may include large battery thanks to new motherboard tech

According to the Korean media ETNews, Samsung is going to push some boundaries next year. The publication reports that the rumored Galaxy S9 may come with a new type of motherboard, based on the SLP (Substrate Like PCB) technology. SLP allows manufacturers to fit more components onto a single board by lowering their footprint and allowing for additional layers of components, while retaining the size of the board.

Allegedly, this tech is being pursued so that Samsung can fit a bigger battery in its next Galaxy S device without making the handset bulkier. However, ETNews says that this new technology would only be used for the units powered by the Exynos chipset; the Qualcomm versions will still employ the less-efficient HDI (High-Density Interconnect) technology.

In the past, little has separated the Qualcomm variants (the ones that are usually sold in the West) from the Exynos versions of Samsung’s handsets — save for some minor performance differences. If the two versions of the Galaxy S9 were to make use of different motherboards this time, though, it could mean that the phones also come with different size batteries, or with different sized bodies (with the Qualcomm variant being bigger in order to house the same size battery as the “global” version).