GPS lock issue on your Galaxy S20? You’re not alone

The Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra offer the best hardware you can get on a flagship smartphone right now, but it seems these phones could have benefited from more time in the oven. Over the course of the past week, a number of Galaxy S20 owners have taken to Samsung’s community forums and Reddit to complain about their phone having issues with locking on to a GPS signal in apps such as Google Maps and Waze.

From what we can gather, some Galaxy S20 units simply fail to lock on to GPS satellites or take too long to do it, making navigation near impossible. Switching from 5G to LTE networks, rebooting the phone, and switching SIM cards all seem to make GPS work properly for a short time, but at the time of this writing, there is no permanent fix. It’s also unclear whether it’s a hardware or software problem, as replacement units are reportedly suffering from the same issue.

It’s worth noting that the GPS lock issue seems to be limited to the Snapdragon variants of the Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra sold in the US and Canada. There aren’t any complaints from people with the Exynos variants, and we can confirm that GPS works as it should on the Exynos-powered Galaxy S20 smartphones we are using here at SamMobile.

Samsung is yet to respond to all the complaints that are continuing to pile up, but we will update this article once the company makes an official statement. In the meantime, let us know if you have faced problems with GPS on your Galaxy S20, S20+ or S20 Ultra down in the comments!

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Galaxy Tab S6 Lite bags FCC certification ahead of launch

Samsung is planning to launch a trimmed down version of its flagship tablet in the form of Galaxy Tab S6 Lite. The information about the upcoming tablet first came to light three weeks ago when the device received Bluetooth SIG certification. Now, the tablet has received the mandatory FCC certification, and the supporting documents reveal some of its features.

The Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (SM-P615) features LTE, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5.0 (with LE), and ANT+ connectivity. The tablet will also be released in the Wi-Fi only variant, and it could carry the model number SM-P610. The Wi-Fi only variant was revealed on the NCC certification website last week. The tablet’s name also appeared on Netflix’s list of HD video streaming certified devices.

Galaxy Tab S6 Lite specs

With the help of benchmarks, we know that the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite will be equipped with the Exynos 9611 processor, 4GB RAM, and 64GB/128GB internal storage. It will be launched with Android 10 and One UI 2.0. The tablet also features a 10.5-inch Super AMOLED screen with HDR. Its design was revealed last month, so we know that the tablet will come with an S Pen.

Since the Galaxy Tab S6 is priced at $649, it is safe to assume that the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite will be priced lower. It could start at $399 for the Wi-Fi only variant, but we can get a clearer idea when Samsung launches the tablet in the coming weeks.

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Samsung expects growth in chip demand despite COVID-19 concerns

Samsung, the world’s largest memory chip maker, expects the demand for chips to grow despite concerns related to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak. The company discussed its expectations about chip sales during its annual shareholder meeting that was held earlier today at Suwon Convention Center in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province in South Korea.

Kim Ki-Nam, who leads Samsung’s device solutions arm, said that there are uncertainties in the market due to the pandemic, but he expects the global chip demand to grow this year. The reason behind this confidence is the exponential growth of the AI (artificial intelligence) and the automotive market. Increased investments in the data center and 5G markets will also drive the demand for chips.

For memory chips, the company expects the market to stabilize compared to last year as its investments in upgrading its production lines to newer and more power-efficient process nodes. Samsung’s earnings from the chip business were weak last year due to a slump in the market. The semiconductor business earned $51 billion last year, which was down 25% compared to the previous year. The operating profit was down a whopping 68.5% compared to 2018’s numbers.

The company plans to start the mass production of 5nm chips by the end of this year and then solidifying the development of 3nm chip production technologies. Samsung also plans to invest in the development and production of 5G SoCs and high-resolution camera sensors. It says that the smartphone industry will see decreased sales due to COVID-19, but it still wants to make more 5G phones this year.

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Galaxy S20 could sell lower than Galaxy S10

The Galaxy S20 series, which Samsung unveiled last month, reached store shelves earlier this month. However, it is not selling too well due to the COVID-19 outbreak and reduced subsidies from telecom carriers.

Industry insiders have cited piling inventory to claim that the Galaxy S20 series may be selling lower than the Galaxy S10 series did last year. Some market watchers say that the South Korean smartphone maker has radically reduced the orders for Galaxy S20 parts.

Samsung was off with its estimates for Galaxy S20 series

Last year, the Galaxy S10 series saw pretty good sales in the initial months, but the demand reduced from the second quarter of 2019. Samsung had expected the Galaxy S20+ to be the top-selling model, but it was well off with its estimation. The Galaxy S20 Ultra received more than 50% of the pre-orders. So, the company has reportedly ordered more 108MP camera sensors.

The global smartphone leader expected the Galaxy S10 to become the best-selling model in the series last year, but the Galaxy S10+ turned out to be the most popular phone.

The sales of the Galaxy S series smartphones reduced since 2017. The company’s sales peaked with the Galaxy S5 (40 million), but the numbers reduced to 38 million units of Galaxy S8 in 2017, 32 million units of Galaxy S9 in 2018, 36 millions of Galaxy S10 in 2019.

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Samsung to build its own cloud infrastructure to reduce reliance on AWS

Samsung has reportedly decided to build its own cloud storage infrastructure so that it can reduce its dependence on AWS (Amazon Web Services). As if now, around 60 percent of its cloud services are hosted on AWS, while the remaining 40 percent uses other cloud infrastructure providers. The two significant advantages of having its own cloud infrastructure would be lower cost and higher security.

The South Korean electronics firm plans to first conduct a few tests by bringing its private cloud infrastructure to some of its business departments. When deemed stable, the company will expand its infrastructure and slowly shift away from AWS. Other than Samsung Electronics, every other business arm of the company had been considering this move, but Samsung Electronics will the first to implement the plan.

Samsung’s move to private cloud infrastructure is to reduce cost, improve security

Samsung has reportedly been paying hundreds of millions of dollars every year to AWS, and the cost has been increasing with each passing year as more and more devices are connected to the internet. Samsung Electronics alone paid around $483 million to Amazon last year. Moving to its own cloud will be extremely cost-effective for the company. As more smart home devices are launched in the future, the need for cloud infrastructure is expected to rise exponentially.

The company was also concerned about the security part of the cloud service, as AWS is an American firm. The company hasn’t decided which group will guide and maintain its cloud infrastructure. Right now, its private cloud services are being handled by Samsung SDS, which has four data centers in Korea and thirteen data centers in other countries across the globe.

Samsung could use Joyent, a US-based cloud firm that it acquired in 2016, to create its cloud infrastructure. If the company moves away from AWS, it will be a massive blow for Amazon.

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Samsung Pay gets new update with official Dark Mode support

Dark Mode is supported by an increasing number of apps, and the latest one to receive it is Samsung Pay. The company has quietly introduced this update but it is not available in every region for the time being. It’s a bit of a crapshoot as to whether or not your Samsung Pay app supports or doesn’t support Dark Mode, but it appears to be available at least in India.

There have been ways to force Dark Mode on a couple of Android 10 Galaxy devices even for unsupported apps. However, this is the first time when we see official support for Dark Mode being added to Samsung Pay.

Similar to how Dark Mode works on Samsung Health, you don’t have to bother with any in-app toggles to enable or disable the new mode in Samsung Pay. The app automatically switches between the two modes according to your system’s settings. Therefore, to enable Dark Mode in Samsung Pay, you need to enable system-wide Dark Mode from the Quick Toggle area or from your phone’s Settings app.

If you have yet to receive the Dark Mode update notification for Samsung Pay, you can check if a newer version is waiting for you by opening the app, tapping the three-dot (hamburger menu) button, accessing Settings, and tapping About Samsung Pay. If a new app version is available, you should have the option to tap the Update button. Once you do update the app, feel free to join us in the comment section and let us know where, and on what device you’ve got Dark Mode for Samsung Pay.

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SoundAssistant update with Z Flip support is not available from Play Store

While Samsung is bringing some of Google’s apps to the Galaxy Store, the company also seems to be doing the exact opposite with at least one of its in-house-developed apps, namely SoundAssistant. Although it hasn’t been pulled from Google Play Store, SoundAssistant will no longer receive new updates through Google’s digital front, and instead, it will continue to be update exclusively through Samsung’s own Galaxy Store.

As recently discovered by Android Police, the description for SoundAssistant on the Google Play Store was changed to reflect this new strategy. It simply reads that the new version is distributed through the Galaxy Store and includes a link to the said app and digital platform.

Galaxy Z Flip gets SoundAssistant support but not via Play Store

The ‘new version’ refers to a recent update that was distributed on the Galaxy Store yesterday, March 16. But, in reality, the last time SoundAssistant was updated via the Play Store was October 7, 2019. In other words, if you are relying on Google’s platform and you were waiting for the recent update, or the one that introduced vertical volume sliders nearly a month ago, this is likely the reason why you haven’t received it yet.

As for the recent update, it refers to version 3.3.08.0. The package weighs 10.33MB and adds support for the Galaxy Z Flip’s external display while fixing a couple of issues with mono audio and the equalizer. You can download it from the Galaxy Store or, as always, you can check our APK archive and grab the latest version from there.

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