Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 is starting to leak out

The first images of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 have started to leak, and they suggest the phone might have a better fingerprint sensor placement this time around. Evan Blass of VentureBeat tweeted an image yesterday of the rumored phone and its new S Pen. You’ll immediately notice that the fingerprint sensor is placed below the camera module, unlike last year’s device, which placed it directly next to it. That was bad.

https://twitter.com/evleaks/status/1019235246947098624

The Galaxy Note 9 won’t be announced until August. You wouldn’t know it by reading the internet, however. Every nook and cranny of the upcoming phablet has been bared for the world, in a series of leaks over the past several weeks. Sure, not all of them will pan out, but plenty have come from leakers with established track records, and enough of the details line up so as to paint a wholly believable portrait of the phone we’ll finally get an official look at early next month.

An earlier leak of super grainy photos showed off the same device. Please note the “do not leak” sticker on the phone. We love a rebel here.

The phone doesn’t look much different than last year’s model, apart from that fingerprint sensor and new camera housing. A FCC filing suggests that one of the big selling points will be the S Pen because it’ll be Bluetooth-enabled. We’re not sure what that might allow the pen to do, but some people have suggested it could be used for music playback or as a tracker. At least the bright yellow stylus won’t get lost in your bag.

In its home country, SpiderWeb cites both a local source and a Samsung representative as saying the Galaxy Note 9 will cost $1,159 at launch. This compares to $1,024 for the Galaxy Note 8.

For context, phones in Europe are typically more expensive than in the US but often only because their prices include sales tax. As such it is hard to see Samsung not pushing the $950 Galaxy Note 8 launch price beyond $1,000 for the Galaxy Note 9 launch Stateside.

This is a figure which has the potential to cause problems both for consumers and Samsung alike.

For consumers, the problem is the Galaxy Note 9 is not like other handsets. Millions are wedded to the Note series’ S Pen and the tightly integrated productivity software which goes with it. There simply isn’t another phone on the market like a Galaxy Note, which provides Samsung with an almost unique level of lock-in for an Android phone.

That’s a picture of Samsung CEO DJ Koh using what appears to be the Note 9 at a media event. The differences are subtle, but they’re there in the camera housing, which is among a few small visible changes to the upcoming device. Like, good on DJ Koh for using the company’s products, S Pen and all, but even by Samsung’s traditionally leaky standards, that’s a little silly.

Maybe Samsung doesn’t mind. Maybe it’s just happy to have everyone talking about the Note 9, while it’s hard at work on that folding phone we’ve heard so much about.

The above camera housing is in line with another recent post from perennial leaker, EVLeaks, which shows off a full front and back render of the upcoming handset.

There’s also an S Pen, with a yellow coat of paint that’s in line with the image the company sent out with the invite to the August event. The fingerprint sensor has been moved below the camera there, rather than next to it as it was on the Note 8. That was a clear mistake, and Samsung fixed it for the S9. Logic follows that they would do the same on the new Note.

That, in turn, appears to confirm this photo of an actual unit from Slashleaks, which bears an extremely effective “No photo allowed/Do not leak info” sticker. At least Samsung tried, I guess.

More (but not that much more, from the looks of it) will be revealed on August 9.