Samsung’s Galaxy S9 nabs an S10 feature in its latest update

Usually, the work that smartphone updates do is behind the scenes, invisible to their owners: security fixes to make sure you’re not vulnerable to internet nasties, and so on. But the update currently rolling out to Samsung Galaxy S9 devices is going to be a bit more obvious: it’s going to make 2018’s flagship a bit more like its 2019 sibling.

No, you won’t get the extra grunt that the S10 has, but you will notice an improvement in the camera. The Samsung Galaxy S9 is getting ‘night mode’ – which as the name suggests, will vastly improve your ability to take photographs in low-light conditions.  

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If you’re an S10 owner, you may wonder why you hadn’t noticed ‘night mode’ on your handset. Well, it’s actually relatively new there, with the update only rolling out for Samsung’s latest back in April, replacing ‘bright night.’ The main difference between the two modes that was ‘bright night’ could only be engaged when the software deemed fit, while ‘night mode’ leaves the decision up to you.

We haven’t seen the update ourselves yet – it’s apparently starting out in Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippine – but results should be quite close to the S10, given the main underlying camera hardware is pretty similar. 

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Elsewhere, the software update brings adjustable background blur to the selfie camera, and “improved usability of the QR code reader.” Then there are the quiet security updates going on under the surface. The patch notes highlight 11 vulnerabilities in Samsung’s software, alongside eight bugs in Android.

Hopefully these camera improvements will roll out to the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 next.

Do you use ‘night mode’ on your phone? How are the results? Let us know on Twitter: @TrustedReviews.