The outgoing week brought us two cult items at once. First, we got the second generation of the first ever mass-produced foldable smartphone. Samsung unveiled it at a separate event and it's really impressive. Big screen, cool internals and stylish design. This is what we expected from the new 'clamshell'. And this week it turned out that Netflix will finally appear in Russia. Prices and details have become known. In addition, there was other news. Including about Huawei and Xiaomi. I propose to discuss all this and much more in our traditional news collection. Let's remember what the outgoing week was marked by.
Sometimes one smartphone turns out to be much better than the other.
What will Huawei Watch GT 2 be
Smartwatches are gaining more and more popularity. Even the pandemic and the subsequent crisis did not prevent the growth of this market segment. Despite a significant drop in smartphone sales, sales of smartwatches and fitness bracelets have only increased. All due to the fact that such a gadget is becoming more and more versatile, optimized and convenient. They also often look good. Now the main manufacturers of such an accessory are Apple, Garmin, Huawei and Samsung. It was in this sequence that they ranked in the ranking by the number of sales. Apple is out of reach, selling more than half of the world's smartwatches, with the other three brands gaining more traction. Now there is information about what will be the new watch Huawei, which many have been waiting for.
New watches Huawei are always interesting.
Additional evidence of the users' interest in watches Huawei is that this particular manufacturer has increased its market share the most. This is despite the fact that the new watch has not yet been released and even now we only have a leak.
Huawei has been releasing new products on all fronts for its home market since the beginning of 2020. However, this year it has released only a few devices in global markets. According to a new leak, Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro will be the next new product from the company for users all over the world.
Renders and characteristics of the upcoming watch Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro shared by Roland Quandt from WinFuture. The Chinese telecommunications giant's new smartwatch is forecast to be a minor update to last year's Watch GT 2. It will be available in Germany in the coming weeks for around € 280.
This price cannot be called low, since for this or approximately this money you can buy almost any other watch, but the novelty still differs from last year's model for the better. Therefore, it will definitely have to ensure the interest of buyers. Especially against the backdrop of the success of the previous Huawei Watch GT2, which I also liked. This is the case when the second generation really takes into account the mistakes of the first and corrects them.
One of the color options for the new Watch GT 2 Pro.
The new smartwatch Huawei will feature the same 1.39-inch round OLED – 454 x 454 pixel display. The case will be made of stainless steel with slight design differences from other models in the Watch GT 2 series. It will be available in one 46mm size and two colors, but users will be able to complement the case with silicone or leather straps in various colors.
The source of the leak does not mention which processor the new clock will be powered by, but it will most likely be the HiSilicon Kirin A1, since the novelty will have the same internal components as the “non-professional” variant. For example, 32MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage for music playback, GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, compass, GPS and 455mAh battery. The watch will even be equipped with a heart rate sensor, a blood oxygen sensor and you can swim in it. It will not work to dive to great depths in them. But small dives won't do them any harm. In general, the ability to swim in a watch is more important than anything else, you must agree.
In addition, the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro will run LiteOS with support for a variety of fitness tracking, sleep monitoring, stress monitoring and blood oxygen monitoring activities. The watch, as it should be such an accessory, will support wireless charging. This will be done using a proprietary charging station, which will naturally be included in the package. The charging speed is still difficult to name, but, most likely, it will be at the usual level and you should definitely not expect miracles from it. And really fast charging is not so important for the watch. Moreover, according to available information, the new watch will work up to 14 days without recharging. Of course, if you use GPS, then the watch will be enough for a day, but how often do you use it not for training? I mean on the watch.
Also Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro will be in this color.
Like previous generations, users will be able to pair the new watch with any smartphone. It doesn't matter if it works on Android or iOS, the watch will still work fine. Pairing will occur through Bluetooth 5.1.
Potentially, the watch Huawei can become one of the devices that will be the crown gadget for Huawei. By that, I mean the problems with smartphones that the company is gradually addressing despite the new sanctions. Rumor has it that relatively soon the company will be able to establish its own production of processors and then generally will almost completely cease to depend on the United States. If at the same time it pulls up its operating system, then everything will become just “chocolate”.
If this does not happen, the company will still have a business related to cloud technologies and telecommunications. At the same time, no one bothers her to produce watches and other accessories. Yes, they are now powered by Kirin chips, but in the case of Huawei, finding a replacement for watches is easier than for smartphones. Therefore, we are watching further developments.
Which is better, Xiaomi or Samsung
The rating of smartphones and manufacturers is interesting primarily because it is constantly changing. In it, someone always goes up, and someone goes down. True, most of the changes are local, because the top three or four hardly change from year to year, and it is difficult to imagine that one of them will fall to the bottom of the top ten. It is simply unrealistic to imagine what should happen for a manufacturer to start selling a couple of tens of millions instead of hundreds of millions of devices a year. Even Huawei without Google did not show such a peak, let alone the rest. Now interesting statistics have appeared, which proves that even though Xiaomi and below Samsung in the main sales ranking, it has a clear advantage in terms of models.
Smartphones are most often compared in pairs. Have you noticed?
Samsung has struggled to hold onto its crown as the world's largest smartphone maker in recent years. The Korean company has already lost its leading positions in several regional markets to Chinese competitors. In particular, the loss of customers occurs in such a strategically important market for all, like India. This is where the Chinese giant Xiaomi became a leading player. Another large Chinese company Huawei is on the heels of Samsung in the global scenario. And everything started so well …
We have already written more than once that in the modern smartphone market everything is not as good as it was even a year ago. This is due to several factors, including the pandemic that severed all supply chains, forced many factories to stop production and led to a financial crisis in the world. Everyone suffered, but apparently it was Samsung who got the most.
According to a recent report by research firm Omdia, Samsung had only one model in the top ten best-selling smartphones in the world in the first half of 2020. The Galaxy A51, which was theAndroidbest-selling smartphone in the first quarter of 2020, continued to attract customers throughout the first half of the year.
Samsung shipped 11.4 million units of this device in the first six months of 2020. This smartphone was second only to Apple iPhone 11, which was shipped in the amount of 37.7 million units during this period. Compared to the Galaxy A51, it looks fantastic.
Galaxy A51 is really very popular
The problem is not even that this smartphone lost three times to the leader. In the end, it still rightfully became the most successful Android smartphone of the year. Only Samsung has this one. According to Omdia, no other Samsung device has surpassed the 6.7 million shipments mark. This means that they did not even make it to the top ten. As the saying goes, “it's a fiasco, bro.”
For comparison, in the first half of 2019, the Korean company had four models in the top ten. Over the same period last year, more than 44 million units of the Galaxy A10, Galaxy A50, Galaxy J2 Core and Galaxy A30 were sold.
For you to understand the scale of the tragedy, suffice it to say that there are as many as 4 smartphones Xiaomi in the top ten sales leaders in the first half of the year. Redmi Note 8 and Note 8 Pro were the company's most popular phones, selling 11.0 million and 10.2 million units respectively. Redmi 8A and Redmi 8 are also in the top 10. Last year Xiaomi had only two models in the top ten.
This is the distribution of user preferences.
If this is not enough to say about a difficult year for Samsung, it should be added that four more positions went to smartphones from Apple. These include iPhone SE (2020), iPhone XR, iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max. Interestingly, iPhone SE (2020) was only released in the second quarter of 2020, but has already entered the top ten, and many good Samsung models were not included. Even without taking into account the cheapest iPhone of 2019, which sells well in itself, there are three more devices from Apple in the top ten, and Samsung is only one.
In total, the ten best-selling smartphones in the first half of 2020 were shipped 115.5 million units worldwide. The figure for the same period last year is 121.8 million units. It's a small difference, but the drop in supply is certainly a consequence of the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic.
The smartphone market has also become more price sensitive during the pandemic. All four models Xiaomi in the top ten have a price of less than $ 170, and two of them are sold for less than $ 100 at all. That is why it was logical that not a single smartphone from the flagship lines Android made it to the top ten. Their prices are now higher than ever, and demand is lower than ever. Let's see how the smartphone market develops in the second half of the year, but so far things are not very good for Samsung.
The company will be able to turn the tide only when its sales start to grow around the world. This is not expected yet. Even if we forget that few people need its new flagships for their price, the company also has a Chinese factor. It is in the Chinese market that trade is now more or less brisk. As a result, Chinese models have an edge. As for iPhone, it sells well and is loved in China too. So Samsung really does it harder than the rest.
How to change the color of your smartphone
When you buy a smartphone, you pay a lot of attention to which one to choose. Then you start looking at the characteristics and think about what kind of memory to take, RAM. Then the choice of color begins, because I want to buy something bright and interesting, but I don’t want to buy something that will get bored in a month. In the end, a smartphone is bought for a long time and is expensive, so everything should be fine in it. Choosing a color is probably one of the hardest things to do if you don't stick to the “black only” principle. With the new technology that has appeared on the web, the choice at this stage can become much easier. We will soon be thanking you for this electrochromic glass.
Smartphone color will soon become a thing of the past.
Imagine that you could buy a smartphone that changes the color of the back panel without having to buy anything. That is, covers, stickers and the like will not be needed. You just have a smartphone in your hands that only changes color. This is really cool and this technology is getting closer. At least a ready-made prototype already exists, according to a short video that appeared on the web.
It should be noted that this is not yet a finished product of one of the brands, which has leaked somewhere and is about to appear at the presentation. Apparently, this is a real prototype, on which someone is working so that it would not be identified, its camera is sealed, and all identification marks have been removed from the body. This prototype of the device was shared by the well-known Ice Universe insider.
The short video he shared in Twitter shows a device that can change the color of the case. At first, the “tube” was the same color, and then it smoothly changed not even the shade, but the color. The source does not mention which company this prototype was made by, but the feature is quite interesting to say the least. She can bring us a lot. So we will bring closer the future, which we were shown in the movies, when you can press a button and the thing will change color.
Ice Universe dubbed this back panel a “decolorizing back case” and says the decolorization rate can also be adjusted. In general, this is logical, since the color has changed to gray. That is, one that can be considered colorless.
It's the same smartphone that just changed color.
Some of you are probably wondering how this is possible, right? Well, you might be surprised, but we've seen this technology before. Even though it had a slightly different look and scope, this has already happened. Don't you remember?
A few years ago, OnePlus launched an electrochromic glass smartphone. Then OnePlus used it in a special version of the OnePlus 6T phone (OnePlus Concept One). Back then, similar glass was used to hide the rear cameras. It seems that now such technologies should come to the entire rear panel.
It was on the use of such technology that Mishaal Rahman from XDA Developers drew attention in the comments. The use of this particular technology may turn out to be the most correct and beneficial, since the effect will be achieved quite steep, but the battery consumption will be minimal, if at all. Needless to say, the battery is the most vulnerable part of almost any modern smartphone.
Let me remind you that we still do not know which company made this prototype. It is also not yet clear when we will see the application of this technology and whether we will see it at all. On the other hand, if the system works, then this could be what sets the manufacturer apart from the rest, a bit stagnant in terms of technology, the market. It can be assumed that the first such technology is implemented by OnePlus.
Soon, marketers who come up with color names will be a thing of the past.
The company has indeed stated that some of its future phones may use electrochromic glass. The company will likely use this technology to hide the main camera. Perhaps in the same way it will hide the color of the back panel.
Let's hope that electrochromic glass, at least for cameras, will return in the near future. It's certainly not the most essential tech for a phone, but it's definitely cool.
Maybe the first company to use such a solution in a serial smartphone won't be OnePlus either. At least I believe that the Chinese will be the pioneers, in particular the BBK group of companies – OPPO, Vivo and that OnePlus.
If the application of the technology begins, new colors can not only be added during the production of a smartphone, but also released with updates. In general, it sounds very promising and tempting. Just imagine how you go to the app store and download not an app with wallpaper, but a set of body colors. Or even cooler … An update of the operating system arrives, and it says that among the innovations there will be a new color of the case. This is really the future and many will like it very much. Given this and the fact that a prototype has already emerged, I think commercial use of the technology is just around the corner. Would you like such a smartphone?
How to use Netflix in Russia
All of you have come across Netflix in one way or another. Even if you have never bought a subscription, you are probably familiar with such TV series as 'House of Cards', 'Lemony Snicket: 33 Misfortunes', 'Umbrella Academy', 'Black Mirror'. These are all Netflix projects that you have seen or at least heard about their existence from friends. But, despite the high popularity of this platform and the films and TV series that are released on it, it has been represented rather narrowly in Russia until now. That is, it was possible to subscribe to Netflix only in euros, and most of the content could be watched only without translation. But soon everything will change.
Netflix is officially coming to Russia
Netflix will officially start working in Russia in mid-October, Vedomosti writes, citing sources. Its development in the country will be handled by the National Media Group holding, which manages the TV channels Ren-TV, Channel Five, SMS Media, Discovery, Viasat and Turner Media. It will be the sole operator of the service on the Russian market due to legal restrictions that prevent foreign companies from owning more than 20% of the shares of media services operating in the country.
These are the European prices for Netflix, which are currently valid in Russia
Despite the fact that Netflix will offer the opportunity to purchase a subscription in rubles, the service refused to reduce prices in accordance with Russian realities, as Apple TV + and Apple Music did at one time. Therefore, in terms of euros, the cost of a subscription in Russia will be only slightly lower than in Europe:
- Basic rate – 599 rubles;
- Standard rate – 799 rubles;
- The premium rate is 999 rubles.
In addition to converting prices, the National Media Group plans to adapt the content that Netflix offers. In October, it is planned to translate most of the platform's own content into Russian, and by the end of the year, about 100 domestic films and TV series will be added. True, it has not yet been specified in what form the original assortment will be offered: in dubbing, voice-over, or simply with subtitles. Because the translation can be considered both, and another, and the third. But since you can't captivate a Russian-speaking user with subtitles, you should count on at least polyphonic dubbing.
Netflix is unlikely to surpass IVI and Amediateka
It has not yet been specified which series and films of Russian production will appear on the site. Most likely, these will be the work of Channel One, Comedy Club Production and TNT. Therefore, we can count on the fact that up to half of all the content that is currently available on Premier will move to Russian-speaking Netflix: 'House arrest', 'Survival game', 'Chiki', 'Olga'. However, in order not to disappoint potential subscribers, they will most likely be offered something more worthy. For example, 'Viking', 'Legend # 17', etc.
Will Russians flock to Netflix after its official launch in Russia? I wouldn't count on that too much. Despite the fact that Amediateka sells a subscription for the same 599 rubles, it is still quite a lot. Moreover, for India, Turkey, Colombia and other developing countries, Netflix made exceptions and adapted prices to their economies. As a result, you can subscribe from a Turkish account for only 180 rubles against 600 rubles with us. However, let's see. Perhaps the interest in original content will be higher than the power of greed.
New Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2
It's been over a year since Samsung unveiled the original Galaxy Fold. This device became the debut foldable smartphone for the Korean company, and therefore, as befits the first pancakes, it came out lumpy. Reviewers who received it for review identified a host of design flaws. As a result, Samsung decided to withdraw the new product and send it back for revision. The revision lasted about six months, but the output turned out to be a more or less bearable device that did not fail after two or three folds, and the protective film did not come off like a skin from a molting snake. But this year Samsung showed that it wasted no time and learned to use foldable smartphones.
Samsung officially unveiled the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and announced its price
The Galaxy Z Fold 2, which Samsung officially presented today at the Galaxy Unpacked Part 2 conference, is literally better than its predecessor in everything. We have collected the key differences between the new item and the original, which make it a truly interesting and usable smartphone. Even though Samsung had to keep the foldable design in order to pay tribute to the once-established trend for unusual devices.
Galaxy Z Fold 2 has lost the flaws of its predecessor
- Display: external – 6.2 ″, 60 Hz, internal – 7.6 ″, 120 Hz;
- Processor: Snapdragon 865+;
- Memory: 12/256 GB;
- Camera: main – 12 + 12 + 12 Mp, front – 10 Mp;
- Battery: 4500 mAh, charging 25W;
- Price: 1999 dollars, or about 150 thousand rubles.
The first thing that catches your eye is the enlarged external display. If the Galaxy Fold has a rear diagonal of only 4.6 inches, then the new item is now 6.2 inches. It turns out that the diagonal has grown by more than 1.5 times.
This is the right step, given that it is the external display that is used on the go, while the internal one is used more for stationary entertainment or for work. It is convenient to watch videos, write and edit texts on it. But it's better to read a message, switch a track or quickly dictate a voice message without folding the device in half.
See how ugly the Galaxy Fold was
The internal display has grown too. Of course, not so much, but still noticeable – from 7.3 to 7.6 inches. According to Samsung, this was achieved due to two factors. Firstly, the reduction in the thickness of the frames by as much as 27%, and, secondly, thanks to the disappearance of the bulging block of cameras. In their place, there was a free area for interaction, and the front was inserted into a small island-type cutout in the style of the Galaxy Note 20.
The display itself is better protected than the Galaxy Fold. In the new generation of foldable smartphones, Samsung has used real flexible Ultra Thin Glass, thinner than a human hair. Despite this, he manages to combine a high level of flexibility with strength. True, just in case, another protective layer was nevertheless applied on top of it – apparently, so that users had less chances of injuring it.
When it comes to reliability, Samsung hasn't stopped at screen protection. If you remember, the folding mechanism of the Galaxy Fold, although it was designed for about 200 thousand folds, could fail much earlier if crumbs and debris fell inside.
Samsung has made the right foldable smartphone
Therefore, when designing the Galaxy Z Fold 2, Korean engineers provided a set of micro-brushes in the mechanism, very similar to those used in Samsung branded vacuum cleaners. They clean the insides of the mechanism with each unfolding, preventing its failure.
The mechanism itself was also slightly redesigned. Firstly, it was decided to reduce the number of parts of which it consists, secondly, to reduce the distance between them, and, thirdly, to teach him how to work in Flex Mode. It allows you to expand your smartphone similar to a laptop and, in this form, interact with comments on YouTube and at the same time watch videos, take selfies, type messages and much more.
Honestly, Samsung has turned out to be a very interesting and, most importantly, a smartphone that has been modified in all respects. The novelty has lost its frank deformities in the form of a lagging film, an influx of front cameras and other shortcomings that impede comfortable use. Now this is – forgive the pun – an ordinary unusual smartphone that you want, if not to own, then at least to use. Suddenly like it.