The FCC has just approved the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 for release in the USA, suggesting that the new handset might be very close to a release.
Although the FCC is an American agency, it’s approved a couple of models that appear to be international. SamMobile reports that the N960F appears to be the international variant, while the dual-SIM SM-N960F/DS and SM-N960X are expected to be released in Asian markets where multiple SIM cards are a more important feature.
The big question is when we might finally get a chance to see the new handset. The Note 8 was released on the 23rd of August 2017, although this launch date was delayed due to the battery problems experienced by the Note 7 (itself released on the 19th of August the previous year).
In terms of what we should expect from the new handset, it’s increasingly looking like it might be a very iterative year for the Note range. The Galaxy S9 was an incrementally upgraded S8, and futuristic tech like an under-screen fingerprint scanner appears to have been held back from this year’s model.
Its supersize 512GB variant will apparently not be coming to the West, and the voice assistant’s shortcomings mean that we’re struggling to get too excited about the rumoured debut of Bixby 2.0.
That said, an incremental upgrade over the Note 8 is no bad thing. The phone got a respectable 4.5 stars from us when we reviewed it last year, when we were impressed by its stylus integration and overall build quality.
There’s no word yet from Samsung on an official release date or announcement event, but the quantity of rumours circulating means that it has to be close.
