The Samsung Galaxy S10: what we think we know

ARTICLE – Rumors abound when people get word of new smartphones, and that consistent truth prevails about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S10. Let’s take a look at some of the most likely features of this highly anticipated phone.

It may debut in January 2019 at CES

Tech analysts say Samsung’s Galaxy S10 will be available in several models, but the company will manufacture one that supports the 5G network in limited supply.

The brand usually shows off its Galaxy S-series at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress in February and then launches the models a month later. But since competitors will reportedly showcase their 5G-enabled phones to CES in January, Samsung may accelerate bringing the Galaxy S10 to the market, doing so a month earlier than the usual February event.

However, a Samsung representative recently said that the company’s first 5G-compatible phone would be a model other than the Galaxy S10. If that’s true, the company may decide to keep people guessing about the Galaxy S10 a bit longer.

After all, people have been hearing about Samsung’s foldable phone for a while. The brand wants to be the first to offer a bendable phone. Rushing to provide it could be detrimental though, particularly if the company doesn’t work out all the kinks first. The point is that Samsung may realize it’s best not to roll out the S10 until it’s ready for the mainstream.

Samsung’s S9 Galaxy model, a precursor to the S10

There will be three models

Reports indicate that Samsung will follow Apple’s lead and release three models of a phone in the same product family. The smallest of the three will also be the least expensive option, although there are no solid details about prices for the Galaxy S10 yet.

Besides holding off Apple as a likely competitor, Samsung will also contend with Google, which is releasing new Pixel models in October. A substantial difference in prices between Samsung’s three models could help them achieve marketplace dominance, especially if the costs appeal to a wide section of potential consumers.

It’s rumored to include five cameras

It wasn’t long ago that phone manufacturers made headlines by releasing models with both front and back cameras. Now, a phone with only two cameras doesn’t capture as much interest as it once did. Even the latest iPhones, which have dual-camera setups, include innovative features like the ability to adjust the bokeh setting after taking a picture.

Reports suggest that Samsung will generate a buzz around the Galaxy S10 by releasing at least one of its models with five built-in cameras to appeal to people who love taking pictures with their phones. It probably didn’t hurt that Huawei recently launched its P20 Pro with three cameras, suggesting phones with several cameras will soon be the norm.

The model will have an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor

Today’s most popular smartphones offer increasingly advanced security features. Although the least expensive Galaxy S10 model — thought to be called the S10 Mini — will likely have an optical fingerprint sensor, the highest-end option should have one that’s ultrasound-based.

The advantage of using ultrasound technology mainly concerns accuracy since the sensor takes a three-dimensional model of a fingerprint.

Everyday consumers may not have such advanced security on their list of priorities. However, depending on the reliability of the ultrasound scanner, perhaps Samsung could position the phone as an option for government contractors.

We could potentially see dramatic display changes

Considering that people regularly use their phones for video calls and streaming marathons, the screen characteristics of the gadgets are of increasing importance. Updates about the Galaxy S10 highlight its screen aspect ratio of 19:9, representing a significant difference from other phones that Samsung sells.

Moreover, some people in the know think the smartphone might have an “infinite” display with extended side curves and no bezels. After all, achieving the aspect ratio mentioned above requires making the bezels at least thinner than those on the Galaxy S9 phones.

A less likely possibility about the screen is that it may have a “self-healing” coating, eliminating the need to buy a screen protector for the phone because it repairs cracks after they happen. The news of that development broke after a patent leak.

There’s no indication that Samsung would use that new screen-saving technology on the Galaxy S10. But, if it did, people might be more likely to purchase the potentially expensive phones and not feel so worried about dropping them and dealing with severely broken screens.

Samsung may still have secrets up its sleeve

As the rumor mill continues to churn and stimulate speculation, tech enthusiasts must remember how rare it is for all the major aspects of a gadget to leak before its release date.

Even if people figure out many of the Samsung Galaxy S10’s main features, the brand will likely reveal some previously unknown factors.

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The Samsung Galaxy S10: what we think we know originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 19, 2018 at 8:00 am.

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Julie’s gadget diary – The Samsung Note9 is one step closer to my dream device

ARTICLE – Three days ago Samsung officially rolled out their newest device, the Galaxy Note9 at their Unpacked event in New York City. The Note line of devices has always been the most powerful, feature-rich smartphones of Samsung’s mobile line up and this year’s new Note does not deviate from that tradition.

The Note9 boasts Samsung’s largest capacity battery for a flagship device. At 4,000mAh, the Note9 will have enough juice to power through your day with time to spare.

The 6.4-inch AMOLED display means you won’t be squinting while reading your favorite content and you’ll have lots of room to store files and images because the Note9 is ready for up to 1TB of additional storage when you add a 1TB microSD card. I don’t even have 1TB of space on my laptop! Which brings me closer to my decade’s long dream of having one-device-to-rule-them-all. It’s actually a dream that I’ve had from way back in the Palm Pilot days when I daydreamed about having a handheld device that could plug into a slot in my desk at my day job to do work with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. And then it could plug in at home into a smaller setup for work (and play) there.

The Samsung Galaxy Note9 is the closest device yet to make that dream a reality. Even the new low power Bluetooth S Pen makes this new device more attractive to me than an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil just because it’s so much more portable and pocket-friendly.

I keep hoping that the day is coming very soon when I can ditch my MacBook and go all in with either an iPhone or an Android phone and make it my only phone/camera/computer and that time is so close for me right now because of Samsung’s DeX feature. I reviewed their Dex Station last year and found it to be pretty cool, but this year the stand-alone DeX station is not even necessary because all you have to do is use a Type-C HDMI adapter with the phone to plug it into a monitor and you’re all set to use a desktop-like interface from your phone. It remains to be seen if some of the issues that I noticed with last year’s DeX have been fixed with the Note9’s version of DeX, but I’m excited to get my hands on the new Samsung Galaxy Note9 to find out.

The Note9 will come in two new colors: Ocean Blue and Lavender Purple, and will retail for $999.99 for the 128GB option and $1,249.99 for the 512GB option. You can pre-order now and the phone will be available online starting August 24th through Samsung, Amazon, Best Buy, and other retailers.

What do you think? Can you see yourself only using a phone as your main computer? Or maybe you already do this? Let me know as I’m interested in hearing about your workflow.

Pictures courtesy of Helena Stone of Geekspin.

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Julie’s gadget diary – The Samsung Note9 is one step closer to my dream device originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 12, 2018 at 4:26 pm.

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Julie’s gadget diary – Samsung makes great phones, so why can’t I love them?

Verizon Wireless was kind enough to send me a shiny new Samsung Galaxy S9 smartphone to test for a few days and it’s an all around awesome phone. From the look of the hardware to what’s under the hood, this is a phone that many Android fans would love to own, but for some reason, I just can’t seem to fall for one of them.

You look like you haven’t changed a bit since I last saw you

At first glance, the S9 looks identical to the Samsung Galaxy S8 from last year with a glass front and back sandwiching a metal frame. The new handset is slightly heavier, and a few tenths of a millimeter thicker and wider S8. But those are things you won’t notice at all when you hold the phone in your hand. It’s not until you flip the phone over that you will see the biggest physical difference compared to the S8. The often criticized location of the fingerprint sensor on the S8 has been updated on the S9 to a new location below the camera lens.

There’s a new home for the fingerprint scanner

If you’ve been a regular visitor of my reviews, you’ll know that I am usually grumpy when it comes to talking about fingerprint sensors on smartphones. Until recently, I’ve had the worst luck with getting them to work for me for more than a day or so after the initial setup. That changed with the Pixel 2 XL and even more recently with the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, both of which have wonderfully fast and accurate sensors on the back. I’m happy to report that the S9’s fingerprint sensor is not terrible! Notice that I didn’t say it was surprisingly great and wonderful. It’s neither of those things for me. But, it’s not terrible and even after several days it still works for me at least most of the time.

One interesting feature of the S9 is that it now uses Intelligent Scan, which is a combination of iris and facial recognition that works simultaneously. I also noticed that the S9 will unlock the phone with your face if your fingerprint doesn’t work first or vice versa. Maybe that’s the same way the S8 works, but this is the first I’ve noticed it. Even in low light facial recognition works really well. However, it didn’t work in total darkness.

Other updates

  • The Samsung Galaxy S9’s CPU is a bit more spiffy than the S8.

Galaxy S8: Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 or Exynos 8895, 4GB RAM, 64GB + microSD
Galaxy S9: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 or Exynos 9810, 4GB RAM, 64GB + microSD

  • Bixby has been updated. One word, ick. It still feels clunky and I prefer using Google assistant.
  • The S9 features Dolby Atmos and AKG speakers that sound great and give you almost a surround sound feel when you watch video in landscape orientation.

Don’t forget the camera

Samsung kept the S9’s camera at 12 megapixels but they added a variable-aperture lens that opens as much as f/1.5 for low-light shots and as small as f/2.4 for bright shots. They also improved the Dual-Pixel performance. What does that mean in non-photographer speak? It means that the camera is good. Crazy good. Here are some sample shots right out of the camera with no retouching applied (except for rotating the tree picture in WordPress).







Another new feature on the S9 is AR emoji which is Samsung’s version of Apple’s Animoji only way creepier.

The way it works is that you take a picture of yourself and it takes your face and lets you customize your hair and clothes.

You can then use animated GIFs in your messages like the one above showing me waving at you. Does it look like me? Yeah, I guess so, but why? These cutesy features must be for teens, because other than goofing around with it for a few minutes, I’d probably never use it.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy S9?

If you already own a perfectly fine S8, then no. In my opinion, the S9 just doesn’t have enough updates to justify upgrading. That doesn’t mean that Samsung won’t sell millions of them because they will. The S9 is a fantastic phone with every feature I’d ever want like wireless charging, long battery life, great camera, notification LED, HDMI out (with a USB-C HDMI adapter), DeX compatible (with optional dock), and a microSD card slot.

So now back to the question in the title of this article. If the S9 is such a great phone, why can’t I love it? I keep asking myself that question and I don’t have a good answer to it. I could say that I’m not a fan of Samsung’s version of all the stock apps, as I really prefer the stock Android experience. But, it ultimately comes down to my own personal preferences. Just like I love MINI Coopers but think Fiat 500s look hideous, or that I won’t eat mushrooms and green peppers but I love green beans and tomatoes. There are things that I like that you don’t like a vice versa.

I’m not going to say that I wouldn’t use a Samsung Galaxy S9 if I didn’t have another phone and someone gave me one. But if I had to choose between buying an S9, a Pixel 2 XL, or even the Huawei Mate 10 Pro right now, the S9 wouldn’t be my number one or number two choice… for no other reason than I like the other two phones better even though they are missing a couple of the features that the S9 offers.

I think it’s great that we’re to the point where flagship phones all have the same core set of features and choosing one comes down to the little things.

Source: The temporary loaner device was provided by Verizon Wireless.

The post Julie’s gadget diary – Samsung makes great phones, so why can’t I love them? appeared first on The Gadgeteer.

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Julie’s gadget diary – Samsung makes great phones, so why can’t I love them? originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 16, 2018 at 1:51 pm.

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EasyAcc has your Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ covered

Samsung officially announced their next best selling phones in Barcelona, Spain at the 2018 Mobile World Congress (MWC) this past Sunday. The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ have a few updates to the Samsung Galaxy S8 series of phones from last year, but one thing hasn’t changed. The new Galaxy phones are expensive and most people will want to protect them from everyday wear and tear. The easiest way to do that is with a case, and the folks at EasyAcc have you covered. Actually, they will have your new Galaxy phone covered with four different cases for the S9 and S9+ phones. And if you order one before 4/30/18, you can save 30% off their already low prices by using the coupon code: 6Y3GWH95. So head over to Amazon to check them out.

Samsung’s Chef Collection proves that the future of kitchens is customizeable

Samsung has been making a name for themselves lately by taking kitchen appliances and transforming them into essentially gigantic gadgets – for example, their Family Hub 2.0 smart fridge has a large touchscreen display at the center of it which helps transform the fridge into the center of the kitchen. Their new Chef Collection however turns down the flashiness a bit by offering a more sophisticated set of appliances which can be customized to fit into your home’s design aesthetic. To that effect, the Chef Collection’s fridge foregoes a large display and instead it can be installed a built-in. The Chef’s Collection dishwasher and refrigerator can also be customized with panels to match the look and feel of your kitchen. 

Samsung’s Chef Collection fridge has 3 View Inside cameras which you can access from anywhere

That’s not to say that the appliances in their new Chef Collection aren’t high tech – because they are. All of the appliances are Wi-Fi or Bluetooth enabled and be can controlled with an app. The new Samsung Chef Collection 4-Door Flex Built-in Refrigerator packs in three View Inside cameras which let you see what’s in your fridge – even while you’re shopping at the supermarket. Can’t remember if you need milk? Not a problem! The 4-Door Flex also has a Flex Zone compartment which is able to convert from being a fridge to a freezer, and vice versa, all with the touch of a button.

You can control your oven from your phone

The induction cooktop in the Chef Collection uses Virtual Flame technology which provides chefs with the visual look and feel of a real fire. The knobs on the cooktop also removable. Leave them on if you prefer an analog look, or remove them to go completely digital. Last but not least, the Flex Duo Oven has a smart divider that lets you essentially transform a single oven into two separate independent convection ovens that cook multiple dishes at different temperatures at the same time. The oven’s temperature can be controlled and monitored with an app.

All of the models in the Chef Collection are available now in a choice of stainless steel or matte black stainless steel.

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Samsung’s Chef Collection proves that the future of kitchens is customizeable originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 9, 2017 at 9:00 am.

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