Samsung may not be pulling all the stops when it comes to a redesign of its flagship series smartphones this year, but the Galaxy S9 and S9+ are still believed to pack in quite a punch. Honestly, Samsung landed on a great design with last year’s Galaxy S8, which remains a coveted smartphone to date. Given its strong and proven design aesthetics, Samsung seems to be focussing on bringing lightning fast performance, a blockbuster primary camera, some reworked accessories and a few nifty features. All this is also expected to cost a limb, just like the iPhone X. But who’s counting cash if a premium flagship is what one desires, right?
So get set and start saving up because the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ are just a few weeks away from launch. Here’s everything we know about the Galaxy S9 and S9+ so far. Will these be your next big smartphone purchase? Read this and find out what’s in store.
Display
The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ will reportedly sport 5.65-inch and 6.1-inch displays, respectively. Both phones are expected to feature the current flagship favourite 18.5:9 display aspect ratio. A very recent leak by global telecom carrier Orange, pointed out that the Galaxy S9 will feature a Quad HD OLED ‘Infinity Display’ same as the Galaxy S8. The Orange listing also displayed the the screen size of the Galaxy S9 as 5.8-inches. However, an earlier report from ETNews suggested that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9+ will feature a display technology called Y-Octa (Youm On-Cell Touch AMOLED), which allows the touch sensor to be merged directly with the flexible OLED layer. This could result in lighter, thinner smartphones with a more responsive touchscreen.
Processor
As is the case with Samsung S series flagships traditionally, the Galaxy S9 and S9+ will most likely launch with two different processor variants – one with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 and another with Samsung’s own Exynos 9810 SoC. Recent benchmark results of the Snapdragon 845 have proved that the processor will be the fastest to date. The new chipset is 25 percent faster than its predecessor and the S9/S9+ will definitely take advantage of that speed boost. However, recent benchmark leaks allegedly belonging to Samsung's Octa-core Exynos 9810 show that the company-made processor is more powerful of the two. As per a Gizmochina report citing the leaked benchmarks, the Galaxy S9 with Exynos 9810 chipset scored 3648 on single-core and 8894 in the multi-core test. Remember, this is just speculation for now and the actual performance difference will only be known once the phones are made official.
Cameras
The cameras on the Galaxy S9 and S9+ are expected to be their main USP. The Galaxy S9 and S9+ could support a variable aperture, which first debuted on Samsung’s China exclusive flip phone, the W2018. It’s rumoured that the phones will be able to capture 1,000fps Super Slo-mo videos. The smartphones will also likely borrow from Samsung Semiconductor’s new ISOCELL range of camera sensors. Among the sensors, one called the ‘ISOCELL Fast’ can record and process videos at super-high speeds. ISOCELL Fast is essentially a 3-stack fast readout sensor that can record videos in Full HD at 480 frames per second. This will be combined with another hardware improvement in the sensor called SuperPD, which will apparently improve autofocus speeds of the cameras. On the primary camera front, the Galaxy S9 is expected to house a single 12MP camera with variable aperture, while the S9+ is expected to feature dual 12MP cameras, also with variable aperture.
Battery
The Galaxy S9 and S9+ are expected to house 3,000mAh and 3,500mAh batteries, respectively. The phones are expected to support Qi standard fast wireless charging just like their predecessors and a new leak even shows off the redesigned, slimmer EP-N5100 wireless charging dock. In terms of power, the leaked Samsung fast wireless charger allegedly developed for the Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphones will support 9V/2A, 9V/1.67A and 12V/2.1A charging, with an output below 15 watts.
3.5mm Headphone Jack and Fingerprint Sensor
A leak of the new DeX Pad (more on that later) confirms that at least the Galaxy S9 will retain the endangered 3.5mm headphone jack. The S9+ is likely to follow the same approach. This should be good news for all audiophiles looking to get their hands on the S9 or the S9+.
Coming to the fingerprint sensor, it will certainly not be axed or moved behind the display (unfortunately). Instead, it will find a new haunt right under the camera module (thank god), unlike last year’s most uncomfortable placement.
DeX Pad
The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ flagships are expected to bring a new accessory alongside their launch. Tipster Evan Blass leaked the new Samsung DeX Pad, successor to last year’s DeX Dock, which will be used to provide a desktop experience with the Galaxy S9 and S9+.
Leaked images of the Samsung Dex Pad show a redesigned accessory seen sporting a fan to keep the phones cool while docked for charging. You can read more about the DeX Pad here.
Launch and Availability
We figure that by now the whole world knows that the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ are set to launch on February 25, a day ahead of the official start of the Mobile World Congress 2018. Both the Galaxy S9, S9+ are speculated to come in Titanium Gray, Midnight Black, Lilac Purple and Coral Blue colours. If speculation is to be believed, preorders for the smartphones will commence starting March 1. The devices will reportedly start shipping from March 16.
So that’s all we know about the Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphones for now folks. But, there's one last th
Price
This one is not much of a shocker. With flagship performance comes a flagship price tag. A recent report claimed that the S9 and S9+ could break the $999 (Rs 64,180 directly converted) price barrier. Indians could expect the phones to be priced much higher in the country, making them affordable only by a lucky few (read -rich). It will be a welcome change if Samsung does not differ the pricing too much from the international variants, however, that is quite unlikely.