Galaxy A5 (2018) and Galaxy A7 (2018) may launch in these countries

There have been a few rumors and leaks in the last couple of months claiming to offer details on Samsung’s 2018 iteration of the Galaxy A series. While we cannot confirm whether or not these leaks are accurate, we have managed to get the names of the countries where the Galaxy A5 (2018) and Galaxy A7 (2018) may be made available. This list is by no means final, and it’s possible these phones might not launch in all the listed countries and even launch in those not mentioned here. As for the Galaxy A3 (2018), we do not have any information on that device, but we’ll let you know once we do.

Find the list of countries, along with their region codes, down below.

Galaxy A5 (2018):

• AMO – Spain (Orange)
• ATO – Open Austria
• AUT – Switzerland
• BTU – United Kingdom
• CAC – Uzbekistan
• CAM – Cambodia
• CPW – United Kingdom (Carphone Warehouse)
• DBT – Germany
• ETL – Czech Republic
• EUR – Greece
• FTM – France (Orange)
• GLB – Philippines (Globe)
• ITV – Italy
• LUX – Luxembourg
• MM1 – Singapore
• MYM – Thailand (MPT, Mectel)
• NEE – Nordic countries
• O2U – United Kingdom (O2)
• ORO – Romania (Orange)
• ORS – Slovakia
• ORX – Slovakia
• PHE – Spain
• PHN – Netherlands
• ROM – Romania
• SEB – Baltic
• SEE – South East Europe
• SEK – Ukraine (Kyivstar)
• SER – Russia
• SIN – Singapore (SingTel)
• SKZ – Kazakhstan
• SMA – Philippines (Smart)
• STH – Singapore (StarHub)
• TEB – Bosnia and Herzegovina
• THL – Thailand
• TPH – Portugal (TPH)
• XEC – Spain (Movistar)
• XEF – France
• XEH – Hungary
• XEO – Poland
• XEU – United Kingdom / Ireland
• XME – Malaysia
• XSP – Singapore
• XTC – Philippines (Open Line)
• XXV – Vietnam

Galaxy A7 (2018):

• ARO – Argentina
• BNG – Bangladesh
• CAC – Uzbekistan
• CHO – Chile
• COO – Colombia
• CPW – United Kingdom (Carphone Warehouse)
• DBT – Germany
• EON – Trinidad and Tobago
• INS – India
• NPL – Nepal
• SEK – Ukraine (Kyivstar)
• SER – Russia
• SKZ – Kazakhstan
• SLK – Sri Lanka
• TPA – Panama
• TTT – Trinidad and Tobago
• XEO – Poland
• ZTO – Brazil

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Galaxy A5 (2018) specifications surface online

We’ll soon start hearing a lot of rumors and reports about the Galaxy A (2018) series as Samsung is due to launch it early next year. The first Galaxy A5 (2018) specifications have now surfaced online. A benchmark listing for the SM-A530F has been spotted which gives us an idea of what the Galaxy A5 (2018) specifications might be.

The Geekbench listing for the Galaxy A5 (2018) reveals that it’s going to be powered by Samsung’s new Exynos 7885 processor. It’s likely the 10nm version of the Exynos 7880 that can be found on the Galaxy A5 (2017).

According to these Galaxy A5 (2018) specifications, the octa-core Exynos 7885 has a clock speed of 1.59GHz. It’s paired with 4GB of RAM. That’s going to be a welcome improvement over the Galaxy A5 (2017)’s 3GB of RAM.

According to the listing, the handset is powered by Android 7.1.1. Whether or not Samsung launches it with Android 8.0 Oreo when the time comes remains to be seen. No further details have surfaced online but it’s a good bet to assume that the Galaxy A (2018) series will feature fingerprint scanners and water resistance.

Rumors suggest that the Infinity Display will be present as well. It was rumored yesterday that the physical Bixby button might also make its way to the Galaxy A (2018) series. Samsung is expected to unveil the new Galaxy A (2018) early next year. We will likely see more information about this series surface in the weeks to come.

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Samsung to make chips with dedicated cores for processing AI-related data

Samsung, the largest chip maker in the world, is in urgent need to make chipsets that have dedicated cores for processing artificial intelligence-related data. Although the company has released its AI-powered digital voice assistant Bixby for the Galaxy S8 duo and the Galaxy Note 8, the Exynos 8895 chipset that powers the phones do not have a dedicated processing unit for AI-related tasks. Samsung has now embarked on research and development of AI chips and is planning to commercialize them in the next few years.

Huawei has announced that it will release its Mate 10 smartphone with its new Kirin 970 chipset that has a neural processing unit. Even Apple has launched three new smartphones – iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X – which use the A11 Bionic SoC, featuring a “Neural Engine” that will help in machine learning tasks. “(Samsung) is in the middle of developing several types of chips that will be capable of processing massive data from AI applications on devices, eliminating the need to communicate with cloud servers,” an industrial source from one of Samsung’s partners told The Korea Herald.

Currently, data processed by AI apps such as voice recognition and machine learning are stored in the cloud and recalled when needed. With chips that have dedicated AI-related processing units, data can be stored and processed locally, which will improve the performance of AI features by 50 percent compared to current-generation chipsets. A lot of startups and tech giants are now focussing on improving the performance of their AI-powered devices. Market intelligence firm TrendForce says that AI will become the major growth factor in the future.

Samsung officially hinted at a technology forum that its new chipsets will have some AI-related features. Kim Ki-nam, president of Samsung’s semiconductor business, said, “The existing central processing unit and graphic processing unit chips make it hard to achieve efficiency in AI computing. The NPU will help address the efficiency challenge. However, NPUs so far have storage capacities that are equivalent to a thousandth of a human brain.” The company invested $300 million in Graphcore, a British AI chip startup, in order to overcome its limits.

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Samsung Electronics’ Q4 2017 operating profit estimated to hit $13.6 billion

Samsung Electronics became the most profitable technology firm in Q2 2017, leapfrogging Apple, thanks to solid revenues from its chipset and display manufacturing arms. The company was recently named among the top five influential Asian brands by Forbes. Now, it is being reported that the company could hit an estimated operating profit of $13.6 billion for the fourth quarter of this year.

Samsung Electronics Q4 2017 Operating Profit Estimation

According to a report by FnGuide Inc., Samsung Electronics’ operating profit could surge past KRW 15.5 trillion ($13.6 billion), which is an improvement compared to an earlier estimation of KRW 1.47 trillion from last month and KRW 13.7 trillion from three months earlier. This new report was generated by taking assessments and inputs from 23 Korean brokerage firms.

This new number exceeds Samsung’s second-quarter operating profits of KRW 14.7 trillion. If the company’s operating profits for Q4 2017 meet market expectations, it will exceed the KRW 14.2 trillion figure that was being estimated for the quarter ending September. A higher operating profit estimation is due to the rising demand of semiconductor chips, and Samsung is one of the world’s largest chipmakers.

Roh Geun-chang, an analyst at HMC Investment & Securities, said, “judging by a rise in demand (for memory chips), Samsung operating profits could rise as high as 16.4 trillion won,” he claimed. The demand for memory, processor, and storage chips is so high that many companies have reportedly made long-term supply contracts lasting up to six months.

Samsung has been investing heavily in semiconductor designing and manufacturing arms as well as in OLED display manufacturing units. The company is also betting big on virtual reality, IoT devices, connected homes, and connected automobiles. It recently ended Intel’s 24-year reign to become the largest chipmaker in the world.

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SamMobile Firmware Update Magazine: September 25, 2017

Welcome to the latest edition of our weekly Firmware Magazine. You can think of it as your go-to resource to find out which of your Samsung devices has received a new update or if it’s going to receive a new firmware update in the near future.

To keep things interesting, we present the Firmware Magazine in new designs every week. It will always include the important details about firmware updates such as the firmware versions, device model numbers, Android OS versions and the country where said update is out already.

Keep in mind, however, that these firmware details are based on the firmware that are available in our database, and in some cases, the latest updates might not show in the same week as the full firmware files take additional time to make it to our database.

The purpose of this magazine is to bring all of that important information about firmware updates to you, the reader, in a manner that’s easy to comprehend—so even if you’re new to the world of firmware, you’ll have no trouble making sense of it all.

Click here to download the latest issue of our Firmware Magazine.

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Samsung rolls out security patches to fix BlueBorne vulnerability

We recently reported that software updates released this month for several Samsung smartphones lacked the September 2017 Android security patch. The Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy S6 duo, Galaxy S5, and the Galaxy A5 (2016) received updates this month sans the September security patch. Yesterday, the Galaxy S7 received a new software update, and we found out that it contains the fix for the recently surfaced BlueBorne vulnerability.

The BlueBorne vulnerability allows remote hackers to gain complete control over a Bluetooth-enabled device even when it is not paired with the hacker’s device or even set to discoverable mode. It can affect smartphones, tablets, PCs, and even IoT devices. The software update released for the Galaxy S7 contains a fix for this vulnerability. Samsung has also plugged this vulnerability with a software update for the Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy  S5, and the Galaxy A5 (2016).

For other Android smartphones, a fix for the BlueBorne vulnerability was fixed with the September 2017 security patch, but Samsung has plugged the hole on its devices with the August 2017 security patch. These updates are included in firmware versions that include the letter ‘I’ in the penultimate position (for example, G930FXXU1DQIC for the Galaxy S7 and N950FXXU1AQI1 for the Galaxy Note 8). The Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ haven’t received this fix yet.

This is the reason why so many Galaxy phones haven’t received the September 2017 Android security patch yet. Samsung was busy in rolling out updates to fix the BlueBorne vulnerability, but there’s still a chance that the company would roll out the latest Android security patch. If that doesn’t happen, the company is most likely to include all the September security fixes with the October security update and roll them out at once.

 

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Sketchy rumor claims Galaxy A (2018) series will feature Bixby button

The Galaxy A (2018) series is likely going to be announced early next year. We’re gradually hearing more rumors about this device but it’s still early days. Nothing is set in stone yet. A sketchy rumor out of China claims that the new Galaxy A premium mid-range smartphones will have a physical Bixby button.

Samsung introduced the Bixby button with the Galaxy S8 earlier this year. You press it once for Bixby Home or press and hold for Bixby Voice. It’s present on the Galaxy Note 8 as well. The company made it possible only recently to disable the Bixby button to an extent.

Since Samsung has said that Bixby will arrive on more devices in the future, it’s not entirely out of the question that Samsung’s premium mid-range handsets could one day have a dedicated Bixby button.

The rumor doesn’t mention if the entire Galaxy A (2018) series will have the Bixby button or will the entry-level Galaxy A3 be left out. It’s also unclear if the button will only be for Bixby Home if Samsung isn’t ready to expand Bixby Voice to mid-range devices for now.

Previous rumors have suggested that the Galaxy A (2018) series might feature an Infinity Display and at least one model might have a dual camera system. As previously mentioned, nothing is set in stone right now so take this information with a grain of salt.

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