Samsung hosted the first Galaxy Unpacked 2020 earlier this year to launch the Galaxy S20 series, and then the second Unpacked event was hosted last month to launch the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, the Galaxy Tab S7 and Tab S7+, the Galaxy Buds Live, the Galaxy Watch 3, and gave us just a quick look at the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Samsung didn’t reveal everything about the device, like its final specification and pricing (but we could confirm several specs thanks to our sources), so the South Korean company is coming back for a round 2 to finish the job. Samsung will be streaming the Galaxy Unpacked Part 2 event, and if you’ve been thinking of tuning in, we’ve got all the details for you!
The Galaxy Unpacked Part 2 event will take place on Tuesday, September 1, 2020 (today). Here’s the kick-off time in your region:
West Coast: 7 am Pacific
East Coast: 10 am Eastern
UK: 3 pm British Standard Time
India: 7:30 pm Indian Standard Time
China: 10 pm China Standard Time
The event will be live-streamed on Samsung’s website and you can also catch the event from the YouTube stream. In case you don’t wish to miss the live stream, you can also set a reminder on the company’s website or on YouTube and you’ll be notified when the live stream goes online.
Here’s the live stream:
What can we expect at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked Part 2?
Unlike the Galaxy Unpacked event of last month where we had multiple devices to unveil officially, Unpacked Part 2 has a narrower focus: the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2. We expect Samsung to officially reveal all of its specifications, talk about the design improvements and the R&D process that they have undertaken for the new foldable, and then focus on the pricing and availability details for the premium smartphone. We also expect them to introduce a Thom Browne edition that several leaks in the past have shown off — but don’t expect it to be cheap by any means.
Just yesterday, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 732G SoC, featuring a few improvements over a decent predecessor. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G is expected to power a fair few smartphones in the mid-range segment. Not to be left behind, MediaTek has now launched the new Helio G95 SoC that also builds up on its decent predecessor.
The new MediaTek Helio G95 SoC is an extension of the same features that we have seen on the previous Helio G90 and Helio G90T SoC from MediaTek. It’s surprisingly difficult to figure out what is new on this SoC, and from the looks of it, this is a minor improvement only. The only improvement we could spot over the Helio G90T is that the Helio G95 comes with a higher boost speed on the GPU, with the ARM Mali-G76 MC4 now being able to operate at up to 900MHz compared to the 800MHz ceiling from the predecessor. Consequently, MediaTek is boasting of “up to 8%” increase in GPU benchmark scores from the G90T. There’s also a claim of “up to 5%” increase in CPU benchmark scores, but we could not find a consequent change in specifications that would explain how this increase materialized.
With all of this being said, the MediaTek Helio G95 might appear underwhelming. But from personal experience using a Helio G90T smartphone for a while as a replacement to the flagships that I usually use, the predecessor was a very good SoC in terms of its performance. With the G95, MediaTek is not attempting to fix what isn’t broken – it’s a safe bet on a good SoC.
Specifications
MediaTek Helio G90T
MediaTek Helio G95
CPU
2x ARM Cortex-A76 up to 2.05GHz +
6x ARM Cortex-A55 up to 2GHz
2x ARM Cortex-A76 up to 2.05GHz +
6x ARM Cortex-A55 up to 2GHz
GPU
ARM Mali-G76 3EEMC4 up to 800MHz
ARM Mali-G76 3EEMC4 up to 900MHz
Camera
3x ISP
64MP @22.5fps
24+16MP @30fps
3x ISP
64MP @22.5fps
48MP @ 30fps
24+16MP @30fps
AI
2x MediaTek APU up to 750MHz
2x MediaTek APU up to 750MHz
Voice Wakeup
Dual wakeup word
Dual wakeup word
Memory
LPDDR4x up to 10GB, 2133MHz (4,266 GT/s effective)
LPDDR4x up to 10GB, 2133MHz (4,266 GT/s effective)
Storage
UFS 2.1; eMMC 5.1
UFS 2.1; eMMC 5.1
Display
Up to 2400 x 1080, Full HD+, 21:9
Up to 2520 x 1080, Full HD+, 21:9
Display Refresh Rate
Up to 90Hz
Up to 90Hz
Modem
4G LTE Cat-12 (DL) / Cat-13 (UL) (FDD/TDD), 4×4 MIMO, 3CA, 256QAM, HUPE, IMS (VoLTE/ViLTE/WFC), eMBMS, Dual 4G VoLTE (DSDS), Global Bands, TAS 2.0
4G LTE Cat-12 (DL) / Cat-13 (UL) (FDD/TDD), 4×4 MIMO, 3CA, 256QAM, HUPE, IMS (VoLTE/ViLTE/WFC), eMBMS, Dual 4G VoLTE (DSDS), Global Bands, TAS 2.0
To tie it together, the MediaTek Helio G95 is based on a 12nm process, with 2x Cortex-A76 cores clocked @2.05Ghz and 6x Cortex-A55 cores. This is complemented by the ARM Mali G76 3EEMC4 GPU. Other features for the G95 include up to 10GB of LPDDR4X RAM clocked at up to 2133MHz. The SoC also supports up to 64MP single camera or 24MP plus 16MP dual camera configurations, along with the presence of pixel-binning support, and 240fps slo-mo, as well as AI facial detection. The chip also integrates dual wake-up word support, allowing phones to build in support for listening to more than one trigger word simultaneously. For networking, the series supports Cat-12 4G LTE modem with 3X CA and 4X4 MIMO technology. The Helio G95 also continues to feature the MediaTek HyperEngine game technology, boasting of gaming-centric features such as a networking engine, a rapid response engine, a resource management engine, a picture quality engine, call and data concurrency, and dual Wi-Fi connection. You can read more about these features in our G90 series announcement.
We expect to see smartphones from the new Helio G95 launching in key markets in the coming weeks, targeting the mid-range segment primarily.
The Android tablet market stands in no competition against Apple’s iPad lineup. But still, there’s ground to be covered at price points which Apple does not serve, and options to provide at the points where Apple continues to exist. Samsung’s premier tablets for this year are of course the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 and Galaxy Tab S7 Plus, but there’s definitely room for many more tablets to be spread across the price spectrum. Samsung appears to be working on a new tablet, as leaked renders now show off the Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 2020 in its Gold and Gray colors.
These leaked renders come to us courtesy of Evan ‘evleaks’ Blass and his Patreon, and they show off the upcoming tablet from Samsung in two colors:
The render shows off a surprisingly basic looking tablet with a single rear camera and a front with decently-sized bezels. The Samsung branding can be seen on the back. Evan does not mention anything else, but the Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 (SM-T505) had earlier appeared in its 10.4″ avatar in a Google Play Console listing. From the listing, we know that the device will come with a 10.4″ display with a resolution of 1200 x 2000 pixels. The tablet will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 SoC, and at least one variant will have 3GB of RAM.
From the looks and preliminary specifications, one can expect the Galaxy Tab A7 2020 to be targeting some of the early segments of the market. We can expect Samsung to offer multiple storage variants and possible options for Wi-Fi-only and LTE models. It isn’t immediately clear if the tablet would officially support the new S Pen just like the Galaxy Tab S7 series. But even if it does, it is unlikely that an S Pen would be included in the box as the target pricing is expected to be humble. There is currently no information on the existence of a smaller sized variant.
Update 1 (08/31/2020 @ 12:11 PM ET): Google Maps is now showing traffic lights on Android for many people in the U.S. Scroll to the bottom for more information. The article as published on July 8, 2020, is preserved below.
Google Maps is undoubtedly one of the most popular apps in Google’s portfolio, and the company often releases updates to make the service even better. Since its 15th birthday earlier this year in February, the app has received a ton of new features like Live View AR navigation, integrated menu scanning, a new real-time location sharing UI, YouTube Music integration, and much more. Now, according to a recent report from Droid-Life, Google has started testing a new feature that will show traffic lights in Google Maps on Android.
The report cites screenshots taken by a reader who lives in West Des Moines, Iowa, which show traffic lights in several intersections around the city. The traffic lights are visible both while using the traditional map view and while navigating, however, they do appear slightly bigger and more noticeable while navigating. The feature is expected to give users a heads up when they’re about to reach a traffic light and even help them plan their route ahead of time to avoid any unnecessary delay.
As of now, the feature is limited to just showing the traffic lights on the map and Google hasn’t included any additional functionality for users. However, that might change by the time the feature is released to more users. The feature currently appears to be in its early stages of development as it’s only available for a small number of users in certain regions on version 10.44.3 of the app. It’s also worth noting that Apple Maps has had a similar feature since last year which offers additional functionality like using Siri to alert users when they’re about to reach a traffic light.
Traffic light icons are now showing up for many people on Google Maps, at least in the United States (via AndroidPolice). You don’t need to turn the feature on manually nor do you need to activate traffic layers. The icons look the same when this feature was first spotted back in July, and they also automatically adapt to the map size. The icons appear when browsing the map or navigating.
Apart from fixing numerous bugs, the latest DP build of OxygenOS 11 revamps the built-in Gaming Mode by introducing features like floating window and accidental touch prevention. Moreover, OnePlus has managed to ship September 2020 Android security patches through this update, albeit the changelog doesn’t mention anything about it.
Thanks to XDA Senior Member jeffsga88 for the screenshot!
The complete changelog of this update is as follows:
System
Optimized display effects with some UI
Optimized the lagging issue under some settings
Optimized the stability with the upload of log in Community
Optimized delayed response issue with pull-down of the status bar
Fixed the crash/reboot issue under some settings
Fixed the all black issue with status bar in dark mode
Fixed the bug that system cannot be re-started after OTA upgrade
Fixed the disabled “save” feature of screenshot
Game space
Newly added gaming tools box for convenient switches of Fnatic mode, WeChat, QQ and Screen Recorder at one place (Enable it by swiping down from upper right/left corners of the screen in gaming mode)
Newly added mis-touch prevention feature. Enable it, swipe down from the top of the screen, click and the notification bar will pop out
Gallery
Fixed the abnormal increase of brightness when entering the Gallery
Fixed the incomplete screenshot issue in some cases
Shelf
Fixed the issue that background of weather did not display
Network
Improved the performance and stability of network transfers
Download: Android 11 Developer Preview 4 with OxygenOS 11 Design and Features for the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro
After downloading the appropriate package for your phone, go to Settings > System > System Updates, and then click on the top-right icon and select “Local Upgrade” option. From there, select the update package that you have downloaded and proceed.
It is worth mentioning that you probably need a new set of downgrade packages to revert back to the stable release channel. The existing ZIPs (listed below) might not be sufficient due to their older compilation timestamps.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G brings two key improvements over the Snapdragon 730G: a Prime core with higher clock speed (2.3GHz versus 2.2GHz) and a 15% improvement in the Adreno 618 GPU. Everything else remains the same as the Snapdragon 730G, which itself was a smaller gaming-centric improvement over the Snapdragon 730. Consequently, the Snapdragon 732G features 1x Kryo 470 “Prime” core clocked at up to 2.3GHz, 1x Kryo 470 “Performance” core clocked at up to 2.2GHz, and 6x Kryo 470 “Efficiency” cores clocked at up to 1.8GHz. The microarchitecture of the Prime and Performance cores are based on ARM’s Cortex-A76 design while the microarchitecture of the 6 Efficiency cores is based on ARM’s Cortex-A55 design. The SoC is fabricated on Samsung’s 8nm LPP process.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G also continues to feature several Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, just like the Snapdragon 730G. These features include Qualcomm Game Jank Reducer, Vulkan 1.1 Graphics Driver, True HDR, and anti-cheat extensions. There’s also the Spectra 350 Image Signal Processor with support for 4K HDR video capture, the 4th generation Qualcomm AI Engine with up to 3.6 TOPS, the Hexagon 688 DSP, Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ support, the Snapdragon X15 LTE Modem with support for 3-CA and 4×4 MIMO on two carriers, support for the Qualcomm FastConnect 6200 subsystem, and support for Qualcomm’s Aqstic audio codec, among other features.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G Specifications & Features
Qualcomm AI Engine
Adreno 618 GPU
Kryo 470 CPU
Hexagon 688 Processor
Hexagon Vector eXtensions
Hexagon Tensor Accelerator
Hexagon Voice Assistant Accelerator
Qualcomm® Sensing Hub
Qualcomm® Neural Processing SDK
Modem
Snapdragon X15 LTE Modem
Support for 800 Mbps LTE
Downlink: LTE Cat 15 up to 800 Mbps, 3 x 20 MHz carrier aggregation, up to 256-QAM, up to 4 x 4 MIMO on two aggregated carriers
Uplink: LTE Cat 13 up to 150 Mbps, Qualcomm® Snapdragon Upload+ (2 x 20 MHz carrier aggregation, up to 64-QAM)
Dual SIM Dual VoLTE (DSDV)
Qualcomm® All Mode with support for all major cellular modes plus LAA. Support for:
VoLTE with SRVCC to 3G and 2G, HD and Ultra HD Voice (EVS), CSFB to 3G and 2G
Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) with LTE call continuity
Low Power Geofencing and Tracking, Sensor-assisted Navigation
Near Field Communications (NFC) support
DisplayPort over USB Type-C support
Quick Charge 4+ technology
Part number: SM7150-AC
Perhaps the most exciting news coming along with this announcement is the fact that the SoC will first be featured in an upcoming POCO smartphone.
“Snapdragon 732G will deliver a powerful gaming experience, sophisticated on-device AI, and superior performance. We’re excited to work with POCO on the new POCO smartphone powered by the enhanced Snapdragon 732G globally.”
“We are extremely excited about the upcoming POCO smartphone and our collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies that allowed us to create the first device on the market with the latest Snapdragon 732G Mobile Platform. We believe the device will set a new benchmark in the mid-range category, completely redefining the relationship between a phone’s price and its capabilities.”
Neither Qualcomm nor POCO explicitly confirm the device’s marketing name. But considering the fact that POCO has already started teasing and talking about the POCO X3 NFC, one needn’t even guess which phone would be the first with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G.
Motorola burst back into the flagship scene earlier this year with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865-powered, 5G-enabled Motorola Edge+. Alongside the Edge+, Motorola also unveiled the slightly cheaper Edge with the upper mid-range (but still 5G-enabled) Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G. And about a month ago, Motorola had announced an even more affordable 5G-enabled smartphone in the form of the Moto G 5G Plus. Now, Motorola is bringing over this smartphone to the USA in the form of the Motorola One 5G.
Motorola One 5G: Specifications
Specification
Motorola Moto G 5G Plus / Motorola One 5G
Dimensions & Weight
168 x 74 x 9 mm
207g
Display
6.7″ FHD+ LTPS LCD
21:9 aspect ratio, 2520 x 1080
90Hz refresh rate
HDR10
Dual hole-punch display
SoC
Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G:
1x Kryo 475 (ARM Cortex-A76-based) Prime core @ 2.4GHz
The Motorola One 5G is a rebranded Moto G 5G Plus, but we’re okay with the rebranding because that was a terrible name in the first place. One of the highlights of this device is its 21:9 aspect ratio display. Motorola mentions that 87% of its users preferred a 21:9 aspect ratio, so that is what it adopted on this smartphone. You do get a 90Hz refresh rate, though the panel is LCD — but since this phone is not aiming to be a flagship, this specification isn’t judged as harshly. The smartphone itself has a humble design made largely out of polycarbonate, so most of the 207g weight is coming from the beefy 5,000 mAh battery.
On the inside, you get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G, which should help keep things running smoothly despite not being an 8-series flagship SoC.
The Motorola One 5G comes with Android 10 out of the box. The OS is largely left unadulterated, but you get a few Motorola touches like the “chop to launch flashlight” feature and the Moto Power Touch feature that lets you reassign the double-power-button press. The power button also integrates the fingerprint sensor.
Motorola is only committing to one year of Android OS updates and two years of security updates at this moment.
Pricing and Availability
The Motorola One 5G will be a sub-$500 device in the USA and will be available through AT&T (sub-6GHz) and Verizon (with mmWave) in 4GB + 128GB configuration. Motorola has not shared the exact date of availability and pricing yet, and we also presume that the mmWave variant will cost some more. There will not be any unlocked versions of this phone in the USA. It remains to be seen how this phone stacks up against cheaper devices like the recent Google Pixel 4a.
Upload+ (2 x 20 MHz carrier aggregation, up to 64-QAM)