Samsung has confirmed it will take the wraps off the upcoming Galaxy S9 at the end of February as part of the Mobile World Congress trade-show in Barcelona.
While Samsung has traditionally used Mobile World Congress as the home for its flagship announcements, last year’s Galaxy S8 reveal took place in late March as part of a standalone Samsung event. This in turn created some uncertainty as to whether Samsung would bring the S9 to Mobile World Congress or put on its own show.
The Galaxy S9 and larger Galaxy S9+ aren't expected to make too many departures from last year's Galaxy S8 family. Leaked renders suggest the phones will look almost identical to their predecessors with one slight change: the fingerprint reader is now below the camera, rather than sitting directly next to it.
New and improved hardware is also on the cards, and the S9 family will almost certainly be powered by Samsung's newly announced Exynos 9810 processor. Samsung is jumping on the machine learning bandwagon with its new chip and says the technology will help with facial recognition.
"This cutting-edge technology allows the processor to accurately recognize people or items in photos for fast image searching or categorisation, or through depth sensing, scan a user’s face in 3D for hybrid face detection," said Samsung. "By utilising both hardware and software, hybrid face detection enables realistic face-tracking filters as well as stronger security when unlocking a device with one’s face."
Nothing is confirmed yet, but it certainly sounds like Samsung is intending to take on the iPhone X's Face ID with the Galaxy S9.
While Samsung has yet to confirm when the Galaxy S9 will be available to buy, history suggests we'll see it hit Australian stores by the end of March. We wouldn't be surprised to see Samsung's latest devices launch at similar price points to the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+: $1,199 and $1,349, respectively.
Alex Choros
Related Articles
