There was at least one important event this week. Qualcomm has announced technology that will charge a phone with a 4,500mAh battery to 100 percent in just 15 minutes. In addition, Google rolled out useful updates, and leaks made it clear how much the new Samsung Galaxy Note 20 will cost. All this and much more happened in these seven days, so today we have something to talk about. Let's not waste time and start talking about the most interesting and important news of the outgoing week.
Charge your phone in 15 minutes. Fiction? No – the news of the week.
How much will the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 cost
Many will soon be doing a simple exercise. We take a hammer in our right hand, put our feet shoulder-width apart, raise the hammer up and hit the piggy bank with it to get money out of it to buy a new Galaxy Note 20. Although, someone will do other exercises. Of course, all this is a joke, but many fans of the brand will really be ready to spend their savings on a smartphone, which will be expensive. Samsung Galaxy Note has never been cheap at all, and this year its price tag is likely to be just space. It can be presented for a long time, but now we have the first information that gives us an idea of the real cost of this device.
This smartphone is getting closer, and the rumors are getting more interesting.
The novelty has not yet been released and we are waiting for it only on August 5, but we already know almost everything about it. A lot of leaks “burned” literally all the insides of the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and the rest of the series smartphones. We did not have normal information only about the price, but the time has come.
This year, three models should be presented in the lineup: the regular Galaxy Note 20 with 4G, the same regular one, but with 5G and the top-end Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, of course, with 5G. According to the source, the price for them will start at 999 euros in Europe (approximately 85,000 rubles). For this money, you will be offered a Samsung Galaxy Note 20 4G with 256 GB memory. The same smartphone with the same memory, but with 5G will cost 1099 euros (about 93,500 rubles). The price tag already draws on the title of a horse, although it saves a large amount of memory, but further more.
It's interesting to see how Samsung stands out this time around.
If you want to buy a Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, then in the euro area it will ask for 1349 euros for the version with 256 GB memory and 1449 euros for the version with 512 GB memory. In rubles, this will be approximately 115,000 rubles and approximately 123,000 rubles, respectively. Then you can relax a little and remember that the price of Samsung flagships is literally dropping before our eyes, starting almost from the first week. After two or three months, you can buy it for 15-20 percent, or even more, cheaper. And expensive accessories are often given to them as a gift.
These are not final prices yet and may differ in some countries due to local laws. However, it is upsetting the fact that initially there was information that the Korean company, on the contrary, will reduce prices this year in order to keep demand from the world economic crisis. It was reported that the price of smartphones will be $ 40-50 lower. For comparison, when the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 went on sale, its price tag in Europe started at 949 euros. That is, this year, it not only did not decrease, but increased by 50 euros (of course, if the leak is not lying).
How can Samsung justify the price of an expensive smartphone this time around?
It is also frightening that some rumors say that polycarbonate will be used in the case of the novelty – in other words, plastic. I don't really believe in this, but if it happens, it will be a failure in terms of attitude towards clients. Even if not the entire back wall is made of it, but only the frame, it will be terrible. This is what OnePlus has done in its new Nord, as proven by the drop test we wrote about this week, but this smartphone only costs $ 400 (not even euros).
In addition to the price of the smartphones themselves, there is information regarding the cost of the new Samsung Galaxy Buds Live. According to the same source, they will be sold for 189 euros (approximately 16,300 rubles). Given the traditional way for Samsung to distribute its new products, we can assume that these headphones will be sold at a significant discount or even be given as a gift when pre-ordering a Galaxy Note 20 smartphone.
According to the latest information, the company may show other gadgets at the presentation on August 5. Along with the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Buds Live series, it will most likely also release the foldable Galaxy Z Fold 2, the Galaxy Tab S7 tablet and the Galaxy Watch 3. However, it is possible that the company will “spread” new products in time to more news outlets and journalists wrote about Samsung more often, and at the same time, in order not to shock the fans of the brand with the need to spend money on several expensive devices at once.
Samsung is also rumored to have antibacterial cases.
The main specification of the new Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series is that smartphones will run on Exynos 990 in Europe and India, and in the US they will receive Qualcomm Snapdragon 865. However, there is a possibility that the Ultra version will be able to boast the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus, which was introduced a couple of weeks ago. This chipset is the first among mobile processors to step over the 3 GHz clock speed mark. If Ultra gets it, then everything will be logical – it must be different in some way.
With the Galaxy Note 20 series, the company will also introduce a new One UI 2.5 based on Android 10. According to the leaks, the shell may also offer users a lot of interesting things, but we will not know the details until next week. So let's be patient.
In Google Chrome, you can pay by card through your fingerprint
If you have ever had to pay for purchases on the Internet, you should know how inconvenient it is. To do this, it was necessary to enter the bank card details, rewrite the name written in Latin, the expiration date and, of course, the crown of any payment card – a three-digit CVC code. Undoubtedly, with the advent of the autofill mechanism, everything has become noticeably easier, but the need to confirm the payment by entering the CVC code has not gone anywhere. For some reason, the SMS confirmation code following this was not enough. Okay, at least Google has fixed this situation.
Autocomplete bank details can be handy, and Google has proven it
Google Chrome has an improved autofill mechanism that no longer requires a CVC code when entering bank card details. Rather, it is still required, but only when saving billing information for the first time. After you enter all the data, Chrome will remember them and will automatically substitute where you choose. And biometrics was chosen as a security element replacing the CVC code. After all, what could be more reliable than biometrics, which, unlike a code, can neither be erased nor lost?
It will be possible to confirm autocomplete instead of CVC code with biometric data
Google Chrome uses the WebAuthn standard to autofill bank card details and verify payments. It ensures that scanned prints, facial images, and irises are securely stored on the device, without transferring them anywhere else. This allows for maximum protection of both payment data and biometric data, which can be used only by the owner and only at the moment when he considers it necessary.
Safe autocomplete billing will work extremely simply, but here's a rough guide – just in case:
- Go to the shopping cart on the site where you want to checkout and confirm the checkout;
- In the payment section, click on the line for entering the bank card number – an autofill window should appear in front of you;
- Select the bank card you want to pay (if there are several) and confirm with your fingerprint;
- Be careful: some sites may require you to enter your last name and first name or card expiration date, even when using auto-complete.
Google has made password autocomplete in Chrome even more convenient
Secure Autofill Billing Information is coming to Chrome on all platforms. It is already available in the desktop version of the browser, and in the near future it will reach Android, which will receive at least one more innovation. It will become a more convenient interface for autofilling authorization data on sites. From now on, the browser will automatically offer combinations of logins and passwords available for a specific web resource in a more visual form, so that it is easier for the user to select the one he needs and confirm authorization using biometrics.
Obviously, this is how Google wants to make online payments more convenient, and, frankly, it does it. But it still remains a mystery to me why she is in no hurry to develop Google Pay as a means of payment on the Internet. Indeed, in physical retail, everyone has long been paying for purchases using a contactless service, because it is convenient. And online, it would be even easier to feel the convenience, since Google Pay does not require you to fill in any data, allowing you to simply scan your fingerprint and confirm the payment.
Financial position Huawei
The next news can only be published under the heading “not again, but again”. Once again, it is difficult to ignore the news that Huawei manages to maintain its leading position and outstrip many other manufacturers. Once again, according to the results of the quarter, the company became the leader in sales, ahead of even Samsung. All this despite the fact that the company is not even thought to be taken out of the sanctions. As usual, there is a simple explanation for this, only it once again contradicts analysts' forecasts. As the saying goes, “it sinks, sinks, but does not sink in any way.” What's going on with this company?
Huawei 'who could'
According to a Canalys report, Huawei surpassed Samsung as the world's largest smartphone manufacturer in the second quarter of 2020.
This happened against the background of how some time ago Counterpoint Research analysts were skeptical about the leadership Huawei in global smartphone sales. So they commented that in April this year Huawei outstripped Samsung in sales. Of course, this was associated with temporary changes against the background of the uneven spread of the coronavirus, but the assumption turned out to be incorrect.
Interestingly, the Canalys report says this is the first time in the last 10 years that a company other than Apple and Samsung has topped the ranking of global smartphone sales. And you say sanctions …
Now all companies have suffered from the global drop in sales and they have to do something. Huawei is also fighting this fight, but besides that, she is still forced to somehow explain to people that there is life without Google services and continue to develop her AppGallery application store.
Of course, Huawei helps the growth of demand in the domestic Chinese market, where compatibility with Google is not important to anyone, but the company manages to top the rankings in other countries as well.
For example, according to many analytical agencies, smartphones Huawei and Honor lead the popularity rating in Russia and are among the top three in many European countries. Most likely, this is due to the fact that they are inexpensive (the company makes a lot of promotions to stimulate demand in difficult times), and most users are satisfied with what AppGallery has – instant messengers, social networks, Yandex applications (in Russia).
An important success factor Huawei.
However, it was still China that became one of the first countries to largely recover from the effects of the pandemic, and the activities Huawei in this country had a large positive impact on the company's success. To understand the picture, suffice it to say that in the second quarter, China accounted for 72% of the company's total shipments. In the first quarter this indicator was 61%, and last year it was just over 50%. The Chinese helped soften the fall, but the company was able to somehow minimize losses in the global market.
In the second quarter, the decline in shipments of smartphones Huawei was 27%. This is significant, but everyone lost, and many even more. For example, Samsung cut shipments by 30% for the quarter. These are global losses, and the fact that China is “dragging” Huawei, says the market share of Samsung in this country – only 1%.
The logo Huawei has become a symbol of resistance for many. So far, the company manages to justify this.
If we set aside very relative percentages and speak in specific values, then Huawei shipped 55.8 million devices in the second quarter of this year. During the same period, Samsung was able to sell only 53.7 million handsets according to its data. Some analysts predicted approximately the same figures for this quarter. At least towards the end of the quarter, few people were surprised by the leadership of the telecommunications giant.
This is a remarkable result that few would have predicted a year ago, ”said Ben Stanton, senior analyst at Canalys. – If it were not for COVID-19, this would not have happened.
Despite the fact that Huawei gathered her will into a fist and was able to realize all her strengths, it cannot yet be said that success will be long. We do not know if the company will be able to continue like this and how long it will last. As more countries recover from the effects of the pandemic, the company's US trade ban is likely to continue to impact its global performance. But so far the global problem has played into the hands of the company and, along with competent management, has made it easier for it to survive the transition period.
In this building, the right decisions are made to help Huawei survive.
This is quite obvious if we judge by the data for 2019. Shortly before the ban Huawei increased its global shipments by 61% in Q1 2019. The company reportedly expected its troubles to cut sales by 20% in 2020 in March. It is not yet clear what will happen in the end, so we will return to this conversation closer to the end of the year.
I also note that Samsung can expect a short-term increase in device shipments in the second half of the year after the August 5 event and the announcement of the Galaxy Note 20 series. It is likely that Huawei will also unveil its Mate 40 series this year, but when they start devices sold is not clear. So we just wait and see what happens next.
How fast can you charge your phone
Over the past few years, we've seen a race to determine which company will introduce the fastest smartphone charging. We can say that we have reached the point at which batteries in general began to suit users. They last long enough, and when they sit down, they can be charged relatively quickly. But all this does not mean that you can calm down and you no longer need to develop further. That is why manufacturers continue to offer their solutions. Not so long ago, OPPO showed what it can do, and now it's time for Qualcomm to reclaim the palm. To do this, she showed what she is capable of and announced her new solution.
Qualcomm has introduced a new very high speed charger.
The American manufacturer was indeed a leader in the field of fast charging at one time, setting trends with its Quick Charge, but this time he missed the palm. This could not go on for a long time and the company not only released its solution, but also made it even better. Let me remind you that OPPO showed a couple of weeks ago that the phone can be charged in 20 minutes, and Qualcomm has already started talking about 15 minutes.
The technology got its traditional name for the company and became a continuation of the existing line. It's called Quick Charge 5. It's a huge leap when you upgrade from Quick Charge 4. For example, it supports 100W charging or more while keeping the battery 10ºC cooler.
The new charging is really cool.
Charging efficiency increased by 70% at once. Thanks to this, according to the company, the 4,500 mAh battery can be fully charged in just 15 minutes, while charging up to 50% will take only five minutes. As a reminder, OPPO spoke of 20 minutes for a 4,000mAh battery. Round!
The technology is also based on dividing the battery into two parts. 2250 mAh each. They are connected in series to increase their voltage. It is also possible to use three elements. This is how charging can be accelerated by individually energizing multiple cells at high speed.
Quick Charge 5 is our fastest charging solution. It will allow consumers to use their devices for a longer period of time without worrying about complicated charging. We created it to expand our technology portfolio and make available more than 100 watts of charging for commercial use. Said Yves Roche, vice president of product management for Qualcomm Technologies, inc.
Quick Charge 5 requires a dedicated power supply to maintain the output voltage between 3.3 and 20 volts at a minimum. It should have 3.3 or 5 A of current, or even more. The new charging technology is based on USB Power Delivery PPS. However, it also includes backward compatibility with earlier chargers. Moreover, it also offers full support for standard USB devices and even technology Apple – models iPhone 7 and older.
Charging compatibility.
The American chip maker claims that its new system is so secure that you don't have to worry about it. Quick Charge 5 uses as many as 8 levels of voltage protection, 3 levels of thermal protection, 3 levels of timer protection and 3 levels of overcurrent protection.
In addition, the QC 5 has 25V overvoltage protection. Smartphones with this new technology won't blindly trust the charger, the company says. The charging itself will work in a complex way and, choosing the parameters, will take into account everything – from the state of the battery to the temperature at which charging takes place. It measures the actual characteristics throughout the process to determine the maximum current that the charger can supply.
Qualcomm is keen to see the first QC 5 smartphones arrive in the third quarter of 2020. The company also introduced two charge controller chips that manufacturers can use – SMB1396 and MSB1398. They support both wired and wireless input, and can be used with 1 and 2 cell batteries. It's worth noting that 1 cell designs only support charging up to 45W. Even this value is very decent and many manufacturers of even flagship devices have not yet crossed this mark.
And yet it's impressive. Let's see how this will be implemented in practice.
The current Snapdragon 865 and 865+ offer full support for the Quick Charge 5 standard. However, you shouldn't expect smartphones already released to benefit from the new technology. Here you should rather wait for new smartphones, which will receive a special controller. A massive transition to the new technology can be expected in the fourth quarter of this year or even in 2021, but what the hell is not kidding, and maybe the new Samsung Galaxy Note 20 will receive such charging?
While we are preparing for the fact that the new charging will become the standard for next year's flagships. If we are talking about the fact that the technology is already ready and Qualcomm can ensure its use now, then this parameter will become a real trend in 2021 for flagship-level phones.
Samsung knows how to make its processors better
When Samsung's new flagship smartphone comes out, the public is split in two. Some are categorized as “what happens in general”, while the latter are actively resenting the fact that Snapdragon processors again did not pass by their region. Indeed, Samsung's proprietary design is good, but inferior to the American solution. That is why many fans of the brand find ways to bring the phone from the USA. It seems that Samsung has found a way to optimize the processor so that users do not worry so much about being “cheated”.
Many people stand up for this processor, but at least optimization will definitely not hurt it.
Almost after every review of a new phone, in the comments to the article, to the video on our YouTube channel or just in our Telegram chat, there are those who tell how they ordered a smartphone from the USA through the delivery service or friends. A couple of times I even met people who bought a smartphone in Russia, and then sold it and ordered the same one from the USA. As a result, we were satisfied with the replacement and enjoyed using it.
According to recent rumors, Samsung has found a way to optimize its processor in the international version of the Galaxy Note 20 series. So the company can improve its processor performance and make the performance of different devices more similar.
The source says Samsung has improved its own Exynos 990, which can be found in global phone configurations, not by increasing the clock speed, but only by optimizing. For this, the company has placed great emphasis on combating overheating. This is kind of a little life hack. This optimized processor will run cooler and therefore will not degrade performance as a protective measure.
The value of an optimized Samsung Galaxy Note 20 or Note 20 Ultra to users cannot be overstated. If the company realized its problems and so indirectly admitted them, this is very good, because earlier its management stated that everything is fine and they have no performance problems. It even sounded that the current generation of Exynos is in no way inferior to analogues on chips from Qualcomm. But users in the crown do not agree with this.
For a new smartphone, you only want the coolest processor.
I agree that for an ordinary person who uses only a camera, a browser and instant messengers, there will not be much difference, but there are also demanding fans of the brand. For them, “every gram” of productivity is really important.
Overall, Samsung's Exynos chips haven't been as impressive as they could have lately. This does not apply to any one model, but to everything that the Korean company produces. Many tests show that Exynos processors are generally very good, and in some modes even very good, but in general they are still inferior to Snapdragon.
Samsung is pushing for self-built chips for Europe and other international regions, regardless of performance shortages. That is why many have been waiting for information that the situation will repeat itself with the upcoming Galaxy Note series novelties. So far, according to rumors, everything will be as before, and this disappointed many. Against the background of such a decision, the desire to optimize processors looks like a real gift. Moreover, Korean chips really tend to get hotter.
Some of the older models also had performance issues. But sometimes other difficulties also arose. An example would be camera difficulties on the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. She simply did not catch the focus, and this is on a smartphone for one and a half thousand dollars! Maybe the problem was not related to the processor, but the owners of the Exynos version were not complaining about it. As they say, “the residue remained.”
Nobody says this processor is terrible, but Snapdragon is still better.
samsung
In fact, many fans of the brand were expecting that the new smartphone will have a new generation processor – Exynos 992. There is no information about this yet and, most likely, they will have to be content with the usual Exynos 990. Everything would be fine, but it loses even to Snapdragon 865. Well, talk about Snapdragon 865 Plus, which, according to rumors, should receive one of the versions of the new smartphone.
Maybe the optimization will be very good and it will even pull you to really name the chip Exynos 992, but it's hard to believe in it. Miracles do not happen, and almost certainly everything will remain the same.
As a result, we again see that the world is ready to be divided into two parts and next week we will get people who will say that they were again cheated and put a cheap chip in their expensive smartphone.
I've always said that for a simple user, the difference in performance will be negligible, but it is. From this point of view, it is ugly for Samsung to set the same price for all markets. Although, in Europe, it is often even higher if converted to dollars. This behavior of the company is really unpleasant. Throw off the price of $ 50, or better still give a choice, and everything will be fine – the audience will be happy.