There’s no doubt that the Galaxy S8 was a home run and also one of the best-looking phones on the market. The Samsung Galaxy S9 is due early next year, we expect Samsung to up its game on Quad HD AMOLED Infinity Display, camera, and even Samsung’s software which is finally enjoyable for once. Here’s everything we know!
Upgraded Internals
The S9 and S9+ are said to be more iterative updates on the existing S8 and S8+ than the radical redesign Samsung offered this year. According to Blass, the new phones should see upgraded processors — likely Qualcomm’s forthcoming Snapdragon 845 — for an extra speed boost, but the biggest change is said to be Samsung moving the fingerprint sensor back below the camera, instead of the problematic location next to the lens that Samsung has placed it on the S8, S8+, and Note 8. Both phones should also see the addition of AKG stereo speakers. And don’t worry, the headphone jack is reportedly sticking around for another year.
According to Blass, the S9+ is also getting 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.
Even more shrinking Bezels ?
Speaking of that Infinity Display, the S9 is expected to make it even more impressive than it already is on the S8. The screen-to-body ratio of the Galaxy S8+ is still a thing of beauty at 84-percent, but according to a tip that SamMobile received, the S9+ will kick things up a notch with a screen-to-body ratio of 90-percent. This 6% increase might not sound big on paper, but this will theoretically result in a virtually nonexistent bezel for the S9’s chin and a top bezel that’s even smaller than the bottom one found on the S8.
The 3.5mm headphone jack will remain
One trend we’ve seen throughout 2017 is the rapid removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack. This is something that the likes of Apple, Google, Motorola, and HTC have all been more than willing to follow suit with, but we shouldn’t have to worry about this with the S9.
The Galaxy S9 will look a lot like the S8
Don’t expect a big design upgrade with the S9, you better stop now before you get your hopes up too much. According to Venture Beat, the S9 will share a very similar look compared to the S8. There will still be two models to choose from with the same screen sizes of 5.8 and 6.2-inches, the curved Infinity Display isn’t going anywhere, and we’ll also likely see the same use of a metal frame with a glass back.
Dual rear-cameras
Samsung’s first phone to ship with dual cameras was the Note 8, and as expected, this is a feature that’ll trickle over to the S9. However, only the larger Galaxy S9+ is reported to receive this treatment. The smaller S9 will retain a single camera, and while we don’t expect it to take bad photos, this disparity between the smaller and larger variants is new for Samsung. On that same note, the S9+ will also receive a small performance boost with an upgraded 6GB of RAM compared to the S9’s 4GB count.
Thankfully, no matter which variant of the S9 you choose, the fingerprint sensor will be moved below the camera and no longer horrible to use.
An even faster phone
Samsung’s next smartphones could get even faster. The company announced that the next version of its LTE modem for its Exynos chipsets now supports up to six carrier aggregation (6CA), allowing it to hypothetically reach download speeds of up to 1.2Gbps.
We more than likely won’t get any official spec, pricing, or availability info if this turns out to be true, but at the very least, we’ll get a quick preview of the phone to get an idea for what to expect later in the year.
