Taking a look back at seven days of news and headlines across the world of Android, this week’s Android Circuit includes Samsung’s bid for the innovation crown, Google confirming Pixel 7 Pro details, Honor 70’s award-winning IFA presence, Nokia G60 reviews, Poco’s two new handsets, Asus preparing the ROG 6D, and Qualcomm’s latest chipset.
Android Circuit is here to remind you of a few of the many things that have happened around Android in the last week (and you can find the weekly Apple news digest here).
Move Over iPhone, Let The Galaxy Through
Has Samsung taken over the mantle of ‘One More Thing’ to drive the evolution of the smartphone market away from Apple? With the launch of the iPhone 14 this week, Apple’s iterative update leaves the iPhone feeling similar to the last few models. Adnan Farooqui argues that Samsung owns the innovation crown now:
“It has shown the world yet again that we can expand our perception of smartphones to adopt bold form factors that enable use cases never before possible on a smartphone. At least now when there’s a Galaxy Unpacked, Samsung fans are excited to witness all of the ways the company is making foldable smartphones more usable, durable, and mainstream.
“There’s still some level of excitement left for an Unpacked event, however, the same can’t be said for an Apple event. Even Apple fans know what to expect”
(SamMobile).
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 And Z Flip 4
Google Confirms Pixel 7 Pro Details
Google has published a number of new details on the upcoming Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, including both the launch date (it’s going to be October 6th)
“Alongside the colors, Google has also revealed the chipset these phones will use. We already knew that it would be the next generation of the Tensor chipset seen in the Pixel 6 line, but now we know the name – it’s the Google Tensor G2. Google promises this chipset will bring “even more helpful, personalized features to photos, videos, security, and speech recognition.””
(Tech Radar).
Honor Wins IFA Awards
Following an appearance on the IFA Keynote stage to present its new hardware and future plans, the mid-range Honor 70 smartphone has picked up a number of “Best Of…” awards from those covering the conference:
“Honor has won a total of 35 awards from global media this year, of which Honor 70 has won 21 awards in various categories. A great number of global leading tech media have rated Honor 70 as “Best of IFA”. Global top-tier tech media TechRadar says that Honor 70 is “One of the best Android phones of the year”. Forbes, a leading international business media also said that Honor 70 is “a strong all-rounder”.”
(Honor).
Nokia G60 5G Reviewed
Announced last week, HMD GLoba’s Nokia G60 5G handset is now on sale. Available through its new Circular subscription service, which offers better value over the long term as well as responsible recycling of the handset, Tom Morgan-Freelander reviews the new mid-range handset to find a solid smartphone:
“Given Nokia likes to keep its version of Android as simple as possible, it’s hardly a surprise that it runs rather smoothly. The phone wakes quickly from sleep, scrolls through homescreens with minimal fuss, and doesn’t leave you waiting around for the keyboard to appear when tapping on text boxes. There’s a half-second or so wait when swapping between the main and ultrawide cameras, and more demanding apps take a tad longer to open than they might on a more potent mid-range phone, but it’s perfectly serviceable as a daily driver.”
(Stuff).
Two New Poco Handsets With A Different Focus
Xiaomi has announced the next Poco branded smartphones. Priced between 189 and 229 euros, the two handsets offer a different focus; with the M5 focusing on a faster and more vibrant display, while the M5s leans into 4K video and imaging.
“Xiaomi has presented the POCO M5, a smartphone the company has introduced alongside the POCO M5s. Incidentally, the POCO M5 resembles the POCO M4 5G, which has only just arrived in Europe. As for the POCO M5, Xiaomi has equipped this with the MediaTek Helio G99, a 6 nm chipset with an octa-core CPU and an ARM Mali-G57 MC2 GPU. Additionally, Xiaomi complements the budget chipset with LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.2 flash storage.”
Republic Of Gamers Ultra Update
Asus is preparing to refresh the ROG 6 gaming smartphone line up ahead of the holidays, with the ROG 6D and the ROG 6D Ultra bringing faster screens, more cooping, and a larger battery:
“…the MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ chipset will power both phones – a fact already teased by Asus. The phones will also share a 6.78-inch AMOLED display, with an anticipated 165Hz refresh rate. Also on the hardware list – a Sony IMX 766 50MP main camera and a 6,000 mAh battery split into two cells with 65W charging support.”
And Finally…
Qualcomm has rolled out an update to the SnapDragon 6 Gen system on chip. Formerly the SnapDragon 6xx series (just as the new 8 Gen are rebadged 8xx chipsets), the sixth generation is targeted at mid- and low-er priced handsets. Qualcomm have also held back on some of the newer technologies, presumably to keep the prices down and help with sourcing components:
“Notably, however, Qualcomm’s 2023 mid-range/low-end parts aren’t making the jump to the Armv9 architecture. Unlike the 8 Gen 1 and 7 Gen 1, which incorporated Arm’s new Armv9 cores, Qualcomm’s cascading development strategy means that the 6 and 4 series will remain a bit farther behind the curve. For end users this should have little significance for the moment, but for smartphone vendors and software developers, it does mean Qualcomm won’t complete the Armv9 transition for at least another generation.”
(Anandtech).
Android Circuit rounds up the news from the Android world every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any coverage in the future, and of course read the sister column in Apple Loop! Last week’s Android Circuit can be found here, and if you have any news and links you’d like to see featured in Android Circuit, get in touch!
