Items tagged with Galaxy
The European Southern Observatory's aptly named Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) recently discovered a pair of supermassive black holes that are the closest to Earth yet. The pair also broke the record for being the closest to one another, which has a broader implication. In a galaxy far, far away astronomers spotted a pair of supermassive black holes about 89 million light years away from Earth. While that may sound like an extremely far distance, it is far closer than the previous record of 470 million light years, and by quite a large amount. The pair are also close neighbors to one another located in the galaxy NGC 7727 in the constellation Aquarius. The supermassive black holes are such...
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Those who are using a Samsung Galaxy S21 might have just updated to Android 12 last week, and in very rare form, even the US carrier variants of the smartphone received the new Android OS update on that same day as international counterparts. This update came with a drawback unfortunately, however, as the version went live with a bug lurking in the device's display refresh rate. The Galaxy S21 will end up going from 120Hz to 60Hz as soon as your finger stops touching the display, which as you might imagine will introduce jitter or make the phone seem laggy, as animations and scrolling would have a sudden change in refresh rate. This of course is not how the phone was shipped and is unintended...
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NASA is always on the lookout for signs of life beyond Earth and new planets it could exist on. Astronomers at NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory may have discovered a new planet the size of Saturn in another galaxy (far, far away). NASA has recently been crunching new data coming in from its probe Juno currently orbiting Jupiter. The data is giving researchers a much better idea of Jupiter's atmosphere and its famous Great Red Spot. Now it seems they will have even more data to investigate with the possible discovery of an exoplanet in the spiral galaxy Messier 51 (M51), also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy due to its distinctive look. An exoplanet is a planet that is outside our own Solar System....
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Though we are still quite some time from the launch of any new flagship Galaxy smartphone, some leaks have sprung from the Samsung well. Earlier this week, we heard about the new Galaxy S22 Ultra and how it may take over the role of the Galaxy Note line. Now, we have some renders of this alleged new device, and it looks rather interesting. Akin to some previous Galaxy devices, the Galaxy S22 Ultra is slated to have plenty of storage and the latest Qualcomm processor, potentially the Snapdragon 898, which has been the subject of many rumors. Further, the Galaxy S22 Ultra is expected to feature a 6.8-inch curved AMOLED display, likely with a 120Hz refresh rate. With a screen that size, the...
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Two years ago, Samsung ushered the era of folding phones with the daring (but ultimately flawed) Galaxy Fold. In 2020, the company followed suit with three much improved foldables -- the stylish Galaxy Z Flip, Z Flip 5G, and the powerful Galaxy Z Fold2. With most of the kinks worked out (pun intended), these excellent handsets were finally worth recommending, though cost and durability were still obstacles for many. But things are different today. Samsung’s new water-resistant $1800 GalaxyZ Fold3 and $1000 Galaxy Z Flip3 are more affordable and life-proof than ever. While the Fold series transform from a phone into a small tablet, the Flip models are basically standard handsets that...
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Samsung is known in enthusiast circles for its Galaxy smartphones, Windows 10 PCs, memory, and SSD products, but the company is also a major player in display panels. Not only does Samsung make the displays that go into its own devices, but it also supplies panels to competitors like Apple. Today, Samsung Display is giving us a sneak peek at its next-generation displays that will likely be featured in its future products. The displays were part of the Display Week 2021 expo and included several exciting design choices like the S-Foldable. The S-Foldable is a bi-folding OLED display that Samsung says can fold inside and out. In its fully folded state, a device could function as a traditional smartphone....
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When Samsung first introduced its new Galaxy S21 5G line-up, the company took a similar good, better, best approach to its previous generation launch. Like the Galaxy S20, the new Galaxy S21 lineup consists of a base device, a mid-tier device and a top-end model, though all of them can be considered "flagship" phones among Samsung's large and varied handset product offerings. However, for the Galaxy S21 launch, it was clear that Samsung was more focused on value at all tiers this time around, with pricing starting at $799 and topping out $1199 for the Galaxy S21 Ultra, representing a $200 price cut across the board versus its previous generation Galaxy S20 family. What's even more exciting...
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Do you find yourself losing your keys, phone, watch, or any other small object that just seems to grow legs and disappear? There are a number of products out there that help you keep track of these items, well, by tracking them. Tile has been the leading brand in item trackers, but Samsung may be entering the ring again soon. A Samsung-made tracker, dubbed the Galaxy SmartTag, may be queued up for launch sometime in January. Today, 91mobiles spotted this alleged tracking device from Samsung on the NCC certification site. The images found show a rounded square-shaped device that appears to be about 40mm^2 or 1.5” by 1.5”. This ends up being a touch smaller than Tile’s premium...
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Samsung has taken the wraps off what it is calling “the most affordable 5G smartphone to date.” The Galaxy A42 5G will pack some of the Samsung features consumers know and love alongside the 5G connectivity. It will launch in the United Kingdom, starting at £349 RRP or around $455. As Samsung puts it, the Galaxy A42 5G strengthens the A-Series lineup. James Kitto, VP of Sales for Samsung U.K. and Ireland, says that, “We’re excited to bring to market our latest 5G smartphone within the A-Series lineup,” and that “it is part of our ongoing commitment to deliver next-generation connectivity to more people.” This budget beast of a phone will come with...
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If you own a Samsung Galaxy handset that was released in the past six years, do yourself a solid and check for an over-the-air (OTA) software update. Left unpatched, every Galaxy phone dating back to 2014 is vulnerable to a so-called 'zero-click' bug related to Android's handling of the custom Qmage image format (.QMG). That means millions of Galaxy phones are affected by this, until patched with the latest security update from Samsung. Not to be overlooked, the vulnerability carries the highest 'Critical' rating, and could allow an attacker to run malicious code remotely. Part of the reason for the high severity rating is because vulnerable handsets can be exploited without any user interaction....
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Samsung reported its first quarter earnings for 2020, noting it saw a 7.6 percent decrease in revenue compared to the previous quarter primarily due to weak seasonality of its display business and consumer electronics division. However, the company also blamed the "effects of COVID-19" for the drop in demand, and said it expects the virus outbreak to "significantly impact" sales for several of its core products, including Galaxy phones and TVs. "Sales and profits of set products business, including smartphones and TVs, are expected to decline significantly as COVID-19 affects demand and leads to store and plant closures globally. To address this, the company will leverage its global production...
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Most people have been there at some point; you accidentally drop your smartphone, and the screen shatters. In years past, sometimes that meant it was time to upgrade to a new smartphone and toss the cracked phone in a drawer. With the price of smartphones soaring today, most people opt to fix their devices. Sprint has a deal going on screen repair right now specifically for Samsung Galaxy devices. Sprint will fix the screen on a Samsung Galaxy smartphone for just $49 -- regardless of which carrier you use. That is much cheaper than a regular screen repair costs, often at $100 or more. The fine print says that Sprint will only repair screens at stores with service and repair centers, and that...
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Last year Samsung released the premium Galaxy Tab S3 tablet as an alternative to Apple's IPad Pro, but with its optional keyboard an additional software magic it also set its sights at some lower-end 2-in-1 laptop offerings as well. Samsung is trying to gear the Galaxy Tab series as the go-to option for anyone looking for an ultra-portable computing device, and this year's model ups the ante with a larger display, longer battery life, and a new desktop-like user interface called "DeX". In fact, you have probably heard of DeX before, if you've checked out our coverage of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and again with the Galaxy Note 9 but now it's available with the Tab S4 as well. When comparing the...
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If we were to characterize a Samsung Galaxy Note user in a single word it would have to be "enthusiast." Specifically, we're talking about an Android smartphone enthusiast but regardless, among the vast general populous of smartphone consumers, if you're packing a device like any of the previous Samsung Galaxy Notes, you likely want the most powerful, feature-rich, large format device you can get your hands on. And when it came to the 9th incarnation of the Galaxy Note, the Galaxy Note 9, Samsung spared no expense once again, not only in its design and feature set, but even the venue it chose to launch from last week at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, New York. The Brooklyn Nets play here,...
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As we discovered last week, Samsung's Galaxy S9+ is the new Android smartphone to beat in the flagship sector. It looks great, has a crisp screen, is fast, and has a camera capable of capturing some awesome slo-mo video. Like clockwork, the folks over at iFixit have torn into the S9+ and revealed all we need to know about its repairability factor. On a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being the "easiest to repair", the S9+ scores a lowly 4/10. That's because accessing the battery is needlessly difficult, and removing either the display or glass back can easily result in breakage. Credit: iFixit In the above shot, the phone's biggest chips span the top part of the board, with the second large...
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One of the biggest unveils at this year's Mobile World Congress was the new and highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, which we were lucky enough to get some hands-on preview time with for you here late last month. Samsung's Galaxy S9 series doesn't look a whole lot different than the previous generation Galaxy S8 and 8+ line. And though the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are ever so slightly smaller than their older siblings, with slightly thinner top and bottom bezels, these new Galaxy S devices have been upgraded and re-engineered in a number of ways with some impressive new features and promised performance. Today marks the official embargo lift on full reviews of Samsung's new...
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After months of leaks and weeks of teasers, Samsung has finally officially pulled the wraps off its next generation flagship smartphones: the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+. If you're familiar with the current generation Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, the designs of the refreshed models should be immediately familiar. However, there is plenty going on under the surface that make these new flagship Android phones worthy of attention. First of all, let's talk about the new, state-of-the-art camera that is featured on both the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+. The primary rear shooter features a Super Speed, Dual Pixel 12MP sensor with optical image stabilization (OIS). The camera features a dedicated image processing...
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Samsung has pulled the wraps off a pair of smartphones that may appeal to the users out there who can’t bring themselves to part with $1,000 for a high-end device. The new devices are the 2018 versions of the Galaxy A8 and A8 Plus. As you would expect, other than the size of the screen the two devices are very similar. Both have metal and glass designs, Infinity Displays, and rounded display corners. Both have an annoyingly-placed rear fingerprint scanner, which is beneath the 16MP main camera. The main cameras on both do have LED flash for better images in low-light. One substantial change to the 2018 A8 flavors is that the bezels are considerably thinner than they were on last year's...
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We've all forgotten a password at some point in our online travails, and have needed to resort to password hints to retrieve or reset said password. In most cases, these hints are easily guessed by nefarious parties using social engineering. As we’re learned over the years, such breakdowns in security chains can have rather disastrous results. A patent filed [PDF] by Samsung, however, looks to take the uncertainty regarding password hints out of the equation with what is effectively a palm reading. Samsung’s smartphone-based system will scan the unique lines that are spread across the palm of your hand. Once your palm is scanned, and you are authenticated as the rightful owner of...
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With Samsung's Galaxy S8 (and S8+) having been on the market for a staggering six months now, it's time to look to the future. In other words: a time when Samsung unveils its Galaxy S9, a phone that's already being hyped to great levels despite the fact that it won't be out for months. In fact, the most tangible evidence we have right now of the S9 (and S9+) is the logo (seen later in the post). Samsung's Galaxy S8 and S8+ Most (or perhaps all) of the information that's come out about the Galaxy S9 has been leaked by respected leaker Benjamin Geskin. He says that the Galaxy S9 will ship with Qualcomm's SDM845, which would replace the Snapdragon 835 found in the S8. Note that while the chip number...
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The Galaxy Note 8 is an important product for Samsung. Not only because the Note 8 is the company’s newest, flagship, large-screen smartphone, but because it also carries the additional burden of righting all of the wrongs associated with the company's Note 7 snafu. For some people, there is a certain stigma attached to the Note series now that could be erased if the Note 8 is a success and resonates well with consumers. We can tell you this up front -- all of the right technology seems to be in place. And from a design standpoint, the Note 8 sure is a looker. But good looks and the right specs don’t automatically make for a killer product. Hopefully, by the time we're done testing and exploring...
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We had the chance to spend some time at Samsung’s Unpacked 2017 event in New York City today, where the brand new Galaxy Note 8 was officially unveiled. If you missed our initial coverage of the announcement, the Galaxy Note 8 features a 6.3-inch Super AMOLED Infinity Display with a WQHD+ resolution (2960×1440) and many design cues borrowed from the Galaxy S8. Here’s a quick hands on to give you a closer look at the device and how it handles... The Note 8’s design is slightly more square in comparison to the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. We should also mention that the near bezel-less display means that the Galaxy Note 8’s fingerprint sensor is now placed on the rear of the device, beside the dual...
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