Sunrise Gold Galaxy S9 goes on sale in India and the UAE

This year marked the first time Samsung decided to make gold a part of the post-launch color options it releases for its flagships every year instead of offering it at launch. The Sunrise Gold Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ were announced last month, and Samsung had said it would be releasing in a slew of markets around the world. India and the UAE are two markets where Samsung often prioritizes launching its flagships in a golden hue, so it’s no surprise that the Sunrise Gold Galaxy S9 has gone up for sale in these countries before others.

Galaxy S9 Sunrise Gold now available for purchase

In India, Samsung has only launched the Galaxy S9+ in Sunrise Gold. It is also available only with 128GB of storage. It is priced at ₹68,900 (around $1,010) and can be ordered from Samsung’s website today or from Flipkart starting tomorrow, June 21. There’s a ₹9,000 cashback for those who pay using their ICICI bank account or via Paytm Mall and a one-time screen replacement at ₹1,999 for purchases made before June 30. Flipkart is offering additional discounts on Visa and Axis credit and debit cards but not on ICICI cards, so it will be up to the consumer to decide where they shop based on the offers they like.

In the UAE, both the Galaxy S9 and S9+ are available in Sunrise Gold and have also been released in Coral Blue. Consumers can pick up either of these colors in all three storage variants (64GB, 128GB, and 256GB). Prices start at AED 3,099 (around $845) and AED 3,499 (around $950) for the S9 and S9+ respectively. The total color options in the UAE now total five; Titanium Gray, which has been rather elusive, is included as well.

Galaxy S9 specs unaffected by new color options

The new color variants carry the same hardware as existing color models. The Galaxy S9 specs include a 5.8-inch Super AMOLED Infinity display, Samsung’s Exynos 9810 SoC, 4GB of RAM, a 12-megapixel rear camera with Dual Aperture and Super Slow-mo video recording, an 8-megapixel front camera, a microSD slot, iris recognition, a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, and a 3,000 mAh battery. The Galaxy S9+ gets a 6.2-inch display, 6GB of RAM, a 3,500 mAh battery, and a secondary camera sensor at the back for Live Focus bokeh photos and 2x zoom, while other specs remain the same as the regular S9. Both devices run Android Oreo and will be the first to get the Android 9.0 P update.

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy S9 review

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When seen in context, Samsung’s update policy isn’t all that bad

Samsung often takes flak for not being quick with firmware updates. The manner in which these updates are rolled out leaves some of its customers infuriated as well but the fact remains, though, that Samsung is known to provide two years of major Android platform updates for its handsets. Many Android OEMs promise to support their devices for two years as well but some just decide to end support after a year. That’s often because they’re facing difficulties in preparing the update for a specific device. You don’t expect that to happen with a flagship device but that appears to be the case with the Huawei P9.

Those of you who follow developments in the smartphone industry will be well aware that China-based Huawei is one of the fastest growing smartphone vendors on the planet. It has a stated goal of catching up to Samsung and Apple so that it too can dominate the landscape. Huawei launched the Huawei P9, a flagship smartphone, in April 2016 merely a couple of months after Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge in February that year. Samsung has already released Oreo for its 2016 flagship but Huawei has not and it may not.

Granted, Galaxy S7 owners had to wait for a considerable amount of time before they got Oreo and even had to put up with issues post-launch which Samsung took some time to resolve. Nevertheless, the update is now available in many markets. Huawei hadn’t said at any point that it would not release Oreo for the Huawei P9 and P9 Plus. It even started beta testing Oreo for these handsets.

The latest reports based on claims from the company’s support staff in the United Kingdom suggest that Huawei has decided to not release Oreo for the P9. It may be due to hardware limitations which are causing device freezing, increase in power consumption, and function failure. Some reports even claim that Huawei has also terminated the Oreo beta program for the device.

Nougat is the only major update that the Huawei P9 has received so far even though most of its rivals from 2016, including the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, have received two. It really doesn’t inspire confidence in the brand if their devices which are presumably compatible with two future platform releases turn out to be incapable of that, their flagship devices no less.

Huawei has had the Oreo update for this device in testing for a long time so it’s possible that the support staff might be mistaken. We’ve seen incorrect statements from Samsung’s support reps about updates as well, so that’s entirely within the realm of possibility. However, if this is the case, it simply underlines the fact that the grass is not greener on the other side.

We see a lot of comments in which readers express their frustration at Samsung taking its sweet time to release updates. Many of them say that they will give up on the company and switch to another brand. It’s pertinent to mention here that Samsung is perhaps the only major Android manufacturer to release a lot of devices every year in almost all markets, big and small, and the fact that it manages to update them all is impressive regardless of how much time it takes.

One can make the argument that it’s Samsung’s job to release updates for devices that it sells and that it’s not doing anyone any favors for doing its job but when seen in context to what others are doing, or rather being unable to do, Samsung’s update policy suddenly doesn’t seem so irksome.

Do you agree with this? We’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter in the comments below.

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This bezel-free Galaxy S10 concept is one we can get behind

For Samsung, getting rid of all the bezel around the Infinity display for the Galaxy S10 would be a tall order thanks to all the tech the company’s flagships pack. For example, things like a sensor for iris recognition would need to go somewhere in the front unless Samsung intends to get rid of the iris sensor once it has in-display fingerprint sensors ready for commercial use. Whether Samsung can come up with a bezel-free design similar to what we see on recently announced devices such as the Vivo Nex remains to be seen, but if it turns out to be like a concept shared by leakster Ice universe, it’s one we would gladly lap up.

Who needs bezels?

The picture shared by Ice universe seems to have been taken for a prototype by some outlets, even though it has clearly been Photoshopped to suggest what could be. But it’s the kind of design that would make the Galaxy S10 extremely attractive. The lack of any notable bezel may turn out to be an ergonomic nightmare and increase the chances of drops and of physical damage from such drops, but at this point, are ergonomics really something smartphone manufacturers care about? It has all been a race to get the highest screen-to-body ratio possible in the last year or so, and Samsung would have a pretty solid lead over rivals (Apple in particular) if the Galaxy S10 ends up looking like this.

Of course, the question still remains: Where will things like the front-facing camera, the iris sensor, or the earpiece go if the screen covers the front of the phone? Samsung can reportedly get the screen to work as the earpiece using bone conduction, but it would still have to make space for other components and the top-of-the-line specs. Not to mention it would also have to make the Galaxy S10 water resistant, so a design like the one seen in this picture looks to be rather impossible to achieve.

But one can dream, and if Samsung can get even close to such an all-screen design for the tenth-anniversary Galaxy S flagship, it would be awesome to see. What do you think?

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Galaxy Note 8 June 2018 security patch update rolling out in Europe

The Galaxy S8 was updated to the June 2018 security patch earlier this week over in the United States, and Samsung has now turned its attention to the Galaxy Note 8. A Galaxy Note 8 update is rolling out in various European countries with the latest security patch included. The build number for the new software is N950FXXS3CRF1, and it doesn’t have anything other than the June security patch to offer.

Galaxy Note 8 update brings June security patch

The June 2018 security patch fixes five critical vulnerabilities that were discovered in Android and three vulnerabilities that exclusively affect Samsung’s software. As usual, a number of vulnerabilities that don’t pose as big a risk as the critical ones have been patched as well. Slovakia, Germany, Russia, Uzbekistan, Greece, Kazakhstan, South East Europe, Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Ukraine, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, France, Nordic countries, and Hungary are the markets/regions that are confirmed to be receiving the update, but it may take a while for it to reach everyone even in these countries.

As usual, you try downloading the update by tapping Download updates manually in the Software update menu of the phone’s Settings app. If your phone says it’s up to date, try again in a few hours. We will update this post once the complete firmware for the new update is available in our database, so you can manually install the latest software using a PC instead of waiting for it to arrive over the air. Of course, we will also have a post up as soon as Samsung releases the June 2018 security update for the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+.

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Tizen’s My Galaxy Stories lockscreen feature coming to Galaxy smartphones

Samsung might soon be bringing a feature – My Galaxy Stories – found on Tizen smartphones to its Android devices. My Galaxy Stories is one of the lock screen options found on Tizen phones that, once set, changes the lock screen wallpaper every third time the device is woken up. It doesn’t just change the lock screen wallpaper, though. My Galaxy Stories also serves up information on the subject of the wallpaper, with the option to read further about the same if the user so desires.

Curated content right on the lock screen

For the Android version, My Galaxy Stories would also show curated news stories and trending videos on the lock screen. Users will also be able to add their personal images from the gallery, which would be displayed in between the curated content based on the frequency selected. This curated content – which is what Samsung calls Stories – will come from multiple categories, and it might also be based on the country. Samsung’s even building in support for showing advertisement inside My Galaxy Stories, though it remains to be seen how this functionality will come into play.

It’s unclear when My Galaxy Stories will be released for Samsung’s Android devices and whether it will be available for all devices or only for some of Samsung’s budget phones.

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