Galaxy S9 should land Android 9 faster

The new features that the latest Android 8.0 Oreo update brings to the table, and to the newly-announced Galaxy S9 and S9+ in particular, aren't overwhelming, but one of them is of particular note - Project Treble.

It is Google's final push to remedy slow Android updates by separating the basic, core Android framework, from the manufacturer image, thus allowing it to be updated much faster than before, as it will be uniform across the board.

There are a few Project Treble phones currently on the market, like Huawei's Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro, but those launched with Oreo from the get-go, like Samsung's 2017 darlings Galaxy S8 or Note 8, won't be among those even after their respective Oreo updates. The reason is that these were never crafted with the thought to have their Android core split from Samsung's Experience UI overlay.

If you want major Android software updates to happen faster on Samsung's handsets (and who can say they don't, given their average time between updates), you'd have to splurge for the Galaxy S9 and S9+, as, since those have been conceived with Oreo in mind, they are confirmed to support Project Treble. Thus, when Google takes center stage in May to announce Android 9.0 P, you can finally see new features and perks that your spring Samsung flagship will get much faster than what's usually a multi-month delay.