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Samsung S9 expected in January

Lauren Kate Rawlins
By Lauren Kate Rawlins, ITWeb digital and innovation contributor.
Johannesburg, 23 Nov 2017
Samsung's new flagship smartphone is expected to be released early next year.
Samsung's new flagship smartphone is expected to be released early next year.

The release of Samsung's next flagship smartphone could come as early as next January, ahead of the usual February launch the Korean company has stuck to for the last few years.

According to SamMobile, an independent Samsung smartphone blog known for getting rumours right, Samsung could release the Galaxy S9 a little earlier than expected, unveiling it ahead of Mobile World Congress in February.

This year, the Galaxy S8 was launched slightly after the tech conference in Barcelona, as the company was reportedly running extra tests on the device to ensure there would not be a repeat of last year's Note 7 battery inferno.

The blog warns this early rumour makes the rounds every year, but Samsung has moved its launch dates away from big tech events, such as the Note 7 being revealed before IFA last year.

Other rumours include the smartphone incorporating new technology featured in Apple's tenth anniversary edition device, the iPhone X. This could be the rival's complex face recognition software that removes the need for a home button - giving the device a truly bezel-less screen.

Samsung is late to the dual-camera setup game, a feature that was first introduced to the mainstream by Huawei in 2019 with the P9, followed closely by LG and then Apple last year.

The Korean company introduced its first dual-camera setup with the Note 8 a few months ago; the Samsung S9 is expected to follow suit.

Huawei's dual-cameras were one monochrome camera and one colour camera, LG had both colour cameras but one normal and the other wide-angled. Apple had a normal-sized lens and a telephoto lens.

The Note 8 has two 12MP cameras, each with different focal lengths - wide and zoomed in. The S9 is rumoured to include a similar setup.

Expert Reviews reports the new device will feature 6GB of RAM, the removal of the headphone jack, and a faster processor.

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