The much anticipated Samsung Galaxy S9 will be unveiled next month at Mobile World Congress (MWC). The president of Samsung’s mobile business, DJ Koh told ZDNet at CES that we’ll get to see Samsung’s next flagship phone in action at MWC with its sale date also being announced at the event. Although no specific date was mentioned, MWC will run from February 26 to March 1, so the phone will be unveiled somewhere in between these few days.
The S9 will be the successor to the highly popular S8 and S8 plus. Like its predecessor, the Galaxy S9 will most likely have a ‘plus’ version as well. The trend started from the Galaxy S6, the ‘plus’ versions were simply known as the ‘edge’ versions back then. The Galaxy S8 was a huge success as it received all-rounded praise from its design to amazing camera. It was so good that it even made people forget about the disaster that was the Galaxy Note 7.
Not much has been revealed about the Samsung Galaxy S9 at this point. There have been rumors flying around for a few months now but nothing solid has come up yet. One of the biggest rumors that’s been circulating for some time now is that the Galaxy S9 might have a fingerprint sensor inside the screen. The S8 had to relocate the fingerprint sensor to the back of the phone due to it leaving behind the iconic home button.
Many called it inconvenient having to place the finger on the back of the phone to unlock rather than the usual way. The fingerprint sensor inside the screen will change everything as it will get rid of this inconvenience as well maintain the button-less design we got with the S8.
However, if you look at the image above, it seems that the S9 will not have a fingerprint sensor inside the screen. This image comes from new renders of the phone that got leaked. These renders not only confirm that the S9 Plus will also accompany the Galaxy S9 but it also seems to look pretty identical to its predecessor the Galaxy s8. A few changes can be seen though, such as the vertical dual-camera and the repositioned fingerprint sensor.
Hands-on images (above) of the phone also got leaked online. They more or less confirm what we already know about how the phone will look. This does, however, confirm rumors about the phone having a glass casing much like its predecessors, and it also confirms the repositioning of the fingerprint scanner.
However, according to these images, it seems that the dual-camera will be exclusive to the S9 plus. It makes sense as the ‘Plus’ versions of the phone always seem to have the extra feature the regular version lacks. This is done in order to get people to buy it since it is the more expensive from the two phones as well.
There’s no word on what the phone(s) will cost but we might find out soon at MWC. Keeping in mind the price of the Galaxy S8, expect the Galaxy S9 to follow the same pricing. Thus, the phone would probably be priced around $720 or above given its specifications.
The Full specifications for the phone so far are:
- 5.8/6.2 inch QHD +Super AMOLED curved display (570 ppi / 529ppi)
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
- Android 8.0, Android ‘O’
- Cat 18 LTE support
- fingerprint scanner (either in screen or repositioned)
- Dual-facing rear camera
- Bixby AI assistant with dedicated button
- USB-C, 3.5 mm headphone jack
Keep in mind this list is made using the most likely out of many rumors spread about the phone. Nothing is certain until Samsung unveil the phone at MWC. The leaked renders and images may very well be misleading and we might just get the fingerprint sensor embedded in the screen. The leaked images also suggested that the phone will retain the headphone jack despite some reports claiming that the phone will join the list of phones not containing the headphone jack.
We don’t have to wait much longer now before we finally get to see the Galaxy S9 and its specs revealed officially in Barcelona. We fully expect Samsung to blow our minds!