Once again, your shiny new Samsung Galaxy S8 is OLD NEWS. According to reports from the Korean press, development of the Galaxy S9 and S9+ is apparently already well underway, under the codenames "Star" and "Star 2" respectively. That's entirely unsurprinsing in itself — you'd certainly expect next year's phone to be in the works by now, as we approach the midway point of 2017.
The main takeaway: GS9 development could be further along than previous phones in previous years.
But what's supposedly different this time around, according to The Bell, is that the production schedule for the Galaxy S9 is reportedly some three to four months ahead of previous flagships. According to the outlet's sources, that means the GS9 could enter mass production before the end of 2017, which could point to an earlier launch window in 2018 — which in turn could make a public unveiling at Mobile World Congress 2018 a real possibility.
At the same time, it's worth taking unconfirmed reports like this with a pinch of salt, especially when they come from a single source. Even if the Galaxy S9's production timeline is ahead of previous releases, we're still a good nine months or more away from seeing the fruits of Samsung's efforts.
As for the codename itself, "Star" fits into the standard pattern of telling us basically nothing about the phone itself. Previous Samsung codenames have included Dream (GS8), Grace (Note 7) and Zen (GS6 edge+); the upcoming Note 8 reportedly goes by the codename "Great."
The only other nugget of GS9 info we have thus far is that Samsung is reportedlt working with Qualcomm on the next-gen Snapdragon chips that'll power the phone in some regions. Again, no surprises there.
