Samsung’s new Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus are the two best Android phones on the market right now, hands down. We explained why in our in-depth Galaxy S9 review, but it boils down to this: Samsung’s new flagship phones are the total package. They’re sleek, they’re blazing fast, they’re powerful, the displays are incredible, and the new Super Speed Dual Pixel camera is the best you’ll find on a smartphone in the United States. The Galaxy S9 and S9+ are indeed the best Android smartphones you can buy right now. The problem for Samsung, it would seem, is that not many people are actually buying them.
Several reports of disappointing sales have popped up in the month and a half since the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ were released. Then an unprecedented price cut just one month after launch seemingly confirmed those reports. They’re great phones, of that there is no question. But Samsung’s decision to reuse the same design from last year’s Galaxy S8 and S8+ has apparently not done much to win over end users. There’s a new version of the Galaxy S9 being cooked up behind closed doors at Samsung, however. While it likely won’t do much to boost slow sales, it will pack some appealing features the current S9 and S9+ models lack.
As has been the case in years past, Samsung is reportedly working on a ruggedized version of its flagship Galaxy S9 smartphone. Dubbed the Galaxy S9 Active, the new phone is expected to include most or all of the Galaxy S9’s key features, but it’ll also offer a new design as well as improved water, dust, and impact resistance.
We’ve heard rumblings about the phone a few times in the past, and now a blog called Ready Tricks has published an image that appears to show the unreleased Galaxy S9 Active’s specs. The source of the image is unclear, particularly because the blog states that the “specs sheet of the upcoming Samsung device has surfaced online.” This makes it seem like the leak was not sourced by the blog, but instead that the photo was found somewhere online and then reposted.
Whatever the case, the specs listed in the image above align perfectly with what we’ve heard so far about the Galaxy S9 Active, which is expected to have the model number SM-G893. Like the Galaxy S9, the S9 Active will apparently feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset, a 12-megapixel rear camera, and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. The leak states that the phone will also feature a 5.8-inch Super AMOLED display, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a large 4,000 mAh battery.
It’s unclear when the Galaxy S9 Active will be released, but the blog claims a launch is “expected” sometime in the third quarter this year. Again, the source of that claim is unclear.
