Mobile

Galaxy S9: What we know so far about launch date, specs and price

Written by Shehryar Ahmed ·  2 min read >
Samsung Galaxy S9

Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus are going to be the very first flagships of 2018 by the South Korean manufacturer Samsung, which is recognized as the world’s largest smartphones’ maker. Many rumors and leaks have appeared during the past few months, some were suggesting its launch date while others were hinting towards its specs and features. Especially during the past few weeks, a whole new wave of rumors hit the international media outlets about the new phone’s design and specs. We have gathered some of them which seem quite authentic to us and gathered them here for you.

The Galaxy S9 variants were not the only most talked about smartphones of the company, Samsung has also filled various patents for its upcoming foldable phone Galaxy X. Meanwhile, the South Korean tech giant has also unveiled its Galaxy A8 and A8+ (2018) mid-range smartphones a couple of days ago, which have Galaxy S8 like infinity display.

With Apple releasing the iPhone X in September, the smartphone market is in a state of chaos. The new set of features like FaceID and animojis etc. have set a fresh precedent.

What will it be called?

Samsung is due to follow suit by introducing the much-anticipated successor to the Galaxy S8, the S9. Will the new model be called S9? We are not sure yet!

Reports are coming in that Samsung might not label the new model as S9 since it would introduce an unhealthy psychological effect in the mind of customers since the S9 is bound to compete with the iPhone X(ten).

Launch Date:

The S9 variants were already rumored to be launching in January in Consumer Electronics Show, whereas another possibility is for the phone to be revealed in the Mobile World Congress in February. The last resort is for Samsung to release its smartphone in March, as per company norms of releasing new flagships. Concludingly, the phones will be launched by the end of February and will be released at the beginning of March next year.

The rumored specs and features:

Coming to specs, the Asian variant of the S9 will be equipped with the Exynos 9 Series 9810 processor. This is Samsung’s latest flagship processor, boasting 3rd gen custom CPU cores and an upgraded GPU. On the other hand, the American variant will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor.

Using the Snapdragon 845 chipset, the S9’s facial recognition system might overpower iPhone X’s FaceID, using 50000 dots of infrared light to map your face relative to the iPhone’s 30000 rays.

Despite repeated criticism of the S8 over this, the S9 is also likely to have the fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone. Alternatively, rumors also state that there might be an on-display scanner.

The Snapdragon 845 chipset will be vital in helping the S9’s back camera take 4K UHD video whereas the S9+ will be able to take more than 1000 photos in one second using the 3-stack image layer sensors.

The S9 is also likely to have a 512Gb variant, which is double the maximum capacity of the iPhone X.

Another rumor is that the S9 might be foldable. Samsung filed several patents over the course of this year to manufacture a foldable device and many experts are vouching for the S9 to have this feature.

How much will Samsung charge for it?

Keeping in view the price of its predecessor Galaxy S8, the Galaxy S9 will certainly hit above that mark. As the South Korean tech giant is already up to selling its mid-range device like A8 series of 2018 in a quiet expensive cost, so we certainly not expect to see a price drop in Galaxy S9 variants.

Estimates say that Samsung might demand in excess of $1000 for the S9. The $1000 barrier already got broken by Apple through the iPhone X, which starts from $999. As the next year is about to come, so let’s wait it out, what Samsung will be charging from its next year flagship line up.

Written by Shehryar Ahmed
He covers international technology and consumer products for TechJuice. Also the Partnerships Lead, directly handles all university and college affiliations. Contact him at shehryar.ahmed@techjuice.pk Tweets @shehryarahmed0 Profile