PSA: Those supposedly-real-life Galaxy S9 images are sadly still just a concept

Renders of the Samsung Galaxy S9 leaked last month via the typically-credible leaker OnLeaks, so what the next Samsung flagship will look like is not exactly a secret at this point. But as is the usual second stage in the Android flagship leak news cycle, we’re now anxious to see the first real-life spy shots of the phone. Unfortunately, those haven’t arrived yet.

A couple of photos that sketchy site 91mobiles stole from the YouTube channel Concept Creator are making the Twitter and Android blog rounds this morning, and while they are certainly borderline convincing, they’re sadly just that — stolen images from a concept YouTube channel. No corroboration or confirmation of prior leaks yet; in fact, this is quite the contrary… they’re probably based on previous leaks.

It seems the main source of confusion here was the Weibo watermark, which made it seem like these photos were sourced from the Chinese social network which often provides sketchy blurry-cam looks at upcoming phones in the flesh. While it’s unfortunate these aren’t real, I’m not shocked many were misled. These are both believable and likely a realistic representation of what the S9 will actually look like — given OnLeaks is accurate, of course.

You can see the concept from which these photos originated at 2:13 below:

Based on the @OnLeaks renders from last month, we know that the design of the S9 is pretty familiar — although it seems to thin out the bezels a smidge. On the rear there’s a single rear camera in these renders, although reports have suggested that the larger S9+ will pack dual-cameras.

It’s not clear at this point when the Samsung Galaxy S9 will launch, but a report from Korean media outlet The Bell  said last year that Samsung is aiming for late February. That would line up more with a MWC launch than the post-MWC April launch of the Galaxy S8, but things still seem pretty up-in-the-air for now.

We’ll keep you in the loop going into CES next week just in case Samsung decides to tease the phone.