How’s your Galaxy Note 8’s battery life been?

Not everyone uses their phone the same way, or gets the same battery life.

The last few Note releases have involved a whole lot of discussion about batteries. With the Note 8, questions swirl about whether or not 3300mAh is an appropriate capacity for a phone this large. The Note 8’s been out for a while, we’ve written a complete review, and we know plenty of you out there have been using one for weeks now.

Most people in our forums seem happy with how much they’re getting. Better than the Note 5? That’s a good sign.

jmj227
09-29-2017 06:02 AM

“

Coming from a Note 5, my Note 8 battery life is far superior. Actually makes me think my N5 had a failed battery from the beginning. It was my first android phone so I didn’t know any different but I rarely got over 2 hours SOT. Note 8 easily gets 4 and last well through the day for me.

Reply

Others go a bit extreme, and are able to eke out over two days of (admittedly light) usage before hitting a charger.

NotAnAppleGuy
09-24-2017 12:13 PM

“

Two full days and it’s just now about to go on the charger.

Reply

And some aren’t seeing massive numbers, but are still getting a full day with a little to spare.

maf113
09-23-2017 12:44 AM

“

I’ve been getting around 16 hours or so.

Reply

So we want to know, how’s battery life been on your Galaxy Note 8? Sound off with your experiences in the comments!

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Everything you need to know about the New PlayStation VR

There’s a “new” PlayStation VR headset coming. Here’s what we know so far.

After the folks at Famitsu dropped a big leak regarding a new PlayStation VR headset, Sony took the opportunity to shed some official light on the situation.

Basically, a minor hardware refresh is coming to the PlayStation VR soon. It’s not going to change the resolution of the display in the headset or improve the light-based tracking system, but there will be some streamlining and improving to the outer shell of the headset that will make life a lot better for some PSVR users.

Read more at VRHeads!

What color Amazon Echo should you buy?

You can have any color you want, so long as it’s black. Or white. Or maybe made out of wood. Or just get a case or something.

Let’s just be perfectly honest up front. I don’t care which color Amazon Echo you get. New Echo, old Echo, Echo Plus, Echo Spot, Echo Dot, whatever. OK, it’s not that I don’t care. It’s just that we haven’t been properly introduced yet, and I don’t yet know all your intricacies. What it is that makes you tick.

What’s important with all this new hardware is that there actually are some choices to make.

Let’s take a look.

Amazon Echo Spot

This is the one folks are most excited about, so let’s start with it.

You can get an Echo Spot in black. Or you can get an Echo Spot in white. Or you can buy two and put them side by side and squint really hard and …

It’s, uh, not any more complicated — of fun than that. I supposed you could put a little hat on your Echo Spot, if you want. Or maybe a tiny tea cozy. Your call.

Either way, missed opportunity from Amazon here to not put out something with a little more personality.

See at Amazon

Amazon Echo (second-generation)

OK, this is where things really get interesting. There actually are a couple versions of the second-generation Amazon Echo, with two price points to match.

The less expensive of the two (it runs $99) has a fabric-covered base, and you can get it in a dark charcoal, a lighter heather gray, or an even lighter sandstone.

For twenty dollars more you can get more colors and a different material. There’s a light oak color, and darker walnut, and a metallic silver.

All the finishes look pretty nice, I think. Me? I never pass up wood.

See at Amazon

Amazon Echo Plus

Three options here, all alike in price ($149) and with the same plastic finish. You’ve got options for white, black, and silver.

I know, I know. I wish Amazon would slow down a little, too. Let’s not do anything too crazy.

It is worth a reminder, though, that Amazon is packaging a Philips Hue Bulb with the Echo Plus, which is a nice little addition.

See at Amazon

And don’t forget the Echo Dot

The Amazon Echo Dot is still (and will remain) a best-seller, thanks in no small part due to its $50 price tag.

But it’s worth a reminder that even if you don’t like it in white or black, you can pick up a case for it that completely changes the look.

Fabric cases (in indigo, charcoal or sandstone) run $10 each, and leather cases (in midnight, merlot or saddle tan) run $20 each.

See at Amazon

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With the Pixelbook on its way, is Chrome OS ready to be a tablet OS?

Building a good two-in-one laptop is hard; building software that works both ways is even harder.

When Google shows off its new products on October 4, one of them will be the Pixelbook, the latest in the Chromebook Pixel line.

The Pixelbook has a lot in common with the previous Chromebooks that came directly from Google, with a high price tag and a spec sheet to match, but the Pixelbook will showcase the two newest enhancements to Chrome OS with stylus support and a hinge that allows for fold-over convertible use as a tablet. Neither of these things is new (convertible laptop designs have been a Windows staple for ages) but both are new for Google.

Including these features in Chrome and putting them on a high-priced Chromebook aimed squarely at developers and enthusiasts means Google really wants them to become a natural part of the Chromebook experience, and ultimately part of the web experience. So we have to ask, is Chrome finally ready to be a replacement for your tablet?

The answer is a mixed bag. It seems like answers are always that way. And Google needs to lead by example, then get everyone else on board.

The Chromebook Plus

We already have Chromebooks with the Pixelbook’s features. Starting with the Acer Chromebook R13, most every new Chromebook is built with tablet-mode support and touch has tight integration with the operating system. Samsung worked directly with Google to build pen support into Chrome and it debuted with the Chromebook Pro and Plus models. And while not a new thing, the Chromebook Plus also has a hinged design with a bright, high-resolution display that is every bit as good as Google’s offering. Because Chrome OS is mostly the same across every model, we can look at the Plus to see where Chrome excels at being touch-friendly as well as where it fails.

The Chromebook Plus is also the Chromebook most of us should be buying, but that’s another article.

More: The best Chromebook you can buy

Outside of an early bug that would kill the touch screen and require a reboot (fixed), the hardware needed for touch in Chrome OS is well supported. Most Chromebooks sold today have a touch screen and there are a handful of gestures supported throughout the OS. While there is always room for improvement, Chrome has great support for the hardware that companies need to use if they want to include a great touch display. We even have Chromebooks, like the new Acer Chromebook Spin 11 with Wacom support.

On the software side, everything works, too. Chromebooks like the Chromebook Plus that are built with tablet mode included have an on-screen keyboard with swiping to type, handwriting input and voice to text built in. But we need to be able to do more than just type. Even if the OS itself works well in a touch-only setup, the application support is still critical. And that’s where we see a few problems.

Samsung Chromebook Plus vs. Pro: The Differences and Which Should you Buy?

App support

We need to start with the browser. Naturally, it’s the same Chrome browser you can use on any other laptop. There are some changes that make it perform a lot better than Chrome for Windows or Mac, but the interface is exactly the same. And that’s not great. You can touch the screen to do anything, so it’s not a matter of not having touch support. Two things make it a less-than-perfect experience: it wasn’t designed with touch in mind, and the touch targets aren’t perfect.

The operating system has great support for touch, but the applications need some work.

It’s easy to use Chrome with a trackpad and keyboard because the people who wrote the software had that in mind while they were designing things. Using the trackpad to do things like dragging and dropping or multi-select for files is simple. And it’s something most everyone is used to doing because almost every piece of software you use on any laptop was designed the same way. Not being super touch-friendly isn’t just a Chromebook thing. User input, especially on a large display, is very different when you’re holding a Chromebook like a tablet and using your finger instead of the trackpad and keyboard. And porting over the Chrome browser built for Android or iOS isn’t a fix because they aren’t built for the big screen.

To fix this is going to require some serious gesture support. Things like long press + swipe to open settings or multi-finger gestures for page navigation would make for a better experience without losing the familiar layout. We’ve seen Google put in plenty of work on the keyboard since the Chromebook Plus was released, and we hope they will continue to find ways to make Chrome more touch friendly.

The Material Design update for the settings menu also brought excellent touch optimization. More of that please, Google.

Part of that would be making adjustments for the touch targets. Some need expanded, some need added and some need a bit more space between them. With a 10-inch or larger display, there is plenty of room to make these adjustments. We’ve already seen some changes in the settings, where more space was added between entries and a large touch target on the drop-down arrow to expand a heading were added as part of a Material Design update. Being touch friendly wasn’t what we noticed at first because the layout was done well and things don’t look out of place. Google will have to find a way to give a similar design for the rest of the app interface without making big changes that disrupt what we’re used to. That’s tough but necessary.

Chrome and all the native Chrome apps work with touch, and most people don’t have any serious issues. I’m not claiming otherwise. But Google is in the same spot Microsoft was in several years ago when touch screens on Windows laptops became popular, and needs to work to optimize not only the OS interface but the native apps as well.

Android apps

Android apps are built for touch input, but they pose the biggest problem. Not because there are any fundamental differences between touch input on a Chromebook or your phone, but because of the size differences and dependence of other developers to fix it all.

Almost all Android apps work on a Chromebook. You’ll find an app to do most anything you want to do, but you might have to try a few different ones to find the app that does it the way you like on a bigger screen. Google has some work to do here and Android Oreo’s new multi-window and picture-in-picture support need to find their way to Chrome ASAP. But there are a lot of apps that aren’t great on your Chromebook, and good multi-window support can’t change that.

These are the Chromebooks that have Google Play support

Android is fully capable of resizing a window to infinity, but writing an app with a certain look and feel in both a small screen mode (phone) and a large screen mode (tablet, TV or Chromebook) means double the work. When you resize a typical Android app from its small view to a larger one, you’re left with a lot of wasted white space as things simply stretch out. It’s great that almost every app in Google Play can stretch out, as it doesn’t affect how they work or what they do, but it looks bad and can be harder to navigate.

Apps need to do more than just work, or we’ll just not use them.

There are apps that handle the transition just fine. Google’s own Gmail app is a great example, and the large screen interface we see on a tablet or Chromebook has multiple panes and is filled with information, yet doesn’t feel cluttered or confusing. The YouTube app for Android TV is another great example, only taken to the extreme. Google’s “couch” interface makes YouTube easy to use on even the biggest television. But those are Google apps and it is paying people to design and build these large screen interfaces. Third-party developers have little financial incentive to go back and re-design their apps, and if Google only allowed you to install apps designed for the big screen like Apple does for iPads in the App Store there would be very slim pickings at Google Play.

This isn’t a new thing. We’ve been talking about it since the days of the original Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Motorola Xoom. It just matters even more on a Chromebook because they are heavier and holding one as a tablet is a bit more cumbersome. Tiny apps on a ultra-high resolution 2K display make for a bad touch experience. For the apps that will re-size on a Chromebook, you’re left with an interface where everything is on the edges of the window while the center is bare.

It’s a usability thing: Chromebooks make for a bulky and heavy tablet.

I’m not trying to be negative here. I’ve retired my Pixel C and use Lenovo’s Flex 11 or my Acer R13 for all my tablet needs. I face the same issues as my wife, who still loves her Galaxy Tab S2, but they’re less of an issue on a very thin and very light tablet than they are on a folded over laptop with a keyboard on the back. A true two-piece convertible like Microsoft’s Surface might make for a better experience here, but Google still needs to do some work if they want a Chromebook to replace the tablet.

Here’s to hoping that’s exactly what it’s doing.

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OnePlus 5 JCC+ can now be purchased online in Europe for £499

Still no word on US availability

Last month, OnePlus released a limited edition version of its OnePlus 5 flagship that featured a unique design inspired by artist Jean-Charles de Castelbajac. This special version of the handset (referred to as the OnePlus 5 JCC+) was previously only available to buy at the Le Trianon in Paris and the Colette store in France, but OnePlus is now making its super-exclusive phone available for purchase online.

The OnePlus 5 JCC+ looks similar to the regular Slate Gray version of the phone, with a couple key differences. The back of the JCC+ features writing in the style of Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, along with a blue power button, red volume rocker, and yellow alert slider. The whole aesthetic of the phone is very similar to other works of Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, and it’s certainly the most unique-looking handset that OnePlus has put out to date.

Along with the stylish design, the OnePlus 5 JCC+ also comes with the higher-end 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The device will be sold for £499, and seeing as how that’s the same price as the Slate Gray OnePlus 5 with those specifications, our guess is that this limited edition version will sell rather quickly.

The OnePlus 5 JCC+ is available for purchase from OnePlus’s website in Europe starting today, and there’s still no word as to whether or not it will ever make its way to the United States.

See at OnePlus

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Sony Xperia XZ1 review: Solid, opinionated and lovably flawed

We’ve seen it all before, yet our interest is still piqued.

The quick take

Sony’s Xperia XZ1 once again offers lustworthy design and hardware quality that focuses on style rather than ergonomics and screen-to-body ratios, and it absolutely works. With top-tier specs, the Android 8.0 software absolutely screams — and despite having a small battery, longevity is excellent. But for a $699 phone, the XZ1’s 1080p screen is just average, and its camera still doesn’t match the similarly priced competition.

The Good

• Unique design
• Great build quality
• Strong battery life
• Clean software and excellent performance
• Dual speakers

The Bad

• Average screen quality
• Poor screen to body ratio
• Camera quality doesn’t match price
• Expensive for what you get
• No fingerprint sensor in the U.S.

See at Amazon

The internals

Sony Xperia XZ1 Tech Specs

Standard Sony

Sony Xperia XZ1 Things you’ll love

You can always pick a Sony phone out from a crowd. (Doubly so when you have a pink Sony phone, as I do here.) That opinionated, bold design is a big selling point of Sony phones, knowing that you have a phone that will get looks wherever you go — particularly in the U.S. where so few Sony phones are out there in the wild. Some may not like that, but I see it as a huge positive. I love how the Xperia XZ1 looks.

Good or bad, everyone has an opinion on Sony’s design.

And the quality of its build matches the design. The metal body is sleek and just lightly textured, perfectly rounding up to the sides to meet the front glass. It’s fantastic, and easy to manage even though it’s perfectly flat across the back. This isn’t the “Compact” model, but with a 5.2-inch display and at 155 grams it’s much lighter and more comfortable to hold than the big slab that is the XZ Premium. Though of course the screen is much smaller than the competition, its overall size is roughly the same as the Galaxy S8 — that’s “small” today.

The power button is perfectly situated for your thumb, and the volume rocker is easy to press. There’s a dedicated camera button, if you like that sort of thing. There’s a headphone jack(!), and even a pair of front-facing stereo speakers — which sound good, by the way, even if they aren’t on the same level as the pseudo-stereo speakers of the HTC U11. The big bezels, while not necessarily in vogue at the moment, give you plenty of room to comfortably hold the phone in landscape for video.

Sony packs serious specs into what is a relatively small phone.

Sony backs up the XZ1’s good looks with some great specs and performance. A Snapdragon 835, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage with an SD card slot is a great base to work on, particularly when you consider it’s pushing just 1080p resolution on the screen. You get all of the latest radios, including NFC placed properly on the back of the phone, and it’s all wrapped up in IP68 water- and dust-resistance.

The specs interface wonderfully with Android 8.0 Oreo, which puts the XZ1 in some very exclusive company at the time of launch. The software absolutely flies in every single way. No hiccups, no lag, no stutters, no dropped frames or complains. It’s not that I wasn’t expecting exactly this, but actually using it and having a great time is always worth reporting on.

Android 8.0 Oreo flies with these specs, and battery life is great as well.

Sony’s interface itself hasn’t really changed much from Nougat to Oreo, as you’d expect, but that’s just fine with me. A few of its apps could use a face lift, and its launcher (somehow) doesn’t properly integrate with notification dots, but Sony continues to offer one of the least intrusive manufacturer software suites. You get all of the benefits of having Oreo underneath, which will suit you well now and in the future, and Sony always seems willing to follow Google’s playbook — case in point being the Google Now feed in the default launcher.

Sony somehow continues to get ridiculous battery life out of phones with below-average battery capacities. The 2700mAh on tap in the XZ1 seems small, even by this screen size, yet I never had to worry about battery life. I ended my average 17-hour day off the charger with 30-40% left on the phone, even with 2-3 hours of “screen on” time. A heavier day with over 4 hours of screen on time still got me to bed before hitting Stamina Mode at 15% battery. It’s long and consistent — that’s awesome.

Not much to dislike

Sony Xperia XZ1 Things you’ll hate

Some people just won’t be able to deal with buying an expensive phone that doesn’t give them a high amount of screen real estate per dollar. At $699 with a 5.2-inch screen, the Xperia XZ1 doesn’t offer the same sort of value as a Galaxy S8+ at roughly the same price. Sony isn’t even trying to play the “small bezel” game, and if that’s what you want, you just need to look elsewhere.

The ‘right’ screen size is subjective, but the quality here is objectively not good enough.

But there are bigger concerns with the screen when it comes to its overall quality. The fact that it’s 1920×1080 isn’t a huge issue at this size, though you will notice the resolution from time to time when you get your face closer to the screen than usual. The bigger issue is that this is just an average LCD. It’s both accurate and colorful when it needs to be, and viewing angles are fantastic, but it doesn’t get particularly bright, which limits its usefulness in sunlight. It also doesn’t get particularly dim, so it can be tough on your eyes late at night.

Once again making a comparison to Samsung’s latest phones at the same price level … the screen isn’t in the same league. Or comparing directly to an LCD, like the HTC U11’s, the XZ1 doesn’t match it.

I have so many extra feelings on the XZ1’s camera I actually wrote a whole separate article about what’s improved. But here’s the short(er) version: Sony has dramatically improved its image processing with the XZ1, to the point where you wonder what the heck it was thinking on previous phones. Rather than crush fine lines and details into a muddy mess, the XZ1 now lets far more of the detail come through so you get crisp, realistic photos.

More: The Sony Xperia XZ1’s camera has pleasantly surprised me

It’s Sony’s best camera in years … and it’s still not matching the competition.

The camera is still begging to add OIS to improve its low light photos, and there are some areas where the XZ1 still doesn’t meter properly and has to over-process dark areas. But those are more of fringe issues now, as Sony has upped its game to the point where walking out of the house with the XZ1 didn’t feel like a massive downgrade from the other great cameras I have available to me. But alas, this is a $699 phone. Its camera altogether doesn’t meet its price, notably still beaten overall by phones like the Galaxy S8, HTC U11, etc. — but this is Sony’s best camera in several generations.

And of course, the anchor for this section is a few sentences addressing the fingerprint sensor. Mainly, you don’t get one if you buy this phone in the U.S. Not because the hardware isn’t there, but because of a legal situation keeping Sony from enabling it in the firmware. It’s a ridiculous limitation, and we’re tired of prattling on about it, but this issue alone will keep many people from buying the XZ1. Yes you can import a phone from the UK, or even flash UK firmware to a U.S. phone to get the sensor — but should you have to? No, Sony should just remedy whatever it got itself into that keeps the fingerprint sensor disabled on U.S. phones. It’s insane that we’re still talking about this today.

Listen to your heart

Sony Xperia XZ1 Should you buy it?

Once again, Sony has made a phone that appeals to your heart rather than your brain. Looking at it, holding it in your hands and using it every day, you’ll love so many aspects of the Xperia XZ1. But then you realize what it costs and what you can get elsewhere … and you may think better of that decision to spend $699 on this phone.

Sometimes you buy the phone that’s objectively the best. Other times, you buy a Sony.

Sony’s hardware is beautiful and unique, despite its unabashedly large screen bezels. The XZ1’s build quality is top-notch, as are its internal specs. You get Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box, and it runs perfectly — and runs all day on a charge despite not having a large capacity battery to draw from.

But again, it’s $699. And for that money, you’re getting a 5.2-inch 1080p LCD that’s just average. And a camera, while much improved from its predecessors, that doesn’t match the competition in the same price range. And in the U.S., you’re not even getting a fingerprint sensor. When you take in those downsides, it’s a tough sell for the rational consumer. But then again, how often do we act completely rationally? Sometimes you have to listen to your heart. Sometimes, you buy a Sony phone.

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Scientists made the first ‘unhackable’ quantum video call

Following extensive testing earlier this year, China has now deployed its quantum communications work in the form of the first ever quantum-safe video call. The call, between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Austrian Academy of Sciences, marks a secure communications breakthrough which will have a huge impact on the way sensitive information is shared between distant parties.

Traditional methods of digital communication rely on certain mathematical functions, which can be hacked with the right tools and know-how. Quantum communications, however, send information embedded in entangled particles of light, in this instance by a satellite named Micius, in a process which is said to be completely unhackable. It’s so secure that anyone even attempting to infiltrate the communication without authorization will be uncovered. As Johannes Handsteiner from the Austrian Academy of Sciences explained, “If somebody attempts to intercept the photons exchanged between the satellite and the ground station and to measure their polarization, the quantum state of the photons will be changed by this measurement attempt, immediately exposing the hackers.”

Of course, it’s not impossible that someone could find a way to hack this kind of communication at some point in the future, but right now it represents the most secure way of sharing digital data yet. According to the Chinese Academy there are plans to carry out similar test conversations between China and Singapore, Italy, Germany and Russia. And if Russia is involved, it won’t be long before the US gets in on the technology as well.

Via: Gizmodo

Source: Austrian Academy of Sciences

Open data from the Large Hadron Collider sparks new discovery

Back in 2014, CERN released the data from its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments onto an online portal called the Open Data portal. It was an unprecedented move, making data from the LHC’s experiments available to those who don’t have access to a particle accelerator. It’s not completely up-to-date; there’s a three-year embargo on results, so, generally speaking, the most recent data being uploaded is from the year 2014. This was the first time results of any particle collider experiment have been released to the public, and now it’s produced results.

Last week, a team from MIT released an article in Physical Review Letters that used data from the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), one of the LHC’s main detectors, to explain a feature within high-energy particle collisions. When protons collide at very high speeds, they release jets of quarks and gluons. The MIT team was able to show, using CMS data, that the same equation can predict both the pattern of these jets and the energy of the particles produced from a proton collision. Scientists suspected this was indeed the case, and now that hypothesis has been verified.

This is revolutionary because there’s been a reluctance in particle physics to make information available publicly. Jesse Thaler, one of the scientists on the project, told Phys.org, “The worry was, if you made the data public, then you would have people claiming evidence for new physics when actually it was just a glitch in how the detector was operating.” He continues to say that there was a certain arrogance that may have played into it as well: the belief that, if in-house scientists couldn’t make a discovery based on this data, then there was no way others could.

That’s why this discovery is so encouraging. The equation in and of itself isn’t revolutionary; it confirms something most scientists already agreed with. But the fact that the LHC’s public data led to a discovery outside the organization is a big step. Perhaps it will encourage other particle colliders to make their data available as well. Thaler said, “Our work here shows that we can understand in general how to use this open data, that it has scientific value, and that this can be a stepping stone to future analysis of more exotic possibilities.”

Source: Phys.org, Physical Review Letters

Ring launches its own DIY home security system

Ring may be best known for its video doorbells, but they’ve been branching out into a fully fledged home security solution. Today, Ring announced the Ring Protect, a DIY security system that brings together all of the company’s products in one seamless system.

The base Ring Protect bundle starts at $199 and includes a base station, keypad, a contact sensor (for a window or a door), a motion detector and a range extender. Presumably, you will be able to buy more sensors and keypads to add onto your system, but Ring doesn’t have them available for preorder on an individual basis yet.

The Ring Protect is designed to work with existing Ring video doorbells and security cameras for a seamless home security experience. It’s $10 per month (or $100 per year) for cloud video storage for an unlimited number of Ring devices plus 24/7 professional monitoring and cellular backup (if you have the Protect base station). That’s not a bad deal at all, especially if you already own Ring devices.

The Ring Protect bundle is available for preorder today at Ring.com, BestBuy.com and HomeDepot.com. It will be available for purchase in Home Depot and Best Buy physical locations later in October.

TSMC Founder Morris Chang to Retire in June 2018 as Apple’s Chip Partner Plans World’s First 3nm Fab

Apple supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has announced today that its founder and chairman Morris Chang will be stepping down from all leadership positions effective June 2018, immediately following the annual shareholders meeting taking place that month (via DigiTimes and Reuters).

Following Chang, TSMC will fall under the dual leadership of Mark Liu and C.C. Wei, with the former executive taking on the chairman of the board position and the latter becoming sole CEO of the company. Chang mentioned personal and family reasons for his retirement, and assured investors that the transfer of leadership would not change TSMC in any way, looking back on his time at the company, which he founded in 1987.

Morris Chang via Wikimedia Commons
Chang is now 86, and has earned a status as the father of Taiwan’s chip industry.

Chang added, “The past 30-odd years, during which I founded and devoted myself to TSMC, have been an extraordinarily exciting and happy phase of my life. Now, I want to reserve my remaining years for myself and my family. Mark and CC have been Co-CEO’s of the company since 2013, and have performed outstandingly. After my retirement, with the continued supervision and support of an essentially unchanged board, and under the dual leadership of Mark and CC, I am confident that TSMC will continue to perform exceptionally.”

The plan of succession is said to have been in the works “for years,” with Liu starting as a senior vice president for operations at TSMC and Wei as SVP for business development. Eventually, the two SVPs were promoted to chief operating officers in 2012, and then climbed to each gain a co-CEO status in 2013. Analysts looking at the situation see the two new leaders keeping TSMC’s status quo on track “for some years.”

“I think Liu and Wei will continue TSMC’s current model for some years,” said Mark Li, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “I do see the increasing cost of newer generation technologies as an issue but for now TSMC will still maintain the cadence of R&D development.”

But if something new comes up, such as uses of new technology that increases TSMC’s cost, they’ll need to change their plan accordingly, Li said.

One of TSMC’s biggest customers is Apple, and the supplier has been connected with Apple’s iPhones and iPads since 2011, when reports first began coming out that Apple was looking into diversifying its supply chain. Samsung was the sole supplier of the A5 chip — which was found in 2011 devices like the iPad 2 and iPhone 4s — but due to patent-based legal disputes and Samsung’s rise as a competitor in the mobile device market, Apple began looking towards other chipmakers from which it could source its A-series chips.

TSMC eventually entered trial production on chips in the A5 and A6 range, but didn’t officially make it into production on A-series chips until the A8 in 2014, on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Apple has still sourced some A-series generations from Samsung, most notably — and infamously — looking to increase volume for the iPhone 6s launch in 2015 by dual-sourcing chips from both Samsung and TSMC for the A9.

Since then, TSMC was the sole supplier of the A10 chip for the iPhone 7 family in 2016, as well as for the A11 chips in the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and upcoming iPhone X. Still, rumors persist that Liu and Wei will face increased competition from Samsung in the chip fabrication space. The TSMC rival is planning to “triple the market share of its contract chip manufacturing business within the next five years by aggressively adding clients,” potentially including a return to its previous status as an A-series supplier for Apple, although some analysts disagree.

Read more MacRumors coverage of TSMC over the years:

• Rumored A10 Production Win for TSMC Could Be Tied to Device Packaging Advances
• How TSMC Won Back Exclusivity With Apple for the A10 Chip in iPhone 7
• Apple’s Chip Partner TSMC Shares Details on 7nm Node and Advanced InFO Package Process for 2018

Simultaneously, TSMC is gearing up to build the world’s first 3-nanometer chip production plant in Tainan Science Park in southern Taiwan, marking at least one upcoming TSMC plant that will remain in Taiwan and not be built in the United States (via EE Times). The 3nm production sees TSMC preparing for the release of products far down the line; currently the supplier uses a 10nm FinFET process, with 7nm planned for 2018 and 5nm and 3nm gearing up “as early as 2022.”

Tag: TSMC
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