It was only a matter of time before the first Galaxy Note 9 images appeared online from someone who had access to the phone before the official announcement. Unfortunately, these images are not impressive, showing the phone in a rather… unpleasant state. This seems to confirm many of the rumors so far, but it might suggest that it does not use the new Gorilla Glass 6 as the image unit is photographed with the glass on the screen already broken.
The information that can be extracted from these photos is that the back of the device really underwent the most changes, ie the dual camera system was now positioned above the fingerprint sensor. Otherwise, the phone looks almost identical to Galaxy Note 8 from last year. Being a black unit, which is quite standard, we cannot know what other colors Samsung has prepared, so far only the blue version is present in the images dropped on the internet.
On the front however, the phone has a cracked screen. There are already speculations suggesting that it is a display protection applied over the original one, but by looking at the edges of the phone, they are similar on both sides and there seem to be no cuts to the cameras and sensors on the front. Thus, this situation does not give much confidence in Samsung’s new phone in terms of shock resistance, but we do not even know why it was used before photos.
It is possible that this unit has even been used to test shock resistance, and the cracks are the result of several successive falls. Of course, there is a possibility that the one who got this prototype has dropped it. Unfortunately, for the one who launched the online images, several markers that can drive the unit were visible in the images, even if the IMEI and serial code were hidden. Ironically, the “do not leak info” message on the back is also visible.
The latter might suggest that we are dealing with a false photo, the message being specially added. Until Aug. 9 we will not know for sure whether this is really the final design of Galaxy Note 9 and what kind of glass Samsung uses in its construction. Considering that Gorilla Glass 6 was just been announced, there is little chance that Samsung will get components from Corning so fast. However, being the number one smartphone on the market, there is an opportunity for an understanding between the two companies.
Henry Lares is still early into his career as tech reporter but has already had his work published in many major publications including Tech Crunch and the Huffington Post. In regards to academics, Henry earned an engineering degree from Apex Technical School. Henry has a passion for emerging technology and covers upcoming products and breakthroughs in science and tech.
