Weekly Authority: Edition #156
Welcome back to The weekly authority, the Android authority Newsletter with the most important Android and tech news of the week. The 156th edition continues …
All the hot news, broken down into flavorful pieces, hits the market.
Popular news this week
- Galaxy-Fold 3: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 reviews are out now and our guy Eric Zeman put days and around 6,000 words into explaining all the details that make this a true successor to the Fold 2: much more solid build, still not a real rival in most Part of the world, now with S Pen, water resistance, improved multitasking and app support, and more. But it still costs $ 1,800 and is still too expensive for most people. Nice to see Samsung perfect this build for those who can get the most out of these devices.
- Pixel 5a: My take on the Pixel 5a out this week was that the Pixel 5a does next to nothing, does it well, and I’ll stand by it a few days later. Our review of the device basically gave a lot of pointers to take the Pixel 4a 5G and add useful features like IP67, a significantly larger battery, and the addition of a metal construction. That makes it more robust in almost every sense of the word. It’s also $ 50 cheaper, but that’s because Google kept the same 60Hz panel, camera, and chipset, which seems to have some overheating issues. Anyway, with $ 450 in the US, it’s a great long-term buy, especially when the Pixel 6 series is around $ 1,000. Google discontinued the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 so get them while they last when you want them …
- Motorola launched its new Motorola Edge for 2021, which is targeting North America with a number of neat tricks to keep costs down while still offering premium features like a 6.8-inch LCD with a refresh rate of 144 Hz, a solid sounding triple camera setup, a Snapdragon 778G processor, 6/8 GB. to offer RAM and 128/256 GB of non-expandable storage, 5G with Sub-6 and mmWave, a 5,000 mAh battery and 30 W turbo power charge for 699 US dollars. It’s going to be tough at this price, but it will hit the market for $ 499, which looks pretty mega. The biggest flaw is only two years of major Android updates I would say.
- Gaming phones: Asus announced the new Asus ROG Phone 5S and ROG Phone 5S Pro with almost nothing compared to the previous 5, except for the Snapdragon 888 Plus, which brings little but not much to gamers.
- Qualcomm phone: Qualcomm’s smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders is a branding tech sheet built into a phone that you can buy for $ 1,499. It’s for Qualcomm fans. The company is clearly striving to create a brand that you want to own, like how Intel Inside worked marketing a generation of PCs and made AMD an underdog. But … it’s Qualcomm.
- Intel ArcSpeaking of Intel, Intel has revealed the name and some details of its first discrete GPU that can compete with Nvidia Geforce and AMD Radeon graphics cards called the Intel Arc. Just some limited spec details for now, but we still don’t plan to arrive before 2022 so don’t hold your breath just yet …
- Tesla bot: At Tesla’s AI Day presentation, which lasted more than 2.5 hours, Elon Musk unexpectedly unveiled the Tesla Bot, a humanoid robot that uses Tesla’s vehicle AI to eliminate “dangerous, repetitive, boring tasks.” more than one car company and will likely hire you.
reviews
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 Review: “A $ 200 price cut and additional features mean more value to the Galaxy Z Fold 3, but it’s still a challenge for most people.”
- Motorola Edge (2021) practical impressions: redefining the budget flagship?
- Honor Earbuds 2 Lite Review: An Honorable AirPods Alternative.
- RedmiBook 15 Pro Review: “Aims to make a dent in the market but instead makes one in Redmi’s reputation.”
characteristics
- Note: Samsung is going for mainstream foldables, will it pay off?
- Would you pay a subscription fee for ad-free Android and long-term updates?
- Androids: The Team That Built the Android Operating System is a new book on Android! Chapters four and five are published at Ars Technica, and the book is now available in paperback and e-book – longtime Android engineer Chet Haase is the author who is donating the proceeds to Black Girls Code and Women Who Code.
- Point-to-point wireless bridging between buildings – the cheap and easy way (Ars-Technica).
- X-ray audio devices: this is what Apple AirPods, Fender Stratocasters and Technics turntables look like from the inside (Wired).
- The Dresden Job – The Sopranos of Berlin: A brutal crime family and a multi-billion dollar theft of jewels (GQ).
- Sikh drivers are changing US trucking. Take a drive on the Punjabi American Highway (LA times).
Tech calendar
- September 8th: Lenovo Tech World 2021
- Also in September: Up to three Apple events? (iPhone 13, Watch Series 7, MacBooks, AirPods 3, more)
- Soon: Android12?
Tech tweet of the week
First: This twitter bot randomly picks street restaurants from around the world, with a Street View image and then the first three images from Google Images.
Second:
How am I supposed to laugh under these conditions, live love?
– Llama in a tuxedo (@LlamaInaTux) August 15, 2021
Have a great week!
Tristan Rayner, Managing Editor
