News

Spotify Premium Users Can Stream Lossless Music At Last

The feature supports up to 24-bit FLAC quality and is rolling out in over 50 countries. However, Middle East users may have to wait until October.

Published

10 months ago

September 11, 2025

Nour Nasir

Spotify

Spotify has switched on lossless music streaming after years of delays, bringing premium users up to 24-bit/44.1kHz FLAC quality across most of its 100-million-track library. First teased in 2021 as a “HiFi” tier, the feature is now rolling out in more than 50 countries — but unfortunately, the Middle East isn’t on the initial list.

Lossless audio delivers uncompressed sound, retaining full quality for playback on capable headphones and speakers. Premium subscribers in the US, UK, Germany, Japan, Australia and Sweden are among the first to get access. Users will see a notification when the option lands on their account, and it must be enabled manually under Settings > Media Quality > Lossless for both streaming and downloads.

The company has confirmed that regular Bluetooth can’t carry lossless audio, so playback requires Spotify Connect over Wi-Fi with compatible gear from brands like Bose, Yamaha and Bluesound. This keeps fidelity intact without relying on Bluetooth compression.

Also Read: Best Music Streaming Services In The Middle East

Spotify is late to a race rivals started years ago — Apple Music added lossless in 2021, while Amazon bundled its HD tier at no extra cost in 2020. For Middle Eastern subscribers, the wait continues: Spotify says October will bring clarity on whether the feature rolls out in the region.

News

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 9 And Ultra 2 Specs Leak Ahead Of Unpacked

An 800mAh Ultra 2 battery and a switch from Exynos to Qualcomm silicon headline the expected changes for Samsung’s next smartwatches.

Published

5 days ago

July 15, 2026

Nour Nasir

samsung's galaxy watch 9 and ultra 2 specs leak ahead of unpacked

Samsung’s next smartwatches have little left to hide. A new leak reported by Android Authority has surfaced most of the remaining details about the Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, just over a week before the company’s Galaxy Unpacked event on July 22.

The biggest change is an invisible one: Samsung is expected to drop its own Exynos W1000 chip in favor of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite SW6100, a chipset unveiled only this year, according to the outlet.

Battery capacity looks like the other notable upgrade. Citing a report from Winfuture, Android Authority says the Watch Ultra 2 could reach 800mAh, well beyond the 590mAh cell in the current Watch Ultra. The 44mm Watch 9 reportedly gets a 445mAh cell — the same capacity as last year’s Watch 8 Classic — while the 40mm model stays at 325mAh.

The 40mm Watch 9 will reportedly feature a 438 x 438-pixel panel, with the 44mm Watch 9 and the Watch Ultra 2 sharing a larger 480 x 480-pixel screen. Samsung leaker Ice Universe has separately claimed the Ultra 2’s display could reach a peak brightness of 5,000 nits. RAM and storage vary by model, topping out at 2GB and 64GB.

Also Read: Tamper With The Recording LED & Meta’s Glasses Kill Camera

The Ultra 2 keeps its titanium case and 100-meter water resistance; the standard Watch 9 remains aluminum, rated to 5 ATM. All models are said to include Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, and dual-band WiFi, with the usual LTE variants, and ship with One UI 9 Watch running on Wear OS 7.

A separate leak puts the Galaxy Watch 9 at €409 (about $468) for the 40mm Bluetooth model, rising to €489 (about $560) for the 44mm LTE version, with the Watch Ultra 2 LTE at €749 (about $857) — figures Android Authority said were partially corroborated by Winfuture. Confirmation arrives on stage on July 22.