TENAA

An unannounced Samsung device has appeared on the Chinese communications website TENAA.

The smartphone features similar specs to the Galaxy S9, but also includes a dual rear-camera setup similar to the iPhone X.

It’s not uncommon for Samsung to release tweaked models, or exclusive devices such as the W2018, in China.

Despite its tiny market share in the country, Samsung usually has something up its sleeve for Chinese customers. And it looks like that something might be a rather interesting Galaxy S9 variant.

The device, spotted on TENAA (translated version), features model number SM-G8850 and sports a vertically stacked dual-camera setup akin to the iPhone X. Though the Galaxy S9 Plus model features two 12MP shooters on the back, the original Galaxy S9 arrived with only a single 12 MP rear camera.

The unit’s heart-rate monitor also seems to be missing from its usual spot near the camera, unless the speck we’re seeing on the fingerprint scanner is an integrated monitor. It seems very unlikely, but if that’s the case, it would be a neat technical achievement.

The rest of the specs are similar to the S9: it has the same screen size and resolution (2960×1440, 5.8-inch AMOLED), virtually identical dimensions to the Galaxy S9, the same 3000mAh battery, and what looks like a Bixby button on the left of the device.

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The camera department is a little murkier, as the Chinese agency notes the main camera setup is “8 million pixels or more (12 million pixels)”, while the selfie camera is an 8MP shooter. The regulatory body also claims that there are only two cameras in total, which seems like obvious placeholder text if you had a cursory glance at the device.

The model of the 2.8Ghz octa-core chipset also isn’t mentioned, but both the Snapdragon 845 and Exynos 9810 also top out at 2.8Ghz. The chip is accompanied by 4GB or 6GB of RAM.

Read more: How to disable Bixby on the Galaxy S9

Samsung often releases China-specific versions of its smartphones (such as a Note 7 with 6GB of RAM), so don’t expect this S9 variant to come to the West. But it does look like it could be the best version of the phone thanks to the dual-camera setup alone — especially if it’s ripped straight from the S9 Plus rather than being a budget offering.

Would you be interested in a dual-camera Galaxy S9? Or is it best left for the Plus model? Give us your thoughts in the comments.