Looking back on seven days of news and headlines across the Android world, this week’s Android Circuit introduces the challenge of Galaxy S21 Ultra, OnePlus ’latest concept device, Huawei’s IPO goal , SnapDragon 888 benchmarks, and Samsung silent charger change.
Android Circuit is here to remind you of a few of the many things that have happened around Android last week (and you can find Apple ‘s weekly news here).
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Samsung Galaxy S21 replaces everything
Samsung is expected to launch the new Galaxy S21 family in mid-January, and while the line-up of handsets is consistent, plus, and ultra feels familiar, more attention will be paid to the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5g. Not only does it replace last year’s Ultra, but with the expected retirement of the Galaxy Note series, the S21 Ultra will have to replace the Note 20 as well. Abhijeet Mishra looks at the challenge:
“… with the Galaxy S21 Ultra, Samsung seems to be taking the good stuff from both the Galaxy S20 Ultra and the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. Depending on the leaks and rumors, the S21 Ultra features a 120Hz variable refresh rate that works at Quad HD resolution, laser autofocus, 5,000 mAh battery, and heck, even S Pen support.
“Oh, and it will also have two telephoto lenses with 3x and 10x optical zoom, instead of the 4x / 5x single telephoto lenses on the S20 / Note 20 Ultra.”
More at SamMobile.
A man with a protective mask walks past an advertisement for the Samsung Electronics Co. Galaxy … [+]
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OnePlus features an amazing concept tool
Following on from last year’s concept of a camera cover with an electrochromic cover (which could color the camera lens to match the back color of the handset), OnePlus has a basic device publish an idea that combines motion sensing radar with a full rear panel. able to change color. This does not use a screen, instead it uses a reactive film to create the effect. Not only that, but OnePlus has installed motion-sensing radar to allow a new user interface and use cases. Jon Porter reports:
“This concept phone can use this motion controller to do simple things like answer a phone call with a gesture, or offer a more advanced capability like feeling a user’s breath. combine this with the back color change to offer some interesting use cases .. For example, its back color could be changed to indicate an incoming call, and then you could accept or reject gestures, without touching the phone itself. ”
It remains to be seen whether this will be visible on a production machine; we are still waiting for the reactive camera cover from last year. More at The Verge.
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Huawei is finally reaching the IPO Goal
It’s been a good year for Xiaomi. It was aiming for an IPO value of $ 100 billion, but it only reached about half that when it was listed in 2018. Well, the mark was reached this week. Charles Zhu and Amanda Wang have the numbers:
“The company’s stock rallied as much as 9.1% on Wednesday to a new record in Hong Kong, leaving it as the 13th stock in the city’s Hang Seng Index index to bring market capitalization above $ 100 billion. is 7.6% higher on the day with a market value of HK $ 802 billion ($ 103 billion).
More at Bloomberg.
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Who gets the moto update?
Motorola has confirmed which of its handsets will get the update to Android 11. It is a hard list, with some weird exceptions, and in particular Motorola will not extend the update to hand tools more than two years old. James Rogerson reports:
“The thing is we don’t know yet how soon these phones will get Android 11, but it looks like you might be waiting a while, as in his blog post, Motorola says that The update is expected to “roll out to these Motorola smartphones starting in the coming months, pending support from partners. ”
“If we had to guess though we would assume that the newer, higher and more expensive handsets would get Android 11 first, meaning for example that the Motorola Edge and Motorola Edge Plus could be among the first to respond. “
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More at TechRadar and Motorola blog.
Qualcomm opens up the Snapdragon benchmark
Lying at the heart of most major 2021 Android flagships will be the SnapDragon 888 system on a chip. In previous years the media had access to reference design at key events to mark the chip. With the 2020 scenario, that is not possible. Instead Qualcomm has released its own benchmark data for the media. Andrei Frumusanu reports:
“… today’s benchmark score release helps confirm more of our first impressions of (and expectations for) Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 888 SoC.
“On the CPU side we are seeing good improvements, even with Qualcomm ‘s backup applications. And in the meantime the new Adreno GPU seems to be performing as well as Qualcomm promised – if not a little more So, as things stand, a puzzle will be the missing piece of power consumption, if it becomes competitive there, Qualcomm has a vision of getting the performance crown back. the mobile. “
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More at Anandtech.
And finally …
As Apple launched the iPhone 12 family without an AC charger in the box, the competition quickly revealed that the cost brick remained in their retail boxes. Now it looks like one company is going back on the social media posts. Ben Schoon notes the removal events:
“… the October 13 Facebook post from Samsung’s official account has been deleted. That role … assumes that Samsung phones will go with the “best camera, battery, performance, memory and 120Hz displays.” But, in addition to that, they also include the most basic charger. “
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More at 9to5Google.
Android Circuit circulates the news from the Android world every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any future coverage, and of course read the sister column in Apple Loop! Last week’s Android Circuit can be found here, and if any news and links you’d like to see appear in Android Circuit, get in touch!