13 megapixels.

Image Quality

Image quality with the A9 is satisfactory, but not great. Photos doesn't seem to come out defined enough, often being somewhat unclear, with details suffering as a result. Color balance tends to be on the colder side, overall making for images that don't seem particularly lively.

Indoors, the phone does a good job at limiting noise and preserving the scene, with the dual LED flash proving to be strong enough, at least for close-range objects. Indoor photos are quite vivid and lifelike.

Despite the front camera's 8 MP resolution, selfies aren't much more than decent. They are mostly blurry, lacking clarity and color. There's also quite a bit of "beautifying" effect turned on by default, so watch out for that.



Video recording quality is good: detail is not too plentiful, but still pretty decent, while overally the scene tends to be reproduced naturally. Auto-focus is a bit trippy at times and you can notice how the optical stabilization system does its job: in the center of the frame, videos are usually rock solid, but you can notice a wiggle towards the edges of the frame. Sadly, the audio facet of video recordings is below par.

Multimedia

In an era of YouTube and Facebook videos, as well as Spotify and Apple Music, the default music and video players are getting less and less use. Many people still use them, of course, but there is really nothing new to be said about the dedicated music and video apps on the Samsung Galaxy A9: they get the job done with support for most major formats and no issues with playback.

The music app auto-categorizes your songs, and it also has a useful folder view. Tap on the More button and go to SoundAlive to make quick adjustments to the bass/treble as well as instrument/vocal balance, or tap on details for a full-on equalizer. You can take a look at the screenshots below for an illustration of what the experience is like.

The photo gallery is still something that practically everyone uses on a daily basis. With the Galaxy A9, it’s the typical Samsung affair: you can resize your image thumbnails by pinching in and out – make them small to easily go back in time, or large to have a better preview. Some quick editing options like cropping and basic effects are also available.

Call quality

There's really nothing to write home about when it comes to the Galaxy A9's call handling capabilities. Voices sound generally OK through the earpiece, and the same is true for outgoing quality. Of course, all of this will depend on a number of variables, such as you network coverage, current state, position, the network of your caller, etc.

Battery life

The Samsung Galaxy A9 packs a rather beefy, 4000 mAh, which is, of course, needed to power the massive screen. Depending on how much you actually use your handset, battery life with the A9 will range from great to OK. In days when you're just casually checking the time or sending a quick message, it may easily last up to two days. But not using it much is not the point of having a phablet, right? Well, I'd say if you tinker with the A9 every now and then, it's more likely to last about day and a half, and if you are really putting it through its paces, you shouldn't expect more than a day of use, which is satisfying enough.

As far as our battery benchmark is concerned, the Galaxy A9 scored 10 hours and 10 minutes, which is quite formidable, yet, as I said in the previous paragraph, isn't perfectly indicative for all use scenarios. As is the norm now, you can't replace the A9's battery, but charging times are decent, at 122 minutes from zero to hero.

Conclusion

The Galaxy A9 is an enormous, yet elegant smartphone. Looking across the board, it has no glaring weaknesses – its performance actually reflecting its price point rather well. You're not getting the best of the best here, but rather a very nice smartphone that won't disappoint in any area – it's just very good, not great. I think it's a fair deal, considering you won't be paying top dollar.

Of course, that 6” screen there means this is for those who absolutely want as big a panel as possible. For a more mainstream offering, I'd recommend that you take a look at the Galaxy A7 (2016) or A8, which come with 5.5” and 5.7” screens respectively, and offer almost the same features. Alternatively, you can take a look at the Note 5 for a pricier, but more refined phablet.

But if nothing below 6 inches registers on your radar, the Galaxy A9 is a very good option with likable design and no serious issues, aside from shipping with Android 5.1, and not 6.