All you need to know about every 5G phone confirmed so far (Updated January 28)

best 5G phones

5G is coming.”

We’ve heard it repeated by telecom giants and smartphone OEMs for years now. The fifth-generation network promises lightning fast download speeds, an IoT revolution, and rapid streaming with essentially zero latency, but what good is 5G without 5G phones?

Editor’s Pick

We’ve put together a list of all the major Android manufacturers that have either teased or confirmed phones with 5G support. We’ll compile all the rumors, speculation, and confirmed news here over the coming months and updating the post as more information emerges.

Who will win the race to the first true 5G phone? Let’s find out.

Google Pixel 5G phone

Google

In typical Google fashion, the search giant is letting others make the big promises, and testing moonshot ideas in the background like delivering high-speed mobile internet via drones.

In theory, the Google Pixel 4 could support 5G, although I wouldn’t hold your breath. Google has been more than happy to skip over the latest tech in the past. The Pixel 3 series missed out on an in-display fingerprint sensor and still packs a single camera lens and just 4GB of RAM.

Google has been more than happy to skip over the latest tech in the past.

If you’re holding out hope for a 5G phone from the Mountain View company, you might want to keep your eyes on Verizon. Google has traditionally partnered with Verizon as the exclusive carrier for the Pixel range, and Verizon is fully aboard the 5G hype train.

Google has already partnered with Verizon to offer “free” Chromecasts for its 5G Home service, which is currently only live in four U.S. cities.

Could a 5G-supported Pixel 4 also launch on Verizon in Q4 2019? The jury’s still out.

Nokia 5G phone

HMD Global (Nokia)

Nokia licensee HMD Global was one of the many OEMs listed by Qualcomm as working on devices set for launch “starting in 2019” which all pack the 5G-ready Snapdragon X50 5G modem.

That announcement came back in February and HMD’s logo also popped up on a list of collaborators for Qualcomm’s 5G ready Snapdragon 855 SoC at the silicon giant’s 5G-centric summit in December.

That doesn’t mean we’ll definitely see a 5G Nokia Android phone in 2019, just that the Finnish firm has plans for 5G at some point in the future — potentially far in the future.

Editor’s Pick

Back in May, HMD Global announced the opening of its “Future Lab” in Shenzhen, China, where it will funnel its investments into next-gen technologies such as 5G, as well as materials research, and AI and imaging.

According to a press release from the Future Lab launch: “HMD believes that as 5G technology matures, the mobile device and services experience will change considerably.”

Basically, a Nokia 5G phone is coming, but HMD’s (quite sensible) strategy is to wait and try to deliver a quality device rather than rushing to be first.

Huawei 5G phone

Huawei

There’s no OEM on this list with a larger stake in the success of 5G than Huawei. From the core network hardware to 5G chips, all the way up to the actual phones supporting the network, the Chinese giant is all-in on 5G’s entire infrastructure. As of April this year, Huawei has reportedly spent $600 million on 5G research since 2009.

Despite high-profile setbacks in the U.S., Huawei is pushing forward with 5G solutions in China, Europe, and beyond. However, all that won’t mean much if it doesn’t also have a phone to lead the charge.

Editor’s Pick

Huawei is incredibly keen on snatching the “first 5G phone” title. Initially, Huawei promised its 5G phone — which many suspected would be the Mate 30 series — would be ready for the second half of 2019, but recently that estimate moved to Q1 2019.

In fact, Huawei is now expected to unveil a foldable 5G phone at Mobile World Congress 2019. Note that I didn’t say prototype either, this is apparently the real deal.

“We look forward to seeing you in Barcelona in February, where we will launch the world’s first 5G smartphones with foldable screen (sic),” said Huawei CEO Richard Yu at a recent 5G-centric event in Beijing.

While that use of “smartphones” in the plural seem to be a translation error, the quote appears to confirm that at least one 5G-equipped foldable phone from Huawei will take the stage in Barcelona next month.

Whether we see this mystery foldable 5G phone at MWC or not, however, it seems foolish to bet against Huawei being the first OEM with a 5G phone ready for prime time.

Honor 5G phone

Honor

According to Honor CEO George Zhao, Hauwei’s sub-brand could actually be first when Honor launches the world’s first 5G phone next year.

That’s right, Huawei’s claim to the 5G throne could well be snatched by… Huawei. If Honor is first, Huawei will still count it as a win, of course — don’t forget Huawei’s dominance is due in no small part the Honor brand’s success.

Aside from Zhao’s claims, we know absolutely nothing about the phone itself. Could we perhaps see a Magic 2 variant with 5G support?

HTC 5G phone

HTC

The fallen Android king refuses to give up on its mobile business despite several years of catastrophic failure. Like so many other OEMs scrambling for market share, HTC is hoping 5G will shake up the industry. It’s one of the many Qualcomm partners testing the X50 5G modem.

There’s also a good chance HTC’s 5G phone will pair the X50 with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 processor. HTC was among the manufacturers named at Qualcomm’s 5G summit.

HTC’s vested interest in the success of 5G isn’t just based on its mobile business.

HTC also already has a partnership in place with China Mobile for 5G development in the region.

HTC’s vested interest in the success of 5G isn’t just based on its mobile business, however. 5G is also expected to usher in the next evolution of virtual reality and augmented reality technology, with 5G mobile broadband — and the Snapdragon 855’s XR capabilities — enabling VR and AR experiences at a reduced cost with next to no latency.

The Vive is still at the forefront of VR innovation, and the Taiwanese company no doubt hopes the substantial benefits of 5G will lead to mass adoption of VR and, by proxy, its Vive product family.

Maybe it’s finally time for that long-rumored Vive smartphone, only this time with 5G support?

Lenovo 5G phone

Lenovo

Motorola’s parent company is one more OEM promising to absolutely, 100 percent become the first company to deliver a commercial 5G phone. That’s according to Lenovo‘s vice president Chang Cheng, seemingly unaware, as with every other executive quoted in this article, that only one manufacturer won’t have been talking nonsense this entire time.

Don’t bet on Lenovo being first.

Like so many phones on this list, Lenovo’s first 5G offering will reportedly feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 SoC and X50 modem, but that’s all we know so far.

As for Cheng’s bluster, we’ve all been burned by Lenovo’s promises before, most recently with the bezel-less Z5 concept sketch posted by none other than Cheng himself.

TL;DR: Don’t bet on Lenovo being first.

LG 5G phone

LG

LG has promised to launch “the first 5G smartphone in America in early 2019” in partnership with U.S. carrier Sprint. The unnamed phone will be the first 5G phone to debut on Sprint’s own 5G network, which is expected to go live in nine U.S. cities in Q1 2019.

A Sprint executive recently let slip LG’s 5G phone will be “distinct” from the rest of the pack and “immediately recognizable” as a 5G device.

We’re not sure what that means exactly, but we do know it’ll launch at MWC 2019 and it won’t be the LG G8 ThinQ.

In an official teaser, LG revealed that its 5G phone will feature a Snapdragon 855 chipset, 4,000mAh battery, and a vapor chamber cooling system. The phone will break cover on Feb. 24 in Barcelona.

Motorola 5G phone Moto Z3

Motorola

If you ask Motorola, the race to the first 5G phone is already over thanks to the Verizon-exclusive Moto Z3 and the upcoming 5G Moto Mod.

The snap-on modular attachment is hardly a looker, but the award-winning Snapdragon X50 5G modem-powered mod has already been successfully tested on a commercial 3GPP 5G network.

There’s still no solid release date for the 5G mod, though there’s a good chance it’ll be front and center when Verizon’s 5G mobile network goes live early next year. There’s also no word on price, but Motorola did recently update the Z3 to enable support for the mod.

Editor’s Pick

Whether or not the Moto Z3 qualifies as the first 5G phone is up for debate too. It doesn’t natively support 5G, which may be a semantic dispute for some, but I’m guessing the other OEMs listed here won’t be so willing to accept Motorola’s claim to the 5G throne.

Aside from the Moto Z3, there’s also the next phone in the series, the Moto Z4. The unannounced phone, currently codenamed “Odin,” is expected to be powered by the Snapdragon 855 SoC and once again opt for 5G Moto Mod rather than native 5G support.

OnePlus 5G phone

OnePlus

OnePlus hasn’t been shy about its plans to launch a 5G phone in 2019.

OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei confirmed the company will release a 5G phone next year during the Qualcomm 4G/5G Summit in October.

CEO Pete Lau then stepped on stage at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon summit two months later and proclaimed that the first 5G phone to hit the market will be made by the Chinese brand.

Editor’s Pick

OnePlus walked this back a couple of days later citing mistranslation issues, but the firm is still clearly dead set on leading the pack on 5G.

Lau also suggested that all 5G phones are likely to be $200-$300 more expensive than their 4G equivalents.

The fact that every OnePlus phone has featured Qualcomm silicon — not to mention the two appearances at Qualcomm summits — makes it fairly obvious OnePlus will probably look to the increasingly familiar Snapdragon 855/X50 combo to power its 5G phone.

We also know OnePlus’ 5G phone will be announced early in 2019, but it won’t be the OnePlus 7. That leaves us with two alternatives: either OnePlus is waiting for the inevitable OnePlus 7T in late 2019, or it is readying an entirely new phone line for the first time since the OnePlus X.

Related: Android is crying out for another OnePlus X

Oppo 5G phone

Oppo

OnePlus’ BBK stablemate is also testing the X50 modem and aiming for the “first 5G phone” mantle.

Oppo recently claimed to be the first manufacturer to successfully connect to a 5G network using a smartphone — in this case using a heavily modified Oppo R15. It even posted a nice photo to prove it.

Editor’s Pick

Oppo also established the Oppo Research Institute earlier this year, opening several R&D branches in Silicon Valley, Yokohama, Japan, and several Chinese cities to push forward work on new technologies including, you guessed it, 5G.

Oppo is one of the many Chinese OEMs that could benefit greatly from 5G’s global rollout, so expect to see a 5G phone from the Dongguan firm sooner rather than later.

Samsung 5G prototype

Samsung

If you need proof the smartphone sector is in a sales slump, look no further than the industry leader. Samsung is still far and away the biggest Android OEM, but even the South Korean giant saw sales drop in 2018.

Samsung, like so many other OEMs, is hoping 2019 will change all that, as new technology finally comes to the market. Chief among those technologies is 5G.

Samsung has already revealed its own 5G-ready Exynos modem and is apparently readying a special Samsung Galaxy S10 variant with 5G support for release in Spring 2019.

We’ve heard plenty of rumors out of South Korea that Samsung is going all out for its tenth anniversary Galaxy flagship. The reports suggest Samsung is preparing to unleash four Galaxy S10 models, one of which will support 5G connectivity.

Read more: Samsung Galaxy S10: All the rumors in one place

Thanks to early reports, we’ve known for a while that the 5G model — internally dubbed “Beyond X” — will be an absolute beast of a phone, packing a 6.44-inch display and six cameras (two selfie cameras, four on the rear). That’s in addition to 5G support and most likely the long-rumored in-display fingerprint sensor the company has been testing for years.

More recent reports have referred to the phone as the Galaxy S10 X and will feature an in-display fingerprint sensor, a whopping 1TB of storage, a humongous 5,000mAh battery, 10GB of RAM or more, and some kind of advanced predictive AI.

There’s also plenty of speculation that the Galaxy S10 X will debut at Samsung’s Unpacked event on Feb. 20, just a few days before MWC 2019 kicks off.

VerizonAT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint will all stock the S10 X, with release date potentially coming as early as March.

While we’re still waiting to see the consumer version, Samsung is one of the few OEMs to actually show off a prototype 5G phone. The device, showcased at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon summit, featured an early look at Samsung’s Infinity-O display and demos showed how it could make video calls with effectively no latency at an extremely high resolution.

AT&T has also let slip that it will launch a second 5G-capable Samsung phone in the second half of 2019, which could well be the Note 10.

As for Samsung’s long-awaited foldable phone, which also looks set for a 2019 launch, there’s a very strong chance it won’t support 5G.

Sony 5G phone

Sony

Aside from a social media snafu where an official Sony Twitter account described the Xperia definitely-not-5G-compatible Xperia XZ3 as a 5G phone, the Japanese giant has been relatively quiet on the 5G front.

Much like LG and HTC, Sony’s mobile division has come under scrutiny for under-delivering in recent years and it likewise sees 5G as a second chance of sorts.

Sony has a massive catalogue of media content across gaming, video, and music, all of which will greatly benefit from 5G.

Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida talked up how 5G’s low latency and high bandwidth will be a huge boost to Sony specifically. The company already has a massive catalogue of media content across gaming, video, and music, all of which will undoubtedly benefit from 5G’s lightning fast streaming speeds.

If ever the time was right for Sony to leverage its other (far more profitable) businesses to deliver a phone for media hungry consumers, it’s now. I had a few ideas about a PlayStation Phone if you need any tips, Sony.

As for Sony’s 5G phone itself, there’s no concrete news yet. Sony is on Qualcomm’s X50 and Snapdragon 855 partner lists though.

Vivo 5G phone

Vivo

The last of the three BBK companies is already testing 5G with a modified version of the Vivo Nex kitted out with Qualcomm’s X50 modem and a matching Snapdragon SoC.

Vivo Senior Vice President Alex Feng echoed pretty much every other smartphone company executive on 5G’s importance.

Editor’s Pick

“The 5G era will spark abundant and new possibilities for the smartphone industry,” he said.

Shockingly, Vivo hasn’t promised to deliver the first commercial 5G phone either, merely noting it hopes to bring the first batch to market sometime in 2019.

Xiaomi 5G phone Mi Mix 3

Xiaomi

Xiaomi recently revealed the almost completely bezel-less, slider-packing Mi Mix 3, confirming a 5G variant of the handset is on the way in Q1 2019. That makes Xiaomi the only OEM on this list to have actually confirmed the exact model of its first 5G phone. Congrats, Xiaomi!

Xiaomi’s Donovan Sung teased 5G connectivity on the then-unannounced Mi Mix 3 in a tweet back in September. We also know Xiaomi is one of the many OEMs working with Qualcomm.

ZTE 5G phone

ZTE

After a short-lived U.S. supply ban threatened the company’s very existence in 2018, ZTE is looking to bounce back in 2019 with a 5G phone of its own.

Initially planned for an early 2019 release, the Chinese firm has since pushed that estimate back to “late 2019.” ZTE hasn’t given a reason for the delay, but it’s likely still working on a design that tempers the higher power consumption caused by 5G modem technology.

What about the rest?

Several notable Android OEMs have yet to address the looming dawn of 5G at all.

Online mobile gaming and game streaming look set to benefit massively from 5G (just ask Nvidia), but Razer has yet to make any 5G commitments for any future Razer Phone.

Blackberry licensee TCL also hasn’t addressed the 5G question, nor have Acer or Asus — the latter is partnered with Qualcomm, though.

There’s also an outside chance Essential could see 5G as a way back into the smartphone market, but with the Essential Phone 2 seemingly cancelled it’s something of a long shot.


Which 5G phone are you most excited to see? Let us know in the comments!

Source: Android Zone

The post All you need to know about every 5G phone confirmed so far (Updated January 28) appeared first on TuneMaster.ml.

Huawei is facing a 13-count indictment including bank fraud by the U.S.

The Huawei logo.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Huawei was under federal investigation and might soon have charges filed against it. During a press conference this afternoon, the Department of Justice did just that, indicting the Chinese telecommunication company on 13 counts including money laundering, obstruction of justice, and sanction violations.

The seriousness of these charges primarily surrounds Huawei’s alleged violation of the U.S. sanctions against Iran. Skycom is a Huawei subsidiary that does business in Iran, but the Chinese company had made claims that it sold its ownership of the company to not violate U.S. laws. According to the DOJ, this was a lie.

After covering up its ownership of Skycom, Huawei reportedly used its banking partners to clear over $100 million of Skycom’s transactions through the U.S. between 2010 and 2014.

Huawei’s CFO, Wanzhou Meng, who was arrested last year in Canada, was named in the DOJ’s investigation. In her executive role, Meng is charged with bank fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud as she reportedly lied to banking partners about her and the company’s relationship with Skycom.

The U.S. is working with Canada to extradite Meng as soon as possible to move forward with criminal charges.

Editor’s Pick

Additionally, the company is being charged with stealing trade secrets from U.S. companies. As detailed previously, Huawei employees allegedly took information and parts from a robot developed by T-Mobile to test smartphones. A Washington jury found the Chinese company guilty and awarded T-Mobile $4.8 million.

It will likely take months if not years for a court to make a ruling on these charges. Huawei has yet to release a statement pertaining to these charges. You can read the specifics pertaining to the charges here.

Source: Android Zone

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Portless phones: Dumb gimmick or inevitable future?

Meizu

Meizu and Vivo, both of which recently announced phones with no ports, are seeking the answer to an age-old question: do people prefer function or form? The answer, as always, is “it depends,” but in this case Meizu and Vivo are asking consumers to vote with their wallets. Should they?

In September 2016, Apple removed the headphone jack from the iPhone and the internet lost its mind. A number of scathing editorials burned red hot across the web, with the move called “user-hostile and stupid.”

The trusty headphone jack has been a staple in consumer electronics since it was designed in the 1950s. The standard 3.5mm jack got its start with transistor radios, and it later showed up in nearly every type of media device over a six-decade span, including WalkMan radios, cassette and CD players, laptops and PCs, mobile phones and tablets, gaming consoles, and much more. The jack is functional across devices and form factors, making it a must-have. Apple disagrees.

“Maintaining an ancient, single-purpose, analog, big connector doesn’t make sense because that space is at a premium,” said Phil Schiller, Apple COO, at the iPhone 7’s launch. Schiller claimed Apple needed to lose the headphone jack in order to waterproof the iPhone 7, and even said it took “courage” to be among the first phone makers to take this step. The company continues to sell lots of iPhones.

USB-C, headphone jack: Samsung S9 lilac and Google Pixel 3 with bases showing to reveal headphone jack and lack thereof.

Any port in a storm

Like it or not, Apple set a precedent and other phone makers followed. Google ditched the headphone jack in favor of USB-C audio, as did Motorola, Huawei, and OnePlus, among others. In each case, the phone maker provided a pair of USB-C headphones or a 3.5mm-to-USB-C adapter. The trend is slowly catching on, but that doesn’t mean people are happy about it.

What Meizu and Vivo are doing is next-level user hostility.

The front and back of the Meizu Zero. Meizu

The Meizu Zero has absolutely no ports. None. It drops the headphone jack, the USB-C port, the SIM card slot, the memory card slot. Need to power up your phone? The Zero sports wireless charging. Want to listen to music? Bluetooth, my friend. What about transferring files? Use the cloud! Need wireless service? An eSIM is inside. While Meizu has an answer to all these nagging everyday needs, you shouldn’t be convinced of Meizu’s logic. At least, not yet.

“Designers dream of clean, port-free lines, but smartphones need to live in the real world, where consumers cannot always expect wireless connections,” quipped Avi Greengart, research director, consumer platforms & devices at GlobalData, to Android Authority. “The loss of the headphone jack at least can be countered by dongles, but until wireless charging spots are ubiquitous, asking consumers to go without a charging cable — which is also used for data transfer and other purposes — simply is not practical.”

Mainstream, here we come?

Charging pads may be available at some Starbucks locations and in some cars, but wireless power is still a niche technology that has yet to be widely adopted. Until every phone ships with a wireless charger by default, consumers will continue to expect to plug their phones in for charging purposes. Moreover, wired charging is still faster than wireless charging.

The idea of phones without physical SIM cards is also problematic. The promise of eSIM, wherein an electronic SIM card can be programmed for network access, has yet to be fully realized. It should be easy, but apparently it’s not.

Apple’s rollout of eSIM in the iPhone Xs and Xs Max, for example, was slow to be adopted by carriers in the U.S. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless added support for the tech months after the phones reached store shelves. Sprint still doesn’t support Apple’s eSIM. Multiply this by hundreds of carriers around the world and you see where this is going.

Then there’s the Meizu Zero’s lack of physical buttons. The Zero features pressure-sensitive edges that are used to manage functions such as adjusting the volume. HTC’s U12 flagship phone was largely panned by reviewers due to its incredibly frustrating pressure-sensitive buttons. Can Meizu succeed where HTC failed? Hard to say.

Like it or not, phone makers are headed in this direction.

“Apple designers eventually hope to remove most of the external ports and buttons on the iPhone, including the charger,” reported Bloomberg last year. Apple weighed making this radical move while developing the 2017 iPhone X. It later scaled back those ambitions due to the cost of wireless charging. That means we’ll see an iPhone with no ports or buttons at some point, and we can expect the same from Apple’s competitors.

Meizu and Vivo are clearly way ahead of the curve, dancing on the bleeding edge for the spectacle alone. Will people buy these portless phones? Sure. Should they? Probably not yet, but we all will at some point down the road.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
Source: Android Zone

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The Realme C1 (2019) might be the entry-level phone of your entry-level dreams

If you’re looking for a long-lasting phone that won’t break the bank, your search might be over — Realme announced the Realme C1 (2019), the company’s latest entry-level smartphone.

On the outside, the Realme C1 (2019) features a 6.2-inch display with HD+ (1,520 x 720) resolution and a 19:9 aspect ratio. There’s no fingerprint sensor, but the front-facing 5-megapixel camera supports facial recognition. The software identifies 128 facial points to unlock the phone in 0.3 seconds.

Around back are dual 13 and 2MP cameras that support beauty and portrait modes.

Under the hood, the Realme C1 (2019) features Qualcomm’s octa-core Snapdragon 450 processor, either 2 or 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of expandable storage. The phone runs ColorOS 5.1, which is based on Android 8.1 Oreo.

Editor’s Pick

The real head-turner is with the huge 4,230mAh battery. Thanks to the large battery, low-end processor, and undemanding specs, the Realme C1 (2019) lets you make calls for 44 hours, listen to music for 18 hours, and browse websites for 18 hours.

The software further extends the battery life by restricting apps in the background and cutting off apps randomly waking up in the background. With the features enabled, the phone saves anywhere between five and 11 percent of power.

The Realme C1 (2019) will be available starting February 5 in India. Residents can pick up the phone in either Navy Blue or Mirror Black through Flipkart. The 2GB/32GB variant will sell for 7,499 rupees (~$106), while the 3GB/32GB version will sell for 8,499 rupees (~$120).

Source: Android Zone

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Source: Android Zone

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Brawl Stars updates: Major brawler balance changes in the January update

Brawl Stars artwork - updates, patch notes, brawler changes

Welcome to our Brawl Stars update hub! We’ll be collecting all of the official balance changes and updates for Brawl Stars as they’re released by Finnish giant Supercell.

If you can’t get enough Brawl Stars, be sure to bookmark this page to stay up-to-date on the latest buffs, nerfs, new game modes, and new brawlers added to the game. Below you’ll find the most recent update, followed by a list of new brawlers as they’re released. Previous Brawl Stars updates can be found at the end of the page.

Get brawlin’ with some of our other Brawl Stars content:

Can’t get enough Supercell? Check out our update hubs for Supercell’s other hit games:


Brawl Stars update: The latest


Brawl Stars update: January balance changes

Released: TBD

The first major Brawl Stars update since the global release is here! It mostly contains tweaks to brawler balance and a few notable nerfs. The newest brawler Leon is finally being taken down a peg, with nerfs to both his Super duration and close range damage.

The biggest changes are to the maps themselves. Green bushes no longer respawn on any maps, which will have a major impact on close range brawlers. There are a few smaller adjustments to other game modes, like Bounty game duration, Brawl Ball spawn location, and Showdown poison damage.

Brawl Stars January balance changes patch notes

Balance changes to Brawlers

Nita

  • Star Power healing increased to 500 (from 300).

Brock

  • Star Power damage per second increased to 300 (from 240).

Bo

  • Star Power visibility range increased to six tiles (from four tiles).
  • Main attack damage increased to 480 (from 420).

El Primo

  • Star Power damage increased to 800 (from 600).

Barley

  • Star Power healing increased to 300 (from 200).
  • Main attack damage per second increased to 640 (from 600).
  • Super damage per second increased to 640 (from 480).
  • Super bottles now spread across larger area when cast at short range.
  • Damage from multiple Super bottles no longer stacks.

Poco

  • Star Power healing increased to 500 (from 400).

Darryl

  • Star Power shield increased to 40% (from 30%).
  • Main attack damage per shell increased to 280 (from 260).

Tara

  • Star Power pet (Tara’s Shadow) damage increased to 400 (from 200).
  • Star Power pet (Tara’s Shadow) health increased to 2400 (from 2000).

Leon

  • Super invisibility time decreased to eight seconds (from 10 seconds).
  • Main attack damage at close range reduced to 460 (from 500).

Mortis

  • Main attack damage increased to 900 (from 800).
  • Super damage increased to 900 (from 800).
  • Star Power now instantly heals for 1800 health upon kill
  • Star Power no longer leaves behind a green skull.

Frank

  • Star Power now increases his damage by 40% upon kill.
  • Star Power no longer leaves behind a purple skull.

Ricochet

  • Main attack damage increased to 300 (from 280).

Game mode balance changes

All game modes

  • Green bushes no longer regrow after 35 seconds.

Brawl Ball

  • Spawn location moved inside the goal.
  • Kicking the ball now consumes ammo.
  • Kicking the ball with Super does not consume ammo.
  • Space behind the goal removed on all maps.

Showdown

  • Player names now empty over 300 trophies instead of displaying “???”.
  • Poison no longer deals damage instantly upon spawning or growing.

Bounty

  • Game length reduced to two minutes (from 2.5 minutes).

Raid Boss

  • Now shows when the next Boss rage stage begins.
  • One additional rage stage added.
  • Now displays difficulty setting while in-game.

New Brawlers in Brawl Stars

Brawl stars update new brawlers

Like new troops in Clash of Clans and new cards in Clash Royale, Supercell releases new brawlers in Brawl Stars from time to time. Below you’ll find all of the new brawlers released since the game’s global release in reverse chronological order.

New Brawler – Leon

Leon New Brawler Brawl Stars Update

Leon shoots a quick salvo of blades at his target. His Super trick is a smoke bomb that makes him invisible for a little while!

Release date: December 5, 2018

  • Legendary brawler released with December update.

Main Attack – Leaf Blades

  • Main attack fires four blades that do increased damage to close targets.

Super – Smoke Bomb

  • Super makes him invisible for a brief amount of time.
  • Taking damage while Super is active will briefly reveal Leon.
  • Attacking will permanently remove the invisibility.
  • Nearby enemy brawlers will be able to see him, but turrets and pets will not.

Star Power – Smoke Trails

  • Increased movement speed when Super is active.

Brawl Stars Update History


Brawl Stars update: December update

Release date: December 5, 2018

The December update is hitting just before global launch, and it features a number of big changes, including all new 3D maps and a brand new brawlers! The hoodie wearing assassin Leon is a new legendary brawler that does big damage and can go invisible with his super.

In addition to the change to 3D graphics, the user interface also received a number of updates. Bands have been renamed to Clubs, more languages are now supported, and the fourth game type (modifier mode) is now a permanent feature.

Brawl Stars December update patch notes

New Brawler – Leon

  • New legendary brawler Leon.
  • Leon is an assassin that can go invisible with his Super.

Balance Changes

Colt

  • Main attack damage increased to 300 (from 280).
  • Super damage increased to 300 (from 280).

Crow

  • Super charges from eight dagger hits (down from nine).

Bull

  • Health increased to 5200 (from 5000).

Pam

  • Health increased to 4400 (from 4200).

Jessie

  • Reload time reduced to 1.8 seconds (from 2.0 seconds).

Penny

  • Super cannon balls no longer shoot randomly.
  • Main attack projectile speed reduced by 6%.

Tara

  • Super charges from 13 hits (up from 12).

Spike

  • Main attack spikes are less random.
  • Main attack range decreased to 4.33 tiles (down from five).

Darryl Rework

  • Super range decreased to seven tiles (down from 23.3).
  • Super charges in 11 hits (down from 13).
  • Super charges automatically over 20 seconds.
  • Star Power now activates a shield reducing damage by 30% for 3.5 seconds when using Super.
  • Main attack damage reduced to 260 (down from 360).
  • Super attack damage reduced to 400 (down from 640).
  • Health reduced to 4,000 (down from 5,000).

New Skins and Models

  • New Models for Shelly, Bull, Nita, Barley, Dynamike, and Brock.
  • Bandita Shelly, Viking Bull, Panda Nita, Golden Barley, Beach Brock skins have been updated.
  • Star Shelly skin available for free to anyone who plays Brawl Stars before 2019.
  • Wizard Barley skin available for free to anyone who connects a Supercell ID account.
  • Unlocking the Wizard Barley skin also unlocks Barley for players who don’t have him.

3D Environment & User Interface

  • All maps are now 3D environments.
  • Loading screen and user interface have been updated.
  • Map preview button added.
  • Keys renamed to Tokens.
  • Star Keys renamed to Star Tokens.
  • Bands renamed to Clubs.
  • Boss Fight renamed to Big Game.

Game Mode Changes

  • New Modifier Mode – Healing mushrooms.
    • Healing Mushrooms heal players inside their radius.
  • Robo Rumble map adjustments:
    • Robo Rumble map now larger and enemies attack from all sides.
    • High level melee bots no longer charge.
  • Life Leech Mode adjustments:
    • Player-based healing (Barley’s Star Power, Pam’s Star Power) reduced by 75%.
    • Dying from life leech poison now gives full health to the player who caused the poison.
  • Angry Robo Mode changes:
    • Robo can no longer see into bushes.
    • Robo can no longer hide in bushes.
    • Robo now drops five power cubes on death.
    • Pets and turrets can now target Robo.
    • Brawlers can now charge their Super by shooting Robo.
  • Practice mode removed

Social Changes

  • Game Rooms are now called Teams.
  • Anyone in the Team can invite players from their friends list.
  • Players can now send a request to join a team.

Map Changes

  • Gem Grab, Bounty, Heist and Brawl Ball maps are now four tiles wider.
  • Players now spawn behind the goal in Brawl Ball.
  • Players now spawn behind the safe in Heist mode.

Gameplay Changes

  • All brawlers can now cancel attacks to activate their Super.
  • Respawn location indicators added.
  • Brawl Ball aiming direction visible to teammates.
  • Haptic feedback added for when cancelling aiming.

Sound Effects and Music

  • Penny, Pam, and Poco have new voices.
  • New music added.
  • Brawler respawn SFX added.

Miscellaneous

  • New permanent game mode slot added for Ticketed modes.
  • Modifier game modes are now always available.
  • Free daily item rotation now includes Free Coins, Power Points, Key Doubler and Tickets.
  • Improvements to matchmaking.
  • New languages supported.

That’s all for our Brawl Stars update hub! Be sure to bookmark this article, as we’ll update it over the next few weeks and months with the latest releases! Happy brawling!

Source: Android Zone

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Report: iOS loyalty set to overtake Android loyalty soon

Apple iPhone Xs Max vs Google Pixel 3 XL - notch

Chances are good that, if you’re reading this, you are loyal to Android (this is Android Authority, after all). If so, you are not alone: according to new data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), Android has a loyalty rate of a whopping 92 percent.

To be clear, that means of surveyed individuals who purchased a new phone in the past quarter, over 92 percent of people who owned an Android phone bought themselves another Android phone.

Those “Android loyal” folks have likely been loyal for years, as Android loyalty has remained above 90 percent since 2017.

On the flip side, iOS loyalty has historically been lower. However, you can see from the chart below that iOS loyalty has been steadily climbing, and could meet or even overtake Android very soon:

CIRP

It’s not hard to see why someone would be loyal to an OS, regardless of which one. Learning a new OS takes a lot of time and effort, and even if an individual is fed up with an operating system and would want to switch, the hassle of doing so might persuade them to just tough it out.

Editor’s Pick

There’s also the concept of integration within an ecosystem, something which Apple does exceptionally well. In other words, if someone wants to switch from iOS to Android they would probably be less likely to do so if they also own a MacBook, an iPad, an Apple TV box, etc. since all the devices “play nice” together. Getting an Android phone would likely cause more inconvenience than anything else, in that situation.

As such, going forward, we could see folks switching from one OS to another even less frequently as both Android and iOS become integrated into all facets of people’s lives.

What do you think? Would you ever switch from one OS to another in the future, or are you now permanently loyal to Android (or iOS)? Let us know in the comments.

NEXT: Google Play revenue grew 27% in 2018, besting iOS store growth

Source: Android Zone

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12 things you need to know in tech for Monday, Jan. 28

Here’s your daily tech digest, by way of the DGiT Daily newsletter, for Monday, January 28, 2019.

(Sign up right here to get the full email with much more into your inbox.)

Samsung is ditching plastic packaging

Something slightly different for your Monday, but let’s start the week with good news.

Turning up the heat on packaging:

  • Samsung Electronics said on Sunday it will replace plastic packaging with eco-friendly materials across its full range of products, from home appliances and TVs to smartphones and tablets (Samsung).
  • Samsung says it will use recycled/bio-based plastics, swap paper to certified fiber materials, and change the design of many elements of hardware.
  • For example, it will swap the glossy exterior of phone chargers with a matte finish, and eliminate plastic protection films, to reduce plastic use, and go for pulp material phone trays, rather than plastic.
  • Samsung will start swapping materials this year, and aim to increase its circular economy policy. By 2030, Samsung says it plans to use 500,000 tons of recycled plastics and collect 7.5 million tons of discarded products – both cumulative totals from 2009.

Samsung cases

Now…

  • Of course, many companies including those in the smartphone space have been more aggressive in reusing materials. The HTC Evo 4G from 2010 is a notable example (Imgur, via reddit)
  • And of course, many would point-blank remind Samsung that it can make a bigger impact by offering Android updates, along with better software/hardware support for its devices beyond 24-months.
  • It might be a band-aid on the burning earth, but it’s the right thing to do.
  • Apple’s announcement of using recycled aluminum in its newest devices was a big moment for the circular economy last year, as well (Earther).
  • Let’s hope it continues!

Here’s everything else happening:

1. Samsung reportedly in talks to buy company behind zooming camera tech (Android Authority), which Oppo is current using.


2. Google Pixel 3 Night Shot compared to iPhone XS, and it’s not really close (AA). (Y’know, if you trust and believe Google’s marketing.)


3.  Why Google bans ad blockers, but is actually fine with ad-blocking browsers (AA).


4. The best apps for managing your kid’s phone (Wirecutter).


5. Report: Samsung SmartThings still hasn’t earned my trust in the smart home (CNET).


6. Mark Zuckerberg’s WSJ op-ed was a message to would-be regulators: Hands off our ad business (Recode).


7. When VanMoof, a super- cool bike company, put a TV on its box shipping damages went way down (Bicycling.com)


8. ‘Businesses will not be able to hide’: Spy satellites may give edge to those betting on the economy by measuring activity (NY Times).


9. More images of Ultima Thule from NASA, the most distant object ever explored (Cosmos).


10. Take this test to figure out how tone-deaf you are (Harvard Music Lab). Desktop-only, for now, and the server is a bit slow because it’s new and unexpectedly popular?


11. What is your favorite “holy crap this actually works” trick? (r/askreddit). Including swearing at automated voice answering machines to get a faster response.


DGiT Daily: Your Tech Resource

In case you don’t know, the DGiT Daily delivers a daily email that keeps you ahead of the curve for all tech news, opinions, and links to what’s going down in the planet’s most important field. You get all the context and insight you need, and all with a touch of fun, and the daily fun element that you miss missing from this

Sign up right here to get the full email with much more into your inbox.

Source: Android Zone

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Broken Google Assistant reminders? You’re not alone

Google Assistant Broken Reminders

Over the weekend, users on Reddit and Google’s support forums noted that Assistant reminders on Android had stopped working. While the feature is still working on other devices such as Home Hubs, those who rely on their smartphone for everything are missing essential reminders.

Typically, after asking the Assistant to remind you about something at a given time and date, you would receive a notification alerting you to whatever was set. With this current bug, nothing ends up popping up or the reminder only shows up when the user goes looking for it.

The reminder bug appears to stem from version 9.0.6 of the Google app after it was rolled out last week. It hasn’t been confirmed if the app itself is blocking the notifications or if the problem is server-side.

How to fix Google Assistant reminder notifications

If you’re still having issues with the Assistant not notifying you about your reminders, users on Reddit appear to have found several ways to fix them. The first solution is to delete the Google app so that it reverts to the version that came preinstalled on your phone.

Editor’s Pick

Another option several people suggest is to go into the Google app’s settings and delete the cache.

None of these are guaranteed fixes, unfortunately. Some users (including myself) are starting to receive reminder notifications once again, so Google might be rolling out a fix right now.

Source: Android Zone

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How long do you usually keep a phone? (Poll of the Week)

Last week’s poll summary: Last week, we asked you what version of Android your phone is running. Out of almost 10,000 total votes, roughly 52 percent of our readers are running Android 9 Pie. Around 37 percent of our readers are running Android 8-8.1 Oreo, while just under 6 percent are running Android 7-7.1 Nougat. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as many Android Authority readers are using relatively new smartphones.


When a new smartphone is released, do you immediately feel the need to buy it? I personally know many people who need the absolute latest and greatest, but there are probably more people who try to make their smartphones last as long as possible.

Related

I’m in the latter group. Unless my phone is on its last legs, I try to make do for as long as possible. I’m not alone in that mindset either — people are already holding on to their phones longer than ever before, which may have something to do with smartphone prices increasing or OEMs getting rid of features people genuinely find useful.

What about you? Do you keep your smartphone until it’s no longer working, or are you constantly on the lookout for the best phone on the market? Cast your vote in the poll, and speak up in the comments if you have anything to add.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
Source: Android Zone

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Report: 2018 premium smartphone market grew 18%, here’s what that could mean

Samsung Galaxy Note 9.

  • The premium smartphone market grew by 18 percent last year as compared to the previous.
  • The ultra-premium smartphone market is dominated by Apple with 80 percent share.
  • This data suggests that consumers are ready to pay more for smartphones, but buy fewer smartphones overall.

Venerable market research organization Counterpoint just published some stats on the premium smartphone market of 2018. According to Counterpoint, the premium smartphone market grew by 18 percent last year as compared to the previous.

This is especially notable when you consider that, in the same report, Counterpoint says the overall smartphone market declined by about three percent.

For clarity, Counterpoint groups smartphones into three categories based on wholesale pricing (i.e. not retail pricing): budget (<$200), mid-range ($200-$400), and premium (>$400). Thus, the 18 percent figure refers to all phones with wholesale pricing at $400 or more.

Refer to this chart below to see how the data looks:

Counterpoint

Additionally, within the premium category, Counterpoint breaks that down into sub-categories: affordable premium ($400-$600), standard premium ($600-$800), and ultra-premium ($800+).

The ultra-premium segment is dominated by Apple, with over 80 percent of that market. This is due to the high prices of its Apple iPhone X, XS, and XS Max smartphones. The other 20 percent is dominated by Samsung, specifically the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, with a smattering of other phones thrown in (such as the Google Pixel 3 XL).

Editor’s Pick

In fact, Apple dominates 51 percent of the entire premium segment (>$400) altogether, with Samsung owning about 22 percent, followed by Huawei at 10 percent. The final 17 percent is made up of various manufacturers, most of them Chinese (Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus).

It should be noted that OnePlus is making serious gains in the affordable premium category ($400-$600). Although Apple still dominates the affordable premium segment, OnePlus’ success around the world — most notably in India — makes it the fastest-growing OEM in the premium segment.

What does all this data mean?

What does all this mean for you, smartphone consumer? It means that consumers are willing to spend more money on their smartphones, which is why we are seeing more and more devices with a retail price near (or even above) the $1,000 mark. However, the three percent drop in the overall market also means that people are buying fewer smartphones.

Editor’s Pick

In other words, we are OK with spending a lot of money on a phone, but we won’t be buying one every two years like the industry has expected us to over the past decade.

With that in mind, the industry as a whole is likely to start trying to convince consumers in developed nations that an “affordable premium” smartphone is our cheapest option. That’s why the iPhone XR is priced “affordably” at over $700, and we expect similar pricing for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S10. Meanwhile, in developing nations like India and China, smartphone pricing will be more in the mid-range category with retail prices below $600, and in emerging markets like Africa, smartphones will fall squarely in the budget category.

We are OK with spending a lot of money on a smartphone, but we’ll be buying them less frequently.

Ultimately, this data suggests that the smartphone industry’s plans are working, in that we are all OK with spending way more on a smartphone than we would have five years ago. What we have yet to see is whether or not this strategy will pay off in the long run. Weak sales figures from Apple and Samsung suggest one of two things: the plan isn’t working or the plan is going through some growing pains as it settles in.

What do you think? Are you glad that there will be plenty of high-end options for smartphones coming in the future for you to buy once and hold onto for a long time, or were you a bigger fan of paying less for a phone but buying them more often? Let us know in the comments.

NEXT: Yes, Apple, the slowing smartphone market affects you, too

Source: Android Zone

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Gary Explains: How much RAM does your phone REALLY need in 2019?

Across all consumer electronic markets, spec battles are inevitable. Company A releases product X with 24 thing-a-ma-jigs, so in response Company B releases product Y with 32 thing-a-ma-jigs. Company A responds to Company’s B bump in the specs and a spec war starts.

The problem is when spec wars get out of hand. Company A started by using 24 thing-a-ma-jigs, but three years later it’s shipping with 48 thing-a-ma-jigs, a massive and likely unnecessary increase. Android smartphone makers aren’t immune to this. We have seen bumps in processor performance, camera capabilities, internal storage, and much more. Most of these spec bumps are needed and well received by consumers. However, I think in one area the spec war has become ridiculous: RAM.

Back in the early days of Android smartphones, devices had 512MB of memory or maybe even 1GB. These were the humble beginnings of the smartphone revolution. Over time more memory was added. By 2014, most high-end devices had 3GB of RAM and during 2016 and 2017 4GB became the de facto standard. Then the spec wars started. First came devices with 6GB, then 8GB, then 10GB, then 12GB — where will it end?

With RAM seemingly increasing every quarter, we must stop and pause and ask ourselves how much RAM we actually need. I have laptops here in my house that are running Windows 10 quite happily with 4GB of RAM. My MacBook has 8GB of RAM and can run demanding applications like Premiere Pro or Photoshop. Are we seriously suggesting my phone needs more RAM than my laptop?

Read: Lenovo Z5 Pro GT has outrageous 12GB of RAM, Snapdragon 855, sliding back

At this point, you might be already saying to yourself, “I know how much RAM a smartphone needs, it is X Gigabytes.” You might be right, but you probably aren’t. Putting subjectivity and opinion to one side, what we need is an objective look at how much RAM is needed.

First, a look at how Android manages RAM.

RAM management

When you launch a new app on Android the Linux kernel creates a new process. A process is a unit of execution with its own virtual address space (which is mapped to physical memory). The Linux kernel manages the resources needed by the process including time running on the CPU, input and output of data (over the network or via the filesystem), and physical memory (RAM).

When there is an abundance of resources the kernel’s job is easy. If the process needs more CPU time and the CPU is idle, the kernel can easily grant the process more execution time. If there is little I/O, giving the process more I/O isn’t a problem. If the process needs more RAM and RAM is available, the kernel just needs to track what process is using which bits of memory.

However, when resources are scarce things become complicated. With CPU time and I/O, the biggest casualty of overloading is performance. If the CPU is busy, the work at hand will still get done, but it won’t be as quick. RAM is different. When you have no more, waiting longer probably won’t result in any more RAM being freed. This is where the kernel needs to be proactive to get back some RAM.

Linux and Android handle this in two ways. First, there is the idea of swapping using zRAM. Android can allocate a chunk of physical memory for swapping. Swapping is an idea Linux uses on PCs and servers. When there isn’t enough memory, the oldest and least used pages of memory are written out to the disk and the memory they occupied becomes available for other processes. If that swapped-out memory is needed later, the saved data is read back from the disk and put back into memory (swapped-in), where it can be used.

Android compresses the memory and writes it back into memory, but into the section reserved for zRAM. If we assume a 50 percent compression ratio, 128KB of RAM can reduce to 64KB, freeing up 64KB. This is the equivalent to swapping-out pages to disk. The compressed memory isn’t directly readable, so if it is needed it must be uncompressed and written back. This is the same as swapping-in.

When a process requests more RAM and RAM is unavailable, the kernel will try to free up some RAM using swapping. If sufficient RAM can’t be found, the kernel needs to get more aggressive and start culling processes. This is a strange situation for the kernel. It must kill an existing process, to make room for another process. The key here is the current memory request is likely coming from the foreground app, which is currently in use. The kernel applies various tests and checks and determines which processes can be killed off to free memory. If you started Candy Crush three days ago and switched away, but never returned, then the kernel can assume you aren’t going to switch back to it now and so kills it off. This frees memory and allows the currently running app to continue.

Gary Explains

This is all handled by the kernel’s Low Memory Killer driver. Interestingly, future versions of Android will handle this slightly differently. While the result will be the same, it won’t be the kernel’s assassin that does the dirty deed. Starting with Linux Kernel 4.12, the Low Memory Killer driver has been removed and instead, the userspace Android Low Memory Killer Daemon (lmkd) performs the cullings.

This means when you start a new app, older memory resident apps, are removed to make way. If you switch back to these apps, using the recent apps screen, then the apps will be reloaded, similar to an initial launch.

Although this system may sound brutal, it is the way Android was designed. All apps are given ample warning that they will be killed off and move through different states allowing them to save their current status information. When they are reloaded, the apps just read the last status information and carry on from where they left off.

How much memory do apps use?

Starting with Linux Kernel 4.12, the Low Memory Killer driver has been removed and instead, the userspace Android Low Memory Killer Daemon (lmkd) performs the cullings.

If the low memory killer activates too frequently, the overall user experience can be affected. In a worst-case scenario every time you switch away from an app to start another one, the previous app will get killed to make way for the new app. This is a severe low memory condition. However, there is an acceptable sweet spot where the occasional resident app is removed to make way for new apps. As long as the removed app is “old,” the user probably won’t even notice it was removed from memory. After that sweet spot the frequency of app removals becomes academic, since there won’t be much perceptible change in the overall user experience.

However, what is the sweet spot? To find that out I wrote a utility which uses the Android Debug Bridge (adb) to monitor which processes are being killed, along with the amount of available memory. It also looks at how much RAM the running apps use.

After lots of experimentation, I have come up with a list of three different categories of apps. “Standard” apps use between 130MB and 400MB of RAM. There are apps like YouTube and WhatsApp, as well as games like Crossy Road and Candy Crush. Then there are the “media-intensive” apps, which load lots of images and therefore use more memory to show them. Here you will find titles like Google Photos and Instagram. These apps use between 400MB and 700MB of RAM.

Finally, there are the “huge” apps, predominantly high-end games which can eat through RAM like a hungry Pac-Man. Games like Need for Speed: No Limits or PUBG Mobile can use between 800MB and 1152MB. Chrome is also in this category (with 3 tabs open).

The amount of RAM being used on your device depends entirely on which apps you have running. If you like Instagram and Candy Crush, but not much else, then you will be using just over 1GB of RAM. If you switch between PUBG and Asphalt 9 all day long, you’ll need 2GB, and so on.

How much RAM do I have?

Each Android smartphone comes with a fixed amount of RAM. It is part of the phone’s motherboard and it isn’t upgradable. The Pixel 3 has 4GB, the Note 9 (128GB) has 6GB and the OnePlus 6T has 8GB. The OnePlus 6T McLaren edition has 10GB and the Lenovo Z5 Pro GT has 12GB. While it’s important to know how much RAM your phone has, it is also important to know how available it is for running apps. Android and Linux will both use some RAM, and as do some pre-installed user level services. Here is a table of some devices I had at hand, showing the installed RAM and the available memory. Available memory is how much memory is available for starting new apps, without swapping.

Device Total RAM Available Mem Total SWAP Swap Used (after reboot)
Huawei Mate 8 2881 1392 511 0
Pixel 3 XL 3548 1740 1023 8
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 5339 2799 2559 34
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 5580 3597 2048 266
OnePlus 6T 7640 5065 0 0

The Mate 8, Pixel 3 XL, and Note 8 make about 50 percent of the installed RAM available for user apps. That number starts to climb slightly with the Note 9 and the OP6T, with the latter offering 66 percent of the installed RAM to the user.

It is also interesting to note the wide range of zRAM levels OEMs choose. The Mate 8 uses 0.5GB of swap, while the Note 8 is configured to use 2.5GB! Interestingly, OnePlus is so confident in the 8GB found in the OP6T that it doesn’t use any swap space.

A device like the Pixel 3 XL can hold at least five “standard” apps in memory without swapping. This means you can switch between YouTube, WhatsApp, Spotify, Candy Crush, and Google Play without concern. If you start more apps then the Pixel 3 XL will start to use the compressed swap space more aggressively in an attempt to free up memory. This means in reality, you can run around eight “standard” apps and keep them all in memory and the swap space. Switching to an app that’s swapped out will swap it in. Swapping isn’t really noticeable. Often background process get put into the swap space first. If you start more than about eight “standard” apps, one of the previous apps will be removed from memory.

If an app is pushed from memory, that isn’t necessarily bad — the app will reload on switch. However, there is an argument to be made that devices as expensive as the Pixel 3 should include more memory.

The Note 8 and Note 9 have 6GB of RAM, with about 2.5GB available to the user on the Note 8 and 3.5GB on the Note 9. Both devices have at least 2GB of swap space, too. This means you can switch between a heavy game (or Chrome), a media-intensive app (like Instagram) and 5 or more standard apps and everything will remain in memory. If you start more apps, the phone will start using the swap space. This boosts the number of memory resident apps even higher.

6GB is the beginning of the sweet spot. Common apps remain in memory for long periods of time and the multi-tasking experience is seamless, most of the time.

These 6GB phones can switch between a dozen or more apps, including some heavy duty ones, without seeing a single reload. This is the beginning of the sweet spot. Common apps remain in memory for long periods of time and the multi-tasking experience is seamless, most of the time.

The sweet spot continues into the 8GB realm. Here you can keep at least a dozen apps in memory without reloading, including bigger apps like PUBG and Google Photo. Switching between apps is seamless. Over time, older apps will be removed from memory to make way for new apps. You probably won’t have touched the apps that get removed for days when that happens. Having said that, this is the top end of the sweet spot. The OnePlus 6T doesn’t include a swap space, so it will probably be hard for the average user to discern the difference between a 6GB device with swapping and an 8GB device without.

Note: I have simplified the discussion about when the swap space is used. While it is convenient to think about the swap space being used only when the available memory has been exhausted, the reality is that the use of the swap space is much more dynamic and complex.

More than 8GB?

Once you go over 8GB, you enter “Nonsense” land, where Mr. Silly lives. Even with 3GB of memory, like in my trusty Mate 8, we aren’t talking about what apps the device can run, we are looking at how many apps it can simultaneously keep in memory! 4GB is workable, 6GB is sweet, 8GB is edging close to Nonsense land, but still falls within the sweet spot. 10GB, 12GB, 16GB are just plain stupid. These are examples of nothing more than specification overload, which increases the price and brings little or no benefit to the user.

Once you go over 8GB, you enter ‘Nonsense’ land, where Mr. Silly lives.

Wrap-up

Will we see devices with more than 8GB in 2019? Sure, in fact, we already have. That doesn’t mean they’re necessary. Personally, I would like to see consumers boycott any mobile device with more than 8GB. I know that might be wishful thinking. Sometimes the best phone, for other reasons like performance or camera, also comes with a stupid amount of RAM. However, the only influence consumers have over smartphone makers is in our decisions about which phones to buy.

I wish OEMs would act rationally, leave the RAM alone, and concentrate on more meaningful aspects of smartphone design.

Source: Android Zone

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