Samsung merges its Gear and Galaxy Apps stores into one

Samsung has announced that its Galaxy Apps store will now be the central location for both smartphone and tablet apps and those for its Gear smartwatches. An update is already rolling out that puts the Gear store inside Galaxy Apps – the latter is where everything from watch faces to third-party apps for the company’s smartwatches will be available from today.

The Samsung Gear app will still be a separate app, but will only function as a hub for connected smartwatches (and fitness trackers like the Gear Fit) and will take users to Galaxy Apps for app and other downloads. As part of the integration, Samsung is offering a few Gear S2 watch faces available for free. The next time you open the Galaxy Apps store on your phone or tablet, an update notification will pop up, after which you will be able to access the Gear content through one of the tabs on the Galaxy Apps home screen.

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Exclusive: Samsung Galaxy S7 Olympic Edition in the works?

Samsung is no stranger to releasing special editions of its flagship devices every now and then, and the company could be working on an Olympic edition of the Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge. We have received information that a device with codename Hero2_Olympic_edition is under development – the Galaxy S6 was codenamed Hero and the Galaxy S7 is Hero2, which makes this a pretty clear indication of what Samsung is working on.

Samsung had announced earlier this year that it would bringing the Olympics into the realm of virtual reality, and two apps (with codenames IOC_Olympic_app and Rio2016_WOW_Olympic_app) for the Olympics are also being developed according to our sources. The Galaxy S7 Olympic Edition will probably have VR content surrounding the popular sporting event pre-loaded, and may even have a Gear VR bundled with it for free (a deal the company offered with pre-orders of the regular Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge as well).

As always, this is early information that might not be entirely accurate, though it wouldn’t be surprising to see such a Galaxy S7 variant as Samsung has long been a partner for the Olympic Games. The Galaxy Note 3 had a similar special variant, and with virtual reality getting a huge push this year, it would make sense for Samsung to take its Olympic partnership further with a Galaxy S7 Olympic Edition.

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Samsung Gear S2 by de GRISOGONO costs $15,000

You can purchase the Gear S2 for about $300 almost everywhere but if appreciate the finer things in like then Samsung has just the thing for you. Two weeks ago it introduced the limited edition Gear S2 by de GRISOGONO. It teamed up with this famous jewelry and watchmaker to created a limited edition model of the Gear S2 that is sculpted in gold and boasts over 100 diamonds. As you can imagine, it’s not exactly cheap.

The Samsung Gear S2 by de GRISOGONO was also showcased at Baselworld 2016. Beneath all of the bling it’s a Gear S2 through and through, meaning that you can turn the diamond-set gold bezel to access all of the features of this smartwatch. You do get a special watch ace but other than that there’s nothing new on the software side. Only 100 units of this limited edition Gear S2 by de GRISOGONO will be created and sold for $15,000 starting this summer. That’s a lot of money for a smartwatch.

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Samsung Galaxy S7 edge detailed screen analysis

One of the most anticipated phones each year has to be Samsung’s new Galaxy S flagship. This year it is no different and the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge have seen the light of day after numerous leaks and rumors. Samsung usually brings an upgrade to its display technology with each new flagships, and we decided to do a detailed screen analysis on the Galaxy S7 edge to see how the display fares.

 If you want to know what the graphs in this measurement mean, please refer to this post.

First the basics. The Galaxy S7 edge has a 5.5-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED screen with curves on both sides. It has a resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels and a pixel density of approximately 534 PPI. The screen has the exact same pixel layout as the S6 edge – the infamous Diamond PenTile pixel layout, which you can see in the close-up picture below.

Brightness Levels

First things first, the screen has a maximum brightness of around 306.99 cd/m2 (nits) in manual brightness setting, and 714.56 cd/m2 in auto brightness. At the most dim setting, the screen can go as low as 1.91 cd/m2 in auto brightness mode, and the same value in manual brightness as well.

What this means is that this is an excellent screen in terms of brightness, and you can read the display easily in bright sunlight while at the same time keep your eyes safe from strain in the dark. What really surprised me is the amount of brightness it produces in auto brightness mode - 714 cd/m2 is a lot and the highest we’ve seen on Samsung’s flagship devices! Do keep in mind that the phone will only go so bright when there is a really bright source of light falling on the sensor, for example in the sun or something like an LED lamp. In regular lighting conditions the brightness levels will be considerably lower, somewhere in the 500 nits range.

Adaptive Display Mode


When we look at its color gamut and the colors in the sRGB color space, we can conclude that every color misses its target point and the screen is thus oversaturated (a common theme on AMOLED displays and with this display it isn’t any different). The white point is pretty much off target (which you can see in the graph on the right side below) and is leaning towards the colder side of the colors (green blueish). The margin of the displayed primary and secondary colors isn’t that good, with a Delta E error of 6.4 being too high, which is something we see all the time in this screen mode. 

The error of the Grayscale color is not too great at 4.7 and the whites are blueish here as well; that is something manufacturers do to make the whites look more white, especially on AMOLED displays. The contrast ratio, however, is unmeasurable so that is extremely good. Blacks are really black, yet when we get to the lighter colors we see that blueish tint popping out and red is almost completely gone. This is something you can see at the color temperature as well, with a temperature of 7413 being too cold (and 6509 is the sweet spot).

Basic Mode

Same old, same old, that’s the case once again with Adaptive mode. We aren’t a big fan of it (not that some of us mind using it), but it can be changed to Basic mode. The basic mode is the closest you can get to a nicely calibrated screen, though the display can look a little dull when you first lay your eyes on this screen mode. In the sRGB color space it scores great as it hits most of the targets, with the margin of the displayed primary and secondary colors having a Delta E error of 1.7 which is extremely good. The white point is just a tad off center, but nothing to make you worry about.

The Grayscale values surprised me a little. I thought it would be better, because when compared to the Galaxy A8 the margin of error in Grayscale is double – 1.5 on the A8 versus 3.1 on the S7. With a color temperature of 6343 it is a lot closer to 6509, which would be the best score. Its contrast ratio is extremely good and we can conclude this unmeasurable thanks to the inherent feature of AMOLED displays.

AMOLED Photo Mode

The mode I always use is AMOLED Photo, which gives you the punchiness of Adaptive Display mode without making it feel a bit too much. Both the margin of the display primary and secondary colors and the error of Grayscale color – 4.5 and 3.2 respectively – are acceptable. Color temperature is almost the same as Basic mode, and contrast ratio is just as good as the other modes.

Conclusion

This year, Samsung’s flagship display can go extremely bright; the color reproduction is really good, and I only hoped the grayscale performance had been better (the Galaxy A8 had a better score compared to the Galaxy S7 edge in Grayscale mode, which is a bit hard to fathom. By all means though, the Galaxy S7 edge’s display is exceptional, and maintains the standards you expect from a flagship in this day and age.

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Samsung Gear S2 gets another software update

The Gear S2 got a major software update earlier this month, and Samsung is pushing yet another update to its best smartwatch this week. The new update is available in many regions already, though Samsung seems to have forgotten to update the changelog as it mentions exactly the same changes that graced the watch with the previous update. It’s probably just bug fixes and stability improvements – maybe even a few changes for the upcoming iOS support?

The update is available as a 20.39 MB download, and you can grab it from the Samsung Gear app (from the app’s settings) on your smartphone, though the app should notify you of an update on its own at some point. Let us know if you notice anything new on your Gear S2 after installing the update.

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Samsung launches the Galaxy J3 (2016) In India with S Bike Mode

The Galaxy J3 (2016) was first launched in China late last year and now Samsung has launched this handset in India with a unique feature called S Bike Mode. The Galaxy J3 (2016) features a 5-inch Super AMOLED display, a 1.2GHz quad-core processor with 1.5GB RAM and an 8-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front facing camera. The handset has a 2,600mAh battery. This is the first time that Samsung has introduced the S Bike Mode and it’s only going to be available on this handset initially. The company says that the aim behind this feature is to enable bikers to enjoy a tension free ride.

The Galaxy J3 (2016) has built-in NFC and it ships with the NFC tag that can be placed on the bike’s fuel tank or the rider’s helmet. Before riding users simply need to tap their phone on the NFC tag to activate S Bike Mode. When S Bike Mode is activated all incoming calls are played a recorded message available in 14 Indian languages that the user can’t take a call as they’re riding, however if it’s an urgent call, callers can press 1 to have their call go through to the user. To avoid distraction users are not shown any notification of the incoming call unless it’s marked urgent by the caller. S Bike Mode also features Motion Lock, when the feature is active it ensures that the user has come to a complete stop before it allows them to answer an urgent call. With S Bike Mode activated users can not answer even an urgent call while on the move.

The Galaxy J3 (2016) is available in gold, white and black colors starting today for Rs 8,990 exclusively from Snapdeal.

#GalaxyJ3 with S Bike Mode is here. Now #TapKickVroom & ride tension free on the road.https://t.co/YtfBYnFKXu

— Samsung Mobile India (@SamsungMobileIN) March 31, 2016

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Tronsmart Titan review: five fast charging ports in one for your Samsung devices

Everyone carries around a smartphone charger when they’re going out, and you can find a couple of chargers at everyone’s home. In the last couple of years, multi-port chargers have made life easier for folks that have more than one mobile device that they need to constantly charge. Fast charging support on phones has made charging them a quick affair, and many multi-port chargers offer support for fast charging. Tronsmart is one of the more popular names when it comes to such chargers, and the Tronsmart Titan is a charging hub that comes with five quick charge-enabled ports.

That’s right – the Titan can charge five of your mobile devices at the same time, and charge all of them quickly if they come with support for fast charging. Tronsmart provided SamMobile with a Titan (we know how odd that sounds), and given how all of Samsung’s flagships since the Galaxy Note 4 support fast charging, we thought it would be a great idea to check it out.

The Tronsmart Titan box includes the charging station, the power cable for the station, and a nice little marketing card for VoltIQ. VoltIQ is the name for a mechanism that detects the type of device you have connected to a port and charges it accordingly. Basically, this comes in handy in separating the quick charge-enabled devices from those with normal charging. It certainly works when it comes to detecting the former – all of our Samsung devices with fast charging support showed the “Fast Charging” notification and charged as quickly as they would with Samsung’s own fast chargers.

For regular devices, the Titan’s ports support a maximum of 2A current, which is as high as you would get on most third-party chargers and is sufficient for every device without quick charge support. We tested it out with a smartwatch (a Gear Live) and a couple of Samsung’s low-end devices (the Samsung Z1 and the Samsung Z3, to be exact). Again, charging happened as it normally would – there is no overheating or any other funny business involved, which was also the case when we connected devices that have fast charging.

As someone whose job profile includes keeping numerous Samsung devices lying around, the Tronsmart Titan is a great charging hub. Even for regular folks, it’s great for letting people in your home, or the friends that come over, charge their devices right alongside yours. It looks nice, too – kind of like a small server lying on your desk, with rubber pads underneath that prevent it from moving around. Oh, and the Titan has a power switch at the back so that you don’t have to turn it off/unplug it from the wall socket to save on your electricity bills.

At a price of around $40, you can’t really go wrong with the Tronsmart Titan. Five fast charging ports in a single package at that price is hard to beat, especially since buying separate fast chargers will cost you considerably more. You can buy the Titan from Amazon and get more information at Tronsmart’s official website.

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