After “Baikal,” Here Comes “Crown”: Samsung Starts Galaxy Note 9 Development

Samsung is getting ready to begin development of the Galaxy Note 9 flagship, with a new report revealing that the project is internally codenamed “crown.”

While the South Korean firm obviously remains tight-lipped on its future devices, The Investor writes that pilot production is scheduled to start in the first quarter of the year, so leaks revealing early prototypes are expected to surface in just a couple of months.

As for the codename of the device, Samsung is reportedly calling the Note 9 “crown,” and the cited source says this in an indication pointing to the company’s ambitions for the upcoming device. Samsung is known as a company whose codenames hint to the goal of each new product, and in the case of the Note 9, this could be a sign that the firm wants to position the device as the leader of the phablet sector.

The existing Samsung Galaxy Note 8 was codenamed “Baikal,” and this itself ...