Windows 10 Ease of Access: Tips to Make Windows Easier to See, Hear, and Use

Introduction & Ease of Access Tips, Part I 

Windows 10 offers many settings for people with certain disabilities or limitations. Known as Ease of Access features, these items are geared toward helping those with vision issues, hearing problems, trouble using a mouse, or difficulties using a keyboard. The goal is to make Windows more accessible and comfortable for people who physically can’t use all the Windows 10 features with ease.

The Ease of Access features have been part of Windows for years and are baked into Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.1, as well as Windows 10. The settings have been tweaked slightly over time, but the basic concept remains the same: You enable these features to help you better use, navigate, and access the key commands, components, and screens of Windows.

What Ease of Access features and other options will you find in Windows 10? Let’s go through them briefly and then cover each one in greater detail.

• The Narrator speaks text from the buttons and other elements on the screen for people who can’t see well.
• The Magnifier can zoom into parts of the screen to make them larger.
• The High Contrast feature can increase the contrast of the screen to make it easier to see.
• The Closed Captions option can display subtitles on the screen for supported videos in the Movies & TV app.
• The On-Screen Keyboard lets you use a mouse to type a key if you can’t use a physical keyboard.
• Sticky Keys allow you to press one key and have that key stay active until you press another key.
• Toggle Keys emit a tone when you press certain keys so you know you’re hitting the right ones.
• The Filter Keys feature ignores repeated strokes of the same key.
• Mouse Keys let you use the numeric keypad instead of a mouse to move around the screen.
• The Touch Feedback feature shows visual feedback when you touch the screen.
• And the Visual Notifications option displays notifications on the screen when a sound is played.

Beyond using these Ease of Access features, you can enable or tweak other options in Windows to make the OS more user-friendly. In the properties for your mouse or touch pad, you can change the color of the cursor, make it larger, and even give it a trail, all in an effort to better see where it’s been and where it’s going. You can bump up the size of the tiles in the Windows Start menu or Start screen. You can enable reading mode in Microsoft Edge so Web pages are formatted to make them easier to read. And Windows Speech Recognition lets you control your PC by voice rather than by keyboard or mouse.

With the exception of the Microsoft Edge browser's reading mode and a couple of other features, most of the options listed above exist in Windows 7 and 8.1 as well. But again, we’ll stick with Windows 10 as our base as we proceed. So, let’s go through each of the Ease of Access settings and other features in Windows 10, so you can better work with your PC or tablet if you have certain disabilities or limitations.

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The Basics

In Windows 10, you can tap into the Ease of Access features a few different ways. You can launch the Ease of Access Center through Control Panel. You can trigger the Ease of Access features via the Settings screen. And you can enable certain features at the sign in screen.

Let’s try the Control Panel option first, since that offers some distinct advantages. Open Control Panel and then click on the icon or link for Ease of Access Center...

The Ease of Access Center opens by automatically reading aloud the names of four features you can enable. You can turn off the narration by clicking off the check mark to “Always read this section aloud.” You can immediately enable any of the four features: Magnifier, Narrator, On-Screen Keyboard, and/or High Contrast.

You can also explore all of the Ease of Access features by category. For example, “Use the computer without a display” offers features for people who are blind or have difficulty seeing. The category for “Use a computer without a mouse or keyboard” offers options for people who physically cannot manipulate a mouse or keyboard. The “Make the keyboard easier to use” category is for individuals who can press keys on the keyboard, but with difficulty. And the category for “Use text or visual alternatives” offers tools for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

If you have trouble seeing the screen at this point, then you may want to turn on the Narrator. To do so, click on the link for Narrator or press Alt+N. The Narrator starts reading aloud the text, links, and other items on the screen. By default, the Narrator reads whatever text your mouse cursor is on. To turn off Narrator, click on the Narrator Settings icon on the taskbar and click on the setting to Exit Narrator...

Perhaps the most useful aspect of the Ease of Access Center is the offer to help you if you’re not sure where to get started. Click on the link to “Get recommendations to make your computer easier to use”...

Windows then takes you through five screens to get a sense of your limitations to suggest which features may be of most value to you. Click on the check marks for the conditions that best match your situation...

After you’ve gone through the five screens, Windows recommends which Ease of Access features you may want to enable. You can review the recommendations and click on the check marks for whichever features you wish to use. After you do, click OK.

Windows returns you to the main page for the Ease of Access Center. If you wish, you can now go through each of the categories to see if there are other settings you want to enable. Or you can segue to the Ease of Access features in the Settings screen if you know which settings you want to turn on. Let’s try that so we can go through each feature in detail.

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The Ease of Access Center

Close the Ease of Access Center. Click on the Start button, then click on Settings, and then click on Ease of Access.

The Ease of Access screen for the Narrator opens first. At this screen, turn on the switch for the Narrator if you wish to hear your screen elements read aloud. Again, the Narrator reads any item beneath your mouse cursor. You can hear text read aloud on the screen by pointing your mouse to each word, one at a time. The process is slow, but it gets the job done.

The next setting, to “Start Narrator automatically,” turns on Narrator as soon as Windows launches...

In the Voice section, you can choose the voice you wish to hear for Narrator. You can also adjust the speed and pitch for the voice you’ve selected. And enabling the setting for Intonation Pauses tries to make the speech sound more natural...

Scroll down the rest of the page to review the other settings. In the “Sounds you hear” and “Cursor and keys” sections, you’ll most likely want to leave all of the settings turned on so you can hear Narrator read everything on your screen...

To learn more about Narrator and its behavior and commands, click on the Narrator Settings window (which is minimized to the taskbar when you turn on Narrator) and select one of the categories. You can also read the Microsoft Web page “Get started with Narrator.”

Next, click on the category for Magnifier to view all the options for this feature...

Turn on the switch for the Magnifier, and Windows zooms in on your screen so you can better see it.

Using the Magnifier control window, you can zoom in or out of the screen. You can change the view among Full screen (which zooms into the entire screen), Lens view (which zooms out but lets you zoom into the part of the screen to which your cursor points), and Docked view (which docks the magnified portion at the top of the screen). You can also click on the Options icon to access more settings for the Magnifier.

You can invert the colors of the Magnifier to display white text with a black background. You can choose to start the Magnifier automatically each time Windows launches. Under the section for Tracking, you can opt to have Magnifier follow the mouse cursor, follow the keyboard’s focus, or follow the text cursor...

Now, click on the category for High Contrast. Here you can choose a high-contrast theme to change the colors and contrast of your screen. The idea here is that a high-contrast screen is easier to see and read than your normal screen. Choose one of the themes and then click Apply...

Your screen then adopts the theme you selected, like so...

Next, click on the category for "Closed captions." In the Font section, you can change the options for caption colors, transparency, style, size, and effects. Your best bet here is to try different settings until you find the blend you like. In the section for Background and window, you can set the background color, background transparency, window color, and window transparency. Again, you can experiment with different settings to find the combination you prefer.

The closed captions take effect on any video you watch using the Windows Movies & TV app or another supported media application. The video you watch also has to support closed captions. If so, you’ll see a CC icon on the menu bar at the bottom of the screen. Click on that icon and then click on your preferred language to see the captions.

Next, click on the keyboard category. Enable the onscreen keyboard. You can press the keys with your mouse if you have trouble using a physical keyboard.

Enable Sticky Keys if you want to press a key and have it remain active until you press another key. After you enable this feature, a host of other options pop up. You can opt to turn on Sticky Keys when you press the Shift key five times. Within this function set, you can lock a modifier key (such as Fn or Alt) if you press it twice in a row. And you can display the Sticky Keys icon on the Windows taskbar for quick access when you need to activate it.

Enable Toggle Keys if you want Windows to play a tone when you press certain keys, so you know you’re pressing the correct ones. You can then opt to turn on Toggle Keys by pressing down the Num Lock key for five seconds. These controls look like this...

You might also enable the Filter Keys functions, if you want Windows to ignore repeated keystrokes of the same key. You can choose to turn on Filter Keys if the right Shift key is pressed for eight seconds. You can opt to hear a beep when keys are pressed. And you can elect to display the Filter Keys icon on the taskbar.

Scroll down to the section on Other Settings. Here, you can choose to have all shortcuts underlined so they’re easier to see...

Click on the category for Mouse. Here, you can change the size and color of the mouse pointer to make it more visible. You can also opt to use the number pad instead of the mouse to move around the screen, if that is easier for you...

Next, click on the category for "Other options." You can turn off animations and the Windows background if they’re too distracting. You can also choose to show notifications for a certain number of seconds, increase the thickness of the cursor, and see a visual notification if a sound is triggered.

There’s one more way you can enable a few of your Ease of Access features, and that’s at the Windows sign-in screen. At this screen, click on the Ease of Access icon. From there, you can enable Narrator, Magnifier, the On-Screen Keyboard, High Contrast mode, Sticky Keys, and Filter Keys.

Okay, that covers the Ease of Access features that will hopefully help those of you with certain disabilities or limitations. You might call those the "official" ones.

But there are additional steps you can take to make Windows 10 feel more comfortable. Some overlap with the Ease of Access options, or even take them further.

One key option is to make your mouse pointer even more prominent. To do this, open Control Panel and click on the icon for Mouse...

In the Mouse Properties window, click on the tab for Pointers. Click on the dropdown box for Scheme. You can choose from a variety of schemes to make your mouse pointer stand out better...

Click on the tab for Pointer Options. Three options here may be helpful. “Snap To” snaps the pointer to the nearest button in a dialog box so you don’t have to move it yourself. “Display pointer trails” flashes a trail to track the position of your pointer. And “Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key” helps reveal the mouse pointer when you have trouble finding it. Click OK when done...

Once upon a time in Windows 10, you could increase the size of text on the screen without enlarging anything else. It involved opening Control Panel, double-clicking on the Display icon, and increasing the font size for individual screen elements under the section “Change only the text size." 

Sadly, this option—and the entire Display menu in Control Panel—has vanished with the Windows 10 Creator Update. Now, you can only increase the scale of everything at once. To do this, right-click on an empty part of your desktop. Click "Display settings" on the menu that pops up...

From here, you can enlarge everything in your display by a preset factor with the "Scale and layout" dropdown menu (under "Change the size of text, apps, and other items")...

...or you can input a custom scaling factor...

Warning: Save your work before applying custom scaling! Applying it will close your open apps and take you to the Windows lock screen.

Next, you can adjust the size of the tiles on your Start menu or Start screen. To do this, open your Start menu or Start screen and right-click on a small tile. From the popup menu, move to the Resize command and then click on Large...

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An Edge Viewability Tip, and...Speech Recognition?

Do you use Microsoft Edge? If so, you can make certain Web pages easier to read.

Browse to a Web page. (Typically, a page that contains a news article or other story works best.) If Reading view is available, the Reading view icon will be enabled (in black, not gray) on the toolbar. Click on that icon (it looks like a book)...

The page is reformatted in a style that makes it easier to read...

And last but certainly not least: Would you like to talk to your PC to control it, rather than type or use the mouse? You can do that via Windows Speech Recognition. Here's how to give it a try.

Open Control Panel and click on the icon for Speech Recognition...

At the Speech Recognition screen, click on the link to “Start Speech Recognition,” then click Next...

Choose the type of microphone you’re using, such as a headset microphone, desktop microphone, or another type. Click Next, and then Next again...

Then read the sentence that appears in the window. Click next after you read the sentence. If the volume checks out, Windows should tell you that the microphone is set up...

Next, you can click on the option to "Enable document review," whereby Windows scans your documents indexed by Windows Search to see what type of words you use on a regular basis. Click Next...

At the following screen, choose manual or voice activation for Speech Recognition, then click Next...

On the following screen, you can click on the View Reference Sheet button to see a Web page with the commands you can speak through Speech Recognition. Click Next...

On this screen, decide if you want Speech Recognition to load automatically each time Windows launches...

At the next screen, you can choose to take a tutorial to practice speaking the commands for Speech Recognition. This helps Windows learn the tone, style, and pattern of your voice, so it’s a good idea to run the tutorial. Do that by clicking "Start Tutorial"...

After you’ve completed the tutorial, you can now start talking to Windows. You’ll see a small toolbar at the top of the screen with buttons to turn the speech recognition on and off...

With the feature turned on, you can now start issuing commands and dictating text.

Oh, and remember that in Windows 10, you also have Cortana, which can listen to and act on your commands as well. To enable Cortana to respond to the sound of your voice, click in the Cortana search field and click on the Settings icon. At the Cortana settings pane, turn on the option to “Let Cortana respond to ‘Hey Cortana.’” You can now say “Hey Cortana” to get the voice assistant’s attention and speak your command, question, or request.

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The Best Computer Tips and Tricks: Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows Vista and XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 Windows 10

The Best Computer Tips and Tricks: Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows Vista and XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 Windows 10 

Windows Key+E

The best part about shortcut keys is letting your keyboard do half the work. This is a perfect example: This shortcut allows you to open Windows Explorer with one quick keystroke.

Windows Key+M

This is the shortcut to keep in mind when you are at work doing anything but working—it allows you to minimize all of your open windows, leaving just the desktop left exposed. To restore the windows, hit Windows key+Shift+M. Another quick way to do this is Windows key+D, which shows your desktop; to restore, just repeat the same keystroke. This is a handy shortcut to have around the next time your boss is wandering through the office.

Alt+Tab

This allows you to easily scroll through all the windows you have open. If you're working in Word and referring to something in Explorer, for example, you can toggle back and forth between the two programs. You can also use this to switch between windows in the same program, making multitasking a breeze. Very similar is Windows key+Tab: In XP, it lets you scroll the items on the taskbar, and in Vista, it starts Flip 3D for a fun graphical spin on the same idea.

Alt+F4

This shortcut is a quick way to close a window in any program. Alt+Spacebar+C (which requires less stretching, but more keys) and Ctrl+W do the same thing. Any of the ways will allow you to close a window without using your mouse to hit the X in the upper-right corner.

Ctrl+Arrow Keys

In Microsoft Word, the left and right arrows allow you to move the cursor to the beginning of the previous word or the next word; the up and down arrows will do the same with paragraphs. This is very helpful when editing a document or scanning for any reason.

Shift+Delete

If you want to delete a file—and you don't want to deal with it later in the Recycle Bin—this is the way to go. Just be absolutely sure that this is a file you won't want back!

Hold Shift While Inserting a CD

Have you ever wanted to insert a CD and not use it right away? This shortcut allows you to bypass Autorun when inserting a CD so you can control exactly when you will use a CD you've inserted.

Ctrl+Drag

There are many ways to copy a file, but this just might be the easiest. All you have to do is click on the file, hold, and drag it into its desired location. This works the same as another handy shortcut, Ctrl+C.

Windows Key+U+U

Quickly shut down Windows by hitting the Windows key (don't hold it down), hitting U to reach the shutdown menu, and then hitting U again to shut down.

Windows Key+Pause

Need a quick way to get to the Systems Properties menu without too much thought? Just press these two keys and you'll be brought right to it.

Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Y

Undo an action by hitting Ctrl+Z; if you change your mind, Ctrl+Y will redo the undo.

Shift + Arrow Keys

Holding shift and pressing one of the arrow keys will highlight text in Word (or a group of Excel cells) without the mouse, selecting in the direction the arrow points.

Ctrl+U, Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I

This one's for Office newbies. It's a snap to underline, bold, and italicize without the mouse if you press Ctrl+U (underlining), Ctrl+B (bolding), or Ctrl+I (italicizing).

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How to activate windows 10 without product key 2018

Activate Windows 10 

There are many ways to activate Windows 10 without using the product key. In our previous articles, we have seen the different reports on how to enable Windows 10 free. Moreover, in this article, we will discuss in detail How to activate windows 10 without product key. Before moving on, let’s take a look at few questions. First, What is the Importance of enabling Windows 10? Is it necessary to Activate Windows 10 using Product key?

See More: How to Activate Windows 10 Pro Product Key 2018

Windows 10 product key is necessary for many steps. For example, when you clean install Windows 10, you have to insert or put the original Windows 10 product key for your operating system.

On the other hand, many Windows 10 users do not insert original keys, and they just use in a flow. Moreover, activation of Windows 10 is therefore necessary for getting all the new features of Windows 10 2018.

Note: In this article, we have two methods for you How to activate windows 10 without product key. First is to give the product keys and activate it and second is to activate without putting a Windows 10 product key.

What is the Importance of activating Windows 10 in 2018? (Windows 10 without product key)

Let’s see what the importance of activating Windows 10 in detail. That is, How to activate windows 10 without product key for How to activate Windows 10 without product key is:

• If you need to get more highlights of a working framework How to activate windows 10 without product key.
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• Every one of your Windows 10 drivers will work efficiently, and you will not get any other issue.

How to activate windows 10 without product key 2018

First, you don’t need to buy Windows 10 from Official site of Windows 10. Also, This is a right way that you can activate Windows 10(how to activate windows 10 with kmspico).

• Go to My Computer/ This PC.
• Right-click on This PC.
• Check Properties.

The next step is to put the original free Windows 10 keys without any problem for activate Windows 10 without product key 2018.

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Take a stab at utilizing this key and actuate your Windows 10 Home Product key.Suppose this key doesn’t work there are different keys given underneath which can enable you to out. Also, The Windows 10 Home Product key given above is called Magic Product Key. How to activate windows 10 without product key, Individuals utilize this key dependably get fulfilled using it.

Secret Way to activate windows 10 without product key

When you Install Windows 7, and it was activated, then you don’t need to activate Windows 10. The trick is to upgrade your Windows 10 from Windows 7 or Windows 8.

How to Upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8

Whenever you have activation of Windows 7 or Windows 8 and that your Windows 10 is fully activate then don’t need to buy Windows 10.

Yeah, it is true, and this trick ‘How to activate windows 10 without product key’ works best. Although I have shared my trick on How to activate Windows 10 without product key.

Another way to activate windows 10 without product key

• Go to Settings in Windows 10 or go to Cortana and type settings.
• OPEN the Settings >Click on Update & Security.
• On the right-side of Window, Click on Activation.
• Click on Go to Store and buy from the Windows 10 Store.

Final Word on How to activate windows 10 without product key

In the above article, we have discussed in detail that how to activate windows 10 without key using cmd. Also, windows kms essential activator there is a way, but best is to insert the key.

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OnePlus 6 previewed: iPhone X-like notch, dual camera and more

Oppo’s flagship R15 smartphone has leaked with an ‘iPhone X-like’ design, which is expected to inpsire the OnePlus 6.


As many of you already know, OnePlus has a parent company BBK Electronics, a major Chinese manufacturer which also makes Oppo, Vivo smartphones. These phones are exclusive to China and India, only one OnePlus has managed to make their presence globally. However, all these companies share similar design language.

Last year, Oppo launched their flagship R11 smartphone. The design of this smartphone was later found to inspire the OnePlus 5. Following that, the Oppo R11s was also found to inspire OnePlus’ current flagship – the OnePlus 5T. And now, leaks about Oppo’s flagship R15 have surfaced on the web. So, are we looking at the yet-to-be-announced OnePlus 6?

The leaks suggest a design shows a design strikingly similar to iPhone X. The phone boasts bezel-less display along with the ‘notch’, which seems to hold a selfie camera sensor and an earpiece grill. The bezels are pretty narrower, similar to the iPhone X.


However, the rear suggests that the company will stick to its old design language, especially with the horizontally stacked dual-camera setup. Unlike the iPhone X ditching the fingerprint reader, this phone is shown sporting a fingerprint scanner at the back, which means the Oppo R15 won’t be featuring an in-screen fingerprint scanner.

Therefore, will the OnePlus 6 sport similar aesthetics? The past has shown that the R-series of Oppo smartphones have inspired the OnePlus flagships massively. The only possible difference that we speculate OnePlus will put in their flagship is the addition of a Snapdragon 845 chipset with 8GB or 10GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage. What do you think about it? Will the R15 spawn the highly-anticipated OnePlus 6?

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Samsung Galaxy S9 Samsung’s 9 best features

Samsung on Sunday finally announced its hotly anticipated flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+. We’ve already told you everything you need to know about the new Galaxy S9 duo, and we gave you your first hands-on look at Samsung’s hot new phones. We also went over pricing direct from Samsung and through every major carrier in the United States, and we took a deep dive into Samsung’s Galaxy S9 specs. Of course, it was Sunday so there’s a very good chance you were busy living life instead of gluing your eyes to your smartphone or computer screen to check out all the action as it unfolded.

We can’t fault you there, but we will tell you that Samsung’s new Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are very impressive new phones that you definitely need to check out. Remember how they seemed boring in leaks because they looked exactly like last year’s Galaxy S8 and S8+? Well forget all that. The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are new smartphones inside and out, with powerful new internal components and an incredible new camera wrapped in a sleek housing with smaller bezels, thicker glass, sturdier 7000 series aluminum, and a slightly more compact form factor overall.

Of course, we explained all that in our in-depth hands-on preview of Samsung’s Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+. We highly recommend going back to that article and checking it out. But if you prefer your Galaxy S9 news in bite-sized doses, we’ve got just the thing for you. Below, you’ll find the top-9 features of Samsung’s new Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+.

Camera

There are so many things to be impressed with on Samsung’s new flagship smartphone duo, but there’s absolutely no question that the new camera is the star of the show.

Samsung first introduced the Dual Pixel camera on the Galaxy S7 in 2016, and it was so good that it remained largely unchanged on the Galaxy Note 7, Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+, and Galaxy Note 8. In 2018, however, the company decided it was time for an upgrade… and what an upgrade it is.

The new “Super Speed Dual Pixel” camera, as Samsung calls it, is by far the most impressive camera the world has ever seen on a smartphone. We’ve only spent a few hours with it at this point, but we’re already comfortable making that bold statement. It’s better than Google’s camera on the Pixel 2, and it’s better than Apple’s camera on the iPhone X. It’s the best. Full stop.

Samsung introduced a number of enhancements on the Super Speed Dual Pixel camera. It’s the first smartphone camera to include dual apertures, with one f/2.4 aperture for wonderfully crisp pictures of well-lit scenes, and a second f/1.5 aperture for shockingly clear low-light photos. The new camera also has an embedded DRAM chip to process data right on the sensor rather than having to send it to the phone’s main RAM. The result is photos with far less noise than anything we’ve seen on a smartphone.

There are plenty of other camera features we’ll go over in our main review, but there’s one in particular we want to discuss here in this post…

Super Slow-mo

Samsung’s Super Slow-mo feature on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ is mind-blowing. The camera captures video in 720p HD resolution at a mind-blowing 960 fps. And because the quality of Samsung’s new Super Speed Dual Pixel camera is so good, the clarity of well-lit Super Slow-mo videos is flat-out nuts.

There’s also a great secondary feature of Samsung’s Super Slow-mo mode called Motion Detection. This way, you can begin recording normal-speed video at any time. Once motion is detected inside a specific area in the frame, the camera automatically switches to Super Slow-mo to ensure you don’t miss a moment of the action.

AR Emoji

AR Emoji is also a feature of Samsung’s new camera, and it’s the South Korean company’s take on Apple’s Animoji feature that was introduced on the iPhone X.

There are a few different components of AR Emoji, and the first is basically a carbon copy of Animoji. You can select a character from the Galaxy S9’s stable, and it’ll mimic your expressions, head gestures, and mouth movements as you speak. There’s another layer to it though, and it’s kind of nifty but also kind of hilarious.

Remember when Siri-enabled “iTV” rumors first popped up and Samsung rushed out new TVs with a voice assistant built-in so it could beat Apple to the punch? Well last year it was rumored that the iPhone X would have a feature that would let someone scan his or her face to create a 3D avatar that could then be animated in a wide range of scenes. That feature never materialized on the iPhone X, but wouldn’t you know it… Samsung included it on the Galaxy S9.

Bixby Live Translation

Bixby’s live translation feature is awesome, but it’s not really anything new. In a nutshell, you can point your camera at a sign or any printed text in one language, and the Galaxy S9 will translate it in real-time and overlay the translated text on whatever you’re looking at.

This is something that has been around for years, and there are plenty of apps out there that can do it. But what makes live translation extra awesome on the Galaxy S9 is the fact that it’s built right into the main camera app so you don’t have to go hunting around for it when the need arises.

Iris Unlock

Samsung’s new Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ don’t have sophisticated 3D face scanners like the iPhone X. As a result, the Galaxy S9’s facial recognition feature still isn’t secure enough to use for things like mobile payments. That’s why Samsung has two other biometric authentication features on the Galaxy S9 that are far more secure.

The first is a fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone. This, of course, is nothing new. The second is built-in iris scanning technology though, which could be the most secure biometric authentication method currently available on a smartphone. According to Samsung, there’s only a 1 in 10 million chance of someone other than the user unlocking the phone with an iris scan. If accurate, Samsung’s iris scanning tech is 10 times more secure than Apple’s Face ID.

New DeX Pad support

For people who used it, the Desktop Experience on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 was easily one of the coolest and most useful features of the phones. On the Galaxy S9 and S9+, it’s even better. We’ll dive into it in our upcoming full review, but the new DeX Pad accessory is at the heart of Samsung’s upgraded experience. Instead of being a dock that props up your phone, it’s a pad that lets your phone lie flat so you can use it as a touchpad or even a virtual keyboard while in desktop mode.

Design and build changes

This is area we dove into in our hands-on Galaxy S9 preview, and we’ll dive even deeper into it in our full review. The Galaxy S9 and S9+ appeared to be identical to their predecessors in leaks, but the phones are actually quite different. The overall design is similar, of course, but the bezels above and below the phones’ displays are smaller. The result is an even better screen-to-body ratio that climbs up above 90%.

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are also made of new 7000 series aluminum, which makes the construction more sturdy overall. The glass is 20% thicker to help prevent breaks, and the phones are heavier than the models they replace. Finally, in terms of dimensions, the Galaxy S9 and S9+ are shorter and narrower than the S8 and S8+, but also slightly thicker.

Brighter display

Samsung is the king of smartphone displays. We all know this. And with the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, it somehow improved upon perfection. The company’s Super AMOLED screens on the Galaxy S8/S8+ and Galaxy Note 8 were already so crisp and clear that it’s impossible to tell with the naked eye if there’s any difference on the new S9 and S9+. What you can tell, however, is that the screens are noticeably brighter than their predecessors, which is quite a feat.

Performance and power

Last but most certainly not least, there is also a noticeable difference between the S9 series and S8 series when it comes to power. Improved internal components headlined by the Snapdragon 845 chipset provide way more oomph as well as more efficient power consumption. According to one report, the larger Galaxy S9+ can deliver a day and a half of usage on a single charge, which would be quite an accomplishment.

We’ll dive deeper into performance in our full review, but suffice it to say you won’t find a more powerful Android phone anywhere right now.

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How to Backup Android contacts without Any Application

First of all, before updating your android device it is vital for you to create a backup of  your contacts so that the probability of losing your contacts becomes zero. Although, in most cases it is not necessary but if luck is not on your side then you might end up losing all your information like messages and contacts. Android users have something to
cheer about though as Google has allowed its Android users to link their accounts with Gmail. This enables the contacts syncing with your gmail account. Thus it is understood that if your phone is linked to your gmail account than your contacts are safe. In order to check this, one is required to visit his/her gmail account. Then, click on the Google logo on the top left side and select contacts from the drop down box that appears. If you see your contacts, then your contacts are backed up by
Google. However, if the list does not appear then there is something wrong and you are to take additional steps to ensure that your contacts are backed up. One can backup his/her contacts by opening settings from the apps menu and then open back-up and reset. All you need to ensure is that the backup my data option is ticked. If it is, then your phone will backup the contactsfor you. If it is not checked, then check it immediately. Backing up contacts ensures that if your phone is lost or any other situation that may result in getting a new phone, then relax, your contacts are safe and sound.
There are also certain apps available for Android users that enables them to backup their contacts. One such app is called Super Backup. It is easily the quickest app for backing up for Android users. This app enables users to backup their contacts and messages so that you never lose your data
again. By default, the backed up data is stored in internal memory. However, if you are going
to factory reset your phone then it is strongly recommended that you select memory card as
your default backup folder. Some of the features of Super Backup include: Creating a
backup of apps on your memory card and also restore it; backup and restore messages,
contacts and call logs; backup sms conversations; delete backup data and many
more features. Here is yet another way to backup Android contacts.

1. First of all, open up your contact list.
2. Touch the menu button, and a from the
menu that appears select the import/export
tab.
3. Then, you will see a list of options for
import and export:
4. Thereafter, select a suitable option
according to your needs and you will backup
your contacts:
The last step involves importing the contacts
to your phone.

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