It's getting ever close to the date when Samsung will unveil its next entry in the Galaxy Note series, the Note 9. There have been several rumors regarding the handset recently, and here is a roundup of the most significant.

Earlier this week, regular leaker Ice universe tweeted out an alleged image of the Note 9. As is so often the case with new phones these days, there appear to be only incremental design changes over its predecessor---though it's expected to boast a 6.38-inch display, slightly larger than the Note 8's 6.32-inch screen.

"Samsung was lazy in 2018 and I concluded that Note9 will not change much. This is just a small adjustment to Note8," writes Ice universe.

Some of the Note 9's rumored features include an all-new interface called 'Crown UX,' an updated digital assistant in the form of Bixby 2.0, a 3850mAh 18W fast-charging battery, the same dual aperture camera found in the S9, an improved front-facing camera, and a new and improved S-Pen. Some (hard to believe) rumors say the stylus might feature a microphone for phone calls. It also appears that there will once again be a dual-SIM model of the Note 9.

But one feature that now seems almost certain to be missing is an in-display fingerprint reader. It was thought that the technology would appear in the Note 8 and the S9, but issues with its implementation saw it canceled. According to several sources, it looks as if Samsung still hasn't perfected the system in time for its inclusion in the Note 9, and we might have to wait until next year's Galaxy S10 before it arrives in a Samsung handset.

A recent Geekbench listing shows the Note 9 sporting 6GB of RAM, Android 8.1 Oreo, and the Snapdragon 845 processor.

As for the phone's unveiling date, it's suspected that Samsung will follow the same path as last year's Note 8 and reveal the handset at a dedicated Unpacked event in August, just before the IFA conference. Some reports say weaker than expected S9 sales could see the Note 9 debut in July, but this seems less likely.