New Galaxy S9 Leak Reveals Safe Designs And Risky Gambles
the drip-drop of information in December has turned into a flood over the last few days. More leaks on hardware are seeping out of the production lines, while third-party accessory manufacturers are risking huge set-up costs on knowing what the upcoming design is.
When those manufacturers are all in agreement, then it’s safe to assume they are all confident in the information they have about the South Korean flagship due for launch in early Q1 2018.
AmazonGalaxy S9 cases on Amazon.co.uk (image: Amazon website)
Following reports of Ghostek’s waterproof ‘Nautical’ case on Forbes late last week, the newest lead comes via KeyforWeb in Italy. Tommaso Sacco reports on the latest cases to show up on Amazon for the Galaxy S9. Over the last few days the number of listings has increased, from various manufacturers showcasing various styles of cases. All of them are reflecting common elements to the Galaxy S9 family; a dual-lens camera for the S9 Plus and a single lens for the S9, the fingerprint sensor remaining in the rear but shifted slightly further away from the lens assembly to avoid smudges, the 18:9 screen and the bezels that suggest a similar style to the Galaxy S8 family from early 2017.
At this late stage it is still possible for the Galaxy S9 to have a different look and design, but making the tooling and preparing the production lines for a smartphone case is an expensive commitment. There is risk involved with a significant victory if you get the design right. Being in the retail channel and immediately available as a phone is launched and goes on sale offers a lot of reward, but this is balanced out between the huge reputational and retail cost if the gamble fails.
With multiple companies now showing their hands as regards expectations of Samsung’s designs, it’s safe to say that the Galaxy S9’s external look is ninety-nine percent locked in.
Questions remain over issues such as the system on chip specifications (how usable will Qualcomm’s SnapDragon 845, and will Samsung’s own Exynos rival offer similar power)? Will Samsung push hard on the storage options and offer a model with 512 GB of on-board storage? Who gets the dual-SIM model? And can Samsung be able to match the image quality and software processing that Google has packed into the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL thanks to its custom silicon driving the Pixel Visual Core?
The expectation is we’ll know all the details in mid-February 2018 at the annual Mobile World Congress trade show, but with all of this noise and increase in manufacturing leaks, the idea of a little teaser trailer at CES is not yet dead.
Now read why Samsung is playing it safe over the Galaxy S9 design…
">Although Samsung has not confirmed any of its Galaxy S9 design details or specifications, the drip-drop of information in December has turned into a flood over the last few days. More leaks on hardware are seeping out of the production lines, while third-party accessory manufacturers are risking huge set-up costs on knowing what the upcoming design is.
When those manufacturers are all in agreement, then it’s safe to assume they are all confident in the information they have about the South Korean flagship due for launch in early Q1 2018.
AmazonGalaxy S9 cases on Amazon.co.uk (image: Amazon website)
Following reports of Ghostek’s waterproof ‘Nautical’ case on Forbes late last week, the newest lead comes via KeyforWeb in Italy. Tommaso Sacco reports on the latest cases to show up on Amazon for the Galaxy S9. Over the last few days the number of listings has increased, from various manufacturers showcasing various styles of cases. All of them are reflecting common elements to the Galaxy S9 family; a dual-lens camera for the S9 Plus and a single lens for the S9, the fingerprint sensor remaining in the rear but shifted slightly further away from the lens assembly to avoid smudges, the 18:9 screen and the bezels that suggest a similar style to the Galaxy S8 family from early 2017.
At this late stage it is still possible for the Galaxy S9 to have a different look and design, but making the tooling and preparing the production lines for a smartphone case is an expensive commitment. There is risk involved with a significant victory if you get the design right. Being in the retail channel and immediately available as a phone is launched and goes on sale offers a lot of reward, but this is balanced out between the huge reputational and retail cost if the gamble fails.
With multiple companies now showing their hands as regards expectations of Samsung’s designs, it’s safe to say that the Galaxy S9’s external look is ninety-nine percent locked in.
Questions remain over issues such as the system on chip specifications (how usable will Qualcomm’s SnapDragon 845, and will Samsung’s own Exynos rival offer similar power)? Will Samsung push hard on the storage options and offer a model with 512 GB of on-board storage? Who gets the dual-SIM model? And can Samsung be able to match the image quality and software processing that Google has packed into the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL thanks to its custom silicon driving the Pixel Visual Core?
The expectation is we’ll know all the details in mid-February 2018 at the annual Mobile World Congress trade show, but with all of this noise and increase in manufacturing leaks, the idea of a little teaser trailer at CES is not yet dead.
Now read why Samsung is playing it safe over the Galaxy S9 design…
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