Report: Samsung’s budget smartphones to get fingerprint readers and Samsung Pay (NFC)

Samsung has made a major name for itself with its flagship Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series. This year the company even threw a couple of curve balls into the mix. Even though Q3 2015 held some good news, it was largely a result of its components business and a favorable exchange rate. Smartphones are now a commodity and thus the pricing wars have already started to have an effect on the profit picture for many companies, save for perhaps one.

According to The Korea Herald – citing an industry source – “Samsung is planning to deploy fingerprint sensors in budget smartphone models.” This would be a marked change from the current product line-up which has essentially relegated their use to only high end phones, and the Galaxy A8 mid-range offering.

The unnamed source mentioned the trick will be finding a way to deal with the costs associated with the component in comparison to the selling price of a budget device.

It was also pointed out in the aforementioned news report that:

“Samsung tops 14 out of 15 emerging smartphone markets including Indonesia, Turkey, and Egypt, according to market researcher Strategic Analytics…The company’s market shares in Turkey, Romania, the Netherlands and Portugal stood at more than 40 percent. In Egypt, Samsung scooped up a 53 percent market share…Market analysts attributed Samsung’s robust performance in the markets to the budget Galaxy smartphone lineups.”

In addition to bio-metric reading, the first half of 2016 is expected to see the budget brands getting Samsung Pay:

“Hwang Min-sung, an analyst from Samsung Securities, forecast that Samsung would surely install the payment system, which is compatible with both traditional magnetic stripes and Near Field Communication terminals, on its budget models running on Google’s Android operating system.”

Samsung may also bring its NFC payment platform to Tizen devices, though Min-sung felt that “Tizen smartphones with the mobile payment function would have little impact on the market.”

At the very least, this news serves to offer a possible glimpse into what next year’s Galaxy J or Galaxy E lines might consist of. Alternatively, the company could release an all-together new line of budget products that focuses on NFC and bio-metrics, thus allowing them to possibly exist along side the (possibly) cheaper “bare bones” alternatives.

Still, some of the main creature comforts that people ask for in their smartphones, namely a notification LED and an auto-brightness adjustment setting tend to be absent from Samsung’s more price-conscious models. Will they finally make an appearance as well? Only time can tell.

Samsung announces BRITECELL smartphone image sensor

Speaking at its 2015 Investors Forum, Samsung has revealed details about its new BRITECELL camera technology. The technology is expected to appear in future smartphones, possibly even the Galaxy S7.

BRITECELL is designed to improve performance in low light environments, as the name implies, by building on the company’s ISOCELL technology and resulting in less color artifacts. Oddly enough, Samsung says that it can accomplish this with smaller pixel sizes. The pixel size shrinks from 1.12um to 1.0um, resulting in a 17 percent reduction in module height and an increase in density up to 20 megapixels, all while allowing for similar low light sensitivity at 1.12um. With smartphones becoming thinner and lighter, there is an aesthetic need for Samsung to make its camera modules smaller.

The main improvements to light capture appears to come from changing the pixel arrangements, rather than their size. Samsung intends to do away with the traditional Bayer filter layout, replacing the green pixels with white ones. By removing the filter layer over the green pixels, more light will enter the sensor. Samsung’s ISCOCELL technology prevents light bleed between cells here, but processing will be needed to compensate for the different colors.

Samsung also has some improved image processing technology heading our way too. Smart WDR is designed to further increase a picture’s dynamic range by using multiple exposures, similar to how HDR software features work in many camera apps. Phase Detection Autofocus also makes an appearance in Samsung’s latest sensor technology, which allows for faster focusing using light detection in some of the sensor’s pixels. We have already seen PDAF appear in a number of new flagship smartphones that are powered by Sony’s latest Exmor RS sensors.

Samsung did not specifically mention any products that would be using its new BRITECELL technology, although it does appear destined for smartphones. Some rumors have already speculated that Samsung will debut this sensor in the Galaxy S7, much like it made use of its own ISOCELL sensors for the Galaxy S5.

Along with its new image sensor, Samsung also announced a ‘Bio Processor’ designed for wearable products. More specifically, the processor is designed around health tracking, packing heart rate, electrocardiogram, skin temperature and other processing components into a single SoC package.

As a result of these optimization, the chip fits into an 80 percent smaller space and consumes 50 percent less power, compared with using individual discrete components. Given that wearable product are limited in internal space and battery capacity, this chip could prove popular in future devices. Samsung also reckons that the automotive and gaming industries will also be interested in its Bio Processor, and that the information collected from these sensors could even be used in a security system to identify individuals.

Samsung stated that it is in talks with several companies to make use of its Bio Processor for wearables. We can probably expect to see Samsung’s latest processors and image sensors appear in consumer products next year.

Samsung executives to see pay cuts in the light of company hardships

Things are not good at Samsung – profits are falling, lay-offs have hit their workforce, and even the work culture at the Korean manufacturer has come into question. They always say change comes at the top, and now Samsung executives are starting to feel the pinch as well. A new report from The Korea Herald has said that some of Samsung’s highest paid executives have taken significant pay cuts in the light of the company’s struggles.

Samsung vice chairman Kwon Oh-hyun has taken a cut from 6.25 billion won last year to 3.82 billion won this year, CEO of consumer electronics Yoon Boo-keun dropped from 3.61 billion to 2.34 billion won and CEO of mobile business Shin Jong-kyun was the worst off of all with a drop from 12.03 billion to 2.28 billion won.

Now, these men are still being paid a ridiculous amount of money with still gargantuan bonuses – which shouldn’t be surprising since they still helm one of the biggest tech companies in the world – but it’s clear to see the effect poor financial performances have had on everyone at Samsung, particularly those in the mobile division.

What do you think about the pay cuts to Samsung executives? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Source: The Korea Herald via SamMobile

The post Samsung executives to see pay cuts in the light of company hardships appeared first on AndroidSPIN.

Samsung Galaxy Note 5 now features a warning about backwards S Pen insertion

Not too long after Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5 was released to the masses, many consumers began trying to insert the S Pen in their devices the wrong way, only to discover that this would actually stop the phone from recognizing when the S Pen was being inserted or removed. If you managed to get the S Pen out after inserting it backwards, you could still use it, but there would be no sound or vibration, and the relevant software-related action would no longer trigger upon removal. Some say this is a design flaw on Samsung’s part, some say the fact that this is happening is a user error (I’m in the former camp, by the way). The fact of the matter is, it’s a problem, and Samsung has been doing very little to ensure this doesn’t happen to consumers.

That is, until now. Samsung is now stepping up its efforts to ensure users don’t break their $700 smartphones by putting a warning label on the factory screen protector on new Galaxy Note 5 devices. The warning reads:

Warning! Be sure to insert your S Pen with the nib pointed inward. Inserting the S Pen the wrong way can cause it to become stuck and can damage the pen and your phone.

It’s still entirely possible for users to disregard this warning label while unboxing their phones, sure. But now that Samsung is putting a warning on the front of new Note 5 units, it’s becoming a little more difficult to blame the phone maker for this flaw.

If you happen to own a Note 5 and have inserted your S Pen in backwards, be sure to watch this handy YouTube tutorial on how to get your S Pen unstuck with just a piece of paper.