Samsung Galaxy S9: Everything we know so far

Have you seen the Galaxy S8? Yeah, the Galaxy S9 will probably look a lot like it.

And that’s fine, considering how gorgeous the Galaxy S8 is. Remember how the Galaxy S7 was a near-duplicate of the Galaxy S6, aside from some very slight tweaks? That’s what we’re expecting from this year’s evolution.

In fact, that image up at the top appears to show the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus in their official forms. The render hails from Evan Blass over at VentureBeat, and the notorious leaker has spilled the beans on countless phones over the last few years. We trust his reporting, especially given the other Samsung phones he’s leaked in the past.

With the same 5.8in and 6.2in screen sizes pegged for the models, there’s been little in the way of rumours about transformative changes. Meanwhile, VentureBeat suggests that the fingerprint sensor will now be located underneath the camera array, instead of awkwardly next to it.

Meanwhile, SamMobile suggests that there will be a new purple colour option in addition to black, gold, and blue.

Interestingly enough, leaker Ice Universe suggests that Samsung nearly trimmed a lot more bezel from the bottom of the Galaxy S9, but that the rendition “did not pass the test and was killed.” So we could’ve gotten something with a bit more visual difference, although it sounds like it would have been very similar otherwise.

Here’s another rumoured advantage the S9 Plus will have: a second back camera. Much like the iPhone 8 and 7 models, the core S9 will reportedly have a single camera on the rear while the S9 Plus will offer a Note 8-esque dual-camera setup.

The main camera on both could offer the widest aperture seen on a smartphone to date: f/1.5, which is a notch better than the f/1.6 aperture seen on the LG V30 and Huawei Mate 10 Pro. This is very much a rumour right now, though, as no other phone company has managed to create a camera with such a wide aperture. Samsung has a China-only flip phone that can do it, but that’s made in much smaller numbers than what would be needed for the global Galaxy S9.

The secondary camera on the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus will reportedly come in at f/2.4.

That’s not all: a report from Chinese site VTECH (via Neowin) suggests that the Galaxy S9’s main back camera sensor will offer adjustable aperture, ranging between f/1.5 and f/2.4 depending on the lighting conditions. Consider that a serious step towards true DSLR-like quality from a phone camera. Samsung just launched a flip phone with that kind of feature in China, interestingly enough.

Also, Samsung’s Galaxy S9 event invite (up top) suggests a major camera reinvention, and an adjustable aperature on a smartphone would certainly fall into that category.

And now VentureBeat has confirmed the reports about the variable aperture setting on the main 12-megapixel camera, although the secondary 12MP sensor will be a fixed camera. They also report that it will offer “motion-detected, ‘super slow-mo’ video capture (rapid movement triggers 480fps recording at 720p).” We should also see an 8MP selfie shooter on the front.

Yes! Both phones will still have a headphone port, according to VentureBeat, so Samsung remains a welcome holdout in that regard.

Also on the audio front, the site suggests that the Galaxy S9 models will have AKG stereo speakers, adding a bit more bump to your playback.

And lastly, the so-so DeX Station from the last time around – which let you link up a display, keyboard, and mouse and use the S8 as a PC – is getting a reboot. Now the docking station will lay flat, letting you use the screen as a touchpad or keyboard. Handy! Samsung is probably going to call it the DeX Pad, or at least that’s the name the company trademarked in December. It sounds like you might just lay the phone down on the pad, rather than dock it or plug it in, with wireless charging keeping you topped up.

FACT OR FICTION?