While it will be quite some time before the official reveal of the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, there is already a good amount of information out there about the upcoming phones. Conflicting reports have caused some confusion over whether or not these two flagships will be put on display at CES next year, but it’s safe to assume that in any case, the reveal is at least several months away. Regardless, there’s a decent selection of information available about the design and specs of these upcoming phones. Most interesting are renders and in some cases even the dimensions, of the upcoming Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus.
Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus Size Comparisons
PhoneArena recently reported on upcoming changes with the mid-range A-series of the Galaxy lineup, and if it’s an indication of the direction in which the company is heading, it may indicate a trend that will carry over into the more luxury flagships. The website created a few mockups of concepts for the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, and they’ve turned out to be very similar to recent leaks.
Apparently, the Galaxy S9 will have a single camera on the back, similar to the S8. The S9 Plus, however, will feature a dual-lens setup, with a vertically-oriented setup and a longer focal length — just like the Note 8. While it’s understandable that the less premium-model have few features, the fact that the camera in the base S9 model will likely be noticeably worse than that of its big brother is obviously a bit of a disappointment.The fingerprint scanner will also be located underneath the camera rather than offset, which is a welcome change from an S8 misstep that many customers weren’t happy with.
The following pictures, courtesy of PhoneArena, give us a sense of how the potential Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus design measures up to both its predecessors and other popular high-end smartphones. With phones getting bigger and bigger, it’s refreshing to note that the phone won’t be another jump in size. More people use their phones as their primary form of entertainment around the world, so a bigger screen is necessary. Unfortunately, a big screen often comes with an unwieldy size that is difficult to hold in one hand. Hopefully, we continue to see the size of phones stay roughly the same, as they’ll seem more like a tablet than a phone if they get too much bigger.
Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus: What We Know
As mentioned above, there are a variety of rumors that seem pretty reliable regarding what exactly we can expect from the upcoming Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus.
We can expect the phones to be relatively similar to the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus in terms of aesthetic. Ditching the bezels for a smooth front panel completely covered by screen follows the trend of a phone that’s more screen than anything else. The display will also be similar to its predecessors, with a 5.8-inch Super AMOLED quad HD display on the S9 and a slightly larger 6.2-inch version on the S9 Plus.
The phones will also be IP68 water and dust resistant and will include a 3.5 mm headphone jack. Having support for headphones is a big boon for the company in a market where the majority of phones are ditching the jack in favor of wireless Bluetooth models.
Despite recent advancements in technology suggesting that it may be possible to include a fingerprint scanner underneath the display, it’s looking like the Galaxy S9 and S9 plus will include the scanner on the back, as discussed above. Hopefully, in future releases, the company will ditch the awkward placement and take advantage of the opportunity for a front-facing security option that still allows them to ditch the bezels.
As far as power goes, the phones will feature the Snapdragon 845 processor, Qualcomm’s latest chip. With capabilities far beyond the current generation Snapdragon 835, it’s clear that it will be worth an upgrade for the increased power alone. The international version will ship with Samsung’s proprietary Exynos 9 Octa 9810 chipset, which offers performance comparable to the 845.
At the end of the day, there’s a decent amount that we know about the upcoming Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus. How many of these rumors are actually true remains to be seen, but considering how reliable a lot of Galaxy leaks have been with previous generations, we can pretty easily paint a picture of the future of Samsung luxury flagships.
