IntellectBeat

In tune with expectations, Samsung announced the launch of its new pair of mid-range smartphones in India at an event in New Delhi. The Galaxy J5 (2016) and Galaxy J7 (2016) are successors to the last-gen phones by the same name that were launched in India last year. The Galaxy J5 (2016) is priced at Rs 13,990 and the Galaxy J7 at Rs 15,990. Both the phones will be available exclusively via Flipkart from May 10. Both the phones are 4G-enabled, run Android 6.0 Marshmallow, feature a 13 megapixel camera at the rear and a 5 megapixel front snapper. Both phones feature F1.9 lenses in both the front and rear cameras. The Galaxy J5 (2016) comes with a 5.2-inch AMOLED display and a quad-core processor paired with 2 GB of RAM, the J7 (2016) includes has a 5.5-inch AMOLED display and an octa-core chipset coupled with 3 GB of RAM. The J5 has a 3100 mAh battery and the J7 has a larger 3300 mAh battery. The devices are available in colour of Radiant Gold, Midnight Black and Pearl White....

Korean smartphone maker Samsung is developing an app called "Voices of Life" that could help premature babies develop while in an incubator. The app works on the premise that the sound of a mother's voice and of her heartbeat has a nurturing effect on foetus in the womb. If these sounds are prematurely interrupted it can have an adverse effect on a baby's brain development. The new smartphone app, which enters a pilot programme this week, transmits the mother's heartbeat and voice to an incubator via a special speaker that filters out sound frequencies not present in the womb, a sound engineering process Samsung calls "wombifying."

During Samsung's developers' conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, the company announced that it is working on a standalone virtual reality headset, according to Variety. Samsung intends to build a headset to rival those of Oculus and Vive, announced Injong Rhee, head of research and development. Positional tracking would resolve many of the flaws in the current Gear VR headset. Rhee also mentioned that the company was researching wireless possibilites, which would be a significant breakthrough for the VR market. Andrew Dickerson, director of software development, also revealed during the conference that the company will release its Gear 360 camera this week.

Samsung has yet again upped the stakes on the flagship front of the smartphone wars. Its latest flagship, the Galaxy S7 packs in features that give it a headstart, when compared to opponents such as the iPhone 6s. Unveiled on the eve of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Galaxy S7 has quite a number of impressive features to its credit which again tilts the balance in favour of Samsung. The new S7, that is on sale from March, will rake in the numbers for quite a while before Apple can even think of making any amends with the iPhone 7 that isn't expected to make an appearance before September 2016. In a spec-to-spec and a feature-to-feature fight the list is long in which the S7 betters the 6s. Here are the top 7: 1. Camera The S7 takes the smartphone camera to an altogether new level. Galaxy S7 introduces the first Dual Pixel camera on a smartphone. The aperture in the S7 is f/1.7 compared to f/2.2 in the iPhone 6s. This means that S7 camera's aperture opens wid...

Samsung has released Pink Gold editions of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge smartphone, thereby bringing the total of available colours for the devices to five. The phones in Pink Gold will first be available in Korea. They, however, will soon be available for customers in other markets. Pink Gold was chosen as it, like the other colors available for the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, is a natural colour that provides a sense of comfort. "These hues glitter and shimmer as if illuminated from inside their glass surfaces. In particular, the refined Pink Gold color scheme is intended to soothe and incorporate a touch of gentleness, radiance and sophistication to the smartphones' design." said Samsung. Other than Pink Gold, the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are available in a choice of Black Onyx, Gold Platinum, White Pearl and Silver Titanium.

South Korean smartphone maker Samsung may unveil a game-changer device next year which can be a 5-inch smartphone when folded and turn into a 7-inch tablet when opened, a media report said. A prototype of foldable display is finished with development and the company is hoping to mass-produce the device starting from second half of this year, Korean news site ETNews reported. Samsung reportedly invested into several technologies that are needed to build foldable smartphone. The device can bend a screen in half by using OLED Display. One can carry it like a wallet and use it by opening it. "Development of foldable OLED is taking place according to our plan. We are planning on mass-production and release of this product by discussing with our partners," Lee Chang-hoon, director of Samsung Display, said in January this year. "Although mass-production cannot be concluded hastily since Samsung Electronics still has few other major tasks to complete, I have heard that S...

Samsung at its pre-MWC 2016 event launched its Samsung Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge, and reportedly sold 100,000 units within the first two days on its home turf recently. Now, a new rumour about the smaller Samsung Galaxy S7 Mini has started making rounds on the Web. It is worth mentioning that while the Samsung Galaxy S6 Mini was also rumoured last year, it never saw the light of the day so the following piece of information for the Galaxy S7 Mini too should be taken with a pinch of salt. The last mini version of the 'S' series handset we saw was the Galaxy S5 Mini. A report coming from Taiwan suggests that the rumoured Samsung Galaxy S7 Mini smartphone will be looked upon as a competitor to the much-talked-about iPhone SE handset, which is likely to launch on March 21. The Galaxy S7 Mini is also said to be the first 'Mini' smartphone to feature high-end specifications, says Apple Daily website. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Mini will reportedly spor...

You can dunk Samsung's new smartphones in water, but don't drop them on a sidewalk, a new study finds. SquareTrade, a company that offers extended-protection plans for gadgets, said the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge still functioned after being submerged in water for 30 minutes. Audio was "permanently muffled and distorted" after the dunking, but the Samsung phones still outlasted Apple's iPhones in SquareTrade's water tests. The study, released on Monday, also found that Samsung's new phones are more prone to breaking than the iPhone 6S, which survived 30 seconds in a tumbling test chamber, similar to a dryer without heat. The test is meant to mimic repeated drops phones often face. Both Samsung models had minor cracks on the screens and significant damage to their backs. The iPhone 6S Plus, a larger version of the 6S, did worse. Its screen completely shattered in SquareTrade's tests. The screens of all four phones cracked when dropped face down on a sidew...

You can dunk Samsung's new smartphones in water, but don't drop them on a sidewalk, a new study finds. SquareTrade, a company that offers extended-protection plans for gadgets, said the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge still functioned after being submerged in water for 30 minutes. Audio was "permanently muffled and distorted" after the dunking, but the Samsung phones still outlasted Apple's iPhones in SquareTrade's water tests. The study, released Monday, also found that Samsung's new phones are more prone to breaking than the iPhone 6s, which survived 30 seconds in a tumbling test chamber, similar to a dryer without heat. The test is meant to mimic repeated drops phones often face. Both Samsung models had minor cracks on the screens and significant damage to their backs. The iPhone 6s Plus, a larger version of the 6s, did worse. Its screen completely shattered in SquareTrade's tests. The screens of all four phones cracked when dropped face down on a ...

Back in October, it was reported that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S7 will be packing Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor under-the-hood in some regions, and the new Samsung Exynos 8890 SoC. The handset now appears to have passed the AnTuTu benchmark test with a Snapdragon 820 SoC on board. he AnTuTu benchmark results shown in an image posted by a user on Weibo also reveal extra details on the handset's innards. This particular model is the 5.1-inch display (with 2K resolution) variant of the three rumoured Galaxy S7 variants tipped in previous leaks and rumours. The model SM-G935A in addition to Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, will feature Adreno 530 GPU, 3GB RAM, and will run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow out-of-the-box, as per the benchmark result. The unit will house 64GB inbuilt storage - though Samsung is expected to release more than one storage variant. There is no word on the microSD card expansion for now. As for the camera, the Samsung Galaxy S7 variant will bear 12...

The anticipated successor to the popular Samsung Galaxy J1, tipped to be called the Galaxy J1 (2016), has once again been leaked in images on the Web. While in the previous leaks we have seen the unannounced smartphone in its Black colour variant, the new leaked image shows the handset in two additional colour variants. The image tweeted by @evleaks on Monday shows the Samsung Galaxy J1 (2016) smartphone in Gold and White colour variants. The design of the handset also fall in line with the models leaked in images previously. It is worth mentioning that the screen bezel seen in the image stay black in all the three colour variants. The smartphone is seen featuring a physical home button, along with a multi-window, and a back capacitive button on either side. At the back, the smartphone sports a camera at the centre with a LED flash and a speaker on either sides. Samsung is yet to announce the smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy J1 (2016)leaked in images last month as well...

Samsung Addresses a Growing Mobile Health Market with Industry’s First Smart Bio-Processor   Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced that it is addressing the growing trend of quantified health with an all-in-one advanced system logic chip for the health-oriented wearables market, the Bio-Processor. The Samsung Bio-Processor, now in mass production, is specifically designed to allow accelerated development of innovative wearable products for consumers who are increasingly monitoring their health and fitness on a daily basis.   “With improvements in smart, fitness devices and an increase in consumer health consciousness, more and more people are looking for ways to monitor various personal bio-data, or fitness data, to constantly manage their health” said Ben K. Hur, Vice President of marketing, System LSI business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung’s Bio-Processor, which can process five different bio...

Samsung in the beginning of this month revealed its second-generation of Galaxy A smartphones,  namely  the Galaxy A3 (2016), Galaxy A5 (2016) and Galaxy A7 (2016). The company also promised that the handsets will go on sale in China starting mid-December. The South Korean company, as promised, this week started selling its Galaxy A5 (2016) and Galaxy A7 (2016) smartphones in China. Both the phones are now also  listed  with prices on Samsung's official China  site . The  Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) and  Galaxy A7 (2016)  have been priced at CNY 2,398 (approximately Rs. 25,000) and CNY 2,699 (approximately Rs. 28,000) respectively. The smallest sibling of the new trio of Galaxy A series, the Samsung Galaxy A3 (2016) , is yet to be listed by the company. To refresh, the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)  features  a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) resolution Super Amoled display and packs an octa-core SoC clocked at 1.6GHz, clubbed with 3GB of...