Tech News

The Honor 30S was launched in China earlier this year, and now the name is rumored to appear outside the company's domestic market. However, we say "name", because alleged renders reveal this isn't the same phone. A detailed inspection of the Huawei portfolio reveals we've already seen this phone - this is actually the Huawei nova 7 SE (which is also known as the Huawei P40 Lite 5G, but which you shouldn't confuse with the Huawei P40 Lite). European Honor 30S While it's hard to confirm the authenticity of these renders, it wouldn't be a surprise for Huawei and its...

Samsung has started selling its The Wall lineup of ultra-premium QLED TVs in South Korea. The company had started experience zones for the new TVs at the Samsung Galleria Mall in Gwanggyo, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province on March 31 so that customers could see the massive TV in action.

An experience zone for The Wall TV is present at Samsung Electronics’ Premium Store inside the Gwanggyo store’s eighth floor. People can experience the 146-inch version of The Wall. However, the experience is being operated as a customized concierge service and will only be available for those who pre-book the visit.

Samsung said in a press release that it would expand experience zones for the TV to more stores across South Korea in the future. People would be able to experience the moon in 8K resolution and Quantum HDR 24X. The South Korean firm will hold various events, including the opening of The Wall Experience Zone, to coincide with the revamp of its store.

The Wall TVs are based on the micro LED technology, which offers improved picture quality compared to LCD technologies. It offers 8K resolution, ultra-low reflection backlight technology, improved color volume, and HDR10+. Business and cinema versions of The Wall are available as well, and they offer modular designs.

The post Samsung starts selling The Wall TVs in South Korea, offers experience zones appeared first on SamMobile.

Samsung is the world leader in memory and storage chip segments, and the company has now announced that it plans to expand its NAND flash memory chip production. It will invest in Line 2 at its Pyeongtaek factory to expand the production to meet the increased demand for computers and servers after the COVID-19 lockdown measures.

The construction of the new facility began last month, and the company says that the mass production of V-NAND flash memory chips will start from the second half of 2021. Samsung says that demand for memory chips will increase in the future due to increased adoption of 5G, AI (artificial intelligence), and IoT (Internet of Things) technologies.

Analysts say that the company would invest anywhere between KRW 7 trillion and KRW 8 trillion for the new facility. The new production line will address the mid-term and long-term demands for NAND flash memory chips. The company plans to invest even more as digital lifestyle continues to evolve. Samsung’s Pyeongtaek Campus is the home to two of the world’s largest memory production lines.

Samsung has been the leader in the memory chip segment for the past 18 years. The company recently announced that its newest memory chip technology, the 160-layer V-NAND flash design, is the first in the industry that will allow even denser chips for higher memory capacity (256Gb 3-bit).

Cheol Choi, Executive Vice President of Memory Global Sales & Marketing at Samsung Electronics, said, “The new investment reaffirms our commitment to sustain undisputed leadership in memory technologies, even in uncertain times. We will continue to serve the market with the most optimized solutions available while contributing to the growth of the overall IT industry and the economy in general.“

The post Samsung announces plans to expand memory chip production capacity in Korea appeared first on SamMobile.

Samsung has launched its Odyssey G7 gaming monitors in South Korea. The 27-inch Odyssey G7 monitor is priced at KRW 800,000 (around $651) and the 32-inch Odyssey G7 gaming monitor is priced at KRW 900,000 (around $733). Those who purchase these gaming monitors in South Korea by August 31 would be eligible to get the JBL Quantum 300 gaming headset for free.

Both the monitors in the Odyssey G7 lineup are the industry’s first 1000R curved gaming monitors, and Samsung claims that they offer an ideal curvature for the human eye for greater immersion and better viewing experience. They’re also certified by TUV Rheinland for eye comfort. Both monitors use QLED VA panels and have a QHD resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio, a 240Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, Nvidia G-Sync, AMD FreeSync 2, and 2500:1 contrast ratio.

The Odyssey G7 gaming monitors support HDR (DisplayHDR 600) to offer a peak brightness of 600 nits and a typical brightness of 350 nits. They also feature RGB LED light spots at the front and the rear, and the colors can be customized as per the gamer’s choice. The monitors have two DisplayPort inputs, two HDMI ports, and three USB ports.

The monitors have height-adjustable stands that also support pivot, swivel, and tilt adjustments. Samsung’s new Odyssey G7 monitors also come color-calibrated from the factory and calibration reports. These monitors were unveiled at CES 2020 and Samsung recently made them the official gaming monitors for the T1 e-sports team.

The post Samsung launches Odyssey G7 gaming monitors in South Korea appeared first on SamMobile.

The Samsung Upgrade Program offers you a chance to upgrade your Galaxy smartphones to newer models by paying a low monthly fee. Now, the South Korean smartphone giant has launched a new program that offers even more benefits at a lower cost. Samsung Access can be viewed as an improved version of the Samsung Upgrade Program as it includes smartphone upgrades, Samsung Premium Care, and a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Samsung Access is currently available while buying the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, and the Galaxy S20 Ultra in the US. The program offers smartphone financing options through fixed monthly payments, and you can even upgrade to new Samsung phones every nine months at no additional cost. Upgrading earlier is also an option, but it attracts a $100 one-time fee.

The program also includes Samsung Premium Care, which is the company’s insurance program that lets you get your accidentally broken phones repaired or replaced for a $99 deductible (for up to three times in 12 months). Samsung Access also offers a subscription to Microsoft 365, which includes access to 1TB OneDrive cloud storage and full access to Microsoft Office (Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint, Skype, Teams, and Word).

The 1TB OneDrive cloud storage can be linked to your Samsung account to backup photos (and videos) and phone backups via Samsung Gallery and Samsung Cloud on Galaxy smartphones and tablets. To know more about the Samsung Access program, hit the source link below.

The Samsung Access program is priced at $37/month for the Galaxy S20, $42/month for the Galaxy S20+, and $48/month for the Galaxy S20 Ultra. You can even cancel the program and return the phone after three months. If you want to cancel before three months, you can do that, too, but you would have to pay a $100 fee. This program is excellent for early adopters and those who upgrade their phones often.

The post Samsung Access program launched in the US, includes Microsoft 365 and Samsung Premium Care appeared first on SamMobile.

A fee new phones premiered in week 22 and two of them ended up on top of our trending chart - the Redmi 10X Pro just edged out the Nokia C5 Endi. Meanwhile the Redmi Note 9S managed to gain a position and take the last podium spot as the Samsung Galaxy A51 had to settle for fourth. Sony's new flagship - the Xperia 1 II is starting to make its way to stores and that helped boost its popularity and propel it to fifth. The Redmi Note 8 pair follows - the Pro ahead of the vanilla version. Following them is the Realme 6 Pro, which makes a return to the chart. The Apple iPhone SE...

Huawei's subbrand Honor has been aggressively expanding into the world of accessories after the trade ban by the United States caused it to look for alternative revenue streams to compensate falling overseas phone sales. The latest gadget announced was the Honor Magic Earbuds - initially known as Honor FlyPods 3 in China, and also available in some markets under the name Huawei Freebuds 3i. We received a Robin Egg Blue pair in the office and spent some quite a bit of time with them so now we are ready to share our impressions. The Honor Magic Earbuds in Blue are definitely standing...

Based on recent leaks, it seems Samsung will not be making another ‘small’ Galaxy Note model to succeed the Galaxy Note 10 from last year. Well, the regular Galaxy Note 20 will still be smaller than the Note 20+, but if it does end up having a 6.7-inch screen like the leaks say it will, it won’t exactly be very compact. It will easily dwarf the Galaxy Note 10 at the very least, making last year’s non-Plus Note model a one-of-a-kind device.

If that ends up happening, we here at SamMobile will certainly be disappointed. The Galaxy Note 10, for all its faults (like the lack of microSD expansion or the Full HD+ resolution instead of Quad HD+ like the Note 10+), is an excellent phone that’s great for those who like compact phones and want an S Pen to go along with it. And we feel many Galaxy Note 10 owners probably share our sentiment and like the phone a lot, but we also understand that not everyone may feel that way.

Which brings to our latest poll: We want to know what your experience has been like using the Galaxy Note 10. Do you like the phone and have no complaints? Do you think the device is good but isn’t perfect, or did you buy it and sell it soon after because it failed to live up to all your expectations?

Let us know by voting in the poll below, and also expand on your thoughts down in the comments section after you have cast your vote!

The post [Poll] Owners of regular Galaxy Note 10: How’s your experience been so far? appeared first on SamMobile.

In week 21 some substantial rumors emerged that allowed us to add two upcoming phones to the database and it appears you guys have been paying close attention. The vivo X50 took the top, while the Samsung Galaxy Note 20+ got to third place even though neither phone is official yet. Inbetween we have the Galaxy A51, which shapes up to be a worthy successor of the A50 that spent almost a year in our top 10. A quintet of Xiaomi phones follow - the Redmi Note 9S regained fourth as the Poco F2 Pro slid to fifth. The Redmi Notes 8 Pro, 10 and 8 take the next three positions in that order....

Last week was huge for Realme. It unveiled 3 phones, two TVs, a smartwatch and a pair of headphones and power banks, across a few events in India, China and Europe. Starting off with the phones - the Realme X50 Pro Player Edition. It's mostly a X50 Pro but with better cooling and slightly inferior cameras for the same price. It's on sale in China now. The Realme X3 SuperZoom brings an 8MP 5x periscope camera, a 64MP main camera, a Snapdragon 855+ and a 120Hz fast-refresh IPS LCD and a potent 12/256GB option for €499, when it goes on sale on June 2. The Realme 6s replaces the Realme...

Almost two months ago, we reported that Samsung’s latest update for the Galaxy M31 at the time had bricked some units sold in India. Samsung later pulled that update from the air and recommended that users manually flash firmware on their device to get it working again.

Now, the company has released a new software update for the Galaxy M31 in India, one that will hopefully not cause any trouble for owners of the value-for-money budget smartphone. The update comes carrying firmware version M315FXXU1ATD5. It has already been available in other markets since early May so it should work without issues, though we would still recommend backing up your data using Samsung Smart Switch before installing the update.

The changelog is generic and mentions device stability, performance and feature enhancements, which is to say it doesn’t tell us anything useful. The security patch remains unchanged as well – you get security fixes included in the April security patch, not the May patch that has been released for multiple Galaxy devices in recent days.

You can download the 395 MB update over-the-air by tapping the Download and install button in the phone’s Settings » Software update menu. Our firmware archive will also have the latest Galaxy M31 firmware for India available for download in the near future so you can manually upgrade your phone to the new software.

The post Samsung Galaxy M31 gets new update in India appeared first on SamMobile.

The Motorola Nexus 6 came at a strange time. Google had just sold off the Motorola division to Lenovo months earlier and the smartphone world was in a sudden transition to 64-bit processors. Also, flagship prices were on the rise, something Google tried to fight with the affordable Nexus 4 and 5, but this phone was different. With the Nexus 6, Google attempted to create a premium device and in many respects it succeeded. However, the $650 price tag for the 32GB model did not sit right with many Nexus fans and the larger 5.96" display had its detractors as well. This was large even by the...

Thanks to the high-resolution 108MP sensor, the main camera on the Galaxy S20 Ultra is more capable of taking zoomed-in pictures without losing detail compared to the 12MP cameras on the Galaxy S20 and S20+. But the S20 Ultra also has a limitation: Its main camera is less capable than the 12MP Galaxy S20 and S20+ camera when it comes to focusing on close objects, owing to a longer-than-usual focal length.

In layman terms, the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s main camera doesn’t let you get as close to objects as the camera on the smaller Galaxy S20 models without losing focus, which is a hardware limitation that cannot be corrected with software. To get around this, Samsung has added a new camera function to the Galaxy S20 Ultra with the latest update.

Like a macro mode without a macro camera

This new camera function is like a macro mode of sorts: Every time you get too close to an object and the Galaxy S20 Ultra realizes it cannot properly focus, it will now show a toggle called Use close-up zoom. Pressing this toggle sets the zoom level to 1.5x, so you can simply take a close-up shot without having to keep the phone physically close to whatever it is you’re trying to capture.

Check out the video below that shows this new Galaxy S20 Ultra camera feature in action.

This is a trick (zooming in for macro shots) many of you probably using already, and the close-up zoom toggle more or less just makes it an automated process. It also helps those who may not have thought of the trick on their own, and it helps maintain proper focus by suggesting to move farther away from the subject as well. And it’s made possible by the fact that the camera has 108 megapixels to work with, so you can get sharp and clear macro shots at 1.5x zoom without losing image quality.

It’s worth mentioning that the ‘close-up zoom’ function is not available on the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S20+. That’s probably because the non-Ultra models have better autofocus tech compared to the Ultra model (yes, it’s a messed up world we live in when a $1400 phone doesn’t have the best of everything over its cheaper siblings), and also because the 12-megapixel resolution would result in reduced quality when photos are captured at 1.5x magnification, as mentioned at the beginning of this article.

The post Galaxy S20 Ultra camera now has a special ‘close-up zoom’ mode appeared first on SamMobile.

Could it be? A periscope camera on a €500 phone that will be available in Europe, rather than China-exclusive? The Realme X3 SuperZoom makes that a reality and shows that the brand is serious about getting a foothold on the Old Continent. The periscope lens has 122mm focal length, that's 5x magnification compared to the main camera. Speaking of, the 64MP main cam assists in shooting up to 60x hybrid zoom photos. The phone also boasts two 8MP ultrawide cameras, one on the front and one on the back (the main selfie cam is a 32MP shooter). While this phone is all about the camera, it...

Samsung should unveil its next high-end tablet by the end of the summer, likely alongside the Galaxy Note 20 and the sequel to the Galaxy Fold. This year, the upcoming Galaxy Tab S7 might not be alone, as evidence suggests that Samsung is planning to release a larger Galaxy Tab S7+ model at the same time.

The Galaxy Tab S6 was without a doubt the best Android tablet of 2019, and we expect the Galaxy Tab S7 lineup to be worthy of carrying the same label. As we’re getting closer to the tablets’ debut with each passing day, we can’t help but think of all the ways in which Samsung could or should improve its high-end tablet formula. The Galaxy Tab S7, or at least the Galaxy Tab S7+, could be perfect, and we think the following features and/or improvements would help the series achieve greatness.

Water resistance (IP67/IP68)

An IP rating that guarantees dust and water resistance has become the norm for the majority of Samsung’s high-end mobile products, and we think it’s time for this philosophy to make its way onto the company’s top-tier tablet lineup.

Water resistance would elevate the Galaxy Tab S7 series to another level and its inclusion would represent a considerable upgrade over all of its predecessors. If there’s one feature every SamMobile team member wants from the upcoming high-end tablet, it’s an IP67/IP68 rating.

Thinner bezels all around

Samsung’s tablets have had increasingly thinner bezels over the years, and we think the company should continue walking this path. Why not borrow a page from the smartphone book and treat the Galaxy Tab S7 series with even thinner bezels than last year’s model?

With proper palm rejection software, we wouldn’t mind seeing the Galaxy Tab S7 lineup adopting a bezel-less design, even to the point where an Infinity-O display with a center punch hole for the selfie camera would become a necessity as a result.

A 90/120Hz high refresh display

Samsung took its first step in the high refresh rate mobile display scene with the Galaxy S20 series. It fitted the flagship trio with 120Hz AMOLED panels, and it’s expected to do the same for the Galaxy Note 20. We think Samsung should fit the Galaxy Tab S7 lineup, or at the very least, the Galaxy Tab S7+ with a high refresh rate panel that can top either 90Hz or 120Hz.

The Galaxy Tab S7+ with its rumored 12.4-inch display seemingly shapes up to be a direct iPad Pro competitor, so in order to succeed in that regard, a high refresh rate display is almost required. The tablet’s rumored rated battery capacity of 10,090 mAh should be able to handle all those extra frames, and having a high refresh rate on such a large display could contribute to a fantastic user experience.

45W fast charging

Speaking of batteries, another feature the Galaxy Tab S7 series could benefit from is 45W fast charging, especially if the Galaxy Tab S7+ has a generous 10,090 mAh battery.

Recharging a large tablet-grade battery of 10,000mAh on 15W fast charging will take a considerably longer time. Samsung should push the limits beyond the existing 15W fast charging rate of the Galaxy Tab S6, and we think 45W fast charging would be a game-changing feature for the Galaxy Tab S7, or at least the Galaxy Tab S7+.

Better speakers and cameras

The Galaxy Tab S6 already has very good speakers tuned by AKG, so improving this area isn’t necessarily a high priority. However, with a high refresh rate display enhancing the multimedia experience, we’d love to see even better speakers on the Galaxy Tab S7 series.

Similarly, even though tablets aren’t always the most convenient devices for taking photos, Samsung did push the bar higher with the Galaxy Tab S6’s dual rear-facing camera combo, and the Galaxy Tab S7 could benefit from an even better camera setup.

Faster software updates and monthly security patches

Samsung’s flagship tablets don’t get the same software support as its flagship phones, and we think it’s time for this to change. Both the Galaxy Note 10 and the Galaxy Tab S6 were released in August 2019 running Android 9 out of the box, but while the Galaxy Note 10 series received Android 10 last December, the Galaxy Tab S6 made the jump to the newer OS version less than two months ago at the beginning of April.

We believe Samsung should release major firmware updates for its high-end tablets at a much faster rate. Furthermore, Samsung needs to stop putting new tablets on the quarterly security patch update schedule and it should give the Galaxy Tab S7 series monthly security patches.

Wrapping up the Galaxy Tab S7 series wishlist

We’re aware that adding every one of these features to the Galaxy Tab S7 series or the Galaxy Tab S7+ would lead to higher production costs and a higher price tag at launch. You can’t have one without the other, so we don’t necessarily want Samsung to add every one of these features to its upcoming flagship tablet series if it would result in unreasonable prices. However, at least some of these additions and/or improvements must be included in the Galaxy Tab S7 flagship tablet package.

What features would you like to see being added to the Galaxy Tab S7 lineup? Is there one feature in particular for which you’d be willing to pay extra? Feel free to let us know below.

Galaxy Tab S6 review

The post Features we’d like to see from the Galaxy Tab S7/S7+ flagship tablets appeared first on SamMobile.

Most people are looking to buy a phone in the $200-$600 range, shows last week's poll. The lower half of that price range proved the most popular, meaning that $200-$400 is the sweet spot for new devices. This also means that Apple hit the bullseye with the iPhone SE (2020), which is exactly $400 if you can make do with 64GB storage. The upgrade to 128GB costs $50, which pushes things into the next price range, but that's not unexpected for Apple. Still, an Apple A13 chipset at $400 should be a wake-up call to Android makers and probably Qualcomm too - Apple's chipset is in a league of...

The Bullets Wireless Z are the third pair of wireless earphones from OnePlus. A replacement to the excellent Bullets Wireless 2 from last year, the Bullets Wireless Z are meant to be a more affordable option, while matching the design and features of its predecessor. The Bullets Wireless Z are the cheapest wireless set from OnePlus so far, with the US pricing being half what the Bullets Wireless 2 cost. In India, the Bullets Wireless Z costs a third of the Bullets Wireless 2 and half of the original Bullets Wireless. In fact, the INR1,999 price is the lowest anywhere in the world and...

Honor is cooking-up another pair of devices for its "Play" lineup. Heading towards a June 3 announcement, the Honor Play 4 and Honor Play 4 Pro should not be confused with the Play 4T and Play 4T Pro. A different pair of Honor devices, that recently appeared out of the blue and are already official. Honor Play 4 colors A company manager took to Weibo today to showcase banners for the Honor Play 4 in three colors. Officially, that's about as much as we know about the Honor Play 4 pair at the moment. Unofficially, a recent TENAA listing suggests the regular Honor Play 4 will...

India is making major strides towards incentivizing and expanding local production of major manufacturers like Apple and Samsung. The empowered committee of secretaries - the governing body for the country's Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) program met on Friday and decided to remove and alter a few important clauses. This has been done as a deliberate effort to attract more US investment, mainly by making India more attractive as a partner in the so-called "China plus one strategy". Simply put, the changing and constantly-developing economic climate in China has been...

Vivo has a pretty-sweet promo currently going for the iQOO 3. The base 8GB/128GB version can be had for just INR 31,990. That's and INR 3,000 discount on top of the already active INR 4,000 discount, in place since last month. In order to get the most reduced price on Flipkart, you will have to use a ICICI Bank Credit Card, Credit Card EMI or Debit Card EMI for the transaction. The promo pricing across the entire iQOO 3 lineup (4G and 5G versions) goes as follows: Smartphone Launch Price Current Price After ICICI card discount iQOO 3 4G 8+128GB Rs....

The Oppo Reno4 and Reno4 Pro are on their way. We know that much for sure, with a June 5 unveiling event already scheduled. Thanks to some specs leaks and TENAA listings, we also have a pretty good understanding of what kind of specs to expect from both devices. The pair seems to share most of their internals and design. But, so far, most physical glimpses we have received have been of the Reno4 Pro variant. Enter a new, detailed render that showcases the vanilla Reno4 phone. Oppo Reno4 render Alongside it - a nifty specs comparison table, that clears-up some of the differences...

Consider yourself a superfan of Samsung? Take our quiz and see how many answers you can get right! This is a fun activity that we do with our readers every week to test their knowledge of our favorite company. The quiz has a mix of easy and difficult questions that most fans should be able to answer without turning to Google.

We intend to make a new quiz for you every weekend so we hope that you’ll participate and learn a thing or two about Samsung in the process! Don’t forget to share the results of the quiz with your friends and see if you can outscore them. A little competition never hurt anybody!

Remember, if the quiz isn’t loading properly, please access the non-AMP version of this webpage.

The post Weekly SamMobile Quiz 28 – Come test your Samsung knowledge! appeared first on SamMobile.

We have good news for those who have been wondering if the physical rotating bezel will ever come back to Samsung’s smartwatches. Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy smartwatch will have a physical bezel, sources have confirmed to us. That pretty much means the upcoming watch is going to be a followup to the Galaxy Watch, so we will call it the Galaxy Watch 2 for the time being.

Welcome back physical bezel, we’ve missed you

Last year, Samsung released two smartwatches — the Galaxy Watch Active and Galaxy Watch Active 2 — within a span of eight months, and neither of them had a physical bezel. Samsung did introduce a virtual touch bezel with the Galaxy Watch Active 2 that works pretty well for a software feature, but nothing beats the feel and convenience of an actual bezel ring, and it’s good to hear it’s still going to be a part of Samsung’s smartwatch lineup.

FCC certification for the upcoming watch had revealed that it will come in a 45mm size, which is right between the larger Galaxy Watch Active 2 (44mm) and the larger Galaxy Watch model (46mm). It’s not known how big the other variant will be, though we assume the physical bezel will be present on both variants. As we had revealed in another exclusive, Samsung will also release its new watch in titanium, a variant that’s probably going to be costlier than the aluminium and stainless steel models by a fair margin.

The next Galaxy smartwatch is expected to launch in August, alongside the Galaxy Note 20 series, Galaxy Fold 2, and the Galaxy Tab S7 and S7+ in what should be a purely online event. With so many high-profile products launching at the same time, the upcoming watch is at risk of having its limelight stolen, but we think the return of the physical rotating bezel — and ECG functionality that actually works — will still get plenty of people excited.

The post Exclusive: Upcoming Galaxy Watch has a physical rotating bezel! appeared first on SamMobile.

Google's Android 11 roadmap has been hitting all sorts of snags lately. The original Google I/O May 12 to May 14 event was canceled entirely, due to COVID-19. With it, the anticipated Android 11 Beta release morphed into a fourth Developer Preview build of the OS. The then scheduled June 1 Launch Show online event was later postponed to June 3. And in the latest development, that date has now been scrapped, as well, pushing the whole thing back an undetermined amount of time. We are excited to tell you more about Android 11, but now is not the time to celebrate. We are postponing the June...

A few days ago, we heard quite a bit of chatter about the Galaxy M01 and M11 coming to India as early as the start of June. Now we have an even more specific date and time for the launch - June 2 at 12PM. The specific time is a bit unexpected, since it seems unlikely for Samsung to hold and actual event for the budget pair. Still, we could be treated to some formal unveiling, even if it is a scheduled promo video. Alternatively, you can expect to see listings go up online. We'll likely be keeping a closer eye on the Galaxy M01 ourselves, since, unlike the M11, its specs sheet is...

Vivo's new X50 family is just around the corner and should be officially unveiled on June 1. After a myriad of leaks and official teasers, over the last few weeks, we honestly thought that we had a good idea of what to expect from the upcoming vanilla X50 and the X50 Pro. In a fresh new plot twist, though, we now have an image detailing a third X50 Pro+ model. This one - a proper Snapdragon 865 flagship. vivo X50 lineup specs A potentially confusing revelation, this new development does explain certain inconsistencies from the last few days. Mainly, the fact that the X50 Pro was...

Samsung is gearing up to launch two new Galaxy M series smartphones in India. The Galaxy M01 and Galaxy M11 are slated to launch in the country on June 2, according to teaser images released by Samsung on social media. These images show both phones and mention a couple of specs for the Galaxy M11, but they don’t mention what might be their most attractive aspect for many customers.

As you can guess from the title, we’re talking about the silicon inside the Galaxy M01 and M11. The M01 has the Snapdragon 439 chipset under the hood and the M11 is powered by the Snapdragon 450. Last year, Galaxy M smartphones launched in the same price range as the M01 and M11 were powered by the outdated Exynos 7870 and 7884 chipsets. While the Snapdragon 439 and Snapdragon 450 are humble low-end chips, they should provide better performance and efficiency than the Exynos 7870 and 7884 respectively.

According to a recent leak, the Galaxy M01 and Galaxy M11 will be priced at Rs 8,999 (~$120) and Rs 10,999 (~$145) respectively for the 3GB+32GB variants. The Galaxy M11 is also expected to have a variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage that could be priced at Rs 12,999 (~$170). Both handsets are said to be exclusive to online retailer Flipkart, though they should eventually be available through other online stores and through offline stores as well.

As far as specs go, the Galaxy M01 is expected to feature a 5.7-inch HD+ LCD display with a waterdrop notch, a dual rear camera with 13MP wide and 2MP depth sensors, a rear-facing fingerprint sensor, and microSD expansion. The Galaxy M11, which has already launched in Vietnam, features a 6.4-inch HD+ LCD display with a corner punch hole, a triple camera setup that includes 13MP wide, 5MP ultra-wide, and 2MP depth sensors, an 8MP front-facing camera, and a 5,000 mAh battery with 15W fast charging.

The post Snapdragon-powered Galaxy M01 and M11 launching in India on June 2 appeared first on SamMobile.

The built-in screen recorder is one of the best features One UI 2.0 features, but the company had decided to keep it exclusive to upper mid-range and flagship smartphones. However, it seems Samsung has changed its mind recently. The Galaxy A51’s One UI 2.1 update was released with a non-working version of the screen recording feature, and now, the Galaxy A50s is getting the feature as well through a new software update.

On the Galaxy A50s, the screen recorder does work, and we have heard that it also works on the Galaxy A51 in some of the markets where Samsung’s best-selling 2020 phone has received the One UI 2.1 update, suggesting that the feature will be making its way to more of the company’s mid-range phones — such as the Galaxy A50 — in the future.

The Galaxy A50s update brings a couple of other additions, such as the ability to use the flash when capturing photos at 48MP resolution with the rear camera and, according to some users, improved fingerprint recognition. The update also includes the May 2020 security patch and is rolling out with firmware version A507FNXXU4BTD3. It is currently available in India but is likely to make its way to other markets in the coming weeks.

If you own a Galaxy A50s, you will get a notification once the update is available in your country. You can also manually download the update from the phone’s Settings » Software update menu. Alternatively, you can download the latest firmware from our firmware archive and install it on your phone using a Windows PC.

The post Galaxy A50s update brings screen recording feature, May security patch appeared first on SamMobile.

On Friday, Oppo revealed a teaser video that confirms the Reno4 Pro will be announced on Friday, June 5. The Reno4 will also make an appearance, and we've recently seen photos of this phone appear in red and blue "Glow" models. A new set of high-quality renders were published on Weibo with the Reno4 Pro in black and white. The Oppo Reno4 and Reno4 Pro are 5G phones powered by the Snapdragon 765G chipset and have punch-hole selfie cameras with curved-edge displays. One will have dual 32+2MP cameras while the other has a 32MP selfie shooter. Both phones have three triple main...

Samsung's Galaxy Note20+ will apparently have a 4,500 mAh battery, but what about the (slightly) smaller Note20? Back in April, word on the streets was 4,000 mAh. Now though, it looks like Samsung has managed to cram a bit more juice into the Note20's cell. After digging through the Chinese 3C's certification database, the enterprising folks at SamMobile have figured out that the model number for the battery that's going to be used in the Chinese version of the Note20 is EB-BN980ABY. Oh, and its capacity is 4,300 mAh. That's marginally better than what was thought before, and in...

Back in August last year Samsung introduced its Galaxy Book S which was a Windows laptop running on the Snapdragon 8cx chipset. Now, we get an Intel-powered version that relies on the power-efficient Lakefield SoC and Intel UHD graphics in the same fan-less ultrabook design. Upfront is a 13.3″ Full HD touchscreen LCD with a 1MP camera in the top bezel. The device weighs in at 950 grams and measures just 11.8mm at its thickest point. It also boasts a quad stereo speaker setup tuned by AKG and a built-in fingerprint scanner. The Intel Core i5-L16G7 Lakefield chipset is paired...

The COVID-19 pandemic had impacted not only the global smartphone market in Q1 2020, but the wearable segment as well. According to IDC, even if COVID-19 drove smartwatch sales down in the first quarter of the year, they were offset by a period of increased shipments of earwear/hearable products, with Samsung achieving a 71.7% year-on-year growth in the wearable segment.

In the smartwatch market alone, Samsung shipped 1.8 million devices in Q1 2020, down from 2.0 million units last year. The company maintained a 10.8% share of the market and was the third-largest smartwatch vendor. The global smartwatch market experienced a 7.1% year-on-year decline in shipments.

Samsung had the highest year-on-year growth in wearables

Despite lower smartwatch shipments, the earwear/hearable segment grew 29.7% year-on-year in Q1 2020. The research firm attributes this growth to the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically the higher demand for earwear/hearable products from customers who were stuck at home due to the virus and looked for ways to increase productivity. Samsung’s Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds+ were particularly successful for the company, with both products recording a total of 4 million shipments in Q1 2020.

With shipments from all the wearable categories combined, Samsung achieved a 71.7% year-on-year growth. It shipped 8.6 million wearables in Q1, wrist and earwear combined, up from 5 million units a year ago. The company increased its wearable market share from 9% to 11.9%.

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The Galaxy Buds have been around for a while but are still considered a good buy if you’re looking for truly wireless earbuds. They’ll last up to 6 hours on a single charge and when you use the included case to wireless charge them you can get another 7 hours out of them which is plenty for a full day of usage. The sound technology is optimized by AKG so you know the quality and sound design is good. It’s also able to resist water so you don’t need to worry wearing them when it rains or when you’re working out. Be sure to check our full review if you want to know everything there is to know about the Samsung Galaxy Buds. You can now get your hand on a pair of Galaxy Buds at 18% off!

Hit the Buy Now button below to order yours before they’re out of stock!

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It's official - OnePlus will no longer be making McLaren-branded phones as the partnership between the two companies has ended. Dating back to 2018, the short-lived partnership saw a few interesting releases. OnePlus' McLaren phones: the 6T, 7T and Concept One The latest (and last) was the OnePlus Concept One with its disappearing camera and the McLaren signature Papaya Orange color. Before that was the OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren (a T-Mobile exclusive for the US) and the OnePlus 6T McLaren, which introduced Warp Charge 30, the company's first charger upgrade over the original Dash...

Small, compact phones are no longer in fashion. It feels like it was ages ago that Samsung was laughed at for entertaining the idea of a large-screen phone by launching the first Galaxy Note. These days, 6-inch displays on smartphones are pretty common and are considered the new normal. That’s partly because you can now have big displays in fairly compact dimensions thanks to the all-screen designs manufacturers are pushing, and a compact smartphone is more or less a thing of the past.

That holds true whether you’re looking at a budget phone or a flagship device, but there are many out there who aren’t keen on the idea of having to live with a big smartphone that they can’t easily use with one hand. Flagship devices in particular ask customers to make a difficult choice: Do they want a phone that’s small and compact, or do they want all the bells and whistles that you expect from a premium product? While that choice is becoming harder and harder to make, those who want the best of both worlds still have an excellent option.

That option is the Galaxy S10e. It’s interesting how the smallest of the three Galaxy S10 models Samsung launched last year has been ignored and received so little attention over the past year. The Galaxy S10e was a breath of fresh air for a lot of reasons, and we were quite vocal about how we loved the device despite all of its faults. And more than a year later, it’s still got a lot going for it.

Not perfect, but the Galaxy S10e is still a fantastic phone

First, let’s address the shortcomings of the phone. As the S10e launched more than a year ago, Samsung’s software update policy dictates it will only be getting one major Android upgrade in the future, following which it will be relegated to security updates. Then there’s the fact that it has a small battery and not-so-fast charging by today’s standards. The former is a disadvantage that every compact smartphone suffers from and isn’t exclusive to the S10e, but it’s still worth pointing out.

For shutterbugs, the biggest disadvantage is that it doesn’t have a telephoto camera on the back. You can’t tap a button and zoom in on things as you can on the Galaxy S10, S10+, and pretty much every Galaxy flagship launched since then. It’s another one of those negatives that are a result of the phone’s compact dimensions, and it may be an issue for those who love taking pictures and want a versatile camera setup on their smartphone.

However, there’s a lot the Galaxy S10e gets right. It has a beautiful Super AMOLED display. Its performance is still top-notch no matter if you buy the Exynos or Snapdragon variant (depending on your market). It’s got an excellent main camera that can go toe to toe with the main camera on the Galaxy S20 and S20+, along with an ultra-wide camera with a higher megapixel count than the ultra-wide camera on the S20 series. You also get staple Galaxy flagship features on the S10e, such as IP68 water resistance, microSD expansion, wireless charging, and also reverse wireless charging.

The Galaxy S10e also has something that’s gone missing on recent top-of-the-line Galaxy smartphones: A headphone jack. Despite the popularity of wireless audio, a headphone jack is still a make-or-break feature for many. And the Galaxy S10e has one, in addition to fantastic stereo speakers. That’s not all: The Galaxy S10e has a traditional capacitive fingerprint sensor that’s fast and accurate, much more so than the in-display fingerprint sensors on its bigger cousins.

Finally, with the Galaxy S10e now more than a year old, prices have dropped by a few hundred bucks. In the US, you can get one for as low as $599 with a trade-in deal; if you don’t mind getting a used but ‘like new’ unit, you can find it selling for less than $400 on Amazon. In the UK, Samsung’s official website is selling it for £499. You may see a slightly higher price tag depending on which country you’re in, but if those big and unwieldy flagships aren’t up your alley, the Galaxy S10e is a phone you should seriously consider.

Galaxy S10e review

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Samsung is bringing the Galaxy Z Flip Thom Browne edition to customers in two additional markets, namely Spain and Singapore. The special edition foldable phone is finally available in Spain starting today, and it will be available in Singapore from June 13. The Thom Browne edition includes the smartphone itself, a pair of Galaxy Buds+, and a Galaxy Watch Active 2.

Customers can buy the Galaxy Z Flip Thom Browne Edition in Spain for 2,600 euros outright or for 72.22 euros a month, whereas customers in Singapore will be able to buy the special edition package for $3,388 from June 13. Samsung will make only 200 units available in Singapore in this first batch, and it’s unclear when or if stocks will be replenished once depleted.

Aura Red Galaxy S20+ and Cloud White Galaxy S20 Ultra coming too

Aside from the limited launch of the Galaxy Z Flip Thom Browne edition, Samsung Singapore also revealed it will bring the Aura Red Galaxy S20+ and the Cloud White Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G to the market from May 30.

Furthermore, the Galaxy Buds+ earbuds in red are now available in Singapore exclusively via KrisShop Online until June 5. Then, between June 6 and July 6, the product will be available exclusively on Lazada Singapore. After that, it will finally release through the Samsung Online Store and other select retailers. Check the links below for more details.

Galaxy Z Flip review | Galaxy S20+ review | Galaxy S20 Ultra review
Galaxy Buds+ review | Galaxy Watch Active 2 review

• Buy the Galaxy Z Flip Thom Brown Edition from Samsung Spain
• Buy the red Galaxy Buds+ in Singapore from KrisShop Online

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Apple kept the iPhone XR around as a lower cost alternative to the iPhone 11, knocking its price down to $600 - a sweet $150 discount from the original price and $100 less than the 11. However, it took until now for Apple to officially start selling refurbished XR units. A refurbished iPhone XR with 64GB storage will cost you $500. Then it's $540 for the 128GB model and $630 for the 256GB one (all of them unlocked). The color selection is limited by the storage you're looking for. Of course, things have changed since the iPhone 11 trio was unveiled - the iPhone SE (2020) was...

Every Samsung Exclusive Store in India is now Suraksha-certified to ensure consumer safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Suraksha (meaning ‘protection’ in Hindi) is a public private initiative that aims to create a safe and secure environment for shoppers, employees, and store owners. Samsung has joined the initiative and certified every Exclusive Store across India with the goal of making employees and customers feel confident about their wellbeing and safety.

To obtain the Suraksha Store certification, every Samsung Exclusive Store manager across India registered for the Suraksha training program. Following the training period, they took an assessment test to obtain the certificates. In practice, this means every Samsung Exclusive Store is sanitized before opening to customers, and every Experience Store consultant has been trained to follow safety and hygiene advisories and use hand sanitizers at all touch points, particularly at store entrances and exists. Swiping machine must be sanitized before being handed to customers. Likewise, customers are encouraged to make purchases using contactless payment solutions and practice social distancing, maintaining a minimum distance of 1.5 meter between themselves.

In parallel with these efforts to ensure safety in the physical retail space, Samsung also adopted new online business models to combat slow sales in the wake of COVID-19. It partnered with Benow to bring more than 20,000 smartphone retailers online, and it recently offered the same opportunities to thousands of other consumer electronics retailers.

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Samsung has finally made the Intel-powered Galaxy Book S variant official. Following an accidental confirmation last week, the company is now ready to introduce to the world the Galaxy Book S with ‘Intel Inside.’ On the most part, it has the same hardware as the original variant powered by a Snapdragon 8cx chipset, except it uses an Intel Core processor with Intel Hybrid Technology.

Samsung’s recent official announcement doesn’t say much else about the Intel CPU inside the new Galaxy Book S variant. However, the product is already listed on Samsung Canada. It has yet to make an appearance in the USA or European countries, but the Where to Buy page on the Canadian portal reveals an Intel Core i5-L16G7 processor with 4MB cache, a frequency of up to 3.0GHz, and integrated Intel UHD graphics.

The Galaxy Book S is the first Intel Lakefield-based notebook

The Galaxy Book S is now the first official notebook to use an Intel CPU from the Lakefield generation. The CPU is paired with 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 256GB or 512GB of eUFS storage. It also has a microSD card slot that can read up to 1TB of storage.

Samsung’s Intel-powered lightweight notebook has a 13.3-inch FHD TFT LCD with touch capabilities, a 1MP camera, 2 USB-C ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a fingerprint sensor, quad stereo speakers by AKG with Dolby Atmos support, Wi-Fi 6 802.11 ax 2×2, LTE, Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, and a 42Wh battery to keep everything running. The notebook ships with Windows 10 and every component adds up to a total weight of just 950 grams.

Samsung hasn’t made any announcements as to when exactly the Intel-powered Galaxy Book S will be available for purchase in each market, but the company claims it is available in two shades (Mercury Gray and Earthy Gold), which means that it should start popping up in Samsung’s e-stores worldwide at any moment.

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As expected Infinix unveiled its latest handsets in India today with the Hot 9 and Hot 9 Pro. The two phones are largely similar with the major difference being that the Pro has a 48MP primary camera instead of the 13MP shooter found on the vanilla model. Both the Hot 9 and Hot 9 Pro feature 6.6-inch displays with HD+ resolution, a 20:9 aspect ratio and a punch hole cutout in the top left corner for the 8MP selfie cam. Around the back we find a capacitive fingerprint scanner alongside a 13MP main shooter on the Hot 9 and a 48MP main camera on the 9 Pro. The three auxiliary cams are a...

The unlocked variants of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ started receiving the May 2020 Android security update all across the United States. The carrier-agnostic over-the-air packages already made their way to devices on all major networks in the country, as well as many regional ones. The bulk of the rollout happened yesterday and no other changes were pushed out to users during the process.

You may say that’s unfortunate, but let’s not forget the Galaxy S9 series is actually scheduled to receive a somewhat stripped down version of Samsung’s best mobile OS/Android implementation to date – One UI 2.1. So, while this smartphone duo is certainly not sitting near the top of Samsung’s after-sales priority list in mid-2020, it continues to enjoy respectable software support.

Samsung’s 2018 flagships in their final year of monthly security patches

The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are currently in their third year of monthly security patches, with Samsung being expected to transition them to quarterly updates early next year before they reach their absolute end-of-life point in 2022. Which is precisely what the company’s been doing for several flagship generations so far, successfully establishing itself as one of the best Android OEMs in terms of software support – if not the best. Frankly, this is only debatable if you don’t consider scale to be an important factor in measuring the success of any given business, mobile or otherwise.

Back to the Samsung-sanctioned update at hand, if you’re using either the SM-G960U1 or SM-G965U1 model, i.e. the carrier-free Snapdragon 845 version of the Galaxy S9 or Galaxy S9+, you can anticipate the arrival of a firmware notification prompting you to download the new software in the immediate future. Assuming you haven’t already encountered it, that is. As always, you can also download the new software images manually from SamMobile‘s firmware archive.

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Someone is selling а "Google Pixel 4a XL replacement back cover" on eBay, never mind that this phone was never officially announced - and according to the latest rumors, it never will be. So, here are photos that were sent to 9to5Google for a look at what could have been. You should be pretty familiar with the Pixel 4a by now - we've seen anything from hands-on videos to camera photo shoots. We've made our peace with the fact that the 4a will have a single camera, but check out the XL case. 3.5mm headphone jack on top and fingerprint reader on the back It looks almost...

Future Galaxy smartphones could make fiddling with Wi-Fi credentials and manual logins a thing of the past after Samsung jumped at the opportunity to join the WFA OpenRoaming initiative. Much like its name implies, this is a brainchild of the Wireless Broadband Alliance, one of today’s most powerful telecom consortiums dedicated to wireless interoperability and harnessing the full power of Wi-Fi. As its most ambitious effort to date, the OpenRoaming project envisions a future wherein smartphones, notebooks, wearables, and other consumer electronics are capable of dynamically jumping across public hotspots in real time, eliminating a significant degree of user annoyance traditionally associated with Wi-Fi logins.

Samsung is hardly alone in believing Wi-Fi still has a lot to offer even today, at the advent of the 5G era. More specifically, the likes of Google, Intel, and even cellular experts at Boingo have already officially joined the project.

The road to 5G goes through Wi-Fi 6

In its simplest form, OpenRoaming is essentially an alternative to cellular communications, including the incoming 5G wave. While it may appear to be more limited than conventional mobile networks, it doesn’t fare too badly when compared to mmWave 5G, i.e. the “real” fifth generation of telecom tech. What has so far been identified as the only viable road to next-gen communications is already notorious for its extreme co-dependency on densely populated networks of small-cell base stations. Meaning 5G’s availability is currently in a rather sad place.

Teaching Wi-Fi some new tricks could help smoothen this transitional period in which the world will inevitably be stuck “between Gs,” so to speak. That’s precisely where a large portion of OpenRoaming’s potential resides. Naturally, the solution’s creators are also hoping this strategy could open up new ad-focused monetization opportunities moving forward. Coupled with the rise of Wi-Fi 6, it appears short-distance wireless tech is about to experience a miniature renaissance of sorts, especially if the WFA is even somewhat successful in its plans to leverage OpenRoaming in order to bridge the LTE-5G gap in a maximally seamless manner – for smartphone users, naturally.

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Earlier this year the FCC allowed the 6GHz band to be used for Wi-Fi, this was dubbed "Wi-Fi 6E". Now Qualcommm unveiled its first two 6E modems aimed at mobile applications - the FastConnect 6900 and 6700. Wi-Fi 6E can use almost 1,200MHz of spectrum, a significant expansion of what was already available. Better yet, the spectrum is fresh, that is there are no legacy devices getting in the way. This also means that the spectrum is contiguous (it doesn't have to go around legacy stuff), so it can fit a whopping seven 160 MHz channels - the 5 GHz band has room for only two. That...

We are a few months away from the Galaxy Note 20’s official release, but a lot is already known about the two upcoming smartphones, including their screen sizes, colors, camera specifications, and charging speeds. A few days ago, the battery capacity of the Galaxy Note 20+ was revealed. Now, we have found information regarding the battery capacity of the phone’s smaller sibling, the Galaxy Note 20.

According to the information we dug up from China’s 3C certification database, the Galaxy Note 20 will use a 4,300mAh cell. The battery carries model number EB-BN980ABY, which has a rated capacity of 4,170mAh, and that is different from the 4,000mAh capacity that was revealed last month. Even the Galaxy Note 10+ had a rated battery capacity of 4,170mAh, but Samsung marketed its typical capacity as 4,300mAh, which means the company will do the same with the Galaxy Note 20.

Going by the new information, there’s just a 200mAh difference between the battery capacities of the Galaxy Note 20 and the Galaxy Note 20+. The Galaxy Note 20+ will most probably have a typical battery capacity of 4,500mAh. It is being rumored that the Galaxy Note 20 has a 6.7-inch screen, while the Galaxy Note 20+ could sport a 6.9-inch display, so there might not be a noticeable difference between the actual battery life of the two phones.

The Galaxy Note 20 and the Galaxy Note 20+ are expected to feature 120Hz Super AMOLED Infinity-O displays, S Pen stylus, Exynos 992 processor (or Snapdragon 865 in some markets), 16GB RAM, second-generation Samsung security chip, at least 25W fast charging, fast Qi wireless charging, and reverse wireless charging.

If Samsung launches the Galaxy Note 20 with a 4300mAh battery and the Galaxy Note 20+ with a 4500mAh battery, which phone would you choose? Let us know in the comments section.

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