Samsung drops prices of Galaxy M01, Galaxy M11, Galaxy M31s in India

Samsung has dropped the prices of three of its affordable smartphones in India. The Galaxy M01, Galaxy M11, and the Galaxy M31s are now available at slightly reduced prices in the country. While the Galaxy M11 is seeing a price drop for the first time since its launch, it is the second price drop for the Galaxy M01.

The Galaxy M01 was launched in India with a price tag of INR 8,999 (around $122), but Samsung has now dropped its price to INR 7,999 (around $108). The phone is available in black, blue, and red colors. The Galaxy M11’s 3GB+32GB variant, which was earlier priced at INR 10,999 (around $149), now costs INR 10,499 (around $142). The variant with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage was originally priced at INR 12,999 (around $176), but it is now being sold for INR 11,999 (around $162). The Galaxy M11 is available in three colors: black, metallic blue, and violet. The Galaxy M01 and the Galaxy M11 can be purchased through Amazon.in and Samsung India’s online store.

The Galaxy M31s was launched in India four months ago with price tags of INR 20,499 (6GB+128GB) and INR 22,499 (8GB+128GB). The South Korean firm has now dropped the phone’s prices to INR 19,499 (around $264) and INR 21,499 (around $291), respectively.

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Tizen 5.5 update starts rolling out to Galaxy Watch Active 2 in India

Samsung had announced earlier this month that it will bring some of the best Galaxy Watch 3 features to the Galaxy Watch Active 2. Last week, the update started rolling out in the US, bringing Fall Detection to the smartwatch. The company has now started rolling out the new update to the Galaxy Watch Active 2 in India.

The new software update brings Tizen 5.5 and One UI 2.0 to the Galaxy Watch Active 2. It carries firmware version R820XXU1CTI4 and has a download size of 292.91MB. However, the download size could be slightly different for the LTE variant of the smartwatch. If you are a Galaxy Watch Active 2 user from India, you can check for the update by launching the Galaxy Wearable app on your smartphone and navigating to Watch software update » Download and install.

The Galaxy Watch Active 2 gets various new features with the software update, including Advanced Running Analysis to give you more insights to improve your running form and VO2max to check the maximum amount of oxygen you utilize during exercises. It also brings Fall Detection, AR Emoji, Bitmoji, and the ability to capture scrolling screenshots to the smartwatch.

The Fall Detection feature can send SOS calls and messages to emergency contacts when the watch detects a hard fall. With the new update, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 opens a chat window when you receive a message, offering you a better view. It can also display images received in the chat thread.

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Google Photos can’t save Samsung’s Motion photos properly anymore

Samsung introduced its Motion photos feature back in 2016. The feature captures a few seconds of video before the shutter button is tapped to take a photo. This lets you save that moment in moving form and choose the exact moment you want to save as the still frame.

The company quietly improved this feature with One UI 2.5. Samsung’s Motion photos now capture both video and audio, as opposed to only video in the past. You might want to take note if you back up your content to Google Photos. It seems to be having a problem saving Motion photos properly.

Motion photos being stripped of the audio and video

According to multiple reports, Motion photos being backed up to Google Photos are only being stored as still images because the service is stripping them of the video and audio. This seems to be a recent change because Google Photos was properly backing up Motion photos with the audio and video up until last month, even though the processing took a long time.

Motion photos may have been around since 2016 but Google only started supporting them in Photos last year. Clearly, this isn’t something that the company attaches a lot of importance to. It’s likely that a recent update to Google Photos has broken its ability to properly save Motion photos.

Google will need to look into what happened before it can go ahead and fix this bug. As for when it will get around to doing that is anybody’s guess right now. So if you don’t want to lose them, it would be best to keep copies of your Motion photos on the device as well.

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Samsung Pay: Supported banks in Germany

Samsung Pay has been around for a few years now and while it’s available in many markets across Europe, Germany was always missing from the list. The company may have faced an uphill battle trying to get local banks to partner with it for the mobile payments service. That’s why Samsung took a slightly different approach in order to bring Samsung Pay to Germany.

Samsung usually partners with individual banks in every country to launch its mobile payments service. This meant that even if the service was available in your country, your ability to use it was contingent upon your bank working with Samsung.

Instead of chasing after German banks, Samsung teamed up with Visa and Solarisbank AG, a Berlin-based fintech company, to launch Samsung Pay in the country. This means that anybody in Germany can use Samsung Pay regardless of the bank they chose to keep their money in.

Once registered with Samsung Pay, users receive a virtual Visa debit card that can be linked to almost any German bank account. The actual process of making payments with Samsung Pay is just like it is in other markets. Just swipe over the lock or start screen of the device to access Samsung Pay and tap it to the payment terminal.

Have questions about Samsung Pay? Check out our dedicated page to see what Samsung Pay is all about, the devices it supports, how you can set up and use Samsung Pay, supported banks in other countries, and more.

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Be a Galaxy app user in Canada and get free access to SiriusXM

Samsung customers not only have access to Samsung TV Plus on their smart TVs and smartphones, but they can often benefit from free access to a variety of other streaming services for a limited time, such as Spotify, YouTube Premium, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. These free trials are usually offered with new smartphone/tablet purchases or pre-orders and are available globally, but the company announced a different promotion recently that concerns only customers in Canada.

Samsung Canada and SiriusXM Canada are offering Samsung customers free access to SiriusXM Premier for three months. The promotional period lasts until January 2, 2021, and according to the two companies the offer is available to users across Samsung Members, Galaxy Apps [Galaxy Store],Samsung Health and Samsung Pay. So this should virtually cover every Galaxy smartphone, tablet, or smartwatch user in Canada.

If you decide to sign up for the free trial, you’ll gain access to SiriusXM Video, personalized ptations powered by Pandora, Howard Stern, over 300 ad-free music channels, thousands of hours of on-demand content, and exclusive online-only channels.

The content is available through the SiriusXM mobile app which you can download on your smartphone or tablet from the Galaxy Store. It can also be streamed on a variety of home devices including Samsung smart TVs and Blu-ray players.

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Samsung Galaxy S20 FE hands-on: Hard to resist for the price

Samsung is redrawing the lines that separate flagship smartphones from the rest of the pack. While the Galaxy S10 Lite may have been viewed as a toned-down version of the Galaxy S10, it has positioned the Galaxy S20 FE as a flagship in its own right. Then again, the Galaxy S20 FE has a lot more similarities with the other devices in the S20 family.

The company has a very specific demographic in mind for the Galaxy S20 FE. It’s targeting those who may be thinking of upgrading from a Galaxy A51 or A71, who may have a tight budget but want a flagship-level phone or simply those who felt that $999 was too much to ask for the base Galaxy S20 variant.

We have had some time to play with the device so we can share our first impressions in this Galaxy S20 FE hands-on. Stay tuned for the full review which will be up in the near future.

Design and feel

The Galaxy S20 FE’s design is not that different from some of the other devices that Samsung has released this year. You get a 6.5-inch flat display on the front. Since the panel isn’t spilling over the edges, the bezels and chin are a tad more prominent than they are on the Galaxy S20, for example. That’s not a bad thing and as we’ve noted in our Galaxy Note 20 review, a flat panel can be surprisingly good to use.

Since Samsung had to cut some costs in order to bring the price down, it has replaced the glass rear panel with plastic. It’s similar to the one on the Galaxy Note 20. As we’ve already said, glass is overrated and these plastic rear panels really are good enough. They’re nice to the touch, don’t attract fingerprints and also won’t shatter as easily (or at all) as a glass back if the phone is dropped. You won’t feel like the phone is going to slip out of your hand, either.

It feels every bit the premium and well-built device that Samsung is making it out to be. The lack of a glass back doesn’t take anything away from that feeling. It helps that the vertically-aligned camera housing has circular cutouts for the sensors, which is what we see on the Galaxy Note 20 series and the considerably costlier Galaxy Z Fold 2 as well.

Display

We are in familiar territory with the 6.5-inch Full HD+ resolution flat Super AMOLED display. Samsung’s panels tend to be exceptional and we find nothing wrong with the one on the Galaxy S20 FE. Then there’s also the fact that it supports 120Hz refresh rate. Nothing can rival the buttery smooth experience that a higher refresh rate provides.

There’s a fingerprint sensor embedded within the display. It gets an optical scanner, though, not the ultrasonic scanners used in the other Galaxy S20 models. The performance of in-display fingerprint sensors doesn’t match capacitive sensors regardless of the technologically being used. That being said, the Galaxy S20 FE’s optical sensor is good enough to get the job done.

Software

The Galaxy S20 FE doesn’t really bring any new software features beyond what Samsung has already made available to other devices. That’s because it ships with One UI 2.5 which has been out for existing models for quite some time now. Those considering the Galaxy S20 FE will be happy to know that Samsung has confirmed it will receive three major Android OS upgrades. Since it ships with Android 10, the Galaxy S20 FE will be supported until Android 13.

Camera

There’s only one camera that’s “new” here, because the Galaxy S20 FE uses the same 12-megapixel wide and 12-megapixel ultra-wide sensors as the Galaxy S20 and S20+. You can read our Galaxy S20+ review to find out more about these cameras. TL;DR: Crisp photos in daylight with great detail, brighter pictures in the dark with little noise.

The 8-megapixel f/2.4 telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and OIS is what demands our attention. In the preliminary tests we have conducted, there appears to be truth in Samsung’s claims of lossless 3x zoom. We don’t find any degradation in quality at 3x zoom compared to 1x. The Galaxy S20 FE is also capable of 30x “Space Zoom,” a fancy word for digital zoom. There’s sufficient detail in pictures taken at 30x so you can get some good use out of it.

Here’s one example of how 3x zoom maintains quality levels similar to a photo taken with the main camera:

← SLIDE →

A 32-megapixel selfie camera is also present. It works like most selfie cameras on Samsung phones. The colors pop nicely, the camera captures a good amount of detail but the processing is a bit aggressive so don’t be surprised if your skin appears to be unusually smooth. We’ll be taking a more in-depth look at these cameras in our full Galaxy S20 FE review so do check back for that.

Performance

Samsung is shipping the Galaxy S20 FE with the same chipsets found in the other S20 models. You will get the Snapdragon 865 in select markets and the Exynos 990 everywhere else. Both 4G and 5G models will be available. The processor is mated to 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage with support for microSD expansion.

It feels snappy, doesn’t get bogged down when playing resource-intensive games or multitasking and packs more than enough punch to handle everything you can throw at it. That’s one of the reasons why the Galaxy S20 FE is such a compelling option. It’s truly offering flagship-level performance at a reduced price.

Battery life

Samsung has placed a 4,500mAh battery inside the Galaxy S20 FE. This is exactly the same as the Galaxy S20+. Your mileage with it will be similar for the most part. Expect to go through the entire day with around 20 percent left. You can drop the display down to 60Hz if you want to extend it a bit more.

There’s support for 25W fast charging but unfortunately, Samsung is only shipping a 15W charger in the box. Expect the device to take just over an hour and some change to charge fully, at least if you buy the 25W charger separately for the faster speed.

Conclusion

It’s not difficult to understand why Samsung has launched the Galaxy S20 FE or why it’s saying that future flagships will get their own Fan Edition models. The company has been very mindful about what it cuts from the main flagship trio to end up with a model that feels just right for the price. The vibrant Cloud Navy, Mint, Lavender, Red, Orange and White color options also make it clear that this is aimed at the younger demographic.

At $699 for the base 5G model in the United States, the Galaxy S20 FE can do some serious damage to OnePlus’s market position. Samsung is going after customers that don’t want to pay top dollar for a flagship but would happily put money down if they felt they were getting a good enough deal for a lower price. They may find it hard to resist the Galaxy S20 FE.

That’s it for our Galaxy S20 FE hands-on. We’ll run the gauntlet with the phone and be back with our full review in the near future.

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The Galaxy S20 FE can be yours for $0 with this Best Buy deal

If you’re in the market for a new Galaxy S20 FE then you might want to look into Best Buy’s latest deal involving the Sprint/T-Mobile variant. The retailer is offering Sprint/T-Mobile’s Galaxy S20 FE for virtually $0. The phone would normally set you back $29.17 a month for 24 months for a total of $700. However, the carrier is now offering that monthly fee back to customers in the form of bill credit for 24 months, effectively bringing the phone’s price down to $0.

You’ll have to add a new line of service or open a new account with the carrier if you want to take advantage of this Best Buy deal, but otherwise there are no strings attached. The retailer offers the Galaxy S20 FE 5G with 128GB of storage and customers can choose from three color options including Cloud Lavender, Cloud Mint, and Cloud Navy.

For those of you who might not know this, Sprint and T-Mobile have completed their merger earlier this year, and for end users, this virtually means that when they buy the Galaxy S20 FE through this Best Buy deal they’re effectively signing up to a 2-year agreement with T-Mobile, which now incorporates Sprint. Likewise, customers are essentially taking advantage of the entire network infrastructure of both Sprint and T-Mobile.

The Galaxy S20 FE is already a very attractive value proposition even without the previous $70 discount from Samsung USA and the fact that various online retailers have already dropped the phone’s pre-order price by $100. As for the latest Best Buy deal, the Galaxy S20 FE is expected to ship to customers on October 2 and you can check the link below for more details..

• Check Best Buy’s offer for the Galaxy S20 FE

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[Poll]Would you prefer a flat screen on your next Galaxy flagship?

It’s been over six years since Samsung’s engineering awed the world by bending a modern capacitive touchscreen, which looked pretty cool next to a bunch of boring old flat screens. And yet flat screens ended up being much more timeless than their arching counterparts. Ever since that seminal Galaxy Note Edge, Samsung has essentially been reverting on that design direction. That anti-trend has actually been so consistent that it’s pretty amazing curved displays are still so well-represented at the very top of Samsung’s smartphone portfolio every single year.

Still, with the Edge display literally getting shallower on an annual basis, Samsung may just opt to cut it altogether as early as 2021. The recently introduced Galaxy Note 20 range is already halfway there, seeing how only the more expensive, Ultra-branded model features a Dynamic AMOLED panel curving around its longer edges.

Flat or not, 2021 Galaxy flagships won’t change the fact Edge displays peaked years ago

Likewise, even the Galaxy S20 family ended up expanding to a flat-display device with the newly launched Galaxy S20 Fan Edition. And it’s not like Samsung decided to waste a bunch of cash on mass-producing a fourth iteration of the same series. On the contrary, it would not have done anything such if even just one of those first three devices achieved meaningful success, i.e. had any sales traction left after the first few weeks on the market.

So, would you get behind that decision? Would you like us to send off the Edge display to retirement next year? Or are you among the rare few that still like this (relatively) unique selling point of Samsung’s top-end flagships? At least from a standpoint of aesthetics, seeing how the swipe-edge-for-shortcuts gesture is nowadays offered by every somewhat respectable manufacturer and LG? Perhaps you just like the plurality of device choices Samsung offers, even though you prefer your smartphones flat?

Let us know where you stand in today’s poll and do join the discussion in the comments as we try to figure out whether the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy S20 FE were the thin edge of the wedge, hinting at Samsung’s curved-edged displays fraying at the edges a bit too much, and falling over the edge of relevance… ok, I’ll shut up.

Would you prefer a flat screen on your next Galaxy flagship?

• Prefer? I DEMAND IT!
• Yes, but I'd still buy the best model even with a curved screen
• No
• Like the people in charge of Bixby, I just don't care.

Results

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Galaxy S20 Fan Edition’s reason to exist may not be what you think

The one and only reason why the Galaxy S20 Fan Edition is happening is that the original three models from the series sold poorly. That’s according to a new report out of South Korea which today delivered multiple insider perspectives on the current state of the global smartphone market. And the industry consensus regarding the latest Galaxy flagship is that Samsung would not have bothered with repackaging the Galaxy S20 if the original series was successful.

Or, better said: was still successful. Because Samsung proved time and time again that if it has a widely successful lineup on its hands, it’s more than capable of maintaining its momentum in a cost-effective manner. Usually meaning a consistent influx of new color options combined with meticulously targeted and equally incessant sales. Which is how you could describe the first six to nine months of many flagships Samsung released in the past.

Will fourth time be the charm for the Galaxy S20 range?

Many, but not the Galaxy S20 series. Well, alright, the half a dozen “Fan Edition” color options are still happening. But a complete device rehash that the Galaxy S20 FE constitutes is anything but cost-effective; the most cost-effective thing would have been for Samsung to just continue selling its existing designs instead of respeccing production lines and devising an entirely new marketing campaign just to sell a smartphone sitting between the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S20+ in terms of both price and capabilities..

But seeing how the Galaxy Note 20 isn’t exactly setting the world alight right now, Samsung is unsurprisingly turning to other methods of generating media buzz around its products. At least that’s how many insiders close to Samsung see things. And regardless of how accurate that interpretation may be, if catering to the overwhelming budget-conscious demographic in combination with the still-incredible BTS effect doesn’t help salvage the sales of the Galaxy S20 range, nothing short of a galaxy-brain moment will.

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Latest Good Lock modules will add personality to your shares and… keystrokes?

Samsung today announced no fewer than four Good Lock modules (well, three plus one major revamp), but the company is also no match to our speed of reporting, so you may have already known about two of those for several weeks by now. Those would be custom live wallpaper creator Wonderland and Pentastic, a service service for S Pen Air Command customization. Additionally, the company now also unveiled Keys Cafe, a module that introduces a wide variety of granular controls over the on-screen keyboard on your Galaxy devices.

Topping things off is a major update to the recently introduced Home Up module which introduces a less-cheekily named Share Manager feature. As that super serious name implies, this particular functionality is meant to elevate your content sharing experience by several degrees of awesomeness, allowing you to issue precise commands on what, when, how, and with whom to share.

Good Lock, better modules

As for Keys Cafe, it will let you customize the exact screen position of the One UI keyboard, as well as its dimensions, in addition to introducing completely programmable layouts and dynamic repositioning shortcuts. So, imagine One-Handed Mode on steroids. Wait, no need to imagine it, we actually picked up on this novelty as well last week.

But Samsung did manage to announce one legitimately new piece of Good Lock info: among other things, Keys Cafe will let you inject some “personality” into your smartphone typing experience by offering support for dynamic effects, themes, and even a gamified plugin that incentivizes you to avoid typos and be that much more literate at the end of the day. Leaderboards are part of the package as well, so that you can laugh at your not-as-literate friends for as long as they’ll tolerate you.

As we’ve already reported earlier this month, Wonderland and Pentastic are already available for download. The new version of Home Up and Key Cafe, on the other hand, are scheduled to be released early next month. So – next week, probably.

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