Galaxy S9 reportedly under development with codename ‘Star,’ may be ahead of schedule

Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ may have just hit the market, but that doesn’t mean Samsung isn’t already dedicating resources to developing next year’s flagship, the Galaxy S9. As usual, the company is getting started several months ahead of time, and today, we’re hearing some new details about the upcoming phones.

According to Korean news outlet The Bell (via SamMobile), Samsung is currently in the process of developing the Galaxy S9 under the codename “Star” and “Star 2” for the larger model, expected to follow the S8 family under the S9+ branding. That codename also makes sense in Samsung’s line of past smartphones, with the S8 codename being “Dream” and the next Note is rumored to be under the name “Great.”

As we hit the middle of 2017, this news doesn’t come as a surprise at all, but it’s still nice to see progress being made. This report does, however, reveal that Samsung may be ahead of schedule. The report claims that Samsung may be up to 3 to 4 months ahead in the process of developing the S9/S9+ compared to past models. That could lead to production by the end of the year and perhaps even an early release date compared to the S8’s April launch.

Obviously, all of this should be taken with a pinch of salt seeing that the phones are still months away. It’s unclear what improvements they will bring compared to the S8, but it’s expected that we’ll see Qualcomm’s next generation processor, some further refinements of the Infinity Display, and hopefully some big changes when it comes to the biometrics.