The Next Samsung Galaxy Seems Too Strange To Be Real

This morning a new set of details were leaked showing the newest Samsung Galaxy smartphone in (nearly) its full glory. This smartphone has at least one camera up front, per usual, but a whopping FOUR cameras at its back. These cameras all sit above a single LED flash and nearby a centered fingerprint scanner. The details paint a picture of a phone that seems more like an early stage conceptual industrial design than a final product.

These aren't official renders – they're made by AllAboutSamsung and were posted a while ago on Instagram. It's just that the idea that there are four cameras, all the same size (at least at first glance), sitting on the back of this smartphone... It just seems like I'm looking at something that was never meant to come to the real world.

This is the Samsung Galaxy A9, a smartphone that's meant to launch as a "midrange" handset. Advertisements for the event at which this device will be revealed suggested "4x fun" as well as "more ways to express yourself than ever before." We've also been watching this phone for clues on what's in store for Samsung's next top-tier smartphone: the Galaxy S10.

According to T3, there's confirmation from "sources within the supply chain" that the four camera as as follows:

• 24-megapixel camera f/1.7 lens

• 8-megapixel camera f/2.4 wide-angle lens (120˚ fov)

• 10-megapixel camera f/2.4 telephoto lens*

• 5-megapixel camera f/2.2 "depth lens"

The telephoto lens on the 10MP camera is supposed to allow optical zoom functionality, not unlike Samsung's previous 2x optical zoom smartphone lenses. We've seen these specs before – though not with a set of renders like these attached. Now more than ever it seems as though Samsung's heading for an all-out war on their competitors by attrition – more is better!

These devices – iterations of the Samsung Galaxy A9 – will likely be revealed within a day from now. They'll more than likely be released internationally, and won't reach the United States save through 3rd-party sources. A 4x camera Samsung phone won't come to the USA until Samsung's ready to promote it with the full force of their Galaxy ad machine – probably in early 2019.