Samsung has confirmed its upcoming new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S9, will be launched at MWC in Barcelona, so we'll have to wait until late February to know for sure what features and specifications the new model will have to offer.
That said, Reddit users have found an image of an alleged S9 retail box that is already giving us a good idea of what to expect from the new flagship.
From a photography point of view, the most interesting information on the box is the "F1. 5 / F2. 4" aperture specification, indicating that the Galaxy S9 might come with the same stabilized variable aperture 12MP camera as the China-only W2018 flip-phone.
On that phone, the camera switches between F1. 5 and F2. 4 when it senses there's enough light around in an attempt to capture the background as much in focus as possible. Whether or not that really makes a lot of sense, given the small image sensors in smartphones, is for you to decide. In any case, the F1. 5 aperture value is the fastest on any current smartphone, which should be appealing to any low-light shooter.
Source: Reddit
If the specifications on the box are true, the S9 camera will also record super slow-motion videos, hopefully at similarly high frame rates as the latest Sony devices. In addition, there is a pair of AKG-powered stereo speakers, and we'd expect the S9 to come with Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 845 chipset.
Most most of the additional information on the retail box is quite similar to the current S8 model: the S9 screen will have a Super AMOLED panel with Quad HD+ resolution (1440 x 2960 pixels), 18:9 aspect ratio, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, and an 8MP front camera, all wrapped up in an IP68 water and dust resistant body.
. dpreview.com2018-1-12 19:30
