Galaxy S9 Release Date, Time Appears On MWC Website

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Samsung’s mobile business head DJ Koh confirmed earlier this month that the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus would be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) next month. The MWC will be held in Barcelona between February 26 and March 1. Koh had not mentioned a specific release date, but the MWC’s official website seems to have done the job on his behalf. Since it’s coming directly from the MWC, we can expect it to be accurate.

Galaxy S9 release date: February 26 or 25?

According to the MWC website, Samsung will host a 3 hours and 30 minutes long event on Monday, February 26, which will be the first day of the trade show. Samsung’s event would start at 3 PM CET. That would be 9 AM EST, 6 AM PST, and 11 PM South Korea Time on February 26. The site has also listed the Hall where the event would take place.

Since Samsung is planning a lengthy event, we can expect it to unveil the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus. Samsung is not the only vendor to have scheduled a press event for February 26th. Sony is set to hold a keynote event on the same day, where it is expected to unveil the Xperia XZ and Xperia XZ Pro devices. LG has delayed the launch of its flagship G7 due to the lack of attractive selling points in its prototypes.

However, Korean site ETNews reports that the Galaxy S9 will be unveiled on February 25 rather than on February 26. The publication says the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus would hog most of the limelight at the MWC because LG has delayed the G7 launch and Huawei has decided to unveil the triple-camera P20 at a separate event in March or April. ETNews added that Samsung would start taking pre-orders for its upcoming flagship models in early March.

Galaxy S9 appears on Chinese certification site

Ahead of their official unveiling, the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus have been spotted on the Chinese certification site 3C. A total of three Samsung phones with model number SM-G9600, SM-G9608, and SM-G9650 appeared on 3C. According to reports, the SM-G9600 is the Chinese version of Galaxy S9 while the SM-G9608 is the Taiwanese variant of S9. The SM-G9650 is the larger Galaxy S9 Plus.

The 3C listing confirmed that all three versions would come with fast charging capabilities at 1.67A (15W) and standard charging 5.0V at 2.0A (10W). Recent reports suggest that the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus would feature the same battery capacities as last year’s Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. The S8 had a 3,000mAh battery while its bigger sibling packed a 3,500mAh battery under the hood.

The 3C listing also showed that all three variants of Galaxy S9 have the DS label, which means they would come with dual-SIM functionality. The Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus would look similar to their predecessors, except on the back panel. The fingerprint scanner will be placed below the camera module. And yes, the larger S9 Plus is getting a vertical dual camera on the back.

Galaxy S9 camera details leaked

According to a report from GizmoChina, the Galaxy S9 would feature a 12-megapixel camera on the back. The S9 Plus would sport two 12MP sensors on the rear panel to allow users to take pictures with bokeh effects. The cameras on both the phones would offer optical image stabilization and a variable aperture lens of f/1.5 to f/2.4. The publication says the iris sensors and camera sensors would be manufactured by two different companies. Both the devices are said to have an 8-megapixel camera on the front.

The camera is not the only area where Samsung would differentiate the S9 Plus from its smaller sibling. The rumor mill claims the Galaxy S9 would include only 4GB RAM while the S9 Plus would get 6GB. The upcoming phones will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 or Samsung’s Exynos 9810 chips depending on the region. The US and Chinese markets would get the Snapdragon variant.

Samsung’s upcoming phones are also said to feature machine learning chips to offer AI features. According to the Korea Herald, Samsung’s AI chips have “already reached” the technological levels of Apple. When Samsung announced the Exynos 9810 earlier this month, it indicated that the chip would offer AI features.

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