The Galaxy S9 is already in the works at Samsung, with a recent report claiming that a prototype production run took place in October. Rumors predating the iPhone X launch said that Samsung may be looking to launch the new Galaxy S model as soon as possible, to counteract the iPhone X. Samsung was then quick to confirmed it’s afraid of the new iPhone.
A new report from a solid source says that Samsung may be indeed looking to release a Galaxy S8 successor earlier than expected, complete with iPhone X tricks.
Mysterious Italian tipster @Ricciolo1, who rarely posts Twitter updates, said a few hours ago (via Android World) that the announcement of the Galaxy S9 is coming “earlier.”
Yes you'll see an earlier announcement of #GalaxyS9 with dual cam,"faster"and with some new"tricks"(they say) ala #iPhoneX 🧙♂️ pic.twitter.com/T0ZJlhS0L4
— Ricciolo (@Ricciolo1) November 13, 2017
According to him, the phone will have a dual camera, it’ll be “faster” and sport “some new ‘tricks’ […] ala iPhone X.” That’s what “they say.” @Ricciolo1 did offer similar predictions in the past that turned out to be accurate, proving that he does indeed have access to inside information.
Even if the tipster is wrong, keep in mind that Samsung delayed the Galaxy S8 launch by a few weeks this year, as it still had to deal with the Galaxy Note 7 disaster. Therefore, an MWC 2018 announcement would still qualify as an early launch for the Galaxy S9 compared to the Galaxy S8. But it’d be a regular launch if compared to the Galaxy S7 and S6.
@Ricciolo1 did not offer an actual timeframe for the Galaxy S9’s early announcement, and he did not elaborate on the iPhone X “tricks.”
Recent rumors said the Galaxy S9 will have a dual camera on the back, and an alleged schematic suggested the fingerprint sensor will be placed under the camera module rather than next to it. The phone should be equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 chip, and Samsung quietly announced its own Exynos equivalent, a brand new 10nm processor that will power flagship devices next year.
As for the iPhone X “tricks,” it’s unclear at this time whether the Galaxy S9 will have a Face ID-like facial recognition system. But this is still Samsung, and I’d expect it to closely follow Apple for some time to come. As a reminder, our own sources had previously said that Samsung is indeed working on a Face ID copy for the Galaxy S9.
