The Galaxy S9 is on its way, and this is everything we know so far about Samsung's next flagship.
Even today, there's no denying that the Galaxy S8 is still one of the best-looking phones on the market. Its Quad HD AMOLED Infinity Display is a thing of beauty, its camera takes excellent photos, and even Samsung's software is finally enjoyable for once. All of the greatness found with the S8 has put a lot of pressure and expectations on the S9, and although it probably won't be as big of an upgrade as the S8 was from the S7, it'll still likely be one of the best phones of 2018. Here's everything we know!
The Galaxy S9 will look a lot like the S8
See this design? Hope you're okay with it for another year.
If you were hoping for a big design upgrade with the S9, you better stop now before you get your hopes up too much. According to a source that spoke with 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.
Bezels are going to keep shrinking 😮
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. A six-percent 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. I don't think we've ever heard anyone complain about the S8 having big bezels, so the fact that the S9 could reduce their size even more admittedly has us quite giddy.
Iris scanning improvements to take on Face ID
Samsung might have been first to market with face/eye scanning technology as a way for biometrically unlocking your phone compared to Apple, but it's no secret that Face ID is superior to Samsung's iris scanning technology that's found on the Galaxy S8. Unsurprisingly, Samsung will be improving its iris scanning system on the S9 to either meet or beat Apple's solution.
A report from The Korea Herald says that Samsung will be upgrading the front-facing camera on the S9 from 2MP up to 3MP, and this will allow for faster scanning even when users are wearing glasses or in dark environments. The time it takes to unlock the S9 using iris scanning will be shorter than the current one-second time ont he S8, and there will also be improvements on the software side of things to make iris scanning just as (if not more) secure than Face ID.
Only the S9+ will get dual rear-cameras
Only the larger S9 will get dual-camera love, but each will have a much more accessible fingerprint scanner.
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.
Don't worry – the 3.5mm headphone jack will remain (probably)
The 3.5mm headphone jack should be here to stay 🙏
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.
Venture Beat's same source supposedly confirmed that the Galaxy S9 will keep the headphone jack, and this lines up with a leaked case render for the phone that shows a covered section for the coveted port.
512GB of storage?
Yep. When you go to buy a Galaxy S9 next year, you may very well have the option of purchasing one with 512GB of internal storage.
Samsung's 512GB chip for mobile devices.
Samsung announced on December 5 that it had begun mass-producing the mobile industry's first 512GB chips, and although not directly mentioned, we wouldn't be surprised to see this extra storage make its way to the S9/S9+. Larger internal storage will always have the benefit over expansions with microSD cards, so with this much space to work with, it'll be interesting to see if Samsung tries axing the microSD card slot like it did with the S6 in 2015.
It's "unlikely" the S9 will be unveiled at CES
Samsung typically waits until after CES to hold a separate event for announcing its latest Galaxy S devices, but some rumors have popped up indicating that Samsung would take a different approach this year and give us a teaser of what to expect at Las Vegas this January.
However, according to a spokesperson from Samsung, "it is unlikely" that the Galaxy S9 will make any sort of appearance at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show. This is something we were already fairly skeptical about, but now we can finally lay those rumors to rest.
Updated 12/11/2017 – Added report about improvements to iris scanning.
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