Samsung Korea starts offering custom skins for Galaxy Z Flip

Have you ever used a custom skin on your Galaxy smartphone? Well, some users feel the need to customize their devices with custom colors and materials, and third-party brands like Dbrand and Slickwraps offer such custom skins for Galaxy smartphones. Now, Samsung has announced that it has started its own custom skin service for the Galaxy Z Flip in South Korea.

Samsung Korea says that it is now offering skins that are printed with a user’s favorite characters, colors, and patterns, and these skins can be attached directly to the Galaxy Z Flip’s glass body. These skins not only add character but also saves the phone from fingerprints and smudges. The company is offering one free skin to existing and new Galaxy Z Flip customers in its home country.

Right now, Samsung is offering 11 skin options, including four colors (blue light green, red, matte transparent, and black watch), four patterns (two geometric, dot, and grid), and three characters (Bear, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Kakao’s Nine). Customers can avail promotional coupons for buying one of these skins using the Samsung Members app from July 9. Customers interested in Galaxy Z Flip custom skins can visit this page.

Before the launch of the Custom Skin service, Samsung will also hold pop-up events at Samsung Digital Plaza Hongdae, Hyundai Pangyo, Galleria Gwangkyo, and Electromart Yeongdeungpo stores in South Korea. Galaxy Z Flip users who visit these stores during the event will receive one additional custom skin as a gift, and a Samsung team member will apply the skin on the phone for free.

A Samsung Electronics executive said, “We created ‘Custom Skin’ service after getting inspired by users of the Galaxy Z Flip who want to express their personality with various accessories such as stickers, beads, key rings, etc. I hope that a new phone decorating culture will be created for the Galaxy Z Flip.”

Samsung will launch the Galaxy Z Flip Decorating Festival Season 2 from July 9, where users in South Korean can take a selfie with custom skin attached to their Galaxy Z Flip, and their selfie can appear on Samsung’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

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This is the Galaxy Z Flip 5G in Mystic Bronze!

The Galaxy Z Flip 5G is expected to go official sometime next month alongside the Galaxy Note 20 and the Galaxy Fold 2. The design and specifications of the Galaxy Z Flip 5G were revealed yesterday, thanks to TENAA certification. However, the leaked images weren’t very clear. Now, a clear 360-degree look at the foldable smartphone has been leaked on the internet.

Thanks to Evan Blass (@evleaks), we now have a clear view of the Galaxy Z Flip 5G’s design. The GIF posted by Evan showcases the smartphone from all the angles possible. The phone can be seen in its Mystic Bronze avatar. Unlike the LTE variant of the phone, the Galaxy Z Flip 5G appears to have a frosted glass design.

It has a dual-camera setup, an LED flash, and a 1.05-inch cover display on the outside. The volume rocker and the capacitive fingerprint reader of the phone are on the right side, while the left side consists of a SIM card slot. The microphone, loudspeaker, and the USB Type-C port are at the bottom of the phone, while the secondary microphone is at the top. Opening the phone reveals its 6.7-inch foldable Super AMOLED screen.

Apart from 5G connectivity, the Galaxy Z Flip 5G is also expected to bring an upgrade in terms of processing. Certification documents reveal a 3.09GHz octa-core processor, and it could be the Snapdragon 865+. The phone will run Android 10 out of the box. We had exclusively leaked earlier that the phone will have 256GB internal storage, and that it will be released in a brown-colored variant (called Mystic Bronze).

The upcoming foldable smartphone has a 10MP selfie camera and a 12MP+12MP (wide + ultrawide) dual-camera setup on the outside. The phone features GPS, 5G (SA+NSA), LTE, dual-band Wi-Fi 6. Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, USB 3.1 Type-C port, and a 3,300mAh battery with support for 15W fast charging. The Galaxy Z Flip 5G also features Samsung Pay and wireless charging. The phone will be launched in Black, Grey, and Mystic Bronze.

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The first real Galaxy Note 20 Ultra leak is finally here and it’s glorious

It’s about time that we started seeing actual renders of the Galaxy Note 20 surface and the one that’s leaked online today actually comes from Samsung itself. Samsung Russia appears to have uploaded a render of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra on its website, giving us our first and best look yet at the upcoming flagship phablet.

As most of you would be aware by now, Samsung is going to launch two variants of its upcoming flagship device, the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. It’s expected to unveil the device by way of a virtual launch event on August 5.

This is our best look yet at the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra

Spotted by @MaxWinebach on Samsung Russia’s website, these Galaxy Note 20 Ultra renders basically reveal everything that we need to know about the design of this device. The front will be all display anyway, so you can already imagine what that’s going to look like.

It’s interesting to see that Samsung has gone with a completely different housing for the rear camera system compared to what we have on the Galaxy S20 Ultra. It’s still vertically positioned, a design change that Samsung has made across its entire lineup in 2020, with the individual camera sensors resting inside the circular cutouts. The render also appears to confirm earlier reports that the ToF sensor might be ditched in favor of a laser autofocus system.

You might be wondering where the periscope lens is which will power Space Zoom on this device. It’s evidently placed within one of these cutouts and not separately as it is on the Galaxy S20 Ultra. Much like the other devices released this year, all of the physical buttons are placed on the right side of the frame. This particular color option for the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is called Mystic Bronze and it comes with a matching S Pen.

It can now easily be assumed what the regular Galaxy Note 20 will look like as well, though that device is expected to feature a flat display panel. What do you think about the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra? Do you like what you see? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

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Samsung offers amazing incentives to customers who buy its 5G phones

2020 is supposed to be the year of 5G for Samsung. The company has launched multiple handsets compatible with the next-gen network standard already and has a few more up its sleeve. It has also launched mid-range 5G smartphones to lower the barrier of entry for customers looking to hop on the 5G bandwagon.

In order to further increase the adoption of its 5G smartphones, Samsung today announced some amazing incentives for customers. It’s calling this promotion the Summer of Galaxy and will provide customers with bonus content, exclusive offers and rewards from partners like Epic Games, Xbox Game Studios, Niantic and Netflix.

Summer of Galaxy has some fine incentives for 5G smartphone buyers

The Summer of Galaxy kicks off with amazing offers for customers in the US who buy a Galaxy S20 5G series, Galaxy Note 10+ 5G or Galaxy A71 5G handset in the month of July. They will receive a free 1-year subscription to Postmates Unlimited which provides free delivery on orders over $12.

This incentive alone is a $99 value and it’s perfect given the world we’re living in right now. Many prefer having stuff delivered to them instead of going outside themselves. Samsung is going one step further and also providing $25 in Postmates credit.

As if this wasn’t enough, it will also provide these customers with $50 Galaxy Store credit. The credit will be delivered as 10,000 Samsung Rewards Points, which can now be used to buy games on the Galaxy Store

Other rewards and offers will continue to be made available for new and existing Galaxy smartphone owners in the coming weeks. This includes bonus Netflix content, rewards from Niantic, Fortnite and Forza Street.

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Galaxy Watch 3 models casually leaked alongside first price details

As the Galaxy Watch 3 series draws closer to launch, some key pieces of this wearable puzzle are now finally falling in place, painting a clearer picture of what one is to expect from Samsung’s next-generation smartwatches. More specifically, well-known industry insider Evan Blass (@evleaks) casually disclosed not just the Galaxy Watch 3 pricing information, but also the exact list of distinct configurations that are in the works for the lineup. Those are said to be the following:

There will be 9 distinct Galaxy Watch3 configurations:

– 45mm Black Titanium Bluetooth
– 45mm Black Stainless Steel BT
– 45mm Black SS LTE
– 45mm Silver SS BT
– 45mm Silver SS LTE
– 41mm Silver SS BT
– 41mm Silver SS LTE
– 41mm Bronze/Gold SS BT
– 41mm Bronze/Gold SS LTE

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) July 1, 2020

The series itself will start at approximately $400 and go up to $600, as per the same insider. Not that Blass requires any special introduction, but it’s worth reminding he gifted us a quite literal 360 perspective on the Galaxy Watch 3 earlier this week – among hundreds of other leaks over the years.

Galaxy Watch 3 likely to launch as Samsung’s most expensive wearable ever

Regarding the aforementioned pricing details, it appears the Galaxy Watch 3 will start at about $70 more than the original Galaxy Watch and be almost 50% ($120) costlier than the Galaxy Watch Active 2 released earlier this year. Not that the pricing difference is a huge surprise given how the Active-branded wearable was never meant to be a premium gadget, but it’s still hard to expect the $400 starting point will do Samsung much favors given the current state of the market.

This major reveal concerning the Galaxy Watch 3 pricing and hardware comes merely a day after another substantial leak shed more light on the software side of Samsung’s upcoming wearable series, in addition to showcasing some of its color options (seen above). Newest reports suggest the Galaxy Watch 3 family will launch later this month – July 22nd, to be exact.

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New Samsung UV sterilizer disinfects your phone while charging it

Dear diary, it’s been 112 days since WHO declared a coronavirus pandemic: sales plummeted across nearly every industry, many economies are verging on collapse, and LG somehow still hasn’t given up on smartphones. Stranger still, Samsung keeps reemerging from its lab with a new quirky contraption every other day.

Today, it launched something called a “UV Sterilizer” in Thailand, touting it as an antibacterial gadget that can charge a smartphone, smartwatch, or a pair of wireless earbuds while simultaneously disinfecting them. It’s also meant to easily clean other small objects such as sunglasses. The curious product is priced at 1,590 baht, which comes down to just over $50, and is already on sale in the Far Eastern country. There’s no telling whether this contraption will eventually make its way to more markets, though even Samsung is quick to acknowledge cheaper methods of cleaning a smartphone.

No end to Samsung’s inventive gadgets

The UV Sterilizer’s debut comes four months following the launch of a full-fledged device sanitization service Samsung introduced in response to the original COVID-19 outbreak. Since then, the Seoul-based conglomerate donated tens of millions of dollars to coronavirus relief efforts across the planet, in addition to unveiling a wide range of topical and innovative technologies in the vein of the UV sterilizer. A smartwatch app teaching hand hygiene, to name another one example.

As for the gadget at hand, it comes in the form of a relatively inconspicuous case measuring in at 228mm x 128mm x 49mm. Some level of IFTTT support appears to be part of the package as well. Samsung has so far unveiled only a white variant of this niche product.

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Samsung India discounts the Galaxy A31

The Galaxy A31 has received a couple of discounts in India, just a month after it was launched in the country. The A31 now has an instant cashback of INR 1000 attached to it, which brings its effective price down to INR 20,999. Those who own an ICICI credit card can get an additional INR 1000 cashback, but only if they buy the phone on an installment plan.

The Galaxy A31 is still a costly proposition in India, since the Samsung also sells the more aggressively priced Galaxy M21 (review) and M31 (review) in the country, but the discounts should make the phone more palatable for prospective customers. The discounts are already in effect on Amazon.in and Samsung’s official store, and we assume the same offers are available in offline stores as well.

As we noted in our review, the Galaxy A31 is a good phone for those who aren’t into gaming. It has plenty of attractive features, like a Super AMOLED display, an in-display fingerprint sensor, four rear cameras, a 5,000 mAh battery, 128 gigs of storage, and the latest Samsung One UI software out of the box. It also has a beautiful design that matches that of the Galaxy A51, which is a few thousand rupees costlier.

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Galaxy S8/S8+ start receiving June 2020 security update

The Galaxy S8 series may be pushing four, but it’s still doing a rather decent job at keeping up with its (much) younger siblings in terms of software support. Case in point: the timely arrival of the June 2020 Android security update to the 2017 flagships. Samsung started deploying the said firmware to unlocked, Exynos variants of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ on Tuesday. While it remains to be seen how long the gradual rollout will take to be completed, it has yet to expand beyond Germany.

Aside from the new security patch level, it appears the very build numbers attached to the packages — G950FXXU9DTF1 and G955FXXU9DTF1 — also appear to be alluding to some other novelties. As for the specifics on those changes, they’ll likely stay under the radar until Samsung accompanies this over-the-air deployment with an official changelog or two.

Galaxy S8 series nearing well-earned retirement

In spite of the long life cycle, the Galaxy S8 family is now at last nearing its well-deserved retirement. Samsung hence downgraded it to quarterly updates this spring, though it appears at least some regions won’t be adopting that slower schedule until at least next month, as the appearance of the June 2020 patch indicates.

Any owner of a Galaxy S8-series smartphone who’s feeling particularly impatient can always attempt triggering the latest security patch upgrade manually through the Settings app, i.e. its Software update submenu concealing the Download and install option. Alternatively, the newest official system images are also available for download from SamMobile’s firmware archive.

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‘There will be no future’ if Samsung stops, chief says ahead of AI hiring spree

As the world keeps suffering the effects of a historic pandemic, Samsung is embarking on a major hiring spree because it dreads any other alternative, a top executive said. “There will be no future” in the event Samsung stops pushing forward, Vice Chairman and heir apparent, Lee Jae-yong, said earlier today. Lee gave the dramatic announcement during a scheduled visit to SEMES, the chaebol’s industrial equipment arm.

Samsung aims to add as many as 1,000 chip experts specializing in artificial intelligence technologies as part of the upcoming talent push. The initiative hence seems to be closely related to the wider corporate vision of a new “K-Chip” era that top company officials talked about last week.

AI tech remains crucial for all of Samsung’s ambitions

Looking at the bigger picture, all of those efforts can be tracked to an enormous AI bet worth $110 billion which Samsung originally announced just over a year ago. As part of the same endeavor, the conglomerate already bolstered its ranks with 500 specialists for machine learning and related technologies over the course of the first half of 2020. While the COVID-19 crisis stifled its plans to a degree, the undertaking is now rapidly regaining momentum, as Lee himself indicated.

AI hence remains a crucial component of Samsung’s plans for virtually every single market in which it operates. That state of affairs should be underlined in just over a month, when Samsung is expected to announce its latest Android flagships in the form of the Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy Fold 2, and the Galaxy Tab S7 series.

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Samsung accelerates its transition from LCD to QLED display panels

Earlier this year, Samsung Display has announced that it will end the production of LCD panels by the end of 2020. The company said that it will switch to the QLED technology, and to help with the transition, it tied up with Sharp. Now, it is being reported that Samsung has acquired additional equipment that’s required to speed up the migration process.

Samsung Display has announced that it has brought in Quantum Dot display manufacturing equipment and has transported it to its Asan plant that’s situated 90km away from Seoul, South Korea. The transition is expected to be completed by the end of 2020, and multiple test operations stages are scheduled for early next year. QLED displays offer higher brightness and more color volume than traditional LCD displays.

Last October, the company announced its plans to invest KRW 13 trillion (around $10.8 billion) by 2025 to upgrade its LCD plants to QLED plants. Since then, the company has been working on the upgrade process. Samsung Display is also working on improving the profitability factor in manufacturing QLED screens.

The company had temporarily increased the production of LCD panels as COVID-19 boosted the demand for monitors. Samsung had stopped the manufacturing of LCD panels last year due to lower sales and surplus stocks as Chinese firms started selling the bulk of LCD TVs in the lower-end segment. Now, the company is focusing on QLED, microLED, and QD-OLED technologies for its TVs.

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Galaxy M01s specifications leak via Google Play Console

Samsung launched the cheapest Galaxy M series smartphone ever, the Galaxy M01, in India last month. Now, the company is working on more entry-level smartphones in the Galaxy A and the Galaxy M lineups. We had exclusively revealed last month that Samsung will launch the Galaxy M01s with 32GB of internal storage. Now, specifications of the upcoming phone have surfaced.

Information acquired from the Galaxy M01s’ Google Play Console listing reveals that the phone runs Android 10 and uses the MediaTek Helio P22 processor (MT6762). The phone also features 3GB RAM and an HD display (1520×720 pixels) with a V-shaped notch. The phone also features 2.4GHz Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth. Two days ago, it was revealed that a 4,000mAh battery will power the Galaxy M01s.

It’s a relief to see that Samsung has updated the Android version on the phone, and now it runs Android 10 rather than Android 9. Interestingly, the listing also mentions the Galaxy A10s. Specifications of both the phones are similar, so the Galaxy M01s could be a rebranded version of the Galaxy A10s. If that’s the case, we should expect a 13MP+2MP dual-camera setup on the rear and an 8MP selfie camera.

We expect Samsung to launch the Galaxy M01s in the next few weeks as the phone has passed almost all certification processes and has received regulatory approvals by authorities. The company is also working on two more affordable smartphones, the Galaxy A01 Core and the Galaxy M01 Core.

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Sprint’s Galaxy Note 9 now being updated to One UI 2.1

The One UI 2.1 update started rolling out to the Galaxy Note 9 a few weeks back, and more and more countries have received it since then. One UI 2.1 has also reached Note 9 owners in the US, where T-Mobile became the first carrier to release the coveted update for its customers. Now, Sprint is following suit.

Sprint’s Galaxy Note 9 is being updated to One UI 2.1, with firmware version N960USQU4ETF3 rolling out to the device. The update includes the June 2020 security patch and is a 1GB download over the air. If you own a Note 9 on Sprint, you can grab the update by going into the phone’s Settings app, selecting Software update, and tapping Download and install. The One UI 2.1 firmware can also be downloaded from our firmware archive.

The Galaxy Note 9 gets many of the same new features that Galaxy S20 owners have access to with One UI 2.1. The list includes many camera features, such as Single Take mode, My Filters, and Pro video mode, along with improved AR Emoji. Other new functionality includes Quick Share, Music Share, multilingual translation support in Samsung Keyboard, and automatic grouping of images and videos in the Gallery app.

One UI 2.1 is possibly the last major update for the Galaxy Note 9

The Galaxy Note 9 will likely stop getting major updates going forward – Android 11 is only expected to be available for the Galaxy Note 10 and, of course, the upcoming Galaxy Note 20. Even One UI 2.1 was not always guaranteed for the nearly two-year old flagship, but thankfully, the Note 9 (and the Galaxy S9 and S9+) will go out on a high note. The device will continue to get security updates with some regularity for at least two more years.

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