New year, old loyalties: Samsung and BTS are taking over Twitter again

Samsung and BTS are once again taking over social media for no particular reason other than that they can. And why not? Twitter could certainly do with some extra positivity and harmless fun these days. Especially if exclusive BTS photocards are part of the package. Which they are, or were, as of a few hours ago, courtesy of Samsung India.

What’s more, the massive online buzz we have been witnessing these past few hours is actually just an echo – the real noise is coming from dozens of Samsung Experience Stores across India which started giving out sets of BTS photocards to walk-ins earlier today.

Will Samsung ever outdo the planetary success of its BTS collaboration?

Samsung’s brick-and-mortar outlets in India reportedly started handing out these neat BTS collectibles with no foreword. Presumably, because the stunt was largely aimed at surprising local BTS aficionados. Finding them certainly wasn’t an issue, seeing how the famous boy band is estimated to have approximately 10 million devoted fans in India as of late last year.

In any case, unannounced giveaways of BTS memorabilia appear to be a recipe for utter delight among all ages. Eager to mark the occasion, we did our best to capture some of the most effusive and outright hilarious reactions to Samsung’s newest marketing ploy on Twitter.

Of course, this whole undertaking is meant to promote the imminent launch of the Galaxy S21 series which is happening in just three days. And while BTS was present at the mid-January launch of the new flagships, we’re still waiting for any indication that Samsung is working on more limited-edition Android devices targeted at the group’s massive fanbase. Let’s face it: we need more purple in our life, no?

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Samsung has just revealed another secret weapon of the Galaxy S21 Ultra

By now, most Samsung fans know that the Galaxy S21 Ultra is the only model out of the new flagship trio to support 120Hz at maximum display resolution. What nobody else besides Samsung Display knew until earlier this week is that the Galaxy S21 Ultra also has a new low-power OLED display, and for the time being, it’s the only smartphone on the market to boast this new technology.

The new low-power OLED panel that debuted with the Galaxy S21 Ultra claims to deliver improved luminosity and power efficiency, but it’s fundamentally the same as before. Instead of having a separate light source, OLED panels produce light when an electric current is sent through the panel’s self-luminous organic materials. But what’s different about the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s new OLED panel is that — through processes unexplained — it allows electrons to flow faster and more easily across the display’s organic layers.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra’s low-power OLED is 16% more efficient

One of the most power-hungry components of a smartphone is the display and Samsung took it upon itself to improve the OLED formula as newer technologies such as 5G are leaving a bigger mark on battery life. Ultimately, what this new low-power OLED panel that was employed by the Galaxy S21 Ultra can achieve is a higher level of brightness and a reduction in power consumption of 16%.

We’ll dive deeper into the topic of battery life in our upcoming Galaxy S21 Ultra review so stay tuned if you want to find out whether or not these improvements have paid off in real-life usage scenarios. But without spoiling any major details, battery life on the Galaxy S21 Ultra has left a good impression on us from day one, and perhaps this new low-power OLED panel is the reason why.

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Galaxy S10 One UI 3.0 Android 11 update rollout has been resumed

Samsung started rolling out the stable Galaxy S10 One UI 3.0 update a few weeks ago. However, the company ended up pulling the update last week. It didn’t provide any clarification as to why this was done, but the update’s rollout was halted nonetheless.

Multiple users had reported some issues with the update which is probably why it was pulled. Samsung seems to have resolved the issues as it’s now rolling out the update once again.

Galaxy S10 One UI 3.0 update is rolling out once again

We alerted you last week when Samsung had halted the rollout of the Galaxy S10 Android 11 update. The firmware was no longer being distributed over-the-air or through SmartSwitch. This meant that users who hadn’t already upgraded were unable to do so.

It later emerged that there were some issues with the update. Many users had complained about the device heating up. Others were having issues with camera blur. Clearly, there was something that needed fixing. That’s why Samsung decided to stop the release for a few days.

The company appears to be satisfied now that the issues users were facing have been fixed. It’s rolling out firmware version G975FXXU9EUA4 for the Galaxy S10 again. Users who didn’t get a chance to upgrade before can do so now.

Switzerland is one of the first markets to receive the latest Galaxy S10 One UI 3.0 firmware. It goes without saying that Samsung will soon roll it out to other markets as well.

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Samsung and Tesla are working on something very interesting

Samsung wants to dominate the global semiconductor market. The company has been investing heavily in its facilities for this very reason. It’s also aggressively seeking new clients in a bit to steal them away from TSMC.

Tesla has been on its own disruptive mission. It seeks to completely eliminate gas-powered vehicles with electric alternatives. It’s also leveraging tech to add some very cool features to its cars. Tesla needs good hardware to make that happen and that’s why it’s reportedly working on something exciting with Samsung.

Tesla wants to use Samsung’s 5nm process

According to a report out of South Korea, Tesla has teamed up with Samsung for a new 5nm chipset that’s going to power the Full Self Driving functionality of its electric vehicles. Tesla is one of the many fab-less companies that rely on Samsung for production. They can only design their custom chips but they need a contract manufacturer like Samsung or TSMC to actually produce them.

Tesla has been working on its custom chip for self-driving since 2016. The chip was introduced as a part of its Hardware 3.0 self-driving computer in 2019. That’s also when Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that the company had already started designing the next-generation chip. A recent report had suggested that Tesla would utilize TSMC’s 7nm process for its next-gen chip.

However, it seems that Samsung may have been able to win Tesla over. The report suggests that Tesla is now working with Samsung for its next-gen self-driving chip that will be produced on the 5nm process. Samsung’s foundry division has reportedly started research and development work on the chipset that will be used in Tesla’s vehicles.

This isn’t the first time that Tesla and Samsung will be working together. Samsung already produces the chip inside Tesla’s Hardware 3.0 computer but that is based on the 14nm process. Samsung will reportedly utilize its highly advanced 5nm EUV process for Tesla’s latest chip.

The report adds that this new chip may not enter production before Q4 2021. So we may not see the improvements that it makes to Tesla’s self-driving technology until next year.

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Here’s Exynos 2100’s sustained gaming performance against Exynos 990

The Exynos 990 processor that was used in the Galaxy S20 series last year faced heavy criticism due to its dismal performance under sustained workloads. Earlier this month, Samsung promised that its new Exynos 2100 processor offers faster and much more stable performance compared to its previous chipsets. Now that the first smartphones with the Exynos 2100 chipset have been released, we can compare the performance of the Exynos 2100 with that of the Exynos 990.

A newly published video on YouTube shows the gaming performance of the Galaxy S21’s Exynos 2100 chipset and that of the Galaxy S20’s Exynos 990 processor under sustained workloads. The test shows the Call Of Duty: Mobile game being played on the Galaxy S21 Ultra and the Galaxy S20+ with very high graphics quality and maximum frame rate settings. At the end of the video, you can see that the Exynos 2100 delivered 10% higher frame rates on average when compared to the Exynos 990. However, the Exynos 2100 delivered much more stable frame rates, with only an 11fps difference between the minimum and maximum frame rates.

There was much less jank and stutter during the gameplay on the Galaxy S21 Ultra. The Exynos 2100 also consumed less power than the Exynos 990, which means that the newer Exynos chipset has more stable performance, higher power efficiency, and lower temperatures. It seems that Samsung has been successful in delivering a better chipset than last year. However, it is still not as good as the Snapdragon 888 processor from Qualcomm, which is used in the China and US variants of the Galaxy S21 series.

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Galaxy Xcover 5’s processor revealed in new benchmark

Samsung is working on yet another rugged smartphone in the Galaxy Xcover lineup. We had reported about the Galaxy Xcover 5 two months ago, stating that it will be the company’s first rugged smartphone with 5G. Now, traces of the device have been found, and its processor and software version has been revealed.

An upcoming smartphone from the South Korean tech giant with model number SM-G525F has been found in Geekbench’s database. The benchmark entry of the device reveals that it runs Android 11 and features the Exynos 850 processor. It will also feature 4GB of RAM. The device scored 182 points in the single-core CPU test and 1,125 points in the multi-core test. We can expect it to run Android 3.x out of the box.

The Exynos 850 processor was launched in mid-2020. It is an 8nm chipset with a 2GHz octa-core Cortex-A55 CPU and the Mali-G52 GPU. It supports Full HD+ displays, LPDDR4X RAM, a dual-camera setup with Full HD 30fps video recording. It also features a built-in 5G modem, LTE, GPS, Wi-Fi ac/b/g/n, and Bluetooth 5.0.

We can expect Samsung to launch the next Galaxy Xcover smartphone sometime this year with IP68 certification for dust and water resistance and an MIL-STD-810G-compliant design. The phone could be targeted towards people with an active lifestyle or those who work in the field.

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Samsung expands Galaxy Watch 3 blood pressure and ECG tracking to 31 countries

Samsung announced today that it’s expanding the blood pressure and ECG tracking features of the Galaxy Watch 3 and the Galaxy Watch Active 2 to 31 more countries. This functionality was previously limited to users in South Korea. Samsung has been working to bring it to more countries.

Both the Galaxy Watch 3 and the Galaxy Watch Active 2 have the required hardware that enables them to measure a user’s blood pressure and electrocardiogram. The feature can be accessed through the Samsung Health Monitor app that will now be more widely available.

Samsung can finally bring these features to more users

The Samsung Health Monitor app was granted a CE-marking in December 2020, enabling the service to expand to 28 European countries. The CE-marking is an administrative sign which confirms that a product is compliant with the safety, health and environmental regulations of the EU.

What this means is that users in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom will now be able to utilize the ECG and blood pressure monitoring feature of their Samsung smartwatch. Samsung is also launching the app in Chile, Indonesia and the UAE, thus bringing the total number of supported countries to 31.

Samsung’s smartwatches measure blood pressure through pulse wave analysis that’s tracked with Heart Rate Monitoring sensors. The ECG function works by analyzing the heart’s electrical activity through a sensor. Users will need to have the Samsung Health Monitor app installed on both their smartwatch and Galaxy smartphone to use these features. The app is installed automatically on the smartwatch when its firmware is updated to the latest version via the Galaxy Wearable app.

The company says that the Samsung Health Monitor app will be rolling out to users in these markets starting February 4.

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