Samsung Galaxy A8 launched in India, priced at INR 32,500

After officially unveiling its thinnest smartphone till date last month, and pushing it to the retail shelves in its homeland, Samsung has launched the Galaxy A8 in India today. The near bezel-free, metal-clad smartphone from the smartphone giant is priced at INR 32,500 in the country, and will be available in three colours; black, gold, and white.

The Galaxy A8 is the most high-end smartphone in the Galaxy A series, and replaces the Galaxy Alpha (now discontinued). It features a large 5.7-inch 1080p Super AMOLED display, Android 5.1 Lollipop, an Exynos 5430 octa-core processor (instead of Snapdragon 615), 2GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, a microSD card slot, and a 3,050 mAh battery. It is a device with a Hybrid Dual SIM slot, so you can either be used for a secondary SIM card or a microSD card.

It also features a new 16-megapixel sensor for its primary camera along with a single-LED flash and an aperture of f/1.9. There’s a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with 120-degree wide-angle lens, similar to most of the recently released smartphones from the company. Unlike other Galaxy A series smartphones, the Galaxy A8 also features a touch-based fingerprint sensor that we first saw in the Galaxy S6.

It is compatible with all the 4G LTE (FDD-LTE Band 3 1800 MHz and TDD-LTE Band 40 2300 MHz) networks in India. The company, in partnership with Airtel, will offer data data benefits to its buyers. The Galaxy A8 is already available through Samsung’s own eStore in the country, and the company is offering low-cost EMI options as well as 5,000 PayBack points for those who buy it using an ICICI Bank credit card.

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Samsung Galaxy K Zoom won’t be getting Lollipop in the UK

According to Samsung Mobile UK the Galaxy K Zoom will not be upgraded to the latest iteration of Android OS. Released last year the handset is still running on KitKat. The reason why the Galaxy K Zoom won’t be getting Android Lollipop is unknown right now, but it could be that the hardware is outdated and it makes it difficult for the software to operate.

Galaxy K Zoom is a special kind of device. It’s one of Samsung’s devices that feature a microSD memory card slot which allows expansion by up to 64GB. The device was made with extreme camera performance in mind which is why the Galaxy K Zoom packs an impressive 20.7MP primary camera with 10x optical zoom, OIS, Xenon & LED flash and more. Other tech specs include a 4.8-inch display with Gorilla Glass 3 and a quad-core Exynos 5260 SoC which is allegedly one of the reasons why the phone won’t be getting Lollipop.

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Egypt gets first Tizen smartphone early next year

Tizen OS is already powering various Samsung products but so far the company has not been aggressively pushing it in the mobile arena, it has only released a couple of handsets and that too in very few markets. It’s expected that the upcoming Samsung Z3 is going to make it to Europe and North America but we’ll have to wait and see whether that happens or not. There is word though that Tizen smartphones will be coming to a whole new market by next year.

Speaking at a press conference called for the release of the Galaxy Tab S2 IT and Mobile Product Manager for Samsung Egypt Raafat Khalil said that the first Tizen smartphone will be released in Egypt early next year. Khalil didn’t go into much detail about the device itself so it’s unclear at this point in time whether Egypt will get the Samsung Z1 or if it will be among the markets which receive the Samsung Z3. We’ve reported exclusively that the Z3′s launch markets include India, Bangladesh and Nepal so perhaps it may be released in Egypt some time after the initial launch.

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Major retailers and carriers in Russia have stopped buying Samsung handsets

Two of the largest mobile retailers in Russia and as many wireless carriers have stopped buying Samsung smartphone because of growing concerns about defective units and disagreements over repair guarantees, these carriers and retailers operate over 11,000 stores combined in the country so their decision to not buy Samsung’s products is certainly going to eat into the company’s bottom line in that country.

Retailers Euroset Holding NV and Svyaznoy have made this decision to stop purchasing smartphones from Samsung alongside carriers VimpelCom Ltd. and PJSC MegaFon. VimpelCom decided to stop its purchases after faulty units among Samsung devices reportedly reached as high as 7% which was more than other brands. Svyaznoy stopped ordering smartphones and tablets from Samsung in June and it’s currently selling whatever stock is left, the retailer estimates that following this move Samsung’s sales in Russia may have dropped by up to 25% over the past month. In an email to Bloomberg the company said that it “remains committed to providing the best possible products for Russian consumers,” but declined to comment on its relationship with Russian retailers.

Research group IDC estimates that Samsung sold smartphones worth close to $1.46 billion in Russia last year which accounted for 23% of unit sales in the entire country. With major retailers stepping back and carriers no longer ordering units before issues related to defective units and repair costs are settled, it appears that Samsung’s market share in Russia might be up for grabs if the company doesn’t get this matter sorted out soon.

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Twelve new themes were released by Samsung in the Theme Store last week

We were busy covering the Tizen Developer Summit 2015 that was being conducted in Bengaluru, India, so we missed out on publishing our regular ‘Themes Thursday‘ story on time. Samsung released twelve new themes in the Theme Store last week, and seven of them are paid. Samsung has still not started publishing paid themes in the European markets, and we hope that they do it soon as people are missing out on some good themes.

Coming back the themes released last week, Gray Bear and Minimal Premium look nice to me. There’s even a dark theme (almost),  Paper UI (Dark), for those who like to save battery life on their smartphones. Which theme(s) did you like?

Vincennes

Santorini – [Paid]

Modern House _MINDON Design - [Paid]

Summer Summer - [Paid]

Autumn Leaves

Gray Bear

[MINU] Simple Grey

[MINU] Red Velvet

Paper UI (Dark) - [Paid]

Paper UI - [Paid]

Swan Lake - [Paid]

Minimal Premium - [Paid]

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Samsung & LG increase production of flexible OLED displays

A new report from The Korea Herald says that LG and Samsung are pumping up their flexible OLED displays after the LCD earnings declined. Samsung claims that OLED technology is the only one that they expect a growth in next year but they have much bigger plans for this type of display. LCD panels brought a $131.4 billion in sales last year whereas in 2015 they only delivered $129 billion. With this number quickly declining, the two South Korean magnates have to take action.

The move towards OLED displays can be seen if you take a look at Samsung’s previous announcements. For instance, they announced that they’ll start mass producing Mirror OLED displays this year for their Smart TVs, as well as deliver flexible OLED displays for the Apple Watch. The tech company is the biggest innovator in this department and there has long been speculation that they’re working on flexible displays. According to Samsung, OLED display revenues are estimated to reach $11.8 billion this year which is a 36% increase from 2014.

One potential downside of mass producing OLED displays is the fact that they’re more difficult to manufacture than traditional LCDs which will bring forth an increase in pricing. Not only that, but we can also expect a shortage in production. Whereas Samsung is currently producing 39,000 OLED units per month this will almost double by the first quarter of 2016 to 63,000 units. Here’s what Lee Chang-hoon, Samsung Display Executive had to say about this:

We have solved production issues now. We plan to expand sales channels of flexible OLEDs to meet the market demands

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Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge prices adjusted to €599.00 and €699.00

If you were struggling to purchase a Galaxy S6 or a Galaxy S6 Edge then you should know that Samsung has lowered the price to both devices by €100. This puts the Galaxy S6 32GB at €599.00 and the Galaxy S6 Edge 32GB at €699.00. The new prices are already listed in Samsung’s online shop as well as the various retailers where you can buy the flagship. Note that these prices are for the Netherlands only right now, but it’s very likely that Samsung will be expanding them to other countries in the Eurozone. It’s a huge saving and it should boost sales quite a bit considering that a lot of people hesitated to buy this phone due to the pricing. These changes come just as the tech company is about to announce the Galaxy S6 edge+ and the Galaxy Note 5, in order to create a competitive pricing scheme. Via Source

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Galaxy Note 3 Neo confirmed to receive Lollipop in the UK

A new tweet from Samsung UK confirms that after a long wait, Galaxy Note 3 Neo customers will finally receive Android Lollipop on their devices. Aside from confirmation we don’t have an official date yet but it’s great to see Samsung still focusing on older devices too. It’s worth mentioning that the Galaxy Note 3 Neo was also confirmed to get Lollipop in The Netherlands as well as France.

This update is going to greatly enhance the Galaxy Note 3 Neo which already has some decent tech specs.The 64-bit ART compiler makes apps open much faster and Lollipop introduces dozens of features that Note 3 Neo will be grateful for. Among the listed specs the Galaxy Note 3 Neo packs a 5.5-inch 720 x 1280 pixel display with 64GB of default onboard storage. It also features a microSD card slot, an 8MP primary camera and it’s powered by a huge 3,100mAh battery. Let us know if you’re excited about this update and if you’re in the UK remember to keep checking for updates in your Settings menu.

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