Tag: S22 Ultra

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Mobile Syrup

Pixel 6a wins MKBHD’s blind camera test

Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) has done another blind camera test, pitting sixteen smartphones against each other and having participants on the internet vote for their favourite pictures taken from these devices.

The phones include plenty of handsets that don’t release in Canada, along with devices that do, like the iPhone 14 Pro, OnePlus 10 Pro, Pixel 6a, Pixel 7 Pro, iPhone SE, and the S22 Ultra.

However, the Huawei Mate 50 Pro, Moto Edge 30 Ultra, Nothing Phone (1), Oppo Find X5 Pro, Realme 10 Pro+, Asus ROG Phone 6, Sony Xperia 1 IV, Xiaomi 12s Ultra, Asus Zenfone 9 and the Vivo X80 Pro+ on the list are not available in Canada, which is worth keeping in mind.

This year the MKBHD used an ELO rating system similar to what you find in competitive games to break down devices into ‘Best Overall,’ ‘Best HDR,’ and ‘Best Portrait.’

The Pixel 6a won the contest, with the Pixel 7 Pro in second place and the Zenfone 9 in third for best overall photos. The S22 Ultra was fifth on the list, and the iPhone 14 Pro landed in seventh.

It’s worth noting that the Pixel 5a won the blind camera contest last year, so that’s two years in a row for Google’s Pixel a series handsets.

Source: MKBHD

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Mobile Syrup

Samsung reportedly looking into service that’s throttling apps on its phones

Samsung is investigating an issue with its ‘Game Optimizing Service’ that could be responsible for limiting the performance of as many as 10,000 apps. Thankfully, the problem may not be widespread.

Android Authority detailed reports from Twitter user ‘GaryeonHan‘ and other people from South Korea who created a list of 10,000 apps that are apparently subjected to “performance limits” from the Game Optimizing Service (GOS). The list isn’t limited to games — it includes tons of prominent apps, like Instagram, Microsoft’s Office apps, Netflix, Google Keep, TikTok, and more. GOS even restricts some of Samsung’s apps, including Samsung Cloud, Pay, Pass, and the dialer app.

Moreover, GOS doesn’t include benchmark apps. Interestingly, Android Authority highlighted a video from Korean YouTuber who tweaked the 3DMark benchmark app to appear as the game Genshin Impact — which does appear on the list. The tweaked 3DMark had its performance limited, resulting in a lower score and reduced framerate.

Screenshot comparing 3DMark performance between normal and ‘tweaked’ app to force GOS | Credit: Android Authority

This all looks pretty bad, but there are a few things to know before you start worrying about your fancy new S22 Ultra not performing as well as it should. First, Samsung is looking into this, at least according to information circulating on Korean blog platform Naver. Hopefully, this will lead to a resolution for those dealing with performance issues.

The other thing to keep in mind is the problem may not impact certain phone models. Android Authority reports that the GOS app isn’t installed on its Galaxy S22 series devices. The app appears on the Galaxy Store, but can’t be installed. The same applies to the S20 FE and S10e. The same seems to be true in Canada — we couldn’t find GOS on the Galaxy Store at all on an S22 Ultra.

Regardless, it’s frustrating when manufacturers limit performance on devices. Several Android manufacturers have gotten a bad rap for restricting background apps to conserve battery life. Samsung is already among the worst offenders for that (at least according to dontkillmyapp.com) and this GOS debacle won’t help that.

Source: @GaryeonHan Via: Android Authority

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Mobile Syrup

What do you use your smartphone’s stylus for?

I’m currently reviewing Samsung’s very Note-like Galaxy S22 Ultra, which features a 6.8-inch display, 12GB of RAM and a built-in S-Pen storage slot.

The S-Pen works well and offers various features, including ‘Air Gestures’ for controlling media and taking pictures, ‘AR Doodle’ that allows you to draw using the smartphone’s cameras to create an AR effect, and ‘S Pen to Text’ that translates your scribbles into text. If you’re into smartphone styluses, you’ll be happy to hear that these features work fluidly with the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Still, even with all of this functionality, I don’t find myself using the S Pen very often.

Smartphone manufacturers like Samsung and Motorola (and at one point LG) continue to launch smartphones with styluses, but I’ve never really understood why some people want a smartphone with a stylus.

With this in mind, our question this week is: what do you use your smartphone’s stylus for?

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Samsung to unveil its latest Exynos 2200 processor on January 11

Samsung is ready to announce its latest flagship mobile processor.

The company announced via its ‘Semiconductor’ Twitter account that the new Exynos chip tuned for performance with AMD’s RDNA 2 GPU will be unveiled on January 11th, 2022.

CES 2022 is scheduled for January 5th, and while AMD has cancelled its in-person plans for the event, there has been no similar news from Samsung. However, Samsung won’t be unveiling its new chip at CES, and instead will showcase it on January 11th, a week after the Consumer Technology Association’s annual event.

Samsung is teasing the new processor with the hashtag #PlaytimeIsOver, which references the new processor’s performance, and alludes to its prowess in terms of gaming. The new processor with AMD’s RDNA 2 GPU will allow Samsung’s next-gen flagships (S22, S22+, S22 Ultra) to gain ray-tracing support (a first for a mobile device), resulting in more realistic graphics for mobile gamers. The GPU will also reportedly support HDR and variable rate shading.

Previous leaks have suggested that the new chip will feature one Cortex-X2 CPU core along with three Cortex-A710 CPU cores and four Cortex-A510 CPU cores.

That’s all we know about the new processor so far, though we do have some reported leaks about Samsung’s upcoming flagships. Samsung’s Galaxy S22 series will reportedly be similar to last year’s handsets. Rumours indicate the S22 will sport a 6.1-inch display, with the S22+ model featuring a 6.6-inch AMOLED screen.

The top-end S22 Ultra model is rumoured to feature an S Pen compartment alongside a 6.8-inch rounded display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a brighter screen.

Source: @SamsungDSGlobal