Week 43 in review: Pixels start shipping, S10/Note10 fingerprint issues
This week a story broke that the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note10 series was susceptible to an exploit which would allow someone to unlock the phones with an unregistered fingerprint. Apparently the issue had to do with covering the fingerprint scanner surface with a silicone or TPU protector. Samsung has since swiftly fixed the issue with a software update.
Google’s Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL were in the middle of the news vortex yet again. They started shipping and some early adopters received their phone with a cereal as bonus. Then DxO Mark released its camera review, placing the would-be camera champ in the 8th spot alongside the Huawei Mate 20 Pro – not ideal for Google’s phone.
Google also addressed why its flagship can’t record 4K at 60fps, stating that users wouldn’t want to shoot video that takes up half a gigabyte for every minute – not with those 64GB/128GB Pixels they wouldn’t.
Finally it became clear that the Google Pixel 4 would reduce its 90Hz-capable screen to 60Hz when the brightness falls below 75%, likely to prevent flicker. Google promised that it will release an update to allow the 90Hz refresh rate at lower brightness settings soon.
Google released a list of manufacturers that will bring Android 10 to their devices by the end of this year. Those include HMD, Asus, LG, Motorola, Oppo, Realme, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Transsion and vivo.
Meizu announced the 16T powerhouse for China. Its 6.50-inch Super AMOLED has no notch, there’s a Snapdragon 855 under the hood, a ultrawide + regular + depth triple camera and a 4,500mAh battery capable of 18W charging.
Sony announced the Xperia 1 Professional Edition for Japan – it’s basically an Xperia 1 with a couple of software tweaks and a LAN-capable USB type-C port.
Samsung announced its latest chipset. The Exynos 990 that may end up powering the Galaxy S11 is built on a 7nm process, supports up to 120Hz display refresh rate, has support for a 5G chip, faster LPDDR5 memory and uses a custom 2x2x4 quad-core processor.
See you in a week!
Several banks in the UK, China, Israel and South Korea have either completely removed support or just disabled the fingerprint reader login.
The scanner can be bypassed with non-registered fingerprints with the help of a silicone cutout.
The updates are currently seeding in South Korea and will be rolled out in other countries in 24 hours.
Google surprised people who pre-ordered its latest flagship with some whimsy packaging. And yes, there’s cereal inside the box.
Nokia, Asus, LG, Motorola, Oppo, Realme, Samsung and Sony are among the companies expected to ship a stable version of Android 10 before the year’s end.
For now, the phone will likely remain exclusive to Japanese users.
Also, no notches or cutouts and an impressive price.
It’s even behind the Honor 20 Pro and the OnePlus 7 Pro.
Seems like we won’t be seeing HarmonyOS on Huawei phones soon.
It’s rumored to come with quad rear camera and up to 128GB of storage.
The new antenna should offer a better cell connection.
Its fastest core will run at 2.36 GHz, to be made on the 7nm process.
The tweet with the explanation also makes a passing reference to how much storage 4K @ 60fps video consumes.
There’s talk that the Foxconn facility in Chennai that makes these will also start producing XS models too.
The platform comes alongside a brand new 5G modem – Exynos Modem 5123.
MIUI 11 with tons of improvements and design changes is here.
The idea of a notch will soon become history.
