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vendredi 15 janvier 2021

These are the best Galaxy S21 Ultra screen protectors you can get!

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra elevated once again the bar of what a Samsung phone can do. It fixed many of the flaws that existed with the Galaxy S20 Ultra, its direct predecessor while following in its footsteps and borrowing some elements from Samsung’s other flagship, the Galaxy Note20 Ultra. It is really an amazing smartphone that you should definitely have in mind if you’re in the market for a premium phone: 108MP camera, a Snapdragon 888/Exynos 2100, a 5,000 mAh battery, and up to 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of RAM. So sure, all of these specs sound great, right? Well, they also come at a pretty penny, and if you clicked on this article, you probably want to get it protected. In this article, we’re going to hook you up with some of the best Galaxy S21 Ultra screen protectors.

We’re dealing with a curved display here, so we have everything from plastic protectors to “dome glass” tempered glass ones. Keep that beautiful 120Hz WQHD display protected with the options we have right here. From renowned manufacturers such as Zagg to cheaper ones on Amazon, we have options for everyone.

    Zagg GlassFusion+ for Galaxy S21 Ultra

    Premium Protection

    This isn't Zagg's most expensive, but it should be the better option for everyone. It comes with what the company calls hybrid glass, which is drop and shatter-resistant, so the screen below should do well.
    ESR Liquid Skin Screen Protector Galaxy S21 Ultra

    A simple polymer film

    Looking for something that will just do the job, and don't mind scratches and scuffs all that much? ESR's option might be yours, and it comes with 3 films in case one doesn't work well enough or you misapply.
    Whitestone Dome Glass Screen Protector Galaxy S21 Ultra

    Premium-Quality Glass

    Coming in at a prettier penny comes Whitestone's Dome Glass option, that provides a curved tempered glass protector. It cures with UV light, and it's also able to protect your phone's precious screen.
    MAXVITAVELA Tempered Glass Privacy Screen Protector

    Protect those messages

    Don't want people peeking at your private conversations while you're using your phone? This might be just what you need. Not only it protects your phone, it also makes it harder to see from an extreme angle, granting you some privacy.
    LELANG Tempered Glass Screen Protector

    Affordable protection

    This LELANG kit of tempered glass screen protectors should be able to keep your S21 Ultra well protected against most drops, scuffs, and overall scratches and damage, while also keeping costs down. It also comes with an extra camera protector.
    amFilm Plastic Screen Protector S21 Ultra

    Plastic protector for the masses

    This is another option worth considering if you don't mind having a plastic protector that can scratch and scuff easily. Underneath, though, your screen will remain fully protected, so if you want something that does the job, this is the option to get.

These were our picks for the best Galaxy S21 Ultra screen protectors you can get right now. As I mentioned before, we’re dealing with a curved display here, so it can be trickier to get tempered glass protectors installed, and the few that do exist on the cheaper side are either not completely glass or do not provide enough protection. Thus, I recommend getting a plastic screen protector from brands such as ESR and amFilm: while they can be trickier to install than tempered glass ones and are way easier to scratch, they will also do the job of protecting your smartphone’s display. If you have a bit more money, I’d recommend you to go with more premium options such as Zagg and Whitestone’s Dome Glass, which are tempered glass or hybrid protectors that should work properly.

I’ve also thrown in a few tempered glass options for the cheap. While they won’t be as good as the other options I listed, they should at least be able to take the hits instead of your phone’s display—which is what a screen protector is meant to do, after all.

    Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
    The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the ultimate overkill in the new 2021 flagship series, packing in a flagship SoC, a premium build, a great display, and an amazing camera setup, as well as all the extras expected on a premium flagship.

The post These are the best Galaxy S21 Ultra screen protectors you can get! appeared first on xda-developers.



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The Galaxy S21 Ultra features Samsung’s latest 108MP camera sensor

The Galaxy S21 Ultra is the best smartphone Samsung has on offer right now. As you’d expect, it packs some of the best smartphone hardware out there, including top-of-the-line SoCs from Qualcomm and Samsung, a brilliant QHD+ 120Hz AMOLED display with a peak brightness of 1500 nits, up to 16GB of RAM, and an impressive camera setup. The device features a 108MP primary camera, a 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera, two 10MP telephoto cameras (3X and 10X optical zoom), and a 40MP selfie camera. While it may seem like the Galaxy S21 Ultra features the same primary sensor as its predecessor, Samsung has now confirmed that the device packs its latest 108MP ISOCELL HM3 sensor.

The ISOCELL HM3 sensor is the latest addition to Samsung’s 108MP ISOCELL product lineup, which follows the 0.7μm-pixel ISOCELL HM2 sensor from last year. But unlike the ISOCELL HM2, the ISOCELL HM3 has a larger 0.8μm pixel size. The 1/1.33″ sensor packs several new technologies designed to deliver great autofocus performance, dynamic range, and low-light capabilities on the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

Samsung ISOCELL HM3 specifications

Here’s a quick rundown of everything new in the latest 108MP sensor from Samsung:

  • Super PD Plus: Adds AF-optimized micro-lenses over the phase detection focusing agents to increase the accuracy of the agents by 50%. This enhanced phase detection auto-focusing (PDAF) solution ensures that moving objects remain in focus and the sensor can deliver optimum results in dark environments.
    Samsung ISOCELL HM3 Super PD Plus
  • Smart ISO Pro: For mixed lighting conditions, the ISOCELL HM3 sensor uses a high-dynamic-range (HDR) imaging technology called Smart ISO Pro. The technology uses an intra-scene dual conversion gain (iDCG) solution to simultaneously capture a frame in both high and low ISO. These frames are then merged into a single image in 12-bit color depth and with reduced noise. Since Smart ISO Pro doesn’t capture multiple exposure shots to create a standard HDR image, it can significantly reduce motion artifacts in images. Additionally, a low-noise mode improves light sensitivity by 50-percent to capture brighter and clearer results in low-light environments.
    Samsung ISOCELL HM3 12 bit
  • New pixel layout: The ISOCELL HM3’s pixel layout is arranged in three-bby-three single color structures that are suitable for nine-pixel binning. By binning nine neighboring pixels, the HM3 mimics a 12MP sensor with large 2.4 μm-pixels. This heightens light sensitivity in low-light environments. Thanks to an improved binning hardware IP, the HM3 also supports seamless transitions between the 108MP and 12MP modes.
  • ISOCELL HM3’s design has also been optimized to reduce energy usage in the preview mode by 6.5%, offering better power efficiency on the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

The ISOCELL HM3 sensor on the Galaxy S21 Ultra supports up to 10fps image capture at full 108MP resolution and up to 90fps at 12MP. For video, the sensor supports 30fps at 8K resolution, 120fps at 4K, and 240fps at 1080p. The sensor also supports RAW8 (using DPCM/PCM compression), RAW10, and RAW12 output formats.

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra Hands-on: The new Zoom King by a mile

While the new features may sound impressive, it’s worth noting that the ISOCELL HM3 only offers marginal improvements in image sensor functionality over the ISOCELL HM1. Nonetheless, we’re curious to see how these improvements help the Galaxy S21 Ultra deliver better results than its predecessor.

    Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
    The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the ultimate overkill in the new 2021 flagship series, packing in a flagship SoC, a premium build, a great display, and an amazing camera setup, as well as all the extras expected on a premium flagship.

The post The Galaxy S21 Ultra features Samsung’s latest 108MP camera sensor appeared first on xda-developers.



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Sony Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 start receiving stable Android 11 update

Back in November of last year, Sony released its update schedule detailing Xperia devices it was planning to update to Android 11. Among the devices included on the list were the first generation Xperia 1 and Xperia 5, which the Japanese OEM said would receive the update “from February 2021.”

However, according to a number of user reports, both the Xperia 1 and the Xperia 5 have already started receiving the sweet treat of Android 11 via stable channel. Having a size of nearly 1GB, the new update for the device duo is being denoted by the build number 55.2.A.0.630, and it also packs the December 2020 security patches.

Sony Xperia 5 Android 11 OTA Sony Xperia 5 Android 11 Details

Sony hasn’t published a proper changelog for this update, but the new build should introduce all the new features to the Xperia 1/5 that Google rolled out with Android 11. However, the much-requested Photography Pro feature from the Mark II series hasn’t been backported in this update.

Sony Xperia 1 XDA Forums ||| Sony Xperia 5 XDA Forums

Due to the size of the incremental OTA, it is advised to use a Wi-Fi connection to download the new build. As of now, the dual SIM variants of the Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 are the only ones that are getting the latest update in select European countries. There is no proper roadmap from Sony on a global rollout, so we would have to wait and see if other regions get the Android 11 update in the coming days.

In case you haven’t got a notification on your Xperia 1/5 yet, you can manually check for the update by heading to the phone’s Settings and then heading to Software update section. Power users, on the other hand, can download the full firmware package using the XperiFirm tool created by XDA Senior Member IgorEisberg. In order to perform a manual flashing, opt for either Flashtool (GUI) or Newflasher (CUI), though we would still advise caution.

The post Sony Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 start receiving stable Android 11 update appeared first on xda-developers.



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The Galaxy S21’s new Qualcomm fingerprint scanner should finally fix the problems with the last-gen

The Samsung Galaxy S21 flagship smartphones have finally been unpacked officially. As expected, these Samsung flagships for early 2021 are packed with class-leading specifications. On the list of the upgraded specifications, we also find the new and (claimed to be) much improved ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanner on all three of the Galaxy S21 devices. Samsung says the new sensor is 1.7x larger than the previous generation. We reckon that this new ultrasonic fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus, and the Galaxy S21 Ultra improves biometric unlocking on these devices for reasons beyond just an increase in the scanning area.

Before we go over how the Galaxy S21 series’s fingerprint scanner is improved, let us first discuss ultrasonic scanners and how they differ from other in-display fingerprint scanners.

What is an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner?

The popularity of in-display fingerprint scanners picked up a couple of years ago with the economization — and therefore, wider availability — of OLED or AMOLED displays. There are currently two major types of in-display fingerprint scanners available in the market — optical and ultrasonic. Both kinds of optical fingerprint scanners send signals of different sorts and record the reflections. These reflections enable the sensors to create a reference image at the time of registration and later used for authentication.

As expected, optical fingerprint sensors use light whereas ultrasonic sensors utilize pulsating ultrasonic sound waves to scan your finger. As optical scanners can only form an image of the visible lines on your fingertips, they form a 2D image of your fingerprint. In contrast, ultrasonic sensors can create a three-dimensional image. Theoretically, this means ultrasonic fingerprint scanners are expected to be more reliable, and even usable when your finger is wet or dirty.

However, this hasn’t exactly panned out in favor of ultrasonic fingerprint scanners as expected. The ultrasonic scanner that has been available on Samsung flagships since the Galaxy S10 series have been slow and unreliable. Samsung has tried to address these issues with a software update to improve unlock speeds and another one to address the authentication flaw that allowed anyone to unlock devices. However, the new and updated fingerprint scanner is designed to fix these issues inherently.

How is Samsung Galaxy S21’s fingerprint scanner better?

As we mentioned above, Samsung claims that the fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S21 series is 1.7x larger than the previous generation i.e. Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor employed by Samsung on previous devices such as the Galaxy S10, Galaxy Note 10, Galaxy S20, and the Galaxy Note 20 series. Following the Galaxy Unpacked Event, Qualcomm officially confirmed that the Galaxy S21 series uses the very recently announced Qualcomm’s 3D Sonic Sensor Gen 2 ultrasonic fingerprint scanner.

Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor Gen 2 featured

In addition to a 77% larger surface area, the new Qualcomm ultrasonic sensor on the Galaxy S21 series is claimed to offers 50% faster scanning. The new features will inarguably improve the unlocking experience and security across all Galaxy S21 as well as other upcoming devices that feature the same.

In real-life demos, just like the one posted by Ben Schoon of 9to5Google, the new fingerprint scanner appears to be really snappy. We will be testing it out extensively while reviewing the Galaxy S21 devices and also comparing it with older Samsung flagships. In the meantime, here’s the video Ben posted on Twitter after the Galaxy event:


    Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
    The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the ultimate overkill in the new 2021 flagship series, packing in a flagship SoC, a premium build, a great display, and an amazing camera setup, as well as all the extras expected on a premium flagship.

The post The Galaxy S21’s new Qualcomm fingerprint scanner should finally fix the problems with the last-gen appeared first on xda-developers.



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LG isn’t shutting down its smartphone business: Spokesperson

LG’s mobile business hasn’t turned a profit for a couple of years now, despite several attempts from the company to restructure its approach and bring innovative products to the market. Its devices just don’t get any love from the masses unless they’re available at massive discounts, which is reason enough for the company to shut shop and focus on other more profitable ventures. However, LG’s CEO, Kwon Bong-Seok, thinks otherwise. Last year, Kwon released a statement predicting that LG’s smartphone business “is going to be profitable by 2021”. But a recent report from The Elec claimed that LG may have finally given up now. However, a spokesperson for LG firmly denies the report.

According to the now-deleted report, LG recently notified all South Korean employees that it was shutting down its smartphone business, and it would make an official announcement by the end of this month. It further added that LG had also instructed employees to stop all developments, except for Project I, earlier this week. For the unaware, Project I is the code-name for LG’s upcoming rollable smartphone, which was recently showcased at CES. The device was initially code-named Project B, but LG seems to have changed it to Project I sometime in the last few weeks. While the report claimed that LG hasn’t shelved the rollable smartphone, it mentioned that the company did suspend all work on the device on the day the notice went out.

We reached out to LG for a comment on the matter, and we received the following statement from Ken Hong, Head of Global Corporate Communications, LG Electronics: “Definitely untrue, more speculation and rumors.” As far as the rollable phone is concerned, Hong recently released a statement confirming that it was a real product that “will be launching this year.”

Although LG has officially dismissed the report, it’s worth noting that the company has suspended smartphone production in South Korea in the past. A report from last year also suggested that the company was planning to outsource production of some of its budget and mid-range devices to Chinese ODMs to cut costs and focus all efforts on upcoming flagships. However, there haven’t been any indications or confirmation to suggest that the company was planning to halt all development of new smartphones.

The post LG isn’t shutting down its smartphone business: Spokesperson appeared first on xda-developers.



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Apple MacBook Pro 16, MacBook Pro 14 could possibly bring back MagSafe magnetic charger

Apple began updating its Mac lineup with the new ARM-based M1 chipset last year. Ever since then, there have been rumors that the company is working on new and more powerful variants of the processor to power more products in the future. A new report now suggests that Apple is indeed working on two new MacBooks that are going to bring back the handy magnetic charging port.

Just like the recently launched MacBook Pro 13, MacBook Air and the Mac mini, the upcoming notebooks would be Apple’s latest Mac products to move away from Intel. If a report by Bloomberg is anything to go by, the two new laptops include a 14-inch model with the codename J314 and a 16-inch model called the J316. These new notebooks will most likely go on to be the previously rumored MacBook Pro 14 and the new and upgraded MacBook Pro 16. These notebooks are said to be powered by a newer generation of Apple’s in-house processor, featuring more cores and better graphics.

While the chipset upgrade is something that we have already heard in the past, the newest change could be the charging port. The report suggests that Apple is planning to re-introduce MagSafe to its notebooks. Apple moved to USB Type-C five years ago for charging and data transfer purposes, and that has worked flawlessly. However, the company might add the option of its long-forgotten magnetic charging feature on the upcoming MacBooks. Recently, Apple introduced MagSafe charging on its new range iPhone 12 smartphones, which does strengthen this speculation even further. Additionally, the report says that the return of MagSafe on the new MacBook Pro models would also allow for faster charging with the connector having an elongated pill-shaped design of the older MagSafe port. Of course, the notebooks would continue to feature multiple USB Type-C ports, and hopefully, Apple will continue to allow charging via these ports too. There is also a rumor that Apple is planning to remove the Touch Bar from its future MacBook products as the company has been testing versions that do not have the feature.

The new MacBooks are also expected to include updated displays with brighter, higher-contrast panels. This rumor coincides with previous reports of Apple working on bringing mini LED panels to its upcoming products. The new Macs will sadly look similar to the current-gen models with minor design changes, which seems logical at the moment. The new MacBook Pro 16 and MacBook pro 14 are expected to launch by mid-2021.

The post Apple MacBook Pro 16, MacBook Pro 14 could possibly bring back MagSafe magnetic charger appeared first on xda-developers.



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The Galaxy S21 lets you remove GPS location data before sharing a photo

If you missed Galaxy Unpacked yesterday, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S21 series, a trio of smartphones with the latest Qualcomm or Samsung-made 5nm chipset and Android 11-based One UI 3.0 software. As always, Samsung’s latest and greatest smartphone series comes with new features that are (for now) exclusive to them. We’ve talked about a few of these features already, but here’s an overview of the new privacy-related features on the Galaxy S21 that Samsung detailed during its Unpacked event.

First up is a feature that doesn’t have a name, but it’s one that will be incredibly useful for the average person. In fact, it’s so useful that I hope Google copies it for the next version of Android. On the Galaxy S21, you’ll be able to easily remove location data from a photo before you share it. All you have to do is select a photo in the gallery app, hit the share button, and then select “remote location data” underneath the picture preview in the share sheet.

Galaxy S21 remove GPS location before sharing photo

Doing so will strip the photo of any location data, including the latitude and longitude of where it was taken, before it’s shared. This data is typically stored in the metadata of the image file, and it’s easily removable by any app that can edit EXIF fields. There are countless apps on Google Play that can do this for you in a few taps, and many social media sites automatically remove EXIF location data while processing your photo. But as a user, it’s hard to know which sites remove it and which don’t, so it’s good to be in control to be sure any location data has been removed.

Private Share

In case you want more control over the content you share, you can use Samsung’s new Private Share app. You can share any file, including pictures, videos, and documents, and choose when to revoke access to the file. You can manually revoke the recipient’s access to the file at any time, or you can wait 2 days for their access to automatically expire. Both the sender and the recipient are notified of any files that are sent or received. Private Share works between any Galaxy smartphone running Android 9 or later, though both the sender and the recipient will have to download the app to share files. It’ll likely come pre-installed on all Samsung Galaxy S21 units, though.

While this app won’t protect your files from being saved by someone really intent on saving what you sent—the app can’t stop someone from taking a picture or recording a video of their phone with another phone or retyping the content manually onto a PC—it will give you some peace of mind that nobody can just go weeks, months, or years back to find the files you shared a long time ago.

Samsung Knox Vault

Lastly, at the heart of the Galaxy S21 is Samsung’s “Enhanced Security System.” Samsung says the Galaxy S21 series is the first from the company to feature Samsung Knox Vault, which is comprised of a secure processor, secure memory, and integrated software to protect your phone credentials and biometric data from being exfiltrated. “At the heart of our ‘Enhanced security system’ is a secure processor which is engineered to ensure your data stays protected even against hardware attacks. For the S21 series, we worked closely with both Qualcomm Technologies and Samsung System LSI Business to develop a secure processor that meets our stringent security requirements. In addition, we brought a whole new layer of protection customized for this processor by adding a physical, tamper-resistant secure memory. We call it Samsung Knox Vault. With a secure processor, secure memory, and integrated software, this vault will safely store your PIN and password, biometrics and blockchain, and Samsung service authentication keys” the company said during its Galaxy Unpacked event.

The post The Galaxy S21 lets you remove GPS location data before sharing a photo appeared first on xda-developers.



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