Samsung only managed to secure a meagre 13% of the global smartphone market's total operating profit, while Apple managed to scoop up 83.4% in Q1 2017! In spite of Samsung outselling Apple globally by millions of handsets in the quarter, they only managed to show an operating profit of $1.57 billion, while Apple posted a figure of $10.1 billion for the same. Samsung experienced a 21.9% decline while Apple saw a 79.8% increase in their respective operating profits.

If you are wondering how it's possible, well, the answer is quite simple really; higher profit margins. Apple enjoys insane profit margins in the range of 30.7%; something that can only be pulled off by Apple because of its brand name. No other company, including Samsung can afford to sell their smartphones with a profit margin that high because no one would buy them. Apple on the other hand knows that people will continue to buy them, irrespective of the price. Samsung is having trouble holding onto even a 9.7% average profit margin due to steep competition from Chinese manufacturers in the low-mid end segment.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Qualcomm has Adreno and ARM has Mali, but Exynos is still lacking a GPU of its own. Granted that the Mali G-71 is the most powerful mobile GPU on the market and it's coupled exclusively with the Exynos 8895 CPU, it still isn't made by Samsung and according to a report, Samsung isn't going to settle for that, at least not in the near future.

The report from Weibo, brought forward by famous Chinese leakster Ice Universe states that Samsung is done with relying on other companies to fulfil its GPU needs and is currently working on a solution of its won. As of now, it's only being referred to as the S-GPU; a name that will probably not make it to the final cut! Even if the rumor is true and Samsung does end up successfully making its own smartphone/tablet GPU, it is highly unlikely that it will be making its debut anytime soon or before the Galaxy S9 is released next year. In all likelihood, the S-GPU will be released with the Exynos 9 series of chips. We will keep you updated as more news and info pops up.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

We know that the Galaxy Note 8 is coming but each time we hear about it, we get excited nevertheless. According to a Report by Galaxy Club, Samsung is already testing out Nougat 7.1.1 on its upcoming stylus touting flagship handset, confirming that it will most likely be the version of the Android OS running on the Note on release. If you were hoping to see Samsung release the Note 8 with Android O right out of the box, that might not happen. Nevertheless, hopefully Samsung will close that gap in the OS versions with an OTA update later (a man can hope can't he?).

The source once again confirms that the Note 8 will be sporting a similar display as the ones currently sported by the S8 and S8+. What that means is that Samsung is sticking to the 18.5:9 ratio for now, as expected. In case you are wondering if any other details were revealed, they were not. Nevertheless, it isn't hard to guess that the Galaxy Note 8 will feature hardware similar to the S8+, but with a much more improved dual camera module.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Good news for our Indian readers; the Galaxy S8+ with beastly specs like 128GB ROM and 6GB RAM has now been launched in the country by Samsung. The black-only phones will be up for pre-order on Flipkart from June 2 and will be go on sale from June 9 across all offline and online partners of Samsung. Although it was previously believed that Samsung will keep this version of the smartphone exclusive to South Korea, it seems like the company has changed its plans. Keep in mind though, the 128GB/6GB Galaxy S8+ will set you back by Rs 74,990 or roughly $1165! If you thought the iPhones were expensive in India, Sammy doesn't seem to be too far behind either.

Now that the initial excitement of the news is over, the question is, should you get it? For a premium of Rs 10,000 ($155) more than the price of the regular S8+, you are getting double the storage and 2GB of extra RAM and to be honest, it wouldn't be a bad deal at all, if the S8+ was already not so expensive in the country. Crazy taxes in India make foreign made electronic devices cost way more than they do in the US or just about any other country and the S8/S8+ is no exception to this rule either. Nevertheless, if you can afford it and you wanted a S8+, I don't see why you shouldn't buy one either.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Before any confusion is created, let me clear things out by saying that we are talking about the refurbished Galaxy Note 7 here and not the upcoming Galaxy Note 8 or any other new Note device. "FE" will reportedly stand for "Fan Edition," according to rumors and leaks, but this is the same Galaxy Note 7 from 2016 which we fell in love with first, but learned to fear later on. Thankfully (and hopefully!) it will not only feature a completely different battery from the ones that started to catch fire, but will actually be a smaller 3,200mAh cell just to be extra safe.

Those of us that loved the smartphone and are enjoying the idea that it will be re-released with a 30% price-cut in certain regions, will feel safer knowing that the "new" Note 7 handsets might feature a "R" mark at the bottom right corner to indicate that it is indeed a refurbished device (meaning safe). None of this has yet been confirmed by Samsung as expected, but check out the photos and you will feel pretty convinced that the news reports are on point.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)