Update Jan 4, 2015: The company did not mention any pricing details during the launch of the Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016). Now, the smartphone is available for purchase in China via Samsung’s official website and costs 3,199 Yuan (approx $491/Rs. 32,500). The Galaxy A9 is currently available in Gold color while the Silver and Rose Gold color variants are currently listed as out of stock. Stay tuned for more details about the launch of the smartphone for international markets in coming days.
Earlier Dec 24, 2015: Samsung has been surrounded by the rumors for a while now about the launch of its upcoming smartphone called as Samsung Galaxy A9. Now, the company has officially announced the upper-midrange Samsung Galaxy A9 in China, and it is currently listed on the Samsung’s official China website. The Samsung Galaxy A9 as touted earlier comes with impressive specifications and is the direct successor of the mid-ranged Galaxy A8 that launched earlier this year.
Coming to its specifications, the Galaxy A9 flaunts a large 6-inch (1080×1920 pixels) full-HD Super AMOLED display with 2.5D arc glass and Corning Gorilla Glass protection on top of it. The device comes powered by all new Snapdragon 652 octa-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz coupled with Adreno 510 GPU and 3GB of RAM. The Snapdragon chipset used in Galaxy A9 was earlier known as Snapdragon 620 and was recently renamed as Snapdragon 652 SoC.
On the photographic section, the smartphone sports a 13MP rear camera with OIS, f/1.9 aperture, dual-tone LED flash and an 8MP front-facing shooter for video chats and selfie lovers. The device comes with 32GB of built-in storage with microSD card slot for expansion upto 128GB. The dual sim capable smartphone includes connectivity options like 4G-LTE, Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi, NFC, GPS/A-GPS and a microUSB port.
The device features an all-metal body and also houses a fingerprint sensor integrated into the physical home button. The fingerprint sensor enables the authentication of lock screen, apps and also ‘Samsung Pay’ virtual payments. The handset comes backed by a 4000mAh battery that the company claims can easily last for an entire day on mixed usage and also supports Quick Charge 2.0 technology for faster charging of the battery. Even with these specifications, the device is very sleek measuring just 7.4 mm thickness and weighs around 200 grams.
The Galaxy A9 runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop based TouchWiz UI out of the box and will come in Black with Gold Frame, Rose Gold, and White color variants. The company did not reveal any information about the price of the new Galaxy A9, but it is expected to go on sale in China later this month. Stay tuned for more details on official launch, pricing and availability of the smartphone in coming days.