Galaxy Note 9 update with camera Night mode rolling out in more markets

Samsung has expanded availability of the latest Galaxy Note 9 update to more markets following its initial release in Germany earlier this week. The latest Note 9 update is a notable one: It brings a dedicated Night mode to the camera in addition to security fixes included in the June 2019 security patch. A dedicated Night mode was first introduced on the Galaxy S10 lineup and then released for the Galaxy S9, and it has now made its way to the Note 9 in various countries.

The update adds Night mode and a QR code scanner to the camera

Night mode on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9 works almost as well as it does on the Galaxy S10; in fact, the older flagships can even produce more pleasing photos at times, as we noticed when we compared the Galaxy S9’s Night mode to the Galaxy S10’s. The Galaxy S9 and Note 9 also get another new camera feature that isn’t available on the Galaxy S10 yet: Both phones can scan QR codes with the camera app, removing the need to use Bixby Vision or third-party QR code scanning apps.

At the moment, the new Galaxy Note 9 update (software version N960FXXU3CSF9) is available in almost 20 countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Thailand, and the Philippines. It should go live in other countries in the coming days, although owners of the Snapdragon-powered Note 9 in the US might have to wait considerably longer as at least T-Mobile’s latest Galaxy S9 update doesn’t include these features.

If you own a Note 9, you can check if the update is available for you by tapping the Download and install option in the Software update section of the phone’s Settings app. If you don’t immediately see the update show up on your device, simply wait a while and check again. If waiting isn’t your thing, then you can download the firmware for the new update from our database and upgrade your Note 9 manually.

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New ToF camera manufacturing plant built to meet Samsung’s demand

In anticipation of high demand from Samsung, South Korean camera module manufacturer MCNEX is reportedly expanding its business with the construction of a new plant in Vietnam. With a focus on manufacturing ToF (Time-of-Flight) sensors, the new plant will serve Samsung in bringing this technology in the hands of more customers later this year.

The camera manufacturer has reportedly made a 13 billion won ($11.2 million) investment in the new plant and expects mass production of ToF sensors to commence in August-September. The report from South Korea mentions that the ToF modules soon-to-be manufactured by MCNEX will be employed by the Samsung Galaxy Note 10. But MCNEX might not be the only company involved with supplying ToF cameras for the upcoming phablet or other future smartphone models.

Earlier this year, Samsung introduced its first smartphone equipped with a ToF sensor. Two of them, in fact. Both the front and rear-facing ToF cameras featured on the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G were reportedly supplied by another electronics component manufacturing company located in South Korea, called Partron.

ToF sensors enable real-time 3D tracking by measuring the time it takes for a beam of light to be reflected back from a surface, allowing one to have background blur in videos and use their phone in augmented reality (AR) apps. For example, Samsung’s Quick Measure app on the Galaxy S10 5G lets you calculate the size of real-world objects and also measure their distance from the device.

The recent report suggests that the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 will be equipped with ToF camera technology in a similar manner. Additionally, Partron will continue to be a part of the smartphone’s development in this area. However, this year, Partron will only be required to supply the rear-facing ToF sensor, while the front-facing modules will be manufactured by MCNEX in its new plant in Vietnam.

Oddly, going by leaked renders, the Galaxy Note 10 doesn’t have a front-facing ToF sensor on either the regular or Pro models. That’s probably for the best considering Samsung is going for a centered front camera cutout and having two front-facing cameras would ruin the look of the phone. Furthermore, a rear ToF sensor is expected only on the Galaxy Note 10 Pro if the leaked renders are accurate, although the 5G model should have it as well.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 will reportedly be unveiled on August 7, and the timing seems to fit perfectly with MCNEX’s plans for pushing its ToF modules into mass production in August-September.

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Samsung Galaxy A90 might have 45W fast charging

The Samsung Galaxy A90, which is reportedly being tested in South Korea, might take advantage of 45W fast charging. This would push the OEM’s fast charging barrier considerably further, nearly doubling the existing 25W upper-limit found on several Samsung handsets including the Galaxy S10 5G, Galaxy A70, and Galaxy A80.

This is according to a recent tweet from prolific leakster Ice Universe, who claims that the same feature will also be present on the Galaxy Note 10 Pro. This information is a bit conflicting, but more on that below.

Samsung to test 45W fast charging on A series before the Note 10 arrives?

Several Samsung smartphones now take advantage of 25W fast charging. The company first announced the technology alongside the Galaxy S10 5G, but the flagship was not the first Samsung device to bring it to the public. Instead, 25W fast charging debuted on the Galaxy A70.

In light of this recent rumor, it could be argued that Samsung might repeat history and introduce 45W fast charging on the Galaxy A series before the technology will be pushed as a major feature of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 series later in August. There’s no strong evidence as to when the Galaxy A90 might hit the shelves, but the device is reportedly being tested with South Korean carriers. This means that it should be closer than the Galaxy Note 10 to a market release.

The Galaxy A90 aside, this new rumor does conflict with the recent reports surrounding the Galaxy Note 10 Pro’s fast charging capabilities. The idea of 45W fast charging being adopted by the upcoming phablet emerged at the beginning of June, but a more recent report suggests that the device will “only” have 25W fast charging.

Ice Universe indicates otherwise in his recent tweet, so as of now, it’s anyone’s guess how the story will develop. Perhaps the standard Galaxy Note 10 will have 25W fast charging, while the Note 10 Pro will benefit from 45W, as the source suggests. Or, if Samsung will reiterate history, it could be that 45W fast charging will be reserved for the 5G-enabled Galaxy Note 10, much like 25W was for the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G. It remains to be seen if the Galaxy A90 will indeed be the first to push the limits to the next level.

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Customers can buy the Galaxy S10 5G from Sprint starting today

It was confirmed last week that Sprint customers will soon be able to purchase the Galaxy S10 5G as well. The 5G variant of Samsung’s flagship was exclusively launched with Verizon in the United States. It has remained exclusive to Big Red for about a month.

Samsung did confirm when this handset was announced that it would be available from other carriers as well. AT&T is only offering it to its business customers and developers for now. Sprint is making it available to customers in markets where its 5G mobile network is live.

Sprint Galaxy S10 5G goes on sale

Sprint’s mobile 5G network is currently available in four markets – Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Kansas City. Customers there can now buy the Galaxy S10 5G from the carrier’s retail stores and through its website. The carrier will be launching 5G in parts of Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix, New York City, and Washington, D.C. in the coming weeks.

Customers who lease the handset from Sprint stand to save $250 for a limited time. They will then be required to pay $40.28 per month with $0 down for 18 months. The full retail price of the Galaxy S10 5G is $1,299. Those who placed their pre-orders for the device last week should be receiving it today.

They will be required to activate the device on Sprint’s Unlimited Premium plan which costs $80 per month, per line. It offers unlimited data, talk and text aside from Twitch Prime, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Tidal HiFi access. There’s also 100GB of LTE mobile hotspot. The carrier will provide 5G gaming experiences for the Galaxy S10 5G as well through its partnership with Hatch.

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Samsung Galaxy M30s specs revealed in benchmark

About a week ago we brought to light that Samsung is developing a new variant of the Galaxy M30 with the model number SM-M307F. The model number suggests that it could be branded as the Galaxy M30s. Now, some of this variant’s specs have been revealed after it made an early entry in the database of the online benchmarking tool Geekbench.

Better chipset, newer software out of the gate

Like the Galaxy M30, the newer model will apparently feature 4GB of RAM, or at the very least, one of its variants will. The existing phone was made available with two RAM configurations (4GB and 6GB), so there is a high probability that Samsung will treat the sequel in a similar manner.

Unlike the ongoing model, however, the SM-M307F seems to be planned for release running Android 9 Pie right out of the box. The Galaxy M30 ran Android 8.1 Oreo at launch and it only received One UI several weeks ago when the base software was updated to Android 9 Pie. Judging by the Geekbench listing, the SM-M307F will hit the shelves with the newer firmware preinstalled.

Last but certainly not least, Samsung appears to be planning a notable hardware upgrade for the upcoming model, in the form of an older but more powerful chipset. Upgraded from the Exynos 7904 SoC, the SM-M307F will apparently sport the same silicon as the upper-tier Galaxy A50, i.e., the Exynos 9610. The four Cortex-A53 CPU cores run at 1.7GHz up from 1.6GHz, while the high-performance Cortex-A73 cores operate at a frequency of 2.3GHz instead of 1.8GHz. Likewise, the Exynos 9610 includes a Mali-G72 GPU as opposed to a Mali-G71.

The Galaxy M30 was released roughly four months ago, in March, and there’s no telling when the company might plan to introduce its new variant to the market. But seeing how the SM-M307F is starting to make the rounds, it could be made official in a few months. We’ll keep you up to speed as the story develops.

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Samsung asks Apple to pay penalty for not buying enough iPhone displays

Samsung essentially has a monopoly in the mobile OLED panel market. This is why Apple had no choice but to source panels from Samsung Display when it introduced the iPhone X, its first smartphone with an OLED display. Samsung was expected to make billions as a result of this deal. Reports suggested that it would supply Apple with 50 million panels in 2017 before ramping it up to almost 200 million panels in 2018.

A report out of South Korea claims that Apple committed to a minimum order quantity when it agreed to source OLED panels from Samsung. Weaker iPhone sales than expected have prevented the company from reaching the target. Samsung Display now wants Apple to pay a penalty for missing its minimum order quantity. It has been reported multiple times that Apple has cut iPhone X display panel orders from Samsung.

Apple reportedly fails to meet minimum order quantity

Samsung was quite hopeful that the demand for its mobile OLED panels could continue to rise. It planned to build a “super OLED factory” in China back in 2017 to meet rising demand. It would have had 30 percent more production capacity than the company’s existing A3 plant where Apple’s OLED iPhone panels are made.

However, it was reported last year that Samsung had decided against investing almost $1 billion into the new OLED plant. The decision was made owing to the demand uncertainty in the global smartphone market. Less than expected demand for the iPhone X may have influenced Samsung’s decision too. Samsung has expressed concerns for its OLED panel business in its recent quarterly report as well.

The report mentions that the issue of penalties has come up in multiple discussions between Samsung Display and Apple. The former is looking for an amount in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Samsung made investments in its A3 plant to handle production for Apple.

With the customer not meeting the required order quantity, Samsung Display feels that it should be compensated for its troubles. Apple, understandably, isn’t keen on paying the penalty. It has offered some other options instead. They include sourcing OLED panels for other products like tablets and notebooks. Whether Samsung would agree to that remains to be seen.

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Galaxy A90 with 5G and 32MP camera in the works

Samsung was rumored to launch its first smartphone with a pop-up camera under the Galaxy A90 branding. However, plans were later changed, and the device was launched as the Galaxy A80. But it seems Samsung still has the Galaxy A90 in the works. A device with model number SM-A908N is currently being tested in South Korea. This device has 5G connectivity and a 32MP primary camera, Galaxy Club reports.

Galaxy A90 in the works

The launch of the Galaxy A80 with a pop-up camera had put Galaxy A90 rumors on ice. But Samsung has not stopped working on the phone, it seems. The company could launch the Galaxy A90 with 5G support in its home country this year. The device is currently being tested with the local carriers.

The Galaxy A90 5G features a 32MP primary camera and an 8MP secondary camera. While it should also feature a third lens on the back, details about it are not available yet. Whether it will be a pop-up camera system or not is also a mystery as of now.

There’s no word yet on pricing and availability details of the Galaxy A90. It’s obviously not known for sure if this device will be launched as the Galaxy A90 or under different branding. Model number SM-A908N would suggest so, though. Either way, we should hear more about this device in the coming weeks.

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Daily Deal: 40% off Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro

It’s a good day for those looking for a fitness tracker that also does standalone music playback. The Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro was already available at a discount, but they have now shaved off a little extra meaning you can get it at 40% off! This wearable device has a good value for money proposition as it has some very useful features like a standalone music player and GPS, so you don’t need to bring your phone to track your route or listen to music.

Use the Buy Now button below to grab one while they’re still available at this price ($199.99). Don’t wait too long because they might sell out!

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Samsung files ‘Make & Play 3D’ trademark for phones with a ToF camera sensor

Samsung is looking to trademark the phrase ‘Make & Play 3D’ in the European Union. The paperwork suggests we are looking at the name of a feature of, or an application for Time-of-Flight camera sensors.

Samsung Make & Play 3D trademark

Yesterday, Samsung filed an application for the trademark ‘Make & Play 3D’ at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The application is quite clear about what the mark is intended for:

Camera modules in the nature of cameras for smartphones (…) Time-of-flight (TOF) optical sensors for smartphones; Spatial, depth, and distance sensors for smartphones (…) Software for smart phones and mobile devices for use in enhancing the quality of digital images and photographs taken.

Make & Play 3D is either a separate application or a built-in feature, on Samsung phones packing a Time-of-Flight sensor. Currently, the list of devices with such a sensor is limited to the Galaxy S10 5G and the Galaxy A80. However, the upcoming Galaxy Note 10, too, is expected to come with a ToF camera sensor on its back. It is on the latter that the app of feature might make its debut, as it is right now not incorporated into the other devices.

If so, then we can expect to learn more about Make & Play 3D in August, as Samsung is expected to launch its new Note 10 devices on or around the 7th of that month.

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