All the major smartphones of 2017 are out in the world, but it's never too early to start thinking about next year's flagships. Samsung is reportedly starting earlier than ever, with the company reportedly previewing the S9 and S9+ at CES in January, according to Evan Blass at VentureBeat.
Samsung announced the Galaxy S8 in late March, so we'd expect it will follow up with the Galaxy S9 roughly a year later, at the end of March 2018. But it was late in announcing the Galaxy S8 in 2017 - the company waited about a month longer than normal, so it's possible that the S9 will land around the end of February.
(c) BGR
Accessory maker Ghostek has leaked renders of the Galaxy S9 to BGR, confirming the smartphone's full-screen design, dual cameras and rear-facing fingerprint scanner, However, BGR notes that while the renders are 'mostly accurate', another source said that the bezel above the phone's display will be a bit narrower, and the speaker at the top looks a bit different. It also suggests that the device could have a screen-to-body ratio of 90%.
The render also suggests that Samsung will include the dedicated Bixby button on the left side of the device. The Bixby assistant has been available primarily on Samsung's flagship smartphone and it might be getting ready to launch on mid-range smartphones as well.
Samsung and Qualcomm have also started working on a new mobile chip according to The Investor. The chip is apparently likely to be called the Snapdragon 845 - up from the Snapdragon 835 found in some versions of the Galaxy S8 - and is supposedly going to be used in the Samsung Galaxy S9. The S9+ is also expected to get a few upgrades over the smaller S9, with the larger device reportedly getting 6GB of RAM (instead of the 4GB found in the S9), and a second rear camera similar to the Note 8.
(c) Samsung
An ETNews report says Samsung is working on a new motherboard that packs more components into a smaller area. This could allow for a larger capacity battery than the 3,000mAh found on the S8. Obviously, though, this report contradicts with the above report about Qualcomm and Samsung working together.
One of the big issues with the Samsung Galaxy S8 was the fact the fingerprint sensor was shoved to the back of the phone after rumours abounded that the reader was supposed to go under the display's glass but it just didn't work. However, the new Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensor can sit below quite thick displays, and OLED technology (Samsung has mastered this display technology) was specifically mentioned. All of that points to the Samsung Galaxy S9 having fingerprint-sensing technology below the glass.
The Galaxy S8 and S8+ launched at $725 and $825, respectively. Given how expensive the Note8 is, we don't expect the price to decrease with the newer iteration.
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