Samsung has already confirmed the arrival of the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus smartphones at the start of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 later this February. The South Korean tech firm has not yet specified any detail regarding the features and price of its next-gen flagship handsets, although rumor has it that the Galaxy S9 could be Samsung's most expensive smartphone yet, beating the price of its predecessor.

As reported by Tech Radar, the Samsung Galaxy S9 has the potential to cost more than the Galaxy S8 when it was fist launched last year. The online publication's tipster predicted that the Galaxy S9 could be priced at £789 in the United Kingdom. When converted to U.S. currency, the smartphone will be over $1,100, almost tying itself with the cost of Apple's latest flagship, the iPhone X.

Knowing that the Samsung Galaxy S8 was only around $750 when it hit the shelves, there must be a significant hardware upgrade to be featured in the Galaxy S9 to cause its price to skyrocket above the $1,000 mark. The price hike with every next-gen release of the Galaxy S series is already expected, given that the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus had an additional £100 from the original price of the Galaxy S7. 

Perhaps the culprit behind the surprising leap in Samsung Galaxy S9 pricing is the new powerful camera of the premium smartphone. According to Venture Beat, the renowned tech tipster Evan Blass believes that the S9 camera will boast special lens that can adjust the aperture from f/1.5 to f/2.4. The f/1.5 aperture is enough to offer high-quality shots in low-light environment with shallow depth of field, and having the aperture adjusted to f/2.4 will allow the phone to capture sharper images in normal lighting. Meanwhile, the larger S9 Plus variant is said to pack a dual-lens camera similar to the Galaxy Note 8.

Earlier leaks reveal that the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus will not bring any significant changes in terms of design. The alleged render of the smartphones show the same Infinity Display of the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, which is a good thing as users can still expect the handset's slick appearance.