This week, on our weekly news roundup: Samsung decides to adopt the notch trend, we get to take a quick look at their foldable phone, and more!
Many of us struggle to get through a day of usage without having to charge our phone midway through. It's only natural that smartphone users look for more and more ways to save battery life.
One sort of battery saving rumor that has been going around for years now is that dark mode can increase our battery life. Well, turns out that this is actually true.
In a presentation that happened quite recently, Google announced that dark mode drains less power than the "normal" mode. In full brightness, power consumption is reduced by as much as 43%.
This applies even more to OLED displays because they can turn off individual black pixels to provide a deeper black. Traditional LCD do also benefit from this - but not as much since they have background lighting that's always On.
Furthermore, Google admitted that encouraging developers to implement the light mode was a mistake. There's no doubt that many of us will benefit from a fully dark theme.
Because dark mode isn't only easier on our battery - it's also easier on our eyes. Perhaps after this, we'll see more developers implementing a dark mode option on their apps.
Shara Tibken - senior reporter of CNET - posted the above image on her Twitter account saying that these are the display specs of the portable phone that Samsung is making.
The cover screen of 4.5 inches has a resolution of 840 x 1960 while the main tablet screen is at 7.3 inches with a resolution of 1536 x 2152.
These screen resolutions are definitely nothing insane. But, let us not forget that 7 inches is still a relatively small display. Like, there are many 25-inch TVs with a smaller resolution than that and they don't look half bad.
Plus, a higher resolution will be more pricey and more power demanding. With that being said, Samsung's foldable phone is expected to be quite power hungry and pricey as it is. After all, we're talking about 2 displays into one device here.
Pricing estimates are set at about $1500-2000 which is definitely not cheap. Furthermore, it is expected that Samsung will only release this device in limited numbers and if it gets enough attention - then we might see this becoming a standard consumer device. Hopefully, it'll become cheaper in the future, though.
Now, with all of that being said, we haven't even seen the official device yet. So, let us be patient. First impressions with the renders are definitely not bad. Certainly better than the rushed world's first foldable phone.
And for the final words, the cover display of this device will likely turn off automatically once you "unfold" it so that it'll be able to save battery. Other than that, the bezels aren't looking all that bad but let us wait till the official reveal to check that out.
If anything else comes up, then we'll keep you updated!
This presentation happened shortly after Samsung teased us with their foldable phone design. As you can see in the image above, there are at least 3 notch designs by Samsung.
To be fair, though, this is not the classic huge notch that we're used to - looking at you Google. All the notch designs look much more like the waterdrop notch rather than anything else. The good thing with that is that people generally seem to prefer this over the "standard" notch.
These designs will likely be implemented in future Samsung phones. We just hope that we'll at least have the choice of getting a Samsung phone without a notch. Because let's face it - not everyone likes it.
The Infinity-O looks rather strange and truly don't know how you can utilize such a thing on a smartphone. Guess we'll have to wait and see. Before moving on, let us not forget this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPhetlu3f2g
The Infinity-U and Infinity-V look more or less like your average waterdrop notch. The New Infinity appears to be a fully bezel-less display.
We don't know how Samsung is going to achieve a bezel-less display. But, we've got a feeling that this is going to be another Mi Mix 3 concept; aka a phone with some sort of sliding mechanism.
That's all for now with Samsung and the notch. If anything else comes up, we'll keep you updated!
It doesn't take a lot of thinking to understand that the name was very likely taken from the AirPods of Apple. The AirDots cost only $29 and come with Bluetooth 5.0 which is rather impressive for the price point.
Of course, we highly doubt that they'll manage to sound anywhere near as good as the AirPads. Still, if you're looking for a budget choice of Bluetooth earphones, the AirDots will likely be a very good choice - Xiaomi rarely if ever disappoints.
Xiaomi is a brand that has been getting more and more popular. In a short period of time, they managed to go from a small startup to one of the world's biggest smartphone manufacturers.
Despite their success, Xiaomi hasn't officially joined the USA market yet. If a phone works in the desired band frequencies, then you could always try to import it. But, it's not the same thing and not everyone knows how to do that.
All of that kinda makes us wonder, does Xiaomi plan to release any of their smartphones on the USA? The New York event may be all about that.
They are already selling other products like power banks, electric scooters, security cameras, and more. But, as of yet, no smartphones.
So, will this be the next big move from Xiaomi? Let's wait and see!
Google: dark mode increases your battery life
Many of us struggle to get through a day of usage without having to charge our phone midway through. It's only natural that smartphone users look for more and more ways to save battery life.
One sort of battery saving rumor that has been going around for years now is that dark mode can increase our battery life. Well, turns out that this is actually true.
In a presentation that happened quite recently, Google announced that dark mode drains less power than the "normal" mode. In full brightness, power consumption is reduced by as much as 43%.
This applies even more to OLED displays because they can turn off individual black pixels to provide a deeper black. Traditional LCD do also benefit from this - but not as much since they have background lighting that's always On.
Furthermore, Google admitted that encouraging developers to implement the light mode was a mistake. There's no doubt that many of us will benefit from a fully dark theme.
Because dark mode isn't only easier on our battery - it's also easier on our eyes. Perhaps after this, we'll see more developers implementing a dark mode option on their apps.
The display specs of Samsung's portable phone get leaked
Shara Tibken - senior reporter of CNET - posted the above image on her Twitter account saying that these are the display specs of the portable phone that Samsung is making.
The cover screen of 4.5 inches has a resolution of 840 x 1960 while the main tablet screen is at 7.3 inches with a resolution of 1536 x 2152.
These screen resolutions are definitely nothing insane. But, let us not forget that 7 inches is still a relatively small display. Like, there are many 25-inch TVs with a smaller resolution than that and they don't look half bad.
Plus, a higher resolution will be more pricey and more power demanding. With that being said, Samsung's foldable phone is expected to be quite power hungry and pricey as it is. After all, we're talking about 2 displays into one device here.
Pricing estimates are set at about $1500-2000 which is definitely not cheap. Furthermore, it is expected that Samsung will only release this device in limited numbers and if it gets enough attention - then we might see this becoming a standard consumer device. Hopefully, it'll become cheaper in the future, though.
Now, with all of that being said, we haven't even seen the official device yet. So, let us be patient. First impressions with the renders are definitely not bad. Certainly better than the rushed world's first foldable phone.
And for the final words, the cover display of this device will likely turn off automatically once you "unfold" it so that it'll be able to save battery. Other than that, the bezels aren't looking all that bad but let us wait till the official reveal to check that out.
If anything else comes up, then we'll keep you updated!
Samsung briefly showcases their new foldable phone
https://youtu.be/kK2W7ErTF3g Samsung showed us a brief glimpse of their portable phone folds and unfolds. While it definitely looks nicer than the FlexPai, in our opinion, this is still a bit too thick for a portable device. And again, we don't like them thick. However, the device was being held into a sort of case/box. Our best guess is that Samsung did that so that it will be able to temporarily hide its design from its competitors until the device is ready for being released into the public. So, chances are that the actual phone is much thinner and better looking than what we saw on this video. At least we hope that's the case because that looks like a small brick while folded. Other than that, Samsung also talked about its new UI that's called One UI. It's mostly made for foldable devices in mind and it allows you to run up to 3 apps at the same time. Chances are that we'll talk more about it on our weekly firmware news roundup. So, stay tuned! Samsung is expected to officially announce this device in the upcoming months. Most likely during the early months of 2019. Till then, all we can do is sit tight and wait.Samsung joins the notch family
No. We're not joking. After trolling Apple and everyone who has adopted the notch trend, Samsung decides to join the party as well.
This presentation happened shortly after Samsung teased us with their foldable phone design. As you can see in the image above, there are at least 3 notch designs by Samsung.
To be fair, though, this is not the classic huge notch that we're used to - looking at you Google. All the notch designs look much more like the waterdrop notch rather than anything else. The good thing with that is that people generally seem to prefer this over the "standard" notch.
These designs will likely be implemented in future Samsung phones. We just hope that we'll at least have the choice of getting a Samsung phone without a notch. Because let's face it - not everyone likes it.
The Infinity-O looks rather strange and truly don't know how you can utilize such a thing on a smartphone. Guess we'll have to wait and see. Before moving on, let us not forget this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPhetlu3f2g
The Infinity-U and Infinity-V look more or less like your average waterdrop notch. The New Infinity appears to be a fully bezel-less display.
We don't know how Samsung is going to achieve a bezel-less display. But, we've got a feeling that this is going to be another Mi Mix 3 concept; aka a phone with some sort of sliding mechanism.
That's all for now with Samsung and the notch. If anything else comes up, we'll keep you updated!
Xiaomi's new wireless earphones: the AirDots
Wireless earphones are becoming more and more the norm as various manufacturers decide to remove their 3.5 mm headphone jack for a slightly thinner design. Maybe it's for that reason that Xiaomi decided to create their own earphones: the AirDots.
It doesn't take a lot of thinking to understand that the name was very likely taken from the AirPods of Apple. The AirDots cost only $29 and come with Bluetooth 5.0 which is rather impressive for the price point.
Of course, we highly doubt that they'll manage to sound anywhere near as good as the AirPads. Still, if you're looking for a budget choice of Bluetooth earphones, the AirDots will likely be a very good choice - Xiaomi rarely if ever disappoints.
Xiaomi will hold an event in New York at the 8th of December
Xiaomi is a brand that has been getting more and more popular. In a short period of time, they managed to go from a small startup to one of the world's biggest smartphone manufacturers.
Despite their success, Xiaomi hasn't officially joined the USA market yet. If a phone works in the desired band frequencies, then you could always try to import it. But, it's not the same thing and not everyone knows how to do that.
All of that kinda makes us wonder, does Xiaomi plan to release any of their smartphones on the USA? The New York event may be all about that.
They are already selling other products like power banks, electric scooters, security cameras, and more. But, as of yet, no smartphones.
So, will this be the next big move from Xiaomi? Let's wait and see!