Samsung seems to have quietly launched the Galaxy J4 in India

We have known for a few months now that Samsung has a couple of new affordable devices up its sleeve and the Galaxy J4 happens to be one of them. Samsung was expected to launch it in India during a press event last week and while the event marked the official launch of the Galaxy J8, Galaxy J6, A6 and Galaxy A6+ in the country, Samsung didn’t say anything about the Galaxy J4.

It appears that the company won’t be making much of a fuss about the launch of this device. Samsung seems to have quietly launched the Galaxy J4 in India through its offline retail partners.

Galaxy J4 quietly launched in India

It’s not like Samsung hadn’t already made this device official. Samsung Pakistan’s website listed it officially last week and revealed all of the details about its specifications and features. Moreover, an online retailer in Ukraine started taking pre-orders for the device a few days ago.

Mahesh Telecom, a local smartphone retailer in India, tweeted today that the Galaxy J4 is now available for purchase in the country. The retailer also tweeted photos of the smartphone’s box which has all of the details about its specifications.

As we had exclusively reported, the Galaxy J4 features a 16:9 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED display with an Exynos 7570 processor with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. It also features a 13-megapixel f/1.9 rear and 5-megapixel f/1.9 front camera with flash. There’s a 3,000mAh battery and the handset comes with Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box.

The retailer has also confirmed the price for this device. Customers in India will be able to purchase the Galaxy J4 for Rs. 9,990 or $148. It’s not listed for sale at online retailers like Flipkart or Amazon just yet, though.

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Samsung’s Cinema LED screens will land in India soon

Samsung has been making Cinema LED screens for theatres for some time now. Last month, along with bringing the first Cinema LED screen to the US, Samsung also launched the Onyx brand to sell these theatre screens. Since the initial launch of these screens in July last year, Samsung has already installed these screens in a few theatres around the world. It appears select theatres in India will soon join the list.

A top company executive told IANS that the Onyx Cinema LED screens will launch in India later this year. Samsung has partnered with PVR Cinemas and INOX Group to install the Onyx Cinema LED screens in the country. At first, they will be installed at the PVR multiplexes in Delhi and Mumbai, but Samsung has aggressive plans to expand the availability. The Korean company is hoping to convert at least 20 percent of the total 10,000 cinema screens in India to Onyx Cinema Screens by 2020.

Offers better picture quality

“We first launched the screen in Korea, then we installed it in China, Europe, Thailand and the US. Once users watch content on ‘Onyx’ screen, it would be very difficult for them to switch to conventional projectors in theatres,” Puneet Sethi, VP, Consumer Electronics Enterprise Business, Samsung India, told IANS.

Samsung’s Onyx Cinema screens offer a host of advantages over the current theatre display solutions. They offer better picture quality with deeper blacks and more accurate colors. The screens are versatile as well and can display 2K, 4K, 3D, and HDR images. Samsung also clubs sound solutions from JBL, a brand owned by Samsung subsidiary Harman International, to offer an immersive experience to the viewer irrespective of where he/she is seated.

A report in Business Today mentions that installing an Onyx screen requires an investment of around $600,000 to $800,000 and takes up to 16 weeks from “receiving purchase order to installation.” These screens will reportedly last for 17 years with a screen life of 100,000 hours. The report, however, quotes no source for this information.

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Samsung adds 18 new AR Emoji stickers

Samsung introduced AR Emoji with the Galaxy S9 earlier this year. The feature enables users to create a digital likeness of their face that’s capable of mapping their voice and facial movements. Once the likeness is created, AR Emoji also makes a set of animated stickers that can be used in third-party messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

AR Emoji was capable of making a set of 18 animated stickers from the user’s likeness at launch and Samsung has now announced that it’s expanding this ability by adding 18 new animated expressive stickers to AR Emoji.

New AR Emoji stickers

The AR Emoji feature not only allows users to map their face to their digital likeness, it also offers popular characters from the Disney universe for users to map their faces to. Mickey and Minnie Mouse were initially available and Samsung later added Donald Duck as well. Samsung added the cast of The Incredibles to its library of AR Emoji avatars just a few days ago.

Samsung has doubled the number of animated stickers that are generated automatically whenever an AR Emoji is created. To access the new set of stickers, just update the camera app on your Galaxy S9 or Galaxy S9+ from the My apps section of the Galaxy Apps store.

AR Emoji’s library of pre-set expressions is now up to 36 from 18 and Samsung says that it’s going add 18 more expressions in the coming months which will bring the total number of these animated stickers to 54.

These new AR Emoji stickers will be readily available once you download and install the update. They can then be shared directly from the keyboard and can also be copied and pasted from the Gallery app to messaging apps. The GIF posted below shows some of these 18 new AR Emoji stickers in action.

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Galaxy Note 9 release reportedly delayed due to design change

We’ve been hearing reports over the past few weeks that the Galaxy Note 9 release will take place earlier than its predecessor due to Samsung’s accelerated schedule. It was expected that the next flagship phablet may be out by late July or early August.

That may not be the case, though, if a new report out of South Korea is believed. A last minute design change ordered by Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong will reportedly result in the Galaxy Note 9 release being delayed by two weeks.

Galaxy Note 9 release

It was reported earlier this month that Samsung Display has started mass production of the 6.38-inch display panel for the Galaxy Note 9 in April. This meant that it had started mass production a full two months before it did for the Galaxy Note 8 in 2017.

That report lined up with the expectation that the Galaxy Note 9 release will take place ahead of schedule, not to mention the fact that Samsung already set a precedent this year by releasing the Galaxy S9 a month before the Galaxy S8.

A report out of South Korea now claims that Samsung is reducing the thickness of the display glass by 0.5mm at the last minute on the directions of its Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong. The display glass is the layer on top of the OLED panel which protects it and also serves as the users’ input source.

The change is believed to be a result of the vice chairman’s recent trip to a smartphone distribution center in China where he played around with Oppo and Vivo handsets that also use Samsung Display’s OLED panels. He found that those handsets felt much better to grip in the hand compared to the Galaxy Note series.

Samsung rarely adjusts the specifications of an upcoming flagship device this close to launch but it’s believed to have made this change for the Galaxy Note 9 on the directions of its vice chairman who wants the display glass on the new flagship to be a bit thinner.

It seems that the Galaxy Note 9’s display glass won’t be as thick as the Galaxy S9. Perhaps Samsung previously opted for the same thickness for the Galaxy Note 9 as well but when the vice chairman looked at some of the competitors’ devices, he felt that Samsung could opt for a thinner display glass to make the device feel more comfortable in the handset.

Given that the Galaxy Note 9 is expected to feature the largest-ever panel size of 6.38-inch, any improvement that makes the handset more comfortable to use will certainly be appreciated by fans.

The Galaxy Note 9 release is now said to be delayed by up to two weeks as the relevant part is modified and tested before mass production. Samsung hasn’t confirmed any of this so far, though.

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Galaxy S7 Oreo update rolling out in various European countries

We have received a number of tips from Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge owners saying that the Oreo update for the device is available in a number of European countries. The update was released for Nordic countries earlier this week following its debut in the UK and then South Korea, and it is now available in at least Germany, Belgium, and Spain. In Spain, the update seems to be rolling out to only Vodafone-branded models, but it shouldn’t take long before the unlocked versions are updated as well.

Galaxy S7 Oreo update rolling out in more countries

The firmware version for the update is G930FXXU2ERE8, so it is the fixed version of Oreo for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge that Samsung had released after discovering a serious bug in the original version. Hopefully, this also means Samsung will soon be releasing the update globally to Galaxy S7 and S7 edge owners. It’s been a fairly long wait, although that’s not totally surprising as the pace of updates is expected to be slower two years after a flagship has been released. So until the update actually starts rolling out in your country, it’s best not to get too excited.

If you own a Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge, you can see if Oreo is available for your device by tapping Download updates manually in the Settings » Software update menu. You will also be able to download the complete firmware from our database once the update releases in your country so you can use a PC for the upgrade instead of downloading the update on the phone.

Got the Galaxy S7 Oreo update already? Let us know which country you’re from and how your phone works after installing the update by leaving a comment.

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