Taking a look back at seven days of news and headlines across the world of Android, this week’s Android Circuit includes BTS helping out Samsung, the impressive Galaxy Note 20 Plus, the OnePlus Z leaks, the Nokia 5.3 review, AMD going mobile, Google’s new third-party app change, and Honor honors Salvador Dali…
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).
BTS Ready To Help Samsung
The Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Buds are expected to be bundled together next month in South Korea with a special edition. That’s not unusual for a smartphone at this point in the cycle, but Samsung has lined up a powerful super-power to market the phone. Ben Schoon reports:
“…this new special edition Galaxy S20 variant comes in purple to line up with the super-popular K-pop band BTS.
"Apparently, this new phone will be released on July 9 — at least in South Korea — and will be available at least for the base model Galaxy S20. It’s unclear if the S20+ and S20 Ultra will also be offered. The phone itself is a shade of purple that’s very close to the “Mirror Purple” found on the Galaxy Z Flip. Outside of that change in color, though, this is pretty much just a normal Samsung Galaxy S20 that comes in some special edition BTS packaging.”
NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 21: Hope, SUGA, Jungkook, Jimin, RM, V and Jin of the K-pop band BTS are ... [+]
The Galaxy Note 20 Is Bigger Than You Expected
If you lay out the evidence, Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Note 20 looks to have been tuned to higher than expected specs. While the Note 20 Plus name has been around for some time, a new reference to the Note 20 Ultra, cross referenced to other details, offers a tantalizing deduction. Forbes’ Gordon Kelly turns Columbo:
"Spotted by the eagle-eyes at MySmartPrice, a ‘Galaxy Note 20 Ultra’ has just been certified by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG)… Bluetooth SIG typically gets devices early and that means marketing discrepancies with the final retail product can arise.
"…we now know Samsung designed this device as an Ultra but will price it as a Plus. And the leaked specifications bear this out with the phone beating the Galaxy S20 Ultra in almost every way.”
‘OnePlus Z’ Shows Up For Online Benchmarking
Following the launch of the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro, a number of commentators wondered where the oft-rumored ‘Lite’ version of the 8 Series was. Well, the OnePlus Z name has cropped up once more, this time on the online specs benchmarking site GeekBench. Alex Alderson reports:
"Originally thought to be called the OnePlus 8 Lite, initial rumours also claimed that the device would be the first smartphone to use the MediaTek Dimensity 1000. However, it emerged last month that this would no longer be the case, with OnePlus having switched to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 instead. This new Geekbench listing cements that, although we cannot guarantee that this device is a bona fide OnePlus Z.”
Nokia 5.3 Reviewed
The Android One powered Nokia 5.3 is the 2020 edition of the value handset from HMD Global. It’s starting to make an appearance online now through a number of reviews, including this one from Radoslav Minkov, starting with the camera:
"The Nokia 5.3 appears to have a great focus on portrait mode photography, with portrait shots taken on both its selfie shooter and back cameras often turning out quite impressive, with nice blurred backgrounds. Subjects generally look crisp and sharp, as long as there’s enough light available, preferably natural.
"In addition to Portrait mode, the Nokia 5.3's camera app includes a Night mode for low-light photography, which delivers generally decent results by processing the photo and boosting its brightness after it's taken. Night mode on the Nokia 5.3 is available on the main, and wide-angle cameras.”
Read the full review at PhoneArena.
Is AMD Going Mobile?
Most Android watchers are aware of Qualcomm’s SnapDragon system on chips. Samsung’s Exynos is also a well known name, with chips from MediaTek and Huawei also available. Now there is a suggestion that AMD is preparing to join the mobile movement with its Ryzen platform. Adrian Pototoaca reports:
"Specifically, the company could be preparing an SoC named "Ryzen C7" that features two Gaugin Pro cores based on ARM's recently announced Cortex X1 cores running at 3GHz paired with two cores based on the Cortex A78 running at 2.6 GHz, and four low-power cores based on the Cortex A55 running at 2 GHz.
"Perhaps more interesting is that the chip seems to pack the elusive RDNA-based smartphone graphics solution that AMD and Samsung partnered for in 2019. This solution has been shown to be significantly faster than the Adreno 650 found in top smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S20.”
Installing Third-Party Apps Is A Bit Harder
Google has increased the security around installing unknown apps. While permission can still be given by the user when one app -such as a browser - asks to install another app from outside the Google Play Store, the launching app will now be force-quit. Manuel Vonau reports:
"As disgruntled testers report on Google's issue tracker, the install dialog still pops up after you've granted the permission, but the app itself is gone — you'll see your launcher in the background. When you open the application in question again, you'll notice that it's fully reloaded, with the potential for lost input or other yet-to-be cached data, as it was killed by the system. That’s new — Android usually only force-quits apps when you revoke permissions in order to hinder them from breaking, not when you grant them."
MOUNTAIN VIEW, UNITED STATES - 2020/02/23: Google Android robot seen at Google campus. (Photo by ... [+]
And Finally…
While much of the world remains in lockdown, the team at Honor have been exploring the works of Salvador Dali, with access to the Dali Paris exhibition and streaming the exploration online, naturally using honour’s mobile devices:
"Teaming up with the museum’s communications manager Pascal Gauzes, the hour long session will be streamed live on [Honor’s Twitter Account] @honorglobal at 6pm BST on Friday 5 June. Kicking off with a behind the scenes sneak peek of the collection, broadcast via the Honor 9X Pro and featuring a range of Honor smart life devices, including the Honor MagicBook 14, Honor MagicWatch 2 and Honor MagicEarbuds, the lifestream will be an opportunity for Dalí fans and art and design enthusiasts to pose questions to Pascal and to discover more about the life and times of the fascinating surrealist artist."
You can watch again at Honor’s Facebook page.
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!
