Samsung has installed Onyx cinema LEDs in 16 countries

Samsung unveiled the Onyx LED cinema screen back in July 2017 at the Lotte Cinema World Tower in South Korea. Two years on, the revolutionary cinema screens have now made their debut in 16 countries across the world. The Onyx LED cinema screens bring 4K image quality, HDR capabilities, highest brightness, and more contrast to the big screen, offering an immersive viewing experience to the audience.

China has the most theaters with Onyx LED screens

Following installations in its home country, Samsung brought the Onyx LED cinema screens to several overseas markets over the years. Thailand was the first overseas market to get this next-gen solution. The Onyx screens have since made their debut in India, China, Malaysia, the US, as well as several European countries, including Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and Spain. In December last year, Samsung installed the world’s largest Onyx LED cinema screen in China. Some of the cinemas in South Korea, the US, China, Germany and India have 3D Onyx LED screens.

As of now, Onyx screens are installed at 32 different theaters in 16 countries across the world. China has the most Onyx screen theaters with seven, followed by India with five. South Korea and Malaysia have three each. A Samsung official said that the company is looking to introduce the Onyx LED cinema screens to more theaters around the world in the coming months.

Samsung is expected to unveil new technologies for the Onyx LED solution at CinemaCon 2019. The company may also strike a few partnerships during the event. The world’s biggest film industry fair takes place in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas next week.

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Samsung launches new 8-inch Galaxy Tab A with S Pen support

We reported exclusively four months ago that Samsung was working on a new Galaxy Tab A tablet with model number SM-P205. The company today announced a brand new tablet which has the same model number. It’s an 8-inch Galaxy Tab A which comes with support for the S Pen.

Officially called the Galaxy Tab A with S Pen 8.0″, this tablet has an 8-inch 1920×1200 pixel resolution TFT display.

The addition of the S Pen makes this a compelling option for customers who have wished for stylus support on Samsung’s smaller tablets. It’s not the newer S Pen that you get with the Galaxy Note 9, though, so don’t count on using it as a remote. The tablet’s product page mentions that users don’t have to charge the S Pen. The new stylus does need to be charged and that’s handled by its supercapacitor.

It’s a fairly mid-range affair. The new Galaxy Tab A has an Exynos 7904 processor with 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage with microSD card support. There’s also an 8-megapixel rear and 5-megapixel front camera, a USB Type-C connector, 4,200mAh battery and support for LTE.

The official listing doesn’t mention which version of Android this tablet is running. It would most likely be on Pie with Samsung’s One UI on top. We have previously revealed that it will be available in black and grey colour options. Pricing has not yet been announced.

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Can my Galaxy Watch take my temperature? It’s not that simple…

A lot of people are interested in finding out if they can take a reading of their body temperature with the Galaxy Watch. Samsung’s new smartwatch is the true successor to the Gear S3. It came out last year and Samsung did a very good job of improving everything about the device.

The Galaxy Watch got many new features as well. Samsung particularly focused on improving health and fitness-focused features. We said in our Galaxy Watch review that Samsung had nearly perfected the smartwatch with this device. The significant updates led many to expect that it would be possible to take a body temperature reading with the device. It might sound simple enough since it has long been possible to measure heart rate using a smartwatch. Blood temperature is a different ballgame, though.

Can my Galaxy Watch take my temperature?

No, the Galaxy Watch cannot take your temperature. It does not have the hardware onboard which would allow the device to do that. So while you can do a lot with your Galaxy Watch, checking your body temperature is not one of them.

It’s a very capable smartwatch otherwise. The Galaxy Watch is capable of tracking up to 40 different activities. It can automatically start tracking six exercises such as running and cycling in addition to heart rate and sleep patterns. There’s even an option to track your stress levels by detecting increased heart rates over a period of time. If the watch detects that, it will suggest that you take deep breaths to bring the heart rate down.

It’s a different story when it comes to body temperature. You can’t do that on a Wear OS device since the underlying Android API doesn’t allow for a body temperature sensor yet. The Galaxy Watch isn’t powered by Wear OS, it runs Tizen 4.0, but that doesn’t mean it can do that. There are other concerns that may have prevented Samsung from offering this functionality despite not having to deal with platform limitations.

The difference between body temperature and skin temperature also has to be recognized. The former refers to the physical state in which the bodily functions operate at their optimal level. The latter is simply the temperature of your skin which can change based on different factors, the simplest of which is outside temperature. Your skin temperature will go up if you’re out in the sun for too long as opposed to comfortably seated in an airconditioned room.

The thing about body temperature is that it can vary from one zone of the body to another. That’s why there’s a slightly different threshold for fever depending upon whether the reading is oral, axillary, tympanic, etc. The assumption here being that the body temperature reading on the wrist would be different and might be considerably lower on account of it being an extremity of the body.

There may also be a higher chance of an inaccurate reading due to several other factors. For example, a temperature sensor on the smartwatch may not be insulated from the outside. That would bring environmental factors into play which could throw off the reading. So while it may be technically possible to do this, the potential for inaccuracy may have prevented Samsung from offering this functionality with the Galaxy Watch.

It may be a different story in the future. Advanced technology might make it possible for us to quickly take accurate body temperature readings from our smartwatches. As of right now, it’s not possible to do that with a Galaxy Watch.

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Samsung resumes Galaxy S10 March security update roll out

Samsung released the March 2019 security update for the Galaxy S10 series three days ago. The changelog mentioned that the update also brought improvements for the Wireless PowerShare feature.

We found out later that the update had been pulled for the Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10 and the Galaxy S10+. Samsung didn’t say why it had halted the roll out but it presumably may have been because of a bug. Whatever it was, it seems to have been fixed because Samsung has now resumed the roll out.

There’s a new firmware version out now for the Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+. They’re receiving G970FXXU1ASCA, G973FXXU1ASCA, and G975FXXU1ASCA in Germany, the UK and France respectively. The updates are now available over-the-air and you can also download them from our firmware section by clicking on the relevant device name.

The changelog is exactly the same as the previous update. It only mentions improvements for the Camera stability and Wireless PowerShare performance. Whatever Samsung has fixed with this release has likely been lumped into the usual slew of “bug fixes.”

Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ owners across the globe should start to receive the new firmware in the near future. The roll out has begun over-the-air but it may take some time for the update to go live for everyone. You can also check for the update manually on your device by going to the Settings » Software update menu and tapping on Download updates manually.

Galaxy S10e

• Model: SM-G970F
• Dimensions: 69.9 x 142.2 x 7.9mm
• Display: 5.8” (146.5mm) Super AMOLED
• CPU: Exynos 9820 Octa
• Camera: 12 MP, CMOS F1.5/F2.4 (77°) & 16MP, CMOS F2.2 (123°)Ultra Wide

More specifications

Galaxy S10

• Model: SM-G973F
• Dimensions: 70.4 x 149.9 x 7.8mm
• Display: 6.1"(157.5mm) Super AMOLED
• CPU: Exynos 9820 Octa
• Camera: 12 MP.CMOS F2.4 45° Telephoto & 12MP F1.5 77° & 16MP F2.2 123° Ultra-wide

More specifications

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The Galaxy S11 must be Samsung’s flagship ‘camera’ phone

After the announcement of Huawei’s P30 series, I’ve come to one conclusion: The Galaxy S11 must be a camera-focused flagship. The gap between Samsung’s and Huawei’s camera tech is getting a bit too big. While Samsung led the industry a few years ago, Huawei has begun to steal the Korean giant’s thunder in the last couple of years. With the Galaxy S11, it’s a must for Samsung to close the gap or even do better and retake the lead.

You might think it’s crazy to be talking about the Galaxy S11 when the Galaxy S10 has just been released. And yes, you’d be right. It’s not that we are jealous, but we see Samsung is becoming complacent when it comes to camera technology. Samsung is mainly focusing on aspects like display and memory technology while improvements to the camera experience aren’t happening at the same pace.

When Samsung discontinued its NX lineup of cameras, we expected the company would integrate the talent behind the NX cameras into its mobile team. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to have really happened, and now that the Huawei P30 Pro is official, we feel Samsung has missed a major opportunity and has fallen behind.

Is Samsung in trouble?

Not yet. Most consumers are still shooting pictures on their phone in auto mode and sharing their images on social media. Only the pros truly need the spectacular camera on the P30 Pro, what with its 10x zoom capability and the ability to take superior night shots.

Still, the gap between Samsung and Huawei shouldn’t be this big on the camera front, especially when you consider the fact that the Huawei phones are using mostly software wizardry for the superior night photography, much like Google. It’s like owning a Lamborghini. You won’t use all of its power all of the time but it would be nice to know you have plenty of it in the boot.

I doubt most Galaxy S9/S9+ owners gave a hoot about the variable aperture camera. They were the first smartphones to have both a variable aperture and optical image stabilization. It really did set the 2018 flagship apart in the camera department compared to its rivals. Samsung’s supposed answer to Huawei and Google’s dedicated night camera modes with the Galaxy S10, meanwhile, is pretty much a dud. Thankfully, at least with hardware, there is some good news. Samsung is said to have acquired the company that supplies the optical zoom sensors to manufacturers like Oppo and Huawei, and we can expect to see those sensors on its future flagship devices.

And with Samsung mostly using the same smartphone design for two years before mixing things up, we also expect the Galaxy S11 will use a form factor similar to the Galaxy S10, so the company could focus on making the Galaxy S11’s cameras its biggest highlight and hype it up through the millions it spends on marketing and advertising its flagship smartphones. It would also be great to see some hints of those camera improvements on the Galaxy Note 10. Samsung tends to use the same camera sensors for its flagships in a particular year, which means no big improvements, but we can hope Samsung receives a wakeup call and changes that.

If not, Samsung has a year to make a comeback and show Google and Huawei who’s boss. Otherwise, the company may get into deeper problems, like losing considerable market share or losing the innovation tag that many still associate with the Samsung brand.

Should you buy a Google Pixel or Huawei P30 Pro?

Well, that’s up to you, but I believe you shouldn’t. Yes, Google’s update policy is excellent and gives you clean, unadulterated Android, but its design isn’t great. Yes, Huawei’s cameras are great, but will you use all the functions? I wouldn’t, and let’s not forget that the P30 Pro doesn’t have things like a 3.5 mm headphone jack, stereo speakers, or even mainstream microSD card support. Basically, the complete phone doesn’t exist yet, but we have our fingers crossed Samsung will do something about that with the Galaxy S11 or even the Galaxy Note 10.

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