Just yesterday, Samsung announced its Exynos 9810 and with the Galaxy Note 8 having been officially released worldwide a few months ago, the company might not take long to release its Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+. It is possible that Samsung is aiming for an early release of both these flagships for 2018 and to get you all riled up and hyped about these phones, here is a roundup of the news, specs, features, price, release date and other details.
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Design, display and more
The Infinity Display is making a return with the announcement of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ featured the same design upgrade from the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge and it made all the difference in the world when it came to bolstering global sales. After the Note7 tragedy, Samsung was eager to bring something new, and that included a radical design change and non-explosive batteries.
With the upcoming phones, you will get the same glass and aluminum design which will allow these devices to retain support for wireless charging and be compatible with a wide-range of third-party wireless charging solutions. Samsung could attempt to further tone down those bezels in an attempt to make these phones an even more attractive flagship as opposed to the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+.
Like all Samsung’s high-end phones before it, even these ones will come with Super AMOLED screens, making them feature the best displays for a mobile device. Screen size of both phones is expected to remain the same as this year’s models, 5.8 inches for the smaller version and 6.2 inches for the bigger phone. If Samsung were to further increase that, then the Galaxy Note 9 might not remain a popular product when it gets announced later in 2018.
Hardware
Being a flagship, it is not going to be surprising to see Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ feature the most powerful of internals. Next to the Exynos 9810, the US-based versions are going to feature a Snapdragon 845. Both of these chipsets are manufactured on the same second-generation 10nm FinFET architecture used in several devices released this year, so expect a lot of performance and efficiency from both of them. Unfortunately, the Snapdragon 845 might be made on an inferior 10nm architecture, but more of this will be updated down the road.
Naturally, Samsung will be looking to make this phones more efficient, and there is a rumor that the company will adopt a new printed circuit board design that will be less stressful and utilize less battery juice. Samsung has not been reported to officially name this board, but we’ll get to know officially later down the road.
This board will also allow the other components such as flash memory, DRAM, and chipset to be closely connected to one another to allow for additional space on the board. Samsung could use this feature to its advantage and apply a bigger battery on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ accordingly.
Expandable storage up to 256GB will be seen, as well as internal memory of 64GB that will be running at UFS 2.1 speeds, or higher if Samsung use the 512GB UFS storage that it has announced. Dual SIM and higher internal storage models are also going to be announced, but in select regions only. Expect 6GB of LPDDR4 RAM to be present in each version.
The home button is going to be controlled by software, with a fingerprint reader present at the back of the phone. An in-display fingerprint reader’s technology might not be ready in time to be put on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, so it will probably find its way in the Galaxy Note 9.
Samsung has been rumored to be working on a 3D sensing solution so that the facial recognition on the Galaxy S9 can improve considerably.
Camera
Samsung’s flagship cameras are super-fast, produce impressive quality of images and video and always satisfy when you’re taking selfies. The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ will feature wicked-fast cameras with ultra-fast shutter speeds, but there is a catch that Samsung could introduce later on. Just like the Galaxy Note 8, both of these phones will feature a dual-camera function, with which you will be able to capture images with a 2x optical zoom, leading to no loss in image quality.
These cameras could also bring their own version of a ‘Portrait Mode’ where you blur the background using software and make it look like the image was taken with a DSLR or high-end camera. Samsung has been reported to make its own sensors for these phones, and they will be able to shoot 1000FPS in slow motion video recording.
If that was not impressive, then both the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ will probably support 4K video recording at 60FPS, potentially making them the first Android-running phones to come with this upgrade. The rear dual-camera could be a 12MP shooter on both lens, with an aperture of f/1.7, but we’ll know more as additional leaks come through.
The front camera will be catered to selfie-lovers and could have a wide aperture to capture more light for better image and video quality. The megapixel value of this camera could be 8MP.
Wireless connectivity and other options
Both phones will come with their own gamut of wireless connectivity upgrades such as an LTE modem that will support download speeds of 1.2Gbps thanks to the Exynos 9810 and Snapdragon 845. The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ could also retain the headphone jack, feature a USB-C port and get IP68 water-resistance certification.
Bluetooth 5.0 will once again be featured on both upcoming flagships, and so will stuff like 802.11ac Wi-Fi chip, GPS and others. Wireless charging will also be included and because Samsung uses the Qi standard, you will be able to use cheaper and more reliable third-party solutions to wireless charge your phone.
Both the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ could also feature a better-performing iris scanner, which will offer far better unlocking speeds. The fingerprint reader could also be positioned at a location that is much easier to reach.
Battery capacity
If Samsung uses a new PCB design, we could see larger batteries on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+. The current phones have a 3,000mAh and 3,500mAh capacity, which could be increased to 3,200mAh and 3,700mAh on the larger phone.
This is clearly speculated information and could change over time. However, if Samsung’s officials do end up reading this bit, it should be clear that consumers want more battery life from their flagships so placing a bigger battery will do the job.
Price and release date
Pricing of the phones are unconfirmed but they could fetch a higher price tag because of the newer technologies present in both phones. The Galaxy S9 could cost $749 at launch, while the Galaxy S9+ will cost $849 for the same specifications except for that larger display and bigger battery.
Release dates have not been specified either but it isn’t a mystery to solve why Samsung unveiled its Exynos 9810 this early. The company is pegging to release these phones much earlier than when it launched the Galaxy S8, so possibly a dedicated event that takes place just before MWC 2018 will be a suitable schedule. It is also possible that the Galaxy S9 is announced during the month of January and will be offered in a total of four colors, including purple.
The phone might also arrive with the brand new DeX Pad, which is a more advanced version of the DeX Station. Some details are still being brought into the never-ending spotlight and we’ll be updating these in due time. Will you pick up the Galaxy S9 or Galaxy S9+ when it officially launches?
