Samsung Galaxy S9: Everything you really need to know

The Samsung Galaxy S9 is the next big flagship phone release for the company and we’re expecting to see it in the next month. But what will it change from the Galaxy S8 and will it worry the iPhone X? Let’s have a look and see. 
  • What’s the latest Galaxy S9 news?
  • When is the Galaxy S9 release date?
  • What will be new about the Galaxy S9 design and specs?
  • What will be the Galaxy S9 price?
UPDATE: Samsung has finally confirmed that the S9 will be announced on February 25 – that’s the day before MWC starts. The tweet, which you can see below, teases a big focus on the camera.
Samsung has moved from strength to strength, and is arguably the most successful Android phone maker of the year. The company is consistently turning out high-quality flagship phones that always review well in our own tests, so it’s fair to say we’re excited to see what’s next.
The working theory is that Samsung plans to release a new top-end phone called the Samsung Galaxy S9 in the early part of 2018 – we’ll go into more specifics on launch timing further down this page. The handset is expected to introduce a number of hardware and software upgrades, and possibly even a new design.
Read on for a full guide on what to expect from the Samsung Galaxy S9, or scroll down to the bottom of the page for a very brief summary of the key details. Our latest update features new details on the Galaxy S9’s release date and its likely battery spec.

Samsung Galaxy S9 Release Date: When will the Galaxy S9 come out?

We’ve been waiting for a while, but it now seems like we have our first real Galaxy S9 release date leak, courtesy of respect mobile tipster Evan Blass, aka @evleaks.
In a recent tweet, Blass posits that the Galaxy S9 will indeed – as we’ve been privately predicting for some time now – be unveiled at MWC 2018 in Barcelona. However, we reckon the big reveal could actually take place a day before Blass thinks, on February 25, 2018.
Why? Well, while Blass points a February 26 Samsung event, the nature of the mobile accessory supply chain means it’s likely that his mystery insider is based near Samsung’s South Korean base. Because of time difference, an evening event in Barcelona on Sunday, February 25 would be the morning of Monday, February 26 in Seoul, and therefore makes quite a bit of sense.
Let’s review historical Samsung Galaxy S phone launch timing to see if this holds up:
It’s not difficult to discern an obvious pattern.
The overwhelming majority of Samsung Galaxy S phone announcements take place in either February or March, with incremental upgrade years (such as 2018) typically coinciding with Barcelona’s annual Mobile World Congress technology trade show. They also typically take place on the day before the show opens to the public, so Samsung and its latest flagship can properly bask in the limelight.
It doesn’t look like this year’s going to be any different either, with the firm’s mobile chief DJ Koh revealing in January that it’s preparing to take the wraps off the Galaxy S9 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona  – though he didn’t specify an exact date.
That said, given we now have a reliable leak and with Mobile World Congress scheduled to run from February 26 through March 1, we expect the Samsung Galaxy S9 launch date to be February 25, 2018.
But what are the rumour-spinners saying?
Related: iPhone 8
Well, back in May, Korea’s The Bell reported that Samsung is already working on the Samsung Galaxy S9 under the codenames of ‘Star’ and ‘Star 2’ – to denote the standard and ‘Plus’ editions.
The post also notes that development is ahead of schedule compared to previous years, although it’s worth taking that with a pinch of salt.
Then in September, Korea’s The Investor said that the displays being used in the Galaxy S9 will be ready by November, which means we may see an earlier-than-usual launch. For context, the Galaxy S8 launched in March, with its displays reportedly having arrived in January. So we could see the Galaxy S9 being ready to debut as soon as February, if Samsung follows a similar timeline.
According to a SamMobile report in late September 2017, Samsung has already begun development of the firmware for two Samsung Galaxy S9 models. For reference, SamMobile is a specialist Samsung blog that has a highly accurate track record for Samsung mobile leaks.
The report notes that the firmware names are as follows: G960FXXU0AQI5 and G965FXXU0AQI5. From those monikers, we’re able to discern the model numbers for the next flagship Samsung phones, too. The Samsung Galaxy S9 will probably be called SM-G960, while the Galaxy S9+ will likely be dubbed SM-G965.
That’s not a massive surprise, mind; the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ used the model numbers SM-G950 and SMG955, respectively.
It’s also worth noting that back in 2016, Samsung’s firmware development for the Galaxy S8 began two weeks later, so we could be seeing a slightly earlier launch for the Galaxy S9. That’s already been rumoured to be the case, with previous leaks suggesting we’d see a debut in February, and a retail release very shortly thereafter.
It’s also worth noting that a Samsung official reportedly told the Korea Herald that the reveal of its next flagship phone at CES in January is “unlikely”.

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