With the Galaxy S9, Samsung wants to fill the hole left by BlackBerry

Our younger readers might not know this but before iPhones and Samsung Galaxy phones became the staple, the smartphone market was once dominated by one name – BlackBerry. Back in the early 2000s, BlackBerry was the standard for mobile communications for business. BlackBerry devices like the Bold and Curve where the must have status symbols when you’re in the boardroom. Back then, if you wanted to be taken seriously in the workplace, you got to be seen with a BlackBerry.

Ok, the last line was an exaggeration but those who are familiar with BlackBerry will agree, like the personal computer, the internet and email, BlackBerry phones redefined how we worked. And today, with BlackBerry no longer making phones, you can argue that there is a hole where the brand used to occupy providing a reliable, secure and flexible business-friendly enterprise-level solution for mobile users.

And if the latest leak promotional video about the Galaxy S9 is anything to go by, Samsung is looking to fill that hole with its latest flagship smartphone. Here are the nine things that the video revealed:

Multi-Windows

The Galaxy S9 appears to support an improved version of a very useful feature – Multi Window. Multi Window allows you to use and interact with two apps simultaneously. I use this feature a lot on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note8 especially when replying to emails that need me to refer to another document at the same time. This is something business users can appreciate and will find useful. What these improvements are, we’ll find out at the Unpacked event today.

Samsung DeX

First introduced with the Galaxy S8, using Samsung’s DeX means there is really no need to carry a laptop for replying to emails, working on documents and spreadsheets anymore. Combined with the new Samsung DeX dock released together with the S9, you can expect more improvements over some of the shortcomings from the first version. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the new DeX can do and if I can finally leave my laptop at home. If this is the case, then the Galaxy S9 is truly a powerful business tool that makes it feasible for businesses to reduce costs by equipping employees with just a smartphone without the need for expensive to run and maintain, not to mention heavy laptops.

Bixby Live Translation

Bixby is still a bit of a hit and miss now, but the AI voice assistant is learning quick and it has massive potential with macro commands and contextual understanding, so much so that I use it almost everyday on my Galaxy S8 and Note8. With the Galaxy S9 Samsung has added Live Translation as one of the new features in Bixby and it will be interesting to see how well this feature works on the device.

AR Readiness

The S9 appears to have hardware and software that optimise and ready for augmented reality support. As a business user this means another layer of flexibility when it comes to getting things done on-site like assessing equipment and installation.

App Pairing

This looks to be a feature carried over from the Galaxy Note8. App pairing allows you to pair two different apps together, like Microsoft Word and email for example. Once paired, these two apps can be launched simultaneously with just one tap giving you a shortcut to access the information that you need quickly and easily.

IP68 Water and Dust Resistance

When you’re doing work on site, you don’t want to worry if your phone can take the abuse. It’s good that Samsung is retaining the high water and dust resistance capabilities of its current Galaxy series devices in the Galaxy S9 as well.

Samsung Knox 3.1

If Samsung wants Chief Technology Officers to seriously consider offering the Galaxy S9 as company standard issue devices in their workforce then Samsung must take security very seriously. Samsung’s Knox technology has all the right boxes checked in this respect with remote bulk configurations, enterprise-level bulk device management and more ensuring constant security patches and consistency in terms of firmware a security support across all the devices in the company’s ecosystem. You can also separate business data and personal data in one device.

Biometric Authentication

Everyone knows that biometrics – fingerprint, iris or face scanning tech – is much more secure that any password. Again, for the business user, this is a boon. It’s good to see that the Galaxy S9 will come with improved biometrics capabilities. If the rumours are anything to go by, you can expect face scanning capability and faster iris and fingerprint scanning available in the Galaxy S9.

Enterprise Edition

Samsung is clearly positioning the Galaxy S9 as a device that companies want to issue to employees like how you get a laptop when you join a new company. Samsung’s enterprise edition offers customisable themes, including wallpapers, apps firmware, extended warranties and extended security support, just like your company laptop. Imagine joining a company and instead of getting laptop, your IT department gives you a Galaxy S9 and it’s loaded with all the apps you need to do your work, that’s a pretty amazing future if you ask me.

The Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ will be announced at the Samsung Unpacked event here in Barcelona in conjunction with the Mobile World Congress 2018. The SoyaCincau team is on location to give you all the latest developments at it happens, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to get the news as it happens and be the first to know when the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ will be released in Malaysia.

UPDATE: The Galaxy S9 & S9+ are now official and it will be available for pre-order in Malaysia beginning 1 March 2018. Learn more here.