Samsung Galaxy S9 release date rumours and news: S9 could launch as soon as January

Samsung have tended to launch their Galaxy S flagships around early spring, with the Galaxy S8 pushing this window back to the tail end of March. A recent rumour, however, suggests that Samsung may buck this trend to push its Galaxy S9 handset as soon as January 2018.

This comes from a report by South Korean Media, which claims Samsung Display's OLED panels are due to ship at the beginning of November. The thinking is that, because this date is two months earlier than this year's shipment for the Galaxy S8, the Korean tech giant is also planning to launch a device a couple of months earlier than March.  

The argument for this is that, with Apple's 10-year anniversary iPhone predicted to make a big impact on consumers, Samsung wants to shorten the distance between the S9 unveiling and the iPhone 8 launch on 12 September.

Given that this timescale still puts a good four months between Apple and Samsung's efforts, it seems like a somewhat tenuous reason to precipitate a smartphone launch. This is particularly the case when you consider the Note 8 has only just been released, as well as the fact manufacturers tend to release devices at similar yearly times; to snatch up customers finishing their two-year contracts.

A January event also places the S9 launch at a time when a lot of people will be feeling penniless post-Christmas. All-in-all, we'd say March remains more realistic month for Samsung to lift the lid on the Galaxy S9, but we're willing to change our mind if more evidence goes against that prediction. 

Elsewhere, as reported by XDA, unnamed sources claim that the Samsung Galaxy S9 is slated to feature the follow up to this year's Snapdragon 835 chipset, apparently dubbed Snapdragon 845.

For the uninitiated, the recent pattern for Samsung Galaxy S phones has been to split processor duties between Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips and Samsung's own Exynos chips. The former have tended to feature in North America, and the latter in other markets. Given this precedent, the rumour of a Snapdragon 845 chip looks likely, although nothing has been officially announced so far.

Weibo tipster Ice Universe has also claimed that Samsung is hoarding 2018's initial supply of Snapdragon 845 chips. Again, while the chip has yet to be revealed by Qualcomm, this does follow a similar pattern to reports this year of Samsung buying up early Snapdragon 835 stock for the Galaxy S8.

Samsung Galaxy S9: Everything you need to know

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is an outstanding phone. Our five-star review named it as 2017's best, and the handset's success has pretty much succeeded in quashing bad memories of the Note 7 debacle. But 2018 is another year, and that means it's time for another shiny rectangle to be pooped from the techno-capitalism machine. So what can we expect from the Samsung Galaxy S9, and when will it get here?

Samsung Galaxy S9: In brief

Samsung's 2018 flagship, as inevitable as rain

Expected release around March or April 2018

Likely to be very expensive, close to the £700 mark

Samsung Galaxy S9: Release date and price

If Samsung wants to launch the Galaxy S9 at Mobile World Congress, as it has done before, then we could get a reveal around February 2018. If it wants to launch the phone at its own event, as it has done this year, it will likely be around March or April. For now, we'd say this second option is more likely.

Price-wise, the Galaxy S8 costs a whopping £689. If it sells well, Samsung will have no real reason to slash this down. Besides, the Galaxy S9 will be pitched as a premium flagship phone, so something slightly shy of £700 is probable.

Samsung Galaxy S9: Processor

It's early days, but there are already several reports about technology that could find its way into the Galaxy S9. The Investor claims chipmaker Qualcomm is working with Samsung on a new mobile chip, thought to be called the Snapdragon 845, predicted to be used in the Galaxy S9.

Elsewhere, Korean publication The Bell is reporting that Samsung has been working on Galaxy S9 display panels since March 2017. Jesus, take a holiday Samsung.

Samsung Galaxy S9: Dual cameras

According to financial service group KGI Securities, the S9 will integrate a dual-camera setup that's similar to the one found on the Note 8. While KGI's analyst Ming-Chi Kuo didn't get into specifics about the Galaxy S9's setup, he did suggest the handset will approach its camera much like the Note 8. That device has two 12MP sensors, combining an f/1.7 wide-angle lens with an f/2.4 telephoto lens with up to 10x optical zoom. That knocks the 2x zoom on the iPhone 7 out of the water, and although we have yet to see what Apple does with the iPhone 8, it sets a high standard for Samsung's next flagship.

As 9to5Google reports, adding dual-cameras seems like a logic step for Samsung to make with the Galaxy S9, but it will be interesting to see exactly how the Korean company divvies out the modules – whether it sticks with the Note 8's telephoto lens or goes with something else. 

This comes on the back of a report from renowned tipster Eldar Murtazin, who claims the upcoming flagship will have replaceable modules, comparable to the "MotoMods" of past Motorola phones. 

If true, the claim could point to the Galaxy S9 having parts that can be clipped on the handset, such as camera kit, a sound system or a mini projector. The LG G5 also used a modular design, before the approach was canned by the company for the LG G6. It's a technique that's being adopted in a looser sense by the Essential Phone, which has a removable camera module.

Murtazin claims Samsung is planning to introduce magnetic pins on the rear of the phone, where modules for battery packs or camera lenses could be attached. Given the industry's movement away from modular design, it doesn't seem like the most likely direction for Samsung to take. Then again, it is becoming increasingly difficult for new handsets to steal headlines with innovative features, so perhaps the company is thinking outside the (removable) box.

Samsung Galaxy S9: A bigger battery

Previous news also points to the Galaxy S9 boasting the bigger battery than the S8. A report from Korean site ETNews claims Samsung is looking into using Substrate-like PCB technology that would allow manufacturers to include more layers of components without having to increase the size of the board itself. The site says Samsung will start to use this in time for the Samsung Galaxy S9 when it launches in 2018, noting that it would only work with the Exynos variant of the device. If successful, the new motherboard setup could give the Galaxy S9 room to fit a larger battery than the 3,500mAh cell used in the S8.

Samsung revealed that it has created LTE modems for the upcoming batch of in-house Exynos mobile chipsets that come with support for six-carrier aggregation (6CA). What does that mean? Mainly, faster cellular download speeds of up to 1.2Gbits/sec. How? Carrier aggregation increases LTE speeds by using multiple LTE bands across the spectrum simultaneously. Samsung's Galaxy S8 currently offers 5CA, while the new Exynos processor will allow 6CA – that means it could boast 20% faster data speeds.

All this relies on carriers supporting 6CA on their side of things, which makes the figures somewhat academic at the moment. EE, for example, which has just launched gigabit LTE in the UK, is only using three-carrier aggregation. Still, the potential is there for super-speedy downloads, and that Exynos chip is almost certainly set to feature in the Galaxy S9.

More recently, rumours have suggested Samsung's Galaxy S9 won't feature an in-screen scanner, as had been previously hinted. Instead, it will retain the rear-mounted fingerprint scanner with a view to having an in-screen scanner by the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 release date. 

Samsung Galaxy S9: 4 things we'd like to see

We had a quick ask-around the office and came up with four things we'd like to see in the Galaxy S9.

A fingerprint sensor not near a camera lens The Galaxy S8 made the odd decision to place its fingerprint scanner directly beside the phone's rear camera. That's a clear recipe for smudging up your lens, so we'd like Samsung to move the sensor, ideally beneath the front screen.

A price that's a bit more affordable We're not expecting a massive reduction, but we'd like to see Samsung cycle back from the price increase in the Galaxy S8. Given the critical success of this year's handset, however, it's unlikely that Samsung will pull back its prices on the Galaxy S9.

A dual-lens camera The camera improvements on the Galaxy S8 weren't enormous, so it would be good to see Samsung go the way of the iPhone 7 Plus, Mate 9 and LG G6 and introduce a dual-lens camera into the Galaxy S9.

Make Bixby more useful Samsung made much of the addition of its AI assistant, Bixby. In practice, however, Bixby hasn't proven all that useful. If they're committed to the onboard AI, we'd like to see more widespread Bixby integration on the Galaxy S9.

Source: Samsung Galaxy S9 release date rumours and news: S9 could launch as soon as January