Other than the iPhone 8, Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact and their predecessors there haven’t been many high-end compact phones in recent years, but Samsung could be about to add to the list with a Samsung Galaxy S9 Mini.
Known leaker I ice universe has said as much on Weibo (a Chinese microblogging site), adding that the screen is less than 5 inches and that it has a “full screen”, which suggests that it will have minimal bezels and a super-widescreen 18.5:9 aspect ratio, just like the Samsung Galaxy S8 range.
They don’t actually name the phone, but the mention of “full screen” suggests it will be using design language from the S series, so an S9 Mini is the obvious conclusion.
Some sites are reporting that the Samsung Galaxy S9 Mini – or whatever it ends up being called – will also have a curved display, which would make sense if it uses the Galaxy S9 name, but the original information is in Chinese, and based on our own translation attempts we feel it could just as well be saying that the screen won’t curve.
Coming soon… probably
Similarly, there’s no suggestion that it will launch alongside the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus, despite what you might read elsewhere, though a launch in the first half of 2018 would seem likely if it’s going to arrive at all.
And that’s a big if, I Ice Universe seems to say they’re not sure if it will be released or not (though this again is based on Google Translate).
There’s reason to be skeptical, as Samsung hasn’t made a mini version of its flagships in years. But if the Samsung Galaxy S9 Mini is real we’d expect to hear more about it soon.