Samsung is already quite late to the 6GB RAM smartphone game (there are even smartphones these days with 8GB RAM already), but with a large, vibrant display and good battery life of the Galaxy C9 Pro, did they get it right on first try?
Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro specifications
6-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display @ 1920 x 1080, 367 PPI
Snapdragon 653 1.95GHz + 1.4GHz octa-core processor
Adreno 510 graphics
6GB RAM
64GB internal storage
Dual-SIM with dedicated microSD card slot (up to 256GB)
16MP f/1.9 rear camera with dual LED flash
16MP f/1.9 front camera
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4+5GHz, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS support
NFC, fingerprint sensor
USB type-C 2.0
Quick Charge 3.0 support
Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with TouchWiz UI
4000mAh battery (non-removable)
162.9 x 80.7 x 6.9mm (dimensions)
188 g (weight)
Colors: Gold, Pink Gold, Black
PHP27,990 SRP
For our first impressions with the Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro as well as camera samples, click here.
The 6-inch display on the Galaxy C9 Pro is quite a stunner. It’s always something you can expect from Samsung devices, and this time it’s no different.
The full HD Super AMOLED display provides deep blacks, vibrant colors that pop out, and wide viewing angles. Overall it’s a very satisfying viewing experience, whether you’re out under the sun reading the latest news or watching your favorite movies indoors.
With 6GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 653 under the hood, multitasking with the Galaxy C9 Pro is a breeze. Although the processor would not hold a candle to the Snapdragon 821 of the OnePlus 3T, it’s definitely good enough for daily usage and more than enough for most heavy games.
While running my usual suite of social media and office apps (often running on multi-window mode, which is a joy to use on a large display), as well as some games, the device would rarely stutter and overall the performance is buttery smooth, with available RAM to spare. Overall it’s a much better experience than with most of the 6GB RAM smartphones I’ve tried so far.
Should you feel like you need more leg room for a RAM-intensive app or game you can always clear the RAM from the Settings. That being said, I didn’t have to perform any sort of maintenance to keep the phone running smooth, since apps don’t really consume much CPU while on standby.
The Galaxy C9 Pro’s main speaker outputs pretty impressive audio, and it also features a stereo speaker setup. But since there’s only one speaker grille at the bottom, it uses the earpiece as a secondary speaker when stereo mode is enabled.
That by itself shouldn’t be a bad thing; we’ve seen some smartphones do the same thing for their stereo speaker setups. But since Samsung seems to have included a pretty basic earpiece with the Galaxy C9 Pro, the stereo sound isn’t as immersive.
With its 4000mAh battery (non-removable), the Galaxy C9 Pro would often last me 2 days on a single charge with moderate use, and can last the whole day on heavy usage, with some charge to spare. If you need additional juice, it also supports fast charging technology so you don’t have to worry about running out.
The 16MP rear camera of the Galaxy C9 Pro shoots great photos in daylight, with good dynamic range, color accuracy and detail. At less than ideal shooting conditions however, you get grainy, washed out photos, and every now and then photos can get overexposed. Autofocus and shutter speed also take a dive under low-light conditions, so if you don’t have steady hands you may end up with a lot of blurred shots.
The front 16MP camera, while having the same megapixel count with the rear one, is really not of the same caliber. There’s a definite lack of sharpness, and photos end up grainy and smudged, especially on low light conditions.
While Samsung does get a lot of hits with the Galaxy C9 Pro, there’s a major flaw that cannot be overlooked: the fingerprint scanner. It’s fast when it works, but it’s very frustrating when it doesn’t, which is usually the case.
Often it would fail to recognize my fingerprint and suggests to wipe the sensor clean every few unlocks, even after a couple of software updates. It can get quite tedious and I’d usually just resort to entering my PIN to save time (fingerprint sensors are supposed to be more convenient no?).
Overall the Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro is not as complete a package as some of its competition in the sub-30K price range, instead it focuses on taking advantage of its 6GB RAM and large display for smooth, buttery performance and multitasking. Unimpressive front camera and fingerprint sensor aside, power users who want the flexibility of a larger screen may want to consider getting this one.
