The company’s smartphone supremo , DJ Koh, confirmed the launch at CES  Koh didn’t offer a specific date, but MWC is the only obvious candidate.

The S9 - and, presumably, an S9 Plus - will be the successors to the S8 and S8 Plus, which launched at a Samsung event in New York last March before going on sale in April. The S8 and the plus were a big hit. The phones were even good enough to make consumers forget about the disaster of the Galaxy Note 7 and its exploding batteries.  The Tame Apple Press did its best to blight sales of the S8 and S8 plus by implying that it would suffer from the same problem. 

The Galaxy S9 is expected to be nearly identical to its predecessor, with the rear fingerprint sensor moved to below the camera, rather than its current,  position of off to one side.

Koh also reiterated that the company plans to launch a foldable phone in 2018. What exactly “foldable” means in terms of functionality isn’t clear, but smartphones with curved displays have been an obsession of Samsung’s for the last five years.