This is a surprising trend.

Squeeze a stylus silo into that Fold and I'm all yours. I can't live without the stylus now, it's too damn useful with my S23U. And no thanks to any suggestions of getting the fat stylus case! (Well, maybe if it's slimmer this time...)

They estimate a 95% plunge in second-quarter operating profit. This is due to the surplus of chips like nand. (1tb ssd for 25 bucks when?)

It seems like the rejuvenated S21 FE is squarely aimed at OnePlus.

• More apparent details about the relaunched Galaxy S21 FE have appeared online.
• The phone is expected to be re-released in India with a Snapdragon chip.
• The leak also points to a recommended price tag in the market.

• South Korean owners of a Galaxy Z Fold 4 have started to receive the One UI 5.1.1 beta.
• Several features including the Fold 4's taskbar, Camera app, Gallery app, and Samsung Health have been improved.
• Samsung is in the process of developing One UI 6 which should roll out sometime after Android 14's August launch.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - South Korea's Samsung Display has filed a lawsuit against BOE Technology, accusing the Chinese rival of infringing five of its patents for displays used in mobile devices including Apple's iPhone 12.

Samsung Display, a unit of Samsung Electronics, asked a federal jury in Texas to award damages for the infringement of patents regarding organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays supplied by BOE. Samsung also seeks an injunction from the court to halt the import and sale of the affected displays.

The case was filed on Wednesday with the U.S. court in East Texas, which has a reputation for quicker hearings and decisions on cases.

Apple has been using OLED displays on some of its Apple Watch and iPhone models, including the latest iPhone 14. Apple says OLED delivers high resolution and allows for a thinner display than a traditional display.

The OLED display market is dominated by Samsung Display, with BOE narrowing the gap, overtaking South Korea's LG Display as the No. 2 player last year, according to market researcher Omdia.

"Samsung Display has suffered, and will continue to suffer, irreparable harm as a result of Defendants' infringement of the '599 Patent' for which there is no adequate remedy at law, unless Defendants' infringement is enjoined by this Court," the lawsuit says, referring to the 599 patent, which improves the image quality of a device.

In December, Samsung Display filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, alleging patent infringement by numerous companies selling OLED screens as replacement displays for mobile devices, triggering an investigation by the agency.

Samsung and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

Samsung Display executive Choi Kwon-young said in January last year that the company was actively seeking ways to receive compensation for its intellectual property, in a response to an analyst question about rising competition in the mobile OLED screen market.

South Korea is a manufacturing powerhouse for items ranging from chips and displays to automobiles, but South Korean companies have been facing a growing threat from rivals in China.

Last month, a former executive at Samsung Electronics was indicted on suspicion of stealing company technology for a copycat chip factory in China and jeopardising national economic security, prosecutors said.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Rating:

8/10

WIRED

Excellent black levels. Bright colors. Great for well-lit rooms and wide viewing angles. Center pedestal mount. Remote never needs a battery.

TIRED

Slow interface. Thin enough that you'll want help installing it, especially in larger sizes. Remote is easy to lose in couch.

I don't have any windows in my office. Through sheer lack of funds as I was refinishing my detached garage into a soundproof workspace---high-grade acoustic windows apparently cost thousands---I ended up in an LED-lit cave. So when I review TVs, I do my best to treat them as windows, playing scenes from the outdoors as I work. My fake plants and I have watched thousands of hours of YouTube nature videos, which loop real outdoor imagery in 4K. Some TVs make the content look better than others, but the only model I've nearly been convinced might be a window is the Samsung S95C.

This quantum-dot-enabled organic LED display (QD-OLED) has perfect black levels and gorgeous colors, and it gets extremely bright when you need it to be. From all angles, it fills a room with beautiful pictures, even if all you use it for are videos of waves crashing into a distant shoreline. It has a few downsides (namely the interface), but if you're after the most astonishing screen of the year, this is one of the best TVs you'll find.

Help Required

Two kind gentlemen helped me assemble and place the 77-inch review unit inside my studio workspace, which makes this a good time to talk about modern screen sizes and thicknesses. If you're going to get a model this large and thin, you're going to need at least one other person to help you set it up. They're too large and fragile to do it by yourself.

Photograph: Samsung

Once unboxed and placed on its center pedestal mount (!), the sleek black screen connects via proprietary Samsung cables to the Samsung One Connect box. This provides power and image to the TV, and you can place the box on the back of the pedestal mount or in another location farther away, where you can still use it to connect various inputs and outputs, depending on which of the two included proprietary cables you use. I placed the box below the TV and slightly to the back of my TV stand, where it remained out of the way, but it was still easy to connect a soundbar, my Nintendo Switch, and a long cable that ran to my desktop computer.

The S95C comes with Samsung's solar-powered remote, an excellent bit of technology for those of us tired of hunting around for AAA batteries when all we want to do is watch Succession. (It charges perfectly fine with man-made light sources, just make sure you flip the remote upside down for the solar panels to absorb the light.) That said, you might spend the same amount of time regularly hunting for the remote as you would for batteries. It's so slim and compact it can easily fall between the cushions of your couch.

Getting Started

I'll come right out and say it---Samsung's Smart TV ecosystem is far from my favorite on the market. It makes it inexplicably hard to find already-installed apps, and while it does offer every app you'd want, the implementation on this TV is extremely laggy, if not utterly unusable at times. I highly recommend you grab the streaming device of your preference. Apps ran so much better via Roku's streaming stick and my Apple TV. Surprisingly, adjusting preferences on the TV is dead simple. Just press the settings button on the remote and adjust whatever you want on the classic-style (but still usable) settings menu.

I spent the vast majority of my time operating between Game and Movie modes, which work well to modify the image for their specific purposes. I especially like the low response time on this OLED, making games like Forza Horizon 5 feel more responsive when you input an action into the controller. Those who want the most unadulterated image can switch to Filmmaker mode, or set the TV to automatically adjust when this mode is available; it mimics the settings content creators have set for the media you're streaming, coming in handy on Netflix and other major services.

With a 144-Hz refresh rate, the TV is also excellent at showing sports and other speedy events. I watched a few F1 races with friends at my place during my review time, and it was easily the best-looking TV I've tested for super-fast cars racing around the track. (The stream was limited to 60 frames per second, but the built-in variable refresh rate made everything from my PC smooth.)

Samsung S95C QD-OLED

Rating: 8/10

The built-in speakers, located on the back of the TV, are bigger and more powerful than most I've tested, and they will work as a decent substitute for a low-end soundbar if that's all you have. But if you're spending this amount of cash on a TV that looks this good, I highly recommend you buy a larger soundbar or surround system.

An OLED for Bright Rooms

For the longest time, I've been telling folks to avoid OLED TVs if they have a bright room. OLEDs just don't get quite as bright as their backlit LED counterparts. But this is the first time I can firmly say it's not a problem anymore. Despite watching with a group of people in a super bright room, the TV still looks fantastic, thanks in large part to the quantum-dot-enabled panel. Turn out the lights and things get even better, with the perfect black levels of the OLED display becoming especially obvious in sci-fi films and TV shows. (I watched a lot of Star Trek on this thing, and it made me very happy.)

It's impressive to see Samsung improve on the technology LG has been growing for nearly a decade, especially when it comes to how vivid and bright the colors are on this panel. One thing that's odd is that the S95C doesn't support Dolby Vision or DTS pass-through (two relatively normal standards on high-end TVs). It supports all other modern HDR formats, though, and I never noticed the lack of Dolby Vision as a problem.

Heck, half of the YouTube videos I play to pretend I have a window aren't even HDR at all, and they still look utterly real on this thing. Especially in a large 77-inch size, the Samsung S95C is the perfect TV to transport you anywhere.

A leak claims the phone will re-release in 10 days.

This will be a really interesting development if the leak turns out to be true.

Bluetooth 5.3 should help the tracker last longer than its predecessor.

[Interview] Smaller, Lighter SolarCell Remote Advances Samsung’s Environmental Strategy – Samsung Newsroom India

In 2022, Samsung Electronics announced its environmental strategy to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

As part of these sustainability efforts, Samsung has expanded the use of recycled materials in plastic parts for its products. By 2030, Samsung aims to incorporate 50% recycled materials into its plastic parts and by 2050, aims to use 100% recycled materials for all of its plastic parts.

Samsung’s SolarCell Remote exemplifies Samsung’s commitment to the environment, and as it celebrates its third anniversary, Samsung Newsroom is exploring how this eco-conscious product has progressed since its initial release in 2021, with perspectives from JongKeun Lee of H/W Platform Lab and HyunJoo Kim of Mecha Solution Lab.

▲ (From left) JongKeun Lee from H/W Platform Lab and HyunJoo Kim from Mecha Solution Lab

Eliminating the Need for Disposable Batteries

Samsung Electronics developed the SolarCell Remote to combat the environmental impact of discarding used batteries. It is the industry’s first rechargeable remote control, with a solar panel (solar cell) that can be charged by sunlight or indoor lighting. The remote can also be charged with a USB-C cable so consumers have many ways to charge their remote.

“The level of carbon emissions from the SolarCell Remote, from production to disposal, is roughly one-third of that of the manufacturing of disposable batteries1,” said JongKeun Lee from H/W Platform Lab. “By eliminating the need for disposable batteries, not only are fewer resources consumed but carbon emissions are lowered by manufacturing fewer batteries over time.”

Another remarkable feature is its low power consumption. The SolarCell Remote was designed to run on about 10% of the power that typical remote controls use. “Samsung made significant progress by drastically eliminating unnecessary outputs and operations, contributing to great energy savings,” Lee added.

The SolarCell Remote Recycles More Than 55 Tonnes of Waste

Twenty-four percent of the plastics used in the SolarCell Remote come from recycled materials. This means more than 55 tonnes of waste are recycled for the annual production of 10 million SolarCell Remotes. This equates to about an 18% decrease in carbon emissions compared to production using conventional materials.

This was no simple undertaking. It takes time and effort to develop and apply alternative materials made from recycled waste in a meaningful way.

“With growing concerns about ocean waste, we looked carefully into many solutions. We chose to use recycled plastics from discarded fishing nets for 20% of brackets of the 2023 SolarCell Remote,” said HyunJoo Kim from Mecha Solution Lab. “Going forward, we aim to foster the use of these resources and utilize recycled plastics more aggressively.”

“This year, we started using recycled plastics from discarded fishing nets. While they are costly and difficult to process, the end result is a higher quality of materials which contribute to our mission of everyday sustainability,” Kim added. “The process is quite extensive, from sorting out the waste to cleaning, removing toxic substances and improving material properties.”

In recognition of this product’s environmentally friendly design, Time Magazine selected the SolarCell Remote as one of Time Magazine’s “The Best Inventions of 2022.”

All of Samsung’s 2023 Lifestyle TVs are equipped with the 2023 SolarCell Remote. Samsung’s goal is to integrate more eco-conscious products and processes into a wider range of models across regions and empower consumers to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

In addition, Samsung decreased the size of the SolarCell Remote by 22% in its latest iteration. This means that the remote control uses less plastic while enhancing the product’s usability.

“As the SolarCell Remote became smaller, manufacturing uses less plastic and it became an ideal size for consumers’ hands, making it a better product all around,” Lee explained.

Pursuing an Eco-Conscious Strategy With a Streamlined Approach

So, what are Samsung’s next steps to enhance sustainability of the SolarCell Remote?

“We are continuing to move in the direction of light, thin and small to keep the use of plastic low,” Kim said.

“We are dedicated to creating a user-friendly remote control that consumes fewer resources and less energy,” Lee said. “Samsung’s ultimate goal is to empower users to control products with minimal effort while reducing the use of materials and energy. This could mean one day we get rid of the remote control entirely. The SolarCell Remote is a bold step in the direction of everyday sustainability and we can’t wait to show everyone what’s next.”

The ambitious journey of the SolarCell Remote to contribute to a more eco-conscious lifestyle is just beginning.

* Content has been revised as of May 3, 2023 to provide more accurate information.

1 Considering most TVs are used for seven years and an AA battery for their remote controls are replaced once in a year, the number of discarded batteries for a TV will be 14 every seven years. This means charging and using SolarCell Remote for seven years reduces carbon emissions by one third compared to using AA batteries.

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday laid out its road map to expand its chip manufacturing business, including leading-edge semiconductors, as it looks to catch up with leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co

Perhaps best known for its smartphones, the South Korean technology company has a huge semiconductor business that is its main profit driver. It makes memory chips that go into data centers and laptops.

But Samsung also has a chip manufacturing business known as a foundry, which produces semiconductors for other companies that design chips, such as Qualcomm

Earlier this year, Samsung said it would begin making chips with a 2-nanometer process in 2025. The company has now given a more detailed road map, saying it will begin mass production of the 2-nm process for mobile applications in 2025, then expand to high-performance computing in 2026 and to automotive in 2027.

The nanometer figure refers to the size of each individual transistor on a chip. The smaller the transistor, the more of them can be packed onto a single semiconductor. Typically, a reduction in nanometer size can yield more powerful and efficient chips.

For reference, Apple’s latest iPhone processor is made using a 5-nm process. Samsung anticipates that smartphones will require more advanced chips moving forward and is preparing for that in 2025.

High-performance computing refers to chips for data centers to train and deploy artificial intelligence applications, as Samsung looks to capitalize on the growth of the technology, partly spurred by the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Nvidia , a market leader in AI chips, relies on foundries like TSMC to manufacture its semiconductors.

Samsung’s foundry lags Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer, by some distance. In the first quarter of the year, TSMC accounted for 59% of global semiconductor foundry revenue, versus 13% for Samsung, according to Counterpoint Research.

Samsung is now looking to play catch-up by upping its capacity and laying a road map out for high-growth areas in the chip market.

The company reiterated that its 1.4-nm process will begin in 2027 as planned.

Samsung also said it is continuing to expand its chip manufacturing capacity, with new manufacturing lines in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, and Taylor, Texas, which Samsung has previously announced.

Expanded from its beta phase as seen on the Galaxy S23 series, Samsung's Galaxy Enhance-X app is now available for a wide range of premium Galaxy smartphones via the Galaxy Store. This new image editing app lets users freely customize and remaster their photos, especially in those moments when an unwanted stray shadow, a lens distortion or a lighting imbalance nearly ruins an otherwise great shot.

Powered by AI, Galaxy Enhance-X offers comprehensive one-tap image enhancement as well as the flexibility to adjust specific features, including HDR and Moiré effect. This flexibility allows users to bring out the best in all of their photos.

Powerful and Precise Photo Editing

For those times when you feel your photo needs a more general, all-around lift, Galaxy Enhance-X's Magic feature is a one-stop solution able to make comprehensive yet intuitive enhancements to your picture. With just a tap, the Magic feature will leverage deep learning and AI to automatically refine any visual noise, blur and low details, significantly improving the image quality

instantly.

Galaxy Enhance-X also provides users with a broad range of tools with which they can customize their images. HDR, for example, analyzes highlights, shading, brightness and contrast, expanding the dynamic range of the image and making its lighting richer without sacrificing quality. Like many of Galaxy Enhance-X's features, it also offers different levels of intensity

from 0 to 4 in HDR's case. Furthermore, the images we receive via social media or other messaging apps often come to us compressed after having been uploaded online. For such cases, the Upscale tool boosts the resolution of images under 1MP by up to four times for consistent, sharp detail.

To target specific areas with precision, Galaxy Enhance-X has functions like Fix Moiré and Remove Shadows. With Fix Moiré, users can smooth out the repetitive, wavy patterns that often occur when taking photos of laptop, TV or monitor displays. Because shadows can sometimes find their way into photos even in well-lit, indoor environments, Remove Shadows isolates and removes them for bright, bold images free of intrusive silhouettes.

Galaxy Enhance-X's capabilities don't just stop at those pictures taken within the past 10 minutes. The Old Photo tool harnesses generative AI to restore and bring extra clarity to old or damaged photos. While optimizing, Old Photo is also sure to maintain any face details, such as expressions, exactly as they were in the original photo, so the resulting shot is clearer and more accurate.

Other leading Galaxy Enhance-X editing functions include Brighten, Fix Blur, Sharpen, Remove Reflection and Fix Lens Distortion, while the Portrait and Face features help specifically optimize the lighting and balance of portrait shots.

Even Better Image Editing Control at Users' Fingertips

With Galaxy Enhance-X, users have the freedom to choose the precise changes they make, resulting in ideal images made possible through new levels of customizability. Furthermore, the app's powerful AI tools can perfect previously taken or downloaded images on top of those captured with the native Galaxy camera app.

Launching officially on June 20 for a range of premium Samsung Galaxy smartphones,^1^ Galaxy Enhance-X is a new level of image innovation that brings personalized customization to every user as well as any photo.

Download the Galaxy Enhance-X app by following this link.

A new 98-in version of the 2023 Samsung Q80C QLED 4K Smart TV is now available to order in the US and some EU countries. The device has Direct Full Array backlighting and the Neural Quantum Processor, supporting Dolby Atmos. Gaming features include Motion Xcelerator Turbo+ and the Samsung Gaming Hub.

Samsung has launched a 98-in version of its 2023 Q80C QLED 4K Smart TV. The new LED model has Direct Full Array backlighting for a detailed picture and has 100% Color Volume. The Neural Quantum Processor provides AI tools such as 4K upscaling, and the TV uses Quantum HDR+ for rich colors.

The Q80C has 3D surround sound from its 2.2 channel speakers, supporting Dolby Atmos and Object Tracking Sound Lite. Q-Symphony 3.0 allows you to pair external speakers and quickly produce a synced audio experience. For gaming, Motion Xcelerator Turbo+ provides 4K@120Hz visuals, and the Gaming Hub centralizes all of your games. The accompanying remote features a solar panel for charging, and you can control the TV with voice commands.

You can now reserve the 98-in 2023 Samsung Q80C QLED 4K Smart TV in the US for US$7,999.99; a US$500 discount is available to those who order the device before July 3. In EU countries such as France, you can now pre-order the model for €6,999. Customers in other regions like the UK and the Netherlands can pre-register to receive an email alert when the TV goes on sale. For context, the next size down, the 85-in model, typically retails for US$3,299.99 and is currently discounted to US$2,899.99.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced that it plans to open Samsung Game Portal, an online store specializing in gaming, on Samsung.com in more than 30 countries around the world, starting with the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Brazil in late June.

The Game Portal is a one-stop online store for gamers designed to significantly increase the convenience of browsing and purchasing products such as smartphones, TVs, gaming monitors and high-performance SSDs. It also provides customers with a variety of gaming-related content in one place, fine-tuned to their preferences and experiences.

In 2021, Accenture, a leading global professional services company, published an illuminating gaming-related study. The study found that half of the gaming population are cross-platform gamers who use more than one device to play, spending an average of 16 hours a week gaming, as well as eight hours a week watching gaming-related video content and six hours a week participating in gaming-related communities.

In response to these customer trends, Samsung has designed the Game Portal to provide an impressive variety of content, such as gaming product information, domestic and international expert reviews, product purchase benefits and offers, product utilization ideas that help users enjoy games more, and game-related news.

"Gaming has become an important part of consumers' lifestyle, not just entertainment, especially for Millennials and Gen Z," said Evelyn Kim, Executive Vice President of the D2C Center at Samsung Electronics. "We will implement various initiatives to provide customers with a superior gaming experience, from purchase to use, by providing an environment that makes it enjoyable and easy to purchase gaming-related products."

Notable products to be available on the portal are the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which is optimized for mobile gaming with its high-performance Snapdragon® 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy and 5000mAh battery; the Neo QLED TV, which allows users to enjoy cloud gaming without a separate console through the Samsung Gaming Hub; and the Odyssey OLED G9 monitor, which provides an unparalleled immersive gaming experience with its 49-inch curved OLED screen. Another impressive offering is the 990 PRO SSD, which delivers sequential read and write speeds of up to 7,450 and 6,900 MB/s for faster loading of PlayStation and DirectStorage PC games.

To celebrate the launch of the Game Portal, Samsung is offering[1] discounts on bundles of gaming devices, as well as a variety of regional purchasing incentives centered on its recently launched Odyssey gaming monitor and Neo QLED 8K products.

The gaming industry is one of the few sectors that continues to grow. Given this trend, Samsung has been engaged in various activities to strengthen its leadership in the industry, including enhancing the competitiveness of its gaming-related products and services. Opening the Samsung Game Portal is a key move in this direction that paves the way for further growth. For more information, please visit https://www.samsung.com/game-portal.