Tag: samsung

It hasn’t been many days since Samsung launched Galaxy A8, just today, the company added another phone to its lineup. The Galaxy A8 Star is almost exactly same as Galaxy A9 Star which was launched in China earlier.

Its a fairly mid-range device and as such, the phone runs on a Snapdragon 660 SoC which is paired with 6GB of RAM. RAM amount is a bit overkill for the processor, but sure Samsung, why not. Apart from the processor and RAM, probably the biggest USP for the phone is its 6.3 inches Super AMOLED display which has gorilla glass protection.

On the rear, A8 Star comes with an unimpressive pair of dual cameras, one with a 16-megapixel sensor and another with a 24-megapixel sensor. The front camera is also has a 24-megapixel sensor but it comes with some software features such as Smart Beauty and Pro lightning and of course, AR stickers.

The inbuilt storage of A8 Star is 64GB and it can be expanded by added a microSD card with up to 400GB size.

The phone has bee priced at Rs 34,990 which equals to almost $570. For the price, there are some better specs available on other phones such as my daily driver OnePlus 6. It will be interesting to see how the phone performs on the market.

NEXT STORY: Move Over Apple, Galaxy Note 9 Has The Best Display Now

It has only been a few months since Google launched Android Go but it looks like the plan has a bright future. After Nokia and some other smaller brands, Samsung just recently launched its first Android Go phone in the country.

As usual for phones running the Android Go platform, the J2 trades high-end specs for a cheaper price while still providing acceptable performance.

The phone will come with a Quad-core Exynos 7570 SoC and 1Gb of RAM. Under the hood, the phone will run Android 8.1 Oero Go edition with some Google optimized apps including Files Go, Assistant Go, GBorad and Gmail Go.

Probably most interestingly, phones with Android Go get updates directly from the mothership and the J2 Core will also be devoid of bloatware and apps that Samsung installed on its other phones.

Apart from the unimpressive specs of SoC, the phone will come with a 5-inch qHD display and an 8-megapixel camera on the back with an LED flash. Samsung has also added a 5-megapixel sensor on the front.

“The Galaxy J2 Core offers a complete smartphone experience, incorporating some of the key features available on high-end devices with improved battery, storage, and performance that is particularly appealing to first time owners,” said Junho Park, VP of Global Product Planning.

The company has not announced the exact price of the phone yet, but we can expect it to be quite cheap considering its OS and its specs.

NEXT STORY: This is The Google Pixel 3 And Its Kinda Ugly

 

It hasn’t been long since Samsung launched it’s the latest phablet the Note 9, while most of the changes in the new phone are great and are being welcomed, it looks like some users may not like how Samsung is treating Bixby.

Galaxy Note 9 has a dedicated Bixby button on the left side of the phone which can be disabled so that users don’t open it accidentally. Before Note 9, on earlier devices with dedicated Bixby buttons such as Galaxy S9, Note 8, users could remap the Bixby key for other actions or apps.

But a user reported on XDA forums that the app bxActions, which is used to remap Bixby on Note device is no longer working. As it makes it clear that Bixby will stay assigned to the button even when users may want to change it to launch -often much useful- Google Assistant.

This is especially disappointing for users living in countries like India where many of Bixby’s features are disabled to making it the lame duck of AI assistants.

Sure, Bixby is not completely terrible, but Samsung is already charging almost one grand for the phone and it feels sad to see a company like Samsung desperately trying to force users to use an inferior product.

Only time will tell if someone could figure out another way to remap the Bixby kee on Galaxy Note 9 and other Bixby 2 equipped devices.

NEXT STORY: Samsung Galaxy A6+ is A Lot Cheaper Now

The Galaxy A series is Samsung’s mid-range phone lineup which cuts some corners in camera, specs, and displays to get phones to cheaper prices. Just like the South Korean Smartphone makers did with its last year flagship last week, Samsung has given Galaxy A6+ a price cut treatment.

The phone, which was originally launched at Rs 25,900 ($370), now costs Rs 21,900 or $315. On Samsung’s official site, Amazon and PayTm mall.

For the price, the Galaxy A6+ comes with a large 6-inch super AMOLED display and an 18.5:9 aspect ratio, The handset is powered by a Snapdragon 450 SoC and comes in a single 4GB RAM and 64 GB storage variant.

Onto optics, the phone has a dual rear camera setup, the first one is a 16-megapixel setup with f/1.7 aperture and the other one with a f/1.9 sensor with 5-megapixel resolution. The selfie camera of the phone has a rather large 24-megapixel sensor with f/1.9 aperture. Probably more interestingly, both cameras come with LED flashes.

The phone runs on Android 8.0 Oreo and it has a 3500mAh battery under the hood.

NEXT STORY: Looks Like Apple Will Copy Samsung in The Next iPhone

Now that the Galaxy Note 9 is on the market and in the hands of some customers, Samsung has officially slashed the prices of all Galaxy Note 8 phones.

The price cut can be seen on the company’s official website and on its Amazon page.

After the price cut, the phone will cost Rs 55,900 (Almost $800) which is Rs 12,000 (or $170) cheaper than what the phone cost just a few weeks before.

Apart from the straightaway price cut, a buyer can get Rs 4000 cash back with an HDFC credit card and a possible Rs 4,000 additional exchange value on the phone.

While the Note 8 is not as powerful as the latest Note 9, the device still has some decent specs, one of the best mobile displays on the market and it comes with the trademark S-Pen for doodling and note-taking.

The cameras are the second in the world to come with flexible aperture. Also, the phone version I discussed comes with 6 GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage. You can add up to 512 GB microSD card to expand the storage too.

At the time, the phone comes with Android Oreo but the company has stated that an OTA will be released in future to update the phone to Android Pie.

NEXT STORY: Google Just Launched The Latest Version of Android And This One is Called Android Pie

 

Samsung has been known to make some of the best mobile displays over the last few years. Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus’ one of the big selling points is the display and Apple itself has used Samsung made displays in the $1000 iPhone X.

The case looks to be the same with Galaxy Note 9 which was launched just recently. According to Displaymate, the Note 9 takes the crown of the best display on a mobile Smartphone.

The phone’s display is 27% brighter than the last Note device and its peak display brightness is 710 nits which makes it easily readable in sunlight.

The report said “Galaxy Note9 is the most innovative and high-performance Smartphone display that we have ever Lab tested, breaking and establishing many new Display Performance Records that are listed above. The Galaxy Note9 delivers uniformly consistent all-around Top Tier Display Performance and receives All Green (Very Good to Excellent) Ratings in All of the DisplayMate Lab Test and Measurement Categories – only the second display we have ever tested to get All Green in All Categories – the Galaxy S9 was the first. The level of display performance and excellence has been increasing each year, and the Galaxy Note9 has now raised the bar significantly higher.”

Apart from the display, the phone has been getting praise from reviewers for its build quality and new features added on the new S-Pen. Considering the phone lineup was considered dead when the Note 7 came to market, this is quite a comeback.

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It Has been a few months since Samsung launched its last Galaxy On series phone. It looks like the Smartphone giant is ready with another in the series. The company just recently launched Galaxy On8 which will come with the price tag of Rs 16,990 or roughly $240.

For the price, which is competing with Moto’s own budget G6 and G6 Plus, the phone comes with a 6 inch AMOLED display which the company is calling an ‘Infinity Display’. Apart from the 18:9 aspect ratio HD+ display, the phone also has a dual camera system.

While nowhere near as good as the camera of current flagship Galaxy Note9, the dual camera system has two sensors, one of 16 megapixels and the other being a 5-megapixel secondary sensor. On the front of the phone is another 16-megapixel pixel camera for selfies.

The phone run on Android 8.0 and it is powered by a Snapdragon 450 SoC which is coupled with 4 GB of RAM.

On8’s gimmick this time is its AI features that are backed in inside the camera app. Samsung claims that the phone can automatically use AI to enhance images including Life Focus and Background blur shape. How good are these features actually? looks like we will have to wait some more to find out.

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Now that Samsung has launched Galaxy Note’s latest entry in the US, it looks like the launch of Galaxy S10 is not too far. We already have some interesting information about the upcoming Android flagship thanks to some leaks, and now we have some more details as well.

Patently Mobile recently reported that the S10 will be coming with an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner which will be -you can guess- located under the display on the front of the phone. This will be the first phone from Samsung to come with an in-display fingerprint sensor.

More interesting is that the report stated that Samsung is planning to add as many as four of these sensors on the phone for more accurate scanning.

“For example, if the user grips the electronic device with one hand, the electronic device may operate in a one-hand mode and suitably adjust the position of the fingerprint sensing area to accommodate the one-handed grip,” Patently Mobile reports.

It looks like the company will add this tech only on the bigger S10+ whereas the cheaper and smaller S10 will have a side mounted fingerprint sensor. The phone will also have kind of a bonkers triple camera setup and as always, there will be typical updates to the specs of the phone.

NEXT STORY: Google Just Launched The Latest Version of Android And This One is Called Android Pie

 

Well, after countless leaks over the last couple of months, the South Korean Smartphone giant has finally launched the latest Note device in its Galaxy lineup. The phone looks a lot like the last Galaxy Note 8 but has some improvements on the hardware apart from just being a spec bump.

Let’s talk about the hardware improvements first, the Note 9 has a much larger 4000 mAh battery which should help with its endurance.  Alos, after fixing the fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy S9 a few months ago, the fingerprint sensor has also been moved to a place where it is easier to reach.

The S pen on the Note 9 supports Bluetooth and Samsung also announced that it will open up a developer SDK which may bring new features to the S-Pen in future.

Spec wise, the Note 9 is a flagship on all regards, a 6.4-inch display, Snapdragon 845 SoC and 6GB of RAM which is paired with 256 GB storage which can be expanded via MicroSD cards.

The phone will come in 4 colors: Black (with Black S-Pen), Purple (with Purple S-pen), Copper (with Copper S-Pen) and Ocean Blue (Yellow S-Pen).

Thinking of buying the Note 9? You may have to spend a ton this time. The 512GB variant is going to be launched at an almost ridiculous $1250 which is far more expensive than Apple’s iPhone X.

NEXT STORY: Samsung Just Launched Galaxy Tab S4 to Take On Apple iPad and Microsoft Surface