https://www.techradar.com/news/samsung-galaxy-note-9-could-launch-sooner-than-you-might-expect

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 was announced in August 2017 and hit stores in September, but we might see the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 slightly earlier in the year, as Samsung is apparently already working on firmware for the phone.

SamMobile reports that firmware builds with version numbers N960FXXE0ARB7 and N960FXXU0ARC5 are both being tested.