We’re now just a little under a month away from the release of the Galaxy S9. Samsung boss DJ Koh has confirmed this will happen at MWC 2018 in February, so we’re simply waiting for an invitation to confirm our hunch of a Sunday 25 February launch date. Expect pricing and onsale dates to be announced on this day.
Samsung Galaxy announcements are always exciting, but this update isn’t going to be as big as in previous years. We’ll see a performance improvement with the 7nm Snapdragon 845 (or 10nm Exynos 9810 in certain territories); the Galaxy S9+ has posted a multi-core score of 8351 points in Geekbench 4 (that’s very fast).
The Plus model will also get a dual-camera at the rear, and Samsung has responded to consumer criticism and moved the fingerprint scanner below the rear camera, rather than to its side.
(Image credit: Weibo/Android Headlines.)
It’s a shame this fingerprint scanner is not going to be embedded into the screen – the technology is ready, and at January’s CES show already being demonstrated in an unnamed upcoming Vivo phone (you may not have heard of Vivo, but it’s the third biggest – bigger than Samsung – brand in China).
There are surprisingly few Galaxy S9 renders circulating on the web, and at a guess we’d say that’s because it’s going to look an awful lot like the Galaxy S8 (complete with dedicated 3.5mm headphone jack, to answer the question everyone seems to be asking). This certainly seems to be the case, judging by early renders and the  first Galaxy S9 cases and Galaxy S9 screen protectors from accessory maker Olixar.
Samsung has also now revealed its accessories for the Galaxy S9, albeit via Mobile Fun. The accessories vendor tells us there’s a new ‘Hyperknit’ cover; that the cases indicate we’ll see the same core colours (Gold, Silver, Black and Blue) but potentially also a red special edition; there’s a new wireless charging pad for the Galaxy S9; and that there’s a new ‘DeX Pad’, which it says could be a wireless version of the current DeX dock.
As before we’d expect to see a 5.8in Infinity Display on the Galaxy S9, and a 6.2in version on the S9+. It’s rumoured that there will be a new purple colour option, too.
When is the Galaxy S9 release date?
Sunday 25 February 2018
Last year Samsung delayed its Galaxy S8 announcement until March, pushing back the onsale date even further to April. This year Samsung boss DJ Koh says the Galaxy S9 will be announced at MWC in February, with a likely onsale date in March.
The news is not a huge shock, given that both phones have recently passed through the FCC with the model numbers SM-G960F and SM-G965F.
Samsung typically favours the day before the show begins to hold its press event, so all our money is on a launch date of Sunday 25 February 2018. Invitations confirming this should circulate within the next few weeks.
How much will the Galaxy S9 cost in the UK?
The Galaxy S8 and S8+ were Samsung’s most expensive S-series phones to date at £689 and £779 respectively. Part of this extra cost can be attributed to the new features, but finances following both Brexit and the Note 7 disaster have almost certainly come into play here, too.
Until this year, Samsung always kept its pricing reasonably constant, and in line with other flagship phone makers. For that reason we’d be surprised to see the price go any higher than the current RRP.
It’s always worth considering with Samsung phones that – more so than with any other manufacturer’s smartphones – SIM-free prices fall rapidly in the few months following launch.
What are the rumoured new features and specifications of the Galaxy S9?
Samsung reportedly began working on the Galaxy S9 in late March 2017, which would mean it is already six months ahead of schedule compared to where it was with the Galaxy S8 and S8+ last year. And that means more time for quality control, more time for building in new features and, hopefully, more happy customers.
Amazingly, in July 2017 an early version of the alleged Galaxy S9 was spotted in the Geekbench database – that’s some seven or eight months before we expect to see the phone announcement. A device with the model name SM-G9650 is listed with a 1.78GHz quad-core Snapdragon 845 processor and just 4GB of RAM. It scored 7371 points in the RenderScript test, which is lower than the Galaxy S8 managed in the same test. There are no performance scores.
| Rumoured specifications | Samsung Galaxy S9 | Samsung Galaxy S9+ |
| Price | £689 | £779 |
| Operating system | Android Oreo 8.0 with TouchWiz | Android Oreo 8.0 with TouchWiz |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 845/Exynos 9810 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 845/Exynos 9810 UK |
| GPU | Adreno 550 | Adreno 550 |
| RAM | 6GB LPDDR4 | 6GB LPDDR4 |
| Storage | 64GB with microSD support | 64GB with microSD support |
| Display | 5.8in (2960×1440, 570ppi, 18.5:9) Super AMOLED | 6.2in (2960×1440, 529ppi, 18.5:9) Super AMOLED |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes | Yes |
| Ports | USB-C | USB-C |
| Audio | Stereo speakers, 3.5mm headphone jack | Stereo speakers, 3.5mm headphone jack |
| Camera | 12Mp camera | 12Mp dual-camera, dual-OIS |
| Battery | Circa-3000mAh, Adaptive Fast Charging (wired & wireless) | Circa-3500mAh, Adaptive Fast Charging (wired & wireless) |
| Waterproofing | IP68 | IP68 |
| Extra features | Heart-rate sensor, Bixby AI | Heart-rate sensor, Bixby AI |
Display
The sizing of the Galaxy S9 screen is not expected to change from the Galaxy S8, so we’ll see a 5.8in Galaxy S9 and 6.2in Galaxy S9+.
We’d expect to see the same 2960×1440, 570ppi, Super AMOLED ‘Infinity’ panel on the S9, and another 529ppi panel on the S9+. Given that Samsung by default limits the screen resolution to Full-HD+ (2220×1080) in the Galaxy S8, we really don’t think it will push up the resolution up to 4K.
It is possible that despite keeping the same dimensions and resolution the display technology itself could be improved. Samsung is reportedly using screen tech codenamed ‘Sunflower’ for the Galaxy S9 – it’s still Super AMOLED, but should improve display fidelity and be more consistent and reliable.
The new virtually full-screen 18.5:9 ratio will also likely remain, as will features such as the always-on display and edge functionality.
Samsung will allegedly implement its Y-OCTA tech into both models this time around, with only the standard Galaxy S8 getting the treatment in 2017 (the Galaxy S8 Plus does not and the Note 8 apparently will not get it either). Y-OCTA uses a single manufacturing process for the screen and the touch-film element.
In 2016 Samsung patented a glass-coating technology that helps water to bounce off the screen, making it much easier to use in the rain. This tech could well be introduced in the Galaxy S9, which will itself most likely be waterproof. (The Galaxy S8 is rated IP68, which means it is resistant to submersion up to a depth of 1.5m for up to 30 minutes.)
Processor
In the UK we’ll almost certainly see the Snapdragon 845 powering the Galaxy S9, which was in early December confirmed by Qualcomm.
The 10nm Snapdragon 835 Samsung helped Qualcomm to manufacture was 27 percent faster and 40 percent more energy-efficient than the company’s previous 14nm chips. The upcoming Snapdragon 845 is said to be built on the 7nm manufacturing process, and will be even faster and more efficient than ever.
(The nm figure relates to the distance between transistors, and the more you can squeeze on to a chip the faster it will be.)
Key new features offered by the Snapdragon 845 include a secure processing unit (SPU) that Qualcomm says offers “vault-like security” with the microprocessor, memory, crypto engine and random number generator all sitting on its own power island. Performance and battery life will also improve, thanks to an octa-core Kryo 385 CPU with four 2.8GHz high-power cores and four 1.8GHz low power cores; the 845 is 30 percent more efficient than the 835 for gaming, video and AR/VR, says Samsung.
Qualcomm’s new super-fast X20 LTE modem is built-in, offering CAT 18 speeds of more than 1Gbps, as well as an enhanced Spectra 280 image signal processor. Qualcomm has bumped up video recording potential to Ultra-HD, and added in various AI improvements.
Performance from the Galaxy S9 with the Snapdragon 845 inside is expected to get a real boost. Geekbench 4 scores for the Galaxy S9+ have been revealed on the site’s database, and as you can see in the chart below they are quite a bit faster than that of the Galaxy S8+. (Interestingly the database also reveals 5GB of RAM, suggesting there is 6GB on at least one of the Galaxy S9+ models.)
Elsewhere in the world Samsung uses its own Exynos chips, and has just announced the Exynos 9810 which is the most likely candidate. Interestingly this is a 10nm chip, though built on the second-gen process.
Samsung’s next-gen Exynos chips are capable of supporting iPhone X-like features such as animoji and Face ID, with deep learning for more sophisticated face detection and object identification in images.
They also feature LTE modems that support six carrier aggregation (6CA). A first in the industry, Samsung says this unlocks a max download speed of 1.2 gigabits per second (20 percent faster than the Galaxy S8, which has a 5CA modem). It should allow you to download an HD movie in just 10 seconds, and eliminate buffering.
Samsung is also said to be looking to build AI processing right into its chips, which will perform better when hard-coded to the chip than left to the software. So Bixby could become a lot more efficient.
Storage and RAM
Storage is unlikely to change over the Galaxy S8, with 64GB as standard and support for microSD. However, this is the year Samsung should finally push out 6GB rather than 4GB of RAM to its flagship smartphone.
Battery
Although the size of the phone is not expected to change, we could see battery capacity get a boost with the Samsung Galaxy S9. ET News reports that Samsung will facilitate this using a new type of motherboard that uses substrate-like PCB technology to squeeze in more layers of components – or extra room for the battery pack.
Fast charging – both wired and wireless – will feature, though we suspect Samsung will continue to use its own Adaptive Fast Charging tech rather than the Quick Charge built into Snapdragon processors.
Camera
Samsung traditionally leads the pack when it comes to new smartphone features, so we’re somewhat puzzled by the fact it has yet to introduce a dual-camera on its S series. Nevertheless, one does feature in the Note 8, so expect it to feature in the Galaxy S9 too – but only in the Plus variant.
Samsung’s Note 8 has a 12Mp dual-lens camera with dual-OIS and 2x optical zoom.
It’s been claimed that the Galaxy S9 will be able to shoot incredible 1000fps slow-mo video. This will apparently be achieved using a three-layered image sensor that adds DRAM to the sensor and logic chip. This builds on the two-layered approach seen in current high-end smartphones, though Sony has also used a three-layer system in its XZ Premium and XZ1 phones.
Headphone jack and audio
Samsung has not yet copied many of its rivals in ditching the 3.5mm audio jack in favour of USB-C audio, though it did make the switch from Micro-USB to USB-C in the Galaxy S8. All the renders we’ve seen suggest there will be no change here: the Galaxy S9 will feature a dedicated headphone jack.
It is also said to come with wireless AKG headphones in the box. They might just be tuned by AKG like the current Galaxy phones, but these still sound good.
Fingerprint scanner
It had been hoped that Samsung would implement a fingerprint scanner inside the screen for the Galaxy S9, and this is something we’ve already seen in action on an unnamed upcoming Vivo phone at CES 2018. Samsung has even been awarded a patent for such a technology.
However, all the signs point to the fact it has not done this, but it has at least responded to consumer criticism and moved the fingerprint scanner from the side of the rear camera to a new position below it.
This isn’t entirely what we wanted, but it should be a more user-friendly solution than we saw in the Galaxy S8.
Software
Android Oreo was announced in Q4 2017, and has not yet made its way to the Galaxy S8 in the UK. However, we’re fairly certain the Galaxy S9 will come with Oreo preinstalled, at which point Samsung will begin rolling out the update to the Galaxy S8.
TouchWiz will feature on top, which has proved much more pleasant in recent years. And Bixby will be heavily integrated – expect the dedicated button to remain.
