Samsung Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9+ 'Unlikely' to Be Unveiled at CES 2018: Report

It was recently rumoured that Samsung will showcase its Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January. But now, Samsung has reportedly trashed the previous rumour and stated that it is 'unlikely' to bring the new Galaxy S9 series flagships at the forthcoming technology convention. The South Korean company is expected to adhere to its tradition and unveil the next top-end Galaxy models sometime around Mobile World Congress (MWC) in late February to grab maximum eyeballs of the smartphone market.

The Korea Herald reports that Samsung has dismissed the speculation of unveiling the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ at the CES by saying, "It is unlikely." The Seoul-based English daily also pointed out that both the new Galaxy flagships will not have an in-display fingerprint scanner due to certain technical challenges.

Last month, Evan Blass of VentureBeat claimed that Samsung is set to bring the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ at the CES for their "first public appearance". Blass, who is famous for unravelling unannounced developments through his Twitter account @evleaks, also stated that both the handsets will be officially unveiled in March - a couple of months after giving their first look at the CES.

If we believe some recent reports, the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ both will have "nearly identical" aesthetics of their predecessors. The smartphones will, however, have some hardware upgrades to take on the competition. The Galaxy S9 is rumoured to have a 5.8-inch display, while the Galaxy S9+ is reported to have a 6.2-inch display. Both have Super AMOLED "Infinity" screens with curved edges - similar to the Galaxy S8 family that was launched in March. There is a speculation that the US version of the Galaxy S9 series will come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC, while its global versions would have a similarly designed Exynos chip - likely to be the recently unveiled Exynos 9810 SoC.

Qualcomm on Tuesday announced the development of its Snapdragon 845 SoC with faster Kryo 385 CPU, Adreno 630 GPU, and X20 LTE modem. The new processor is also claimed to bring three times improved artificial intelligence (AI) experience over its predecessor. This would be leveraged by Samsung to enhance provide new AI features on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+. The handsets are expected to have a facial recognition feature to take on Apple's Face ID in addition to a fingerprint scanner.

Further, the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are rumoured to have up to 6GB RAM, and may even get up to 512GB of onboard storage thanks to the newly unveiled eUFS solution from Samsung, coupled with microSD card support. Samsung is likely to provide Android Oreo on the Galaxy S9 family with a new version of its TouchWiz UX. Also, some recently leaked images of the Galaxy S9 hinted the presence of a dual camera setup. Earlier this year, the Galaxy Note 8 was debuted with two camera sensors on the rear to follow the ongoing trend of dual-camera smartphones.

Some more rumours, leaks, and reports related to the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ can be expected in the coming days. But Samsung is not likely to reveal any official details before February. Meanwhile, the company is preparing the launch of its new Galaxy A family for the CES that would include the Galaxy A5 (2018), Galaxy A7 (2018), and the Galaxy A8+ (2018).