Samsung is the most preferred smartphone brand among British consumers

Samsung was the largest smartphone brand in the world with a market share of 18.5 percent in Q2 2020. Now, a new report states that most consumers in Britain prefer to buy a Samsung smartphone for their next purchase. The company has been competing with Apple, which is the biggest smartphone brand in Britain.

According to a new report from market analysis firm Counterpoint Research, 82 percent of responders in its survey preferred Samsung for their next smartphone purchase. The South Korean firm was followed by Apple and the Chinese firm Huawei in Britain. In terms of market share, Apple currently dominates the British market with a market share of 50 percent, while Samsung has a 24 percent share of the smartphone market.

Pavel Naiya, a Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Research, said, “Samsung took the lead with its latest stock-keeping units and continuous promotion, whereas prospective iPhone buyers are mostly waiting for its first 5G device. Battery life, price, and build quality are the three most influencing factors for future purchases.”

Samsung recently launched the Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, and the Galaxy Z Flip 5G in the UK. The company is also planning to launch the Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G in the country sometime next month.

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Samsung expects to ship 100,000 units of 75-inch or larger TVs by this month

Samsung unveiled several 4K and 8K QLED TVs during CES 2020 earlier this year, and they went on sale in most important markets around the world in Q2 of 2020. Now, the South Korean firm has said that it expects to ship 100,000 units of TVs that have a screen size of 75 inches or larger by August. The company has been at the number one position in the global TV segment for 14 years in a row.

The company also launched a new video commercial for its 8K QLED TV range, showing off how immersive movies can be on its large screen-sized TVs. Samsung said that it will release more video advertisements that have clips from movies to showcase how capable its large-sized TVs can be in home theatre setups.

Samsung’s new 8K QLED TVs feature ultra-thin bezels, the Quantum Processor 8K to use AI for upscaling content to 8K resolution, full-array direct backlight, extremely high brightness with HDR10+, and 100% color volume. They also feature the Adaptive Picture mode that adjusts the TV’s brightness as per the room’s ambient brightness and adaptive refresh rate with support for AMD FreeSync.

Apart from the multi-channel speaker setup, the company’s 8K QLED TVs feature Object Tracking Sound+, Active Voice Amplifier, and Q Symphony. The Ambient Mode+ feature shows information such as weather, headlines, and can even make the TV virtually disappear within the walls. Other features include Alexa, Bixby, Google Assistant, Multi View, One Remote, One Invisible Connection, and SmartThings.

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Samsung was world’s biggest smartphone maker in Q2 2020 despite fall in sales

The COVID-19 pandemic severely dented the smartphone business as sales dropped 20 percent throughout the world during Q2 2020. Despite a sharp fall in sales, Samsung remained the number one smartphone brand in the world. However, Huawei, which managed to topple Samsung from its top position in April, was a close second.

According to a new report from the research firm Gartner, Samsung managed to sell 54.75 million smartphone units during the second quarter of 2020, capturing an 18.6% share of the market. However, the company’s sales dropped by 27.1% compared to Q2 2019. Huawei, on the other hand, sold 54.12 million units and captured an 18.4% share of the global smartphone market, a 6.8% drop from Q2 of 2019.

Apple’s sales dropped the least during the pandemic. The company sold 38.38 million iPhones during the second quarter to capture a 13% share of the smartphone market, a drop of just 0.4% compared to Q2 2019. Xiaomi and OPPO sold 26.09 million and 23.61 million units, respectively. Xiaomi’s market share during Q2 2020 stood at 8.9%, while OPPO’s market share was 8%.

294.66 million smartphones were sold worldwide during Q2 2020. The top five brands captured Two-thirds of all smartphone sales. Anshul Gupta, Senior Research Director at Gartner, said, “The COVID-19 pandemic continued to negatively affect Samsung’s performance in the second quarter of 2020. Demand for its flagship S Series smartphones did little to revive its smartphone sales globally.”

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Samsung’s display punch-hole technology deemed best in the industry

Starting with the Galaxy S10, Samsung began offering screens with punch-hole designs to provide the best possible screen-to-body ratio. With the Galaxy Note 10, the company improved it even further by moving the punch-hole part to the top-center portion of the screen, making content consumption even more immersive. Now, the South Korean firm has announced that its display punch-hole technology has been deemed the best in the industry.

UL (Underwriters Laboratories), a global safety certification firm, has verified Samsung Display’s screen punch-hole area as having image quality with the lowest color deviation. In terms of “hole area clarity,” the company’s displays provide a balanced level of uniformity across the portion of the display that surrounds the camera hole. Samsung is now calling the screen area surrounding the camera hole ‘Iris Ring,’ something that was leaked via a trademark application yesterday.

The display area surrounding the front-facing camera is said to offer the same level of clarity as other parts of the screen. UL tested the 120Hz Super AMOLED Infinity-O screens on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G and the Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G for brightness, color, and saturation by pinpointing 12 spots in the periphery of the punch-hole area. The result of the test showed that Delta E was two or less, implying color deviation that can’t be noticed with human eyes.

Samsung Display uses high-performance lasers to create punch-holes in the display in such a way that there’s no staining in the process. Stains around the screen punch-hole area could lead to high color deviation, ghosting, and less-than-satisfactory image quality.

Dennis Choi, Vice President of Mobile Display Marketing Team for Samsung Display, said, “Enabling uniform image quality on the display at the periphery of the camera hole allows users to feel a more in-depth sense of picture-taking immersion, in addition to directly benefiting from the ingenuity of the hole design itself. Without a doubt, our camera hole area clarity demonstrates that Samsung Display technological prowess can deliver optimal performance across an entire 5G smartphone display.”

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Iris Ring trademark application hints at iris scanners making a return

Samsung has filed a trademark application with KIPRIS to secure an unusual moniker or brand called Iris Ring. The trademark application was filed last week and it was discovered by our colleagues at GalaxyClub. It doesn’t contain any logos or information regarding the potential use of the Iris Ring name but the application was filed by Samsung Display, which raises some interesting questions.

Given that the trademark was filed by Samsung’s display arm and not the mobile division, logic dictates that the Iris Ring name should pertain to a product or technology that’s in development in Samsung Display’s labs. As to what it could be, your guess is as good as ours, but we’re very tempted to explore the possibility of iris scanners making a comeback.

Is Samsung planning the return of iris scanners?

This is pure conjecture, mind you, as the trademark application simply doesn’t contain enough information to determine the purpose of Iris Ring. Nevertheless, a most-exciting scenario we can think of is Samsung Display and the mobile division working together to create under-panel iris scanners.

Regular iris scanners have been used by Samsung flagships before but the technology was removed with the Galaxy S10 and subsequent flagship models, or in other words, with the emergence of bezelless displays. Meanwhile, Samsung is reportedly working on creating under-panel cameras for its phones and the development reached a point where the technology was almost implemented into the Galaxy Z Fold 2 – if a previous industry rumor is to be believed.

Iris scanner are essentially camera sensors. Granted, they’re not conventional, but they work on the same principles as the cameras you use to capture stills. And with under-panel cameras possibly becoming a reality in the near future, Samsung’s mobile and display divisions might be working together to bring iris scanners back in conjunction with under-panel technology.

It’s a stretch, we agree, so don’t get your hopes up yet, but the trademark application is real and the name is undeniably intriguing. Perhaps we will be lucky enough to see iris scanners returning in 2021. Or perhaps this trademark will never materialize in the form of a real product. But if it will, what’s your best guess on what Iris Ring could be?

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Samsung UK offers free Galaxy S20 when buying select QLED 8K TVs

Samsung UK has launched a limited-time offer wherein customers buying a QLED 8K TV from the 2020 range can claim a Galaxy S20 for free or up to £400 cashback. The offer applies to TV models including the Q700T, Q800T, Q900T, and Q950TS. This new deal comes right after the release of the One UI 2.5 Galaxy S20 update that introduces wireless DeX support for Samsung TVs.

The promotion lasts until September 22 and it’s valid for OLED 8K TV purchases made on Samsung.com as well as partner retailers Dixon, JLP, Richer Sounds, Estore, Hughes, Harrods & Selfridges, AO, SDG, and Argos. The 55-inch Q700T costs £2,499 at Samsung.com while the flagship 85-inch Q950TS will set you back £11,999. The Galaxy S20 itself is being sold by Samsung UK for £799 so it is a better value proposition than the £400 cashback.

The Q900T and Q950TS are the only TV models included in this offer that are equipped with what Samsung calls an Infinity Screen. In translation, they are bezelless TVs and image quality is stunning. But regardless of which QLED 8K TV you might be interested in buying, bezelless or not, it’s worth noting that purchasing through Samsung’s online store allows you to use the Samsung Pay Card by Curve for an exclusive 5% cashback. Samsung Pay Card was released in the UK last week as an extension to Samsung Pay.

Check the links below and remember that the latest QLED 8K TV/Galaxy S20 offer is also available through partner retailers but you might not be able to take advantage of the Samsung Pay Card cashback when buying from them.

• Buy the Q700T QLED 8K TV from Samsung UK
• Buy the Q800T QLED 8K TV from Samsung UK
• Buy the Q900T QLED 8K TV from Samsung UK
• Buy the Q950TS QLED 8K TV from Samsung UK

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Galaxy Buds+ BTS Edition launch in Canada but cost more than Buds Live

Samsung’s purple Galaxy S20+ BTS Edition hasn’t been released in Canada and the company hasn’t made any announcements on the matter, but Canadian BTS fans can now finally buy the Galaxy Buds+ BTS Edition online from Samsung. We heard you, BTS ARMY! said the company in its official launch announcement on Facebook, adding that quantities are very limited.

The Galaxy Buds+ BTS Edition are now available in Canada for $269. The standard earbuds in black, light blue, or white normally cost $199 and prospective buyers can take advantage of a $40 limited-time discount until September 10. This discount doesn’t apply to the BTS Edition.

In other words, the standard Galaxy Buds+ can now be yours for just $159.99, so the BTS Edition might be a hard sell to anyone who isn’t a BTS fan or utterly in love with the color scheme. This is because the regular Galaxy Buds+ and the BTS Edition are technically identical and share the same hardware components under their colorful shells.

In fact, the Galaxy Buds+ BTS Edition are $20 more expensive than the brand-new Galaxy Buds Live. The new earbuds come with some hardware refreshments and Active Noise Cancelling, albeit ANC shouldn’t be the reason why you should consider buying these wearables, as explained in our review.

Samsung Canada is keeping quiet about the Galaxy S20+ BTS Edition but this latest Galaxy Buds+ release could indicate that the company might be considering bringing the purple flagship to Canada. This could very well be the case, but we’re guessing that the company won’t make this step unless it sees high-enough demand for the Galaxy Buds+ BTS Edition first. We’ll keep you posted if we find out more.

Galaxy Buds+ Review

• Buy the Galaxy Buds+ BTS Edition from Samsung Canada

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