Samsung Galaxy S9 & Galaxy S9+ Enter Pre-Production Stage, New Report Confirms

After the success of Samsung's latest flagship smartphones Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, people are now eyeing the next-gen Galaxy handset, possibly dubbed as Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+. In fact, rumors about Galaxy S9's specs and features have already started making a buzz.

According to BGR, Samsung has already put the two gen-next handsets, Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, in the pre-production stage with the codenames "Star" and "Star 2," respectively. The news was first reported by Korean media channel The Bell. As per the report, the smartphone giant will begin the production of the Galaxy S9 and S9+ as soon as this year, pointing at an earlier launch timeframe in 2018, quite possibly at Mobile World Congress 2018.

According to The Inquirer, Samsung has collaborated with Qualcomm to develop the Snapdragon 845 processor that will be based on the second-gen 10nm manufacturing process. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset is rumored to debut inside the Samsung Galaxy S9. Among other specs, the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphones are expected to come with 5.8-inch and 6.2-inch large QHD+ Super AMOLED curved displays, Android 8.0 "O," dual-camera setup on both front and back sides, Bixby AI assistant with dedicated button and display embedded fingerprint scanner.

In related news, Samsung is currently busy prepping for the launch of Galaxy Note 8 phablet. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is expected to come with a 4K dual-curved edged display, Snapdragon 835 SoC, 6GB RAM, 256GB of expandable internal storage, a Bixby AI button on the side of the handset, an iris scanner, S-Pen stylus and Android 7.1.1 Nougat. The upcoming phablet is likely to get a release date in August or September this year.

It is advisable to take the rumored information with a big grain of salt. Nothing about Samsung Galaxy S9 or Galaxy Note 8 has been officially announced yet.