Samsung is facing lowest operation rate in company’s history

Amid COVID-19 outbreak, lockdowns, and falling smartphone sales, Samsung is facing its lowest operation rates in the company’s history. The South Korean firm has already halved its smartphone manufacturing and had to temporarily shut down various factories and stores across the world due to social distancing measures.

According to a report from ETNews, the operation rates of Samsung’s factories will fall to an all-time low in the second quarter of this year. The company already has a lot of stocks left from previous months. Closed factories will only lead to increased fixed costs, lower production output, lower sales, and dropped revenues.

Even if the company increases production in its factories and plants in the coming months, it will most probably result in piling inventory. The whole world is moving towards one of the biggest recessions in history, and people are spending as low as possible after looking at the economic uncertainty.

Samsung has temporarily closed its home appliances and smartphone factories in Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia, Slovakia, the US, and Vietnam. There is a high chance that the South Korean firm would have to keep its factories closed even next month. This means that the company can’t accurately predict what its operation rates would be, leading to a huge problem.

The South Korean firm is still doing whatever it can to stop the spread of the deadly virus. It has already donated $24.6 million in its home country South Korea and $5 million in India to fight against the pandemic. Samsung has asked most of its employees to work from home and has kept its stores closed. It is even disinfecting smartphone screens for free.

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Samsung to use Xilinx chipsets in its 5G network equipment

Xilinx, the American chip company, has announced that it has won a deal to supply chips to Samsung’s networking equipment. The company’s Adaptive Compute Acceleration Platform (ACAP) will be used in the South Korean giant’s 5G network infrastructure equipment.

Samsung has been gradually expanding its mobile network infrastructure business over the past few years, and it has already powered 5G networks of various carriers in Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and the US. The company will use Xilinx’s Versal programmable chipset to enable beamforming in its 5G network equipment. Beamforming technology allows the handling of more data than previous generation wireless networks.

Xilinx chips to enable Samsung’s 5G equipment to be flexible and scalable

5G networks are quite complicated, and the data speeds and coverage are can vary a lot depending on the type of 5G technology used. A low-band 5G tower (600-700MHz) can span across hundreds of square miles and offer download speeds of anywhere between 30Mbps and 250Mbps. A mid-band 5G tower (2.5/3.5GHz) spans across several square miles and offer speeds between 100Mbps and 900Mbps, while a high-band 5G tower (mmWave/24-39GHz) spans a few city blocks and supports downlink speeds of 1Gbps to 3Gbps.

Xilinx specializes in making programmable chipsets, and they can dynamically adapt to changing computing needs. The company’s Versal chipset will provide a flexible and scalable platform to Samsung’s 5G networking equipment that can address the requirements of cellular operators across various countries and geographies. Beamforming requires multiple downlink/uplink data streams to work simultaneously for multiple users in the same spectrum, and it needs a lot of power-efficient computing.

The Versal chipset is claimed to offer real-time, low-latency signal processing that is needed for beamforming algorithms. The chips also feature AI cores, a tiled array of vector processors, that are ideal for processing mathematical functions required for high-compute density and advanced connectivity. Xilinx chipsets can be reprogrammed and reconfigured even after the deployment, making them perfect for Samsung’s 5G wireless networking equipment.

Xilinx chipsets are also used in base stations made by Ericsson, Nokia, and Huawei. However, following US trade sanctions against Huawei, Xilinx is unable to provide its chips to the Chinese telecommunications firm.

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Samsung starts rolling out Android 10 update to Galaxy A30s

Samsung has started rolling out the Android 10 update to one more mid-range smartphone. The Galaxy A30s, which was launched in mid-2019 with Android 9 on board, has started receiving the Android 10 update with One UI 2.0 in a few countries.

The Android 10 update for the Galaxy A30s comes with firmware version A307FNXXU2BTD1, and it started rolling out last week. The update, which includes the March 2020 Android security patch, is currently live in a few countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Laos, Libya, Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and the UAE. The software update has a file size of more than 1500MB, so we would recommend using a Wi-Fi network while downloading it.

One UI 2.0 brings various new features, including Google’s UI navigation gestures, enhanced Dark Mode, improved permissions management, refreshed UI, smoother animations, tweaked icons, a redesigned Device Care section, and more. The update also brings smart replies to messages and dynamic text color based on the wallpaper’s background shade, among other things. You can read all about One UI 2.0 and its features in our detailed article.

If you are a Galaxy A30s user in one of the countries mentioned above, you should’ve received the update notification already. You can manually check for the update by heading to Settings » Software update and tapping Download and install on your device.

If you don’t want to wait for the OTA update, you can download the entire firmware from our firmware section and flash it manually. We expect the update to roll out in more countries over the next few weeks.

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Samsung reportedly halves smartphone production in April

Samsung has reportedly cut down the production of smartphones in April following the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent fall in demand for mobile phones. The company could be planning to ramp up the smartphone production back to normal starting next month.

According to the South Korean tech publication The Elec, Samsung will manufacture just 10 million smartphones this month, which is less than half of its monthly average of 25 million units. The information comes by the way of Samsung’s suppliers.

Looming economic recession, lockdowns, and logistical issues are the reasons

The global smartphone leader usually manufactures more than 300 million smartphones every year, but that number will take a dip in 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak and the lockdown of industries as a part of social distancing measures taken by all the countries.

Samsung’s smartphone plants in Brazil and India have been shut down, and the company still has quite a bit of inventory left over from its March production. So, it makes sense not to manufacture more units than necessary, especially looking at the looming economic recession.

The South Korean firm usually produces a bulk of smartphones in the first quarter and then places further orders in April after gauging the demand. As a result, it produces fewer smartphones in April, but the production in April 2020 will be even lower. The Indian government has extended the nationwide lockdown for three weeks more, and the number of COVID-19 affected patients in Brazil and India is rising.

South Korean smartphone suppliers believe that the demand for mobile phones will hit rock bottom in the second quarter of 2020, with the demand rising in Q3. Market research firms expect global smartphone shipments to fall 10 percent or more this year.

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Samsung India’s IGNITE program welcomed its new students online

Every spring, Samsung India offers internships to business school students across the country through its IGNITE program, and despite the COVID-19 lockdown, this year was no different. 36 new students, mostly GenZs, were welcomed to Team Samsung through the online medium after a five-hours introduction session.

This year there were No handshakes, no audits buzzing with activities, no gym or yoga sessions, no foosball or table tennis, no conference room meetings and no snacks to munch on together! But even if the welcome party was very different compared to previous years, it was exciting nonetheless, revealed Samsung India in a recent post.

‘This batch of interns [is] one of the luckiest’

Head of Human Resources at Samsung India, Sameer Wadhawan, considers this new batch of students to be one of the luckiest. Because their induction was carried online through video conferencing, they’ve already learned an important lesson, in that everything is possible with technology and innovation.

The COVID-19 lockdown is not going to stop these students advance in their fields. All the new interns are required to start working on their projects immediately, but Samsung India is providing a helping hand. Each intern will have a buddy, guide, and mentor to help them on their journey and find the right work-life balance from their home offices.

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Nedbank customers in South Africa now able to use Samsung Pay

Samsung Pay reached a new milestone in South Africa earlier this year when it recorded 2 million transactions, and now the online payment platform is expanding to reach Nedbank’s customers. They can register their Visa, Mastercard, and American Express cards to Samsung Pay and make payments using their compatible smartphones and smartwatches.

In addition, the company is making Samsung Pay available on more smartphones in South Africa, with the Galaxy A30s being the latest addition to the list. The idea is to give more customers access to the platform, and the Galaxy A30s was chosen thanks to its relative success on the market. Here are all of the company’s devices that are compatible with Samsung Pay in South Africa as of this writing:

Samsung Pay now has 11 partners in South Africa

Nedbank is the 11th institution to embrace Samsung Pay in South Africa. Aside from Nedbank, the list includes Absa, Standard Bank, FNB, RMB Private Bank, Discovery Bank, Investec, Virgin Money, British Airways, Visa, and Mastercard.

Samsung Pay was released in South Africa in mid-2018. Since then, the company launched the platform in two additional markets including Indonesia and Kazakhstan. It’s unclear where the Korean tech giant will launch Samsung Pay next, but it was planning to improve the platform in existing markets and launch in new ones throughout 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic may have slowed down progress in this respect; however, the world at large is turning more and more towards cash-less payment solutions, and this would be the perfect time for Samsung Pay to become available in more markets.

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This alleged fingerprint speed hack makes your Galaxy phone unlock faster

If you own a Galaxy smartphone equipped with an in-display fingerprint sensor and you’re not happy with its speed, there’s a new trick you can try to improve your sensor’s performance. Many Galaxy users swear by it, while others don’t see any difference. But if you want to give it a shot, you can by following the steps below.

To try out this ‘fingerprint speed hack,’ open Settings, go to Apps, tap the 3-dot menu button at the top and select Show system apps. Next, search for com.samsung.android.biometrics.app.settings and select it. Go to Battery » Optimize battery usage and make sure you have selected All apps from the drop-menu at the top. Search for com.samsung.android.biometrics.app.settings again and tap the toggle to disable this function. Reboot your phone to apply the changes. Just make sure you’ve waited until the phone fully rebooted and all the apps have loaded to determine if your sensor is or isn’t faster than before.

Your results may vary

Now, while many XDA-Developers forum posters swear by this hidden ‘fingerprint speed hack’ and claim 2x faster response times, your mileage might vary. Some of us at SamMobile feel like disabling this function makes the sensor feel slightly faster, some think it doesn’t, and others are in doubt. I’ve tested this on my Galaxy Note 10 and it makes no difference in my eyes. The sensor has the same relatively random accuracy and response time with or without this feature disabled. Perhaps it makes a difference only under specific conditions, or maybe some smartphones can benefit from this more than others. Or perhaps it’s just a placebo effect.

In other words, we’re not sure this ‘fingerprint speed hack’ will yield results for you, but it doesn’t hurt if you try for yourself. You’re welcomed to let us know in the comment section if you have or haven’t noticed a real difference.

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Samsung was developing two more Exynos custom cores for 2021/2022

Samsung decided to shut down its custom CPU arm in favor of licensing ARM designs last year. Its Exynos M5 custom core is considered to be the last of its creations, but it looks like the company already had plans for two more custom solutions before closing up shop.

Android Authority found a handful of LinkedIn profiles of Samsung employees, and they all mention working on a few custom CPU cores, including an unannounced model called the M6. One profile even mentions an M7 core.

There’s no evidence that Samsung will continue working on these cores

Since the Exynos-powered Galaxy S20 series uses two M5 custom cores, we can assume that the M6 and M7 were originally planned to be ready for the market in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Chances for the so-called M7 custom core to become real seem slim at best, but the work that went into the M6 core may still have some use. Or not.

Samsung is reportedly designing a custom Exynos chipset for Google. It would be manufactured on a 5nm process and would feature a total of eight ARM Cortex-based cores, therefore leaving all of its custom solutions out of the equation.

Future high-end Exynos SoCs planned for Samsung’s own Galaxy devices are also expected to rely entirely on ARM CPU core architectures. And since Samsung shut down its custom chip arm more than half a year ago, there’s no evidence to support the idea that the company’s efforts in developing the M6 core were not in vain.

On one hand, this is just the nature of the business, as custom chipmakers will always think ahead, and some work will be lost when pulling the plug on a project. But on the other hand, this might suggest that Samsung’s decision to shut down its custom chipset division was relatively abrupt and without much notice. Either way, seeing the mess that the Exynos-powered Galaxy S20 series has become, there’s not a lot of people – and shareholders – who will miss the company’s custom CPU solutions.

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What’s up with the Galaxy S20 Ultra? It still leaves a lot to be desired

The Galaxy S20 lineup, and the Galaxy S20 Ultra in particular, was supposed to turn over a new leaf for Samsung. It marked the start of a new decade which a show of dominance from Samsung that it could also compete on hardware with the best of the best. The Galaxy S20 Ultra has understandably had the most attention given its bonkers camera setup and its high price tag.

This increased scrutiny of Samsung’s most expensive Galaxy S flagship yet has also led to a lot of criticism. The camera software and the Exynos processor’s shortcomings have been particularly criticized for leaving a lot to be desired. All this has made me wonder what’s up with the Galaxy S20 Ultra?

There’s no debating that the Galaxy S20 Ultra features the best camera hardware of any smartphone on the market right now. It’s just bonkers what Samsung has been able to fit inside it. However, it seems that the software team didn’t do a good enough job to extract the best possible performance out of the hardware.

Slow autofocus issues were quickly pointed out by users when the Galaxy S20 Ultra went on sale. An update was sent out a month ago to address these issues. An annoying focus issue with the zoom camera was fixed in another update that was released two weeks ago. All of this should have been well optimized before the device hit the market but it was evident that the software just wasn’t good enough. For a device of the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s caliber and price, this should never have happened.

Samsung also continues to face criticism for the Exynos 990 processor in the Galaxy S20 lineup. The performance just hasn’t been good enough compared to the Snapdragon 865. Customers who can only buy the Exynos variant feel that they get the short end of the stick compared to customers in markets where the Snapdragon variant is sold. Samsung’s statement about continuing to use different chips for different markets was unconvincing and the company’s shareholders are even pressing for more clarity on the matter. An online petition calling for an outright end to Exynos processors on flagship phones has received over 42,000 signatures.

Yes, the camera software was initially not optimized enough on the Snapdragon variant either, but at least it offered top-notch performance with greater battery life and less of a tendency to heat up. The Exynos 990 isn’t quite as power efficient and also has a performance gap when compared with the Snapdragon 865. If that wasn’t enough, a new bug has been reported today which only appears to be present on the Exynos variant. It applies an annoying green tint to the display when the brightness is lowered in apps that revert to the 60Hz refresh rate.

What irritates me the most is that Samsung had plenty of time to really optimize the software for the Galaxy S20 Ultra and also improve the Exynos 990’s stats against the Snapdragon 865 but it clearly didn’t. It’s clear that all is not as it should be inside Samsung’s mobile division, making it almost seem like there aren’t enough minds devoted to all flagship projects. The Galaxy S and Galaxy Note lineups are Samsung’s most important products and since last year, foldables have been added to the mix as well. Samsung is understandably focusing more on foldables since they are the future and it wants to establish dominance in that niche, but would that be worth it if it comes at the expense of user experience on existing flagship lines?

Many Samsung fans prefer the Galaxy Note lineup more as it has always been geared towards customers to want to get work done on the fly. Such user experience issues will seriously irk Note loyalists if this repeats itself on the Galaxy Note 20 due later this year. One can only hope that Samsung’s next flagship phablet will be able to offer a much better post-launch experience than the Galaxy S20 Ultra has been able to.

For me, personally, the Galaxy S20 Ultra has been a letdown. That’s why I have switched back to my Galaxy Fold. Even though it doesn’t have all of the crazy tech that the Galaxy S20 Ultra does nor its impressive battery life, but at least the software is more refined. The Galaxy Fold also stands out as a unique device, even now it turns heads and is a great ice breaker. It’s still the best of what Samsung has to offer.

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Daily Deal: up to 95% off Udemy Courses

A lot of us are working from home or not able to get to work at all these days. This also means there might be time to pick up new skills or to refine skills that are a bit rusty. Udemy offers a lot of courses within 13 main categories that can all be completed from home. These courses are put together by verified experts who have proved to master their skills. A lot of courses are discounted which is the perfect opportunity to get started. Some popular courses include ‘Ethical hacking‘ (89% off), ‘Digital Marketing‘ (94% off) or this ‘Character Drawing Course’ (95% off).

Hit the Buy Now button below to find your discounted course at Udemy today!

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Galaxy M21 now available in the Netherlands, Belgium should follow suit

The Galaxy M21 is now officially available for purchase in the Netherlands, at least according to Samsung’s official announcement from earlier today. As of this writing, the phone is not yet listed on the company’s e-shop or the other two retail channels through which the device will be offered in the country.

The mid-range device will presumably show up in the online stores by the end of the day/week. Once it does, it will be listed alongside a price tag of €219. The Galaxy M21 will be available in the Netherlands in black and blue exclusively through Samsung’s e-shop, Bol.com, and Coolblue.

Galaxy M21 spec rundown

Samsung debuted the Galaxy M21 a month ago, so the specs are well-known by now. But if you’re late to the party or you need a reminder of what you’d be getting for €219, the first and foremost answer is a giant 6,000mAh battery with 15W fast charging.

There’s also a 6.4-inch AMOLED Infinity-U display with a resolution of 2340 by 1080 pixels. The Exynos 9611 chipset is more than a decent choice for a budget device like the Galaxy M21. So far, it’s been employed only by Galaxy phones and tablets priced higher than the M21, including the Galaxy A50/A51, the M31, and the newly-unveiled Galaxy Tab S6 Lite.

The AP is paired with 4GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 64GB / 128GB of expandable storage. The €219 price corresponds to the 64GB model, and Samsung Netherlands makes no mention of the 128GB variant. At least not for the time being.

You’ll also get a 48MP wide camera, an 8MP ultrawide, and a 5MP depth sensor, while selfies are handled by a 20MP shooter positioned in the Infinity-U cutout. The back panel accommodates a fingerprint scanner, and the phone retains a 3.5mm headphone jack if you still care about this feature; and you probably will, considering the phone’s price range.

Galaxy M21 support pages cropped up in the Netherlands and Belgium a couple of weeks ago. Now that the phone is official in the former country, we assume that Samsung will also be launching the phone in Belgium soon.

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Galaxy S20 Ultra’s latest issue is an annoying green tint on the display

Samsung’s April security patch for the Galaxy S20 Ultra appears to have introduced a distinctive visual bug to the company’s newest Android flagship. Several users are reporting their smartphones developed a tendency to display a distracting green overlay following the latest update.

The issue ostensibly only happens at refresh rates higher than 60Hz, both the 120Hz and the secret 96Hz refresh rate. The bulk of the complaints about this issue seem to be from Galaxy S20 Ultra owners who have the Exynos variant.

Green tint troubling only Exynos variants of the Galaxy S20 Ultra

According to numerous user testimonies, switching the Galaxy S20 Ultra to a high refresh rate and lowering its brightness to below 30% causes the problem to manifest in a wide array of apps. Samsung Pay, Camera, Calculator, Snapchat, Telegram, PUBG: Mobile, and Chrome are among the apps exhibiting the issue. A device reset reportedly solves the problem which did not exist prior to the April update. Those two facts are heavy indicators of the phenomenon being a software bug and not a side effect of some underlying hardware flaw.

We also find that this green tint appears when the phone temperature goes above 40C or the battery is at 5%, the threshold at which the refresh rate is automatically knocked back to 60Hz from 120Hz. We were also able to reproduce this issue on a device that had 60% battery and was nowhere near the temperature threshold. Basically, this tint will appear when the brightness is low and the display goes down to 60Hz inside an app. As many of you will be well aware by now, the 120Hz refresh rate doesn’t work inside a lot of apps right now, most notably the Camera app. Just turn up the brightness a little bit and the tint disappears.

With that said, only owners of the Exynos 990 variant of the Galaxy S20 Ultra have chimed in to complain about the green screen issue so far. Samsung’s service reps have yet to acknowledge the bug as a known issue and are still only offering case-by-case advice which largely comes down to telling users to reset their devices and clean the caches of apps wherein the green tint appears. That’s just standard troubleshooting advice and doesn’t do much to address this issue.

It remains to be seen whether the newly discovered problem is a limited visual artifact or a more widespread bug akin to the notorious red tint plaguing many a Galaxy S8 three years ago. Have you experienced something similar on a Snapdragon-powered variant? Share your experience with us in the comments below.

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