RIP Henk, saying goodbye to our good friend and colleague

It’s a sad day for all of us at SamMobile. One of the biggest Samsung fans is no longer among us. This week our dear colleague and good friend Henk van Loosbroek passed away. We firmly believe that Henk was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Samsung fan of all time. Henk had a passion for the company, he was super proud of the brand and how innovative Samsung has been and still is.

In 2013 I met Henk via Twitter and we started talking. He always made sure that we were the first to report on new updates and the latest Samsung news. Impressed by his dedication and passion, we thought it was time to embrace Henk in our SamMobile team. Since then, he had been an integral part of our team. Henk did his job with pride and joy. Our readers would remember well his ubiquitous presence on our forum, social media networks and various other sites.

In addition to being our omnipresent online colleague that was always the first one to start working from The Netherlands in the early morning, he would also regularly visit us at our office for conversations, laughs, and most importantly, coffee and cake.

The icing on the cake was that in 2019, he was invited by Samsung for the launch of the first foldable phone in San Francisco, the original Samsung Galaxy Fold. Henk loved innovation and thus everything Samsung did, how great that was for him.

Unfortunately, he has left us way too soon. We cherish the memories he has left us with. We remember his love for life, Star Wars and all things Samsung. It was an absolute honor knowing such a gem of a person.

Henk, we are so very happy to have known you and to have been a part of your life! We have experienced wonderful things together, such as our SamMobile team building in Dubai, our Christmas dinners and our beautiful moments of laughter during the office days.

From the entire SamMobile team: Rest in peace and thank you for everything. You will be dearly missed. Till we meet again.

We will never forget you! And may the Force be with you.

Love, Team SamMobile.

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Galaxy Watch Active and Watch Active 2 getting new updates

Samsung had released new software updates to the Galaxy Watch and the Galaxy Watch 3 last week. Now, the company has released a similar update to the Galaxy Watch Active and the Galaxy Watch Active 2. The new update improves the stability of the messaging app and the Wi-Fi connection on the smartwatches.

The Galaxy Watch Active and the Galaxy Watch Active 2 are getting a new software update in Austria, Brazil, Germany, and South Korea. The firmware version for Galaxy Watch Active’s update has firmware version R820XXU1DUD1, while the update for the Galaxy Watch Active 2 bears firmware version R500XXU1FUD1. The download size for the new updates is just over 35MB.

If you are a Galaxy Watch Active or Galaxy Watch Active 2 user in any of the countries mentioned above, you can check for the update by opening the Galaxy Wearable app on your connected smartphone, navigating to Watch software update, and tapping on Download and install.

Two months ago, these smartwatches had received a new software update that brought a lot of new features from the Galaxy Watch 3. The Galaxy Watch Active 2 had also received the ECG functionality in a few markets. Samsung has been consistently rolling out new updates to its older smartwatches, which is rarely seen on wearables from most other brands.

Galaxy Watch Active (40mm)

• Model: SM-R500
• Dimensions: Watch: 39.5 x 39.5 x 10.5 mm
  
• Display: 1.1 inch / 27.94 mm Circular Super AMOLED
• CPU: Exynos 9110
• Camera:

More specifications

Galaxy Watch Active 2 (44mm)

• Model: SM-R820
• Dimensions: Watch: 44 x 44 x 10.9 mm
  
• Display: 1.4 inch / 35.56 mm Circular Super AMOLED
• CPU: Exynos 9110
• Camera:

More specifications

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Are you facing this irritating WhatsApp issue on your Galaxy S21?

The Galaxy S21 series seems to be facing an issue related to WhatsApp, and some users are infuriated with it. There have been multiple reports on Reddit and Samsung’s official forum where some Galaxy S21 users have complained that they can’t send or receive WhatsApp messages via their desktop.

Some Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and Galaxy S21 Ultra users say that WhatsApp’s desktop (and web) app frequently disconnects from their smartphones. After disconnection, WhatsApp’s desktop and web apps display this message: Phone Note Connected. Make sure your phone has an active internet connection. This can be quite irritating, especially when you want to carry on the conversation without opening the phone.

It could be due to Samsung’s aggressive battery optimization

This issue could be related to Samsung’s battery optimization technique where it puts unused apps to sleep when the phone’s screen is locked, interfering with the app’s ability to receive notifications in real-time. WhatsApp’s FAQs section says that the disconnection issue happens when the internet connection is unstable or when the smartphone app is killed in the background.

Despite disabling the battery optimization feature, allowing background network activity (even in battery saver mode), and re-installing Whatsapp on their Galaxy S21 series smartphone, some users are still facing the disconnection issue. Some users even tried the factory reset method to see if the problem persists, but to no avail.

While some Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Ultra, and even the Galaxy Z Fold 2 users on our team are facing this issue, others aren’t. Some users claim that this issue intensified on Galaxy phones running Android 11 (and One UI 3.1). Some non-Samsung smartphones seem to be facing this issue as well.

Samsung recently topped the list of Android OEMs that aggressively kill background apps on their smartphones. Google says that it doesn’t recommend aggressively killing background apps, but most Android OEMs do this anyway to improve battery life. Are you facing this issue on your Samsung smartphone? Let us know in the comments section below.

Galaxy S21

• Model: SM-G991B
• Dimensions: Bar: 151.7 x 71.2 x 7.9 mm
  
• Display: 6.2 inch / 157.48 mm Dynamic AMOLED 2X
• CPU: Exynos 2100
• Camera: 12MP

More specifications

Galaxy S21+

• Model: SM-G996B
• Dimensions: Bar: 161.5 x 75.6 x 7.8 mm
  
• Display: 6.7 inch / 170.18 mm Dynamic AMOLED 2X
• CPU: Exynos 2100
• Camera: 12MP

More specifications

Galaxy S21 Ultra

• Model: SM-G998B
• Dimensions: Bar: 165.1 x 75.6 x 8.9 mm
  
• Display: 6.8 inch / 172.72 mm Dynamic AMOLED 2X
• CPU: Exynos 2100
• Camera: 12MP

More specifications

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Galaxy Tab A 10.5 starts getting April 2021 security patch

Samsung is crushing it right now by consistently releasing software updates and security patches to its smartphones and tablets. The company was the first Android OEM to release the April 2021 security patch, and it became the first brand to release the May 2021 security patch earlier this week. Today, Samsung has released the April 2021 security patch to the Galaxy Tab A 10.5 (SM-T595).

The Galaxy Tab A 10.5 (2018) has started getting the April 2021 security patch in the UK. The new software update, which bears firmware version T595XXS4CUD1, brings fixes for several critical vulnerabilities. It includes 21 fixes from Samsung and more than 30 fixes from Google. While we don’t have an official changelog for the update yet, it could also include other bug fixes and stability improvements.

If you are a Galaxy Tab A 10.5 (2018) user in the UK, you might have already received a notification regarding the update. If not, you can manually check for the OTA update by navigating to Settings » Software update and tapping on Download and install. You can also download the firmware from our firmware database and flash it manually. The company could roll out the update to more countries over the next few days.

Samsung had launched the Galaxy Tab A 10.5 in September 2018 with Android 8.1 Oreo. In 2019, the tablet received the Android 9 Pie update with One UI. Last year, it received the Android 10-based One UI 2 update.

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Power outage at Samsung’s Texas chip plant caused $270 million damage

Samsung Foundry’s chip plant in Austin, Texas, suffered a huge loss due to a power outage in February. The company had to stop the production of chips for over a month, which isn’t good news, especially considering the ongoing global chip shortage. The South Korean firm had to destroy some of its products which were being fabricated when the power outage happened, causing damage of millions of dollars.

During its Q1 2021 earnings call, the company revealed that it faced damages to the tune of KRW 300 billion (around $270 million) to KRW 400 billion (around $360 million). A major snowstorm and cold wave in Texas caused statewide power and water outages, and Samsung and other companies in the state had to stop their chip production facilities. It was the first time in Samsung’s history that it had to close the chip production for a month.

Samsung’s Austin chip plant, also known as Line S2, makes DDI (Display Driver Integrated), image sensors, RFIC (Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit), SSD controllers, and other microprocessors. The company uses 14nm to 65nm processes to make these chips. To prevent power outages like this from happening in the future, Samsung is in talks with state authorities to find a solution. The plant achieved 90% of its production capacity by the end of March, and it is now operating at full capacity.

Han Seung-hoon, SVP at Samsung Foundry, said, “There was a wafer production disruption due to the stopping and recovering of the fab. About 71,000 wafers were affected, and this corresponds to around 300 to 400 billion won in damage. The power and water outage were preannounced, so we did have time to prepare. I think we were able to bring the operation back to normalization earlier than we expected.“

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Galaxy Book Flex 2 Alpha features Intel’s 11th Gen processor

Samsung had unveiled its new laptops—Galaxy Book, Galaxy Book Pro, Galaxy Book Pro 360, and Galaxy Book Odyssey—during its online event yesterday. However, it did not showcase the Galaxy Book Flex 2 Alpha during the event. Instead, Samsung directly listed the laptop on its website, and it is already available for pre-order.

The Galaxy Book Flex 2 Alpha is the successor to last year’s Galaxy Book Flex Alpha and features a similar 2-in-1 convertible design. Compared to its predecessor, the Galaxy Book Flex 2 Alpha features only one major change: Intel’s 11th Gen. CPU. The variant with the Intel Core i5 1135G7 CPU is priced at $849, while the variant with the Intel Core i7 1165G7 costs $1,049. The Core i5 version comes with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, while the Core i7 version features 16GB RAM and 512GB storage.

The Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics should offer more than twice the performance of last year’s laptop with Intel UHD graphics. The laptop has a 13.3-inch QLED touchscreen display with Full HD resolution and 400 nits brightness. The screen can go as bright as 600 nits in outdoor mode. It has a metal body, a backlit keyboard, a large glass trackpad with Windows Precision drivers, a 720p webcam, dual-array microphones, and 1.5W stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos audio.

The Galaxy Book Flex 2 Alpha features Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 for wireless connectivity. It has two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, one USB 3.2 Type-C port, an HDMI port, a microSD card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It has a fingerprint reader and is powered by a 54Wh battery. The company is bundling a 40W AC adapter with the laptop. It measures 13.5mm thin and weighs just 1.18kg. It runs Windows 10 Home and is available in black and white colors.

Samsung is pre-installing all the Galaxy ecosystem goodies on the Galaxy Book Flex 2 Alpha, including Link Sharing, Live Wallpapers, Screen Recorder, Samsung Gallery, Quick Search, Samsung DeX, Samsung Flow. Samsung Notes, Samsung Recovery, Samsung Settings, Studio Plus, and Samsung Update apps. These apps make it easier for users to sync their Galaxy smartphone and tablet with the laptop.

• Pre-order Galaxy Book Flex 2 Alpha from Samsung US

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Samsung’s profits jump in Q1 2021, thanks to strong smartphone, TV, and appliance sales

Samsung has announced its earnings for Q1 2021, reporting a jump in revenue and operating profit. The company’s business boomed during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to strong demand for home appliances, smartphones, and TVs. However, the company also warned that its business could see a negative impact due to chip shortage.

The company’s revenue was KRW 65.4 trillion (around $59 billion) and operating profit of KRW 9.38 trillion (around $8.46 billion) in the quarter. The revenue was 18.2% higher and the operating profit was 45.5% higher compared to Q1 2020. Compared to Q4 2020, the revenue and operating profit were 6% higher and 4% higher, respectively.

Revenue and operating profits rose in Q1 2021 due to strong Galaxy S21, home appliances, and TV sales

Samsung’s smartphone division contributed the most to its business, thanks to strong sales of the Galaxy S21 series and the Galaxy A series. Sales of PCs, tablets, and wearables increased, too. The company’s consumer electronics division added KRW 1.12 trillion (around $1.01 billion) to the overall operating profit. The company expects to see solid demand for its foldable phones in the second half of this year. However, the overall smartphone sales are expected to decline in Q2 due to component shortage and no new flagship product launches.

The semiconductor manufacturing division’s operating profit was KRW 3.37 trillion (around $3.04 billion), the lowest Samsung has seen in years. While the demand for chips was high during Q1, the company spent a lot of capital on the expansion of its chip manufacturing facilities. Moreover, the power outage that hit its chip plant in Austin, Texas, had a big impact on its production. Samsung LSI, the company’s logic chip division, saw increased sales of Exynos processors and ISOCELL camera sensors. However, its earnings remained flat as it scrambled to procure display driver chips from the Austin chip plant.

In the second quarter, the company expects higher earnings from its semiconductor division as it expects to see strong demand for memory and storage chips for 5G products, servers, and PCs. Samsung LSI is also said to cooperate better with Samsung Foundry, and it will also outsource some manufacturing to other firms.

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