The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus have finally been revealed. Well, kind of. Evan Blass, trusted industry insider who's almost never wrong about the leaks he shares, just posted renders of Samsung's follow-up to last year's Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus on Twitter. They look pretty much the same.
Samsung Galaxy S9 And S9 Plus Renders
Samsung is set to officially unveil both phones right before the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, which surprised many. MWC would have been the perfect venue, but that's just par for the course, as other rumors also suggest HTC, Huawei, and LG are bowing out of the event to host their own unveiling ceremonies.
Anyhow, back to the phones. At first glance, they look very much like their predecessors. That's really less the fault of Samsung, though, and more of a factor arising from the fact that there's not much space for creativity in smartphone design these days since companies are increasingly shedding off bezels with every model. Thus, all their designs kind of look the same now, but that's all right. It's the internals that matter, plus how well the custom Android software works.
As of this writing, Blass has also posted images showing the rear components of both phones. See below:
Finally, here are the rear component layouts: pic.twitter.com/r8GYVbzt44
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 26, 2018
Samsung Galaxy S9 And S9 Plus Rumors
The Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus are also rumored to have more differences beyond their screen dimensions. The first stark disparity has to do with memory. The Galaxy S9 has 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage, while the larger S9 Plus has 6 GB and 128 GB of storage.
Another major difference of the phones are their cameras. The Galaxy S9 Plus gets an additional 12-megapixel camera aside from its main one, while the base Galaxy S9 only gets one. Despite the larger model having dual cameras, however, only one features a variable aperture — a mechanical adjustment that switches between f/2.4 and the smallest-in-class f/1.5.
The controversial Bixby button will still be part of the phones' design, according to reports. As for the internals, both phones will come equipped with Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 845 processor.
With the specs above in mind — provided they end up being accurate — it's easy to dismiss both phones as being merely iterative updates to last year's excellent S8 and S8 Plus and not anything radical. However, it seems Samsung is focusing on the aspect smartphones are still trying to be better at: cameras.
It's evident in the company's Unpacked Invitation too with the caption "The Camera. Reimagined."
Still, Samsung has to hope that the changes onboard its forthcoming flagships are sufficient enough to convince consumers to upgrade.
