Android 13 and the new foldable Huawei: weekly results

The last full week of 2021 hasn’t been very eventful. True, we have some interesting rumors and leaks. Some of them pointed to what the new Samsung Galaxy S22 will be, while others even showed some of the features of Android 13, which will only be released next year. But there were also real, for many even long-awaited novelties, which are unlikely to appear en masse outside of China, but are still of great interest. Naturally, I’m talking about the foldable Huawei P50 Pocket. All this and much more can be found in our traditional news feed. Let’s remember everything that happened.

What will be the Samsung Galaxy S22

When Samsung refused to use glass on the back wall in its phones (even flagship ones), many breathed a sigh of relief, they say, now it will not break if dropped. Others, on the contrary, were offended by the company’s decision. “How can this be? The smartphone costs 100,000 rubles, and its body is like that of the most budgetary Xiaomi, ”they were indignant. Indeed, glass is a premium material. It both feels and looks not at all like plastic, and not even like “plastic”, as Samsung called its material. Now, after a while, we seem to get the case that many have been waiting for. Or not?

The well-known author of the leaks showed that the texture of the back cover of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra does not look like glass or plastic, and can be a bio-based material . It will already be something new. Let such material not become premium in the usual sense of the word, but it can become it from a technological point of view, which is also quite interesting. At least this is something new.

The information comes from Ice Universe , known for its – often very accurate – predictions. This time he said that the source of information was “people familiar with this issue”. The exact material of the back panel seems unclear at the moment, but Ice Universe suspects it could be camouflage glass or even an entirely new material, possibly based on biomaterials.

This term probably means some kind of environmentally friendly or recyclable material. Realme appears to be following a similar path with its flagship Realme GT2 , which will use the industry’s first paper material with an environmental focus, so it is possible that both phones will have the same backs.

However, live images of the S22 Ultra were previously announced which, if true, show the phone with a matte finish not too different from the one found on the S21 Ultra. But Ice Universe’s tweet is about the texture or feel of the phone, not the look.

A comment under the same tweet further reveals that this new material will only be featured on the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the regular S22 and S22 + won’t ship with it. The question is what kind of material they will receive. There are two options: glass, from which we have already lost the habit, or plastic, which was last year. The latter option is more likely.

I have used both glass and plastic Samsung phones of various models. Initially, I was critical of the plastic case, but then softened my attitude towards it a little after using the Samsung Galaxy S21 for a month . Everything in this phone was so harmonious that this type of case almost did not cause me any rejection.

As for the flagship phone itself, there are rumors that it could be renamed the Galaxy S22 Note, which will be the timely successor to the Note 20 Ultra . It really would be logical, because last year it received support for the main feature of the Note series – the S Pen. If the idea gets continued this year, and the Note is never released, a merger of the lines looks very likely.

And given the fact that at the end of summer we are traditionally shown foldable phones, this decision is also logical. So you won’t have to produce extra lines, and stylus fans will be happy to receive a replacement Note , albeit with a new marking. The main thing is that the stylus should also be removed into the body.

As for the specifications, the Geekbench 5 list previously showed that the new product will be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor , which will work in conjunction with 8-12 GB of RAM. An Exynos option may also be under consideration for some markets.

What’s new in Android 13

Probably everyone knows that Android 12 is out now . Google released it back in early October, but until now there are not twenty models of smartphones, the owners of which will be able to declare that they have already received the update. This is because the search giant is relinquishing any authority over everything related to the distribution of the update. It is her responsibility to develop it and provide the source code to the manufacturers. It’s no wonder that with such a load, she has already almost completed work on Android 13 .

Colleagues from the XDA edition managed to get hold of an early build of Android 13 , codenamed Tiramisu , and install it on their devices to test it. Despite the fact that most likely we have an early alpha version in which a lot can still change, already now we can get a completely objective impression of what the upcoming update will be like.

From a design point of view , there are almost no changes in Android 13 , and most likely there will not be. Not every year to change the interface design. Let users at least get used to Material You, and then they will see. However, there is still something. For example, in Android 13, notifications have become one of the system permissions. That is, until the user gives the application access to notifications, it cannot even access the notification shade.

Additionally, Android 13 will allow users to customize the lock screen by choosing the clock and date display format. If desired, you can place an information block in the middle, side, bottom or top, and also prevent it from moving, as it happens now, if, for example, the user receives notifications.

Of the functional innovations – even if they do not look too large-scale yet – the following can be noted:

• The efficiency of the power saving mode has been improved . Now it reallocates resources more intelligently and suppresses the activity of the most heavyweight applications that spend the most energy.
• Now you can select the language for each application separately. If before the software mimicked the system, setting the language of the smartphone, then in Android 13 it will be possible to customize it individually.
• SplitView will become triple. In Android 13, users will be able to place windows of three applications at once on one screen at the same time, whereas before their number could not exceed two.

Yes, there really are not as many changes as we would like, but you need to keep in mind that this is only an early alpha. Of course, Google does not call it that, but since beta testing has not yet started, any tests that precede it can be called alpha testing. Despite this, the significance of some innovations is indeed at a fairly high level. And for the release, which will take place no earlier than October 2022, there will obviously be more new chips.

Firstly, it’s really cool that Google is concerned about user safety and has finally included notifications in the permission system. The fact is that earlier, if you installed malware and did not give it any privileges, it could send you commands through notifications, urging, for example, to follow certain links or download certain components from the Internet. This will not happen anymore.

Secondly, the power saving mode, which changed in Android 13 , while not new, is actually intended to increase the battery life of compatible smartphones. He will be more careful about running processes, blocking only those that consume a lot of energy and can provoke a premature discharge of the device. Previously, the mode could unload all software from the background and not frown.

Well, and thirdly, the choice of language is a really useful thing that Google for some reason did not think about before. Oddly enough, but there are some applications in which I personally would like to change the language. Sometimes this is done in order to confuse strangers who will gain access to your smartphone, and sometimes for educational purposes if you are learning a foreign language and do not want to interact with your native one while studying.

Foldable Huawei P50 Pocket

Huawei’s new smartphones are behaving strangely this year. Many models go unnoticed, others, on the contrary, stick out of all the cracks, and no matter how you try to walk past them, it’s impossible. So, even those in the industry often missed important news regarding the Huawei P50 – the flagship line that was expected in pre-sanction times almost more than the new iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S. But the news that appeared this week is simply not could have gone unnoticed, as she promised us a new foldable phone. The exit of each of them is still a novelty. And then the premiere took place. We have received a new foldable Huawei. True, he was weakly impressed.

On December 21, 2021, Huawei shared a new teaser for its upcoming foldable smartphone, the P50 Pocket . The poster with the new image looked intriguing. The device was shown on the side and even featured a new color option.

Initially, looking at the teaser, we could see the side profile of the P50 Pocket, which had a silver color. Even before that, it was reported that the P50 Pocket was spotted in the famous fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar, where Chinese actress Guan Xiaotong approved the version of the smartphone in gold. In other words, back then it was confirmed that the P50 Pocket would be available in at least silver and gold.

Huawei this week announced its new P50 series phones with the Pocket prefix. The company has focused on premium design and build quality. The device is available in white and gold colors, the first of which symbolizes a diamond, and the gold version is specially made by the famous designer from the world of haute couture Iris Van Herpen.

Both models have a round camera module and a round screen that can display notifications and other important information from various supported apps.

The device features a 6.9-inch OLED display with a 21: 9 aspect ratio , 442ppi pixel density, support for 1.07 billion colors and a wide color gamut with P3 coverage . The display even offers a 120Hz refresh rate with a 300Hz sensor sampling rate. A notable aspect of the entire design is the new hinge, which the engineers have worked on for several years and made it very compact.

Huawei has tried to change the way it treats the camera in a foldable phone as something secondary. The novelty has found its place a 40 megapixel True Chroma camera , a 13 megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens and a 32 megapixel Ultra Spectrum camera paired with a 10-channel multispectral sensor. While the primary and wide-angle lenses are not uncommon, the tertiary sensor is what adds some innovative effect.

Inside the Huawei P50 Pocket is a 4,000mAh battery that supports 40W SuperCharge fast charging. It is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor but only supports 4G. Other features include up to 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage , Wi-Fi 6, front and rear camera face recognition, and a side fingerprint scanner. The device weighs only 190 grams. Its thickness when unfolded is 7.2 mm, and when folded, it is 15.2 mm.

The P50 Pocket is available in three colors, namely Black, Diamond White and Premium Gold Edition. However, only the latter two will be available on the foreign market. Pricing starts at RMB 8,988 (approximately RUB 104,000 at the exchange rate) for the 8GB + 256 GB model and up to CNY 10,988 (approximately RUB 127,000 at the exchange rate) for the Premium Gold Edition, which offers a 12GB + 512GB storage configuration.

If you follow the history, you can very clearly notice that Huawei initially made a mistake with the foldable phone form factor. She unveiled it at MWC 2019 the day after the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold. I was lucky enough to be among literally a dozen journalists who were among the first in the world to try it in business. After that, I even used it for a couple of months, but later the company realized that folding the screen out was not a good option and did what it did in the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold. Now we are seeing a rethinking of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip . That is, the Korean company has proven that it has chosen exactly those promising formats that other manufacturers are now copying. So far, even Huawei will not continue with anything fundamentally new. And is it worth it?

What is known about the new OnePlus 10

When phone makers release their models at a certain time, it’s commonplace. Then at some point they postpone the date of the presentation, and everyone starts to wonder why this happened. There can be very, very many reasons, but, as a rule, they are connected with the desire to sell more or get some kind of image bonuses. There have been many rumors this year that OnePlus will release its anniversary flagship earlier. No one could name the exact reason, but a couple of days ago there was an official confirmation that the launch would be earlier, and we can only figure out why this is happening and what it promises to us, ordinary users and technology fans.

The OnePlus 10 and 10 Pro have been leaking widely over the past few months, which is usually a symbol that the launch is not just imminent, but very soon. While there were rumors that OnePlus was pushing its traditional spring release to January, there was no confirmation until this week. Now various sites have begun to unanimously publish information that OnePlus founder Pete Lau has confirmed the January launch on the Weibo social network .

Lau shared a message that only says, ” OnePlus 10 Pro, see you in January .” This is as straightforward as possible. With OnePlus launching in January, it is likely that the company wants to surpass Samsung as it historically launched its flagship S-series in February (and early January in 2021). The shift in the date of the announcement will allow you to get ahead of the Koreans if they go the traditional way, or simply hinder sales by eating a decent piece of the pie.

In general, Chinese companies have greatly improved and are actively sharing the legacy of barely living Huawei , and all means are good along the way. Especially considering that the new OnePlus flagship should really be very interesting. Such activity on the international market is especially important, since the domestic market has already settled down a little.

However, it was not in vain that I remembered about the Chinese market. In this seemingly one hundred percent scenario, some variables are possible. For example, previous rumors pointed to an exclusive launch of new products in China in January, while the rest of the world was supposed to receive the OnePlus 10 only in March or April. Given that Pete Lau shared his statement on China’s Weibo and not on Twitter or another international platform, it is possible that these are the rumors we should be targeting. The semiconductor crisis adds even more weight to this theory, from which all manufacturers suffer and simply cannot throw such batches of devices onto the market as before.

Thus, with a high degree of probability, OnePlus will be able to spoil Samsung’s life only in the Chinese market, which is important for Samsung, but not critical. Personally, I would be interested to see how OnePlus takes customers away from the Korean company by “hanging advertisements” of its phone next to the new Samsung product.

In the end, it remains to be seen whether the OnePlus 10 really has to be that good for Samsung to have to worry about it. So far, having collected the rumors bit by bit, we can say the following.

The most interesting change to OnePlus’ flagship lineup is probably the move to a Galaxy S21-style design. The renders show that the 10 Pro is equipped with a camera array that spans the edge of the phone, making it less pronounced. Further leaks suggest the 10 Pro will be powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and will sport a 6.7-inch 120Hz screen. All of this will be powered by a 5,000mAh battery.

Spoils the impression a bit that OnePlus has switched to Oppo’s ColorOS. The brand’s own platform was, if not more enjoyable, then at least quite interesting and attractive.

While these rumors already give us a pretty good idea of ​​what we can expect, only the January launch will really confirm those findings. Luckily, we don’t have to wait too long, at least compared to previous OnePlus launches . Even the fact that the novelty can reach other countries only in the middle of spring does not spoil the fact of the presentation. It’s a pity that OnePlus won’t be on sale in Russia as usual.