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Did Samsung just accidentally release a Galaxy S9 launch video?

Commentary: In what seems like a painful faux pas, the three-minute, business-oriented video is making its way across YouTube.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


But not the smartphone of the future?

But not the smartphone of the future?

Slashleaks; YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

When you're launching a phone, creating mystery is important.

Yes, it seems that leakers get hold of most developments early these days. 

But when it comes to Sunday's scheduled launch of the Samsung Galaxy S9, the faithful still hope for a surprise or two.

This may be tempered by the apparently accidental release Saturday of a three-minute launch video for the event.

9to5Google reports that Samsung itself may have accidentally slipped the clip online, only for it to have been instantly captured by Slashleaks, before Samsung removed its upload.

Samsung didn't immediately respond to a request for confirmation. However, if this is indeed, a launch video -- and it does look rather professional -- then it offers relatively little in the way of uncontrollable excitement.

It begins by talking about something called "the mobile workforce." 

I picture millions of human drones -- actually, the video says it's now 2 billion people -- trudging their way through the world, desperate to make a buck or two.

What these people need, says the video, is "The Phone. Reimagined."

This, I assume, is a little different from Apple's declaration that the iPhone X was "the smartphone of the future." Or was it the "future of the smartphone"?

To my life-addled eyes, the Galaxy S9 as presented in the clip does bear more than a passing resemblance to, well, the Galaxy S8.

Here, the emphasis is squarely on business. The video begins by boasting of the phone's multitasking capabilities. It swiftly moves to promising "a PC-like experience." This is a shill for the DeX Pad, which allows you to dock your phone and turn it into a little computer.

Then we move to live translation, app pairing, water resistance and security. 

Perhaps one more moving element is the idea that the S9 will let you unlock it with "a glance or a touch."

This is a contrast to Apple's all-in bet on Face ID for the iPhone X.

Ultimately, this particular video -- which, if authentic, is likely one of a series on offer at the launch event -- emphasizes that you and your work have become intimately entwined.

That, for me at least, is a depressing picture.

But perhaps the Unpacked event tomorrow at 9 a.m. PT will be far more exciting than this one rather prosaic video.

To find out, please follow my colleagues at CNET who are there, waiting to tell all.

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