Introduction
Prepare to meet the biggest premium phone Samsung has made. No, not the Note5, even that one is dwarfed by the Samsung Galaxy A9 and its 6" Super AMOLED screen.The A9 is a new addition to the Galaxy A lineup (the original topped out with the 5.7" A8) and is undeniably the star of the Galaxy A series. It has a massive 6" Super AMOLED and it outruns the other As with a Snapdragon 652 chipset (an early taste of the latest Cortex-A72 processor).
There are little things too, like doubling the internal storage to 32GB, bumping the battery to 4,000mAh, upping the selfie camera to 8MP and even bringing faster LTE.
Key features
- Available with a hybrid dual-SIM/microSD slot
- Metal frame sandwiched between 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4
- 6" Super AMOLED of 1,080 x 1,920px resolution, ~367ppi
- Quad-core Cortex-A72 + quad A53 processor, 3GB of RAM, Adreno 510 GPU; Snapdragon 652 chipset (also available with an Exynos chipset)
- Android 5.1 Lollipop with TouchWiz, theme support
- 13MP camera with f/1.9 aperture and OIS; 1080p video recording; 8MP front-facing camera, 1080p video
- 32GB of built-in storage; 24GB user available; microSD slot (same as SIM2 slot on some models)
- LTE Cat. 4 150Mbps, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, GPS, GLONASS, Bluetooth 4.1, ANT+, NFC, FM Radio
- 4,000mAh battery
Main disadvantages
- No 4K video or 1080p@60fps
- No MHL (but USB OTG is supported)
- No notification light
Except that's not enabled on the Galaxy A7. Like its siblings it maxes out at 1080p @ 30fps, you don't even get even 60fps. You still get the same main camera, though - 13MP f/1.9 with optical image stabilization.
The A5 (2016) was a lower-cost alternative to the S6, the A7 (2016) didn't quite reach S6 edge+ levels, but it was a solid upgrade over the original A7.
So where does the Galaxy A9 (2016) fit in? It seems like Samsung found an unoccupied niche in its lineup - a premium mid-ranger built of metal and glass with a near-tablet sized screen. Let's take a peek inside its cave and see if the monster is awake.
Unboxing the Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016)
Predictably, the Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016) comes in a fairly large box. It contains the full basic set - a Quick Charge 2.0 charger (15W), a cable to go with it and a headset.It's a one-piece headset with a three-button remote and in-ear plugs, Samsung's usual.
Hardware
The Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016) measures a whopping 161.7 x 80.9 x 7.4mm, wider and taller than the Note5 and S6 edge+ by almost half a centimeter in either direction.It's not very thick, but it certainly is heavy - 200g. Not surprising given the size, but still it adds to the feeling of awe you get when you first handle the A9.
While the scale is different, the floor plan remains unchanged. A metal skeleton holds up two panes of 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4.
The scale truly is different, though, be prepared to only hold the Galaxy A9 (2016) with one hand for reading; any active use will require two hands.
Several design elements compound the problem. First, the 80.9mm of width pushes your grip wide. The 7.4mm thickness is pretty good, but at that width, even this little can make the phone feel bulky. The 200g of weight combined with the slippery glass and metal exterior mean you can't relax your grip too much or risk sending the A9 to the floor.
Button positioning isn't ideal either - we could reach the Power button with our thumb (it was a stretch), but the Volume buttons are just too high up to reach comfortably.
Similarly, using the Home button - which also houses the flagship-class fingerprint reader - requires that you hold the phone low, leaving most of the massive 6" screen and 200g bulk high above your hand. As we said, single-handed grip really only works for passive media consumption.
The capacitive App switcher and Back keys flank the Home button and depending on which hand you use, one of them will be a reach.
Anyway, above the screen is the new 8MP selfie camera (up from 5MP on other A-series models), which kept the bright f/1.9 aperture.
The main camera on the back protrudes slightly, but not as much as on the Galaxy S6 or Note5. It's accompanied by a single-LED flash (no biometric sensors like on the Galaxy top dogs though).
The bottom of the Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016) is where the wired ports live - the stock microUSB 2.0 port and the 3.5mm audio jack. Squished alongside them are the loudspeaker (singular) and one of the mics (the second one is on top).
Our review unit (SM-A9000) is currently the only A9 version available. It has a second tray (positioned on top) that is dedicated to holding the second SIM. This way you get to have both two SIMs and expanded storage.
If the A9 is anything like the A5 and A7, international dual-SIM models will have a single hybrid tray can hold either two nanoSIMs or nanoSIM + microSD (but not three cards at the same time).
Admittedly, this is less of a problem on the A9 (2016) than it is on smaller A-phones as this one has 32GB of built-in storage. Unfortunately, a massive 7.5GB is dedicated to the system.
Display
The Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016) comes with a massive 6" Super AMOLED display. That's the biggest unit yet unless we count the Tab S tablets.It has 1080p resolution, like the other A-series phones. It's a bit of a stretch on this diagonal - most people won't mind, but in some cases, you can see a slight cross-hatch effect. There was also the flicker issue - it's imperceptible to the human eye, but the display flickers slightly (especially at lower brightness settings), which may cause irritation.
Other than that the display is a knockout. If you want perfectly calibrated color output, just switch to the Basic color mode as it comes with an average color deviation (deltaE 2000) of only 1.6 and a maximum of just 3.5. The other color modes are less color accurate but will probably be more eye pleasing due to their higher contrast.
The screen is impressively bright too, maxing out at just over 600nits when set on Auto mode. If you prefer full control, Manual mode gives you a maximum of 425nits. This, combined with the awesome AMOLED contrast, makes for a great viewing experience.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | ||
| 0.00 | 426.6 | ∞ | |
| 0.00 | 609.2 | ∞ | |
| 0.00 | 425 | ∞ | |
| 0.00 | 536 | ∞ | |
| - | 439 | ∞ | |
| - | 620 | - | |
| - | 410 | ∞ | |
| - | 540 | - | |
| 0.346 | 471 | 1361 | |
| 0.00 | 352 | ∞ | |
| 0.00 | 335 | ∞ | |
| 0.00 | 705 | ∞ | |
| - | 351 | ∞ | |
Under bright sunlight, the Galaxy A9 screen remains perfectly legible even at the 400 or so nits that you get from Manual mode.
Connectivity
The Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016) is available in single-SIM form, as well as several dual-SIM flavors.The key difference between them is where does the second SIM go - on some models it displaces the microSD, on others it goes on a second tray (our review unit, SM-A9000, is like that).The phone is officially rated at LTE Cat. 4 support - that's up to 150Mbps downloads and up to 50Mbps uploads. That's strange since Snapdragon 652's X8 modem supports the Cat. 7 standard - 300Mbps down, 100Mbps up.
Anyway, you get 3G/4G only for one SIM - the one selected as data SIM. The other is limited to 2G/EDGE.
You can connect to the fastest available Wi-Fi network at 2.4GHz or 5GHz, 802.11ac is supported too.
Additional wireless connections include Bluetooth 4.1, NFC and ANT+. Positioning methods cover American GPS, Russian GLONASS and Chinese Beidou.
Wired connections are served by the microUSB 2.0 port, which does USB On-The-Go for peripherals, but lacks MHL (or other) for TV out.
Battery life
The Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016) has a massive 4,000mAh battery and we expect a lot from it, based on experience with the smaller A-phones. Those were using the older S615 chipset, though, this A9 unit has a Snapdragon 652.The results are stellar, with an Endurance rating of 103 hours (in single-SIM mode), the Galaxy A9 is the longest-lasting Samsung phone save for the S6 active. With a second SIM the gas needle barely moves, the A9 lasted 98 hours.
The talk time is great at 33 hours, literally more talking than you can do in a day. The web browsing longevity is impressive, not Huawei Mate 8 impressive, but among the best aside from a few outliers. For video playback, the Galaxy A9 (2016) came second only to the LG G Flex.
