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=FPhetlu3f2gThe 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!
What's my model number?
There are several ways to locate your model number:
- Option 1
- On your device, go to Settings, then "About device" and scroll down to "Model number"
- Option 2
- Often times you can view the model number inside the device, by removing the battery
- Option 3
- Using Samsung's model/serial number location tool