Samsung’s next-gen flagship killer may have been delayed

Samsung was expected to launch three new smartphones—Galaxy S21 FE, Galaxy Z Flip 3, and Galaxy Z Fold 3—in August 2021. However, it appears that the Galaxy S21 FE launch may be delayed by a couple of months. Multiple reports are hinting towards critical component shortage as the reason for the delayed launch.

Galaxy S21 FE launch may be delayed by 1-2 months

According to multiple reports coming out of South Korea, Samsung had to stop the production of the Galaxy S21 FE due to battery shortage. The primary supplier for the Galaxy S21 FE’s battery was LG Energy Solutions, and it had a few production issues on its end. Samsung SDI was added as the secondary supplier, but it is delaying the production approval. Some reports had claimed that the delay in the smartphone’s launch was due to the shortage of the 5nm Snapdragon 888 chips.

Bloomberg reached out to Samsung Electronics regarding the reports of a delayed Galaxy S21 FE launch, and the company said, “While we cannot discuss details of the unreleased product, nothing has been determined regarding the alleged production suspension.” It is also rumored that Samsung will launch a new color for the Galaxy S21+: Phantom Green. More color options could be launched for the Galaxy S21 series after the launch of the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and the Galaxy Z Fold 3.

Galaxy S21 FE specs

The Galaxy S21 FE’s design, color options, and possible pricing were leaked a few days ago. The smartphone is expected to feature a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED Infinity-O display with Full HD+ resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and an under-display fingerprint reader. The device reportedly uses the Snapdragon 888 chip, 6GB/8GB RAM, and 128GB internal storage.

It could feature a 32MP selfie camera and a 12MP+12MP+12MP triple-camera setup. Other Galaxy S21 specs include stereo speakers, an IP68 rating, GPS, 5G, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, and a USB Type-C port. It is powered by a 4,500mAh battery, which supports up to 25W fast charging. It could also feature fast wireless charging and reverse wireless charging.

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iOS 15 vs One UI 3.5: Should Samsung be taking cues from Apple?

There are still a lot of question marks surrounding One UI 3.5 and what it’s going to bring to the table. But Apple just showed its hand this week and we all know Samsung can’t and won’t be indifferent to whatever its biggest rival is doing. So, will iOS 15 bring any UX design lessons for Samsung to learn from?

It might, especially seeing how Apple seems to be exploring some rather niche functionalities with its next major operating system update. Take the ability to upload your driver’s license to Apple Wallet, for one. If you’re going through more than one TSA check a year, you’d probably get some mileage out of that one. Well, so long as you don’t mind the dystopian implications of having your government cross-reference your smartphone data against its database of (un)desirable entities.

FaceTime: Samsung Galaxy edition

The ability to initiate a FaceTime call with Galaxy devices will likely prove to be a popular addition to iOS 15. Though it remains to be seen if Samsung will be doing anything to facilitate such cross-platform communications on its end. It might, but we can’t say any move to that effect seems terribly obvious as of right now.

On the subject of machine learning and other such capabilities, Samsung is still ahead of its Cupertino rival by quite a margin. For instance, Bixby has been able to identify things like dog breeds and plants for years. Whereas that feature will only be making its way to some iPhones and iPads this winter. Never mind that it was Google who originally kickstarted this trend.

The added privacy protections that are on their way to iCloud – now called iCloud+ – do seem like a feature worth copying. Particularly in respect to how iOS users will soon be able to auto-generate “fake” email addresses during signups. Samsung has kind of been neglecting the cloud aspect of its mobile offerings in recent years, so we’d be happy with anything beyond the status quo on that front. Something like that built-in two-factor authentication code generator would be nice as well.

One (UI) more thing…

Now, despite how tempting some of Apple’s promises might seem at the moment, a lot of them will seem like a case of “too little, too late” to most Galaxy owners. Take notifications, for instance, or the curious case of how my Twitter feed ended up stuffed with people celebrating the arrival of profile pics for notifications from third-party messaging apps? That’s what iOS users are looking forward to in this day and age? The prospect of seeing mom’s selfie once she finally responds to their WhatsApp message? Maybe if more people stopped asking parents for loans to buy iPhones and started holding luxury brands accountable for their overpriced accessories, we wouldn’t have #notifications trending on Twitter in 2021. And mom would have responded sooner.

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Samsung’s One UI needs per-contact Call Background options

Samsung gave Galaxy smartphone users the option to change the background of incoming calls with the release of One UI 3.0 late last year. It’s a neat customization feature that adds a bit of flair to the call screen, but it’s missing something, and it could be a lot better with just one addition: the ability to add call backgrounds for individual contacts.

Having the option to change the incoming call screen’s background image or video is a nice touch, especially since the option lets you pick a still image or a video from your own gallery or create an animated background using AR Emoji.

So far, so good. But unfortunately, the one thing holding this feature back is that One UI doesn’t let users pick or create a call background for individual contacts. Instead, any changes made to the call background will apply to all incoming calls, regardless of who’s trying to contact you.

A per-contact Call Background option could go a long way

Samsung is now working on One UI 3.5 before jumping to the Android 12-based One UI 4.0 update. The company hasn’t revealed much about the new features that will be a part of the One UI 3.5 experience, but we don’t expect the update to bring any drastic changes to the user interface.

Even so, we’re hoping that Samsung is considering adding call background options for individual contacts in One UI 3.5 or at least One UI 4.0, in addition to the existing option of changing the background for all calls. It would make the call background customization option a lot more useful and fun to explore.

This seems like the next logical evolutionary step for this feature, but time will tell if Samsung has any plans to improve it with future versions of One UI.

How do I set a custom call background in One UI 3.x?

If you want to experiment with the current implementation of call backgrounds, open the Phone app on your Galaxy phone (as long as it runs One UI 3.x), tap the three-dotted button, access Settings, tap Call background, and go to Background. You can select

NOTE: Videos longer than 15 seconds will have to be trimmed before you’ll be able to use them as call backgrounds. When choosing a video from the Gallery as a call background, you’ll have the option of using said video’s audio track as a ringtone.

Do you use a custom call background for your Samsung smartphone? Would you like One UI to give you more customization options for this feature, or are you happy with the current implementation? Feel free to voice your opinions in the comment section below.

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Galaxy S22, S22+, S22 Ultra display size and LTPO backplane details leak

The Galaxy S21 trio will remain the peak of the Galaxy S series for another seven-or-so months before it will be replaced by the Galaxy S22 lineup, the latter of which is likely to be launched in January 2022. The upcoming series is expected to comprise three models, and alleged display sizes have now been revealed by a couple of leakers via Naver and Twitter.

The information is a little bit conflicting, possibly because different measurement methods were used —- with or without accounting for the rounded corners and so on. However, both sources seem to agree that the Galaxy S22 Ultra will be the only model from the flagship trio to feature an LTPO backplane for its OLED display.

Galaxy S22 and S22+ to have slightly smaller displays than the 2021 models

One source claims that the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+, and Galaxy S22 Ultra will have displays measuring 6.1 inches, 6.5-6.6 inches, and 6.8 inches, respectively.

The other source suggests that the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+, and Galaxy S22 Ultra displays will measure 6.06, 6.55, and 6.81 inches, respectively.

Either way, the base Galaxy S22 variant and the Galaxy S22+ appear to have slightly smaller displays compared to the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21+, while the Galaxy S22 Ultra will apparently retain the generous 6.8-inch diagonal.

For context, the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and Galaxy S21 Ultra have 6.2-inch, 6.7-inch, and 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panels. The size difference between the ongoing models and the sequels wouldn’t be that noticeable, and perhaps it could lead to a more compact footprint for the upcoming trio.

No other display specifications got revealed by the sources, but according to another recent rumor, in-display camera technology might not be ready for Samsung to be using it on the Galaxy S22 series after all. Time will tell, and we’ll keep you up to speed as soon as we find out more.

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June 2021 security update for Galaxy Z Flip 5G reaches the U.S.

The June 2021 security update has started reaching the U.S. variants of the Galaxy Z Flip 5G, starting with those on Sprint’s network. Identified by build version F707USQS2CUE1, we first spotted this particular software release on Saturday evening, PST. Much like that PDA identifier suggests, this firmware is intended for the units bearing the model number SM-F707U.

No user-facing features or other changes are part of the software package at hand. By now, the June 2021 security update has already began reaching over 70 Galaxy devices around the world, including a dozen or so in the United States alone.

How long will the Galaxy Z Flip 5G be supported?

If you own a compatible device and are still running the May 2021 security update, you can either wait for the latest release to reach you on its own – which is likely to happen in a couple of weeks’ time, at most – or try to trigger its installation manually. To pursue the latter idea, open up the system Settings app, move over to the Software update menu, and select the Download and install command on the following interface.

The Galaxy Z Flip 5G still has around three years of guaranteed software updates from Samsung, as well as two major operating system upgrades ahead of it. In related news, we’re also expecting to see its direct successor in a matter of weeks. And given how big of a price cut we’re expecting it to receive compared to last year’s model, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 might prove to be quite a hit this summer.

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