Samsung's next flagship smartphone may make an early appearance in January (SSNLF)

DJ Koh Samsung Galaxy

Samsung's next high-end smartphones, the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, may come earlier than usual.
They may make their first appearance as early as next January, at Las Vegas' Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
They will reportedly be "iterative" devices, but still pack some new stuff, with a focus on power and overall polish.

Samsung's new flagship smartphones for the first half of 2018 are already on their way, and may make a super-early appearance at next January's CES.

The original report, from VentureBeat, mentions that the tentatively named "Galaxy S9" and "Galaxy S9+" will only be "iterative" devices, largely building on the noteworthy, trend-launching, almost bezel-less designs of this year's S8 duo.

The S9 and S9+ are named "Star 1" and "Star 2" internally, and will reportedly feature the same 5.8- and 6.2-inch Quad HD, AMOLED displays of their respective predecessors.

Processors will apparently get a notable speed boost, however, moving the more energy-efficient 10-nanometer manufacturing process — strongly hinting at Qualcomm's forthcoming Snapdragon 845, likely in conjunction with a new, in-house made Exynos counterpart for non-US markets.

The added power will also reportedly be coupled with 6GB of RAM, like on the more recent Note 8, as opposed to the 4GB its predecessors had, to better compete with Apple's increasingly powerful A-line series and stay ahead of the competition in the Android space.

VentureBeat's sources also say that 64GB of onboard storage will come in the base model, and the microSD card slot will remain, alongside the 3.5mm headphone jack.

The camera will change, instead, moving to a dual lens, vertically aligned setup (like on the iPhone X) that moves the fingerprint reader closer to the middle of the device's back, in response to the numerous complaints Samsung received with the S8, S8+, and even the Note 8.

Last but not least is DeX, Samsung's system that allows the S8 to function as a desktop workstation by plugging it into a monitor and keyboard with the support of a custom accessory. The new docking station will keep the phone in a flat position, VentureBeat says, and "utilise the screen as either a touchpad or a virtual keyboard."

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