Following a year of solely using Qualcomm’s SoCs in its flagship lineup, Samsung will go back to partially using Exynos chipsets alongside Qualcomm models in the Galaxy S24.
Expand Expanding Close
Google’s Project Zero team discovered severe 0-day vulnerabilities with the Samsung Exynos modems used on the Pixel 6 and 7, Samsung phones and wearables, and other devices that warrant disabling VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling until patched.
Expand Expanding Close
Among the numerous changes made by Samsung with last year’s pair of Galaxy S6 flagships, the decision to stick with the Exynos 7420 everywhere the device was shipped stood out particularly. Common practice for the South Korean giant was to manufacture its high-end handsets with Snapdragon chips in the mainstream markets of Europe and the United States, while delivering an Exynos-powered experience in Asia.
Given the Snapdragon 810’s notorious over-heating problems, however, it was probably a good decision; but Qualcomm set to come back in full swing this year, obtaining a deal that sees US-bound Galaxy S7s equipped with their SoC. This, however, seems to have created major discrepancies between the two models’ performances; according to AnTuTu tests, a negligible 5% difference sets the two models apart as far as CPU power goes, while up to a massive 32% gap separates the greatly superior Snapdragon 820 from the seemingly under-performing Exynos 8890 in GPU-related benchmarks…
Battery life is undoubtedly one of the major pain points most consumers have with their smartphones. Because of technological limitations, OEMs often have to find workarounds for squeezing out as much screen on (and off) time as possible, often working on software optimizations or simply trying to fit a larger unit inside the body of the device – at times making it removable.
Another way of circumventing such limitation took form in the way of making batteries recharge much faster, thanks to technologies such as Qualcomm‘s ‘Quick Charge’, which has now arrived at its v3.0. Expected to hit the majority of 2016 flagships, – like the LG G5, which does indeed support it – the latest iteration didn’t however make it to the Samsung Galaxy S7 (and S7 edge), which stuck with last year’s 2.0…
Samsung caused a lot of chatter in the tech scene when it decided to eschew Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips in favor of its own Exynos processors this year. All four of Samsung’s high end devices feature its own processor in every market worldwide. But that could change next year. According to a few leaks posted to Chinese social network, weibo, Qualcomm has sent a few different versions of its Snapdragon 820 processor to Samsung for testing in its Galaxy S7.
I won’t lie, in recent months I’ve found the traditional flagship smartphone market decidedly boring. Although phones from the likes of LG, Samsung, HTC and Sony are all steadily improving all they time and — by all accounts — are very good phones, they all cost a small fortune. The price of flagships from the “big” manufacturers can be anywhere between $500-$900, which is a heck of a lot to spend on a small pocket computer. With the prices steadily rising, it’s created the perfect opportunity for smaller companies to take advantage and release great devices that cost less. In my mind, if it’s below $400 full retail, has a full HD (or better) display and an octa-core processor, that makes it a flagship killing, disruptive smartphone…
In a blog post this morning, Samsung has announced that it is mass producing the world’s first 12gigabit (not to be confused with gigabyte/GB) LPDDR4 mobile RAM. It’s based on the company’s impressive 20-nanometer process tech and will enable the company to make higher capacity, faster, more powerful chips that fit into the same space as the current crop of flagship RAM modules…
Expand
Expanding
Close
Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Note 5 has been leaked in full, showing the device from almost every angle, complete with packaging and compared alongside the iPhone 6 Plus to show its relative size. As you can probably tell from the images, the photos were snapped by a retail worker. A Samsung rep had been in to his store with the two unreleased phablets (Note 5 and S6 Edge+).
Qualcomm, the company behind the all-conquering Snapdragon processors, said today that it will cut $1.4 billion in costs and restructure its board after being pressured by an activist investor to make changes. The move could see the chip-maker cut thousands of jobs as it seeks to streamline its operations. Qualcomm’s revenue is significantly lower than it was 12 months ago, and its chip business isn’t the powerhouse it used to be.
For some time now it’s been predicted that Samsung will skip the noise of IFA in September and choose to launch the Galaxy Note 5 in August. We had heard previously that Sammy was planning an event for its flagship phablet on August 12th. Business Korea, however, stepped in this morning with its own information claiming the Note 5 is being launched just a little later than that.
According to the publication’s sources, Samsung will host an unveiling event in New York City on August 13, during which it will announce both the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus.
While there are tons of phablets on the market now, Samsung still manages to remain unique by equipping its Note series handsets with the versatile S-Pen. In my experience, it’s been great for making quick notes or grabbing quick screenshots to edit and share. It goes without saying then, that the Galaxy Note 5 will also ship with the advanced stylus. Judging from these most recent leaks, it’s going to be much shinier than previous versions and could have a press-able, or clickable end at the top.
Take a look at the pictures below. They were originally shared on Chinese social media site, Weibo and picked up by Steve Hemmerstoffer at NWE. If you look closely at the two images showing the top end of the S-Pen, you’ll clearly see that the gap between the end and the main shaft of the stylus is bigger in one than the other.
If I had to guess as to why it was designed this way, I’d suggest that it’s almost certainly to help release the S-Pen from its silo. The way the phone has been designed (based on leaks) suggests that the stylus sits flush with the metal chassis of the smartphone. Case leaks have suggested that there’s not going to be any special room left for you to pry the stylus out with your fingernail. So, perhaps the end of the pen — when pressed — clicks and extends, so that you can easily remove the S-Pen from the body of the phone.
Other possibilities are easily eliminated. It’s clearly not replacing the Air Command button, since that’s still built in to the shaft of the pen. And it doesn’t extend the tip of the S-Pen either, since that’s ever-present, and visible in the photos, regardless of whether or not the top end is extended.
Rumors so far have indicated we’ll see this new Galaxy Note 5 launch alongside a Galaxy S6 Edge+ at the end of August. Both devices will essentially look like the S6 and S6 Edge, except much larger and with the inclusion of this redesigned stylus.
By now we’ve heard multiple rumors and reports on Samsung’s next generation phablet. In today’s latest report from SamMobile, the publication claims that it knows when the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ will be unveiled and released to the public. Citing its “insiders”, the report states that the Galaxy Note 5 will be announced on August 12th and be available to buy shortly afterwards on August 21th.
Evidence is mounting to suggest that Samsung’s next great phablet is going to take heavy design cues from the latest Galaxy S smartphone. NoWhereElse has published a bunch of CAD drawings which claim to be an accurate representation for the Samsung Galaxy Note 5. If genuine, it shows a device which essentially looks like a big version of the Galaxy S6 with a space to store a stylus.
We’ve seen several concept renders in the past, and even schematic leaks from case makers. This is one of the first which claims to be an official CAD 3D drawing. Like the S6 it features a central micro USB port on the bottom edge in between a 3.5mm headphone jack and a loudspeaker grille. Traditionally, Samsung’s Note series’ phones have the loudspeaker on the back.
Although we don’t get a good look at the materials used, it’s more than likely that — if this is a giant S6 — we’ll see heavy use of both glass and metal for the chassis and body of the device. We could also see a non-removable battery with Sammy opting to use a solid glass back which curves towards the metal edges.
Once interesting factoid to note: The 3D model points to a screen measuring 5.7-inches diagonally, suggesting that Samsung might not opt to enlarge its display real estate when the Note 5 is eventually announced and released later this year.
Check out NWE’s video of the 3D CAD drawing below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnPohJWPIJo]
Almost a month after Samsung formally announced its new flagship handsets, the S6 and S6 edge, the company has tweeted that the handsets are available for pre-order in the US. Both models will go on sale on April 10th from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and U.S. Cellular …
Expand
Expanding
Close
Bloomberg is reporting that the Samsung Galaxy S6 will be released in two versions, one of them with a wraparound screen similar to the Note Edge but curving around both left and right sides of the display.
Samsung Electronics Co. plans to release two new versions of its top-tier Galaxy smartphone next month, including a model with a display covering three sides, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter […] The second model to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Spain will only have a front-facing display.
Earlier claimed renders had also suggested a curved screen, though with some confusion about whether the wraparound would be on only one side, like the Edge, or both sides as now claimed by Bloomberg …
Expand
Expanding
Close
Samsung’s Galaxy A7 hasn’t exactly been a well-kept secret, with the first rumors starting in September of last year, followed by regulatory filings, but the device is now official – albeit with some details still not announced.
Samsung introduced the Galaxy A7, one of the slimmest Galaxy smartphones equipped with premium hardware for a superior social experience, expanding on the popular services provided by the Galaxy A5 and A3.
Topping out the mid-range A-series, the A7 has a 5.5-inch AMOLED display, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, a 13MP main camera and – in line with Samsung’s focus on social media – a 5MP front-facing camera for hi-res selfies (including voice-activated ones). It’s available in single- and dual-SIM models, the former getting a quad-core Exynos processor, while the latter gets an octa-core version …
Qualcomm is experiencing problems with its upcoming Snapdragon 810 chip, expected to power several of next year’s flagship smartphones – potentially delaying their launch. The high-powered chip is expected to be used in the Samsung Galaxy S6, LG G4 and Sony Xperia Z4, and has also been slated for a new Motorola phablet.
Business Korea cites an unnamed industry source in reporting that testing of the chip has revealed several issues.
The Snapdragon 810 overheats when it reaches a specific voltage. It also slows down owing to problems with the RAM controller connected to the AP. In addition, there is an error in the driver of the Adreno 430 GPU.
The 810 is a 64-bit octa-core chip supporting 4K displays, and hence a likely bet for the next generation of top-tier phones …
Expand
Expanding
Close
A few days after we saw new photos of the upcoming metal-bodied Samsung Galaxy Alpha in white, an FCC filing spotted by phoneArena reveals the height and width.
Listed only by its FCC ID of A3LSMG850F, the dimensions fit earlier rumors that the handset would be smaller than the Galaxy S5, with a 4.8-inch 720p display in place of the S5’s 5.1-inch 1080p screen. The dimensions are shown as 133x67mm, around a centimetre shorter and about half a centimetre narrower than the S5 …
Expand
Expanding
Close
Samsung’s new Chromebooks leaked a little bit last week and again over the weekend, but now they are official. The biggest upgrades include the form factor featuring the faux leather stitching made famous by its Galaxy Note 3 and a new 1080P 13-inch display on the higher end $399 model. Both still use Exynos 5 Octocore processors that lack a little bit of the oomph of Haswell Intel processors, but they compete very well in battery life (8.5-9 hours claimed by Samsung). These machines also have wake times of less than one second and cold boots in less than ten.
Another prime area of improvement is the Hangouts video chat experience enhance by a 720P front side camera paired with improved mic and 2x 2W speakers.
Expand
Expanding
Close
HP and Google combined to create two new Chromebooks which were launched early last month: The $299 Intel Haswell-powered Chromebook 14 and the smaller Samsung Exynos ARM-powered Chromebook 11. Both machines mark new territory for Google and HP. The Silicon Valley neighbors have been getting closer and closer since Meg Whitman took over as CEO, including an expanding array of Android tablets as well. The initial HP Chromebooks were clearly re-purposed Windows laptops. These clearly are something entirely different…
Expand
Expanding
Close
