Samsung Galaxy S9+ in Coral Blue swims to the surface

According to @evleaks, the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ will come in four colors: Midnight Black, Lilac Purple, Titanium Gray and Coral Blue. Yesterday we saw the duo in purple, today comes the blue version of the S9+.

We think we have the complete set. Renders by dbrand do a good job of portraying the black S9 duo. Then there are these renders (with a transparent case) that show off the gray one (courtesy of MyTrendyPhone.no). And for completeness sake, the purple color from yesterday.

     
Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ in Midnight Black, Titanium Gray and Lilac Purple

Of course, Samsung would eventually end up launching a pink version some months from now, perhaps a red one too along with other colors.

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Apple ships the most tablets in the Holiday season, Samsung drops to third

Tablets are not selling as well as before – Q4 of 2017 saw 7.9% less tablets shipped compared to Q4 of 2016 while 2017 as a whole saw a decline of 6.5% over 2016.

And yet despite this turmoil Apple, Amazon and Huawei managed to see growth in slate shipments – both in the final quarter and in 2017 in general.

Apple shipped the most tablets in Q4 of 2017 and 0.6% more than the previous year while Amazon achieved a huge 50.3% jump over last year’s Holiday quarter thanks to some aggressive discounts.

Samsung dropped to third in Q4 of 2017 and saw a 13% decline of tablet shipments compared to the final months of 2016. However, Samsung retained its second place in total tablet shipments for 2017, despite losing some market share.

Despite lackluster efforts from Huawei it still achieved a quarterly growth of 11.9% and yearly improvement of 28%.

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Samsung now making chips for Bitcoin mining hardware

Even Samsung’s foundries have been roped into making Bitcoin mining hardware now. The design for the ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) was completed last year and it went into mass production this month, according to The Bell. These ASIC chips are headed to an unnamed company in China.

An analyst from Samsung Securities stated that producing ASICs takes up only a small portion of the capacity of the company’s foundries. So this shouldn’t affect the production of other chips.

Still, this is a win for Samsung. For example, Bitmain (one of largest makers of Bitcoin mining hardware) fabs its AntMiner chips over at TSMC (based on its 16nm process). Samsung did not say which node is being used for its Bitcoin chips.

The company also started mass producing GDDR6 chips recently, which would be a boon for mining GPU-based cryptocurrencies (mining Bitcoin on a GPU is a lost cause, but it’s the most popular option for Ethereum).

Source (in Korean) | Via

Samsung Q4 report: strong high-end smartphone sales, decline in the low end

Samsung posted its Q4 report, showing $61.8 billion earnings and an operating profit of $11.49 billion. That’s a 24% and 73% respective increase over last year’s Q4.

The positive results are spearheaded by profitable display and semiconductor businesses as well as growing high-end smartphone sales. That higher demand for Samsung’s top-tier smartphones was able to offset slowing lower-end phone sales, although Samsung needed to increase its marketing cost to promote said top-tier phones.

Samsung’s display business was lifted in the final quarter of 2017 thanks to increased demand for high-end OLED panels.

The semiconductor business saw increased sales compared to 2016 mostly thanks to good memory chip sales.

Samsung expects the Galaxy S9 to sell even better than the Galaxy S8 did.

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Samsung now says Galaxy S8/S8+ Oreo beta program ends January 26

JANUARY 2018

The end date for the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ Oreo beta program has been pushed back again. First it was January 15, then it was January 17, and now the company has said the program will end January 26.

So no more beta builds, hopefully – the next update should bring along the final (stable) Oreo build to your device. Sadly, there’s currently no information on when the final roll out would begin, although we expect that to happen sooner than later.

Via

Samsung says it’s still leading India market

Samsung is disputing the Canalys’ conclusion that Xiaomi has overtaken the Korean company in India. Based on data by GfK (a German research firm), Samsung says it has 45% of the value market share and 40% of the volume share.

Canalys analyzed shipment numbers, while GfK tracked sales instead. By that measurement, Samsung is still ahead. Samsung claims it doesn’t need to do large shipments because its supply chain is lean and efficient.

A Samsung spokesperson added that the company was India’s Most Trusted Brand in 2017, making a quick recovery after the Galaxy Note7 incident pushed it down the ranks.

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Samsung Galaxy S9+ leaks in case renders

Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ in one month on February 25 but we already have a pretty good idea what the phones will looks like thanks to recent case renders. Now, thanks to a fresh case leak we get to see even more of the bigger Galaxy S9+.

The Galaxy S9+ is seen fitted in Poetic cases in two color variants – Grey and what looks like Orchid Silver. The phone’s front looks indistinguishable from the current-gen Galaxy S8+ but the back features the new dual camera and the properly-placed fingerprint scanner.

  
Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus

The bigger Galaxy S9+ will likely have the dual camera reserved while the smaller Galaxy S9will make do with a single snapper.

  
Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus

The Galaxy S9 and S9+ will be similar in size and looks to the Galaxy S8 duo but will have slimmer bezels, will add faster cameras with brighter optics (f/1.5), stereo speakers and faster processors. Super slow-motion video is expected too – 480fps in 1080p.

Stay tuned for there will surely be more Galaxy S9 and S9+-related news to come.

Samsung will officially unveil the Galaxy S9 on February 25

Well, here we are. Another year later and another Samsung flagship to be announced. If we’re honest, we really thought for a second that Samsung was going to push the Galaxy S9 announcement up to CES. These were nothing more than swirling rumors.

Invitations were sent to the media to attend Samsung’s Press event in Barcelona, where the South Korean phone maker will announce its newest flagship: the Samsung Galaxy S9 (and S9+).

The invitation itself offers only a number 9 and the words: “The Camera. Reimagined”. So it’s safe to say we’ll be expecting some serious upping of Samsung’s camera game.

So far, based on leaks. We’re expecting the phones to look pretty similar on the front: 18.5:9 Infinity displays with slightly reduced bezels. On the back we’re looking at a redesigned camera setup with the fingerprint scanner migrating towards the center of the back, just below the camera sensors.

 
Unofficial leaked renders of the Galaxy S9 and S9+

Speaking of cameras, we’re also expecting Samsung to offer two different camera experiences on the Samsung Galaxy S9: a single sensor on the S9 and a dual-camera sensor on the larger S9+ model.

Leaks have also suggested that we might see higher frame rates in slow motion on the Galaxy S9: 480 fps @ 1080p. Sony has already been the first to adopt nearly 1,000 fps on the Xperia XZ Premium so if Samsung delves into higher frame rates, we may see more smartphones with frame rates higher than 240 fps.

We can also expect a bump in performance and somewhat faster wireless charging. The 15W fast-charging model isn’t expected to change this time around, though.

The phone is also reportedly going to open for pre-orders starting the day after the event: February 26 with units shipping to customers on March 16.

What is something you’d like to see in the Galaxy S9?

Samsung delivers official PyeongChang 2018 app

Samsung announced the official app for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics next month. It will offer live updates of sports venues, information about athletes, records and medal standings. In the two weeks before the Games actually begin, the app will offer news about upcoming events and the latest from the Torch Relay.

    
PyeongChang 2018 Screenshots

The app will give the ability to every user to customize the news feed and the push notifications. You can highlight athletes, sports, and even whole countries. There will be photo and video highlights.

Although the Games haven’t started, there is already information about venues, a full schedule of the events and a live stream of the hashtag #PyeongChang2018 from Instagram in which all fans can participate.

We previously reported that Samsung will hand out customized Galaxy Note8 phones to every official at the Games.

PyeongChang 2018 on Google Play • App Store • Galaxy Apps

New Samsung sensor points to 1080p@480fps video recording for Galaxy S9

Despite rumors, the Galaxy S8 topped out at 60fps for FullHD video recording and the Galaxy Note did nothing to change that. Well, it’s that time of the yea again – rumors say the Galaxy S9will have “Super slow-mo”, but this time there’s something to back it up.

Samsung’s new ISOCELL Bright line features a 3-stack Fast Readout Sensor, which enables 1080p video capture at 480fps. A key detail is missing – how long does it last? Sony’s Motion Eye can do double the frames per second (960fps), but for less than a fifth of a second and at 720p resolution. At any rate, it’s miles better than Samsung’s current cameras which top out at 720p @ 240fps.

Also, this is a Bright sensor with Tetracell technology – small 0.9µm pixels are binned to improve sensitivity in low light. They do offer goodies like Dual Pixel AF and Super Phase Detection, but are generally mean for thin, bezel-less phones rather than for flagship imaging.

We doubt that Samsung will use this exact sensor on the Galaxy S9, chances are it will be something with larger pixels but a similar 3-stack design.

Source | Via (in Dutch)