When Galaxy S9 rumors first began emerging last year, there was a ton of chatter surrounding a fresh new design from Samsung. The South Korean phone vendor was among the first top-tier smartphone companies to utilize a new “all-screen” design on a widely available flagship phone in 2017. Rumors suggested that the Galaxy S9 would be an evolution of that design, and would feature an even more impressive screen-to-body ratio somewhere in the neighborhood of more than 90%. Then, the bad news came in mid December: Samsung had cancelled its redesigned Galaxy S9 in favor of a model that looks almost identical to the Galaxy S8.
Well, the good news is the Galaxy S8 has a gorgeous design, so seeing it stick around for another year in the Galaxy S9 isn’t such a bad thing. If Apple can use the same iPhone design four years in a row, Samsung should be able to get away with reusing its Galaxy S8 design again in 2018 for the Galaxy S9.
The Galaxy S8 and its larger Galaxy S8+ counterpart still feature what is undoubtedly one of the best smartphone designs the world has ever seen. Smooth glass on the front and back curve on either side and meet at the anodized aluminum frame. The big, beautiful Super AMOLED displays have almost no bezels on either side, and the empty space above and below the display has been shrunken down as well.
Samsung’s flagship phone design feels amazing in the hand, and it’s a fine design for this year’s Galaxy S9. Rather than let a new look carry the phone, Samsung’s Galaxy S9 has a number of internal upgrades and some class-leading new camera features to focus on.
Though function will be the focus on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ when they debut next month, the phones’ form has gotten one or two important tweaks as well. And a new hands-on video with a perfect mockup of Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S9 highlights the tweak we’ve all been hoping for.
The device above isn’t a real Galaxy S9. Instead, it’s a full-size mockup based on the schematics factories will use to build the phone. But this video still shows us what Samsung’s final Galaxy S9 design looks like in the hand, and it reminds us how nice it will be to have a centrally located fingerprint sensor on the back instead of the off-center sensor on the back of the Galaxy S8.
Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ during a press conference at MWC 2018 on February 25th. The phone is expected to go on sale on March 16th after two weeks of preorders that open on March 1st.
