Samsung on Thursday finally launched its latest instalment in the Galaxy A series, the Galaxy A9, in China. The South Korean tech giant is yet to reveal the pricing and availability details of the smartphone, which is listed as the Galaxy A9 (2016) on the China site, despite there having been no earlier iteration of the Galaxy A9.
The Android 5.1.1 Lollipop-based Samsung Galaxy A9 falls in the company's premium line of smartphones and features more powerful innards under-the-hood as compared to the recently launched Samsung Galaxy A3 (2016), Galaxy A5 (2016), and the Galaxy A7 (2016).
As expected from the many leaks and rumours, the dual-SIM dual-standby supporting Galaxy A9 (2016) handset sports the same metal frame and glass body design as seen in other premium Galaxy handsets such as Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6, and more. It features a 6-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) resolution Super Amoled display with 2.5D curved glass and a calculated pixel density of around 367 ppi. Samsung also boasts about the minimal 2.4-mm display bezel on the handset.
The Galaxy A9 (2016) is powered by a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 SoC, formerly known as Qualcomm Snapdragon 620 clocked at 1.8GHz, clubbed with Adreno 510 and 3GB of RAM. The smartphone houses 32GB of inbuilt storage, which can be expanded via microSD card (up to 128GB).
It is worth mentioning that the SIM slot in Galaxy A9 is not a hybrid dual-SIM slot as we've recently seen in many other smartphones. While the SIM tray at the right side also features a slot for a microSD card, a separate slot on the top is present for the second SIM card.
(Also see: Samsung Galaxy A9 vs. Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) vs. Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) vs. Samsung Galaxy A3 (2016))
On the camera front, the Samsung Galaxy A9 bears a 13-megapixel rear autofocus camera with LED flash, f/1.9 aperture, and optical image stabilisation (OIS). Also included is an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with few specific modes such as wide selfie mode, self-portrait mode, palm selfie mode and others. As seen in majority of the Galaxy devices, the Galaxy A9 (2016) camera app can be fired by double pressing the home button, which also houses a fingerprint sensor with Samsung Pay support.
One of the highlights of the Samsung Galaxy A9 is its 4000mAh battery that also supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 tech. For reference, the Galaxy A7 (2016) was backed by a 3300mAh battery. Connectivity features housed inside the smartphone are Bluetooth v4.1, GPS, Beidou, NFC, Wi-Fi, and USB 2.0. It will be available in White, Gold, and Pink colour variants.
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