2018 Samsung Galaxy S9 to See Early Production Schedule, Display Samples Almost Ready

Samsung Galaxy S9 concept design

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ don’t ship out until April 21 to most markets, but there’s already a massive leak about next year’s S series smartphones from Samsung: Galaxy S9 and, presumably, Galaxy S9+.

The reports come from “sources close to Samsung” via thebell.co.kr, and reveal that Galaxy S9 display panel samples could be ready as early as mid-April 2017. Development began a month ago, and the Galaxy S9 display samples are almost done. If the report is accurate, Samsung is at least six months ahead of schedule on the Galaxy S9 lineup for 2018.

Per this timeline, Samsung could start developing other sample components as soon as next month, said the source. That’s even before the Samsung Note 8 is expected to release.

The obvious question: why start this early?

The only plausible explanation is that Samsung wants a longer evaluation period prior to production so it can avoid what happened to the Note 7 last year. It will give the company adequate time to not only refine the design elements, but also control the manufacturing standards and implement extremely tight quality control methods for the Galaxy S 9 series.

Not much is known on the specs and features front, but the source also said that display sizes will be similar to those on the Galaxy S8 (5.8 inches) and Galaxy S8 Plus (6.2 inches). The same edgeless and thin-bezel design is expected to repeat itself as well.

It’s also likely that a lot of the features that were supposed to be on the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus may finally make their way into the production model of Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, such as in-display fingerprint authentication, for example, which we might even see on the Galaxy Note 8 later this year.

Also on the cards is a dual camera similar to iPhone 7 Plus. We should have seen that on the Galaxy S 8 series, but what we got instead was a software-enhanced Galaxy S7 Edge camera.

A foldable display on the Galaxy S9 is definitely out, and that’s directly from Samsung’s head of mobile, Koh Dong-Jin.

(Translated from Korean): “Although we are preparing a folder-type smartphone, the launch date is not yet decided.”

The foldable feature, however, could appear on two separate devices mysteriously named Galaxy X and Galaxy X1, but at an unspecified time.

There’s also word about more RAM on the 2018 Galaxy S9 smartphones, since mobile VR will be much further down the road than it is today. Features like 4K streaming and virtual reality or augmented reality require much more processing power.

In a report by PCWorld in December 2016, we saw that ARM and TMSC were working in partnership to develop 7nm processors, and Ron Moore, vice president of marketing for ARM’s physical design group, confirmed that TMSC would start manufacturing them under ARM’s license sometime in 2018.

Samsung’s plans for 7nm processors have already been laid out, as reported earlier this year by ZDNet Korea. According to that report, Samsung LSI’s (its chip division) managing director, Dr Heo Kuk, said:

“Samsung Electronics succeeded in mass-producing the industry first, strengthening cutting-edge process competitiveness from 14nm, and aiming to produce 7nm in early 2018.”

Samsung “will lead the most advanced technology with the same competitiveness as 14nm and 10nm,” he added.

At this point we don’t know whether the 7nm chips will be of Qualcomm’s design, or that of Samsung’s own Exynos, but production should begin in early 2018, giving Samsung enough time to incorporate it into the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus models.

So that’s the roundup for the Galaxy S9 flagship phones from Samsung for 2018. As always, we’ll be reporting any news as it breaks, so stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus this year – at least until the other majors Apple and Google unveil their own masterpieces for 2017.

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