Samsung is fresh from the Galaxy Note 8 launch but there are already rumors about the South Korean tech giant's next high-end mobile device. If the rumors are anything to go by, the public will see another flagship handset as early as January next year, in the form of Samsung Galaxy S9.

According to Tech Radar, there are signs that the Samsung Galaxy S9 will be unveiled a bit sooner than expected. The last S-series Galaxy smartphones, the S8 and S8+, were launched in late March. However, their successor is expected to be revealed two months earlier, citing the early organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen shipments of Samsung this year.

To note, the OLED screen for the Samsung Galaxy S8 only began shipping in January. This time around, the shipment is expected to commence as early as November this year.

Following the production schedule of the Galaxy S8, it is likely that the Galaxy S9 units will be ready by the end of January 2018. After the unveiling, the S9 devices will arrive in the market sometime in February 2018.

Reports also noted that Samsung is possibly targeting an earlier launch date for the Samsung Galaxy S9 as an answer to Apple's much-anticipated 10th-anniversary flagship device, the iPhone 8. The iPhone 7's successor and the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8's potential rival is expected to launch on Tuesday, Sept. 12.

With the arrival of Galaxy S9 early next year, Samsung will be able to reduce the momentum of iPhone 8.

Meanwhile, Value Walk reported that the Samsung Galaxy S9 may be the first top-end smartphone to receive Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 845 system-on-chip (SoC). This chipset will be much more powerful than the high-range Snapdragon processors available today, including the Snapdragon 835 that is used by the Galaxy S8 and S8+.

The Samsung Galaxy S9 is expected to boast an internal storage upgrade, with the base model having 64 GB worth of memory space. The smartphone is likely to get the same random-access memory (RAM) option as its predecessor at 6 GB. Similar to the Galaxy Note 8, the next flagship smartphone could receive a dual-camera setup.