First Galaxy Note 9 benchmark reveals specs and Android 8.1.0

Phone

We now have the first Galaxy Note 9 benchmark sighting and if history is any indication, it's going to be the first of many. The Galaxy Note 9 bearing model number SM-N960U has surfaced on Geekbench where it has revealed its specifications. It's also the first time that the device has been spotted online with Android 8.1.0 Oreo. When it appeared in the browser benchmark, the device was running Android 8.0.

First Galaxy Note 9 benchmark

As the model number suggests, this first Galaxy Note 9 benchmark happens to be of the US variant which will be powered by a Qualcomm chip. The benchmark reveals that the Galaxy Note 9 will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, as expected, since it's also powering the Galaxy S9/S9+. It can be said with absolute certainty that the international variants of this device will be powered by Samsung's Exynos 9810 processor much like the existing flagship.

The benchmark reveals the possibility that the Galaxy Note 9 will ship with 6GB of RAM which won't be surprising at all given that Samsung is already shipping the Galaxy S9+ with a similar amount of RAM.

As previously mentioned, this is the first time that the Galaxy Note 9 has been spotted with Android 8.1.0 Oreo. It's expected to ship with this iteration of Oreo and there's a good chance that it will. Some of you might remember that while the Galaxy S8 came with Android 7.0 last year, the Galaxy Note 8 was running Android 7.1 at launch.

We recently reported that Samsung has started firmware development for the Galaxy Note 9 and that it's testing the firmware globally. There have been conflicting reports about the handset's fingerprint sensor. While previous reports claimed that Samsung will stick with the fingerprint sensor at the back, a recent report claims that there's still hope for an in-display fingerprint sensor. If that turns out to be true, the Galaxy Note 9 would be the first Samsung smartphone to tout an optical fingerprint sensor.

There haven't been any reports about an early Galaxy Note 9 release so far. We can expect Samsung to stick to the script and not release the new flagship phablet before August/September 2018. It launched the Galaxy Note 8 on August 23, 2017.

Adnan Farooqui - Executive Editor

[email protected]

First Samsung device: SGH-E900

Adnan Farooqui is a long-term writer at SamMobile. Based in Pakistan, his interests include technology, finance, Swiss watches and Formula 1. His tendency to write long posts betrays his inclination to being a man of few words.