Recently, scams have been running rampant on e-commerce websites in India, be it the incident of a person receiving a bar soap instead of an iPhone or an old DVD drive in place of a CPU.

Another such scam has come to light via 91mobiles in which a customer who purchased a phone from Amazon received a notification from Flipkart that the device would be blocked due to non-payment. Let’s take a deeper look at the story to understand what happened.

A customer bought a Samsung S20+ via Amazon for ₹57,449 in Nov '20 (I've seen the invoice). Seller Divine India of Mumbai appears to have recycled a phone bought from Flipkart under its part-payment 'Smart Upgrade Plan'. Flipkart is now going to block the handset! https://t.co/tVYnk1MWFN

— PKR | প্রশান্ত | پرشانتو (@prasanto) November 16, 2021

According to Twitter user @JBhattacharji, she purchased the Samsung Galaxy S20+ from Amazon India. The smartphone was sold by seller Divine India on Amazon for Rs 57,449 ($775) in November 2020. Twelve months after the purchase, the customer is getting a prompt from Flipkart (another major e-commerce website in India) asking her to pay the remaining amount or upgrade the smartphone. The prompt warns the user that Flipkart will block the smartphone if the customer fails to pay the remaining amount. 

After contacting Flipkart and Amazon, the customer was informed that the smartphone was initially bought from Flipkart under the Smart Upgrade Plan, which the seller later sold on Amazon. According to the customer, Flipkart has denied providing any support, while Amazon has made no comments on the issue so far.

Under the Smart Upgrade plan, Flipkart gives customers an option to pay the 70% of the smartphone’s value and pay the remaining 30% after 12 months of purchase if they intend to keep the smartphone. But, if you want to upgrade to a new smartphone, you need to return the smartphone and get a new one from Flipkart valued at more than the 30% amount of old smartphone. For example, let’s say a customer buys a smartphone for $1000. They only need to pay 70% of the price, i.e. $700. Then after 12 months, you get a choice to either return the smartphone and upgrade to some other model whose value is more than $300 (your remaining balance on the previous purchase) or you can pay the remaining $300 to Flipkart and keep your device.

The seller, Divine India, appears to have bought the phone off of Flipkart at 70% value and resold it on amazon for full value pocketing the difference. The customer who purchased this phone is getting a prompt from Flipkart that says she needs to pay the remaining Rs 15000 ($202) or upgrade to a phone that is worth more than Rs 15000 ($202) before November 21st under their Smart Upgrade plan or her device will be locked. In a later tweet, the customer said that Amazon had contacted her, clarifying that it was a scam and are looking into the matter.

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Samsung released the Android 12-based One UI 4 beta update for the Galaxy S21 series smartphones and recently closed the program as the South Korean giant is now gearing up to launch a stable version.

Soon after closing the One UI 4 beta program for the Galaxy S21 series, the company opened it for its recently launched foldable smartphones. Now, it appears that the last year’s Galaxy S20 series phones are next in line to receive the new beta update.

A moderator of the Samsung Members forum has said that the company is preparing to soon open the Android 12-based One UI 4 beta program for the Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, and S20 Ultra smartphones. This development was first reported by Tizenhelp.

Further, it has also been revealed that the One UI 3.1 with firmware version ending EUI4 would be the last software update based on the Android 11 operating system from the company for these smartphones.

While Samsung has not yet shared any details related to this, it’s safe to assume that the recruitment for beta testers for the One UI 4 for the Galaxy S20 lineup could start by the end of this month. It could be limited to select markets, including South Korea, China, Germany, India, the US, and the UK.

Once the program opens and starts recruiting beta testers, all the eligible users can log into the Samsung Members application and then tap on the One UI 4 beta enrollment button from the Notices page. After enrolling, the update should be available to download within a few minutes.

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A couple of weeks back Samsung rolled out a Public beta of One UI 3.0 in South Korea. Now, the company is rolling out the new beta version of the UI to signed-up users of the Galaxy S20 series in China, and India.

A report from Sammobile shows a first beta version of One UI 3.0 with firmware G98x0ZCU2ZTJG. The firmware version is for the Galaxy S20 series devices that have signed up for beta in China. This includes the Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra. Also, a beta version with firmware version G98xFXXU5ZTJF is rolling out to Indian users as well. As promised, the beta is live in other countries like the United States, South Korea, United Kingdom, Poland,  and Germany.

Further, the report says that the firmware version for China is same as the US. It is obviously based on Android 11, packs in October 1, 2020, Android Security patch, and Knox 3.7. And, it reportedly fixes bugs identified in the earlier release.

Also, the update is expected to arrive soon for devices like Galaxy Note 20 series, and S20 FE across the regions. Samsung confirmed the OneUI 3.0 based on Android 11 back at the event on August 5. The beta program began after the initial developer build and is now covered to almost all the countries as promised earlier. The public version will reportedly roll out before 2020 ends.

Besides, OneUI 3.0 has quite an overhaul from the earlier version apart from carrying the Android 11 features. The changes include Accessibility, Contacts, Bixby routine, Digital wellbeing, revamp to Home, Lock screen. And AOD features, revamped screenshots, and more.

So if you are someone who has signed up for the beta, navigate to settings->software update->download and install to try the new UI via OTA update. If you haven’t registered, you can click on the One UI banner inside the Samsung Members App.

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Samsung unveiled its next-generation Galaxy S-series flagship smartphones — Samsung Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, and S20 Ultra in February this year. It’s been around two months since the smartphones went on sale.

Now, as per the reports, the new Galaxy S20 series isn’t performing well in terms of sales. They are said to be significantly less popular than its predecessors, at least in the United States as the sales are lagging behind the Galaxy S10 series and Galaxy S9 series at the same number of weeks after launch.

The report coming from M Science reveals that the sales of Galaxy S10 were roughly 400,000 and for Galaxy S9 it was around 500,000 weekly during the second week after the launch. It also adds that the sales consistently maintained 200,000 units weekly throughout the first ten weeks of sales.

On the other hand, the new Galaxy S20 lineup fails to even surpass the 200,000 weekly units sale mark during its best week. The sales have consistently remained below 100,000 mark since the fourth week of sales, although it reported a slight growth in sales last week.

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It is believed that this is because of two reasons — 5G and pricing. With buyers being forced to use 5G technology at a premium price even though there’s no proper 5G infrastructure available in the country. Another reason might be the stay-at-home order in most states because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the reports credits Samsung in boosting the sales of 5G smartphones in the United States. Since the launch of Galaxy S20 series, there’s a growth in sale of 5G-compatible devices and it now accounts of 20 percent of units sold.

It remains to be seen what Samsung does to boost up sales of the Galaxy S20 series. The company could see an uptick in this department as it gears up to launch Galaxy Note 20 series and with the launch of Apple iPhone 12 series later this year, depending on the pricing of both these series.

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(Via)

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Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is the top-end variant among the three models Samsung announced recently. One area where the S20 Ultra excels over the Galaxy S20 and S20 Plus is the camera configuration. The Galaxy S20 Ultra’s camera system includes a huge 108-megapixel sensor and a periscope telephoto lens that Samsung claims can be used at up to 100x zoom. But early reviews of the S20 Ultra have shown that the camera isn’t all that impressive.

Reviews from publications such as PC Mag and Input have highlighted that the autofocus system is unreliable, often taking a long time to lock onto a subject and sometimes failing to do so. The Verge also confirms having similar issues on the unit. The camera also exhibits aggressive image processing in certain situations, with a tendency to excessively smooth out skin.

Samsung has now released a response, saying it’s working on an update to improve the camera, though it doesn’t acknowledge any specific problem or confirm when the fixes will be available. In a statement to the Verge, Samsung stated; “The Galaxy S20 features a groundbreaking, advanced camera system. We are constantly working to optimize performance to deliver the best experience for consumers. As part of this ongoing effort, we are working on a future update to improve the camera experience.”

Apart from the Galaxy S20 Ultra, the Galaxy S20 and S20 Plus cameras have also received some knocks for being promoted as having a telephoto lens when in reality it didn’t.

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(source)

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