Page 4 - DIGICEL

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 9 March 2018

The Samsung S9 has a great camera - just like other phones

By ANICK JESDANUN Pixel phones. But stop signs
AP Technology Writer in Thai, Portuguese and
NEW YORK (AP) — Sam- French were translated as
sung says its new Galaxy S9 "first," ''shield," and "crazy."
phone features a "reimag- Bixby got Indonesian right,
ined" camera, and it is in- though. And it can deal
deed pretty darned good. with long passages in post-
But you might not want to ers and documents.
shell out $720 or more for ___
one just yet unless your cur- YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
rent phone is already close Point the camera at food
to death. for nutritional information.
That's because other high- It gave me close-enough
end phone cameras — calorie counts for a burger
nowadays, one of the and onion rings, but a roast
major differentiators be- beef sandwich was mis-
tween phones — are also identified as either a pas-
pretty darned good. If your trami or a cubano sand-
phone is recent, it prob- wich, depending on the
ably already has a decent angle.
camera. Technology has All counts are based on
improved to the point that single servings, which isn't
it's really hard to tell the dif- as useful as Bixby telling me
ference between them. the mac and cheese I had
In many of our test shots, was actually three serv-
the S9 outperformed the ings, or triple the calories.
best of its rivals — Apple's Unreported calories don't
iPhone X, Google's Pixel contribute to weight gain,
2 XL and Samsung's own In this Feb. 21, 2018, file photo, the dual camera lens of the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus mobile phone right?
Galaxy Note 8. Photos is shown in this photo during a product preview in New York. ___
had more detail and less Associated Press WHAT ELSE
distortion. But unless you The larger S9 Plus model has
magnify images for closer In a first for a major smart- have better contrast be- time-honored prank of hav- a second lens with twice
inspection, usually there's phone, the S9 camera has tween dark and light areas. ing fake snakes pop out of the magnification. Though I
little obvious difference be- an adjustable aperture, or But these differences are a can — not so scary when didn't test this model, a sim-
yond color variation, which lens opening, to let in more very subtle. What's more the snakes float in thin air. ilar feature in other phones
comes down to personal or less light. Low-light shots likely to affect picture qual- It's a gimmick, but loads of is essential for producing
preference. In a few cases, are also improved with soft- ity is the steadiness of your fun. better close-ups.
the S9 performed worse ware tricks that automati- hands. The camera can process Both S9 models have a fea-
than all three. cally take 12 shots in quick ___ only a fifth of a second of ture for turning selfies into
The phone comes out succession and blend the FREEZING MOTION video at a time — stretched personal emojis for sharing
March 16 with a U.S. start- best of each. The most distinctive feature into six seconds when view- in messages. Some people
ing price of $720 through These changes produce in Samsung's new camera ing — so auto detection is will love this; I found no use
Samsung and T-Mobile and small improvements in is super-slow-mo video. key to capturing the right for it. Next!
nearly $800 through other shots: The evening sky People appear frozen as moment. It's fun to see peo- The new phone is easier to
major U.S. carriers. Here's a tends to be darker, with less they jump. Waterfalls seem ple jump up at this speed, unlock by looking at it. Past
look at what the S9 offers. distortion. A statue of Abra- at peace as drops trickle but less so when the super- Samsung phones scan your
___ ham Lincoln doesn't look as down. The feature offers a slow-mo part doesn't kick in iris, but they don't work re-
SEE THE LIGHT grainy. Many S9 shots also fresh perspective on that until they're almost back on liably in bright sunlight. The
the ground. There's a lot of S9 supplements that with
trial and error involved. facial recognition, which
And compared with still isn't as secure. For that
images and regular video, reason, Samsung won't let
super-slow-mo video tends banking and other sensi-
to be darker and blurrier, tive apps use just the face,
particularly with close-ups. but it's OK for unlocking the
The feature is at its best phone (you can disable
outdoors, when lighting is it if you're concerned). In
good and the subject in any case, glasses can still
motion is far enough away. be challenging, but there's
___ a fingerprint sensor on
SAY WHAT? the back as a backup. It's
Samsung's Bixby digital as- moved slightly to reduce
sistant taps the camera smudges on the camera
for instant translations. Just lens.
point the phone at a sign Beyond that, the phone's
and see it in English (or your design hasn't changed
chosen language) with sim- much from last year's S8.
ilar fonts and colors. But that's OK. No need to
Bixby was more reliable at fix what isn't broken. What
picking up text than a simi- matters is what the phone
lar Google Lens feature on does — and shoots.q