The S9 Plus is the first smartphone belonging to the Galaxy S series which has a dual camera on its back. Samsung is offering a solution similar to the one used for the Galaxy Note 8. In addition to the main camera, which is also used for the smaller Galaxy S9, there is also a second lens which is supposed to improve the bokeh effect for portraits as well as serve as an optical zoom.

Samsung introduced an innovation for the main camera (Samsung SLSI_SAK2L3_FIMC_IS) and equipped it with a modular aperture that can adapt to the lighting conditions by switching between an f/1.5 and an f/2.4 aperture. This is especially useful for photos taken in daylight because it avoids overexposure in brighter areas and results in good, sharp pictures. The iPhone X has a slightly higher dynamic range, but the Galaxy S9 Plus has higher details. Even in situations with little ambient light, the smartphone does its job well. The pictures do not look quite as artificially brightened as they did for the Galaxy S8+ and have clearer edges. The color representation is rather good as well.

The Pro mode can lead to even better results. It enables the user to set the white balance, the light sensitivity (ISO 50 - 800), the exposure time (1/24000 - 10 s), the focus as well as the aperture size manually. Furthermore, pictures taken in Pro mode can be saved in the RAW format. The Live View feature has been improved slightly, but it still doesn't work reliably for long exposure times.

Pro mode is not offered for the second lens. Because of its low light sensitivity, it is meant for use in daylight and otherwise produces a lot of noise in its pictures. It is a definite pro, however, that both of the dual camera's lenses are equipped with an optical image stabilizer (OIS).

The Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus is finally able to record videos in Ultra HD with up to 60 frames per second. The colors are saturated rather strongly, but the video recordings are really good. Sadly, the maximum recording duration in these settings is limited to five minutes. In UHD with 30 fps or in Full HD with 60 fps, it is limited to ten minutes.

Another innovation is the Super Slow Motion mode with 960 frames per second, which debuted last year in the Sony Xperia XZ Premium. Samsung predefines a square within the image to activate the mode automatically if the camera detected motion inside of it. This is a great idea and works well, especially because it is possible to do so up to four times per video. Sadly, the quality of the recordings is acceptable only in optimal lighting conditions and declines sharply in weaker light, resulting in a rather noisy and dark picture. The low video resolution (720p) limits their usage to social media applications. Sony is a bit further ahead in this regard and allows Full HD video-recording in the Xperia XZ2, albeit without the convenient automatic activation.

