PSA: Remember to enable Dolby Atmos on your Galaxy S9!

You’d think that after taking so many years to bring stereo speakers to its flagship lineup, Samsung would ensure the audio experience offered by those speakers was the best it could be out of the box. Yet, on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, an important feature related to the audio experience, both through the loudspeakers and the AKG-tuned earphones, comes disabled by default. We’re talking about Dolby Atmos, as you would have guessed after reading the title, and we’re here to remind you to turn Dolby Atmos on if you’ve purchased a Galaxy S9 or S9+ and have just been going with the flow without realizing that Dolby Atmos has to be manually enabled.

Dolby Atmos makes a world of difference

And what a difference it makes. On the loudspeakers, you can instantly notice how the audio is better spaced out over the two speakers, further enhancing the stereo effect. On the already excellent AKG earphones, Dolby Atmos’ most significant effect is the increase in volume. That alone makes it worthwhile, and the best part is the volume boost doesn’t mess with the audio quality. The stereo effect is enhanced on the earphones as well, and so is the bass, making something like the new Avengers: Infinity War trailer or the original Pacific Rim with its big robot and monster duels a treat to watch.

Samsung even lets you choose from three different Dolby Atmos settings depending on what kind of media you’re viewing or listening to. These options include Movie, Music, and Voice, although we recommend leaving the setting on Auto to let the phone decide what’s best. Or, hey, go ahead and test them all out to see which one you like best; just remember to enable Dolby Atmos, especially if you spend long hours watching videos on your phone.

To turn on Dolby Atmos, go into the phone’s settings, tap Sounds and vibration, scroll down to find and tap Sound quality and effects, then enable Dolby Atmos by using the toggle next to the setting.

Don’t Miss: Samsung Galaxy S9 review

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Galaxy J8 (2018) launch inches closer, receives Wi-Fi certification

A device with the model number SM-J800FN has been spotted at the Wi-Fi Alliance. The same device surfaced in a benchmark last month, revealing some of its specifications. Based on Samsung’s naming pattern, the device should be the Galaxy J8 (2018). The device’s visit to the Wi-Fi Alliance for receiving its Wi-Fi certification signals its impending launch.

Other than that it has  Android 8.0 Oreo on board, nothing else is revealed about the Galaxy J8 (2018) from its certification. However, from the earlier Geekbench results, we know the handset will likely be powered by an Exynos 7870 processor and 3GB of RAM.

May come with an Infinity Display

It is believed that the new Galaxy J8 model will sport an Infinity Display like the one found in the Galaxy A8 (2018). Reports also suggested a new Galaxy J8+ (2018) device in line with the Galaxy A8+ (2018) model. Giving credence to these reports, a device with the model number SM-J805G, believed to be the European Galaxy J8+ (2018), has surfaced in a benchmark listing a few days back. It sports the same Exynos 7870 processor but bumps up the RAM to 4GB from the Galaxy J8’s 3GB.

Launching the Galaxy J8 and Galaxy J8+ models with Infinity Displays will bring an element of consistency to Samsung’s mid-range smartphone lineup. With the Galaxy S9 and S9+ in the premium segment, the Galaxy A8 and A8+ in the upper mid-range segment, and the Galaxy J8 and J8+ in the upper-budget category, Samsung will have smartphones with Infinity Displays at different price points, targeting different segments. Whether any of this is enough for Samsung to tackle growing competition from its Chinese rivals remains to be seen.

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Samsung’s patent envisions ‘over the air’ wireless charging

The current use of the term ‘wireless charging’ is a bit of a misnomer. Unlike wireless internet where devices can connect to the internet without any wires, current wireless charging technologies still depend on physically placing the device on a charging pad connected to a power socket. They are essentially easy-to-use wired charging solutions that don’t require connecting the phone or a tablet to a charging cable directly.

What’s next for wireless charging

It is a given that both the consumers and the companies dream about an ‘over the air’ wireless charging technology. Many companies around the world have been working to turn this dream into a reality, and Samsung is one of them. Being the largest vendor of many electronic devices in the world, it is natural for Samsung to be interested in developing easy ways to charge devices.

A Samsung patent published recently in the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) database confirms Samsung’s interest in developing a truly wireless charging technology. The patent was originally filed in 2016 in South Korea and describes a way to focus the energy on a particular device in the room. The system Samsung envisages can not only focus power on specific devices but can also circumvent obstacles using reflectors and charge the devices in the room. What this essentially means is that a user can walk around with his phone or a tablet while it is charging wirelessly.

Of course, there is no guarantee that this patent will turn into a real commercial product as is the case with many patents. However, there is no doubt this is the next logical evolution of the current wireless charging technologies. Over the air wireless charging is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’. Let’s hope Samsung can overcome all the barriers and bring this futuristic technology into our lives soon.

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Rewind: SamMobile Facebook Live Session – Episode 1

We announced our weekly Facebook Live sessions a few days ago. It’s a new platform that we’re exploring to bring you the content that you love in a manner that’s more engaging and dynamic. The live sessions will be conducted every Wednesday by our co-founder Martin Reinders and YouTube Producer Rutger Verstegen.

We conducted our very first Facebook Live session yesterday in which we talked about the Galaxy S9, Samsung’s display technology and many other topics. The entire team is extremely grateful to all those who tuned in, participated in the discussion and gave us their valuable feedback. We are only just getting started with Facebook Live so you’ll surely see more improvement in our sessions down the line.

Don’t worry if you weren’t able to catch it live yesterday. The SamMobile Facebook Live Session – Episode 1 is embedded below so you can easily watch it at your convenience. Do tune into our next live session via our Facebook page which will take place on Wednesday, March 28 at 19:30 PM CET (10:30 AM PST, 13:30 PM EST).

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Samsung to decide on the Galaxy Note 9 in-display fingerprint sensor soon

It has long been rumored that Samsung will introduce a display-based fingerprint sensor on its flagship smartphones but the company is yet to do that. There have been conflicting reports recently about the possibility that this feature might make it to the Galaxy Note 9. A new report out of South Korea today claims that Samsung is going to make a final decision on the in-display fingerprint sensor for the Galaxy Note 9 soon.

The report claims that Samsung is likely to introduce an in-display fingerprint sensor with the Galaxy Note 9 this year. Samsung Display, the division that supplies panels for Samsung devices, has reportedly prepared three or four solutions to integrate a fingerprint sensor into the display.

Galaxy Note 9 in-display fingerprint sensor

Both Samsung Display and Samsung Electronics are said to be “seriously considering” one of the solutions developed. It’s also claimed that the design concept of the Galaxy Note 9 has not yet been finalized due to the pending decision concerning the fingerprint sensor. Samsung is expected to make a final decision on the matter by the end of this month.

Some industry watchers are optimistic that Samsung will finally introduce an in-display fingerprint sensor on its smartphones this year as the company seeks to offer new features in order to further differentiate its handsets from the competition. Others are not so optimistic, they believe that technical difficulties will prevent Samsung from doing this for the Galaxy Note 9 and that we’ll only see this technology from Samsung in 2019.

It merits mentioning here, though, that Samsung recently said that it’s no longer obsessed with being the first in the world to bring new smartphone technologies to market. This means that the company will rather wait to ensure that its in-display fingerprint sensor technology works perfectly instead of rushing it out the door just for bragging rights.

We’ll likely hear more about this in the months to come as this is one of the most highly anticipated features of the Galaxy Note 9. Samsung isn’t due to launch the Galaxy Note 9 until the second half of this year even though it has begun firmware development for the new flagship earlier.

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Samsung Pay launched in Italy

Samsung continues to expand its mobile payments service to more markets across the globe. The company has announced today that Samsung Pay is now available in Italy. This is the 21st market for Samsung’s mobile payments service, making Samsung Pay one of the most widely accepted payment solutions in the world.

Samsung Pay in Italy

Samsung Pay has proven to be an award-winning service for the company. It was most recently recognized as the “Best Mobile Innovation for Payment” at the annual Global Mobile Awards during the Mobile World Congress 2018.

Italy is the latest market to receive Samsung’s mobile payments service. Samsung Pay is available to users in Italy as long as they have a compatible Samsung device. They will be able to make payments through it almost anywhere in the country where they can already pay using conventional debit and credit cards.

It’s this flexibility that sets Samsung Pay apart from the competition. The service supports both NFC and MST payment technologies which eliminate the need for merchants to have dedicated terminals for Samsung Pay. They can accept this payment method using existing payment card machines.

Samsung Pay can also be used for storing membership cards and promotional coupons. Some value-added features will be available exclusively to customers in Italy, such as discounts of up to 20 percent on popular brands such as Moleskin, Daybreak Hotel and Leroy Merlin.

Devices compatible with Samsung Pay in Italy include the Galaxy S9/S9+, Galaxy S8/S8+, Galaxy S7/S7 Edge, Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy A8, Galaxy A5 (2017) and (2016) as well as the Gear S3 and Gear Sport.

The press release that Samsung has sent out today doesn’t confirm which banks will be supported at launch but seeing as how the service’s arrival in Italy has now been officially confirmed, we might find out soon enough which Italian banks will support the service at launch. The Samsung Rewards program, which offers points in exchange for purchases, has not yet been launched in Italy.

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Samsung’s Disney AR Emoji deal is a masterstroke

With the Galaxy S9, Samsung introduced AR Emoji. Like the iPhone X’s Animoji feature, AR Emoji lets you create emojis that “follow your movements and expressions,” and Samsung managed to rope in Disney to bring many of its popular characters to AR Emoji. Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse emojis have already gone live (see how to start using them here), and over the course of the year, more Disney characters will be made available. While Samsung’s implementation of AR Emoji isn’t that great, especially when compared to Apple’s Animoji (which has the benefit of the iPhone X’s Face ID technology for more accurate emulation of the user’s face), the company has stepped up its game with the collaboration with Disney.

Samsung’s Disney AR Emoji deal is a masterstroke

Disney has always been popular with children, and it’s also managed to attract parents through its animated movies (films like The Incredibles and WALL-E have found fans in both the young and old) and, in the last decade, through the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Apple is famous for its design and software, but Samsung seems to have taken up the task of bringing new features that can attract more and more customers. Super slow-mo videos are one such feature, but while you may not always find yourself wanting to take a slow-mo video, AR Emojis can be real fun, especially when it comes to communicating with your family and friends, something you’ll do all too often.

AR Emoji will also prove a hit with children, and I just think Samsung has pulled off a masterstroke by teaming up with Disney, despite the latter’s usually cosy relationship with Apple (particularly with the cartoon side of things; the Apple Watch, for example, comes preloaded with Mickey and Minnie Mouse watch faces). Sure, AR Emoji could be better, and at this point only the Mickey and Minnie Mouse emojis are available, but this collaboration shows how Samsung is starting to think ahead in areas that many might not deem so important.

For me, it’s the best collaboration Samsung has ever cooked up, and the only thing the company needs to do now is hype it up, add more Disney characters as soon as possible, and work on improving AR Emoji the best it can.

The ball’s in Apple’s court now.

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Galaxy S9 ARCore support will arrive in a few weeks

Samsung announced at its annual developers’ conference last year that it has teamed up with Google to bring its ARCore platform to the Galaxy, Galaxy S8+ and the Galaxy Note 8. Samsung decided against fragmenting augmented reality on Android. It could have created its own AR platform for its smartphones but in the interest of reducing fragmentation on what is already an overly fragmented platform, Samsung embraced ARCore.

Samsung has since released a new flagship smartphone and contrary to what many of you might have assumed, the Galaxy S9 ARcore support is yet to arrive. However, the good news is that it’s going to arrive in the next few weeks.

Galaxy S9 ARCore support

ARCore is Google’s software platform for augmented reality solutions. It can be used to build AR apps that leverage advances in cloud software and device hardware to place digital objects in the real world. Almost 100 apps have now been built using this platform which include a furniture visualizer from IKEA, a virtual bakery from Food Network, YouVisit Campus for virtual college campus vists and many more.

It’s an evolution of Google’s Project Tango AR platform which was hardware-specific, in that it required an array of depth sensors and cameras to 3D map environments. ARCore doesn’t need any of that since it’s a software platform and thus brings AR experiences even to less powerful devices. It goes without saying that the list will expand considerably down the line as more developers jump on the AR bandwagon.

As previously mentioned, the Galaxy S9 ARCore support isn’t here yet, but it has been confirmed through the ARcore Dever Support Requests thread on GitHub that “Support for the S9 and S9+ will be added in the next release, which should be released in the coming weeks.”

So if we take the company’s word for it, then it shouldn’t take too long before ARCore is finally supported on the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9+.

Samsung remains committed to augmented reality solutions for its smartphones and is even of the view that AR will go beyond smartphones in the future. The company will continue to grow its community of developers and collaborators to further advance the AR cause.

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Samsung’s new Exynos 9610 chip brings premium multimedia features

Samsung today announced the launch of its new mobile processor, the Exynos 7 Series 9610. The Exynos 9610 chip is built on Samsung’s 10-nanometer FinFET process and it will bring premium multimedia features to mid-range devices.

Samsung’s Exynos 7 series chips are primarily used for its premium mid-range lineup such as the Galaxy A series while its Exynos 9 series chips are meant for flagships like the Galaxy S9. Aside from delivering enhanced multimedia features, the Exynos 9610 will also deliver added power and speed.

Exynos 9610 specs and features

The Exynos 7 Series 9610 chip is the successor to the Exynos 7 Series 7885 which Samsung has used in the Galaxy A8 and Galaxy A8+ (2018). We were quite impressed with that chip as it’s arguably the best feature of Samsung’s new premium mid-range lineup.

So the Exynos 9610 has big shoes to fill and it does that on paper, and then some. The CPU is made up of four Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.3GHz and four 1.6GHz Cortex-A53 cores mated to a second-generation Bifrost-based ARM Mali-G72 graphics processor. There’s also an embedded Cortex-M4F-based low-power sensor hub to power Always-on solutions, it manages the sensors in real-time without having to wake up the main processor.

It’s no slouch in the connectivity department as well. Samsung’s new processor has an embedded all-network LTE modem with Cat.12 3CA support for 600 Mbps downlink and Cat.13 2CA for 150 Mbps uplink. It also features 802.11ac 2×2 MIMI Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0 and FM radio.

Now on to the promised premium multimedia features. The Exynos 9610 has deep learning-based image processing and enhanced slow motion video recording. It couples vision and image processing with a neural network engine for improved face detection, single camera out-focusing (bokeh with a single camera) and improved low-light performance.

Samsung has really embraced slow motion video recording this year with the Galaxy S9. Its new flagship comes with the Super-slow motion feature which lets users record short clips at a whopping 960 frames per second in 720p resolution. It’s made possible by Samsung’s brilliant new three-stack image sensor that will soon be available for other devices as well.

The Exynos 9610 will significantly improve slow motion video recording on the company’s premium mid-range handsets. It has support for slow motion video recording at 480fps in full HD resolution. The chip is able to encode slow motion video even with a traditional two-stick image sensor courtesy of its image signal processor which brings a 1.6x improvement in performance. Moreover, the Exynos 9610 utilizes a premium multi-format codec to encode and decode up to 4K 120fps video.

Samsung says that the Exynos 9610 is going to be mass produced in the second half of this year which means that the Galaxy A8 (2018)’s successor due early next year will most certainly be powered by it.

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