Android

Microsoft has showcased its Android 12L update for the Surface Duo and Surface Duo 2. Still only earmarked for a release 'later this year', the update takes a different approach to Android 12L than Samsung has with the one pre-installed on the Galaxy Z Fold4.

New display specifications have leaked online for the Pixel Fold, Google's long-awaited foldable smartphone. Reputedly, Google has settled on a 7.57-inch foldable panel with a 1,840 x 2,208-pixel resolution. Like the Pixel 7 series, Google will source its foldable display panels from Samsung Display.

Honor reportedly has a new smartphone in development that, by the sound of it, could make for a competitive Android flagship. It is said to have its putative Magic4 Ultimate Edition predecessor's 100 watt (W) top charging speed, yet may improve on those devices with an on-trend, high-refresh rate display and the highest-res main camera sensor available to it.

With 27 days left in the campaign, 77 backers, and US$13,872 pledged out of the US$19,574 goal, the UDU CONSOLE can be already considered beyond the "Kickstarter project looking for funding" stage. However, it might take a while for it to hit the market. If everything works as planned, shipments should start in April 2023.

The Pixel 7 Pro has finally started shipping and is already receiving praise for various improvements compared to the Pixel 6 Pro. According to DxOMark, the Pixel 7 Pro offers one of the most complete camera experiences for a smartphone, alongside the likes of the iPhone 14 Pro, Honor Magic4 Ultimate and the Huawei P50 Pro. The Pixel 7 Pro only falls short of the iPhone 14 Pro Max in display tests, too.

Based on a new leak, it appears that Lenovo is considering expanding its ThinkPad branding to smartphones. Revealed as the Lenovo ThinkPhone, the smartphone is rumoured to contain high-end hardware and could be the sibling of a Motorola Edge 40 series model.

DOOGEE launched its new GT variant of the S96 Android smartphone some time ago. Now, it has finally revealed that its release will start in earnest tomorrow (October 15, 2022) with some special discounts for its "limited" gold edition. The GT features an updated chipset and selfie camera in addition to the "extreme" durability ratings of the original S96 Pro.

The Redmi K60 series is now thought to launch as a pair of premium Android smartphones with up to 2K displays and extra-large batteries with potentially crucial charging feature updates. Its Pro variant might upgrade to what will be the flagship Qualcomm chipset at the time of its launch, whereas the vanilla model might be left with its immediate precursor.

Google has promised battery life improvements with the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro compared to the Pixel 6 series. However, a new report from XDA Developers claims that the Pixel 7 Pro’s display uses much more power than other flagship phones, resulting in elevated battery drain at increased brightness levels.

The Fossil Group has finally announced Wear OS 3 availability for its smartwatches. Not only has the company confirmed which smartwatches will receive the update, but also when. Separately, Fossil Group has previewed the Gen 6 Wellness Edition, its first smartwatch launched with Wear OS 3.

The new Honor X40 GT may indeed have the gaming chops for which it was hyped at its launch today (October 13, 2022), as it is powered by the still-powerful Snapdragon 888 SoC for 2021 flagship Android smartphones. It has been joined at this launch by the Play 6C, a new, even more affordable, 5G device that counts a decent display refresh rate and a large battery among its best attributes.

The OPPO Reno8 series of premium mid-range Android smartphones launched with a camera hump made to look almost suspiciously similar to that of the OnePlus 10 Pro. Now, according to a new leak, the upcoming Reno9 series will double down on this mimicry with a flash type also found in the Hasselblad-branded flagship.

Allegedly, someone has obtained an early Xiaomi 13 unit, months ahead of the device's introduction. If the image is legitimate, then Xiaomi has overhauled the camera array for the Xiaomi 13 series, albeit with a design that is reminiscent of the Mi 11 Ultra.

The comparatively compact 6.1-inch Sony Xperia 5 III has now dropped to US$699 at multiple retailers in the US, which is a quite significant 30% discount in relation to the Android smartphone's lofty list price, which is just shy of the US$1,000 mark.

Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22 Plus, and Galaxy S22 Ultra owners should soon expect to receive One UI 5.0. While Samsung has already confirmed some of the features in its upcoming OS update, the company has now revealed that public builds will be available later this month.

Honor is scheduled to unveil its new speed- (or possibly gaming-) geared GT version of its X40 mid-range Android smartphone tomorrow (October 13, 2022). Despite this, the OEM has disclosed what might be its best features in advance. They consist of the cooling solution the X40 GT will have in common with many high-end mobile devices, not to mention a nearly top-end refresh rate for its display.

Leaks pointing to a new potential flagship for iQOO's Neo line of often performance-oriented Android smartphones have finally been vindicated. The Vivo sub-brand has finally opened reservations for this new seventh-gen device, casually revealing the premium camera (or camera hump, at least) DNA it has inherited from its OEM's 2022 flagships.

Motorola brought the Moto G72 to Europe shortly after the smartphone's Indian release. Sitting between the Moto G62 and the Moto G82, the Moto G72 has a P-OLED display running at 120 Hz, a 108 MP camera and a MediaTek Helio G99 chipset, among other features.

China Telecom has validated rumors that it would debut a successor to its W22 5G of 2021. The carrier has yet to reveal its design, however; therefore, its status as a super-high-end re-brand for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 has yet to be confirmed outright. It may be unveiled as such in late October 2022.

The ZTE Axon 30 is an Android flagship smartphone with a powerful Snapdragon 870 SoC, up to 12GB of RAM and an FHD+ AMOLED display with a selfie camera hidden under it for a truly edge-to-edge screen. It also has a discount of nearly US$200 on its OEM's Amazon US store in a Fall 2022 Prime event that also includes a deal on ZTE's new Wi-Fi 6 router.

According to new leaks, Oppo is set to overhaul the camera design of its flagship camera series. While the Find X5 Pro has an unusual camera layout, the Find X6 Pro is rumoured to go the way of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, albeit with fewer camera sensors.

Google has now clarified rumours about the Tensor G2 utilising 4 nm nodes for improved power efficiency. Unfortunately, the chipset powering the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro is another 5 nm effort in another similarity that the pair with the Pixel 6 series.

It seems that Samsung has finalised the battery capacity of next year's Galaxy S23 Ultra. According to a new leak, Samsung has already certified the device's 5,000 mAh battery in India, one of many markets in which the Galaxy S23 Ultra is expected to be available from early next year.

Xiaomiui has revealed important information about the upcoming Poco F5. It will supposedly feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC and a 2K, 120 Hz AMOLED panel. Xiaomi is expected to launch the smartphone globally sometime in early 2023.

Digital Chat Station says that MediaTek's newly-launched Dimensity 1080 mobile AP will power one Redmi Note 12 device. The leaker adds that the MediaTek SoC performs on par with the Snapdragon 778G, at least in AnTuTu.

According to audio analysis tests, Nothing has equipped the Phone (1) with a set of weak speakers. Worse still, the device's microphones are subpar too, which helps rank the Nothing Phone (1) as one of the worse smartphones that DxOMark has reviewed in this regard.

As we move closer to the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S23, the hardware profile of the device is becoming ever clearer. Famed Chinese leaker Digital Chat Station has now revealed on Weibo that the Galaxy S23 battery would be bigger than the Galaxy S22 while remaining largely the same size.

Samsung's affordable 5G smartphone comes with several innovations in terms of SoC, camera, and charging technology. Most are positive improvements, but we also address the problems that remain.

MediaTek has unveiled its new Dimensity 1080 mobile AP for cheap 5G smartphones. The 6 nm SoC features two Cortex-A78 cores, six Cortex-A55 cores, a Mali G68 MPU GPU and can support a single 200 MP camera sensor. It will debut sometime in Q4 2022.

A new Geekbench listing has confirmed that the upcoming iQOO Neo 7 smartphone will pack a MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ SoC. Some of its other key specs include a 50 MP primary sensor and an 8 MP periscope telephoto lens.

Mobvoi has announced a limited-time 2022 "Prime Fall Sale" with discounts on the new TicWatch E3 and its top-end Pro 3 GPS sibling, as well as that smartwatch's iterative Pro 3 Ultra GPS upgrade. They are available at up to 45% off, although the affordable TicWatch GTH might have one of the best deals of the lot among the OEM's wearables.

Xiaomi had reportedly been in talks to sell its premium gaming smartphone brand, Black Shark, to Tencent since early 2022. However, the latest word is that the software giant has ultimately passed on buying the company. Black Shark is now apparently obliged to let as many as half of its employees go, and to abandon plans for a foray into virtual reality (VR) tech on top of that.

Xiaomi is said to have new top-end Android smartphones for its sub-brand Redmi in the works. They are now thought to consist of a vanilla "K60" and a "K60 Pro": two devices that may launch fast, albeit hardly ground-breaking, wired charging speeds, considering their OEM. However, they are also slated to be the inaugural Redmi K-series generation to ship with support for wireless charging.

According to new reports, Samsung is not making as many subtle changes to the Galaxy S23 Ultra as previous leaks suggested would be the case. Instead, a renowned leaker believes that the Galaxy S23 Ultra will look practically identical.

Google may have announced several new software features with the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, but they may not remain exclusive for long. Soon, some of these new features will be making their way to the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro via a Feature Drop and even to older Pixel smartphones.

Honor has confirmed that it will launch a new GT counterpart its recently-released X40 soon. The 2 versions of the Android smartphone have the same basic design, although the newer GT model has been re-styled so as to evince speed and power. It is tipped to launch with another mid-range Snapdragon 6-series processor, albeit with a possibly improved display refresh rate.

The Xiaomi 13 will be Xiaomi's next high-profile smartphones. More details of the premium devices have now been revealed ahead of its launch, with one notable takeaway being Xiaomi's plans to make the vanilla Xiaomi 13 bigger than its predecessor.

The OnePlus 7, 7 Pro, 7T and 7T Pro Android smartphones are ex-flagships that are only around 3 years old. However, they have not seen a new stable software upgrade for more than a year now. The OEM has now amended this situation with a fresh OTA - then again, it updates the devices to Android 12, not the newer 13 version.

Compared to last year's Pixel 6 lineup, the Google Pixel 7 family comes with a few solid improvements, one of them being the introduction of 10-bit HDR video support. Snapchat and TikTok will both support this on the Pixel 7, thus becoming the first Android apps to do so, with others expected to follow.

Amazfit's wearables started out as fitness trackers with a purely in-house software ecosystem. However, the latest versions of their Zepp OS is playing nicer with more and more third-party apps that the user might want to connect or sync to their health-focused smartwatch. Adidas Running is an example of these that has just become compatible with the new GTR 4 and GTS 4 flagships.

Samsung has released One UI 5 Beta 4 to the Galaxy S22 series. Available as a 1.5 GB download in the US, the latest One UI 5 beta build focuses on bug fixes while removing the multi-user feature that earlier One UI 5 Betas contained.

Google's new Pixel 7 Pro Android flagship smartphone has starred in a new video that demonstrates how to take the new device apart. The process has been shown not to have changed much compared to that for its 6-series predecessor. Then again, the YouTuber in question did not test for the resulting fingerprint reader bugs of yesteryear.

Oppo has expanded the A77 series to include the A77s, a 6.56-inch handset with a 90 Hz display and a 5,000 mAh battery. Also equipped with a Snapdragon 680 chipset, the Oppo A77s arrives with ColorOS 12.1 based on Android 12, among other features.