It was a big disappointment for us enthusiasts when the Galaxy Note 7 was released with just 4GB of RAM last year. It wasn't that performance took a hit or the 4GB of RAM was insufficient for multitasking by any means, but it was still disappointing because of the fact that every rumor till about a week before the launch was speculating that the Note 7 would sport 6GB RAM. The rumor mill is predicting something along the same line this year as well because the latest leak found on Weibo is suggesting that there will be an 8 gig variant of the Galaxy Note 8 as well.

According to this rumor, the Note 8 will come in two RAM variants; the standard 6GB and the "Emperor" version with 8GB. It wouldn't even be surprising if the Note 8 "Emperor" variant was also launched with double the standard storage of 256GB (as rumored). The only problem with the rumor is that the source is also claiming to know about the Galaxy Note 9; a smartphone which is hardly even in concept yet! According to this foresight, the Note 9 will sport 12GB of RAM and that does sound a bit absurd at this point of time...

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

The relationship which Qualcomm had forged with Samsung to develop the latest edition of Snapdragon 835 chips is now reportedly over. Qualcomm has apparently left Samsung for its rival in the semiconductor industry; TSMC or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. I am sorry if it sounds like a bad teenage romantic movie, but that's exactly how things stand now, provided that the report by Fudzilla is correct of course.

As it turns out, this had been going on from 2016 because the report states that Qualcomm had been working on developing its next gen 7nm chips with TSMC from the middle of last year! It would be a big blow to Samsung's semiconductor business if this report is authentic. TSMC is actually ahead of Samsung at the moment because of the fact that the Korean giant decided to concentrate on 10nm and 8nm processes, while TSMC skipped them both and went straight to 7nm. We will have to wait and see how this pans out next year when the next gen Exynos 9 series of chips are released alongside the Qualcomm SD 845/855 SoCs.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Touted as the "Next Generation Innovation," an event from Samsung India is going to go down in Delhi tomorrow. As one would expect, Samsung will be launching one or many of its smartphones at the event. However, the question remains; what is this "innovation" that the company is talking about? As we are not going to see the Galaxy Note 8 (sorry if you thought so) or any new handsets that's worth the attention, it's somewhat baffling to see Samsung hyping it so much. How do we know all that? Well it's because Samsung will in all likelihood launch the Galaxy J (2017) series at the event and those smartphones do not exactly go in line with the theme of "next generation innovation!"

If the reports do turn out to be right and Samsung does indeed launch the Galaxy J5 (2017) and the Galaxy J7 (2017) at the event, then the tag is most definitely just a marketing gimmick. Nevertheless, let's hope (against hope) that Samsung surprises us and launches something that's worthy of the term innovation. I would not mind being wrong if that indeed happens to be the case.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

According to famous Korean news source ET News, the Galaxy Note 7 FE will officially be launched in South Korea on July 7. We knew that it's coming but now we have a date to look forward to. Although I did say "a date to look forward to," the smartphones will most likely not see the light of day in the US or Europe. Interestingly enough, various reports from around the internet are also indicating the the refurbished phones will be packing Samsung's Bixby digital assistant.

Previous reports had suggested that the Note FE would be released by the end of June, but those plans changed once Samsung decided to change up their production numbers by quite a bit. Instead of the 150,000 units which were going to be sold in the country, they have now decided that 450,000 Note 7 FEs will be introduced in South Korea. This move is clearly a result of Samsung sensing a bigger market for the refurbished smartphones than they had anticipated earlier. The Note FE will be exclusive to three South Korean carriers for now and Samsung has not yet revealed any plans of bringing the handsets outside of South Korea till now.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Yes, it's time for our regular dose of Galaxy Note 8 rumors and today's report is actually quite an interesting one as it turns out. According to a leaked schematics published by SlashLeaks, the Note 8 will feature a two-speaker setup. Both speakers will be side-firing in landscape mode, with one placed on the top and the other at the bottom of the smartphone in portrait mode.

Interestingly enough, the schematics also shows the fingerprint scanner to be placed at the back just like a previous report had suggested. Thankfully, it looks like Samsung managed to put it near the middle, where our index fingers can reach easily and naturally. The dual camera setup can also be seen but at this point, it's more like reinforcement than news really. In fact, given that the Galaxy C10 will soon be launched with a dual-camera setup, it would be quite surprising if the next flagship handset from Samsung does not have it! Of course, it will in all probability be a better dual-camera module than the one which is going to be launched with the Galaxy C10. Check out the schematics and let us know if you think that this is the real deal or just another hoax.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)