Galaxy J7 Prime 2 listed on Samsung India’s website ahead of launch

Samsung has quietly listed the Galaxy J7 Prime 2 on its Indian website. From the specifications listed on the product page, the new device appears to be a minor upgrade to the Galaxy J7 Prime.

Galaxy J7 Prime 2 sports a metal unibody with capacitive buttons and a fingerprint reader on the front. It has a 5.5-inch full HD TFT display with Gorilla Glass protection. Under the hood, it is powered by an octa-core Exynos 7 chipset and 3 GB of RAM. Samsung doesn’t specify the exact processor, but all bets are on the Exynos 7870 chipset used in many other Galaxy J series phones. The phone comes with 32 GB internal memory along with a microSD card slot for expansion.

The 4G VoLTE-enabled device has a 3300 mAh battery and charges via a micro-USB port. The device runs Android Nougat which is disappointing as even Oreo will soon be succeeded by Android P. Google has already released the first official Android P developer preview build this month. Both the front and the back cameras are 13 megapixels with an f1.9 aperture for better lowlight performance. The camera also offers social features such as live filters, live stickers, instant sharing, and instant editing, etc.

Samsung Mall and Samsung Pay Mini onboard

Samsung Mall app, which made its appearance first on the Galaxy On7 Prime, will come preinstalled on the phone to assist users in shopping online. With the ‘Visual Search’ option, users can shoot or use existing pictures of any product to search across multiple shopping sites. The app offers all-in-one shopping and universal cart to compare, review and buy products from multiple sites through a single interface.

Samsung Pay Mini, a stripped-down version of the popular Samsung Pay app, is also preloaded on the Galaxy J7 Prime 2. Samsung Pay Mini lacks MST and NFC-based payment options and instead relies on India-specific UPI (Unified Payments Interface) and mobile wallets like Paytm for making payments. It is mostly a glorified wallet of wallets.

The product page lists the price as INR 13,990 ($215) with a ‘Sold-Out’ tag and ‘Notify me’ option. It appears someone at Samsung has jumped the gun and listed the product online before Samsung could make it official and kickstart the sales.

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Samsung apologizes for poor performance in China, vows to do more

Samsung was once the dominant player in China, the most lucrative smartphone market on the planet. However, not only did Samsung lose its lead in the country but its market share in China is now in the low single digits. Samsung predicts a reversal in its fortunes in this key market as it acknowledged today that it had failed to fully understand China’s retail and commerce customs earlier. He previously said that Samsung will continue to make efforts to grow as a “truly localized” Chinese company.

Head of Samsung’s mobile division DJ Koh apologized to shareholders for the falling market share in China at the company’s annual shareholders meeting today. He said that China is a more complicated market and that Samsung is now trying different approaches to bring in new customers.

Samsung’s market share in China is less than 2 percent

It’s mission-critical for Samsung in China as its market share dropped below 2 percent in the fourth quarter of last year. Not one Samsung handset could make it on the 2017 list of bestselling smartphones in the country. It has almost been driven out of the market by Apple in the high-end segment and local manufacturers who have not only captured the premium segment but also dominate the mid-range and low-end segments. These manufacturers have also proven to be a headache for Samsung in key markets outside China.

Samsung decided to make some organizational changes to its China division in September last year in a bid to reignite growth. It streamlined operations and replaced the local chiefs but it might be a while before the results of these actions, positive or otherwise, become visible.

The company said during the Galaxy S9 launch in China two weeks ago that its strategy for the country now involves more focus on customers that are willing to purchase premium handsets. It has also inked partnerships with local service providers such as Mobike, Alibaba, WeChat, Baidu and others to provide enhanced artificial intelligence features and additional IoT-based services to customers in the country.

It remains to be seen, though, if these measures pay off. Given the sheer size of the Chinese smartphone market if Samsung is able to regain some of its lost market share it would only help cement its position as the top smartphone vendor in the world even further.

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Samsung doesn’t feel threatened by Chinese chip rivals

Chinese smartphone manufacturers have given Samsung a run for its money in the global smartphone market and now they have their sights set on Samsung’s lead in the semiconductor market. The country purchases almost a fifth of the global DRAM supply and has been funding the creation of domestic memory producers to reduce imports and establish Chinese footing in this lucrative sector.

Samsung hasn’t turned a blind eye to these moves and it has ramped up its investments in this division over the past few years. The company is using its deep pockets to crush memory chip rivals and feels that it’s in a strong enough position to not feel threatened by Chinese upstarts.

Samsung working to extend gap to rivals

Kim Ki-nam, head of Samsung’s chip business units, has downplayed the threat of Chinese rivals in this segment of the market. “Technological barriers in chips are relatively higher than in other industries,” he told reporters during Samsung’s annual shareholders’ meeting today, adding that “It takes more than just large short-term investments to overcome such difficulties.”

Samsung’s chip business is a cash cow in the true sense of the word. Its revenues were over $100 billion last year which accounted for 45 percent of the company’s total revenue for 2017. It accounted for 75 percent of Samsung Electronics’ annual operating income.

So it comes as no surprise that Samsung is keeping a close eye on what the Chinese are doing. Ki-nam mentioned that Chinese firms are heavily investing in all types of semiconductors including memory chips but cautioned that the technology gap can’t be narrowed by short-term massive investment. He said that Samsung will focus all of its energies to ensure that it continues to lead this sector.

Samsung’s strategy is to expand its second-generation 10nm DRAM products and increase gaps to its rivals by developing third-generation 10nm DRAM and sixth-generation NAND flash in the near future. Samsung is also going to focus on meeting the rising demand for chips from the Internet of Things, 5G and automotive industries.

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Samsung heir apparent skips first shareholders’ meeting

Samsung spent much of 2017 embroiled in a corruption scandal that led to the ouster of South Korea’s former president Park Geun-hye. Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, widely believed to be the conglomerate’s heir apparent, was arrested on charges of bribery and corruption. He was later arrested and sentenced to five years in prison after a Seoul court found him guilty. He was released two months ago after his prison sentence was suspended.

Samsung Electronics held its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders for the 2017 financial year in Seoul today. It was the first such meeting after Lee Jae-yong’s release which was attended by 400 individual shareholders and institutional investors. Lee Jae-yong has been keeping a low profile since his release so it wasn’t surprising to see that he decided to skip the meeting.

Keeping a low profile

Lee Jae-yong denied wrongdoing throughout his trial but he was found guilty by the court and sentenced to five years in prison. He appealed to the Seoul High Court which not only reduced his original prison sentence by half but also suspended it which meant that he could walk out of jail that very day and he did.

He could go back to working at Samsung after his release as there was no law barring him from doing so. While reports out of South Korea suggest that he has been back at work, he’s keeping a low profile which is probably why he decided to skip the shareholders’ meeting.

The agenda items during the meeting included the approval of the full-year financial statement and election of new members to the Board of Directors. Samsung has reiterated its aim to further increase shareholder value by increasing dividends for 2018 to 2020.

“In 2018, we are committed to delivering another successful year by taking on new challenges and building the foundation for mid- to long-term sustainable growth,” said the Board’s Chairman Oh-Hyun Kwon.

Samsung Electronics will separate the Chairman of the Board and the Chief Executive Officer roles for the first time to enhance the Board’s independence so that it can evaluate the company’s performance more objectively and function with greater authority.

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Galaxy S9 touchscreen issues now being looked into by Samsung

There have been some reports about Galaxy S9 touchscreen issues lately which are now being looked into by Samsung. Some Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ owners have complained about dead spots on the display of their units in threads on Samsung’s official support forums and Reddit. Samsung has acknowledged the matter a few days after these reports surfaced and has now said that it’s looking into the matter.

Galaxy S9 touchscreen issues

This doesn’t appear to be a widespread problem as only a small group of users have complained about it. The vast majority of customers who picked up Samsung’s new flagship have not experienced any Galaxy S9 touchscreen issues.

On a device that’s almost all touchscreen on the front and keeping in mind that it’s the only way to interact with it, you would obviously want the touchscreen to work without any issues whatsoever. Some Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ users have complained about dead spots on their units, the term “dead spots” refers to sections of the display where touch input is either ignored or not registered, to begin with. Most of the reports about these dead spots have been about the Galaxy S9+.

The dead spots aren’t present in one particular section of the display on all affected units rather they’re in different places on different units. Some users report that they have been able to address the issue by either turning up the sensitivity or by simply doing a factory reset. Others haven’t had much luck with these remedies.

Samsung has issued a statement to Engadget confirming that it’s looking into “a limited number of reports” about touchscreen issues on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+.

At Samsung, customer satisfaction is core to our business and we aim to deliver the best possible experience. We are looking into a limited number of reports of Galaxy S9/S9+ touchscreen responsiveness issues. We are working with affected customers and investigating.

We encourage any customer with questions to contact us directly at 1-800-SAMSUNG.

Have you experienced these Galaxy S9 touchscreen issues on your device? Let us know in the comments below.

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Galaxy S8+ receives March 2018 security patch

Samsung hasn’t released the March 2018 security patch for a great many devices as yet but we can expect the company to pick up the pace in the coming days. Most of the devices that have received this security maintenance release so far have been mid-range devices with the Galaxy S9 being the obvious exception. Samsung has now started rolling out the March 2018 security update for the Galaxy S8+.

Galaxy S8+ March 2018 security patch

Samsung detailed the March 2018 security patch two weeks ago. Since the company had its hands full with the Galaxy S8 Oreo update last month, many of its devices didn’t receive last month’s patch and will instead be bumped up straight to the March 2018 patch.

The security patch for the month of March 2018 brings fixes for nine critical vulnerabilities that were discovered in the Android operating system. Fixes for dozens of moderate-risk and high-risk vulnerabilities are included as well. Five Samsung Vulnerabilities and Exposures (SVE) items that were discovered in the company’s own software have been patched in this security maintenance release.

Samsung is now rolling out firmware version G955FXXU1CRC7 for the Galaxy S8+ in Germany. The firmware is rolling out over-the-air and also happens to be available for download from our firmware section. It’s only a matter of time before the latest security maintenance release is also sent out for the Galaxy S8.

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