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Samsung is working on a phone design that would finally be more exciting than any iPhone

May 4,2018 Leave a Reply Android, Smartphones, Technology Galaxy S10, Galaxy X, iPhone, samsung

A report from a solid source that just hit the wire on Friday morning suggests that Samsung may finally have a launch schedule in place for its mysterious new Galaxy X. The company first confirmed that it was working on a smartphone with a foldable display back in 2017. At the time, a Samsung executive said that the company was targeting 2018 for the phone’s release, but numerous reports have since stated that the phone’s debut has been pushed back to 2019. Honestly, that’s a very good thing, and it’s uncharacteristic for Samsung. The company has been known to rush out new products long before they’re ready for primetime, so it’s refreshing to see Samsung take a step back and make sure it gets things right before releasing the Galaxy X.
According to this new report, the phone will have a 3.5-inch screen on the outside and the approximate equivalent of two 3.5-inch displays on the inside. When it folds open, its total screen area will be in the high 6-inch range. It’s a nifty idea and the Galaxy X could be truly impressive if Samsung manages to use a folding OLED panel so there’s no seam where the hinge is placed. But to be frank, it’s really not all that appealing to me. The device is bound to be awkwardly thick, and I’m not sure gaining a diagonal inch is worth dealing with the large size, the inevitable hit to battery life, or the weird aspect ratio.As it turns out, Samsung is in the early stages of working on a radical new smartphone design that would be completely unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Did you catch that part that began at the 57 second mark? Panasonic demoed a television with a display that is completely transparent when it’s turned off. It’s absolutely incredible, and I need 10 of them right now. If you go back a bit to the 37 second mark, you can see another awesome design that puts a transparent display on the front of a wine cooler, but this time Panasonic only lights up part of the screen at a time. This way, the panel can display information but you can still see the wine inside the cooler.

By now you probably see where we’re going with this. What would happen if Samsung took these technologies and shrunk them down so they could fit in your pocket? Well, you would end up with one of the most exciting and novel new smartphone designs the world has ever seen.

The regulatory filing hawks over at Patently Mobile just dug up a pair of patents that were awarded to Samsung this week by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. As illustrated in the technical drawing above, the patents cover a smartphone with a transparent design. That would be… awesome.

As you might have surmised after watching the video above, a Samsung phone with a transparent display could light up the entire screen and be used just like a regular smartphone. But portions of the display could show graphics while other portions remain transparent, resulting in an augmented reality experience the likes of which the world has never seen on a smartphone.

Samsung first showed off fully functional transparent displays all the way back in 2015, so the company has been working on this technology for quite a while now. Of course, that doesn’t mean a smartphone with a transparent display will launch anytime soon. In fact, even with these new patents brought to light, Samsung may never launch a phone with a transparent display. Companies constantly work on new technologies that never see the light of day — bet let’s hope that’s not the case here because this device could be the most exciting smartphone the world has ever seen.

By Zach Epstein @zacharye

5 Reasons To Buy Samsung’s Galaxy S9 Over The Apple iPhone X

Mar 1,2018 Leave a Reply Smartphones, Technology iPhone, samsung, Samsung Galaxy S9, smartphones

The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+. Photo credit: AP Photo/Manu Fernandez

The launch of Samsung’s new flagship Galaxy S9 means it’s time to ask the only question that matters – is it worth your money?

Or, more specifically, is it worth your money instead of the iPhone X? Don’t forget to check out my breakdowns and comparisons for most recent flagship smartphones.

It’s jacked

Who knew something as simple as the headphone jack would become such a contentious battleground for smartphone makers? With the other major Android phone – Google’s Pixel 2 – following Apple’s lead by removing the headphone jack, Samsung has smartly kept the 3.5mm connection.

Of the three big smartphone makers – Apple, Google and Samsung, only the latter has kept this technology, which is good marketing for the Korean company. Also, as someone who has tested various devices and lived with no headphone jack for the last year – this is a good consumer move.

Forget arguments about audio quality and design principles, having the headphone jack is better than not having it in purely practical terms – especially if you don’t want to venture into the murky world of wireless headphones yet.

Fingerprint scanner

Another feature that has disappeared – or is at least disappearing – from the Apple line of smartphones. Whilst Apple paves a new biometric path, Samsung revisits familiar ground by keeping its fingerprint scanner with a small location improvement.

Perhaps “location improvement” is a bit unfair, the much-maligned slightly-off-center reader was always an odd choice. It almost perfectly reflected the Galaxy’s image as a left-of-center choice of smartphone against the ever-popular iPhone.

But with a lower, central position, it’s easier to reach for small hands, more intuitive and gives users a familiar option to log-in to their device or authorize mobile payments. And, whilst Samsung is pushing its own biometric security tech “Intelligent Scan”, the Galaxy maker is smart enough not to force it upon its users as the only unlocking option….yet.

Super, super slow motion

Samsung’s new snapper has some impressive specs and features, more on that below – but one feature that stands out is the 960 fps slow motion. Check out my colleague Ian Morris’ hands-on below to see how good it is in action.

This isn’t exactly breaking new ground, Sony had similar slow-motion tech at a higher resolution (1080p) in the XZ Premium, but it’s still excellent on the S9 and obviously, it’s better than the iPhone X’s 240fps slow motion.

Always listening, desperate to be liked

This is less of a phone specific reason and more of a reason to buy Samsung devices over Apple devices in general. Simply, Samsung listens. Let’s take the S9 for example, Samsung took the criticism of the fingerprint sensor and moved it, it also kept the headphone jack – which is a debate that’s yet to be settled.

Samsung has form here, too. It kept the removable battery in the Galaxy S5 when others were heading over to a locked design, it also brought back expandable storage after removing it in the Galaxy S6. Where Apple forges ahead with new concepts – that may or may not work – and forces it upon iPhone fans, Samsung is so eager to please its entire strategy and roadmap is completely malleable. For consumers, that’s a good trait.

Price

Both the S9 and S9+ are cheaper than the cheapest iPhone X ($719 and $839 Vs. $999). That’s a big saving for an arguably on-par device.

Jay McGregor , CONTRIBUTOR Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Jay McGregor is the editor-in-chief of a new documentary publication called Point. He also reports for The Guardian, TechRadar, BBC Radio and others. Follow on YouTube: youtube.com/pointreport

The tougher Galaxy S8 Active is here with a bigger battery and a shatterproof display

Aug 8,2017 Leave a Reply Smartphones galaxy, s8, samsung

Peace of mind and battery.

By Michael Simon Staff Writer, PCWorld

If there’s one criticism of the Galaxy S8 (aside from the terrible placement of the fingerprint sensor), it’s that it’s a little too fragile. So if you’ve held off on buying because you’re afraid of breaking it, the Galaxy S8 Active is here to quell your fears.

The Galaxy S8 Active is essentially same phone as the Galaxy S8—5.8-inch Super AMOLED display, Snapdragon 835 chip, and a 12MP camera—but it’s outfitted to withstand a beating. Unlike the regular S8’s all-glass body, the S8 Active is constructed using “military-grade materials” and housed in a metal frame with four bumpers built to protect against “shock, abrasion, tilting or twisting.” Additionally, the screen has a shatter-resistant layer and the back of the phone now has a “rugged, tough texture” to make it less prone to slips and falls.

All that durability adds a bit of bulk to the device, measuring 151.9×74.9×9.9 mm vs 148.9×68.1×8 mm for the plain S8. At 208 grams, the new phone is a bit heavier than the 155-gram S8 as well. But you’re also getting a far bigger battery. The Galaxy S8 has a 3,000mAh battery, but the S8 Active has a massive 4,000mAh one, which should allow it to last well into a second day. And you can still charge it wirelessly.

The Galaxy S8 Active ships with full Bixby support (including Bixby Voice, which was missing on the Galaxy S8 until recently), and adds a new shortcut menu to quickly access the stopwatch, barometer, compass, and flashlight.

Samsung is selling the 64GB Galaxy S8 Active for $850 ($100 more than the Galaxy S8) in two colors, gray and gold. It is available for preorder at AT&Tfor shipment on Aug. 11. Samsung says the device will be exclusive to the carrier for a limited time.

Why this matters: Samsung has been making “active” variants of its Galaxy flagship phones ever since the S4, and they definitely live up to their name. They’re perfect for people who want a premium smartphone experience without babying their phone (or shoving it into a giant case. But like the other Galaxy S Active phones, we’re most interested in that battery. We’ll gladly sacrifice a millimeter of thickness of it means getting such a massive battery in the S9, but we’re not holding our breath, especially since the S7 Active had a 4,000mAh battery too.

Michael Simon covers all things mobile for Greenbot and Macworld. You can usually find him with his nose buried in a screen.

Leaks reveal the 10 most exciting new features coming to Samsung’s Galaxy S8

Mar 14,2017 1 Comment Smartphones galaxy s8, iPhone, samsung, smartphones

While Apple fans still have about six months of thumb-twiddling left to endure before the hotly anticipated new iPhone 8 is finally revealed, Android lovers are now just two weeks away from Samsung’s official Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ unveiling. Of course, BGR already exclusively unveiled the Galaxy S8 earlier this month, albeit unofficially, and there really isn’t much mystery left at this point. In fact, a series of recent leaks have already detailed nearly all of the most exciting new features coming to Samsung’s next-generation Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ flagship phones, and in this post we’ll run through what are shaping up to be the 10 hottest new features we can expect from Samsung’s new Galaxy S handsets.

DON’T MISSThese new Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ photo leaks are the best ones yet

Design

Samsung’s new Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ will boast what is unquestionably the most elegant and impressive smartphone design we’ve seen thus far. The oblong home button will be removed from the front of the phones, and the bezels above and below the screens will be narrowed significantly. As a result, the S8 duo will come closer than any widely available phones ever have to achieving the all-screen design we’re all waiting for.

Display sizes

Beyond the fact that the screens will take up more of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ faces than any previous-generation models, they’ll also be substantially bigger without increasing the overall footprints of the devices themselves. The smaller Galaxy S8 will have a 5.8-inch screen stuffed into a phone that’s just a bit larger than Apple’s 4.7-inch iPhone 7, and the Galaxy S8+ will cram a massive 6.2-inch display into a phone that’s roughly the same size as the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus.

You can see size comparisons right here.

Display resolution

So we know the designs are impressive and we know the displays will be larger, but there’s more good news: both phones will reportedly pack WQHD+ resolution. That means Samsung is cramming a whopping 2960 x 2400 pixels into its new flagship smartphones.

Curved display on both models

One last bit about Samsung’s new Super AMOLED screens — they’ll both be curved this time around. Everyone loves the rounded front and back on Samsung phones like the Galaxy Note 7 and Galaxy S7 edge, but last year Samsung included a flat display panel in the smaller Galaxy S7 model. In 2017, that will no longer be the case.

Iris scanner

Another very cool feature coming over to the Galaxy S8 lineup from the Galaxy Note 7 is the iris scanner, which will allow Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ users to unlock their phones with a quick eye scan. The S8 duo might also include the Note 7’s secure folder, so the iris scanner will likely be able to grant users access there as well.

Upgraded cameras

Samsung’s Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge and Galaxy Note 7 all shared the same rear camera in 2016, and it was one of the best cameras that has ever appeared on a smartphone. This year’s Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are expected to include even better 12-megapixel Dual Pixel rear cameras, and the front-facing 8-megapixel cameras are rumored to offer improved low-light performance as well.

Desktop mode

Samsung’s new Galaxy phones will include a nifty new feature that allows users to plug them into a dock in order to power a new desktop experience. When connected to a monitor, users will be able to run Android apps on the big screen and multitask to their heart’s content.

This is an interesting one, since a similar feature on another smartphone has completely failed to draw any attention whatsoever. Of course, that other smartphone was the Windows-powered HP Elite x3, and we established a long time ago that no one wants Windows on a smartphone.

New processors

The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ will be the first new smartphones from a big-name vendor to be powered by next-generation 10nm processors. In the US, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 will run the show, and the international S8 models will be powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 8895 chipset. We can expect more power and better efficiency than we’ve ever seen in any Samsung smartphone to date.

Beast mode

Speaking of power, the new Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ will reportedly include a special new mode that cranks up the juice and delivers maximum sustained performance when the user wants more power at his or her fingertips.

Better battery life

Last but most certainly not least, we can expect bigger batteries (reports say 3,000 mAh in the Galaxy S8 and 3,500 mAh in the S8+) as well as faster charging from Samsung’s new flagship phones, in addition to better efficiency from the new 10nm processors.

Tags: Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8 Plus, Samsung