In the past few weeks, Samsung has been refreshing its Galaxy A series of handsets. The Korean tech giant launched the successors of Galaxy A3, Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 smartphones, followed by the announcement of the first generation of Galaxy A9 handset last week.

The glass-and-metal-clad device was launched in China without a price tag. However, a leaked screenshot posted by a Weibo user reveals that the smartphone will be priced at RMB 3,199 (AU$677) in China. Samsung has yet to officially announce the price of the phablet.

The six-inch smartphone features a full HD AMOLED display screen with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels and very thin bezels. The Snapdragon 652 (which has been renamed from S620) powers the device.

The chipset is supported by a beefy 3 GB of RAM and an internal memory of 32 GB. The native storage can be expanded up to 128 GB via micro SD card slot. The SoC recorded a whopping score of 73,592 on AnTuTu benchmarks.

The dual-SIM handset will be packed with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop operating system out-of-the-box. Post-launch, the device may be upgraded to Marshmallow.

The phone houses a 21 MP main camera with f/1.9 aperture and optical image stabilisation (OIS). There is also an 8 MP front shooter for selfies, reports GSM Arena.

The phone touts a massive 4,000 mAh battery along with Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 support to keep the device's lights on. The 4G LTE-enabled smartphone also sports a fingerprint scanner under the physical Home button and support for Samsung Pay. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi a/b/g/n , Bluetooth is v4.1, GPS and NFC.

The Galaxy A9 is positioned in the market between a high-end midrange and flagship device. Its premium build, metallic design and high-end features might be the reason behind its pricing.

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