The Galaxy Note 5 is the most complete Samsung Galaxy flagship ever

I hated the Galaxy Note 4. Hate isn’t the word my colleagues here at SamMobile will use, but none of them were fans of the Note 4 either. The hardware was great, but the laggy software was what ruined the device when it launched, and Samsung’s abysmal software support further sealed the deal in making the Note 4 one of the most disappointing flagship smartphones from the Korean giant. Great hardware has never been an issue with the Note lineup....

Samsung reportedly spending $25 million on Rihanna’s new album and upcoming tour

In what appears to be one of the biggest music and marketing tie-ups in recent memory a report claims that Samsung will be sponsoring Rihanna’s new album and upcoming tour to the tune of $25 million. According to the report both camps have been negotiating on the deal for seven months which covers Rihanna’s upcoming album reportedly titled “Anti” and the subsequent world tour, her eighth studio album is expected to be released in the next few weeks. It’s...

Samsung continues to trim workforce as it looks to further cut costs

Over the past few months there have been multiple reports that Samsung is downsizing its workforce as it wants to cut down on costs, at one point such reports were rubbished by the company, only for one to surface from China claiming that the company was cutting 1,000 jobs in the People’s Republic. According to a new report out of Korea the company is firing managerial-level workers and executives to further cut down on costs. A Samsung official...

Activate Samsung Pay by November 8 and get a free wireless charger

Samsung Pay has been performing quite well in South Korea and the United States, the company recently announced that it will be adding support for even more banks and gift cards to the app, all while it tries to get even more people to start using its payments service. The company has announced a new promotion for folks who own the Galaxy S6, the Galaxy S6 edge, the Galaxy S6 edge+ and the Galaxy Note 5. All they have to do is activate Samsung Pay...

Here’s what VLC looks like on a Tizen smartphone

VideoLAN’s VLC is undoubtedly one of the most popular media players available to the public and the fact that it’s open source and has support for almost every media format under the sun really shows why people love it so much. It’s already available on a wide variety of platforms across desktop and mobile so it was only a matter of time before VLC made its way to Tizen as well. Work on VLC for...

Samsung Galaxy View hands-on pictures and first impression

SamMobile was at the BALR. Gear S2 launch yesterday in the Netherlands where we had a few minutes (20 minutes to be exact) with the Galaxy View. Samsung is describing it as a “Movable Display” and not a tablet. They told us that they are trying to set a new category once again, and we weren’t allowed to call it a tablet. We had our hands-on time with a pre-production unit in lighting conditions far...

Galaxy S5 is the police’s latest weapon in The Netherlands

Aside from carrying their usual slew of weapons which includes a baton, pepper spray and a firearm police in The Netherlands are getting a new weapon that’s not entirely as dangerous but will certainly go a long way in making their lives easier. Some 10,000 cops of the country’s National Police have received the Galaxy S5 which comes with custom software that allows them to tap into the police...

The Galaxy View costs $599 and arrives November 6

You might remember that we were the first ones to report earlier this year that Samsung had started developing an 18.4-inch Android tablet which the company later confirmed as the Galaxy View. It teased the tablet a couple of times and over the past month or so multiple reports came out and revealed much about the tablet. Yesterday Samsung formally announced the Galaxy View and confirmed its specifications, now we have the price and release date...

Samsung launches the Galaxy S6 edge+ Ant-Man Edition in China

Samsung partnered with Marvel to cross promote its movies through limited edition devices like the Galaxy S6 edge Iron Man Edition that came with a special red-gold color scheme, an arc-reactor themed wireless charger, a custom theme, and an Avengers box. The company even released Avengers themed accessories for the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 edge. Now, the company has launched yet another limited...

Samsung, the S Pen, and Steve Jobs: Intuitiveness Re-examined

How are we gonna communicate, ‘cause we don’t wanna carry around a mouse, right? So, what are we gonna do? Oh, a stylus, right? We’re gonna use a stylus. No. Who wants a stylus? You have to get ‘em and put ‘em away and you lose ‘em. Yuck! Nobody wants a stylus. So let’s not use a stylus. We’re gonna use the best pointing device in the world. We’re gonna use a pointing device that we’re all born with. We’re born with 10 of ‘em. We’re gonna use our...

Upcoming Galaxy A5 sequel (SM-A510F) gets Bluetooth SIG certification

Earlier this week, successors to the Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A7 had their specifications revealed thanks to their appearance on the GFXBench benchmark. The Galaxy A5 is also set to get an upgrade along with the A3 and A7; it’s not listed on GFXBench yet, but it has just passed certification from Bluetooth SIG, clearing an important step every new smartphone has to take before making an official...

Samsung beats Apple in smartphone sales during Q3 2015

Apple seems to be slacking behind Samsung in terms of smartphones sales according to a new report. During the quarter of July-September, Samsung sold 83.8 million smartphones, which accounts for 23.7 percent of the global smartphone market. These are truly impressive numbers when you compare it to Apple’s 48 million units sold during the same period, accounting for 13.6 percent of the global smartphone market. These...

Samsung to launch an exclusive BALR edition of the Gear S2 in The Netherlands

Just one day before the Gear S2 smartwatch lands on shelves in The Netherlands, Samsung has announced a collaboration with fashion brand BALR, they’ve joined forces to create an exclusive BALR edition of the Gear S2 which will only be sold in The Netherlands. This special edition of the Gear S2 comes with a specifically designed watch strap and watch face. BALR’s fashion collections are inspired by...

Themes Thursday: 52 themes released this week with a bunch focused on Halloween

We showcase some of the best themes released every week as a part of Themes Thursday, and Samsung has released 52 themes in its Theme Store in the past seven days. A bunch of those themes are feature spooky or scary wallpapers as well as icons to help you prepare your compatible Samsung smartphone for the upcoming Halloween celebration. The Skeleton theme that is showcased below event...

Samsung trails Apple in global smartwatch sales

This week both Apple and Samsung announced their earnings for the third quarter, they broke down the numbers and highlighted spectacular performance of their smartphones, but we didn’t hear too much about smartwatches. Apple didn’t reveal how many Apple Watch units it sold in the previous quarter and Samsung didn’t expand on the performance of its wearable devices as well, but data from research firm Strategy Analytics shows that Apple...

$9.9 billion share buyback announced as Samsung reports first profit growth in two years

Samsung today announced its third quarter results, the company is back to operating profit growth after seven straight quarters of decline, it also announced a share buyback program today worth $9.9 billion or 11.3 trillion Korean won. This announcement, coupled with Samsung’s first operating profit growth in two years, has had an immediate effect with shares of the company rising sharply. This buyback will be implemented in 3 to 4 stages and will...

Samsung confirms first operating profit growth after seven straight quarters of decline

Samsung’s operating profit has declined for seven straight quarters but that changes with Samsung announcing its earnings for the third quarter today, as expected the company has achieved operating profit growth, its first since the Galaxy S4. Samsung’s consolidated revenue for the third quarter came in at 51.68 trillion won ($45.6 billion), that’s net profit and sales combined, posting 7.49 trillion won ($6.42 billion) in operating profit. These...

Samsung Electronics to report first profit growth in two years

Samsung Electronics has been reporting low profits for quite a while now but a new report from The Wall Street Journal suggests that Samsung is about to report the first profit growth in two years, which was to be expected. The report forecasts an earning report of $5.3 billion, the equivalent of 6 trillion won which is a 42 percent increase in a single year. It’s all very surprising especially considering that Samsung has been reporting constant...

Samsung finally unveils the Galaxy View

We exclusively reported earlier this year that Samsung is working on an 18.4-inch Android-powered tablet, a few months back the company teased this tablet that it has named the Galaxy View, and over the past couple of weeks there has been a steady stream of information about this new tablet. Today Samsung has finally unveiled the Galaxy View, the biggest selling point is its huge display and...

Samsung partners with designers and brands for Gear S2 watchbands

During the launch of its first smartwatch with a circular display, Samsung emphasized on the personalization of the Gear S2. The company showcased multitude of watch faces, watch bands, and exclusive apps for the Gear S2. Now, Samsung has announced that it has partnered with various brands and designers to prepare a variety of watchbands that will soon be released. Samsung has partnered with Alessandro...

Tizen gets native Facebook app, available on the Samsung Z3

Samsung’s Tizen phones come with a Facebook app out of the box, but this app simply loads the web version of the social network. The web version of Facebook is rather limited, so it hasn’t been a good experience for Tizen smartphone users. Well, until now that is, as an update to the Facebook app for Tizen turns it into a proper native app designed for the operating system. The native app looks...

What’s on my Samsung smartphone: October, 2015

The sort of questions I continually get asked are: “What’s your favourite application at the moment? What launcher are you currently using? What wallpaper has caught your attention this week?” I’d be lying if I said that it hasn’t got a little laborious answering the same questions over and over again, so I’ve put together this roundup of the current configuration of my smartphone. For the past few months, my go-to handset of choice has been the...

Samsung to mass produce Exynos 8890 for Galaxy S7 from December

There has been a lot of buzz around Samsung’s upcoming mobile processor, the Exynos 8890. Starting Q1 2016, it will go head-to-head with the best SoCs in the industry including Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 and Apple’s A9X. In the previous weeks, we reported that Samsung is in the process of optimising its chipset for better performance as well as efficiency. Now, it is being reported by Business Korea that the South Korean electronics chip...

Samsung will bring paid themes to nine countries tomorrow

Samsung released support for third-party themes on some of its new smartphones that were launched this year, but the availability of paid themes was limited to only a few markets around the world. Paid themes were available in the Theme Store in markets like India and South Korea, but were not available to users in the European countries. Now, a well-known theme developer Samer Zayer...

Galaxy View user manual appears on Samsung’s website

The Galaxy View has been fully detailed ahead of its launch thanks to a plethora of leaks, and the 18.4-inch tablet’s user manual has now popped up online on Samsung’s website, suggesting an official announcement could take place soon. The user manual details various features of the Galaxy View, including the detachable arching handle at its back that acts as a dock and also doubles up as a way...

Samsung Pay will support more banks and work with gift cards in the United States

Samsung today confirmed that its payment service will soon work with even more banks in the United States, and that by the end of this year users will be able to pay at participating merchants using gift cards stored within the Samsung Pay app. The mobile payment service was launched in the country last month, US is one of the two launch markets for Samsung Pay and now work is underway to bring the payment service to more markets across the globe. The...

“Restless Innovation”: Why Samsung experiments on its high-end “Galaxies”

Samsung is the top Android OEM worldwide, and, like all important companies, receives its share of ridicule from critics. In years past, critics have labeled the Korean manufacturer one who “throws something against the wall to see what sticks,” referring to Samsung’s constant experimentation with its products. Take the Note Edge, for example: some critics chide Samsung because the company emerged with a Note Edge last year, only to forgo a Note...

Samsung reportedly supplying OLED displays for Apple Watch, paving the way for AMOLED on future iPhones

A report out of Korea today claims that Apple is diversifying the supply chain for its first smartwatch by sourcing OLED displays for the Apple Watch from Samsung. LG Display was previously said to be the only supplier for the Apple Watch’s display and it was said that Apple would stick with the company till the second-generation Apple Watch but if today’s report is to be believed Samsung is now in the mix as well. Ever since the first iPhone was...

Exclusive: Samsung’s Project Valley ‘foldable device’ (SM-G929F) will launch in these countries

Samsung’s first phone with a foldable display, dubbed Project Valley at the moment, is rumored to be launching in January next year, and we were the first to exclusively reveal the device’s existence. We have now been able to get more information on the device from our insiders, including its model number and a list of the countries where it might be released. The Project Valley phone will carry model number SM-G929F. The Galaxy S6 edge+...

Samsung is trying to fix Snapdragon 820 chipset

As we reported earlier, Samsung might release three processor variants of the Galaxy S7. After exclusively using the homegrown Exynos 7420 chipset in its high-end smartphones that were released in 2015, the South Korean smartphone giant might have made up its mind to bring back Snapdragon chipsets in its upcoming flagship smartphone for 2016. According to a new report from Business Korea, Samsung is making every effort to fix heating issues...

Specifications of Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A7 successors leak

We broke the exclusive news about Samsung working on successors to the Galaxy A3, Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 a month ago, and also revealed a list of accessories that will be launched alongside the devices. Our insiders weren’t able to give us any information on the hardware of these upcoming devices, but the GFXBench benchmark database has now revealed the specifications of the Galaxy A3 and the Galaxy...

Samsung Developer Conference 2016 will take place on April 27-28

Samsung has posted the landing page for the Samsung Developer Conference 2016 that will take place on the 27th to 28th of April the in Moscone West, San Francisco. You can currently register for conference updates using your e-mail which will ensure that you stay up to date with the latest posts. Next year’s Samsung Developer Conference is expected to focus on the Tizen ecosystem as well as the Internet of Things (IoT) as Samsung continues...

Galaxy S6 edge+ gets first software update, battery improvements in tow

The unlocked Galaxy Note 5 got its first software update last week, and Samsung is now rolling out the exact same update to the Galaxy S6 edge+. The Galaxy S6 edge+ shares all of its hardware with the Galaxy Note 5; it’s interesting to see Samsung finally maintaining consistency in software updates despite the two devices being from a different lineup, and despite the Note 5′s software not exactly...

10-26-2015 Firmware Updates: Galaxy S5, Galaxy Tab S 10.5, Galaxy A5, and more

Samsung has a plethora of phones and tablets in its lineup, and regularly releases firmware updates for various devices. These can include major updates, which bring a newer version of the OS to a particular device, or minor ones that improve performance and stability and fix bugs. Software updates for Samsung devices roll out in various regions every day, and you can find out which firmware updates were pushed out by the company over the weekend through...