There’s a lot of excitement for Samsung’s upcoming foldable smartphone. It may just be the company’s first mass-market foldable smartphone, given that it’s said to cost under $1,000. Like it does for many of its devices, Samsung is going to sell some accessories for the new Galaxy Fold as well.
We hear that there will be leather covers on offer for the Galaxy Fold 2. The premium leather material would certainly add a touch of class to the clamshell foldable smartphone.
Leather covers will be available for the Galaxy Fold 2
This won’t be Samsung’s first time offering a leather cover for a foldable smartphone. It already does this for the Galaxy Fold. Made of genuine Italian leather, one of these covers for the original Galaxy Fold is going to set you back $129.99.
You can expect the leather cover for the Galaxy Fold 2 to be in the same price range. Genuine accessories tend to be expensive after all. We also hear that the cover will be available in black and silver colors. The known color options for the Galaxy Fold 2 include black, white and purple.
There isn’t a lot of information available about the Galaxy Fold 2’s internal specs at this point in time. Its internal foldable display is expected to measure between 6.7 and 6.9-inch. A tiny cover display will also be present on the outside to display important info like the time, date and battery level.
Samsung hasn’t confirmed when it’s going to unveil its next foldable smartphone, or what it’s going to be called. Rumor has it that it’s going to be unveiled alongside the Galaxy S11. According to the latest information, the Galaxy S11 launch event is scheduled for February 11.
The Galaxy S10+ is one of the best flagship smartphones of Samsung. In our elaborate review we’ve concluded that it’s almost a masterpiece. It comes with a massive 128GB of internal storage which is enough to store all your media and files. It’s also more compact than earlier phones. The bezels are smaller and it’s thinner which you can certainly appreciate in everyday use. It’s extremely sleek and feels very well in your hands. The display is stunning, the 6.4 inch Super AMOLED display offers vivid colors. It’s the most accurate display ever released on a Smartphone. At a massive 30% off, this is the perfect time to upgrade your smartphone to the Galaxy S10+!
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The very first unofficial CAD renders of the Galaxy S11+ were leaked online last month. They showed a rather bonkers layout for the handset’s rear camera system. It was later speculated that perhaps they weren’t representative of the final design.
The speculation appears to have been true. The source that leaked those renders has now posted a fresh Galaxy S11+ render. It shows a much more normal looking layout for the rear camera. What it obviously doesn’t do is confirm the official camera specs, but that’s another matter altogether.
Galaxy S11+ camera layout may not be bonkers after all
It’s said that the initial renders were based on an early prototype of the Galaxy S11+. That’s entirely possible as CAD renders are never fully representative of the final product. The fresh render leaked today is claimed to be based on the latest prototype and the source assumes that it shows the final design.
As far as the camera specs are concerned, rumor has it that the Galaxy S11+ will feature a 108-MP primary sensor. It will also have a 5x optical zoom telephoto lens with optical image stabilization and an ultra wide-angle lens. A ToF sensor remains a possibility as well. The cameras will be accompanied by an LED flash.
The layout seen in this leak is quite similar to the one we saw in an image from Twitter leakster Ice universe. That image was leaked two weeks ago. Going by all of this circumstantial evidence, we can now form an opinion about what the rear camera setup on the Galaxy S11+ is going to look like.
What matters more is how it’s actually going to perform. We won’t be able to find that out until we have the Galaxy S11+ in our hands. Fortunately, that might happen sooner than expected, with Samsung possibly unveiling the Galaxy S11 series on February 11, 2020.
In our opinion, the Galaxy Fold was the best device to come out of Samsung’s stable because of what it represents, but which of those numerous devices was our overall favorite? Well, as the title of this article has already revealed, it’s the Galaxy Note 10+, which offers a compelling experience unmatched by anything else that Samsung launched this year.
The Galaxy Fold or the Galaxy S10+ may be excellent devices in their own right, but the Galaxy Note 10+ trumps both by being a complete package that brought some much-needed features to Samsung’s flagship line, like support for up to 45W charging. Of course, it’s also unique because of the S Pen, and it came with some very useful new software functionality as well, such as a built-in screen recorder, fun new camera modes like AR Doodle, and improved productivity with its support for running Samsung DeX on a Windows or Mac PC.
We also liked it for the fact that it has a centered punch hole for the front camera. Samsung opted to place the punch hole in the right corner on the Galaxy S10 series but quite frankly, the center alignment is much better. This implementation of the Infinity-O display is now making its way to more Samsung devices, like the recently unveiled Galaxy A51. It’s also going to be present on the upcoming Galaxy S11.
The Note 10+ isn’t perfect. No headphone jack is perhaps its biggest flaw, and it may also be too large for some despite how compact Samsung was able to make it for a device with a 6.8-inch display. But still, it does everything else so well that it’s easy to overlook those shortcomings. The Galaxy Note 10+ is an easy recommendation to anyone looking for a premium flagship smartphone, and while we had the privilege of using everything from the mid-range Galaxy A50 to the $2000 Galaxy Fold, the Galaxy Note 10+ stands as our favorite among them all.
What about you? Which was your favorite among all the devices Samsung launched this year?
Major smartphone brands in India, including Samsung, have reportedly decided to end online-exclusive models starting next year. A report in 91Mobiles, which quotes an office-bearer of the Mobile Dealers Association, Ahmedabad, and mentions a note sent by All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA) to its members, states that Samsung, Vivo, Oppo, and Realme have agreed in writing to level the playing field for online and offline retailers in the country.
The report is short on details on Samsung’s plans but mentions specific changes promised by other major brands. If these companies stick to their word, the Indian smartphone market in 2020 could see the launch of new models at the same time, for the same price, and with the same offer for both online and offline partners.
Xiaomi makes no such promises
Interestingly, Xiaomi, India’s largest smartphone brand and the company which kickstarted the trend of online-first and online-exclusive sales tactics, is not mentioned in the report, indicating the Chinese smartphone maker may continue to give preferential treatment for its online partners. If the biggest player in the market doesn’t back the move to level the playing field, other brands may find it challenging to go ahead with their plans.
What’s also unexplored is the pushback from online retailers with billions in revenue. The likes of Flipkart and Amazon have used online-only smartphone models to expand their business in India rapidly, and they are not going to relinquish that advantage without a fight.
Raises questions over Galaxy M series
As for Samsung is concerned, the company launched the online-exclusive Galaxy M series earlier this year in India to counter similar offerings from brands like Redmi and Realme. Though the M series shares many similarities with the offline-focused Galaxy A series, the former offers better specs at a lower price. If the Korean company decides to end this practice, then the Galaxy M series becomes redundant. It also remains to be seen how Samsung will address concerns of its offline partners while also continuing to compete with Xiaomi who doesn’t want to play by the same rules.
Though the online smartphone market in India has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, the offline market still accounts for the majority of smartphone sales, more so for established brands like Samsung. With online sales becoming increasingly competitive and taking a toll on profits, newer smartphone brands in the country are looking to build robust offline sales channels, and they want to do this without leveling the playing field for offline partners. Naturally, there has been a pushback from brick-and-mortar stores that consider these online-first and online-exclusive sales strategies discriminatory.
Switching to a brand new phone is exciting, but the process of transferring data from the old device to the new one can become frustrating without the proper set of tools. For example, attempting to transfer WhatsApp from Android to iPhone can often be a very confusing task.
Normally, users who want to transfer data between iOS, Android & Windows Phone would rely on solutions provided by their handset’s manufacturer. Samsung’s Smart Switch makes the adoption of a new Galaxy phone a lot easier than it would’ve been without it, but it doesn’t transfer data for every app that you may use. You’d think it would be easier transferring data from Android to Android. While the tech savvy users may be able to find their way around the different ways to go about this, most users still need assistance and would much rather prefer a simple software that gets the job done for them in a few clicks.
WhatsApp is a very popular messaging app, yet it isn’t covered by Smart Switch. There are many third-party solutions out there but unfortunately, there are some solutions that are simply a money grab. They promise features that don’t exist and just try to fleece customers out of their hard-earned money.
That just adds to the hassle when transferring WhatsApp data between two different operating systems is enough of a headache as it is. But there is one third-party solution that really does work as advertised and it can help with transferring WhatsApp data, and more. It’s developed by Wondershare and it’s called MobileTrans who happen to have a holiday sale going on as well.
WhatsApp transfer still remains a daunting task
You’d think that it would have become easier by now to transfer WhatsApp chats between devices, particularly between different mobile OS platforms. It couldn’t be further from the truth. While it’s easier to transfer WhatsApp from iPhone to iPhone and from Android to Android, users run into a roadblock when trying to move chats between the two most popular mobile platforms.
Merely searching for ways to transfer chats between the platforms turns up so many workarounds that it can often make things more confusing, particularly for users who are not used to tinkering around with different software. One commonly used workaround is using the Email Chat option to transfer WhatsApp messages from Android to iPhone or vice versa.
It requires individually selecting the WhatsApp chats you want to transfer and then emailing them to the other device, then logging into WhatsApp on the other device and finding that particular email. It’s an unnecessary hassle, one that most users can certainly do without.
While it’s possible to do a backup of all WhatsApp data to the cloud on both platforms, there’s no way to sync the backups across iOS and Android. WhatsApp data that’s backed up to the cloud on an iPhone can’t be restored on an Android device. There’s really no workaround for this so while it may be fairly simple to transfer WhatsApp from iPhone to iPhone or Android to Android, it’s not that easy when the job involves moving data between the two operating systems.
What is MobileTrans and how can it help me?
MobileTrans is an app for Windows and macOS that allows you to transfer WhatsApp messages from Android to iPhone, from Android to Android, and even between iPhones with ease. It can also handle other types of data transfers, and perform backups and restores.
It’s a true transfer and backup solution for WhatsApp as it not only backs up all chat history, personal and group chats both but also exports all images including the user’s profile photo, photos in the chat history and even stickers. The same applies to videos sent using WhatsApp and any additional attachments in chats.
In our example, the app can be used to transfer WhatsApp chats from iPhone to Android, say, one that bears the Samsung Galaxy brand. The process is straightforward, as highlighted in the instructional steps below. MobileTrans supports Android devices running firmware version 2.1 and up, so it will work with devices going back several years, you don’t really need to have a recent Samsung model in order to use this app.
Transfer WhatsApp chats from iPhone to Android with MobileTrans
To begin using MobileTrans, first, you’ll have to visit the developer’s official website and download the app for your Windows PC or macOS machine. Then, launch the app and select WhatsApp Transfer.
Next, access the WhatsApp tab on the left and click Transfer WhatsAppmessages.
Once you’re done setting up MobileTrans, connect both phones to your computer via USB. Select your source and destination devices inside the MobileTrans app, and click Start.
You can also check the video below for a short tutorial on how to use MobileTrans to transfer WhatsApp data from an iPhone or Android device to a Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
MobileTrans contains more than one tool, and they’re all at a 40% discount
MobileTrans makes transferring WhatsApp data a breeze, but the app is actually comprised of four main tools, namely Phone Transfer, WhatsApp Transfer, as well as Backup & Restore. But regardless of which module you might find more useful for your particular use case, you should know that the entire MobileTrans toolset is now available at a discounted price for a limited time.
This presents a great opportunity for people who have had their eye on this software for a while but weren’t ready to pay full price for it. The deal that’s currently available on MobileTrans is one of the best yet and provides exceptional value for money. It will certainly make life a lot easier for those who tend to switch between smartphones quite frequently.
A one year license now costs 40% less, or $23.97, down from the original price of $39.95. Alternatively, prospective buyers can also purchase specific MobileTrans features separately at a 40% discount. A one year license for MobileTrans – WhatsApp Transfer or MobileTrans – Phone Transfer costs just $17.97, down from $29.95.
The Christmas & New Year sale begins December 18 and lasts until January 15, 2020. SamMobile readers can take advantage of these discounts by visiting this link.
It’s not just the Galaxy S9 that’s getting a new Android 10 beta update today. Samsung has also released another beta update for the Galaxy Note 9. This is the fifth beta release for the year-old Note 9; it’s available in Korea at this time but should soon be making its way to markets like India and the UK.
Unlike the new Galaxy S9 update, the latest Galaxy Note 9 beta is pretty small and fixes only two bugs. It improves the display of quick panel icons in the notification shade and fixes an error with fingerprint authentication in Samsung apps like Samsung Pass and Samsung Pay. The previous beta for the Galaxy Note 9 was even smaller – it had just one bug fix, so there’s a high chance the Note 9 will start getting the stable Android 10 update in the next week or so, at least for beta users.
Nothing is certain, however, and we would recommend remaining skeptical until the stable update actually starts rolling out. For now, if you are using the Galaxy Note 9, you can download the fifth beta update over the air from the Settings » Software update menu. Do leave a comment and tell us if you’re getting the update in a country other than South Korea.
