Three months on, here are my favorite Galaxy S8+ features

I’ve used every flagship Samsung smartphone that has released over the past three years, including the Galaxy S5. Earlier, I had also used the Nexus S, Galaxy S2, and the Galaxy Nexus as my primary devices. Now, I’ve switched from last year’s Galaxy S7 edge to the Galaxy S8+. My colleagues Josh and Adnan have already written about what they like about the S8+ and the features that have made their life easier, and in this post, I’m listing out my favorite features of Samsung’s 6.2-inch flagship after more than three months of using the device.

Infinity Display & New Home Button

Undoubtedly, the best thing about the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ is their almost bezel-less, Infinity Display. It’s big, bright, and colourful, and makes everyone go wow. HDR videos look brilliant, but I was only able to test a few short clips and movie trailers. Netflix should soon bring support for HDR videos on the Galaxy S8.

Compared to other bezel-less phones like the LG G6 and Mi Mix, the Galaxy S8+ looks more like a finished product. I also love the fact that Samsung has finally moved away from physical navigation keys. The new pressure sensitive home button works well to replace the physical one, but I wish Samsung had managed to implement an in-screen fingerprint sensor.

Reliable Cameras

Whenever I think of buying a new phone, I want it to have a better, but most importantly, a reliable camera. Samsung’s smartphone cameras have shown a consistent step up since the company started using OIS on its phones. The Galaxy S8 is the third-generation Galaxy S series phone to feature an optically stabilized camera.

Even though on-paper camera specs haven’t changed much, I’ve noticed that the Galaxy S8 captures slightly better pictures than the Galaxy S7 could, thanks to more processing power at hand. Multi-frame processing makes sure that images in low-light conditions are sharper and have better colours. The yellow tint that was noticeable in the Galaxy S7’s images is nowhere to be seen now. 4K videos are electronically stabilized too, making them look smoother.

Camera Comparison: Galaxy S8 vs. the Galaxy S7

The selfie camera is much better, too, thanks to the increased resolution and autofocus support. The Galaxy S8+ consistently captures clearer images and stable 4K videos. Just like the Galaxy S7, the Galaxy S8 has a class-leading camera, and I love it.

Secure Folder

Secure Folder debuted with the Galaxy Note 7, but the phone was never released in India, so I got to use this feature for the first time on my Galaxy S8+. It has now become one of those features that I use on a daily basis. I can easily hide sensitive or private files using Secure Folder. It’s quite easy to set up and use, and it works with iris and fingerprint.

Since the Galaxy S8+ is a dual-SIM phone (at least in India), I’ve also set up two WhatsApp accounts using Secure Folder. I think every smartphone maker should have a feature like this. I am surprised neither Apple nor Google have released such a feature yet. In fact, you can now use the app on other Samsung phones running Android 7.0.

Audio Quality & AKG-tuned Earphones

Unlike Apple and HTC, Samsung didn’t focus too much on improving the loudspeaker quality of its phones. The Galaxy S7 edge had a pretty average speaker. The Galaxy S8+ has a better one, though. There is some improvement in volume and depth in the audio. I wish Samsung launches the Galaxy Note 8 with stereo loudspeakers, though, especially since the iPhone 7 Plus and the HTC U11 have kickass stereo setups.

The South Korean smartphone giant has improved audio quality through the earphones. Not only did it use better amplifiers for higher power, but the company also started bundling pretty great in-ear earphones. They are tuned by AKG, and I think they’re some of the best earphones (bundled) I’ve ever used. Good that Samsung acquired Harman last year and is collaborating with the company for improved audio on its phones as well as tablets.

UI Customization

Samsung has improved a lot when it comes to UI customizability. It has one of the best collections of theme packs, which can be downloaded through the company’s Theme Store. There’s something for everyone. I’ve downloaded a few Material UI themes and some squircle-shaped icon packs to jazz up my phone as per my liking.

There’s a great collection of wallpapers as well as icon packs in the Theme Store. If you don’t like switching to a whole new theme, you can just download wallpapers and icon packs. You can now also customise the look of the phone using full-colour Always On Display wallpapers.

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Own a Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+? Upgraded from an older Samsung smartphone? Let us know what you like the most about the device down in the comments!

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SamMobile Daily Recap: July 24, 2017 — Galaxy J7 Nxt, Galaxy S8 Active and more!

We publish a lot of stories on a daily basis. Unfortunately, the majority of news breaks during our European hours of operation, which makes it difficult for our readers in the US (and other regions) to keep up. However, we think we’ve come up with a fantastic solution — a daily recap.

Here’s what we published today.

Business

Samsung will triple chip business market share within five years

10 percent of Samsung’s revenue came from its home market South Korea

Deals

Daily Deal: Save 60% on a Gear VR (2016)

Opinion

Samsung’s budget smartphone cameras have finally come of age

Phones

Galaxy J7 Nxt announced in India

New Galaxy S8 Active leaked images and video reveal 4,000mAh battery

These are the countries where the Samsung Galaxy J7 Nxt (SM-J701F) will be launched

Unlocked Galaxy J3 and Galaxy J7 launched by Samsung in the United States

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Unlocked Galaxy J3 and Galaxy J7 launched by Samsung in the United States

Samsung has long offered budget smartphones alongside its premium mid-range and flagship devices but the company doesn’t normally release those models in the United States as unlocked and off-contract models.

This is why it was a bit surprising to see the company announce today that it’s launching the unlocked Galaxy J3 and Galaxy J7 in the United States.

The unlocked Galaxy J3 will be available to customers in the United States in black color. It has a 5.0-inch HD TFT display with a quad-core 1.4GHz processor under the hood, 1.5GB RAM and 16GB internal storage.

Powered by Android 7.0 Nougat, it features a 5-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front camera. The handset has a 2,600mAh battery and a price tag of $149.99.

The Galaxy J7 is slightly more expensive but it does feature a 5.5-inch HD TFT display and an octa-core 1.6GHz processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB of storage.

It has the same cameras and operating system. The battery is a chunky 3,300mAh cell that promises up to 40 hours of talk time and standby time of up to 20 days. It’s priced at $219.99.

The unlocked Galaxy J3 and Galaxy J7 will be available in the United States both in store and online starting July 28 from major retailers and Samsung.com.

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Samsung will triple chip business market share within five years

The chip business has been a significant contributor to Samsung’s bottom line over the past few years. Samsung wants to keep the momentum intact so it’s going to work diligently to ensure that it’s able to solidify its position in this market and grow further.

A senior company executive has said that Samsung is planning to triple its contract chip manufacturing business market share within the next five years by aggressively adding new clients.

Samsung spun off the chip manufacturing business as a separate entity of its semiconductor division earlier this year in May. The new entity is solely responsible for manufacturing mobile processors and other non-memory chips. Its clients include the likes of Qualcomm and NVIDIA.

Samsung executive vice president and head of the new foundry division E.S. Jung said that the company is looking to clinch a 25 percent market share in this industry within five years. It’s going to pursue smaller customers alongside big-name clients to fuel growth

The company has already established a strong position in the industry and wants to become a strong No.2 player in the market, according to Jung. Samsung is widely expected to overtake Intel as the world’s top chipmaker by sales this year courtesy of a boom in the memory chip market.

However, it still has a lot of catching up to do. Taiwan’s TSMC held a 50.6 percent market share in contract manufacturing as of last year compared to Samsung’s 7.9 percent. Samsung also trails US-based Global Foundry and Taiwan-based UMC as they had a 9.6 percent and 8.1 percent market share respectively.

The company knows that in order to win major clients it has to demonstrate grasp over advanced manufacturing technologies. Samsung says that it will be able to manufacture 7nm chips by the second half of next year.

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These are the countries where the Samsung Galaxy J7 Nxt (SM-J701F) will be launched

Samsung launched yet another variant of the Galaxy J7 in India earlier today. Priced at INR 11,490 (approximately $179), the Galaxy J7 Nxt (SM-J701F) features a 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED display. The phone’s 13-megapixel rear-facing camera has autofocus, f/1.9 aperture, LED flash and 1080p video recording. The 5-megapixel front-facing camera has a fixed-focus f/2.2 lens and an LED flash. It runs Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.

The Galaxy J7 Nxt is equipped with a 1.6GHz octa-core processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, a microSD card slot, and a 3,000mAh battery. The phone has a plastic build and weighs 170 grams. Although it has been launched only in India as of now, the company is planning to launch it in more markets. It could be launched with a different name, though. Here’s a complete list of countries and markets where the smartphone would be launched in the near future:

• Afghanistan
• Algeria
• Bangladesh
• Egypt
• Ghana
• India
• Indonesia
• Iran
• Iraq
• Kenya
• Kazakhstan
• Libya
• Malaysia
• Morocco
• Nepal
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Philippines
• Poland
• Russia
• Saudi Arabia
• Senegal
• Singapore
• South Africa
• Sri Lanka
• Thailand
• Tunisia
• Turkey
• Vietnam
• UAE
• Ukraine
• UK
• Uzbekistan

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Daily Deal: Save 60% on a Gear VR (2016)

If you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, we have a fantastic deal for you. For a limited time only, you can bag yourself a third-generation model of the Gear VR for just $39.99 (60% off). This particular variant is identical to its successor, the Gear VR (2017), supporting both microUSB and USB Type-C via an adapter.

Like the sound of the third-generation Gear VR (2016) and want to pick one up for the reduced price? All you need to do is hit the Buy Now button below. You’ll probably want to hurry though, as at the time of publication Amazon only has a few up for grabs, and they’ll likely be gone within the hour.

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Galaxy J7 Nxt announced in India

Samsung has announced the Galaxy J7 Nxt in India, a rebranded variant of the Galaxy J7 (2016), which comes with a 5.5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display, 1.6GHz octa-core CPU, 2GB of RAM and a 13MP rear-facing camera.

Aside from shipping running Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box, the only difference between the Galaxy J7 Nxt and the Galaxy J7 (2016) is that the former has a 3,000mAh cell, while the latter is driven by a 3,300mAh power pack.

In line with the rest of Samsung’s devices destined for the Asian market, the Galaxy J7 Nxt has a dual-SIM slot. There’s a caveat, though: it’s tucked away in a hybrid tray — so if you opt for a second SIM, you can’t insert a microSD card.

We reviewed the Galaxy J7 (2016) last year and came to the conclusion that it’s a solid smartphone with fantastic battery life, but seeing as Samsung swapped the cell in the Galaxy J7 Nxt, the same probably can’t be said about it.

Related: Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016) and Galaxy J7 (2016) review

Available exclusively online, the Galaxy J7 Nxt can be pre-ordered from both Samsung and independent retailer Tata Cliq. It’s priced at INR 11,490 ($178) and comes in two colors: black and gold.

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New Galaxy S8 Active leaked images and video reveal 4,000mAh battery

A couple of live Galaxy S8 Active images were leaked online recently and now we’re being treated to more. There’s even a video of the upcoming handset that has now been leaked. The newly leaked content merely reiterates what we know about the Galaxy S8 Active so far. It also reveals that the handset is going to have a 4,000mAh battery.

These images and video apparently come from a Samsung employee in San Francisco who has access to this prototype of the Galaxy S8 Active. As we exclusively reported three months ago, this handset carries model number SM-G892A and will be exclusive to AT&T for customers in the United States.

The Galaxy S8 Active’s body is made out of polycarbonate with metal on the sides. Previous Active handsets have replaced the physical home and capacitive keys for durable physical keys but that’s not the case here. The on-screen keys that we were introduced to with the Galaxy S8 are present here as well.

Previous Active handsets have also had a reprogrammable Active Key which has now been replaced with the dedicated Bixby button. As is the case on other Galaxy S8 models, the Bixby button is not remappable. Then again, Samsung has a pretty good reason for not allowing customers to remap the Bixby button.

It has a flat 5.8-inch Super AMOLED display and not a dual-edge curved panel like the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. The handset is built to military durability standards so users can get pretty rough with it without having to worry about breaking their device.

The specifications include a Snapdragon 835 processor with 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage. It has a 12-megapixel rear and 8-megapixel front camera. There’s no underwater camera mode that was present on previous Active devices. It will be powered by Android 7.0 Nougat.

No word as yet on when Samsung and AT&T will officially launch this handset. It shouldn’t be too long now.

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Samsung’s budget smartphone cameras have finally come of age

No one cares about putting a good camera on a budget smartphone. Well, at least big name Android manufacturers don’t, and Samsung, too, has been selling us budget Android phones with average cameras for a long time. To make things worse, Samsung has also dropped the ball in the last year or so is with its mid-range phones – the 2017 editions of the Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 have poor cameras that just don’t belong on phones that cost as much as these handsets do.

I’m not talking about quality, though. The current A series phones can certainly take good pictures, but they tend to blur things out in low-light conditions and even when lighting becomes artificial (you know, when you go indoors). The lack of optical image stabilization isn’t to blame here. OIS certainly helps reduce shake in images and videos, but Samsung’s Galaxy A (2017) handsets seem to suffer from some software issue that makes the camera viewfinder rather slow and laggy, which results in blury images with even the slightest movement in some scenarios.

Samsung’s budget smartphones have, in fact, not suffered from the level of shake that I have seen on the A series handsets, and this year, the Korean giant seems to have gotten serious about improving the imaging experience on its budget offerings. I have been playing around with the Galaxy J7 Max for some time now, and I have to say I’m mighty impressed by both the primary and front cameras on this phone.

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy J7 Max hands-on

This year, Samsung’s new Galaxy J series phones – at least the J5 and J7 – feature 13-megapixel cameras at the front and back, and the rear cameras has an aperture of F1.7, the same as the company’s flagship phone cameras. This translates to better images in low-light. Indeed, the Galaxy J7 Max (and no doubt the new Galaxy J5 and J7) can capture more light than the primary cameras on the A5 or A7 (2017), but the more important factor is that the J7 Max doesn’t have a tendency to blur scenes as much as Samsung’s water-resistant A series devices.

The same applies to the front camera (which has an F1.9 aperture and comes with a flash), and as a result, I’ve managed to capture some excellent shots with the J7 Max. The camera app can still lag out here and there, making you wait before a picture is taken or before the shutter button responds (which is the least of the J7 Max’s performance issues), but the final result is often detailed and of high quality, something I’ve not seen on previous budget offerings from Samsung. The selfie camera is impressive, too. It doesn’t capture as much detail as you would expect from a 13-megapixel camera, but the pictures it produces are clean and look quite good.

Check out these two camera samples to get a taste of what the J7 Max’s cameras can pull off (more samples will come in our full review of the device):

For Samsung, offering better value to consumers on a budget has been a difficult task, but the company has constantly made improvements in the last couple of years. With this year’s Galaxy J series phones, it’s great to see that Samsung has finally put its focus on the camera experience. So much so, that the new Galaxy J handsets take better pictures than the Galaxy A (2017) devices, although I’m hopeful the same kind of improvements will be seen on the next-generation Galaxy A lineup (which is expected to come with dual rear cameras).

Good going Samsung.

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10 percent of Samsung’s revenue came from its home market South Korea

Samsung estimated a record profit of $12.1 billion (around KRW 14 trillion) for Q2 2017, leapfrogging Apple’s numbers for the same period. The company’s consolidated sales stood at $53 billion (or KRW 60 trillion) for the second quarter of 2017, and a combined sales of $180 billion (or KRW 201.9 trillion) last year. Around 10% of its yearly revenue came from its home market Korea.

According to the company’s numbers, $18 billion of its combined sales posted last year came from Korea. This figure hasn’t changed over the past three years, but it was around 16% back in 2011. The North American market accounted for 34% of Samsung’s yearly revenue, while Europe and Commonwealth of Independent states accounted for 19% of the company’s sales. China accounted for 18% of the company’s yearly revenue.

The company’s global business expanded over the past few years, resulting in the drop of its revenue share from Korea. “While Samsung raked in sales mainly from overseas markets, its headquarters is still located in Korea, leading to higher tax payments. Samsung’s payment of taxes here is expected to grow sharply on the company’s record-high earnings and a hike on corporate taxes,” said an industry expert.

Samsung spent around KRW 8.9 trillion in taxes around the world, with 67% of it occurring in Korea. The combined amount of taxes saw a sharp increase from KRW 4.2 trillion that the company paid in 2011. The Korean government has been seeking to slap more taxes on large-sized companies to fund its welfare policies.

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