Articles about Samsung

Samsung's Galaxy S7 edge is the best smartphone; at least that’s the view of judges announced at Mobile World Congress 2017. Samsung has already unveiled a couple of tablets to bolster its Galaxy range as well as teased the Galaxy S8 at MWC 2017, but with the stink of the Note7 fiasco still hanging heavy in the air, the company is clearly keen to shout positive news from the rooftops.

The Best Smartphone label was slapped on the Galaxy S7 edge by GSMA, the trade body that represents mobile operators around the world. This might be the view of the industry, but do customers agree?

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Not content with showering us with tablets in the form of the Galaxy Book and the Galaxy Tab S3, Samsung also used yesterday's announcements at MWC 2017 to tease us about the keenly awaited Galaxy S8 smartphone.

At the event in Barcelona we were treated to teaser video which questions whether we know what a smartphone looks like. While we don’t get to see the Galaxy S8 (or, indeed, the Galaxy S8+) in the video, we do learn that the phone will be unveiled on 29 March, and the stark graphics hint at elements of the design -- which we largely know about from leaks already.

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At MWC 2017 we were treated to the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy Book, but this was not the only announcement from the company still waiting to launch the Galaxy S8. Continuing to add to its Galaxy range, Samsung also officially unveiled the Galaxy Tab S3 -- and it looks pretty special.

As the 9.7-inch tablet comes equipped with an S Pen, it is somewhat reminiscent of a large Galaxy Note. The high-quality glass and metal build puts the tablet on a par with Apple's iPad, and audiophiles will be pleased to see the inclusion of quad-stereo speakers from AKG. But this Android 7 tablet has a lot more to offer.

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While attendees and fans of MWC 2017 were hoping for at least a little news about the Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung forwent phones completely and instead offered up a pair of tablets: the Galaxy Tab S3, and the Galaxy Book.

The Galaxy Book is the fruit of an "expanded strategic partnership" between Samsung and Microsoft, and is described as a "premium 2-in-1 designed with the mobile enterprise customer in mind". Available in 10.6" and 12" models, there are natural comparisons to draw with both the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book.

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Mobile World Congress 2017 may not technically kick off until tomorrow, but lots of companies like to jump the gun so they can be the first to get their announcements out. In this group is Samsung, and later today the company is holding a press conference in Barcelona at which it will unveil the latest addition to the Galaxy range.

Of course, there has not been official word that it's the Samsung Galaxy S8 that will be announced, but there have been enough hints, rumors and leaks for this to be considered likely (even if Samsung has said the actual launch will come after MWC). If the rumors are to be believed, we may also see a Samsung Galaxy S8+, and the specs sound pretty special, and may be enough to help the company rebuild faith after the Note7 debacle. So, are we in line for the Galaxy S8, and/or an addition to the Galaxy Tab range?

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If you own a Samsung Galaxy smartphone, and run Windows 10, we’ve got some good news for you.

From April, which is when it’s anticipated that Microsoft will be rolling out the Windows 10 Creators Update, you’ll be able to unlock any Windows 10 device by using your phone… and that’s not all.

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If you want to secure your Galaxy smartphone, the first thing that you should do is set up a screen lock. But what if you want to go a bit further, and protect specific things on the device? Well, Samsung just released Secure Folder, which gives you a "private, encrypted space" to store sensitive data in.

Secure Folder is derived from Knox, the company's secure platform for business users, and can be seen as a consumer-focused iteration. It acts as a sandbox for apps and data and works with existing authentication options to keep them safe.

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Samsung started manufacturing new mobile processors using the 10nm FinFET technology last year, but it is not only until today that we learn about its first product to take advantage of it. It's called Exynos 9 Series 8895, and it is the high-end chip likely to power its upcoming flagship, the Galaxy S8.

Being a flagship mobile processor, the Exynos 9 Series 8895 has all the bells and whistles and the performance credentials to match its status. The boost in performance can be attributed to the transition to the 10nm FinFET manufacturing technology, which made way for a 27 percent improvement in terms of performance and a 40 percent decrease in power consumption, compared to the 14nm FinFET process.

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With the significant and imminent changes in the way we do business a new type of freelancers will emerge, according to Samsung. Called "ultra-freelancers", this type of workers will "connect deeply within multiple organizations simultaneously, working with multiple corporate data sets but fiercely protective of the privacy of their own data."

These ultra-freelancers will be mostly Millennials, a cohort that is taking full advantage of the new technologies and the open economy.

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Samsung is expected to introduce the successors to the hugely popular Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge soon. Considering that new devices in the series were introduced during Mobile World Congress in recent years, this year's event seems like a safe bet as to when the unveiling will take place.

However, an official announcement from Samsung indicates that the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 edge will actually make their debut later in the year. Samsung is still expected to present them during an Unpacked event, but it will no longer take place during MWC as it did before.

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All SSDs are relatively "fast" nowadays, but as time marches on, SATA variants are getting very long in the tooth. Don't get me wrong, if you are still running a mechanical hard drive, moving to an SATA SSD should be a very rewarding upgrade. If your computer is capable of using a PCIe NVMe M.2 variant, however, that is what you should target -- these newer drives are much faster than SATA.

Samsung makes wonderful solid state drives -- some would argue the manufacturer's offerings are best on the market. You know what? I wouldn't disagree. Samsung SSDs are very fast, but more importantly, they are extremely reliable. I have been testing one of the company's latest drives -- the 960 Pro 1TB. This PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD is supposed to be insanely fast, but just how fast is it? I decided to do a quick benchmark review.

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Apple edged Samsung to take the top spot in the smartphone market in the final quarter of 2016, thanks to very strong iPhone shipments. The Cupertino, Calif.-based vendor moved 78.3 million units, having a share of 17.8 percent, while its South Korean rival only managed to ship 77.5 million smartphones, which equates to a market share of 17.7 percent. Total shipments for the quarter were 438.7 million units, according to a Strategy Analytics report.

This is not the first time that Apple beats Samsung, but it is rare for it to happen. Samsung usually has a comfortable lead over its rivals, including Apple, but thanks to the Galaxy Note7 recall it failed to repeat that performance last quarter. You can follow the saga here, but the gist of it is that the company had to pull millions of devices as a result of its mistakes, and that had a serious effect on its showing in the last part of 2016.

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Security researchers from Context IS have uncovered serious vulnerabilities in a number of premium Samsung Galaxy phones which allow attackers to crash devices using a single SMS message and initiate ransomware attacks.

The report is part of a series which aims to show "how, even in 2017, SMS-based attacks on Android phones are still viable". As longtime readers might recall, iOS too was vulnerable to such attacks -- but that was nearly two years ago. While the report focuses on Samsung's Android handsets, the researchers suggest that the vulnerabilities could be found in other vendors' smartphones as well.

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Following the release of flagship devices such as the iPhone 7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 in 2016, water resistant handsets are now the fastest growing segment in the smartphone industry. But, what does this mean for handset design in 2017?

Let's take a look at recent research from IDC and explain how hydrophobic nano-coating technology can support OEMs when looking to incorporate this increasingly sought after feature.

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Samsung has finally revealed the long-awaited results of its investigation into the problematic Galaxy Note7. Having issued an apology and pushed out OTA updates to disable phones which had been banned from flights because of the risk of them catching fire, the South Korean company says that two separate battery problems were to blame.

The first problem stemmed from the fact that the battery was physically too small for the Galaxy Note7 leading to a short-circuit. Replacement batteries suffered from a combination of insulation problems and an issue that caused positive and negative electrodes to touch. Samsung also indicated that the Galaxy S8 would not be unveiled at Mobile World Congress (MWC) next month.

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