How does a brand behind the S6 Edge and S6 Edge+ continue to innovate after coming out with curved displays that blew its competition away? Of course, we’re talking about Samsung here. We all know that the company is working on its next flagship, the S7. And every little detail about the upcoming phone is welcomed by tech enthusiasts all over. The biggest question on everybody’s mind is how Samsung is going to better itself with the S7.
We have already seen a curved display on the side. So perhaps it’s only logical that the company might curve the screen from somewhere else. How about the top and bottom for a change? Some concept images posted by 3DFuture on its blog show what could be Samsung’s next design. And it looks as sleek as it does futuristic.
Samsung has filed design patents and folks at 3DFuture have released images based on those patents. There is no guarantee that the S7 Edge will follow this design, but visuals are always welcomed. The image above and below reveal a sleek, sharp design where the edged display take the top and bottom position now. The concept also shows no hint of a home button while the volume buttons on the side remain intact. The rest of the design with a full metal unibody oozes style and luxury.
While you take a few minutes analysing the images, we would also like to let you know about other rumours going around. It is likely that Samsung is working on a 3D Touch feature that will be seen in the upcoming flagship. The concepts also support rumours of a fully metallic unibody. Other features could see a 5.8-inch display, UHD resolution, 4GB RAM, and Snapdragon 820 chipset and Exynos processors for East Asian markets.
We will bring you more details on the Galaxy S7 as it comes. Let us know what you think of the concept design in the comments below.
Here’s another reason for Samsung fans to glory in as news of Samsung Galaxy S7’s USB Type C port gets confirmed. Instead of the standard microUSB port, the new Samsung smartphone will come equipped with the new-age port, which has recently become a popular choice for many smartphone manufacturers.
Type C ports have been in news for a while now, and for all the good reasons. One of the biggest advantages of these is that they allow reversible charging options, which means the cord can be plugged in either way. It also allows for faster charging as well as data transfer. The latter is more efficient than data transfer using USB 3.0.
Samsung has always had an edge over other tech giants in terms of fast charging, so this is one advantage of the Type-C port that is not the highlight of S7. But the reversible cable is definitely a nice touch. Let’s see how soon other companies, which haven’t opted for it already, make this switch to USB Type C.
We often tend to treat Apple vs Samsung a little like Congress vs BJP or India vs Pakistan (you decide which is which), because we see the companies themselves, bickering about who is copying whom and why one is better than the other. Well, this time, it’s 10 points to Apple.
Apple and Samsung now have devices in identical colours
Apple has emerged a winner in the recent blame game battle as Samsung is coming out with a ‘Pink Gold’ colour variant of the Samsung Galaxy Note 5. We aren’t extremely surprised by this decision because the colour itself, we mean Apple’s ‘Rose Gold’ has been selling like hot cakes. So what’s wrong if Samsung takes a hint and comes up with its own (read borrowed) version of it? Nothing really.
In addition to the controversial Pink, Samsung is also coming up with ‘Silver Titanium.’ Both these colours will be available in South Korea by October 23rd and other countries will soon follow suit.
While some might think that it’s just a colour and not really something to be breaking our heads over, let us know your views in the comments below.
Samsung has unveiled a new super budget smartphone called the Z3 at Rs.8,490 today. It comes with a dual SIM connectivity and a 5 inch HD Super AMOLED display. Here is what Samsung’s second Tizen powered smartphone looks like :
The Z3 is powered by the Qualcomm MSM8916 Snapdragon 410 with a Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU and an Adreno 306 GPU. It also comes with 1GB of RAM space and an 8GB internal memory that is expandable up to 128GB via a micro SD card.
On the camera front, it comes with a 8MP primary camera and a 5MP secondary camera. Other connectivity features include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n connection, Bluetooth v4.1, GPS, microUSB v2.0 and radio.
The Z3 is run on the Tizen OS version 2.4 and is fueled by a 2,600mAh battery. Lastly, it comes in three colour variants – gold, black and silver.
Here are its specifications:
Samsung Z3
Specifications
Display
5 inch HD Super AMOLED
OS
Tizen OS version 2.4
Processor
Qualcomm MSM8916 Snapdragon 410
CPU
Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU
Adreno 306
RAM
1GB
Internal Storage
8GB expandable up to 128GB via microSD card
Primary Camera
8MP
Secondary Camera
5MP
Connectivity
Dual SIM, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n connection, Bluetooth v4.1, GPS, microUSB v2.0 and radio
Over the past few weeks, rumours have been on overdrive regarding Samsung’s next flagship, the Galaxy S7. In our previous post regarding the rumoured S7 launch, we told you that the phone will come in two models, one featuring the new quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor and the other having the octa-core Exynos.
There have been rumours in the past suggesting that three S7 devices will be launched instead of two, and that two of them will have the curved display (like the S6 Edge and S6 Edge+) while one will have a flat screen. These rumours, however, have been dismissed as of now. Latest speculation is that Samsung will have only two S7 versions, where one will be the ‘Edge’ version and the other will have a flat display.
However, it looks like the S7 will come in three CPU variants. If rumours are to be believed, the China and US model will receive the new Snapdragon 820 processor. Europe, Japan and South Korea will come with a Samsung Exynos 7990 processor and the final model, rumoured to have an Exynos 7422 will launch in India.
Samsung is looking to get ahead of its competition by having a January announcement and a February launch. The S7 will also likely be the first Android Marshmallow handset for the company. Follow this space for more on the Galaxy S7.
The tussle between Samsung and Apple over similar features in their respective devices has persisted for a while now. Both companies have a long history of legal feuds – an example of which can be the 2013 jury verdict which had required Samsung to pay $900 to Apple for infringements of patents. However Samsung still continues to sell the products which used the technology in question and had led to legal trouble in the first place.
Earlier this year in April, the two tech-giants were part of another courtroom drama where Apple was suing Samsung for what it claimed was the copying of the former’s patented features by the latter. Samsung, on the other hand, was counter-suing Apple for having copied its features for iPads and iPhones.
Samsung has incorporated iPhone-inspired features in the past. An example of this is the manual adjustment of exposure at the point of focus in an iPhone camera. Even though this feature is available on pretty much all Android devices, none made it as convenient as Apple. When Samsung came out with its Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge this year, their cameras had the same exposure control feature as the iPhone.
Samsung’s phone unlocking system, which was a shoddier version of iPhone’s slide-to-unlock-feature, is another example of the tech giant coming out with similar tech as its counterpart.
Apple too has picked up features from the Korean company in the past -attempting to make a slimmer variant of iPhones, and opting for an Ion-strengthened glass are two examples.
Staying true to their history of mutual inspiration, Samsung and Apple might be headed towards another common element -ClearForce, very similar to 3D Force, the highlight of the newest iPhones -iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.
Apple’s launched it’s iPhones last month to a huge hoopla in the tech world. One of the most talked about characteristics of the new iPhones is 3D Touch which employs a touch-sensitive technology, enabling the device to differentiate between three distinct types of touch.
Synaptics announced this week that it has also been working on a similar technology called ClearForce. The company plans to work with leading OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) to test the technology, and Samsung is expected to employ it in its future phones, post its history of having worked with Synaptics. Synaptics and Samsung earlier worked together on the touch based finger print sensor that are part of Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.
Apple isn’t the pioneer of using finger-print technology -OEMs have been working on it longer than Apple, so has Synaptics as is evidenced from the progress it has made so far. Samsung wouldn’t shy away from employing this feature in its new devices once its ready. Only time will tell if it would it be another contentious feature in the list of over-laps between Samsung and Apple.
If you’ve got your money ready for the new iPhone 6s that is due to hit Indian stores on the 16th of this month, you may want to make sure you buy the right one. The internet is buzzing with news of some iPhones 6s units having shorter battery life than others. The reason behind this is that there are two producers of the A9 processor – Samsung and TSMC.
Apparently, the chips from the two firms are not identical. Chipworks, a site that specializes in teardowns, noted that Samsung’s A9 processors use a 14-nanometer processor while TSMC uses 16-nanometer. Early testing revealed that Samsung’s A9 chip fares poorly on battery performance when compared to TSMC’s chip.
Apple’s partner-cum-rival Samsung has produced nearly half of the A9 chipset found in the latest iPhone 6s, while around 70% of iPhone 6s Plus phones have a TSMC processor. A Redditor recently posted tests of a pair of iPhone 6s Plus phones, one having Samsung’s A9 processor and the other having TSMC’s. It was found that TSMC gives an extra two hours of battery life compared to Samsung’s processor under identical conditions.
TSMC A9 Processor
Samsung A9 Processor
“Ran this test a couple times and results were consistent,” wrote Raydizzle on Reddit. “Always about a 2 hour difference in duration. Both phones were tested using the same backup, same settings. Also tried testing them as new phones and results were similar.”
Furthermore, you won’t be able to tell which processor you’re buying when you purchase the iPhone 6s. However, there is an app called Lirum Device Info Lite that can detect whether the new iPhone has a Samsung A9 processor or a TMSC one along with every other information regarding the specs of your device. Once you download the app, click on ‘Model’. If your model is N66MAP or N71MAP, you’ve got a TSMC chip. If it says N66AP and N71AP you got the Samsung one.
By now you’re probably aware that the latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow update has begun rolling out. You might also have an idea of what the new update offers such as the Now on Tap and Doze features, among other things. But what’s really making everyone wonder is whether or not their Android devices are eligible for the update.
Well, you don’t have to wonder anymore. We have a list of devices of major smartphone companies that will receive the Marshmallow update in due time. The Nexus phones are the first devices eligible for the updates, as it has usually been the case. Google’s recently launched Nexus 5X and 6P come pre-installed with the Android 6.0 OS, also called Android M. Other OEMs will soon be releasing it for their smartphones as well.
Major flagships will first receive the update followed by the second batch of phones. Here is the list of smartphones from Samsung, LG, Motorola, HTC, Xiaomi, Asus and other brands that are scheduled to get the update. Check it out to see if your phone made the cut.
Samsung
Galaxy Note 5
Galaxy S6
Galaxy S6 Edge and Edge+
Galaxy S5
Galaxy Note 4
Galaxy Alpha
Galaxy A7, A8 (A3, A5 and Galaxy E series to receive it later on)
Here’s a close, detailed look at what you can expect from the Samsung Galaxy A8. Watch this video-review to see how it fares when pitted against OnePlus 2 and Asus Zenfone 2 – two other new flagships .
Hardware Specs
Samsung Galaxy A8
Display
5.7-inch FHD
Resolution
1920 x 1080p
Chipset
Octa-core (Four cores clocked at 1.3GHz, and four at 1.8GHz)
We all love to see a good old fashioned cat fight between Apple and Samsung. The mud-slinging between the two smartphone giants has been going on for a while now, and recent news has seen Samsung doing most of the slinging. Samsung recently trolled the Apple launch by having Galaxy S6 Edge+ show up in the Google Search engine top advertisements when people were searching for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Samsung also took to Twitter, posting images that clearly mocked the event while the event was taking place.
In a latest attempt by Samsung to get customers to shift from the iPhone to its Galaxy phones, the company is offering to pay the monthly installments for your Galaxy phone for the rest of 2015. This offer, however, is restricted only to the US. The discount applies if you buy a Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy Note 5, or Galaxy S6 Edge+ on an installment plan from T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, or US Cellular. This means you’ll get up to $120 off on the price of any of these phones if you buy one under a carrier installment plan from now until October 9th. AT&T users, however, will not be able to take part in this promotion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgmhi0Vi9oo
Moreover, Samsung is throwing in an additional $100 Google Play gift card for those users who switch from iPhone. The announcement comes just after the new iPhone 6s launched in stores. Clearly, Samsung is trying to curb the sales of the latest iPhones that is expected to create a new sales record for Apple. Samsung also released a TV spot recently that highlighted all the things the latest Galaxy phones can do that the iPhone can’t. The name of the ad is cleverly similar to the iPhone tagline: “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone”. All we can say is grab your popcorn and brace yourself for an entertaining fight.
Samsung’s newest addition to the Note family comes not as much of a surprise. Especially after all the leaks and Samsung setting precedent with its S6 and S6 edge. Samsung has found the right mix of hardware, software, build and design for devices this year.
Does the Note 5 fit right in? Let’s find out.
Overview
Without changing much, Samsung has made major changes to the handset. The new Note 5 is a positive step ahead for the company, taking in major feedback from its consumers and acting upon it. The Note 5 is priced at Rs. 53,900 for the 32GB version and Rs 59,990 for the 64GB variant. Samsung has used the same design philosophy as seen in the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge along with the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus for the new Note. Bringing in a totally new and young look to the otherwise bold and business handset.
Build Quality and Design
Samsung wins this year for good looks, as the company has finally reached a point where its handsets are the most impressive looking mainstream Android devices in the market. The Note 5 is no less, although, personally, we feel the Galaxy S6 edge and edge+ remain at pole position when it comes to looks. The new Galaxy Note 5 comes in a close second, thanks to its extensive use of glass and metal. Gorilla Glass 4 on the back and the front, the rear glass tapers in to the edges, putting the edge display design on the back of the Note 5.
The new S-pen also has a new design and mechanism, however is riddled with major issues. The build is sold and feel of the handset exceptional, and even though the phone looks fragile it can take a whole lot of beating. The metal alloy frame is solid and protects the Note 5 well and adds to a major premium look and feel, that the predecessors were lacking.
16 MP, 5312 x 2988 pixels, optical image stabilization, autofocus
Rear Camera Video
2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps,
Front Camera
5 MP
Front Camera Video
1080p at 30fps
Battery
Non-removable Li-Po 3000 mAh battery
Operating System
Android OS, v5.1.1 (Lollipop)
Connectivity
SIM: Nano-SIM, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
Bluetooth v4.2, A2DP, EDR, LE, GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, NFC
Type-C reversible connector
Miscellaneous
Fingerprint sensor, S- PEN stylus
Price
Rs.53,900 for the 32GB variant; Rs 59,900 for the 64GB variant
Operating System
The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 runs on what is possibly the best version of Samsung’s skin called “TouchWiz”. This version turns out to be the best so far simply because it is the least invasive. We saw the same OS on the S6 edge and edge+. The one on the Note 5 however, is optimized for the new S-Pen.
Although most of the menus are familiar and seen before on Samsung devices, some S-Pen features are new. The ability to take a note while the screen is off is the best of the lot of new improvement. When the screen is off, simply pull out the S-Pen to enable this feature. The colours are inverted, the screen remains dark and the pen line is white.
Other features include the Slick UI elements, use power buttons to increase or decrease screen font size. The S-Pen will give previews, just like before, and now the pop ups are super smooth.
Display and Multimedia
The new display is identical to the previous devices in terms of the resolution however the 5.7 inch size is larger than before and hence reduces the PPI to 518. The screen is bright, all 600 nits, and easily visible outdoors.
The new set of speakers and microphones make the audio experience really good, the inbuilt speaker is loud and crisp with good amounts of mid tones and whatever bass levels you can achieve from a downward facing speaker on a smartphone. The earphone jack boosts audio well and you well get a lot of volume through earphones, whether included or otherwise.
Since the hardware is top notch, you can expect it to smoothly sail through any media you may throw at it, no lag whatsoever in playback.
Camera
The camera is magic, is what we felt about the S6 and. the Note 5 is no less. In fact the Note 5 is no more either – the exact same camera, the exact same lens setup, the exact camera software and the exact capability as well. The f1.9 aperture lenses are wide and capture a lot of information in the 16MP and 5MP images on the back and front respectively.
The camera app is impressive too and offers a lot of manual control, the pro mode rules in this department too. You can manually adjust any camera setting before you start to capture, or during your capture. Optical Image Stabalization (OIS) works well too and you will mostly get really good pictures or video. Unless you are trying really hard not to. The problem with the camera is, that it will get confused with colours in low light situations, over saturating the reds and browns.
Samsung finally has a camera that puts the iPhone down, however Samsung is missing out on Apple’s image processing and colour algorithms, which unfortunately work better. Compared to previous gen iPhones, the Note 5 will also do 4k video and do it well. Video is smooth, crisp and looks fantastic.
S Pen
“Pen Gate”, something that haunts everyone at Samsung today. The S Pen on the Note 5, when inserted the wrong way in, will not only get stuck inside the Note, but will also damage the sensing mechanism of the display. Basically rendering your phone into a regular non-Note Samsung device.
The only fix according to Samsung – “Don’t put it in backwards.” However, it’s not so simple. In a beautiful world people wouldn’t have cared, and 99.99% people won’t be stuffing their S-Pen backwards. But now that it’s a known phenomenon, chances of it happening are a lot more.
Samsung is not very friendly with repairs of such an accident and it might end up costing you several thousand to get the Note 5 fixed / replaced. Not a pretty sight.
The, new design of the pen however is sleek and much appreciated. The responsiveness of the new pen on the Note 5 is highly improved over the previous generation Style. The click out mechanism is slick and works well, the girth of the pen is still too low and will not replicate the experience of using a real pen. Even though from a software aspect the handset does do that.
Phone and Battery Life
The battery is large and you will easily get a full days worth of use. If you do not you can always charge it with a fast charger and get on with your life. Although 3000 mAh is enough, and lasts us a whole day it may vary for different usage case scenarios. Turning off things like “double click home to enable camera” will save your device from enabling the camera in the pocket and overheating to a toasty 60+ degrees. Pro Tip : Keep this feature off.
If you can manage to keep the phone from turning on in your pocket all the time, it works great and will last a long time. If you are using the camera, the phone will get hot but has no real adverse affects on the performance or the battery life of the handset.
India, initially gets the single sim variant, which works across the spectrum for 4G LTE and 3G as well as 2G, so you have all networks covered. Signal strength is decent although indoors it appears to be weak. Honestly, we can’t tell if it’s a network issue or a device issue.
Audio quality in the phone call is mighty impressive, although the earpiece speaker gets a bit too bassy at times. You also have excellent noise cancellation built in and a extra volume more for those hard to hear conversations. “You What”?
Additional Features and Roundup
The new Galaxy Note 5 has all the Samsung tricks up its sleeve. Fast charging, Wireless Fast charging and an impressive and large battery too. You will also get Samsung Pay which is fantastic and works across the world with basically any existing magnetic stripe card reader.
The Note 4 came with an edge variant, and we are happy that Samsung didn’t pursue that dream on the Note 5. The Samsung Galaxy Note 5, is a beautiful looking, robust handset that can outperform almost everything in the category. Samsung has figured out the balance between beauty and brawn and made it work exceptionally well for the new Galaxy devices.
Putting the edge on the back of this massive device, gives a more reassuring hold to this otherwise slippery looking handset. The colors and materials give it the richness it needs and the hardware gives it the punch. Just do not put the S Pen in backwards and you are golden.
It gets top marks, but for a top price, making the Galaxy Note 5 from Samsung the best business Android Phone in the market, and the only in its class.
Mobile payment seems to be the next big thing getting users excited in the tech world. It refers to transactions, under specific financial regulations to ensure safety, using a mobile device. The latest company to be in news related to this tech development is Samsung, creating headlines with Samsung Pay.
The newest service of the company has been launched in its home country of South Korea less than a month ago, and the company claims it has already witnessed transactions amounting to $30 million. This amount is spread across 1.5 million transactions. They were made by people who were active throughout the course of last month, many using the service every day. The device mainly used for it was Samsung Galaxy Note 5.
Earlier, Google Wallet has been a noticeable name in the realm of mobile payment. Apple is yet to introduce the service and there is little official news available about its launch. It would be interesting to see Samsung Pay pitted against other tech giants and the way in which market responds to it outside Korea.
The Netflix experience is about to get a whole lot better. Samsung announced the newest edition to Gear VR in collaboration with Oculus , along with a slew of new features and apps. The headset will have a redesigned trackpad, a new Xbox-style Gamepad with dual analogue design, and a new, lower price that’ll be available this November in the United States.
The Gear VR is also getting a major media boost with Netflix, Hulu and Twitch among the few new services that will be available for the headset. The Netflix app, for example, creates a virtual living room for the viewer to watch in. The virtual television in front of you will have the Netflix UI on the screen. You simply look to move the cursor and tap the touchpad on the side of the Gear VR to make your selection. Currently the app allows almost no choice for the user in terms of the environmental changes or the distance of the screen.
The Oculus -made Samsung Gear VR will work with the whole 2015 line of Samsung Smartphones including the Note 5, S6, S6 Edge, and S6 Edge+, and will be priced at $99, a $100 less than the previous Gear VR.
“Virtual reality that’s accessible to consumers is still very young and so it was all about developing the ecosystem,” said Jim Willson, director of immersive products and VR at Samsung. “We had to make sure there was enough content, both in terms of video content … and on the gaming side.”
Wilson hinted at a captive audience that an app like Netflix can provide with more number of hours being spent with these media apps. Apart from Netflix, Oculus also announced 20th Century Fox and Lionsgate, as well as Hulu, Twitch, TiVo and Vimeo for VR apps.
Samsung is looking to expand its consumer base and is looking to make the Gear VR not just a device for niche audience. It may take a while before people take to the virtual reality experience, but with PlayStation also working on its VR gaming technology, the future of media technology looks pretty clear. So, for those who want to experience the next season of Daredevil in virtual reality can get their hands on the Gear VR from November.
According to emerging reports, Samsung could announce the release of the Galaxy S7 as early as January 2016. The reason behind this unprecedented announcement is not known but presumably the company wants to jump ahead of its competition, especially Apple, that will allow customers to purchase the S7 right away.
Generally, Samsung has followed an April release for its flagship smartphones. The upcoming flagship is being developed either under the codename Project Lucky (it’s the number 7 after all) or Hero and Hero2. It will come in two models with one to feature Qualcomm’s new quad-core Snapdragon 820 processor and the other having the octa-core Exynos. While one is said to have a flat display, the other will sport a dual-edge curved display.
Further reports also suggest that Samsung might have found a way to make microSD card slots work in conjunction with UFS 2.0 storage but this is mere speculation at the moment.
Only time will tell whether or not these rumors are true but for now it looks like Samsung is working on a clock.
While these is still a few months before Samsung officially unveils the Galaxy S7, the rumour mill is working hard and fast to deliver news about the device. The yet to be revealed Samsung S7 will come in two variants, according to reports. The SM-G930 and the SM-G935 would follow the league of their predecessors and come equipped with their own specific features.
The Galaxy S7 is codenamed Project Lucky, while the company refers to the two phones as Hero and Hero2. One of the two phones would have Exynos 8890 as its processor, while the other would have Snapdragon 820 SoC. Like the Galaxy S6, both of these phones would have UFS 2.0 storage. The South Korean tech giant may also have developed microSD card slots to work in unison with UFS 2.0, but this piece of information is yet to be confirmed.
The camera of the smartphone is expected to feature either dual-sensor setup, or a 20MP ISOCELL sensor. The display would be flat for one phone, and with a dual-edge curve for other.
After having launched the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus and Note 5 last month, hopes are high from the next Samsung gadgets. Let’s see how the company fares this time.
