Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Release Date, Price & Specification Rumors
Samsung is held an Unpacked event on 25 February at MWC 2018, but it was for the Galaxy S9 rather than this Note 9. We have a bit longer to wait for this beast of a phone, but from the Galaxy S9 launch there are some clues on what to expect, so it's well worth a watch.
If you're interested in the S9 series, read our Galaxy S9 hands-on review and Galaxy S9+ hands-on review. Otherwise, continue reading for everything we know so far about the Note 9.
Forget the infamous 'notch' of the iPhone X, and the 'borderless' screens of recent flagships that actually have borders, albeit minimal. The upcoming Galaxy Note 9, expected to land in August 2018, could see a truly all-glass front that embeds not only an under-glass fingerprint scanner (the tech we should have seen in the Galaxy S9), but the sensors and selfie camera too.
The Note 9 is rumoured to be codenamed 'Crown', and if things turn out as hoped this phone really will be able to take the Android crown.
In recent years Samsung has shunned September's IFA tradeshow for its new Note launch in favour of an Unpacked event held a few weeks earlier in August. This has enabled it to evade the hype of other flagships launching at IFA, and get its phone out to the market before the new iPhone.
In 2017 we saw the Note 8 launch on 23 August and go on sale on 15 September. (We won't embarrass the company by talking about the Note 7 launch.)
In 2018 we expect to see a Note 9 announcement at the end of August and an on-sale date mid-September.
People were shocked by the RRP of the Galaxy Note 8 when it was revealed it would cost £869. But on closer inspection we found it worth every penny. Moreover, it's now available for at least £100 less if you shop around online - Samsung prices usually fall by around 20 percent within the first three months of launch.
Expect the Galaxy Note 9 to once again come in at £869.
It's very early to talk about Note 9 specifications. Some things are certain, such as the fact the Note 9 will see a performance upgrade - we expect the 10nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 (and the latest Exynos chip in certain territories), and we hope to see Samsung bump up the RAM to 6GB. This is a phone that's already blazing fast, of course, so we're more interested in the features everyday consumers will really notice.
The most exciting rumour by far is that the Note 9 will have an all-glass front, with a truly bezel-less design. It will achieve this by embedding the fingerprint scanner into (or rather under) the display, and also integrating the camera and sensors here. The Super AMOLED screen will most certainly act as a light source for the sensor.
The above image is from a recent patent awarded to Samsung, filed at WIPO. The only question is whether such a design will be ready in time for the Note 9, or if we will be looking at a future release.
A stretched out display might result in a design something like the image used at the top of this page (a render created by Ben Geskin). He suggests the Note 9 will feature a 6.4in 4K display.
If Samsung is not able to implement this new type of screen, we should be looking at very similar specifications as for the Note 8, with a 6.3in Quad-HD+ (2960x1440, 18.5:9, 521ppi) Super AMOLED panel.
The under-glass fingerprint scanner is very likely for the Note 9, however, at least according to KGI analysts. They also say Samsung will switch from Synaptics to Egis for this sensor, which costs four to five times the price.
The iris scanner is expected to get a boost in the Samsung Galaxy S9, so expect to see those same changes carried through to the Note 9. An Android Police reader has discovered an upcoming feature called Intelligent Scan - an answer to Face ID by the looks of it - that we expect to see first in the Galaxy S9 and then carried over to the Note 9.
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