Samsung leads the premium smartphone segment in India, says CMR

Towards the end of last month, a report from Counterpoint Research crowned OnePlus as the largest premium smartphone vendor in India with a 40% market share. A new report from CyberMedia Research (CMR), however, says Samsung dominated the premium smartphone segment in the country with 48% market share in the first half of 2018.

Though the findings by the two firms appear contradictory at first glance, it may not necessarily be the case as CMR’s report is for H1 2018 (6 months) and Counterpoint’s report covers only Q2 2018 (3 months). Also, the Galaxy S9/S9+ hit the market in mid-March, while the OnePlus 6 went on sale in India towards the end of May, giving the Samsung flagship devices an edge in availability and thereby sales.

The early launch of the Galaxy S9/S9+ helped?

CMR placed OnePlus in the second position with 25% market share and Apple in the third place with 22% market share in the premium segment. While reporting Q2 earnings, Samsung acknowledged the sales of the Galaxy S9/S9+ were slow. Yet, an early launch and a poor show by Apple helped the Korean company fare better than others in the first half of 2018.

“The premium smartphone segment, though small, is driven by aspirational, tech-savvy millennials and in the coming years, will continue to grow significantly. Samsung’s flagship S9 helped it garner a lion’s share of the premium smartphone segment,” said Prabhu Ram, Industry Intelligence Group, CMR.

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Galaxy Note 9 storage: How much of the 128GB is actually available for use?

When it comes to storage capacity, the Galaxy Note 9 is special because it has 128GB of storage on the base model. But anyone who has used electronic devices probably knows that the actual usable storage capacity of a disk is always a bit less than the rated – or raw – capacity. So how much usable capacity does the Galaxy Note 9 offer? Well, for the 128GB version, around 111GB is available out of the box.

Nearly 110GB usable storage on the 128GB Galaxy Note 9

Pre-installed apps take up around 1GB, along with a few megabytes of data such as pictures and audio files. 16.8GB of the total 128GB is assigned to the system and is inaccessible by the consumer (unless they root the device, which we don’t endorse). All of that leaves around 109GB of usable storage for the user (the screenshot below says 107GB, but that’s because we had already restored some of our existing data using Samsung Smart Switch). 109GB is still plenty of storage for the average user, and the microSD slot will ensure most folks are never left wanting for space on the Galaxy Note 9.

We’re not sure about the usable space on the 512GB model. But even if you took away 50GB, you will have upwards of 400GB available for personal use.  That’s a lot any way you look at it, and thanks to the microSD slot, you are looking at nearly 1TB of storage if you have the money to buy a 512GB card.

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PSA: Don’t forget to switch to WQHD+ display resolution on your Galaxy Note 9

It was with the Galaxy S8 that Samsung started using a lower screen resolution on its flagships by default. The Galaxy S8, Galaxy Note 8, and the Galaxy S9 come with the resolution set to Full HD+ (2220×1080) out of the box, and you have to take a trip into the display settings to increase it back to WQHD+ (2960×1440) to get the full experience. While the not-so-big batteries on those phones were a good reason for using a lower screen resolution, it’s something the Galaxy Note 9 does not need thanks to the 4,000 mAh battery that powers it.

Don’t settle for anything but the best

Most of you probably know that the lower screen resolution doesn’t really result in any noticeable improvement in battery life. And, well, most folks are unlikely to be able to tell the difference between FHD+ and WQHD+. There is a difference if you look hard enough, but even it if wasn’t, we see no reason why the Galaxy Note 9’s 6.4-inch AMOLED screen shouldn’t be enjoyed at its maximum resolution. Again, the Note 9’s battery has the grunt to keep up, so if you are one of those who want the best experience from their phone, switching the display resolution to WQHD+ is one of the first things you should do once you fire up your Galaxy Note 9.

The screen resolution can be adjusted in the Display section of the phone’s settings.

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Samsung Odyssey+ mixed reality headset likely coming soon

Samsung is best known for its Gear VR virtual reality headsets but the company also made one for the Windows Mixed Reality platform. The Samsung Odyssey Windows Mixed Reality headset was launched in October last year. It featured dual 3.5-inch AMOLED panels with a combined resolution of 2880×1600, considerably higher than the 1440×1440 resolution found in other Windows Mixed Reality headsets at that time.

It appears that the company has been working on a successor to this headset. An FCC filing has revealed that there’s a new Samsung Odyssey+ headset in the pipeline which could be announced soon.

Samsung Odyssey+ mixed reality headset

The original Samsung Odyssey headset featured inside-out position tracking with a Six Degrees of Freedom sensor. The specs included an up to 110-degree field of view and refresh rate of up to 90Hz. The Odyssey also featured integrated AKG headphones and dual array mics with support for 360° Spatial Sound.

Samsung shipped the headset with motion controllers that provide complete freedom of movement. The controllers have thumbsticks and button control for navigation as well as haptic feedback. It was priced at $499.

An FCC filing for a “Samsung HMD Odyssey+” has now been spotted with model number XE800ZBA. The original headset has model number XE800ZAA. The documents do mention some specifications of the headset and not much has been changed, apparently. The resolution and field of view has not been changed, however, the display is now categorized as AMOLED+SFS.

It’s unclear what this “SFS” signifies but it could be related to the Anti SDE technology that Samsung has been developing. Some slight changes are possible in the design department as well to aid comfort as the documents mention a “wider eye box, wider part of nose, anti-fog.”

The headset is going to have support for Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality platform like its predecessor. No word as yet on what it will arrive and how much it will cost. With October a couple of months away, it’s possible that Samsung might launch this new headset in the not so distant future.

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First Galaxy Note 9 update adds toggle for 0.2s and 0.4s Super Slow-mo recording

Samsung has just released the first Galaxy Note 9 software update, ahead of the phone’s retail release next week (August 24). The update adds a toggle in the Super Slow-mo camera mode to allow users to record either 0.2-second or 0.4-second moments in manual mode. This is a feature that we hope will come to the Galaxy S9 as well, as one of the Galaxy S9 updates had disabled the option to record 0.2-second moments in manual mode completely. The Galaxy S9 is also currently limited to recording 0.4-second moments at 480 frames per second instead of 960 fps in manual mode.

Galaxy Note 9 gets its first software update

The Galaxy Note 9, meanwhile, can record both 0.2-second and 0.4-second moments in 960 fps after the update. The update comes with software version N960FXXU1ARH5 and doesn’t include anything other than the Super Slow-mo toggle (if you’re wondering, the Galaxy Note 9 comes with the August 2018 security patch out of the box). Galaxy Note 9 buyers will have the update waiting to be downloaded once they start using the phone. If you somehow already have one in your possession, you can try downloading the update by going into the Software update menu in the phone’s Settings app.

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