Galaxy S9+ with Android 9.0 Pie leak may hint at faster Samsung updates

By Daniel Petrov

Aug 29, 2018, 3:03 AM

Galaxy S9+ with Android 9.0 Pie leak may hint at faster Samsung updates

Google released the retail version of its latest Android 9.0 Pie software update on August 6th, and Samsung is already testing it on its flagship Galaxy S9, it seems. The world's largest phone maker has its own heavily skinned interface that has been offering many functionalities that Google just now introduces into Android, but still, it will supposedly be nicer to have them on a "system level."

A suspected Galaxy S9+ running Android 9.0 Pie has appeared in the cross-platform GFXBench database with the telltale sign "INVALID Android Samsung-ss Edition." This often denotes a Samsung device running official test firmware, excluding the notion that this might be a custom ROM/AOSP device.

In any case, the S9 and S9+ are Samsung's first flagships that shipped with Android 8.0 Oreo hence Project Treble out of the box. As a reminder, Google's Project Treble aims to speed up Android software updates on non-Google phones by isolating the core functions from the manufacturer's overlay, thus reducing the amount of code that has to be developed and tested before each new Android version.

Could Samsung deliver a collective surprise and update the Galaxy S9 and S9+ to Android 9.0 Pie in the next three months or so, as Project Treble presentations were promising? We cross our fingers, as this would be a watershed moment for the Android universe.