samsung

The 8 most interesting PC monitors from CES 2025

CES, CES 2025, corsair, dell, Features, lg, Monitors, samsung, Tech / Tim Belzer / January 12, 2025

Monitors worth monitoring

Here are upcoming computer screens with features that weren’t around last year.

Yes, that’s two monitors in a suitcase.

Plenty of computer monitors made debuts at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this year, but many of the updates at this year’s event were pretty minor. Many could have easily been a part of 2024’s show.

But some brought new and interesting features to the table for 2025—in this article, we’ll tell you all about them.

LG’s 6K monitor

Pixel addicts are always right at home at CES, and the most interesting high-resolution computer monitor to come out of this year’s show is the LG UltraFine 6K Monitor (model 32U990A).

People seeking more than 3840×2160 resolution have limited options, and they’re all rather expensive (looking at you, Apple Pro Display XDR). LG’s 6K monitor means there’s another option for professionals needing extra pixels for things like developing, engineering, and creative work. And LG’s 6144×3456, 32-inch display has extra oomph thanks to something no other 6K monitor has: Thunderbolt 5.

This is the only image LG provided for the monitor. Credit: LG

LG hasn’t confirmed the refresh rate of its 6K monitor, so we don’t know how much bandwidth it needs. But it’s possible that pairing the UltraFine with a Thunderbolt 5 PC could trigger Bandwidth Boost, a Thunderbolt 5 feature that automatically increases bandwidth from 80Gbps to 120Gbps. For comparison, Thunderbolt 4 maxes out at 40Gbps. Thunderbolt 5 also requires 140 W power delivery and maxes out at 240 W. That’s a notable bump from Thunderbolt 4’s 100–140 W.

Considering that Apple’s only 6K monitor has Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 5 is a differentiator. With this capability, the LG UltraFine is ironically better equipped in this regard for use with the new MacBook Pros and Mac Mini (which all have Thunderbolt 5) compared to Apple’s own monitors. LG may be aware of this, as the 32U990A’s aesthetic could be considered very Apple-like.

Inside the 32U990A’s silver chassis is a Nano IPS panel. In recent years, LG has advertised its Nano IPS panels as having “nanometer-sized particles” applied to their LED backlight to absorb “excess, unnecessary light wavelengths” for “richer color expression.” LG’s 6K monitor claims to cover 98 percent of DCI-P3 and 99.5 percent of Adobe RGB. IPS Black monitors, meanwhile, have higher contrast ratios (up to 3,000:1) than standard IPS panels. However, LG has released Nano IPS monitors with 2,000:1 contrast, the same contrast ratio as Dell’s 6K, IPS Black monitor.

LG hasn’t shared other details, like price or a release date. But the monitor may cost more than Dell’s Thunderbolt 4-equipped monitor, which is currently $2,480.

Brelyon’s multi-depth monitor

Brelyon Ultra Reality Extend. — Someone from CNET using the Ultra Reality Extend. Credit: CNET/YouTube

Brelyon is headquartered in San Mateo, California, and was founded by scientists and executives from MIT, IMAX, UCF, and DARPA. It’s been selling display technology for commercial and defense applications since 2022. At CES, the company unveiled the Ultra Reality Extend, describing it as an “immersive display line that renders virtual images in multiple depths.”

“As the first commercial multi-focal monitor, the Extend model offers multi-depth programmability for information overlay, allowing users to see images from 0.7 m to as far as 2.5 m of depth virtually rendered behind the monitor; organizing various data streams at different depth layers, or triggering focal cues to induce an ultra immersive experience akin to looking out through a window,” Brelyon’s announcement said.

Brelyon says the monitor runs 4K at 60 Hz with 1 bit of monocular depth for an 8K effect. The monitor includes “OLED-based curved 2D virtual images, with the largest stretching to 122 inches and extending 2.5 meters deep, viewable through a 30-inch frame,” according to the firm’s announcement. The closer you sit, the greater the field of view you get.

The Extend leverages “new GPU capabilities to process light and video signals inside our display platforms,” Brelyon CEO Barmak Heshmat said in a statement this week. He added: “We are thinking beyond headsets and glasses, where we can leverage GPU capabilities to do real-time driving of higher-bandwidth display interfaces.”

Brelyon says this was captured from the Extend, with its camera lens focus changing from 70 cm to 2,500 cm. Credit: Brelyon

Advancements in AI-based video processing, as well as other software advancements and hardware improvements, purportedly enable the Extend to upscale lower-dimension streams to multiple, higher-dimension ones. Brelyon describes its product as a “generative display system” that uses AI computation and optics to assign different depth values to content in real time for rendering images and information overlays.

The idea of a virtual monitor that surpasses the field of view of typical desktop monitors while allowing users to see the real world isn’t new. Tech firms (including many at CES) usually try to accomplish this through AR glasses. But head-mounted displays still struggle with problems like heat, weight, computing resources, battery, and aesthetics.

Brelyon’s monitor seemingly demoed well at CES. Sam Rutherford, a senior writer at Engadget, watched a clip from the Marvel’s Spider-Man video game on the Extend and said that “trees and light poles whipping past in my face felt so real I started to flinch subconsciously.” He added that the monitor separated “different layers of the content to make snow in the foreground look blurry as it whipped across the screen, while characters in the distance” still looked sharp.

The monitor costs $5,000 to $8,000 depending on how you’ll use it and whether you have other business with Brelyon, per Engadget, and CES is one of the few places where people could actually see the display in action.

Samsung’s 3D monitor

Samsung Odyssey 3D — Samsung’s depiction of the 3D effect of its 3D PC monitor. Credit: Samsung

It’s 2025, and tech companies are still trying to convince people to bring a 3D display into their homes. This week, Samsung took its first swing since 2009 at 3D screens with the Odyssey 3D monitor.

In lieu of 3D glasses. the Odyssey 3D achieves its 3D effect with a lenticular lens “attached to the front of the panel and its front stereo camera,” Samsung says, as well eye tracking and view mapping. Differing from other recent 3D monitors, the Odyssey 3D claims to be able to make 2D content look three-dimensional even if that content doesn’t officially support 3D.

You can find more information in our initial coverage of Samsung’s Odyssey 3D, but don’t bet on finding 3D monitors in many people’s homes soon. The technology for quality 3D displays that work without glasses has been around for years but still has never taken off.

Dell’s OLED productivity monitor

With improvements in burn-in, availability, and brightness, finding OLED monitors today is much easier than it was two years ago. But a lot of the OLED monitors released recently target gamers with features like high refresh rates, ultrawide panels, and RGB. These features are unneeded or unwanted by non-gamers but contribute to OLED monitors’ already high pricing. Numerous smaller OLED monitors were announced at CES, with 27-inch, 4K models being a popular addition. Most of them are still high-refresh gaming monitors, though.

The Dell 32-inch QD-OLED, on the other hand, targets “play, school, and work,” Dell’s announcement says. And its naming (based on a new naming convention Dell announced this week that kills XPS and other longstanding branding) signals that this is a mid-tier monitor from Dell’s entry-level lineup.

The monitor’s specs, which include a 120 Hz refresh rate, AMD FreeSync Premium, and USB-C power delivery at up to 90 W, make it a good fit for pairing with many mainstream laptops.

Dell also says this is the first QD-OLED with spatial audio, which uses head tracking to alter audio coming from the monitor’s five 5 W speakers. This is a feature we’ve seen before, but not on an OLED monitor.

For professionals and/or Mac users that prefer the sleek looks, reputation, higher power delivery and I/O hubs associated with Dell’s popular UltraSharp line, Dell made two more notable announcements at CES: an UltraSharp 32 4K Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U3225QE) coming out in February 25 for $950 and an UltraSharp 27 4K Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U2725QE) coming out that same day for $700.

The suitcase monitors

Before we get into the Base Case, please note that this product has no release date because its creators plan to go to market via crowdfunding. Base Case says it will launch its Indiegogo campaign next month, but even then, we don’t know if the project will be funded, if any final product will work as advertised, or if customers will receive orders in a timely fashion. Still, this is one of the most unusual monitors at CES, and it’s worth discussing.

The Base Case is shaped like a 24x14x16.5-inch rolling suitcase, but when you open it up, you’ll find two 24-inch monitors for connecting to a laptop. Each screen reportedly has a 1920×1080 resolution, a 75 Hz refresh rate, and a max brightness claim of 350 nits. Base Case is also advertising PC and Mac support (through DisplayLink), as well as HDMI, USB-C, USB-A, Thunderbolt, and Ethernet ports. Telescoping legs allow the case to rise 10 inches so the display can sit closer to eye level.

Ultimately, the Base Case would see owners lug around a 20-pound product for the ability to quickly create a dual-monitor setup equipped with a healthy amount of I/O. Tom’s Guide demoed a prototype at CES and reported that the monitors took “seconds to set up.”

In case you’re worried that the Base Case prioritizes displays over storage, note that its makers plan on adding a front pocket to the suitcase that can fit a laptop. The pocket wasn’t on the prototype Tom’s Guide saw, though.

Again, this is far from a finalized product, but Base Case has alluded to a $2,400 starting price. For comparison to other briefcase-locked displays—and yes, doing this is possible—LG’s StanbyME Go (27LX5QKNA) tablet in a briefcase currently has a $1,200 MSRP.

Corsair’s PC-mountable touchscreen

If the Base Case is on the heftier side of portable monitors, Corsair’s Xeneon Edge is certainly on the minute side. The 14.5-inch LCD touchscreen isn’t meant to be a primary display, though. Corsair built it as a secondary screen for providing quick information, like the song your computer is playing, the weather, the time, and calendar events. You could also use the 2560×720 pixels to display system information, like component usage and temperatures.

Corsair says its iCue software will be able to provide system information on the Xeneon, but because the Xeneon Edge works like a regular monitor, you could (and likely would prefer to) use your own methods. Still, the Xeneon Edge stands out from other small, touchscreen PC monitors with its clean UI that can succinctly communicate a lot of information on the tiny display at once.

Specs-wise, this is a 60 Hz IPS panel with 5-point capacitive touch. Corsair says the monitor can hit 350 nits of brightness.

You can connect the Xeneon Edge to a computer via USB-C (DisplayPort Alt mode) or HDMI. There are also screw holes, so PC builders could install it via a 360 mm radiator mounting point inside their PC case.

Alternatively, Corsair recommends attaching the touchscreen to the outside of a PC case through the monitor’s 14 integrated magnets. Corsair said in a blog post that the “magnets are underneath the plastic casing so the metal surface you stick it to won’t get scratched.” Or, in traditional portable monitor style, the Xeneon Edge could also just sit on a desk with its included stand.

Corsair Xeneon Edge — Corsair demos different ways the screen could attach to a case. Credit: TechPowerUp/YouTube

Corsair plans to release the Xeneon Edge in Q2. Expected pricing is “around $249,” Tom’s Hardware reported.

MSI’s side panel display panel

Why attach a monitor to your PC case when you can turn your PC case into a monitor instead?

MSI says that the touchscreen embedded into this year’s MEG Vision X AI 2nd gaming desktop’s side panel can work like a regular computer monitor. Similar to Corsair’s monitor, the MSI’s display has a corresponding app that can show system information and other customizations, which you can toggle with controls on the front of the case, PCMag reported.

MSI used an IPS panel with 1920×1080 resolution for the display, which also has an integrated mic and speaker. MSI says “electric vehicle control centers” inspired the design. We’ve seen similar PC cases, like iBuyPower’s more translucent side panel display and the touchscreen on Hyte’s pentagonal PC case, before. But MSI is bringing the design to a more mainstream form factor by including it in a prebuilt desktop, potentially opening the door for future touchscreen-equipped desktops.

Considering the various locations people place their desktops and the different angles at which they may try to look at this screen, I’m curious about the monitor’s viewing angles and brightness. IPS seems like a good choice since it tends to have strong image quality when viewed from different angles. A video PC Mag shot from the show floor shows images on the monitor appearing visible and lively:

Hands on with MSI’s MEG Vision X AI Desktop: Now, your PC tower’s a monitor, too.

World’s fastest monitor

There’s a competitive air at CES that lends to tech brands trying to one-up each other on spec sheets. Some of the most heated competition concerns monitor refresh rates; for years, we’ve been meeting the new world’s fastest monitor at CES. This year is no different.

The brand behind the monitor is Koorui, a three-year-old Chinese firm whose website currently lists monitors and keyboards. Koorui hasn’t confirmed when it will make its 750 Hz display available, where it will sell it, or what it will cost. That should bring some skepticism about this product actually arriving for purchase in the US. However, Koorui did bring the display to the CES show floor.

The speedy display had a refresh rate test running at CES, and according to several videos we’ve seen from attendees, the monitor appeared to consistently hit the 750 Hz mark.

World’s first 750Hz monitor???

For those keeping track, high-end gaming monitors—namely ones targeting professional gamers—hit 360 Hz in 2020. Koorui’s announcement means max monitor speeds have increased 108.3 percent in four years.

One CES attendee noticed, however, that the monitor wasn’t showing any gameplay. This could be due to the graphical and computing prowess needed to demonstrate the benefits of a 750 Hz monitor. A system capable of 750 frames per second would give people a chance to see if they could detect improved motion resolution but would also be very expensive. It’s also possible that the monitor Koorui had on display wasn’t ready for that level of scrutiny yet.

Like many eSports monitors, the Koorui is 24.5 inches, with a resolution of 1920×1080. Perhaps more interesting than Koorui taking the lead in the perennial race for higher refresh rates is the TN monitor’s claimed color capabilities. TN monitors aren’t as popular as they were years ago, but OEMs still employ them sometimes for speed.

They tend to be less colorful than IPS and VA monitors, though. Most offer sRGB color gamuts instead of covering the larger DCI-P3 color space. Asus’ 540 Hz ROG Swift Pro PG248QP, for example, is a TN monitor claiming 125 percent sRGB coverage. Koorui’s monitor claims to cover 95 percent of DCI-P3, due to the use of a quantum dot film. Again, there’s a lot that prospective shoppers should confirm about this monitor if it becomes available.

For those seeking the fastest monitors with more concrete release plans, several companies announced 600 Hz monitors coming out this year. Acer, for example, has a 600 Hz Nitro XV240 F6 (also a TN monitor) that it plans to release in North America this quarter at a starting price of $600.

Scharon is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica writing news, reviews, and analysis on consumer gadgets and services. She’s been reporting on technology for over 10 years, with bylines at Tom’s Hardware, Channelnomics, and CRN UK.

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Why I’m disappointed with the TVs at CES 2025

AI, CES, CES 2025, generative ai, Google, lg, Microsoft Copilot, oled, samsung, Software, Tech, TVs / Kris Guyer / January 9, 2025

Won’t someone please think of the viewer?

Op-ed: TVs miss opportunity for real improvement by prioritizing corporate needs.

The TV industry is hitting users over the head with AI and other questionable gimmicks Credit: Getty

If you asked someone what they wanted from TVs released in 2025, I doubt they’d say “more software and AI.” Yet, if you look at what TV companies have planned for this year, which is being primarily promoted at the CES technology trade show in Las Vegas this week, software and AI are where much of the focus is.

The trend reveals the implications of TV brands increasingly viewing themselves as software rather than hardware companies, with their products being customer data rather than TV sets. This points to an alarming future for smart TVs, where even premium models sought after for top-end image quality and hardware capabilities are stuffed with unwanted gimmicks.

LG’s remote regression

LG has long made some of the best—and most expensive—TVs available. Its OLED lineup, in particular, has appealed to people who use their TVs to watch Blu-rays, enjoy HDR, and the like. However, some features that LG is introducing to high-end TVs this year seem to better serve LG’s business interests than those users’ needs.

Take the new remote. Formerly known as the Magic Remote, LG is calling the 2025 edition the AI Remote. That is already likely to dissuade people who are skeptical about AI marketing in products (research suggests there are many such people). But the more immediately frustrating part is that the new remote doesn’t have a dedicated button for switching input modes, as previous remotes from LG and countless other remotes do.

LG AI remote — LG’s AI Remote. Credit: Tom’s Guide/YouTube

To use the AI Remote to change the TV’s input—a common task for people using their sets to play video games, watch Blu-rays or DVDs, connect their PC, et cetera—you have to long-press the Home Hub button. Single-pressing that button brings up a dashboard of webOS (the operating system for LG TVs) apps. That functionality isn’t immediately apparent to someone picking up the remote for the first time and detracts from the remote’s convenience.

By overlooking other obviously helpful controls (play/pause, fast forward/rewind, and numbers) while including buttons dedicated to things like LG’s free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels and Amazon Alexa, LG missed an opportunity to update its remote in a way centered on how people frequently use TVs. That said, it feels like user convenience didn’t drive this change. Instead, LG seems more focused on getting people to use webOS apps. LG can monetize app usage through, i.e., getting a cut of streaming subscription sign-ups, selling ads on webOS, and selling and leveraging user data.

Moving from hardware provider to software platform

LG, like many other TV OEMs, has been growing its ads and data business. Deals with data analytics firms like Nielsen give it more incentive to acquire customer data. Declining TV margins and rock-bottom prices from budget brands (like Vizio and Roku, which sometimes lose money on TV hardware sales and make up for the losses through ad sales and data collection) are also pushing LG’s software focus. In the case of the AI Remote, software prioritization comes at the cost of an oft-used hardware capability.

Further demonstrating its motives, in September 2023, LG announced intentions to “become a media and entertainment platform company” by offering “services” and a “collection of curated content in products, including LG OLED and LG QNED TVs.” At the time, the South Korean firm said it would invest 1 trillion KRW (about $737.7 million) into its webOS business through 2028.

Low TV margins, improved TV durability, market saturation, and broader economic challenges are all serious challenges for an electronics company like LG and have pushed LG to explore alternative ways to make money off of TVs. However, after paying four figures for TV sets, LG customers shouldn’t be further burdened to help LG accrue revenue.

Google TVs gear up for subscription-based features

There are numerous TV manufacturers, including Sony, TCL, and Philips, relying on Google software to power their TV sets. Numerous TVs announced at CES 2025 will come with what Google calls Gemini Enhanced Google Assistant. The idea that this is something that people using Google TVs have requested is somewhat contradicted by Google Assistant interactions with TVs thus far being “somewhat limited,” per a Lowpass report.

Nevertheless, these TVs are adding far-field microphones so that they can hear commands directed at the voice assistant. For the first time, the voice assistant will include Google’s generative AI chatbot, Gemini, this year—another feature that TV users don’t typically ask for. Despite the lack of demand and the privacy concerns associated with microphones that can pick up audio from far away even when the TV is off, companies are still loading 2025 TVs with far-field mics to support Gemini. Notably, these TVs will likely allow the mics to be disabled, like you can with other TVs using far-field mics. But I still ponder about features/hardware that could have been implemented instead.

Google is also working toward having people pay a subscription fee to use Gemini on their TVs, PCWorld reported.

“For us, our biggest goal is to create enough value that yes, you would be willing to pay for [Gemini],” Google TV VP and GM Shalini Govil-Pai told the publication.

The executive pointed to future capabilities for the Gemini-driven Google Assistant on TVs, including asking it to “suggest a movie like Jurassic Park but suitable for young children” or to show “Bollywood movies that are similar to Mission: Impossible.”

She also pointed to future features like showing weather, top news stories, and upcoming calendar events when someone is near the TV, showing AI-generated news briefings, and the ability to respond to questions like “explain the solar system to a third-grader” with text, audio, and YouTube videos.

But when people have desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones in their homes already, how helpful are these features truly? Govil-Pai admitted to PCWorld that “people are not used to” using their TVs this way “so it will take some time for them to adapt to it.” With this in mind, it seems odd for TV companies to implement new, more powerful microphones to support features that Google acknowledges aren’t in demand. I’m not saying that tech companies shouldn’t get ahead of the curve and offer groundbreaking features that users hadn’t considered might benefit them. But already planning to monetize those capabilities—with a subscription, no less—suggests a prioritization of corporate needs.

Samsung is hungry for AI

People who want to use their TV for cooking inspiration often turn to cooking shows or online cooking videos. However, Samsung wants people to use its TV software to identify dishes they want to try making.

During CES, Samsung announced Samsung Food for TVs. The feature leverages Samsung TVs’ AI processors to identify food displayed on the screen and recommend relevant recipes. Samsung introduced the capability in 2023 as an iOS and Android app after buying the app Whisk in 2019. As noted by TechCrunch, though, other AI tools for providing recipes based on food images are flawed.

So why bother with such a feature? You can get a taste of Samsung’s motivation from its CES-announced deal with Instacart that lets people order off Instacart from Samsung smart fridges that support the capability. Samsung Food on TVs can show users the progress of food orders placed via the Samsung Food mobile app on their TVs. Samsung Food can also create a shopping list for recipe ingredients based on what it knows (using cameras and AI) is in your (supporting) Samsung fridge. The feature also requires a Samsung account, which allows the company to gather more information on users.

Other software-centric features loaded into Samsung TVs this year include a dedicated AI button on the new TVs’ remotes, the ability to use gestures to control the TV but only if you’re wearing a Samsung Galaxy Watch, and AI Karaoke, which lets people sing karaoke using their TVs by stripping vocals from music playing and using their phone as a mic.

Like LG, Samsung has shown growing interest in ads and data collection. In May, for example, it expanded its automatic content recognition tech to track ad exposure on streaming services viewed on its TVs. It also has an ads analytics partnership with Experian.

Large language models on TVs

TVs are mainstream technology in most US homes. Generative AI chatbots, on the other hand, are emerging technology that many people have yet to try. Despite these disparities, LG and Samsung are incorporating Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot into 2025 TVs.

LG claims that Copilot will help its TVs “understand conversational context and uncover subtle user intentions,” adding: “Access to Microsoft Copilot further streamlines the process, allowing users to efficiently find and organize complex information using contextual cues. For an even smoother and more engaging experience, the AI chatbot proactively identifies potential user challenges and offers timely, effective solutions.”

Similarly, Samsung, which is also adding Copilot to some of its smart monitors, said in its announcement that Copilot will help with “personalized content recommendations.” Samsung has also said that Copilot will help its TVs understand strings of commands, like increasing the volume and changing the channel, CNET noted. Samsung said it intends to work with additional AI partners, namely Google, but it’s unclear why it needs multiple AI partners, especially when it hasn’t yet seen how people use large language models on their TVs.

TV-as-a-platform

To be clear, this isn’t a condemnation against new, unexpected TV features. This also isn’t a censure against new TV apps or the usage of AI in TVs.

AI marketing hype is real and misleading regarding the demand, benefits, and possibilities of AI in consumer gadgets. However, there are some cases when innovative software, including AI, can improve things that TV users not only care about but actually want or need. For example, some TVs use AI for things like trying to optimize sound, color, and/or brightness, including based on current environmental conditions or upscaling. This week, Samsung announced AI Live Translate for TVs. The feature is supposed to be able to translate foreign language closed captions in real time, providing a way for people to watch more international content. It’s a feature I didn’t ask for but can see being useful and changing how I use my TV.

But a lot of this week’s TV announcements underscore an alarming TV-as-a-platform trend where TV sets are sold as a way to infiltrate people’s homes so that apps, AI, and ads can be pushed onto viewers. Even high-end TVs are moving in this direction and amplifying features with questionable usefulness, effectiveness, and privacy considerations. Again, I can’t help but wonder what better innovations could have come out this year if more R&D was directed toward hardware and other improvements that are more immediately rewarding for users than karaoke with AI.

The TV industry is facing economic challenges, and, understandably, TV brands are seeking creative solutions for making money. But for consumers, that means paying for features that you’re likely to ignore. Ultimately, many people just want a TV with amazing image and sound quality. Finding that without having to sift through a bunch of fluff is getting harder.

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Samsung is the next company to try to popularize 3D displays (again)

Monitors, samsung, Tech / Mike M. / January 2, 2025

Interestingly, Samsung’s announcement today only mentioned the release of a 27-inch, 4K resolution 3D monitor, despite Samsung teasing a 37-inch version in August. It’s possible that the larger version didn’t work as well and/or that demand for the larger size would be too small, considering the high price and limited demand implications of a glasses-free 3D monitor aimed at gamers.

Another swing at 3D

Currently, Samsung hasn’t shared further details about its 3D display, likely saving finer details and demos for CES 2025, which officially starts on January 7.

Samsung’s 3D monitor, as well as other consumer monitors it will show at CES (including ones with 500 Hz refresh rates and consumer OLED screens in smaller, 27-inch sizes), give us an idea of what we can expect from the show this year in terms of displays: the fine-tuning of features that some have wanted for years and may finally be ready for prime time. In the case of 3D displays, Ars’ Kyle Orland got his eyes on a quality, glasses-free 3D TV in 2016 (the company behind that tech is no longer active). As he mentioned at the time, that was six years after the industry tried to convince us that 3D TVs were poised to be the next big thing.

Come 2025, it appears that the industry will take another swing at making 3D consumer displays. By targeting PC gamers instead of creative professionals, like Acer and other tech brands, such as Lenovo, recently have, Samsung is attempting to inch the technology toward a more consumer-friendly audience.

After all this time, it still doesn’t feel like 2025 will be the year of 3D consumer displays. But we’ll be keeping an eye on CES and other display announcements this year for notable developments.

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US blocks China from foreign exports with even a single US-made chip

AI chips, applied materials, Chips Act, kla, lam research, Policy, samsung, semiconductor, us-china trade war / Rejus Almole / December 2, 2024

But while Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said that these new curbs would help prevent “China from advancing its domestic semiconductor manufacturing system” to modernize its military, analysts and “several US officials” told The Post that they pack “far less punch” than the prior two rounds of export controls.

Analysts told The Wall Street Journal that the US took too long to launch the controls, which were composed around June. As industry insiders weighed in on the restrictions, word got out about the US plans to expand controls. In the months since, analysts said, China had plenty of time to stockpile the now-restricted tech. Applied Materials, for example, saw an eye-popping 86 percent spike in net revenue from products shipped to China “in the nine months ending July 28,” the WSJ reported.

Because of this and other alleged flaws, it’s unclear how effectively Biden’s final attempts to block China from accessing the latest US technologies will work.

Beyond concerns that China had time to stockpile tech it anticipated would be restricted, Gregory Allen, the director at the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the WSJ that these latest controls “left loopholes that Huawei and Chinese companies could exploit.”

Loopholes include failing to blacklist companies that Huawei regularly uses—with allies and American companies allegedly lobbying to exempt factories or fabs they like, such as ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc., “one of China’s largest memory chipmakers,” The Post noted. They also include failing to restrict older versions of the HBM chips and various chipmaking equipment that China may still be able to easily access, Allen said.

“These controls are weaker than what the United States should have done,” Allen told The Post. “You can make a halfway logical argument that says, ‘Sell everything to China.’ Then you can make a reasonable argument, ‘Sell very little to China.’ But the worst thing you can do is to dramatically signal your intention to cut off China’s access to tech but then have so many loopholes and such bungled implementation that you incur almost all of the costs of the policy with only a fraction of the benefits.”

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Samsung quits updating Galaxy Z Fold 2 that came out in 2020 for $2,000

foldable, foldable phone, samsung, samsung galaxy, smartphones, Software, Tech / Paul Patrick / October 8, 2024

In February 2022, Samsung started promising up to four generations of Android OS and One UI upgrades to “select” Galaxy devices, as well as “up to five years of security updates.” And in January, it announced moving to seven years of security and OS updates, matching a move from Google. However, the Fold 2 wasn’t included in Samsung’s list of “select” Galaxy devices.

Thus, one could have estimated that the Fold 2 might stop receiving OS and security updates by 2024, four years after its debut. But it’s still hard to reconcile with paying four figures for a phone that became a security risk after four years, despite functioning properly otherwise. Apple, by comparison, now promises at least five years of security updates. Apple only started making that promise in 2023 with the iPhone 15 series. However, the current-generation iOS 18 is supported by iPhones released in 2020, like the second-generation iPhone SE, and even older ones, like the iPhone XR that came out in 2018. Arguably short-lived expensive devices like the Fold 2 are part of the reason some activists are pushing for the FTC to require that smart devices state on their packaging how long they’ll receive updates.

However, unlike iPhones, Samsung phones aren’t all powered by a proprietary chip, making promises of upgrades require commitments from third-party vendors, like Qualcomm. With Qualcomm known for being resistant to longer chip life cycles in the past, seven years of updates is progress for Samsung users—just not those who invested in the Z Fold 2.

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Faulty Samsung update leaves owners of bricked Galaxy phones with few options

samsung, samsung galaxy, smartphones, Software, Tech / Paul Patrick / October 5, 2024

Samsung issued a software update on October 2 that bricked some older Galaxy smartphones. While Samsung has stopped the update from rolling out further, those with broken phones have received a harsh reminder of the importance of data backups.

On Wednesday, numerous people online started complaining about their Samsung phones being stuck in a bootloop (you can see examples here, here, and in newer comments here).

A Samsung spokesperson confirmed to Ars Technica that an update to Samsung’s SmartThings Framework app for managing smart devices caused the problems:

We are aware that a limited number of Galaxy smartphones running on Android 12 are rebooting continuously during an update to the latest version of the SmartThings app.

Samsung “immediately suspended the update” after learning of the problem and is “working to resolve the issues,” the company’s spokesperson said. According to user reports online, Samsung has issued a new update that people can download without their phones breaking.

However, owners of older affected phones, namely the Galaxy S10 series, Galaxy Note 10 series, Galaxy M51, and Galaxy A90, have been unable to power their devices on to roll back the update. Many users who already manually or automatically installed the update are still dealing with bricked devices.

A harsh reminder

Users with bricked Galaxy phones were initially met with a difficult choice: Go without their phone or perform a data-erasing factory reset.

Samsung’s statement to Ars advised customers to “contact the Samsung Contact Center” for support, but it’s unclear if a fix can be employed that doesn’t wipe the phone.

Faulty Samsung update leaves owners of bricked Galaxy phones with few options Read More »

Unicode 16.0 release with new emoji brings character count to 154,998

android, Apple, emoji, Google, iOS, macOS, microsoft, samsung, Tech, Unicode, Windows / Kris Guyer / September 12, 2024

right there with you, bags-under-eyes emoji —

New designs will roll out to phones, tablets, and PCs over the next few months.

Andrew Cunningham – Sep 12, 2024 6: 39 pm UTC

Enlarge / Emojipedia sample images of the new Unicode 16.0 emoji.

The Unicode Consortium has finalized and released version 16.0 of the Unicode standard, the elaborate character set that ensures that our phones, tablets, PCs, and other devices can all communicate and interoperate with each other. The update adds 5,185 new characters to the standard, bringing the total up to a whopping 154,998.

Of those 5,185 characters, the ones that will get the most attention are the eight new emoji characters, including a shovel, a fingerprint, a leafless tree, a radish (formally classified as “root vegetable”), a harp, a purple splat that evokes the ’90s Nickelodeon logo, and a flag for the island of Sark. The standout, of course, is “face with bags under eyes,” whose long-suffering thousand-yard stare perfectly encapsulates the era it has been born into. Per usual, Emojipedia has sample images that give you some idea of what these will look like when they’re implemented by various operating systems, apps, and services.

Unicode 16.0 also adds support for seven new modern and historical scripts: the West African Garay alphabet; the Gurung Khema, Kirat Rai, Ol Onal, and Sunuwar scripts from Northeast India and Nepal; and historical Todhri and Tulu-Tigalari scripts from Albania and Southwest India, respectively.

We last got new emoji in 2023’s Unicode 15.1 update, though all of these designs were technically modifications of existing emoji rather than new characters—many emoji, most notably for skin and hair color variants, use a base emoji plus a modifier emoji, combined together with a “zero-width joiner” (ZWJ) character that makes them display as one character instead. The lime emoji in Unicode 15.1 was actually a lemon emoji combined with the color green; the phoenix was a regular bird joined to the fire emoji. This was likely because 15.1 was only intended as a minor update to 2022’s Unicode 15.0 standard.

Most of the Unicode 16.0 emoji, by contrast, are their own unique characters. The one exception is the Sark flag emoji; flag sequences are created by placing two “regional indicator letters” directly next to each other and don’t require a ZWJ character between them.

Incorporation into the Unicode standard is only the first step that new emoji and other characters take on their journey from someone’s mind to your phone or computer; software makers like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and others need to design iterations that fit with their existing spin on the emoji characters, they need to release software updates that use the new characters, and people need to download and install them.

We’ve seen a few people share on social media that the Unicode 16.0 release includes a “greenwashing” emoji designed by Shepard Fairey, an artist best known for the 2008 Barack Obama “Hope” poster. This emoji, and an attempt to gin up controversy around it, is all an elaborate hoax: there’s a fake Unicode website announcing it, a fake lawsuit threat that purports to be from a real natural gas industry group, and a fake Cory Doctorow article about the entire “controversy” published in a fake version of Wired. These were all published to websites with convincing-looking but fake domains, all registered within a couple of weeks of each other in August 2024. The face-with-bags-under-eyes emoji feels like an appropriate response.

Unicode 16.0 release with new emoji brings character count to 154,998 Read More »

Samsung TVs will get 7 years of updates, starting with 2023 models

samsung, Software, Tech, TVs / Paul Patrick / August 26, 2024

Tizen OS —

Some Rokus and Apple TVs receive longer update windows, though.

Scharon Harding – Aug 26, 2024 9: 36 pm UTC

Enlarge / A Samsung representative demonstrating Tizen OS in February.

Samsung

Samsung will provide operating system updates for its newer TVs for at least seven years, the company announced last week. The updates will first apply to some TVs released in 2023 and TVs released in March 2024.

According to Business Korea, Samsung made the announcement regarding the Tizen OS at the Digital Research Lab of Samsung Electronics’ Suwon Campus in Gyeonggi Province. As spotted by FlatPanelsHD, the announcement follows previously announced plans from Samsung to provide seven years of software updates for the Galaxy S24 smartphone series.

Per Korea Economic Daily, speaking at last week’s event, Samsung Electronics’ president of the Visual Display Business Division, Yoon Seok-Yoon, said: “With the seven-year free upgrade of Tizen applied to AI TVs, we will widen the gap in market share with Chinese companies.”

Samsung is the biggest smart TV seller in the world, but rival companies from China are close behind. According to numbers from Omdia, Samsung’s TV market share (based on units shipped) declined from 20.3 percent in Q1 2023 to 18.8 percent in Q1 2024. Market share for Chinese brand TCL, meanwhile, increased from 9.8 percent to 11.6 percent (LG’s market share was about flat at 11.8 percent in Q1 2024).

Market competition has gotten so fierce that the South Korean government reportedly pushed rivals Samsung and LG to cooperate so that they could stay competitive. This has resulted in Samsung selling TVs that use OLED panels made by LG Display.

Samsung hasn’t provided a specific list of each model guaranteed to receive seven years of updates. However, the company’s announcement suggests the news will apply to TVs with AI-based features that came out in the aforementioned release window. (Samsung has been pushing the term “AI TVs” lately and also says building AI features is also a way for it to compete against Chinese brands.)

A step in the right direction

Samsung’s upgrades commitment comes amid growing concern about e-waste and expensive products suddenly no longer getting software updates, resulting in bricked, slowly operating, or buggy experiences.

Research suggests that the average TV lasts about seven years. However, as UK consumer advocacy group Which? has found, the average TV brand offers software updates for less than seven years. With Samsung being the world’s biggest TV brand, offering longer-term software support could encourage more in the industry to do the same. It could also help users keep their devices for longer. Samsung’s seven-year commitment is longer than what LG recently announced it would offer, which is four OS updates over five years (you can see LG’s webOS update plan here).

However, other TV hardware companies are doing better. Apple has provided updates for its first Apple TV since 2015, FlatPanelsHD pointed out, while Roku’s still providing OS updates to Roku OS-based TVs released in 2014. However, in general, TV OEMs and streaming device makers could make it easier for prospective buyers to know how long a device will continue getting software updates before they buy it.

Samsung TVs will get 7 years of updates, starting with 2023 models Read More »

Your TV set has become a digital billboard. And it’s only getting worse.

ads, Amazon, Features, fire tv, lg, Roku, samsung, Tech, TVs / Paul Patrick / August 19, 2024

The TV business isn’t just about selling TVs anymore. Companies are increasingly seeing viewers, not TV sets, as their most lucrative asset.

Over the past few years, TV makers have seen rising financial success from TV operating systems that can show viewers ads and analyze their responses. Rather than selling as many TVs as possible, brands like LG, Samsung, Roku, and Vizio are increasingly, if not primarily, seeking recurring revenue from already-sold TVs via ad sales and tracking.

How did we get here? And what implications does an ad- and data-obsessed industry have for the future of TVs and the people watching them?

The value of software

Success in the TV industry used to mean selling as many TV sets as possible. But with smart TVs becoming mainstream and hardware margins falling, OEMs have sought new ways to make money. TV OS providers can access a more frequent revenue source at higher margins, which has led to a viewing experience loaded with ads. They can be served from the moment you pick up your remote, which may feature streaming service ads in the form of physical buttons.

Some TV brands already prioritize data collection and the ability to sell ads, and most are trying to boost their appeal to advertisers. Smart TV OSes have become the cash cow of the TV business, with providers generating revenue by licensing the software and through revenue sharing of in-app purchases and subscriptions.

A huge part of TV OS revenue comes from selling ads, including on the OS’s home screen and screensaver and through free, ad-supported streaming television channels. GroupM, the world’s largest media investment company, reported that smart TV ad revenue grew 20 percent from 2023 to 2024 and will grow another 20 percent to reach $46 billion next year. In September 2023, Patrick Horner, practice leader of consumer electronics at analyst Omdia, reported that “each new connected TV platform user generates around $5 per quarter in data and advertising revenue.”

Automatic content recognition (ACR) tech is at the heart of the smart TV ads business. Most TV brands say users can opt out of ACR, but we’ve already seen Vizio take advantage of the feature without user permission. ACR is also sometimes turned on by default, and the off switch is often buried in a settings menu. Including ACR on a TV at all says a lot about a TV maker’s priorities. Most users have almost nothing to gain from ACR and face privacy concerns by sharing information—sometimes in real time—about what they do with their TVs.

At this point, consumers have come to expect ads and tracking on budget TVs from names like Vizio or Roku. But the biggest companies in TV are working on turning their sets into data-prolific billboards, too.

When TVs watch you back, so do corporations

In recent years, we’ve seen companies like LG and Samsung increase their TVs’ ad capabilities as advertisers become more eager to access tracking data from TVs.

LG, for example, started sharing data gathered from its TVs with Nielsen, giving the data and market measurement firm “the largest ACR data footprint in the industry,” according to an October announcement. The deal gives Nielsen streaming and linear TV data from LG TVs and provides firms buying ads on LG TVs with “‘Always On’ streaming measurement and big data from LG Ad Solutions” via Nielsen’s ONE Ads dashboard.

LG, which recently unveiled a goal of evolving its hardware business into an ad-pushing “media and entertainment platform company,” expects there to be 300 million webOS TVs in homes by 2026. That represents a huge data-collection and recurring-revenue opportunity. In September, LG said it would invest 1 trillion KRW (about $737.7 million) through 2028 into its “webOS business,” or the business behind its smart TV OS. The company said updates will include improving webOS’s UI, AI-based recommendations, and search capabilities.

Similarly, Samsung recently updated its ACR tech to track exposure to ads viewed on its TVs via streaming services instead of just from linear TV. Samsung is also trying to make its ACR data more valuable for ad targeting, including through a deal signed in December with analytics firm Experian.

Representatives for LG and Samsung declined to comment to Ars Technica about how much of their respective company’s business is ad sales. But the deals they’ve made with data-collection firms signal big interest in turning their products into lucrative smart TVs. In this case, “smart” isn’t about Internet connectivity but rather how well the TV understands its viewer.

Your TV set has become a digital billboard. And it’s only getting worse. Read More »

Dozens injured, pets killed in fires causing Samsung to recall 1.1M stoves

consumer product safety commission, electric range, electric stove, fire hazard, Policy, product safety, samsung / Kris Guyer / August 9, 2024

Only you can prevent cooktop fires —

Samsung is currently offering free knob locks and covers to prevent fires.

Ashley Belanger – Aug 9, 2024 6: 09 pm UTC

Enlarge / US Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall of 1.1 million Samsung Slide-in Electric Ranges due to hundreds of reported fires.

After hundreds of reports of fires causing dozens of injuries and several pet deaths, Samsung is recalling more than a million electric stoves sold in the US between 2013 and 2024.

In a press release, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reported that the voluntary recall was due to “front-mounted knobs” on Samsung’s slide-in electric ranges. The faulty knobs “can be activated by accidental contact by humans or pets, posing a fire hazard”—particularly when people leave objects on the stove.

The stoves impacted by the recall were widely sold in Costco, Home Depot, Best Buy, Lowe’s, and other appliance stores nationwide. Their knobs can be easily triggered by accident, heating up the cooktop and increasing the risks of fires, the CPSC said. Since 2013, Samsung has received “over 300 reports of unintentional activation.” According to the CPSC:

“These ranges have been involved in approximately 250 fires. At least 18 fires caused extensive property damage. Approximately 40 injuries have been reported, eight of which required medical attention, and there have been reports of seven fires involving pet deaths.”

Luckily, there’s an easy solution recently devised that can prevent this safety hazard in homes across America, Samsung said. Customers concerned about unintentional activations can request free knob locks and covers that Samsung confirmed made it much harder to accidentally turn on the stove.

Whereas the problematic electric ranges’ knobs require users to push the knob and turn, “precision knobs” that Samsung rolled out in April introduce a new safety measure that requires users to pinch the knob before pushing and turning knobs to activate the stove.

“A simple pinching motion” releases a pin that otherwise would remain locked and prevent stoves from accidental activation when knobs are unintentionally bumped or perhaps twisted by a young child or knocked around by a pet, Samsung said.

Consumers who bought one of the 30 affected models listed here can contact Samsung online or by phone or email to receive free knob locks and covers and implement this new “pinching” safety measure, even if their warranty is expired. They can also check if their model has been affected here. If the serial number is no longer readable, customers should call or chat online with a Samsung agent.

Once Samsung receives a request for free knob locks and covers, repair kits “should arrive within five business days,” an FAQ said. And customers will receive tracking information once the knob locks and covers ship. Instructions to install will be provided and are also available online.

Until knob locks and covers are installed, customers can continue using their stoves, Samsung said. But the CPSC advised people to “keep children and pets away from the knobs,” “check the range knobs to ensure they are off before leaving the home or going to bed,” and avoid leaving “objects on the range when the range is not in use.”

Additionally, customers with Wi-Fi-enabled ranges can enable notifications in their Samsung SmartThings app to receive alerts when the stove is on.

Samsung noted that parents in particular seemed to appreciate the precision knobs, with one review calling it a “favorite feature,” because “we have two young girls in the house and not having to worry about one of them playing with the knobs and starting the stove… is a huge plus.”

Fire hazards go beyond Samsung—and can be fatal

Samsung’s recall is part of a worrying trend where front-mounted knobs on both gas and electric ranges from many different manufacturers have caused hundreds of fires in the US. In June, the CPSC’s Joint Gas and Electric Range Knob Working Group hosted a meeting with leading stove manufacturers and other stakeholders to confront the industry-wide problem.

During the meeting, the CPSC shared data showing that across 338 incidents between January 1, 2018, and May 30, 2024, stoves from “ten specific manufacturers” were involved in fires causing 31 injuries and two deaths. Additionally, the CPSC had recorded “two other fatal incidents where a range was accidentally turned on when a knob was bumped, but the manufacturer is unknown.”

According to the CPSC, manufacturers were “interested to learn the events that lead to the ranges accidentally activating, including whether pets were involved, unsupervised children were at fault, or there were unusual circumstances.” Companies said the CPSC data would help them “fully understand the issues” and “make sure that reasonable and foreseeable circumstances would be addressed” without impacting compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Samsung attended the meeting, saying that it joined other “major brands across the appliance industry” to “discuss how to revisit knob safety standards for all ranges to address inadvertent activation.”

The working group’s meetings are expected to continue, but a deadline to reconvene approximately a month after the June meeting has since passed without any further discussion.

A few months prior to the meeting, Samsung introduced the precision knobs as a novel solution in its ranges, as well as an additional safety feature now available in “its most premium Bespoke Slide-In electric and gas ranges,” which illuminates the knobs when they’re turned on. This provides a “visual cue when the knobs are activated,” Samsung said.

As manufacturers like Samsung continue to tweak knobs to improve safety, the CPSC this week issued a safety alert warning the public of fire hazards of gas and electric ranges.

The safety notice advises customers to use safety locks and covers to prevent accidental activation, keep kids and pets away from cooktops with front-mounted knobs, and take care when leaning over the stove to avoid bumping into knobs.

For anyone concerned about safety issues with a gas or electric range, the CPSC provides a database to search additional recalls or otherwise recommends contacting manufacturers directly.

“Consumers who have experienced or have concerns about accidental activation of the front-mounted control knobs on their cooktop should immediately contact the manufacturer of the range to ask if there is a solution or remedy available from the manufacturer,” the CPSC safety alert said.

Dozens injured, pets killed in fires causing Samsung to recall 1.1M stoves Read More »

All the possible ways to destroy Google’s monopoly in search

android, antitrust, Antitrust law, Apple, Bing, chrome, department of justice, duckduckgo, Features, Google, google monopoly, microsoft, mozilla, online search, online search industry, Policy, samsung / Paul Patrick / August 7, 2024

After US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google has a monopoly in two markets—general search services and general text advertising—everybody is wondering how Google might be forced to change its search business.

Specifically, the judge ruled that Google’s exclusive deals with browser and device developers secured Google’s monopoly. These so-called default agreements funneled the majority of online searches to Google search engine result pages (SERPs), where results could be found among text ads that have long generated the bulk of Google’s revenue.

At trial, Mehta’s ruling noted, it was estimated that if Google lost its most important default deal with Apple, Google “would lose around 65 percent of its revenue, even assuming that it could retain some users without the Safari default.”

Experts told Ars that disrupting these default deals is the most obvious remedy that the US Department of Justice will seek to restore competition in online search. Other remedies that may be sought range from least painful for Google (mandating choice screens in browsers and devices) to most painful (requiring Google to divest from either Chrome or Android, where it was found to be self-preferencing).

But the remedies phase of litigation may have to wait until after Google’s appeal, which experts said could take years to litigate before any remedies are ever proposed in court. Whether Google could be successful in appealing the ruling is currently being debated, with anti-monopoly advocates backing Mehta’s ruling as “rock solid” and critics suggesting that the ruling’s fresh takes on antitrust law are open to attack.

Google declined Ars’ request to comment on appropriate remedies or its plan to appeal.

Previously, Google’s president of global affairs, Kent Walker, confirmed in a statement that the tech giant would be appealing the ruling because the court found that “Google is ‘the industry’s highest quality search engine, which has earned Google the trust of hundreds of millions of daily users,’ that Google ‘has long been the best search engine, particularly on mobile devices,’ ‘has continued to innovate in search,’ and that ‘Apple and Mozilla occasionally assess Google’s search quality relative to its rivals and find Google’s to be superior.'”

“Given this, and that people are increasingly looking for information in more and more ways, we plan to appeal,” Walker said. “As this process continues, we will remain focused on making products that people find helpful and easy to use.”

But Mehta found that Google was wielding its outsize influence in the search industry to block rivals from competing by locking browsers and devices into agreements ensuring that all searches went to Google SERPs. None of the pro-competitive benefits that Google claimed justified the exclusive deals persuaded Mehta, who ruled that “importantly,” Google “exercised its monopoly power by charging supra-competitive prices for general search text ads”—and thus earned “monopoly profits.”

While experts think the appeal process will delay litigation on remedies, Google seems to think that Mehta may rule on potential remedies before Google can proceed with its appeal. Walker told Google employees that a ruling on remedies may arrive in the next few months, The Wall Street Journal reported. Ars will continue monitoring for updates on this timeline.

As the DOJ’s case against Google’s search business has dragged on, reports have long suggested that a loss for Google could change the way that nearly the entire world searches the Internet.

Adam Epstein—the president and co-CEO of adMarketplace, which bills itself as “the largest consumer search technology company outside of Google and Bing”—told Ars that innovations in search could result in a broader landscape of more dynamic search experiences that draw from sources beyond Google and allow searchers to skip Google’s SERPs entirely. If that happens, the coming years could make Google’s ubiquitous search experience today a distant memory.

“By the end of this decade, going to a search engine results page will seem quaint,” Epstein predicted. “The court’s decision sets the stage for a remedy that will dramatically improve the search experience for everyone connected to the web. The era of innovation in search is just around the corner.”

The DOJ has not meaningfully discussed potential remedies it will seek, but Jonathan Kanter, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, celebrated the ruling.

“This landmark decision holds Google accountable,” Kanter said. “It paves the path for innovation for generations to come and protects access to information for all Americans.”

All the possible ways to destroy Google’s monopoly in search Read More »

Samsung delays Galaxy Buds3 Pro release over quality concerns

#earbuds, airpods, AirPods Pro, audio, samsung, Tech / Rejus Almole / July 19, 2024

Delayed until August 28 —

“It tore from the inside instantly.”

Scharon Harding – Jul 19, 2024 5: 45 pm UTC

Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro — Enlarge / A marketing image for the Galaxy Buds3 Pro.

Samsung

Samsung is delaying the release of the $250 Galaxy Buds3 Pro in the US from July 24 to August 28, per its website. The third-generation earbuds have Samsung moving from a bean-like shape to an Apple AirPods Pro-like design, including silicone ear tips. But some users have claimed that the new tips rip too easily.

Samsung confirmed to Android Authority today that it has temporarily stopped shipping units to stores. The devices were no longer available for preorder on Amazon or Best Buy as of this writing.

Samsung’s statement to Android Authority noted “reports relating to a limited number of early production devices” and asserted that it’s taking the problem “very seriously.” The statement continues:

We are urgently assessing and enhancing our quality control processes. To ensure all products meet our quality standards, we have temporarily suspended deliveries of Galaxy Buds 3 Pro devices to distribution channels to conduct a full quality control evaluation before shipments to consumers take place. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Samsung also advised people who already have a pair to contact Samsung or go to a Samsung Service Center. Android Authority reported that some customers also received an email from Samsung informing them of the quality control concerns and offering a link where customers can find contact information to ask Samsung representatives about canceling their orders for a refund.

Samsung’s website says the earbuds have a one-year warranty that does not cover defects or damage “caused by accident, misuse, abnormal use, abnormal conditions, improper storage, neglect, or unusual physical, electrical or electromechanical stress.”

“It tore from the inside instantly”

Although the Galaxy Buds3 Pro were originally going to be available in the US on July 24, they have already been available for purchase in South Korea, per Android Police. Other people who already have the earbuds include reviewers, employees, and those who made their preorders early. (Some people also claimed that they were able to buy the earbuds at US Walmarts before Samsung announced them).

Some who reportedly had the earbuds claimed it was hard to remove their silicone tips without tearing them. Like AirPods Pros, Galaxy Buds3 Pros have a silicone tip that latches onto a plastic ring on the earbuds’ chassis. Various people reported trying to remove the tip and the tip ripping, with a piece of silicone remaining stuck on the plastic ring.

Some, including reviewers at The Verge and Android Authority, said they hadn’t experienced the problem yet. But others, including TechRadar, found it challenging to remove the ear tips without damaging them.

One Reddit user claimed that they pulled on an ear tip to remove it, and “it tore from the inside instantly.” They noted that because the silicone is clipped into the plastic ring, “you have to pull it strongly.” Similarly, another user said the “left ear tip ripped right off” when they tried to remove it.

Samsung has even published a support page on its Korean website explaining how to remove the ear tips to avoid damage. It notes various ways in which the silicone could tear, including, per a Google translation, if you hold them with your fingernails while inserting or removing, if you press or twist the ear tips hard, or if you pull the ear tips out quickly.

After numerous complaints online, including on Reddit (examples here, here, and here) and YouTube (examples here and here), Samsung has pushed back general availability. Complicating potential quick fixes, Samsung doesn’t yet offer replacement tips for the earbuds. People usually don’t have to frequently change their earbuds’ tips, but not offering replacement when Apple has for years seems like an oversight.

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds3 Pro look like the AirPods Pro that originally debuted almost five years ago, and it doesn’t care. What it definitely should care about, though, is a new design appearing weak and inferior before it’s even fully released. Samsung has at least taken the initiative in addressing early complaints rather than ignoring them and is instead offering refunds and delaying the release to limit the number of impacted customers. We’ll see if the earbuds are more sturdy by August.

Samsung delays Galaxy Buds3 Pro release over quality concerns Read More »