It looks like the Galaxy S9 is getting a variable aperture camera

Enlarge / The Samsung Galaxy S8+. (credit: Ron Amadeo)

The latest in the never-ending string of Samsung Galaxy S9 leaks has to do with the device's box. Reddit user minhvn shared an image of what appears to be a Galaxy S9 box, and it looks pretty legit to us. With the expectation that the Galaxy S9 will look a lot like the Galaxy S8, the box shows all the specs you would expect: a 5.8-inch 1440p OLED display, an iris scanner, 64GB of memory, 4GB of RAM, and wireless charging.

The main new addition in the spec list is a 12MP rear camera that lists two camera apertures: f/1.5 and f/2.4. This sounds like the Galaxy S9 will ship with the same variable aperture camera that Samsung has already shipped in the W2018 flip phone. In non-ideal lighting conditions, the W2018 uses the f/1.5 aperture to collect as much light as possible, but in brighter lighting, it switches to f/2.4 for a wider depth of field. Samsung's $1,500 ($1,500? $1,500!) flip phone doesn't have a wide distribution, but the gif of this camera working is pretty incredible-just like a DSLR, a set of miniaturized aperture blades open and close with the changing light levels.

Another feature revealed by the spec list is a set of stereo speakers. Again, with the understanding that the Galaxy S9 will look a lot like the Galaxy S8, this most likely means that the earpiece now doubles as a second speaker and will play along with the usual bottom-firing speaker.

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