Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro Review: Enormous Yet Charming

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Samsung recently launched Galaxy A9 Pro in India, positioned as the chief mid-ranger. It is the tallest phone in Samsung’s arsenal even when compared to the Note series phablets. With its 6-inch tall Super AMOLED panel, it is cutout for those who prefer huge phones. But what does this tall and handsome Galaxy A Series Smartphone bring to the table? Let’s dig deep and find out in our Galaxy A9 Pro review.

Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro Specifications

Model Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro
Display 6-inch S-AMOLED, Full HD, Gorilla Glass 4
Processor Snapdragon 652 octa-core, Adreno 510 GPU
RAM 4GB
Internal Storage 32GB, Expandable up to 256GB
Rear Camera 16MP, LED flash,  f/1.9 aperture, and OIS
Front Camera 8MP, F/1.9 aperture
Software Android Marshmallow
Battery 5000 mAh with fast charging
Others 4G VoLTE, Fingerprint sensor, dual SIM (Hybrid), Samsung KNOX, S-Voice, screen Mirroring
Price 32,490 INR

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Design and Build Quality

The main USP of Samsung A-Series success has been the combination of premium design elements and decent specification, and the Korean giant continues to harbor this philosophy. The design and build quality of this beefed up Galaxy A9 is certainly its strong point.

There is no visible design difference between the Galaxy A9 Pro and its predecessor Galaxy A9. The phone flaunts a refined dual glass and metal construction which looks and feel extremely elegant. However, as is the case with such phones, the Gorilla Glass 4 on the rear proved to be a smudge magnet. The edges are smoothly curved to ensure it fits in hands comfortably.samsung-galaxy-a9-pro-3

Apart from 6-inch tall display, the front features an earpiece with sensors on its left and selfie camera on its right. There is a oval shaped home button-cum-fingerprint sensor placed right in between the two backlit navigation buttons. The minimalist rear surface features the usual primary camera module, LED flash and Samsung branding.

On the right edge, there is a power button and dual SIM card outlet. On the left, there is volume up and down keys. It is worth mentioning that none of the physical buttons don’t feel wobbly and they all offers decent tactical feedback. On top, there are is an ejectable microSD tray and secondary microphone. At bottom, there is a 3.5mm audio jack, micro USB port, loudspeaker and the primary mic. The only problem I have  which 5000mAh shares the blame. Overall, on the basis of its build quality and design, the Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro can give run for its.money to most flagships available today.

The only problem I have is the weight for which the 5000mAh shares the blame. At 210 grams, the Galaxy A9 Pro is rather difficult to wield continuously over a period of time. Overall, we are quite satisfied with the way the Galaxy A9 Pro looks and feels in person.

Also Read: Nokia Smartphone Running Android 7.0 Nougat Surfaces On Geekbench

Display

The Galaxy A9 Pro comes with a gigantic 6-inch Super-AMOLED panel with 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution and 367ppi pixel density which is not extraordinary but fair. The bezels on the sides are extremely slim with a decent 76 percent (approx.) screen-to-body ratio. Samsung has calibrated A9 Pro panel very well. The colors are vivid but not over the top, as is often the case with AMOLED screens.
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The lower pixel density causes lack of sharpness and text isn’t super crisp around the edges. This isn’t something you will notice unless you have had prior experience with sharper LCD or AMOLED displays.

On the plus side, the display offers deep blacks, good viewing angles, and a reasonably sensitive touch screen. The screen is bright and also offers the adaptive display feature. There is no outdoor bust mode to enhance visibility under direct sunlight. The 6-inch wide display certainly is not tailor-made for single-handed usage, but it makes a compelling case for itself when it comes to multimedia consumption and gaming.

Performance & Software

It is one of the rare few Qualcomm chipset powered Samsung smartphones retailing in India. The Galaxy A9 Pro banks upon the octa-core Snapdragon 652 chipset coupled with 4GB RAM. According to benchmark scores, the new Qualcomm budget star delivers a performance better than the likes of Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6.

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As per my day-to-day usage experience, the phone never fumbles with usual activities. Apps load quickly and doing flipping between apps is fast and convenient. The phone manages to handle most tasks efficiently – be it web browsing or gaming. It can also handle most heavy games with ease. When I pushed it to its limits with multiple apps running in the background, there were occasional frame drops.

The Galaxy A9 Pro comes running on TouchWiz UI baked into Android 6.0 Marshmallow. If you have used a Samsung smartphone in the past, it won’t take you much time to get familiar with the user interface here. The notification shade is neatly designed so is the customizable quick setting pallet. Users can take advantage of a large display with split screen feature which is supported by most of the common apps.

Also Read: 6 Things A Spec Sheet Won’t Tell You

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Samsung’s innovative features like S-bike mode, Ultra data saving mode, Ultra Power Saving Mode and a Download Booster which combines WiFi and data for blazing fast download speeds. Overall, the Galaxy A9 Pro performance won’t let you regret the money you spent on it.

Hardware & Battery

Apart from usual innards, it comes with 32GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 128GB via microSD card. The dual SIM phone comes with home a button embedded fingerprint sensor which is accurate and fast.

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A bottom-firing single speaker is not ideal but it manages to pump out a decent decibel output and is easily audible in large crowded space. It is loud but the lack of bass makes it sound sleazy. On the contrary, the music and other audio are pleasing to ears when consumed via headphones. The equalizer can further be tweaked with Samsung Sound Alive feature.

The call quality on the phone is also top-notch. The on-board 5000mAh battery doesn’t run out of fuel easily. On heavy usage with multiple accounts continuously synced in the background, it almost always manages to last for a day and a half. The bundled adaptive fast charger takes good two and half hours to refill a completely drained out battery.

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Camera

The Galaxy A9 Pro integrates a decent camera which is not as extraordinary as the Samsung Galaxy S7 but manages to serve the purpose well in decent lighting conditions. As per specs-sheet, the default rear camera is a 16-megapixel shooter with f/1.9 aperture and optical image stabilization. The default app is simple and offers a number of shooting modes including a Pro mode. By default, it captures images in 4:3 aspect ratio. A double-tap on the home button fires Camera app which is very convenient. In the Galaxy A9 Pro, instead of offering HDR as a toggle button, Samsung has alloted a dedicated HDR mode.

The A9 Pro camera can captures decent images with a good amount of details in sunny outdoors. In such happy conditions, images turn out sharp and vibrant. On the negative side, sometimes the camera struggle with dynamic range as at times highlights get blown off. HDR mode works well but it takes a couple of seconds more to shoot HDR images.

With diminishing light, the image quality also deteriorates as images start appearing dull and noisy. The camera also struggles to lock focus quickly and images lack details. The Color reproduction capability of Galaxy A9 Pro is not the best that we have seen on a Samsung smartphone camera.

The selfies captured by this 8-megapixel front-facing camera turned out better than the Galaxy A8. Still, it could have been far better if had managed to capture a bit more colors. Here are some camera samples.

Wrap-up: 

The Samsung Galaxy A9 certainly offers flagship design and build quality, along with compelling hardware and stellar battery. The expandable storage with dedicated dual SIM slots ensures one doesn’t have to sacrifice on either of two privileges. It might not be the phone for the heaviest of Android users, but for general purpose consumers who constitute the majority, and for those who have a thing for sizeable smartphones, the Galaxy A9 Pro is an option worth considering.

Also Read: Lenovo Z2 Plus First Impression – An Exciting Compact Smartphone

Pros:

  • Premium design and build
  • Great performance
  • Snappy Fingerprint sensor
  • Great battery life with Adaptive fast charging
  • Dedicated MircoSD card

Cons:

  • Heavy
  • Missing Notification light
  • The display could have been sharper
  • Doesn’t support VR
Deepak RajawatDeepak Rajawat
Experienced technology journalist with over 7-years of experience. Before embracing online journalism, he has worked with several legacy publications including print editions at Hindustan Times and The Statesman. He also has a keen interest in Sports, which he used to cover with equal enthusiasm in his early career.

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1 Comment
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mallikharjuna raju chakravaram
Anonymous
6 years ago

Recently I have filtered the phone lists and finally purchased A9 pro at the price of 22,900 in Reliance digital of Guntur. It is working very nice without any lagging. Browsing, Camera, and other features are very good at all times. Battery is lasting for 2 1/2 days for me with moderate usage .

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