Tizen Z3 reportedly coming soon with larger display and improved camera

It has been rumored multiple times over the past few weeks that Samsung has a new Tizen-powered handset in the pipeline, it’s expected to tout a larger display and an improved camera, a new report today out of Korea claims that the Samsung Z3 is going to be launched in the near future. Considering the fact that the handset was recently certified by the FCC that itself was a major indication that the launch is not that far off.

The report suggests that Samsung could release the Z3 in October at the latest though it might show off the device during the upcoming Tizen Developer Conference which takes place from September 17 to September 18 in Shenzhen, China. Some are of the view that the Z3 will be released around the same time as the Gear S2, Samsung’s new Tizen-powered smartwatch, this way Samsung will have two new products that run on Tizen out in the market at the same time. It’s expected that the Z3 might perform better than its predecessors and Samsung might launch the handset in ever more markets, particularly emerging markets across the Middle East. The Z3 likely features a 5-inch 1280x720p display, a 1.3Ghz, quad-core Spreadtrum SC7730S processor with 1.5GB of RAM, 8-megapixel rear and 5-megapixel front camera as well as Tizen 3.0.

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The Galaxy Note 5′s push-to-eject S Pen mechanism is counterproductive

The Galaxy Note 5 lets you jot down notes using the S Pen while the screen is off. That’s one of the most useful features Samsung has added to its brilliant stylus in the Note lineup’s history, but the company has also made a change on the Note 5 that has made the S Pen rather counterproductive.

If you didn’t know already, the Note 5′s S Pen has a push-to-eject mechanism that requires you to, well, do exactly what the name suggests. While the S Pen on previous Notes could simply be pulled out in a single go, the Note 5 requires you to push the S Pen first, then drag it out to start using it. It all sounds cool from a design standpoint, but when it comes to actual usage, this push-to-eject mechanism adds a minor additional step that has a major effect on how quickly you can access it and start tapping that screen with the stylus.

The S Pen’s head is rather small, so the entire process of putting your finger on it and pushing it requires some precision, in addition to wasting a precious second or two before you can get the stylus out and put it to use. As a Galaxy Note fan, the non-intuitive S Pen removal feature on the Galaxy Note 5 has disappointed me. Its functionality is still as awesome as it has always been, but I’ve actually started using it less than I would want to on the Note 5, and the push-to-eject system is a major reason.

The S Pen is still a brilliant tool that puts the Note lineup heads and shoulders above all the phablets in the market, but Samsung’s increased focus on design over functionality means it’s not as quickly accessible as it was before. Some might feel I’m making this an issue for no reason, but for a device that wants you to quickly jot down notes with its stylus without even waking up the device, that push-to-eject mechanism makes zero sense.

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Samsung Galaxy S7 will reportedly come in two different screen sizes

As we are heading into the final quarter of 2015, more rumors of Samsung’s upcoming flagship are starting to emerge. Having previously speculated that Samsung could use two different processors in the Galaxy S7, an Exynos and a Snapdragon one, we now have a rumor regarding its screen size.

According to a new report by Asia Today, Samsung intends to deliver the Galaxy S7 in two different screen sizes. We’re talking about a 5.2-inch variant and a 5.8-inch one. The same source claims that the Galaxy S7 could have an UHD display with a 4K resolution, similar to that of the recently announced Sony Xperia Z5 Premium, but it is unclear if both models will rock this display.

When can we expect to see the Galaxy S7? The newest rumors from Korea claim that we could see launch of both the models at the end of the year but that’s not likely. On the other hand, Samsung is using the Agile development methodology for their next flagship device, which could shorten the development period by upto 2 months, so we really can’t tell the actual time of Galaxy S7 announcement.

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Nearly 25,000 people are signing up to use Samsung Pay every single day

There was a lot of anticipation regarding Samsung’s new payment service and how it would compete with established rivals, Samsung Pay was launched in South Korea last month and it will go live in the United States later this month, already the company is seeing enthusiastic response from customers in its home base. Tens of thousands of people signed up to use the service in the first week and Injong Rhee, Samsung Electronics Executive Vice President and the development lead for Samsung Pay, says that on average 25,000 people are signing up to use Samsung Pay every single day.

Rhee also says that usage has increased rapidly since launch as the service is bringing in daily transaction volumes of KRW 750 million (~$630,000) on average. While he didn’t say how often users in South Korea are making payments with Samsung Pay he does mention that “a majority” of Galaxy Note 5 owners in the country have used the service and that during the open beta the number of active users who made more than one payment with Samsung Pay represented 80-90% of all Samsung Pay users.

Samsung considers plastic cards as the biggest competitor for Samsung Pay instead of rival mobile payment services since it supports both NFC and MST transactions, so in order to make people switch from plastic cards the company will have to provide them with incentives to jump over to Samsung Pay. One such incentive is the ability to make payments using credit cards, reward cards, department store cards, gift cards and store-brand cards which won’t work with conventional plastic debit cards. He also said that in the future other features will be offered as well such as a location-based service which notifies users of available coupons nearby.

Samsung Pay is currently in beta testing in the United States with a formal launch scheduled for September 28, Rhee says that beta tests will also be conducted in other countries including the United Kingdom and Spain. Samsung has previously talked about expanding the payments service to countries across Europe as well as China at some point later this year.

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Samsung rubbishes reports about workforce reduction

It was being reported yesterday that Samsung was looking to reduce its headquarter workforce by 10 percent due to reduction in earnings. However, Samsung has rubbished those reports stating that it has no plans to reduce its workforce. The technology giant explained that it will only relocate a small portion of its workforce as opposed to reportedly reducing its management-related staff amid a slowdown. YonhapNews is reporting that a high-ranking official from Samsung Electronics said, “It will only be relocations of workers.”

Samsung currently has about 320,000 employees worldwide, and about 100,000 them are employed in South Korea. The company didn’t provide any details about the number of personnel that are tasked with management-related duties, but the number is being estimated around 1,000.  The company went through a similar process last year by sending out management and support teams to mobile and consumer electronics division.

The company reported a decline of 37.5 percent in operating income of its flagship smartphone and tablet business to 2.76 trillion won in Q2 2015, and the company is facing severe competition from Apple as well as Chinese brands. Samsung misjudged the demand ratio for the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 edge earlier this year, ending up selling lower number of units of S6 edge and remained with unsold stock of the Galaxy S6. The company has decided to freeze the salaries of its employees for this year, and this is the first time since 2009 that the company has done that.

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Samsung paves the way for smartphones with 6GB RAM

If you believe that 4GB RAM for smartphones is overdoing it a bit, think again. Samsung has paved the way for 6GB RAMs to debut in smartphones in the near future. The company today announced that its mass producing the first 12-gigabit (Gb) LPDDR4 (low power, double data rate 4)mobile DRAM based on its 20-nm process technology. Samsung says that the newest LPDDR4 is likely to significantly improve adoption of high capacity mobile DRAM across the globe, it brings the largest capacity and highest speed available for a DRAM chip with improved energy efficiency, reliability and ease of design for manufacturers.

According to Samsung the 12Gb LPDDR4 is over 30% faster at 4,266 Mbps than the preceding 20nm-based 8Gb LPDDR4 and also twice as fast as DDR4 DRAM for PCs while reducing energy consumption by 20%. Moreover the manufacturing productivity of the new LPDDr4 has been raised by 50% over the preceding chip. Samsung’s 12Gb LPDDR4 enables 3GB or 6GB of mobile DRAM in a single package using two and four chips respectively, it also happens to be the only solution capable of providing a 6GB LPDDR4 package. The company says that in the next generation of mobile devices 6GB of RAM will enable users to enjoy seamless multitasking and maximum performance, and since the new chip can easily fit in the same space used for 3GB packages, manufacturers won’t have to make major design changes to accommodate the new chip. This appears to be a clear hint that the Galaxy S7 could tout 6GB of RAM, Samsung also expects to serve other platforms with its new LPDDR4 memory such as digital appliances, automotive devices as well as ultra-slim PCs in the future.

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How’s the battery life on your Galaxy S6 edge+ or Galaxy Note 5?

Undependable battery life was probably the only major issue with the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge, and despite Samsung’s promise of better power management because of the efficient Exynos CPU and fast and wireless charging support, neither of the two devices scored high on endurance on a single charge. The Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+ launched last month with pretty much the same hardware as the S6 and S6 edge, but with larger batteries under the hood.

But then again, 3,000 mAh batteries don’t exactly inspire on phablets with 5.7-inch displays; the Galaxy Note 5 has a considerably smaller battery than the Note 4, but more efficient hardware and software optimization allow it to offer more or less the same endurance. We’ve been using both devices for about a month now (our reviews will be out very soon), and we can confirm that battery life is better than what we were expecting. It’s not impressive, but that constant worry of finding a charging point that we had using the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge has been reduced by a fair margin.

We’re sure many of you have bought either the Galaxy S6 edge+ or Galaxy Note 5 in recent days, and we would love to know what kind of battery life you have been getting. For some it’s probably too early to ask as their devices might not have settled down enough to be giving the highest possible battery life, but even the early days are a good indication of how good a smartphone can be when it comes to chugging along without needing a charge. So, do let us know about your experience through the poll, and also through the comments section!

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