Samsung to unveil the Galaxy Note 7 and Note 7 edge on August 2, 2016

We’ve seen quite a few rumors about the upcoming device in the Galaxy Note lineup including the one which suggested that it would be the Galaxy Note 7. Now, we’ve received information suggesting that a curved edge screen variant of the Galaxy Note 7 would be unveiled at the next Galaxy Unpacked 2016 event.

According to an image that we’ve received, Samsung might unveil the Galaxy Note7 (SM-N930) and Note7 edge (SM-N935) on August 2, 2016, at the Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center in New York. As you can see in the image, five curved lines might be pointing towards ’7′ the Galaxy Note7′s name, and that would bring its number in sync with the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge.

The Galaxy Note 7 is rumored to feature a 5.8-inch QHD display, Snapdragon 823 SoC, an iris scanner, IP68-certified water-resistant body, a USB Type-C port, and a 4,000 mAh battery. We also exclusively reported that the Galaxy Note 7 would come with a BlackBerry Hub-like Samsung Focus app for enhanced productivity.

Thanks for the tip, Jehezkiel E.!

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Samsung could start using Tizen in all its products, is using the Indian market as a “litmus test”

The Tizen Alliance might be in a bad shape right now with six of its member companies jumping the ship, but Samsung hasn’t lost its hopes yet. In fact, the South Korean technology giant seems to have some grand plans for Tizen.

According to a new report from Korean Times, Samsung could start using Tizen in all its products shortly to cut its heavy reliance on Google’s Android platform. A senior Samsung Electronics executive, who wished not to be named, said, “If you don’t have your own ecosystem, then you will have no future. Tizen isn’t just a platform developed for use with mobile devices.” Samsung was late in the game, but the company is “getting much better,” he said.

If you don’t have your own ecosystem, then you will have no future. Tizen isn’t just a platform developed for use with mobile devices.

He pointed out that the technology landscape has shifted from business-to-consumer to business-to-business segment, and that Tizen will see a meteoric rise in its market share in the smartphone market. Samsung has continually improved Tizen and released a number of products like the Gear S2 based on the platform. The company’s Samsung Pay service has seen much higher satisfaction rate.

Samsung is currently using the Indian market as a “litmus test” by releasing cheap Tizen-based smartphones. “Samsung’s Z-branded Tizen-powered phones are popular with Indian consumers. During the first quarter of this year, Samsung sold about 64 million phones there. This means that Tizen is proving its competitiveness,” said the executive. Based on the growth, Samsung has decided to release more Tizen-based watches, TVs, and cameras.

Samsung is in the process of developing Internet of Things (IoT) driven business systems running on Tizen.

The company has been conducting Tizen Developers Conferences to promote Tizen among developers. It will start providing more support and incentives to developers who create apps and services for Tizen products. The company is said to be in the process of “developing Internet of Things (IoT) driven business systems running on Tizen.”

Samsung has made some real progress with Tizen in the wearables market with the release of the Gear S2 and the recently announced Gear Fit 2. IDC expects Tizen’s market share in the wearable market to grow to 11.3% by the end of this year, with Apple’s watchOS and Google’s Android Wear having 49.4% and 21.4% market shares, respectively.

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Samsung might be working on an affordable flip phone

We recently reported that Samsung is working on a high-end clamshell smartphone for the Chinese market. However, that’s not the only clamshell device Samsung is working on.

It was revealed a couple of weeks ago that the South Korean smartphone giant is working on a successor to the Galaxy Folder (SM-G150). Now, Samsung has important some more units of the SM-G1600 to India for testing and evaluation purposes, as can be seen on importing listing site Zauba.

It Looks like the device would feature a 3.8-inch screen and could be destined for the Chinese market. The Galaxy Folder featured entry-level specifications such as a WVGA display, 8GB storage, and 1.5GB RAM, so here’s hoping that Samsung would bring something better to the table this year.

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Samsung’s Game Tuner app really needs to support non-flagship devices

Samsung’s increased focus on gaming with the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge was interesting to see. The company promised superior performance on its latest flagships, and also built in dedicated tools to let users get the most out of their gaming experience. Samsung’s Game Launcher app lets us access all our installed games from a single location; Game Tools offers various features, such as an option to disable the device’s capacitive keys so that they don’t get in the way, and the ability to take in-game screenshots and record gameplay videos.

But this focus on gaming didn’t exactly start with the S7 and S7 edge. Samsung launched the Game Tuner app way back in October last year, with support for the Galaxy S6 lineup and the Galaxy Note 5. Game Tuner, as the name suggests, allows you to fine-tune game settings – you can decrease a game’s texture quality and resolution to increase frame rate, or limit the game’s frame rate to save battery power. It’s extremely useful should you decide to make use of Game Tuner, but oddly, Samsung has kept the app away from those who would need it the most.

Those folks would be users of Samsung’s mid-range and budget smartphones. Let’s face it, if you’re buying a flagship device, performance in even the most high-end titles is never really a problem. Saving battery power is a valid use case as we all know how power hungry high-end phones can be, but other than that, Game Tuner doesn’t really offer much to flagship smartphone owners. Less powerful devices, however, could benefit greatly, especially from a feature that reduces a game’s graphical quality and would make visually demanding games more playable.

Similarly, Game Tools could also do with support for more devices, both older flagships (Game Tools is only supported on the S7 and S7 edge for now) and devices with humble specs. After all, every Samsung device comes with capacitive keys that can get in the way while gaming, unlike on-screen keys that simply disappear when an app or game goes full screen. Budget devices might not have the horsepower to record in-game videos and offer playable frame rates at the same time, but being able to disable those pesky capacitive navigation keys would be a boon across every Galaxy device.

I get it. Samsung has a lot of mid-range and budget devices with varying hardware specifications, and making Game Tools and Game Tuner compatible with the different GPUs and SoCs could prove to be difficult. Still, as it stands now, these apps – especially Game Tuner – aren’t being used to their full potential. I don’t recall the last time I needed to reduce a game’s frame rate on my Galaxy S7 edge, but it’s something that crossed my mind a few times when I was testing the recently launched Galaxy J5 (2016) and Galaxy J7 (2016) for the SamMobile review.

Make it happen Samsung. These gaming tools really need to come to cheaper smartphones and tablets – these devices might not offer you the same level of profit as your flagships, but they would certainly be able to offer a better user experience with something like Game Tuner. In the end, that’s what it is all about, right?

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Samsung Display accountable for 95 percent of all Q1 2016 OLED shipments, firm estimates

AMOLED panels have been a long-held trademark of Samsung over the last few years on its Galaxy smartphone lineup, but with AMOLED panels decreasing in production cost, the field is ripe for other manufacturers to invest in AMOLED panels – which is giving the Korean giant a huge financial boost. Samsung has been leading the way in marketshare in the AMOLED market for some time, but the rise in Chinese manufacturers adopting active matrix organic light-emitting diode (or AMOLED, for short) panels is putting Samsung even further ahead of its competition.

According to market research firm UBI Research, Samsung Display shipments accounted for 95% of all total OLED panel shipments in Q1 2016, with OLED shipments totaling in at around 91.3 million units. Samsung Display OLED shipments were at 86.7 million in Q1, and this is best explained by the rise in OLED panel adoption in smartphones. Chinese smartphone makers have adopted OLED displays in an alarming number, with the number of OLED smartphones having more than tripled from just 5 in 2015 to 17 in 2016 — and the year is just getting started.

Samsung’s closest rival in OLED marketshare is LG, who is beefing up its OLED smartphone panel production in order to gain some ground on its fellow Korean rival this year. With OLED demand for smartphones increasing, and with Samsung supplying nearly all OLED panels on smartphones worldwide, the financial roses are in bloom for Samsung. The Korean giant is looking to ramp up its OLED production even further to meet this growing demand, by increasing its A3 plant production from 15,000 units per month to 105,000 units per month by year’s end.

Samsung dominates the OLED market, with manufacturers such as Lenovo and Huawei with its Nexus 6P flagship relying on the company’s trademark displays. With Samsung lowering the prices of AMOLED panels this year, Huawei and other Chinese manufacturers turning to Samsung’s curved displays for upcoming smartphones, and Apple having ordered 100 million AMOLED panels while planning to implement OLED displays into the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus in 2017, the good news bears testimony to Samsung’s decision to stand out from the crowd of manufacturers. It turns out that many other manufacturers want to stand out, too.

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Samsung’s new curved monitors will appeal to gamers

Samsung today announced its first curved gaming monitors – the CF591, CF391, and CF390 – the company aims to help transform the PC gaming experience with its latest products. Samsung’s first gaming monitors were unveiled earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show 2016 in January. They are designed to match the natural shape of the human eye. This design incorporates a sharp 1800 mm (1800R) curvature radius which offers immersive and panoramic viewing angles and makes for a less visually-strenuous viewing experience. The monitors also feature a 3,000:1 contrast ratio which produces darker blacks and minimizes light leakage.

All of Samsung’s curved gaming monitors have support for AMD FreeSync Technology Over HDMI which synchronizes the screen refresh rates with AMD graphics card frame rates to reduce stutter, lag, and input latency. Samsung’s CF591 curved monitors are being showcased at EA Games’ EA Play gaming event which takes place until June 14 at the Novo at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. EA is going to use this monitor to preview some of its upcoming games which include Titanfall 2 and FIFA 17.

Samsung has also launched a promotion for people looking to purchase a new gaming monitor. Every US and European customer who purchases a new Samsung CF39 Series or CF591 gaming monitor will get one EA game for free, games available to choose from include Need for Speed, FIFA 16, Battlefield 4, and Battlefield Hardline. Promo participants will get a promo code on their receipt, through email or the Samsung website. This code can then be used to redeem the free game download from EA Games website.

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