According to the latest reports, Samsung will be introducing its next flagship smartphones, Galaxy S9 and S9+, earlier than usual. Unlike last year when the South Korean tech giant launched the Galaxy S8 and S8+ in March, the 2018 version is said to appear as early as January. If there is one bad news about the Galaxy S9, it is not expected to boast another design breakthrough like its predecessor. Instead, it will be more of an iterative update from the Galaxy S8.

The latest Samsung Galaxy S9 scoop came from the reliable tech tipster Evan Blass from Venture Beat. According to his sources, Samsung is not likely to introduce a radical upgrade in the upcoming premium handsets. To note, the Galaxy S8 launch last March wowed everyone with the new Infinite Display feature. This time around, the only positive upgrade that the users can expect from Galaxy S9 is a new powerful processor, Qualcomm Snapdragon 845.

Given that the Snapdragon 845 is the successor of the current Snapdragon 835 chipset used by Samsung's 2017 premium devices, it is expected that the Galaxy S9 will impress everyone with doubled performance boost. Aside from a faster mobile chip, the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ will feature a new location for the fingerprint scanner. Users have been complaining about the Galaxy S8 and Note 8 having the biometric scanner at an awkward location right next to the lens, and the Galaxy S9 is expected to fix this issue.

According to Blass, the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ will feature additional AKG stereo speakers. Meanwhile, those who prefer to use the 3.5mm headphone jack can have a sigh of relief as the Galaxy S9 is expected to keep the traditional audio socket. The S9+ variant will receive an exclusive upgrade, like a larger 6GB RAM capacity instead of 4GB, and a dual rear camera.

On the other hand, other sources claim that the Samsung Galaxy S9 will try to top its predecessor by increasing the screen-to-body ratio. Compared to Galaxy S8 Plus's 84 percent screen, the upcoming flagship is rumored to go as high as 90 percent.

It is rumored that the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ will make an appearance at the Consumers Electronic Show (CES) 2018 in January, although the tech giant is still expected to hold its annual March event next year.