The Samsung Galaxy S9 could arrive in a brand new color

Specs and features are all well and good, but when you pull your smartphone out of your pocket, what people are really judging you on is the color of your handset - and it sounds like Samsung could have a surprise in store for the Galaxy S9 device launching in 2018.

Sources speaking to SamMobile say that the company is thinking about adding a purple option to the roster for next year, alongside the regular black, blue and gold options, so if you're looking to buy something that stands out from the crowd then you might have one more color to pick from.

Incidentally the same color rumor did the rounds last year before the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy S8, though in the end a purple option didn't appear - so until we actually get confirmation from Samsung, don't take this as something that's definite.

Those rumors in full

We're expecting to see the successor to the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus appear at some point in the first quarter of 2018 - last year Samsung unveiled its flagship handsets at the end of March, so it's likely that next year's phones will follow a similar timetable.

Under the hood we're expecting a Snapdragon 845 chipset or an upgraded Exynos chip from Samsung, depending on where in the world you're buying it from, while the design of the phone is going to be largely similar to the 2017 model - more curves are coming to Samsung's handsets, but they won't arrive until after the Galaxy S9 launches.

Meanwhile the bezels are likely to get even smaller, which means even more screen space for your viewing and swiping. A brand new color option may not make a huge difference to sales in the end, but if you were thinking of picking up the phone, you might have more styles to pick from.