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Leaked Renders of the S9 and S9 Plus by Evan Blass on Twitter Image Credit: Twitter: Evan Blass

Expectations and reality are two very different things. While you would have come across several rumours, leaks, news and information about the upcoming Samsung flagships, below is a very simple summary of what the phone of the year could possibly look like.

What we do know is that the device will launch in about 3 weeks on 25 February. Samsung sent out invites to the launch event, held at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona towards the end of the month.

UPDATE: Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ launched at MWC 2018 and release date scheduled for 16 March 2018. Prices TBD.

The device’s name is confirmed too: And it is to be called…the…wait for it…Samsung S9!

Is there anything different?

Remember iPhone X’s Face ID? Samsung could have something similar. Since the two smartphone heavyweights continue to compete with each other, Samsung users could now have to deal with the annoying Face ID unlock feature – which is quite tedious as you constantly have to lift up the phone to your face every time you need to unlock it.

Luckily there are a few rumours of a virtual on-screen fingerprint sensor too. A lesser-known smartphone brand in this region, Vivo, already have on-screen fingerprint sensor tech in their arsenal. I highly doubt something similar would feature on the new Samsung devices. But it would be pretty neat if it did.

Here’s more proof of how it could look

A bunch of Olixar cases made for the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ have appeared online earlier this week. Here’s a glimpse at the new Official Samsung Clear View and S View covers for the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus.

Camera


The promotional videos of the Samsung S9 are quite straightforward that there will be upgrades to the camera. The text is quite upfront: “The Camera. Reimagined.” And they promise us that the event will apparently, “change how we experience everything.”

Everything? While that’s a little extreme, what we know about the camera is that it sports a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera featuring an f/1.5 lens, Forbes reports, it would be good with low-light photography thanks to its wide aperture.


Now this is where it gets a bit interesting. Almost every flagship features dual cameras on the rear. There are a few leaks out there we could see 12MP dual rear-facing cameras on the new smartphones. And possibly rear front-facing cameras on the larger S9 Plus model.  

It’s what’s on the Inside that counts

Let’s get a bit technical here. The processor that powers that smartphone is a very important piece of tech – essentially the heart of a smartphone. Last year, Samsung launched the Galaxy S8 with the very first Snapdragon 835 processor. If history has to repeat itself, then we could see the Galaxy S9 launching with the very first Snapdragon 845.


With great processing power comes great responsibility features. This new chip could feature better battery life, better imaging capabilities, camera support, etc. together with a lot more features that were limited in the past.

When can we get it?

The devices will be announced on the 25th. There are reports that the devices will be open for pre-orders in the first week of March, and shipping will begin towards the middle of March. Last year the local launch event for the Galaxy S8 was in the third week of April, with the device becoming available at the end of April. If Samsung Gulf speed up the process and wrap up their countless bundle deals with local brands a little faster, we could get it in early-or-mid April.

Battery Life

The last bit of info available out there claims the batteries in the new devices will have the same capacity as the S8 and S8 Plus at 3,000 and 3,500mAh respectively. While I’m not one to push them on larger, more powerful batteries (it is Samsung after all) these would work well. Especially if they are rocking the new Snapdragon 845 processors (smartphone hearts), as Qualcomm claim these new chips offer 30 percent better power efficiency

3.5mm Jack!?

Yes they will have one. And you will be getting AKG earbuds in the box too.

Radio

FM Radio, oh how we’ve missed you. Tech website Tom’s Guide claim that the FM radio chips could get activated in these devices. This means that we could listen to the radio without an internet or cellular connection. Like how we did in the good old days many moons ago. Oh did I say radio? I meant non-stop, back-to-back ads.