Samsung Galaxy S9: Release date, price, specs and rumours .

The Samsung Galaxy S9 launch is February 25 and will be the biggest of 2018 so far, with the eyes of the world firmly placed on the South Korean firm as it introduces its retort to Apple's iPhone X.

Samsung set the bar for flagship smartphones early in 2017 with its stunning Galaxy S8 and there's no doubt the South Korean tech powerhouse is looking to do the same in 2018.Alongside the Google Pixel, the Samsung Galaxy S8 emerged as a popular alternative to Apple's iPhone 8 and iPhone X phones last year. New Samsung flagship will be revealed at a dedicated event ahead of the Mobile World Congress event in FebruaryThere's very little official word on what to expect - apart from the cryptic invitation above. From the looks of things, Samsung will be pushing the camera upgrades as the biggest new feature in the Galaxy S9.

Samsung Galaxy S9 has been officially teased in several videos pointing to new camera abilities. We're also hearing that the phone could have an Animoji-like feature and two speakers. Plus, it's appeared in a benchmark and it might not cost as much as we'd previously heard.

According to the latest rumours, the forthcoming Android heavyweight will feature advanced 3D emoji characters that respond to facial expressions. These will be "more advanced" than the Animoji characters Apple created to show off the power of its iPhone X. It's also a way of putting a friendly face on the advanced facial recognition software called "Intelligent Scan" that the company is reportedly packing into the phone .

 We now know when and where Galaxy Unpacked 2018 will be taking place.For this year Samsung is heading to Barcelona, where we'll finally get a look at what's new just a day before the giant Mobile World Congress event. The official time and date is February 25 at 6pm Central European Time, but unless you're holidaying in Spain here's the date to pop in your diary: February 26 at 4am AEST.That's pretty early in the morning so you might be asking if it's really worth setting the alarm for. Well, Samsung has long been using the Unpacked events to launch some truly great products.It was jammed full of impressive hardware and features, from eye-tracking software that would let you scroll up-and-down the screen without touching it -- and even pause videos when you looked away -- right through to Samsung's ground breaking octacore processor, the Exynos 5.That same pedigree of innovative technology was visible three years later, when Unpacked 2017 introduced the world to the Galaxy S8 and S8+ with their cutting-edge Infinity Displays. The Super AMOLED screen sported a super high Quad HD+ resolution (2960 x 1440 pixels) and curved over the edges of the phone, stripping away the wasted bezel area. It was the same display we saw later in 2017 when the Galaxy Note 8 arrived, just super-sized to an incredible 6.3-inches.

Set the alarm for 4am on February 26 and bookmark and sign up here to get all the details.Although details are still under wraps until the Unpacked event, thanks to Samsung Australia we are giving one lucky Australian reader the chance to win a Samsung prize pack.

We were expecting £640 / $720  the same as the Galaxy S8  to be the price of the new Galaxy S9 phone.