Last March, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy A9 Pro, its latest phablet which boasts a massive 6-inch screen and 4GB RAM, and was eventually made available in China last month.
Now, reports are surfacing that the device is well on its way to hit other markets as it now has received Wi-Fi certification. Tablety reports that the international variant of the device has officially attained Wi-Fi certification last May 26.
This suggests that the device’s launch is just around the corner. Reports say that not only the standard model but a dual-SIM model of the device has been given a Wi-Fi certification by the Wi-Fi Alliance Regulatory Board.
Just last week, reports surfaced that the international variant of the Galaxy A9 Pro, carrying the model number SM-A910F, was spotted at Zauba, an Indian import and export tracking site. This further fuelled rumors that the device will be available beyond Chinese shores, specifically in India.
There’s currently no information yet on how much the upcoming device will be priced or exactly which regions will get the Galaxy A9 Pro although Europe seems to be on the list given that a Polish retailer has reported that pre-orders for the device have already started in Poland.
The device was first released in China and came out with a price of around $533. It will be interesting to see if the device will make its way to the US before or after it makes its debut in Europe.
Under the hood, the Galaxy A9 Pro houses a powerful octa-core Snapdragon 652 processor, a chipset that generally offers smoothness and efficiency through most day-to-day tasks.
Its processor clocks at 1.8GHz and runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with TouchWiz UI straight out of the box. Its 6-inch screen is equipped with full HD Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen.
While it’s not a cutting-edge performer just like the Snapdragon 820, the Galaxy A9 Pro’s appeal is more about its SoC. The device packs a resolution of 1920 x 1,080 pixels at 377 ppi.
The phablet boasts of a non-removable 5000 mAh battery which is probably one of its best assets. It also packs a 32GB onboard memory, which is expandable up to 128GB thanks to the microSD card support.
It also touts a 16-megapixel primary camera with OIS and an LED flash. It also packs an 8-megapixel front camera for taking the perfect selfie.
As per Android Authority, the Chinese model of the phablet now comes pre-loaded with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and comes in three hues: Rose Gold, Pink, and White.
Over the past weeks, some Chinese websites have been reporting that the device finally got the Marshmallow update they were long promised. A website claimed that the Galaxy A9 Pro has received a couple of updates in the past week.
The latest operating system offers cool improvements like Doze Mode, Google Now on Tap, native fingerprint reader support, granular permissions, and much more.
Tech Times suggests that for the international variant of the device, Samsung may opt for its own Exynos SoC.
GSM Arena notes that it’s becoming a trend for the South Korean tech giant to release its budget and mid-tier devices first in China before leaping into other markers.
That was the case with this year’s Galaxy J5 and Galaxy J7. The company’s upcoming devices such as the Galaxy A9 Pro and 2016’s version of the Galaxy C5 have yet to be released outside China, but with the news of its Wi-Fi certification, it might be just a matter of time before it happens.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy A9 Pro has been most compared with Microsoft’s Lumia 950 XL, which was released back in November 2015. Critics and tech enthusiasts have weighed the pros and cons of both devices and have given users a clear distinction between the two.