BARCELONA, Spain -- At first sight, Samsung Electronics’ newest flagship Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphones have few design or display features to amaze. But the ninth edition of its luxury Galaxy line has a handful of significant changes inside.

The latest Samsung smartphones debuted Sunday in Barcelona, Spain, are more entertaining, immersive and personalized.

The South Korean tech giant has applied augmented reality technology to emojis -- digital images used to express ideas and emotions -- for the first time in the industry, making a step forward from Apple’s iPhone X which launched animated emojis on 2-D images.

Named “AR Emoij,” the feature enables users to create a resembling avatar and animated emojis that look, sound and act like them when taking a selfie.

AR Emoji uses a data-based machine learning algorithm, which analyzes a 2-D image of the user and maps out more than 100 facial features to create a 3-D model that reflects and imitates expressions, like winks and nods, for true personalization, the company said

The feature uses a standard AGIF file format so users can share their emojis across most third-party messaging platforms like KakaoTalk, Whatsapp and Line.

“The way we use our smartphones has changed as communication and self-expression have evolved,” said Koh Dong-jin, president and head of the IT and mobile communications division at Samsung Electronics. 

“With the Galaxy S9 and S9+, we have reimagined the smartphone camera. Not only do the Galaxy S9 and S9+ enable consumers to shoot great photos and videos anywhere, it’s a smartphone that’s designed to help them connect to others and express themselves in a way that’s unique and personal to them.”

To improve visual communication, Samsung enhanced camera functions with dual pixel image sensor and dual aperture.

The Galaxy S9 series camera has a super slow-motion feature to capture moments that pass like a flash.

Samsung used its exclusive Super Speed dual pixel image sensor that is integrated with a special DRAM chip. The dual image sensor enables taking pictures at 960 frames per second, which is 32 times faster than a normal camera sensor.

Samsung’s super slow-motion feature can play a swift moment -- water splashing out from a dropping water balloon -- such as those that lasts for 0.2 second in a six-second clip.

Samsung is not the first to introduce the super slow-motion feature, as Sony adopted similar a feature last year to its Xperia XZ Premium.

But Samsung has adopted a smart feature that detects movement in the frame and automatically begins to record.

Samsung’s intelligence platform Bixby is also integrated into the camera.

It uses AR and deep learning technologies to provide helpful information about a user’s surroundings. With real-time object detection and recognition, Bixby instantly generates information directly on top of the image that the camera is pointing at. 

 

Users can translate as many as 33 foreign languages and convert currencies in real time, learn about their surroundings, purchase products seen in the real world and track the calories of food they eat throughout the day by using Bixby.

It also features stereo speakers tuned by AKG, immersive audio with Dolby Atmos and a refined edge-to-edge Infinity Display.

The device can be unlocked by four biometric authentication methods -- iris, fingerprint, facial recognition and Intelligent Scan.

Samsung’s new verification feature, Intelligence Scan, uses the collective strength of iris scanning and facial recognition technology to quickly unlock a user’s phone in various situations.

The Galaxy S9 and S9+ will hit selected markets on March 16. They are offered in Midnight Black, Titanium Gray, Coral Blue and a new hue, Lilac Purple. The phones are reportedly priced at around 1.2 million won ($1,115).

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)