BARCELONA, Spain -- DJ Koh, head of Samsung Electronics’ smartphone business, said Sunday that the cameras of the flagship Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphones are what he wants to highlight the most. 

After coming down from the stage of the “Unpacked 2018” event, Koh met with The Korea Herald and pinpointed key features of the new phones.

“I would definitely put the camera first among others,” he said. “Then I also want to highlight the stereo sound and preloaded SmartThings platform on both Galaxy S9 and S9+.” 

To improve visual communication, Samsung enhanced camera functions with a dual pixel image sensor and a dual aperture, while adopting a dual speaker tuned by AKG to maximize visual effects with richer sound.

The cameras on the two new models are intended to offer fun, entertaining and informative features, such as super slow motion, augmented reality emoji creation and Bixby Vision for live translation of images.

Around 5,000 journalists, tech lovers and industry officials flocked to Fira Barcelona Montjuic late Sunday to watch the debut of the Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphones by Samsung Electronics, one day ahead of the opening of the Mobile World Congress 2018. 

It is no exaggeration to say that Samsung grabbed global attention at the largest mobile industry tradeshow, which draws more than 100,000 visitors, exhibitors and members of the press. 

The South Korean tech giant was the only company that unveiled a new flagship phone for this year among MWC exhibitors such as LG Electronics, Huawei, Sony, Oppo and Vivo.

Attendees were spotted in long queues in front of the convention center in Barcelona two hours ahead of the opening of the “Unpacked” event. 

Lilac purple lights illuminated the main hall of the convention center before the show began, representing the signature color of the Galaxy S9 and S9+ phones. 

Koh introduced the ninth edition of the Galaxy S series at the center of a stage surrounded by four giant screens hanging from the ceiling.

“Today, the most important function of a phone is visual communication by taking photos, sending images and sharing videos, which is a shift in self-expression,” he said. “The Galaxy S9 has a breakthrough camera that sees the world clearly in any light.”

Through the huge screens, the audience were able to see how to create AR emojis, make super slow-motion video clips and translate a menu in Spanish into English with the Galaxy S9 smartphone.

Jonathan Wong, director of product marketing at Samsung, took a selfie and created AR emojis, triggering laughter and cheers from the audience.
It is not technology companies that change the world, but the users, Koh said. 

“The Galaxy S9 and S9+ have powerful software and services to help ‘you’ manage your connected life,” he added. 

The Samsung chief also stressed that the Galaxy S9 is a crucial point in entering the realm of the internet of things. 

“And the fact that we preloaded SmartThings, it means that we are now really starting to do IoT, to make it happen,” Koh said. “It‘s a big start that we are connecting our smartphones with TVs, refrigerators and all Samsung products.” 

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)
The Korea Herald correspondent