Samsung quite recently launched an upgraded Galaxy A8 smartphone in Japan and in the process it has made the original device more powerful. They unveiled new-generation Galaxy A series devices along with the 2016 Galaxy A3, Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7. But a completely new variant of the Galaxy A8 was not launched.

The much anticipated Galaxy A9 has not made its debut just yet either, but apparently the Galaxy A8 will come power packed. Although it has not been fully revamped, a new Galaxy A8 version for Japan has now entered the market, laced with a more powerful processor..

The original Samsung Galaxy A8 was unveiled back in August 2015 and it continues to increase its reach to new geographical regions. While that model was powered by either a Snapdragon 615 processor from Qualcomm or an in-house Exynos 5430 processor from Samsung, the new Galaxy A8 model made for Japanese market now boasts an Exynos 5433 SoC.

This is a prominent upgrade for the CPU, as the Exynos 5433 is actually more powerful than the Exynos 5430 SoC found on the original Galaxy A8. Interesting thing to note here is that the CPU model numbers looks very close, but the two processors actually have many differences.

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Last week, rumor surfaced that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S7 won't have a major design change in comparison to the Galaxy S6 series. Now, we can actually have a look at the not-much-changed look of the S7, because of the leaked renders.

The Galaxy S7 designs were revealed by smartphone case maker ITSkins, and it shows a device that mostly looks similar to the regular Galaxy S6, with one prominent difference: the home button has become rectangular. Dimension of the Galaxy S7 is 143.37 x 70.8 x 6.94 mm, which is also just about the same size as the Galaxy S6 (143.4 x 70.5 x 6.8 mm). The rear snapper bump will remain intact, and same will be case with the LED flash, plus a heart rate sensor. If these measurements are almost accurate, the Galaxy S7 will have a 5.1-inch display, like its predecessor.

It looks like the SIM card slot has been moved to the side of the device in the Galaxy S7. In the Galaxy S6, sim slot was on the top. This device is supposed to be powered by Exynos 8890 chipset with Samsung's own custom CPU design (or a Snapdragon 820 chipset), 4GB RAM, an enhanced camera sensor, USB Type-C connector, and probably a microSD card slot.

Source: Gsmarena

IFA 2015 was held in September this year and the next major event for world's mobile geeks will be the - CES 2016. It will happen in Las Vegas in January, 2016. Many mobile device manufacturers will be showcasing their devices in this expo.

In general Samsung unveils a lot of consumer electronic products during these kind of events, and it will follow the same route during CES 2016 too. The South Korean electronics behemoth has already started sending out invites for the expo. They will organise a press conference at CES 2016 on January 5, 2016 between 14:00 and 14:45 hours. That gives the tech giant good 45 minutes to showcase the products and it is rumoured that some of the devices will be from the Galaxy series.

Right now there is no information on what Samsung has planned to show during the keynote. Although it is highly unlikely that they will unveil S7 in the event, some are speculating the same. The reason behind this is that Samsung usually reveals the S series during this time period. The company might showcase the Galaxy A9, which is supposed to be powered by the Snapdragon 620 chipset, along with some other audio and video devices.

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Samsung Electronics is about to unveil another flagship smartphone from the S lineup called Samsung Galaxy S7. A few months ago, there were rumours around Snapdragon 820 when Qualcomm was about to reveal the complete specification of the chipset and it was said there was overheating problem. With this, Qualcomm quickly discarded these rumors and assured that the Snapdragon 820's heating is under the permissible limit..

But it seems that might not be the case. As per new rumors, it has been shown that Samsung is actually looking for internal heat pipe suppliers for their 2016 flagship smartphone. Heat pipes in smartphones have become a common part. We have also seen other OEMs like Sony use heat pipes in their Xperia Z5 variants, so the it shouldn't come as surprise in case Samsung also decides to take the same route.

It can't be said for sure if this is more of a preventive measure to save the phone from any kind of heating problem or result of using the Snapdragon 820 (as it facing heating issues). We'd like to consider that whatever issue the Snapdragon 810 had, Qualcomm has resolved that in the new 820 variant. But in order to get the complete picture we need wait till the release of the device.

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Samsung Electronics has appointed D.J. Koh, the big boss of mobile research and development, as the new chief of the company's mobile communications business. This move comes after setbacks in Samsung's mobile business during the operation period of the former head J.K. Shin, including an underestimation of demand for the Galaxy S6 edge, while overestimating demand for the Galaxy S6 with a non-curved screen.

Actually Samsung's growth deteriorated in early 2014 as Apple experienced something of a revival. The demand for its iPhones, particularly in China increased, while low-cost Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi and Huawei also got boost in sales. Just like the problems faced by Nokia some years ago, Samsung's mid-range smartphones have been getting crushed on both the high end and low end by its competitors.

Analysts said that the moves at the mobile division were an apparent admission that the change was very much needed, as they did not expect a new strategy to come up any time soon. According to Chang Sea-jin, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology business professor - "Koh is basically the same person as Shin". Analysts have reported that Samsung needed to ramp up its software and services offerings to rejuvenate its mobile business, but Koh, who has held mobile business roles since 2006, had an engineering background like Shin. Chang said that "There is no real change and Samsung appears to be continuing on the hardware-centric path".

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