That most magical time of year is almost upon us. Yes, the holidays are nearby, as well, but I’m talking about something a little further in the future. In early 2016, the wave of mobile trade shows will begin. CES 2016 is coming up in January, along with the always fun MWC in Barcelona come February. Samsung’s own Unpacked event falls between the two. Taken with equal doses of hype and realism, it’s not a stretch to guess that any phone that’s unveiled or announced in the near future will likely make an appearance at one of those shows. This makes Samsung’s timing for putting the Samsung Galaxy A9 through the FCC fairly exciting. This could mean that the new device will show up at one of those conferences.
To recall the specs of the Galaxy A9, we have a 6-inch 1920 x 1080 screen framed by a decidedly luxurious metal body. Under the hood, we have an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 620 purring along, supplemented by 3GB of RAM. The phone managed to pull down a rather impressive 1,446 point single core score on Geekbench, with multi-core soaring to 4,134 points. This puts the mid-ranger just a bit behind the Samsung Galaxy S6 and has it readily besting the LG G4 and its Snapdragon 808. A new Adreno 510 GPU is also featured, ensuring fairly good gaming performance. 32GB of internal storage is on board, along with a Micro SD slot. The 13 megapixel rear camera sports an impressive f/1.9 aperture and OIS, which should hopefully spell great low-light performance and action shots, two things most Android handsets currently struggle with. 4G LTE Cat 7 is also on board, paired up with a pretty huge 4,000 mAh battery that should mean all-day battery life if not better. A fingerprint scanner and NFC round out the package, blessing the handset with Samsung Pay compatibility. Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with Samsung’s custom TouchWiz skin on top is the star of the show. No date has been announced for a Marshmallow update, but it’s a pretty safe assumption this device will see it before end of life.
A price somewhere in the ballpark of $500 USD is pointed to by various rumors, as well as a release date early in 2016, with no specific date announced at this time. The phone may well show up at one of the upcoming trade shows as a fully realized product, proving the rumors to be correct. A label placement image pointing out the device’s FCC certification and some LTE chops is located below.
