Samsung set to receive incentives to set up a display factory in India

It was reported earlier this year that Samsung Display has decided to set up a smartphone OLED panel factory in India. However, not much progress was made in the project due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related issues. The company had to send additional employees from South Korea to speed up the pending work. Now, it is being reported that the company will receive incentives from the Indian government for setting up the factory.

According to a report from The Economic Times, Samsung is setting up a $653.36 million smartphone OLED plant in Noida in the Uttar Pradesh state of India. The South Korean tech giant will receive financial benefits worth $9.5 million, and these special incentives were approved by Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Under ‘UP Electronics Manufacturing Policy 2017’, the company will get exemption on tax payable on the transfer of land for setting up the factory. Samsung’s upcoming display plant will provide up to 510 direct jobs and up to 1,300 jobs indirectly.

The smartphone OLED panel factory is expected to be operational next year. A government spokesperson informed the media that it is Samsung’s first major project that is being shifted from China to India. India will become only the third country outside of South Korea to have Samsung’s display plant. The company already operates its biggest smartphone manufacturing plant in the world from Noida.

The Indian government had announced a $6.65 billion federal plan earlier this year to 16 companies, including Samsung and Apple suppliers, to boost electronics manufacturing in the country. The country’s government is making it expensive to import smartphone and other electronic components by increasing import taxes, and indirectly forcing companies to manufacture locally. Samsung is the biggest smartphone OLED display vendor in the world.

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NEON, the artificial human, isn’t coming with the Galaxy S21

Samsung STAR Labs’ somewhat mysterious and polarizing AI-generated virtual assistant called NEON is not going to become an integral part of our consumer lives anytime soon, or at least not in a way that strictly involves the Galaxy smartphone portfolio.

NEON was first unveiled at CES 2020 and it raised more questions than it answered. It was pitched as an artificial human and a computationally created virtual being, generating a lot of hype as a result. In fact, given the lack of detailed information at the time, NEON appeared to be a hype-generating machine more than anything else.

The AI gained more attention from smartphone users last month when the CEO and President of STAR Labs, Pranav Mistry, posted a tweet that brought the mysterious artificial human back in the limelight. The CEO claimed to have a test version of NEON running on his smartphone and added that consumers will get to see it before Xmas; a promise that led to speculations surrounding the Galaxy S21 and the possibility that it might be among the first Galaxy smartphones to boast this seemingly revolutionary technology out of the box. This, however, will not be the case.

CEO Pranav Mistry followed up with a new tweet earlier today and revealed that NEON is not coming with [the Galaxy] S21 or any other Galaxy devices. NEON is an independent service in making, available in 2021, and as of now the NEON View API and NEON Frame services are targeted exclusively at the B2B (Business-to-Business) segment.

According to previous announcements, businesses could leverage NEON to create interactive AI-based experiences for customers. These avatars could exist as backup news anchors or, despite the artificial human marketing label, even as AI-generated cartoon characters. So, in essence, customers should be able to interact with these avatars through their smartphones, possibly from the cloud or by connecting to a service. Keep in mind that the CES demonstrations were simulated and that the company has yet to showcase the actual NEON service / AI on a smartphone.

But regardless of NEON’s alleged capabilities, the AI won’t be a part of the Galaxy S21 package at launch. It won’t be a strictly on-device experience either, and before we can even dare to hope for that to happen, NEON will have to at least make a good first impression next year.

Also, NEON is an independent service, in making. Its not coming with S21 or any other Galaxy devices. Available in 2021, as of now only for B2B via View API integration, and NEON Frame.

— Pranav Mistry (@pranavmistry) December 13, 2020

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Samsung working on optional 30W charger for Galaxy S21 series

Ever since it was announced that iPhones won’t come bundled with a charger anymore, many brands mocked Apple for its decision. Samsung was one of those brands, but it was later revealed that the company might eventually end up following Apple. A new report reveals more information about the South Korean firm’s plans for the Galaxy S21 and the charger.

According to a report coming out of South Korea, Samsung will ship the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and the Galaxy S21 Ultra with a 25W charger. However, it has reportedly decided to not include the charger in some markets. Moreover, the company also seems to be working on a new 30W charger for its smartphones, but those will be sold separately. It is not entirely clear as to why Samsung is developing a 30W charger as it already has a 45W USB-PD charger with PPS. It is also being rumored that the company will drop the price of the charger as it won’t come with a USB Type-C cable. Samsung will bundle the USB cable with all its smartphones.

The report also reiterates that only the Galaxy S21 Ultra will be compatible with the S Pen and that the stylus will be sold separately. Moreover, the company will sell at least two official cases that have slots to store the S Pen. It has long been rumored that Samsung will eventually kill the Galaxy Note lineup and replace it with foldable smartphones. Those who like the S Pen would have to buy it with the Galaxy S series smartphones in the future.

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Galaxy S20 FE becomes immensely popular in the US

The Galaxy S20 FE has quickly become a favorite among value flagship smartphone lovers worldwide, thanks to its strong core specs and affordable pricing. Our own review of the Galaxy S20 FE said that “the Galaxy S20 FE makes the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S20+ obsolete and grossly overpriced in comparison.” It is now being reported that the value flagship has become very popular in the US.

According to Wave7 Research, the Galaxy S20 FE is a hit in the US, with 60% of the carrier stores saying that it is among Samsung’s top three sellers. The Galaxy S20 FE has reportedly been eating up sales of the Galaxy A51, Galaxy A71, Galaxy S20, Galaxy Note 20, and the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. Competing devices from Google and OnePlus in the same price range are sitting at just 1-2% of carrier sales. There is reportedly no incentive for reps to push devices like the Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G, and the OnePlus 8 series. A Verizon sales rep reportedly said that no one had even asked about the OnePlus 8 “during the last four months.”

The Galaxy S20 FE has definitely helped the South Korean firm’s sales. It is clear from various expert and consumer reviews that Samsung has finally understood what needs to be done in the value flagship segment. The Galaxy S20 FE offers a fine balance between design, specs, camera performance, battery life, color choices, and price. Samsung’s sales are still nowhere close to Apple’s sales, though, especially since the iPhone 12 series launch.

Are you a Galaxy S20 FE user? How has your experience been with the smartphone? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Samsung Galaxy Smart Tag’s colors, pricing leak ahead of launch

Samsung is prepping for the launch of its new Tile-like object tracker alongside. It could be launched alongside the Galaxy S21 and called the Galaxy Smart Tag (EI-T5300). Its information was first leaked two weeks ago when the object tracker passed through Indonesia’s certification process. Now, information regarding the Galaxy Smart Tag’s color variants and pricing has been leaked.

The Bluetooth-based tracker’s schematic was revealed through the South Korean certification authority’s database. It shows that the Galaxy Smart Tag features a rounded square shape and a lanyard hole. It also has a button that can be pressed to find a connected phone, while the onboard loud buzzer helps the user find the tracker using a compatible smartphone. That’s extremely similar to Tile’s functionality. Since it features Bluetooth 5.1 (LE), which brings directionality to the equation, it is easier to find.

The Galaxy Smart Tag is powered by a replaceable 3V CR2032 coin cell, but we don’t know its battery life figures yet. Tile launches up to a whole year on a single coin cell, and we expect Samsung’s upcoming object tracker to last similarly long. It will be launched in two colors: Black and Oatmeal. Going by reliable leakster Ishan Agarwal’s report, the object tracker will be launched with a price tag of €15. It will likely be compatible with the South Korean firm’s new SmartThings Find feature.

It is not the company’s first object tracker, though. Samsung had previously launched the SmartThings Tracker two years ago. It featured Bluetooth and LTE connectivity, and it was priced at $99. We expect the Galaxy Smart Tag to feature IP68 certification for dust and water resistance and an easy way to stick it to laptops, bags, wallets, and other things.

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Galaxy S21’s ultrawide camera could bring features we always wanted

The Galaxy S21 series will be unveiled early next month, but the most important aspects of the upcoming smartphones have been leaked already. The design and specifications of the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and the Galaxy S21 Ultra had surfaced last month. It is now being reported that Samsung has added two important features to the ultrawide cameras on the Galaxy S21 series devices.

While it might not look like there are any improvements in the Galaxy S21 series’ camera hardware due to the same resolution and sensor size, Samsung is rumored to have added dual-pixel phase detection autofocus and macro mode to the ultrawide cameras. According to a tweet from @UniverseIce, the South Korean smartphone giant has also upgraded the ultrawide camera’s sensor from ISOCELL S5K2LA to Sony IMX563. The ultrawide camera now features a 123-degree field-of-view compared to the Galaxy S20‘s 120-degree field-of-view.

The Sony IMX563 sensor has a size of 1/2.55-inch, 1.4μm pixels, and dual-pixel autofocus. It should now be able to offer sharper ultrawide images and videos. Hopefully, with the ISP improvements in the Exynos 2100 and the Snapdragon 888, Samsung should be able to offer 4K 60fps HDR10+ video recording through the ultrawide camera and smooth switching between all the rear-facing camera sensors on the Galaxy S21 series.

The Galaxy S21 and the Galaxy S21+ are rumored to feature triple cameras on the rear: a 12MP wide-angle camera (1/1.76-inch) with dual-pixel autofocus, a 12MP ultrawide camera with dual-pixel autofocus, and a 64MP telephoto camera. The Galaxy S21 Ultra is expected to use an upgraded 108MP ISOCELL HM3 sensor for the wide-angle camera, a 12MP ultrawide camera, and two 10MP telephoto cameras (one with 3x optical zoom and the other with 10x optical zoom).

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