Huge Galaxy View tablet has specs confirmed through benchmark

Samsung has teased its upcoming Galaxy View tablet last month during its IFA event. This is going to be the company's biggest mobile device yet, as it's so far been rumored to sport a whopping 18.4-inch touchscreen. That is, if the Galaxy View turns out to be the tablet with the model number SM-T670.

Today the T670 was spotted at GFXBench, which means that its specs have once again been confirmed, through the benchmark's info listing.

The device apparently has an 18.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, a 2 MP front camera, no rear camera, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, and it's powered by an unidentified Samsung Exynos 7 Octa chipset. This comes with a CPU sporting four Cortex-A57 cores and four Cortex-A53 cores, and the maximum clock speed seems to be 1.6 GHz. The GPU is a Mali-T720. The prototype that's been benchmarked was running Android 5.1.1 Lollipop at the time.

The lack of a rear camera seems surprising at first, but imagine how odd it would be to actually take pictures with an 18-inch tablet. The Galaxy View will allegedly be targeted at businesses and the education market, as well as consumers - in this case as a device for the living room. Since the Galaxy View has recently been Bluetooth certified, it should be announced soon.

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Meizu smartphones tops benchmarks with Exynos 7420 and Helio X20

Meizu officials have already said that we're not going to see an MX5 Pro smartphone, with the "Pro" line getting shelved. However, that apparently doesn't mean that there won't be some high-end devices from the Chinese company in the near future.

It may in fact be already working on not one, but two of those - one of which could be the device formerly known as the MX5 Pro Plus (and supposedly pictured below). A Meizu device with a Samsung Exynos 7420 SoC as well as another Meizu device with a MediaTek Helio X20 chipset have managed to top some benchmark charts recently.

Let's start with the Exynos-powered unit, codenamed NIUX according to the folks who run the AnTuTu benchmark. This has achieved a score of 69,000, putting it pretty much on par with the Samsung Galaxy Note5 sporting the same chipset.

There is one important difference, however, as the Meizu went through AnTuTu with 'just' a 1080p screen. The display's size is still a mystery, but other specs of the device have been revealed. It's going to have a 21 MP main camera, a 5 MP front-facing snapper, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. It currently runs Android 5.1 Lollipop.

Moving on we get to another handset, and this one is said to launch as the Meizu ME5 (to complement the MX5 in the firm's roster, undoubtedly). It uses MediaTek's upcoming Helio X20 SoC with a deca-core processor (yes, that's ten cores). Because two of those cores are Cortex-A72, it's managed to beat the aforementioned Exynos 7420 in the AnTuTu benchmark, because Samsung's offering has to make do with Cortex-A57s on the performance cluster, and the A72s outperform those.

The Helio X20 goes past 70,000 points in the benchmark, revealing perhaps the first ever true high-end contender from MediaTek. Once again, though, the Meizu device used to achieve that score has 1080p resolution, so keep that in mind.

The ME5 is rumored to come with a 5.5-inch screen, a 20 MP Sony Exmor RS rear camera with f/1.8 aperture and the 1/1.7" Sony IMX204 sensor, as well as a 6.2 MP selfie snapper with f/1.8 aperture and a 1/3.06" sensor with wide-angle lens. The phone should have 2.5D curved glass on both the front and the back, with a metal frame - a design that's said to be reminiscent of Samsung's Galaxy S6, but with less reflections put out by the glass. There will be a fingerprint sensor on the back, 4GB of RAM in tow, and a 3,600 mAh battery. It will be around 7.9mm thick, but the camera will protrude to 9.9mm.

According to sources in China, Meizu will price the ME5 at a whopping CNY 4,999, which is around $785 or €695, putting it on par with the iPhone 6 and the Galaxy S6 in that market. So this will clearly not aim to compete with any 'affordable Chinese flagships'. Meizu feels that the design and workmanship of the ME5 are worth the high asking price.

It's unclear when either of these handsets will become official. It's also quite possible that the two are going to be offered as two versions of the same ME5: a lower-end one with the Exynos 7420 and 3GB of RAM, as well as a higher-end model with the MediaTek Helio X20 and 4GB of RAM. Their other specs are similar enough for this to easily happen.

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Samsung launching Galaxy Note5 in India on September 7

Samsung will be launching its newest flagship - the Galaxy Note5 - in India on Monday, September 7 at an event in New Delhi. The pricing and availability details will be revealed at the event.

Samsung recently launched the Galaxy S6 edge+ in India at a whopping INR 57,900 ($874). The Note5 has similar specifications as the edge+ but lacks the curved display. Instead you get the S Pen stylus, which has been a staple of the Note series since the original launched back in 2011.

We will keep you updated on the details as soon as the device is launched.

Samsung Galaxy Note5 stylus reportedly jams and damages phone when inserted the wrong way

The S Pen on the Note5 might have a design flaw. As discovered by Android Police, if inserted the wrong way, it could get stuck and cause permanent damage to the phone.

The S Pen on the Note5 is uniformly shaped throughout, unlike the styli on the previous Note devices. This means it goes in easily either way without much resistance. The problem is, if you accidentally do insert it the wrong way, the stylus goes most of the way in and then gets badly stuck in the phone's holding mechanism, making it difficult to pull out without the help of tools. If you do manage to pull it out, the stylus detection mechanism on the phone - which tells it when the stylus is inserted or removed - stops working permanently, as Android Policediscovered on their review unit.

The latter part might not happen 100% of the times. According to Ars Technica, the mechanism did stop working on their unit but putting it back in the wrong way somehow made it work again, which wasn't the case with Android Police's unit.

Samsung's response to this is to read the manual. Unlike the manual that came with the previous Note devices, the Note5 manual specifically advises against placing the S Pen the wrong way inside the phone, meaning Samsung was well aware of the issue and the things that could happen if the user were to put the S Pen backwards but instead of altering the design decided to add a warning in the manual instead.

While one could argue that anyone who inserts the stylus the wrong way deserves what's coming to them, no one in their right mind would do it on purpose. It's an unlikely scenario but in case someone manages to do it, it would have been better if the stylus simply didn't go in or even if it did wouldn't get horrible jammed and possibly damage the phone in the process. That seems like a way too serious a penalty for a simple mistake.

Anyway, it doesn't seem like Samsung is going to do anything about it as the company has covered its tracks in the user manual so it's not like they don't warn you about it. As a user, you just have to be careful not to put the S Pen in the wrong way, which applies to many things in general.

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Samsung Gear S2 and Gear S2 Classic

Samsung has been teasing the Gear S2 smartwatch for weeks now. The company is clearly very proud of its first wearable with a round touchscreen, so much so that one of its executives has already shown us what it looks like on his wrist.

As we get closer to September 3, which is when the big announcement will take place at IFA in Berlin, we're now seeing two models of the Gear S2 passing through the FCC.

The US regulatory agency has certified both the Samsung SM-R720 and the SM-R732. According to past leaks and rumors, the former of those will be sold as the Gear S2, while the latter is due to get the Gear S2 Classic moniker.

The FCC process has revealed that both of these will come with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi built-in, but neither will also sport mobile data connectivity. That's apparently going to be reserved for a third variation of Samsung's first round smartwatch.

Previous leaks have suggested that the Gear S2 will come with a 360x360 AMOLED touchscreen, an Exynos 3472 chipset, 768MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, NFC, as well as a bunch of sensors including a heart rate monitor.

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Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ is now in stores

The wait is over and the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ has landed in stores in the US, Canada, Hong Kong and South Korea. The biggest Galaxy S yet – practically Note-sized – features a dual-curved 5.7" display that enables "apps edge" and "people edge" functionality but lacks the Note's trademark S-pen.

In the US the S6 edge+ is available on AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint and US Cellular.Samsung's website is a centralized place to check pricing on the 32GB and 64GB models (no plans for a 128GB model for now despite contradicting indications).

Canadians can pick Rogers, Bell, Telus, SaskTel or Wind as their Galaxy S6+ carrier. You can check those carrier's sites or Best Buy.

In Hong Kong the new flagship is on the four major carriers – CSL, CMHK, Three and SmarTone.

In its home country, the Samsung Galaxy S6 has landed on SK Telecom, LG U+ and KT.

The other phablet flagship, the Galaxy Note5, already launched in some countries and is hitting the US today.

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Samsung confirms some features of the Gear A round smartwatch

Following many months of leaks, we're now probably approaching the unveiling date for Samsung's first round smartwatch. This will allegedly be called Gear A, and we've heard that it's going to be announced alongside the Galaxy Note 5. That means it should get official on August 13.

And today at a Tizen Developer Summit in India the Korean company has confirmed some specs of the Gear A. Once again, we are told that it will have a round touchscreen with 360x360 resolution.

But that's not all. The rotating bezel ring which will allow you to control the smartwatch has been acknowledged by Samsung too. Furthermore, the wearable is set to run Tizen 2.3.1.

Previous leaks also talked about the Gear A featuring an Exynos 3472 chipset with a dual-core processor and 768MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, and a 250 mAh battery. For connectivity Bluetooth 4.1 and Wi-Fi 802.11n will be in, while a handful of sensors are to be expected too, including a heart rate monitor, gyro, GPS, and barometer.

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Samsung details future Tizen versions

At its Tizen Developer Summit 2015 taking place in Bangalore, India, Samsung has just confirmed certain details about the Gear A smartwatch. Not only that, but the company has decided to also out a few features coming to future versions of Tizen, its in-house developed mobile operating system.

First off, let's start with the next iteration of Tizen, version 2.4. This will come with easy sign-up features, including single sign-on and "phone-based automatic certification". This sounds like it's similar to what happens in Android where you can use the Google account you've signed into your handset with for some apps which require registration.

A simple sharing menu is coming to Samsung's OS, once again emulating a feature that's been in Android for a long time. Additionally, "mega size file sharing" will be possible through cloud storage providers.

Native support for navigation features such as geofencing, routing, and points of interest will arrive in Tizen 2.4 too.

For some reason you'll be able to create a profile on your phone which you can then share with friends, while also sharing your presence information - something that's a basic part of every mobile messaging app out there.

Finally, messaging itself will be enhanced with the ability to send large files for free, where "large" is defined as under 30MB. These will be stored somewhere for 15 days.

Moving on, Tizen 3.0 should be launched in late 2015 or early next year. It will bring support for multiple users on a single device, 64-bit processing capabilities, as well as an Internet of Things framework built-in.

Certain unnamed code changes will lead to reduced app launch times according to Samsung, and security is going to be enhanced and simplified at the same time - though we aren't given any more details on this for now.

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Galaxy Tab S2 will be available in Hong Kong starting next week

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2, which was made official last week and is already up for pre-order in Europe, will go on sale in Hong Kong on August 4. The device comes in 9.7-inch and 8-inch variants and is available in Wi-Fi only or Wi-Fi and LTE configurations.

The Wi-Fi version of both 9.7-inch and 8-inch variants is priced at HKD3,888 ($500) and HKD3,088 ($400), respectively, and will be available in black and white color options starting August 4. The gold color model for both will be available in mid-August.

Similarly, the LTE version is priced at HKD4,888 ($630) and HKD4,088 ($527) respectively, and will be available in black and white color options in mid-August, with gold color model going on sale later that month.

Those purchasing the tablet will also get an Expedia discount code valued at HKD150 ($20), extra 100GB cloud storage on Microsoft OneDrive for two years, free 3-month Audible subscription, and free download of 1 book per month from Kindle. There are also many other offers - click the Source link below.

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Samsung might stay away from in-house GPU for now

Samsung has a lot to brag about on today's mobile scene. The Korean tech giant has managed to stay firmly on top of the ferociously-competitive market for quite some time now, so, it is definitely got a working formula for success. A big chunk of it, at least in recent years, has been the move away from generic chip architecture and towards the in-house development of Exynos technology.

Samsung's silicon has proven to be quite powerful and versatile and consequently a major market hit. But, despite all the custom-tailored technology that goes into the Exynos SoCs, it is a fact that Samsung still relies on standard ARM graphics for the chips. The move towards custom graphics cores seems only logical and has, in fact, been the subject of a lot of rumors and speculations. Industry sources, however, now hint that Samsung has delayed work on custom mobile graphics, by as much as five years.

Earlier reports suggested a possible AMD buyout, a step which would fuel the in-house GPU development significantly. That possibility is still on the table, but it is unlikely that Samsung will step away from ARM's Mali chips in the foreseeable future. And frankly, it has good reasons for sticking with the industry standard.

For one, ARM has proven time and time again to be a reliable partner, staying on the cutting edge of innovation and delivering comparable and often better performance than competitors, such as Adreno and PowerVR. Still, Samsung might already be working toward custom GPU's in the long run. The company has allegedly managed to lure engineers from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel to spearhead the research, so, the possibility of an entirely in-house developed Exynos chipset is still very high, albeit probably not in the next five years or so.

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Samsung Galaxy A5 starts getting Lollipop update in Poland

Just a couple of days after Samsung began rolling out the Lollipop update for the Galaxy A7, the Galaxy A5 (SM-A500FU), which was announced by the company back in October last year and released a couple of months later, has also started receiving the update.

Weighing in at 1GB, the update brings Android 5.0.2 OS, a new TouchWiz UX influenced by the new Material Design, new lock-screen and notification panel, better battery life, as well as performance and stability improvements.

The update is currently rolling out in Poland, where it is available both over-the-air (OTA) as well as via KIES. If all goes smoothly it should expected to reach more markets next month.

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Samsung acknowledges Galaxy S5 Lollipop update issues

Back in March this year, the Android Lollipop update for the Galaxy S5 (as well as the S4) was put on hold by Samsung Norway due to some major issues, but as the update reached the UK the following week, we thought it was an isolated problem. However, now we learn that's not the case.

Users of the Galaxy S5 have been complaining about the update in the UK, too, and just days ago the local branch of the South Korean company finally admitted to the issues plaguing the update, promising to roll out "micro updates" to help resolve them.

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Samsung’s Tizen Store now available worldwide

Samsung has made the Tizen Store available in 182 countries around the world, even as the company's only Tizen-based smartphone - the Z1 - is currently only available in India and Bangladesh, according to Wall Street Journal.

The move clearly indicates that the South Korean company has plans to bring Tizen phones to more countries around the world. And since the Tizen Store currently has little to boast in terms of big-name apps, Samsung might be hoping to attract more app developers by expanding the store's reach.

Samsung, however, is keeping its cards close to its chest, claiming that the plan for Tizen smartphones has not changed since the launch of the Z1.

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Samsung Pay scheduled to launch in the second half of 2015

Samsung has revealed that its mobile payments service, Samsung Pay, will be launched in the second half of this year, and the first countries to take advantage of the service will be the US and South Korea.

The revelation was made by Samsung Electronics’ Managing Director, Park Jin-Young, who also said that “the consecutive release schedule to the rest of the other countries […] in the second half of the year is still under discussion.“

For those who aren't in the know, Samsung Pay was announced back in March during this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC). It uses near-field communications (NFC) and magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology developed by LoopPay.

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Samsung’s Q1 Profit Drops 39%

Samsung Electronics has disclosed its first-quarter earnings, with operating profit tumbling once again thanks to pressure from rival smartphone makers. Its performance stands in sharp contrast to Apple, which posted its second-largest quarterly earnings of all time earlier this week.

The South Korean company reported net profit of 4.63 trillion won (about $4.35 billion), a 39 percent drop from the 7.49 trillion won it reported a year ago. This fell below analysts’ expectations, as well as Samsung’s own forecast for operating profit of 5.9 trillion won. Revenue slipped 12 percent year-over-year to 47 trillion won.

Samsung Electronics’ smartphone sales have been hurt by competition with Apple and a slew of smaller Android device makers, but Samsung sounded an optimistic note, predicting a recovery in the second quarter thanks to its new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge.

The company also said in its earnings call that China and India will drive demand for its smartphones this year, even though it faces stiff competition from makers like Xiaomi and Micromax in those markets.

Samsung Electronics’ mobile unit saw its first-quarter operating profit plunge 57 percent year-over-year to 2.74 trillion won. Its operating profit margins climbed 10.6 percent quarter-over-quarter, however, which the company attributed to stronger sales of its mid-range smartphones. The company said it plans to continue boosting margins by spending less on marketing.The company warned, however, that overall smartphone and tablet sales demand might stagnate due to seasonality. On the other hand, demand for high-end televisions and air conditioners is expected to increase in the second quarter, but that may not be enough to help Samsung Electronics’ consumer electronics unit totally recover. It posted a loss of 140 billion won, compared to a 190 billion won profit a year ago.

In addition, the company also believes its second-quarter earnings will be buoyed by its semiconductor business, as it sells memory chips to other smartphone manufacturers that are about to launch new flagship smartphones (for example, Samsung Electronicswill reportedly supply processor chips for the next iPhone). Like mobile, its semiconductor unit has also seen an improvement in margins, which climbed to 28.5 percent this quarter compared to 20.8 percent a year ago.

Samsung reports a $5.5B operating profit for Q1 2015

Samsung Electronics has released its financial results for Q1 2015 and they mark improved profits quarter-on-quarter despite a sales drop of 11% over Q4 2014. While the Device Solutions (DS) and IT and Mobile (IM) divisions show only marginal decrease in sales, Consumer Electronics (CE) is the black sheep with sales down 28%.

The explanation for the low figures in CE is the weak seasonality and the strong dollar which led to decreased demand in Europe and emerging markets. Little improvement is expected on that front in Q2 due to continued exchange rate impact.

IT and Mobile reports improved earnings, brought about by lower marketing expenses. Decreased shipments of tablets and feature phones have lead to a slight decline in revenue. Meanwhile, smartphone shipments have increased, fueled largely by mid-to-low-end products. The word "stagnate" is mentioned in the Q2 forecast for smartphone and tablet demand.

The semiconductor division is doing well, and is not influenced by seasonality. Increased sales of DRAM and SSD/UFS products are reported. The Q2 forecast is for even better figures, driven by the demand for the recently released Galaxy S6 flagship and SSD data centers.

Display Panel subsidiary reports increased shipments of premium OLED products and solid performance on the LCD front despite decreased shipments. The Q2 2015 outlook focuses on OLED shipment expansion and increased sales of LCD TV panels due to China labor day. The new production line however means increased costs figures.

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Samsung pips Apple to regain top smartphone-maker crown

While Apple became the world's top smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter of 2014, looks like Samsung has recaptured the crown in Q1, 2015.

According to a report from market research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung captured 24% market share in the first quarter of the year, overtaking Apple, which claimed nearly 18%. It's worth mentioning that Samsung had captured 31% market in the year-ago quarter.

In terms of shipment numbers, the South Korean company shipped 83.2 million smartphones worldwide, while the Cupertino-based company shipped 61.2 million units.

"Samsung continued to face challenges in Asia and elsewhere, but its global performance has stabilized sufficiently well this quarter to overtake Apple and recapture first position as the world's largest smartphone vendor by volume," said Strategy Analytics Executive Director Neil Mawston.

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Samsung details Galaxy S6 and S6 edge software gift packs

With the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, Samsung has definitely set the flagship bar pretty high yet again. Both handsets employ cutting-edge technology and offer premium quality and leading performance. Naturally, the Korean giant hasn’t skimped on the software side as well. TouchWiz has received a major overhaul and the device works better than ever.

But the perks don’t stop there when you purchase a new shiny Samsung phone. As has become customary for Galaxy devices, both the S6 and S6 edge come with a gift bundle of apps and promotions, exclusively picked out by Samsung.

The list of deals in quite lengthy and while nobody actually expects a six-month free subscription to draw new buyers in, this type of after-market attention helps quite a lot with customer satisfaction, not to mention exposure for the said applications. This being said, none of the apps in the list is preinstalled or hidden away in the new Galaxy. Just like with previous models, the offers can be accessed through the Samsung App Store and each one is strictly opt-in.

Galaxy Gift	Details
Audible	Three months of Audible membership
Dragons of Atlantis: Heirs of the Dragon	“Samsung Resource Pack” valued at 5,000 gold
The Economist	Six months of  digital subscription
Endomondo	Six months of Endomondo Premium
Evernote	Three months of Evernote Premium
Fleksy Keyboard	Fleksy Keyboard and Modern premium themes
Hancom Office 2014	Office editor download for an unlimited period from Galaxy Apps
The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth	“Samsung Resource Pack” valued at 100 Mithril
Keepy	Six month Keepy Unlimited to save your kids art, school work and mementos
Kindle for Samsung	One eBook every month
LastPass	Three months of Premium for U.S. customers and six monthsPremium for international
Life360	Six months premium service subscription
Magisto	Three months of Magisto Pro HD
NY Times Breaking News	Three months with a subscription
OneDrive	An extra 100 GB of OneDrive storage for two years* Offer valid only on devices where OneDrive is preloaded
PAC-MAN Friends	Samsung customers receive 30 cherries (plays)
Parallels Access	Six month subscription
Pocket	Six month subscription to Pocket Premium
Shazam Encore	Special ad-free version
VSCO Cam	Download The Minimalist Collection, which includes 10 VSCOCam® presets
Workout Trainer	Six months of Workout Trainer Pro+

The apps are worth $500 if purchased separately and Samsung is pretty confident that each customer can find something of use in the list.

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