Galaxy c9 Pro

FEATURE

• Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro launched at Rs. 36,900
• Price 36900
• Samsung's first smartphone with 6GB of RAM

Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro smartphone was launched in October 2016. The phone comes with a 6.00-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels. Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro price in India starts from Rs. 36,900.  The Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro is powered by 1.44GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 processor and it comes with 6GB of RAM. The phone packs 64GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 256GB via a microSD card. As far as the cameras are concerned, the Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro packs a 16-megapixel primary camera on the rear and a 16-megapixel front shooter for selfies. The Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro runs Android 6.0 and is powered by a 4000mAh non removable battery. It measures 169.90 x 80.70 x 6.90 (height x width x thickness) and weigh 189.00 grams. The Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro is a dual SIM (GSM and GSM) smartphone that accepts Nano-SIM and Nano-SIM. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, USB OTG and 4G. Sensors on the phone include Compass Magnetometer, Proximity sensor, Accelerometer, Ambient light sensor and Gyroscope.

About Samsung:

Founded back in 1969 as Samsung Electric Industries, Suwon, South Korea-headquartered Samsung Electronics today makes everything from televisions to semiconductors. It released its first Android smartphone in 2009, and can be credited with the launch of the first Android tablet back in 2010. The company is among the biggest players in the smartphone market in the world. It has recently developed smartphones running Tizen OS, as an alternative to its Android-based smartphones.

Design:

Thanks to the 6-inch display, the Galaxy C9 Pro is a big and heavy device. It’s not as heavy as the A9 Pro as it has a smaller (4,000 mAh) battery, and it’s not as thick, either. In fact, the Galaxy C9 Pro is a slim device for what it offers. The back of the device is metal, lending it a premium feel that is different than what you get on the glass backs on other Samsung devices. The metal back curves at the sides to improve grip, but its slippery nature does make ergonomics an issue, especially for single-handed usage. Of course, a 6-inch device isn’t really made for single-handed usage, so we can let the slippery back slide in this case.As you can see in the pictures, the C9 Pro resembles other Samsung phones in terms of the overall look. The only new design element is at the back, where three lines run across the device above the camera and near the bottom. It certainly adds a character that is missing from other Samsung devices, although it doesn’t add too much to the phone’s visual appeal when everything is said and done, as you won’t be looking at the back of the device very often.

I would recommend getting the black version of the Galaxy C9 Pro if you care about how your smartphone looks. The all-white front on the gold version looks rather boring, with only the home button getting golden accents. It’s disappointing that Samsung didn’t use the same color on all sides of the device as it has done on the new Galaxy A series handsets.

Display:

 Full HD AMOLED display on the C9 Pro offers an attractive viewing experience. The colors pop, the blacks are deep, and the viewing angles are pretty wide. Legibility under harsh sunlight didn’t prove to be a problem, either. It’s not the best AMOLED panel, as those are reserved for Samsung’s flagships, but it’s still a great display that can take on competing devices with AMOLED displays (including high-end phones like the Google Pixel). The color tone is on the cooler side, which means there’s a bluish tinge to it, but you can switch to the basic display mode to tone things down a notch. It’s unclear what version of Gorilla Glass Samsung is using on the Galaxy C9 Pro. This is the first time a Samsung phone has come with a screen protector applied out of the box, which made me think that the phone might be using a regular glass panel. It’s very resistant to scratches as I haven’t noticed any in two weeks of usage, but it did make me wonder if Samsung is now cutting costs by using standard glass on the front rather than something like Gorilla Glass.Since the C9 Pro is the first Samsung smartphone to offer stereo speakers, let’s talk about its audio quality. Well, you will be disappointed to hear that the audio output on the C9 Pro’s speakers isn’t that great. The primary reason here is that Samsung is simply using the earpiece as the second speaker, so it isn’t a true stereo speaker setup. The earpiece seems to be the standard earpiece found on other Samsung phones but with its volume increased by a couple of notches, so you can see why the stereo speakers aren’t very impressive.

But the C9 Pro does sound better than other Samsung devices, especially when you’re gaming or watching videos. The output is deeper, slightly fuller, and since some of the audio comes out of the earpiece, the sound isn’t fully directed away from you like it on Samsung devices with a single bottom-firing speaker. Even the regular speaker on this phone sounds better than the one on Samsung’s flagships – both the water-resistant and regular ones like the S7 edge and Note 5 once you disable stereo mode (possible from the settings menu), so overall sound quality is only disappointing because it looks like Samsung didn’t do all it should have done to make the experience stand out. As for the supplied earphones, they have the same quality as the earphones Samsung offers with its flagships. The earphones are geared towards the higher frequencies (treble) so there isn’t a lot of bass, although you can rectify that by playing around with the sound settings. The equalizer offers a UHQ upscaler option that results in clearer sound from high-quality tracks, and a surround sound toggle to, well, emulate the effect of “rich surround soud.”

Battery:

The C9 Pro’s battery life is disappointing. In the first week of use, I was connecting the phone to the charger by 8 in the evening, after around 2.5 to 3 hours of screen on time. This was with Always On Display enabled, but even after turning off the feature, I didn’t see much improvement. The phone managed to last until the next day in the second week, but I never managed to get even 5 hours of screen time. I’m sure battery life will improve over time, but I wasn’t impressed with the battery endurance I saw during the review period. It’s one thing if a smartphone has a Quad HD display, but a device with Full HD display should be making great use of a 4,000 mAh battery, but the C9 Pro doesn’t do so. It can certainly last until the evening with heavy usage, and you can extract an hour or so of additional battery life by using the power saving mode. Speaking of power saving modes, the Indian variant comes with features like S power planning and a couple of modes that extend battery life for calls. I would suggest reading up on our Galaxy J7 Prime review’s battery section for details on these modes, as they work in the same way on the C9 Pro. What about charging, you ask? Well, there’s support for fast charging here, and I think the phone reaches 100 percent charge from 0 in a little under two hours. Don’t mind the USB Type-C port; the phone works with any regular fast charger with Quick Charge 2.0 support, and Samsung offers a Type-C to microUSB converter in the box so your existing microUSB cables won’t become outdated if you bring home a Galaxy C9 Pro.

Performance:

The Snapdragon 653 chipset and 6GB of RAM ensure that the Galaxy C9 Pro offers fast performance at all times. I don’t recall a time when the phone hung up or stuttered enough to be noticeable, and rightly so, as the Snapdragon 653 is equivalent in power to the Snapdragon 810 (without the overheating nature of the latter). Apps launch quickly, and animations are smooth throughout. The only time you might notice a hiccup is when you go to the home screen from an app, but such hiccups were few and far between.

The C9 Pro also handles every game with aplomb, including titles like Modern Combat 5 and Asphalt 8 at the highest graphics settings. The phone tends to heat up during prolonged gaming sessions and while charging, but it stays cool at other times. As for multitasking, the 6GB of RAM seems to keep slightly more apps in memory than devices with 4GB of RAM. Samsung has been employing heavy-handed memory management in its devices since the Galaxy S6 was launched with the modernized TouchWiz interface, but the C9 Pro doesn’t suffer from the same thanks to the two extra gigs of RAM. It’s important to note that the Galaxy C9 Pro comes with 64GB of internal storage, the highest we have seen on any non-flagship Samsung phone. MicroSD cards of up to 256 GB are supported as well, and the phone also comes with two SIM slots. It’s not a hybrid SIM slot, so you can be connected to two networks and have a microSD card in the phone to make it your go-to connectivity and multimedia device.

The fingerprint sensor on the C9 Pro is probably its most disappointing aspect as far as performance is concerned. I can’t recount just how much the sensor managed to fail at recognizing my fingerprint. It’s fast when it works, but when it doesn’t, I was forced to re-position my finger a few times before it would be properly detected. For a device priced north of $500, the iffy fingerprint sensor is hard to overlook, especially when devices that cost four times less now offer accurate and fast fingerprint scanning. To be fair, Samsung’s fingerprint sensors have been left behind by the competition even in the flagship range, and most of it comes down to the fact that Samsung’s home button offers lesser surface area than rear-mounted fingerprint sensors or the iPhone’s circular home button. Most people use their thumb for the fingerprint sensor, which means Samsung’s home button is usually smaller than the finger being used and is more prone to failing recognition.

For those wondering, the fingerprint sensor on the C9 Pro also works with a touch when the screen is off instead of needing a press of the home button. It doesn’t always work properly, though, but it is a nice feature to have that is still missing from Samsung’s flagships even after the Nougat update.

Pros	Cons
Beautiful display	16 MP selfie camera is a letdown
Premium design	Battery life isn’t great
Rear camera does well in daylight	Stereo speakers should have been better
Stereo speakers are nice for videos and gaming	6GB RAM only better compared to Samsung phones
Nougat features on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow	Poor low-light camera performance
6GB RAM enables enhanced multitasking

Verdict:

it’s got a beautiful display, better speakers than any previous Samsung phone, a premium design, and impressive software performance. But it also fails to do well with what should be its highlight features. The 16 MP front camera is a downright disappointment, and the rear camera can only take good pictures in daylight. The stereo speakers don’t elevate the audio experience by a huge margin compared to existing Samsung smartphones, and battery life is nowhere near as good as it should be with a 4,000 mAh battery and a Full HD display.

With a price tag of Rs. 36,900  in the Indian market, the Galaxy C9 Pro has the task of competing with a lot of value-for-money devices, including the Snapdragon 821-powered OnePlus 3T. In fact, the OnePlus 3T is almost 6000 cheaper, yet features top-of-the-line specs that match the C9 Pro’s in many respects, such as the 16 MP front camera (both use a Samsung sensor) and 6GB of RAM. Huawei can also offer tough competition with devices like the Honor 8, which are considerably cheaper than the C9 Pro yet provides a high-end experience. Even the Galaxy A9 Pro is a better buy, as it offers outstanding battery life and manages to match the C9 Pro in most other aspects. It doesn’t have stereo speakers, but you can easily get around the fact by using a good pair of headphones.

But I wouldn’t say that you shouldn’t buy the Galaxy C9 Pro. It’s a good device overall, with draws like the excellent 6-inch AMOLED display, stereo speakers, and the quality assurance that comes with Samsung smartphones (not counting the Galaxy Note 7).