Author: batteryforpc

Samsung held a launch event in China today focused on its Galaxy A9s and A6s, during which the company teased an entirely new handset model with a design that forgoes a notch and will apparently join the Galaxy S10 next year in sporting an all-screen display.
That phone is the A8s, part of Samsung’s midrange A series which will reportedly be the handset maker’s first notch-free phone that sports an edge-to-edge display. Sort of. We add that as a kind of caveat, because according to Samsung leaker extraordinaire Ice Universe, there will still be a hole drilled into the display to allow for a front-facing camera.
The folks over at SamMobile point out there are still a ton of questions about the device and its display, such as whether the camera will be positioned under the device or if that part of the display will just turn off when you’re watching something like a YouTube video. Regardless, the site notes, Samsung’s official teaser of the phone today didn’t seem to show any kind of obstruction on the display. Pretty interesting, and one reason some of the commentary around the phone today is regarding it as a stepping stone to the coming Galaxy S10’s notch-free display.
The latter, reminds Digital Trends in a piece today, could likewise feature an edge-to-edge display that hides cameras, fingerprint sensors and more all under the display. It’s not yet clear, though, if Samsung will bring some or all of those technologies to the S10 or wait for a later model. Some could even materialize in the A8s. Along these lines, the site also notes, Samsung is trying to incorporate a front-facing speaker that works by vibrating the display.
One thing is definitely clear — Samsung is working hard to bring a truly all-screen phone to fruition that avoids the ugly notch entirely. Samsung Display is plugging away at that design challenge, which, once it’s successful, would also allow other companies to pursue the same vision, since companies it supplies include none other than, of course, Apple.

The phone’s fast, 10 watt charging only works with a Made for Google-certified charger, like the Pixel Stand.
Your brand-new Pixel 3 or Pixel 3 XL offers wireless 10w fast charging, but only with Google’s own Pixel Stand or with upcoming Made for Google-certified models thanks to a proprietary protocol. Qi-standard chargers, even if they support 10w, are limited to 5w for Google’s devices.
The fast-charging incompatibility was pointed out to Android Police by a reader, and the site also says that the phone reports fast charging with third-party devices even though they’re only operating at 5w.
Google confirmed to us,

We don’t limit third-party devices, in fact, we’re working with our partners in the Made for Google program to get fast 10W chargers certified for use with Pixel 3 (Belkin announced its 10W Pixel 3 charger already which will launch in the coming weeks). Pixel Stand and Pixel 3 work together through the protocol we’ve developed for fast charging. Everything else charges at the industry standard Qi 5W.

Google hasn’t indicated why it took this approach, but it’s possible it’s linked to the extra features that are activated when you pop the Pixel 3 on a Pixel Stand.

The Galaxy S10 is widely expected to feature an in-display fingerprint sensor, a feature Samsung has been working on for a few years now. The Galaxy S8 was first rumored to get it, but Samsung kept delaying the launch of a flagship with an in-screen fingerprint sensor on account of various development issues. A series of reports have said in recent months that up to two of the three Galaxy S10 models launching next year will feature in-display sensors, and now we have more evidence Samsung is indeed working on such screens.
A Samsung patent application titled Electronic Device Comprising Biometric Sensor, filed in April with WIPO and published on Thursday (via GalaxyClub), describes technology that would allow Samsung to include a fingerprint sensor within the layers of the display.
The following image shows a device that looks a lot like the Galaxy S9, complete with an Infinity Display design and curved edges. What’s interesting about the diagram is that it shows a display that folds beneath itself to connect to the logic board. That’s an ingenious design trick that Apple used on the iPhone X phones to eliminate the bottom bezel. Samsung, of course, is aware of the design, given that it makes iPhone X/XS displays for Apple and Apple was the first company to do this in a widely available smartphone. Also interesting is the fact that the device still features a bottom bezel.
The drawing, however, doesn’t necessarily tell us what the Galaxy S10 will look like. What’s important in these images is the fingerprint sensor that’s placed under the screen near the bottom of the device.
The image above shows that an optical fingerprint sensor and an image sensor would be stacked under the display. The text specifically says that the device may read fingerprints with the help of an optical sensor. That’s the most popular type of in-display fingerprint sensor for smartphones right now. But recent reports said the Galaxy S10+ might feature a more advanced ultrasonic sensor, which is a sensor that reads a fingerprint using sound waves instead of optics. The patent application does mention that the display may include an ultrasonic touch panel, but that’s about it, focusing mostly on optical sensors.
While not all the technology described in patents ends up in commercial products, it’s likely that Samsung will add an in-display fingerprint sensor to the Galaxy S10 series next year. The alternative is falling behind competitors that are getting more dangerous than ever.

Snapdragon 850 is Qualcomm’s first chip explicitly for PC form factors.
Samsung today announced the Galaxy Book2 (sic; the company has not put a space between the word and the number), a 2-in-1 tablet running Windows 10, powered by a Snapdragon 850 processor.
The first generation of Windows 10-on-ARM machines were roundly criticized for the performance of their Snapdragon 835 processors. The second generation of machines, however, uses the Snapdragon 850, a variant of the Snapdragon 845 that’s designed for the bigger batteries and higher power dissipation of laptops and tablets. This is widely hoped and expected to bring performance up to respectable levels.
This new tablet follows Microsoft’s Surface Pro design: a tablet with a kickstand, a detachable keyboard, and a pen. Similarity extends to the screen, too: the 12-inch AMOLED display uses the same 3:2 aspect ratio as Microsoft does, with a resolution of 2160×1440. The internals are the real point of this machine, though. There’s a Snapdragon 850 (quad 2.96GHz cores plus quad 1.7GHz cores) with 4GB RAM, a Snapdragon X20 LTE modem supporting up to 1.2 Gbit/s download and 150 Mbit/s upload, 802.11ac, and 128GB storage. There’s an 8MP rear camera, a 5MP front-facing camera, a microSD slot, and two USB Type-C slots. Biometric authentication is supported with a fingerprint reader.
The big point of interest for these ARM machines is that they’re intended to offer smartphone-like battery life and connectivity. Even when idle or in standby, they can be online enough to retrieve emails, instant messages, and similar materials, they have long battery life (20 hours according to Samsung), and they transparently switch between Wi-Fi when available and LTE when necessary to ensure that they’re always online.
The new Galaxy Book2 system ships with the pen and keyboard as standard and will cost $1000 from AT&T, Microsoft, and Samsung on November 2. Later in November, it will also ship from Verizon and Sprint.