Ron Amadeo



OnLeaks

We now know the date of the Galaxy Note 9 announcement. Samsung sent out invites to "Samsung Galaxy UNPACKED 2018" on August 9 and a teaser image showing the Note line's trademark S-Pen. This year, the show will be at the Barclays Center in New York City, the home of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets and the NHL's New York Islanders.

There isn't a huge amount of rumors out there about the Galaxy Note 9. If past Note devices are any indication, the Note 9 will be very close to the latest Galaxy S9+, just with a slightly larger screen and battery, a squared-off design, an S-Pen, and some new camera tech. Sure enough, a report from Bloomberg earlier this month said the Note 9 "will look similar to last year’s model" and have "an upgraded camera." Samsung just announced a new " Isocell Plus " camera sensor, which it says can "capture more light, significantly increasing light sensitivity and color fidelity." There's a good chance it will end up in the Note 9.

The Galaxy S9 was very close to the Galaxy S8 design from last year, with the biggest improvement being a new fingerprint reader placement. On the Note 8 and S8, the fingerprint reader was very high on the back of the phone, making it hard to reach one-handed. After the fingerprint lowering on the S9, there's a good chance the Note 9 fingerprint reader will get a similar treatment. Onleaks—a leaker that produces renders based on CAD files given to case manufacturers—has a Note 9 render that places the fingerprint reader under the camera assembly. Last year, the fingerprint reader was next to the camera assembly.

We'll be at the show to take a look at Samsung's latest, so mark your calendars and check back for more info then.

Listing image by Ron Amadeo