Thursday, December 31, 2020

Sony PlayStation 5 finally launches in India in February 2021, pre-order date announced

Just yesterday, we talked about how Sony managed to neglect the entire market of India when it came to officially launching its newest gaming console, the Sony PlayStation 5 (or PS5, in short). The situation came after months of tight-lipped silence from Sony, with no information being provided for launch or for pre-orders. With the new year coming in, Sony is giving Indian fans a reason to cheer: the PlayStation 5 is finally launching in India.

The Sony PlayStation 5 will officially be launched in India on February 2, 2021. Pre-orders for the gaming console will begin from Noon, January 12, 2021. You will be able to pre-order the console (until stock lasts, as Sony mentions explicitly in its announcement) from Amazon, Flipkart, Croma, Reliance Digital, Games The Shop, Shop at Sony Center, Vijay Sales, and select other authorized retail partners.

To recap, here are all the official prices:

  • PlayStation 5: ₹49,990
  • PlayStation 5 Digital Edition: ₹39,990
  • DualSense Wireless Controller: ₹5,990
  • DualSense Charging Station: ₹2,590
  • HD Camera: ₹5,190
  • Pulse 3D Wireless Headset: ₹8,590
  • Media Remote: ₹2,590
  • Some notable games:
    • Demon’s Soul: ₹4,999
    • Destruction Allstars: ₹4,999
    • Marvel Spiderman Miles Morales: Ultimate Edition: ₹4,999
    • Sackboy, a Big Adventure: ₹3,999
    • Marvel Spiderman: Miles Morales: ₹3,999

While this news is definitely the right way to start off the New Year for Indian fans, we can’t help but think of the practical stock situation. The next-gen consoles and gaming cards, including the PlayStation 5, the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, RTX 3080, RTX 3090, and the AMD Radeon RX 6800, RX 6800XT, RX 6900 — have all faced stocking issues throughout the world, with immediate demand far exceeding short term supply. While the situation should definitely improve a few weeks down the line, especially since we are now past the holiday and gifting season, but you should still keep your expectations grounded.

We hope Sony brings in enough stock of the PlayStation 5 to India, and customers have a smooth experience when the console becomes available.

The post Sony PlayStation 5 finally launches in India in February 2021, pre-order date announced appeared first on xda-developers.



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Amazfit GTR 2 Smartwatch Review: The Irresistible Package

Amazfit is a fairly popular wearables brand backed by Huami, a company that manufactures the uber-popular Mi Band fitness trackers and is partially owned by Xiaomi and its co-founder Lei Jun. Despite this association with a major brand such as Xiaomi, Huami and the Amazfit brand have operated autonomously since forever and has launched some of the finest value-for-money fitness products. This year, Huami announced the Amazfit GTR 2 and the GTS 2 globally back in October. These premium looking smartwatches are a notch above the Amazfit GTR and the Amazfit GTS in terms of design and address major pain points on the last years’ generations. The successors also come with Alexa integration, onboard storage, SpO2 monitoring, and so much more.

The Amazfit GTR 2 and the GTS 2 were launched in India earlier this month, and the company sent us the Amazfit GTR 2 for review. This review talks about the improvements to the existing features carried over from the first generation and the new features that make Amazfit GTR 2 a smarter watch. These conclusions are made after almost two weeks of usage.

Amazfit GTR 2 Specifications

Amazfit GTR 2 Specifications: Tap/click to expand

Specs Amazfit GTR 2
Size and weight
  • 46.4 x 46.4 x 10.7mm
  • Sports Edition: 31.5g (without strap)
  • Classic Edition: 39g (without strap)
Materials Sports Edition: Aluminum alloy case, polycarbonate back
Classic Edition: Steel case, polycarbonate back
Wrist band Sports Edition: Silicone straps
Classic Edition: Silicone-reinforced leather
Interchangeable, 22mm
Compatibility Android, iPhone
SoC unspecified
RAM/Storage unspecified
Network 2.4GHz WLAN for file transfer
Display 1.39-inch AMOLED (454 x 454 px)
Connectivity Bluetooth v5 BLE
GPS GPS + GLONASS
Sensors
  • PPG heart rate sensor
  • 6-axis accelerometer
  • 3-axis geomagnetic sensor
  • Barometer
  • E-compass
  • Ambient light sensor
NFC payments No
Battery 471mAh
IP rating No official IP rating; water resistance up to 50m in freshwater

Design

The Amazfit GTR 2 carries a lot of genetic traits from the first-gen GTR. The circular design, which in many ways was iconic to the Amazfit GTR, is retained on the GTR 2. The two crown buttons — one of which has a red accent — are placed on the right side of the dial, exactly like the previous generation model. However, the button’s functionality on the top has been changed, and instead of acting like a Home button, it now opens the menu; we will discuss it in detail in the later parts of the review dedicated to user experience.

Huami Amazfit GTR 2 Sports Edition smartwatch review

Unlike the first-gen Amazfit GTR, which used ceramic, the bezel on the GTR 2 is made of glass and blends with the display’s cover glass. Instead of a sharp design, the bezels are curved at the periphery. Even though the display size is the same as the last time, the bezel integrated within the display makes the dial look much bigger, especially when using a watch face with a dominantly dark background. The curved glass design is strikingly similar to another smartwatch from Huami’s camp — the Zepp E Circle — also launched recently. The design also appears similar to the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active and Active 2 but lacks support for touch gestures on the bezels. A thin strip where the display meets the aluminum body is transparent and gives an illusion that the glass is floating.

Huami Amazfit GTR 2 Sports Edition smartwatch review

The body of this watch’s variant is made of an aluminum alloy with a brushed metal finish. There is another variant that comes with stainless steel but costs ₹1,000 extra in India. The bottom panel on both of the variants is made of polycarbonate. Amazfit helps buyers distinguish between the model more easily by calling the aluminum alloy one, “Sports Edition,” and the stainless steel variant, “Classic Edition.” As these names imply, the former is more suited for sports because the Sports Edition weighs only ~31 grams (without strap). The Classic Edition isn’t significantly heavier either and weighs only 8g more. Other than its weight advantage, the aluminum alloy variant isn’t likely to hide scratches better than the shinier stainless steel model.

The aluminum alloy makes the GTR 2 very light and barely noticeable on the wrist.

In the longer run, I prefer using fitness bands over smartwatches because they are unintrusive and do not weigh my wrist down, and that is especially convenient while working out and sleeping. Thanks to its lightweight, the same also applies to the Amazfit GTR 2, which is gentle and low-key and does not make you want to take it off as soon as you wish to retire for the day.

The Amazfit GTR 2 does not come with an IP rating, but you do get water resistance till up to 5ATM or 50 meters (~164 feet) in freshwater. This means you can go swimming in a freshwater pool or keep wearing the watch in a shower without worrying about sabotaging it. However, it is not recommended to wear the watch while swimming in the sea or any other saltwater body.

Huami Amazfit GTR 2 Sports Edition smartwatch review

The Sports Edition comes with a silicone strap, while the Classic Edition features a silicone-reinforced leather strap just like the last year’s model — although in black color instead of tan. The buckles on the straps are also made of the same metal as the dials on both variants. While this move may not be as acceptable to all the users, Amazfit GTR 2 uses standard 22mm straps, and you can use an aftermarket strap of your choice. Notably, fibers from your clothes or sweat marks can get deposited on the silicone strap much more easily than the leather.

One more thing to note is that unlike the first-gen Amazfit GTR, which was available in 42mm and 47mm models, the Amazfit GTR 2 is only available in a single size — 46mm.

Huami Amazfit GTR 2 Sports Edition smartwatch review

On the bottom, the Amazfit GTR 2 features a speaker and microphone at the bottom. These are new additions to the Amazfit lineup and allow users to take calls from the watch when paired with smartphones. The speaker can also be used to listen to music stored on the smartwatch while the microphone can be used for voice commands that are apparently powered by Alexa.

Overall, the Amazfit GTR 2 feels very congenial, considering its simple yet elegant design. The usability is further enhanced because of its lightweight build.


Display

The usable part of the Amazfit GTR 2’s dial comprises a 1.39-inch AMOLED display, just like the previous generation. Not only does the display measure the same, but it also has the same resolution of 454 x 454 pixels, leading to a pixel density of 326ppi. This is one of the most pixel-dense displays on a smartwatch, and that is both — impressive and surprising — considering the Amazfit GTR 2’s price. The display is considerably bright and appears equally good indoors and outdoors, thanks to the inbuilt ambient light sensor that controls automatic brightness. Being an AMOLED display, the deep blacks allow the black bezels to blend into the display easily.

Huami Amazfit GTR 2 Sports Edition smartwatch review

The display comes with a fingerprint-resistant coating on top of the glass. Instead of opting for a relatively popular resistance feature such as Gorilla Glass, the top glass on the Amazfit GTR 2 is protected under an oDLC (optical Diamond-Like Carbon) coating. As the name suggests, this technique employs a diamond-like carbon film deposited on the glass with intricate techniques like Magnetron sputtering and it improves the glass’s hardness and resistance to scratches.

The AMOLED display on Amazfit GTR 2 is very fulfilling.

The display has punchy and saturated colors, including deep blacks thanks to the AMOLED panel. The Amazfit GTR 2’s display is easily readable outdoor as well as under strong light. Additionally, the smartwatch comes with an ambient light sensor that allows the display brightness to be adjusted according to the external light. Like many other popular smartwatches, the display can be locked by covering it with your palm. The display can also be turned on by flicking the wrist, tapping on it, or pressing the Menu button with a red accent.

Huami Amazfit GTR 2 Sports Edition smartwatch review

The AMOLED display also supports AOD (Always-On Display) if you want the watch to display fundamental information such as the time, steps, date & time, etc., throughout the day. For this, you can either choose between preset digital or analog AOD designs, which have been available since the Amazfit GTR from last year, or custom AOD screens that are set based on the watch face.

The AMOLED display on the Amazfit GTR 2 is as appetizing as it can get in quality and usability. The anti-fingerprint coating feels more than just a marketing gimmick, and you will not feel the need to wipe the display very frequently. Meanwhile, the touch response of the display feels great and better than the first-gen Amazfit GTR. Lastly, the curved bezels allow more room for the finger to move around while interacting with the display even though its size hasn’t changed from the previous generation.


Hardware

Huami does not declare any details about the internal hardware of the Amazfit GTR 2, including its CPU or RAM. It does, however, reveal that the smartwatch comes with 3GB of internal storage, exclusively for storing onboard music. This means the actual total storage is larger than 3GB, but Amazfit does not mention that. The Amazfit GTR 2 supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi for transferring music files from your phone to the smartwatch, while Bluetooth is used for smaller file transfers, such as in the case of system updates and watchfaces. Unlike the Amazfit Stratos and the Verge, the GTR 2 does not connect to a PC as USB mass storage.

Huami Amazfit GTR 2 Sports Edition smartwatch review

For fitness tracking, the Amazfit GTR 2 comes with a second-generation of Huami’s self-developed “BioTracker 2” PPG (photoplethysmography) sensor. This sensor is used to measure the heart rate and the oxygen saturation level in the blood (commonly known as SpO2). In addition to the PPG sensor and the above-mentioned ambient sensor, the watch also comes with an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a 3-axis geomagnetic sensor, and a barometric sensor. The watch also comes with inbuilt GPS and GLONASS support so that you can track your fitness trails without having to carry a smartphone with you all the time.

User Experience

The Amazfit GTR 2 user interface gets a range of cosmetic upgrades over the first-gen GTR and the GTS. Firstly, the new smartwatch gets a range of new, sharper, and vibrant icons.

Amazfit GTR 2 gets improved UX with new icons, vibrant colors, detailed metrics, and quick access to apps.

Apart from the icons, the Amazfit GTR 2 gets new tiles similar to Android’s Wear OS and allows users to quickly access vital information from different menu items by swiping left or right on the home screen. These tiles include PAI, activity goal status, heart rate details, weather, onboard music controls. You can also add up to five widgets called “Shortcut cards” for quick actions such as alarm, heart rate, weather, SpO2, PAI, and activity goal monitoring on one of the tiles. You can access the menu by pressing the top crown button, whereas the button on the bottom is preassigned to launch the Activities index, wherein you can choose which activities you want to track. The Menu button also acts as a Home button where you are on any other screen.

Huami Amazfit GTR 2 Sports Edition smartwatch review Huami Amazfit GTR 2 Sports Edition smartwatch review Huami Amazfit GTR 2 Sports Edition smartwatch review Huami Amazfit GTR 2 Sports Edition smartwatch review

You can scroll up to open notifications from the home screen and select the apps that can send you notifications from the Amazfit (now called Zepp) companion app. Each of these notifications appears as cards themselves, and you can expand each of them from the list by tapping on them. You cannot clear notifications on the watch, and they will remain in the Notifications pane until you clear them from the smartphone. Further, you cannot reply to the notifications directly from the smartwatch.

Additionally, you can scroll down on display to launch the home screen to launch the quick action toggles for:

  • Display brightness,
  • Do Not Disturb options,
  • Flashlight mode, in which the screen lights up at full brightness with a white background to emulate a flashlight
  • Screen lock,
  • Volume controls,
  • Battery saver mode,
  • Find phone,
  • Awake mode — which keeps the display on for 20 minutes after being activated, and
  • Theatre mode — which keeps the display brightness at the minimum and silences notifications

Other than the new and improved user interface, the Amazfit GTR 2 also receives a few features that weren’t available in the previous model. These include the new Stress management feature that detects any unusual cardiac activity without any movement.

Amazfit GTR 2 gets Mi Band 5's Stress management features but lacks guided breathing exercises.

Your stress levels are indicated by numeric values between 0 and 100 with values 0-39 for relaxed, 40-59 for normal, 60-79 for medium, and 80-100 for high stress. The feature description on the app also notes that some amount of stress or nervousness is actually healthy for your performance and mental stimulation, and thus, they have used the word “normal” here. Medium stress might be a reason to worry, and high stress can indicate a risk of high blood pressure or any cardiac diseases. However, unlike the Xiaomi Mi Band 5, the stress feature is not followed by a guided breathing exercise feature on the Amazfit GTR 2.

Onboard music, as I mentioned above, is another vital feature that the Amazfit GTR 2 supports. The smartwatch comes with 3GB storage dedicatedly for music. With the music you store on the watch, you can add tracks to your favorites or create playlists. The music can be played via inbuilt speakers or any other audio device connected to the watch directly using Bluetooth. For this, you don’t even need to rely on your smartphone and can conveniently leave it behind when you hit the road to fitness. Although Huami does not specify the Bluetooth audio codecs supported by the Amazfit GTR 2, the audio quality suggests that it only supports SBC connections and not AAC, which might be disappointing for audiophiles. So, if users prefer to carry their smartphones for music — or any other reason, they can also use the smartwatch to control music playback on the connected smartphone.

Calling with the Amazfit GTR 2 is jarring. Voice commands don't do any better either.

The speakers on the Amazfit GTR can also be used for receiving calls. You can enable the Zepp app option and then connect the smartwatch as a Bluetooth audio accessory. The feature does allow you to pick up calls directly from the smartwatch without reaching out for the phone, but you must ensure that the phone is not too far. In my usage, I received calls when the distance between the phone and the smartwatch was less than 2m (~6.5ft), and in case the distance increased, there was a great chance of dropping the call. Keep in mind that you cannot dial numbers or call contacts from the smartwatch itself.

Lastly, in addition to listening to music and calling, the Amazfit GTR 2 also supports voice commands. Huami says Alexa powers these voice commands, but instead of saying “Alexa” to initiate voice commands, you can twist your wrist once and then say commands like “Open Weather,” “What is my heart rate?” or “start tracking my workout,” etc. While the feature sounds really cool and useful in theory, it may not perform exactly how it is marketed. During my usage, voice commands are only understood by the watch when you are in a quiet environment, and this means that it will rarely work when you are outside or inside a noisy gym. Furthermore, while the feature is designed to facilitate commands starting with “Open…,” you will need to close the app manually and return to the home screen using the Menu/Home button for the watch to acknowledge your next command.

There is one notable issue that I have faced with the smartwatch, and that is its inability to automatically synchronize weather with an accurate location even though it tracks my outdoor activity without any issues. So, I have to enter my location manually in the Zep app, and it has a fairly short brief of cities. I am not sure if this is a general issue with the Amazfit GTR 2 or specific to my unit, but it is worth pointing out.

Even with its vices admitted, the user experience of the Amzafit GTR 2 is very convenient and better than the older GTR and most other devices in this price segment. Apart from the improved user experience and the new features, the Amazfit GTR 2 also gets better fitness tracking features discussed in the following section.


Zepp (formerly Amazfit) Companion app

The Amazfit app, just like the user interface on the Amazfit GTR 2, has also been overhauled and is now called Zepp. This likely appears to make the brand easy to pronounce and remember in the Western world. Huami also launched the Zepp E Circle smartwatch for the US earlier this year. The changes in the app are primarily new colors and icons, but the information presented is present pretty much the same as earlier. On the Homepage, the Zepp app offers you an overview of your fitness-related data such as daily step count, sleep, calories burnt, heart rate, PAI, and details about physical activity. If you have another smart tool from Huami or Xiaomi — like the Xiaomi digital weighing scale, the overview page will also show you your weight, body composition, BMI, etc. You can view comprehensive details related to physical activities or sleep by tapping on the relevant item from the Homescreen.

The Zepp app looks better than the Amazfit app but works almost the same.

Next, you can head over to the Enjoy page, where you will find options such as Alarm Clock, Reminders, voice command tutorial, watchfaces, target setting, call settings, etc.

Then, on the Profile page, you find your active devices, and you can enter into the settings menu for a particular device. On this page, you see various options to change the watchfaces, the order of apps or Shortcut cards, etc. You can also search for system updates, select settings for notifications by choosing which apps show notifications on the smartwatch and when alongside other alerts.

Overall, the Zepp app looks improved over the Amazfit app, and the visual facelift is among the primary reasons. There are a few redundant options, but I actually appreciate that Huami provides multiple options for the same setting so that users can easily spot different options from a set of features.

Zepp (formerly Amazfit) (Free, Google Play) →


Fitness Tracking

The Amazfit GTR 2 supports comprehensive activity tracking for 12 categories: running and trail running, treadmill, walking, pool and open water swimming, trekking, elliptical trainer, indoor or outdoor cycling, and free training or skiing. However, it is not limited to those activities and can also be used to track a wide variety of other activities. A few of the most exciting (and/or intriguing) ones, in my opinion, include race-walking, BMX cycling, fishing, parkour, calisthenics, pilates, yoga, a wide range of dance forms, Tai Chi, Taekwondo, hula-hooping, sledding, etc. There are a whole lot of other activities tucked away in the “Others” category. It is reasonable to believe that the Amazfit GTR 2 only measures the primary metrics (such as heart rate and foot movement) for these activities and may not be as accurate as a more premium smartwatch, which also uses data from other sensors.

The smartwatch is capable of measuring continuous heart rate. While the Zepp app only allows you to set the minimum interval to 1 minute, the watch takes much less time to measure the heart rate and detect heart rate changes almost every 15-20 seconds. This data can be read and presented by any third-party companion app like Notify & Fitness for Amazfit.

PAI

The Amazfit GTR 2, just like other Amazfit devices, also supports Personal Activity Intelligence or PAI — a trademarked health metric that combines data from all the different sensors and gives you a score based on your daily activity. The score is calculated for each individual differently based on their age, resting heart rate, gender, etc., and is therefore personalized for each user.

PAI is represented by a numeric value calculated based on all your physical activities in the last seven days. As you push each day, you gain some points and add to this value. Huami recommends that a user must maintain a PAI value of 100 or above for a healthy lifestyle. Since PAI is based on the activity in the last seven days, the number may also decrease if you withdraw from physical activities (as it did with me over the course of holidays).

While PAI is a useful measure of growth and is calculated uniquely for each user, Huami’s Zepp app also suggests ways users can improve this value.

Sleep

Besides detailed fitness tracking, the Amazfit GTR 2 can track sleep fairly well. As an advantage over the older models, the Amazfit GTR 2 also tracks REM sleep alongside the portions of light and deep sleep at night. Other than monitoring your sleep quality, the smartwatch can measure your heart rate throughout the night. If you prefer taking day naps, the Amazfit GTR 2 can track naps taken between 11 AM and 6 PM during the day. During this period, however, it only records light and deep sleep and not REM sleep. The Zepp app gives you suggestions to improve your sleep quality by comparing your sleeping and waking times and your light, deep, or REM sleep values with ideal values and gives you a score up to 100, with 100 representing the ideal sleep.

In addition to tracking the periods of different sleep patterns, the Zepp app takes note of the number of times you wake up or turn over to the other side while sleeping. Another feature uses the blood oxygen concentration, aka SpO2 value, to monitor the quality of breathing at night. This feature is currently in beta but may give you suggestions on how to sleep more comfortably at night.

SpO2

The Amazfit GTR 2 comes with a dedicated sensor to measure the concentration of oxygen in hemoglobin — a value that is commonly denoted as SpO2 and is measured in percentage. An SpO2 value between 95% and 100% is considered ideal for anyone with healthy lungs, and anything below 95% can be concerning. Patients suffering from chronic pulmonary diseases such as COPD have a much lower blood oxygen concentration value. The SpO2 value also decreases with an increase in altitude because the air gets thinner as we move away from the sea level. In the current times, a lower than usual SpO2 value can also be an early symptom of COVID-19. Of course, every person infected with COVID-19 may not have difficulty breathing or any symptom at all; therefore, just SpO2 cannot be used as a definitive diagnosis for the deadly virus.

SpO2 measurement on Amazfit GTR 2 is less hit and more miss.

When it comes to SpO2 measurement on the Amazfit GTR 2, it falls short of expectations. The measurement takes about a minute, and for that duration, you must keep the smartwatch tightly tied to your wrist. The measurement also requires you to stay stationary and keep the forearm straight on a flat surface like a table. Despite these efforts, the smartwatch can only measure the SpO2 values only one out of three times on average.

The Amazfit GTR 2’s inability to record SpO2 values efficiently also makes me skeptical about its ability to measure the breathing statistics at night.


Battery

The Amazfit GTR is equipped with a 471mAh battery, which is about 15% bigger than the first-gen GTR. With bare minimum functionality, the smartwatch is claimed to last up to 38 days. I, on the other hand, turned every possible feature to determine the minimum battery backup. Over the last two weeks of usage, the features I have turned on include:

  • Always On Display,
  • 24/7 heart rate monitoring,
  • Sleep tracking,
  • Sleep breathing analysis (i.e., continuous SpO2 measurement at night),
  • All-day stress monitoring,
  • Activity detection, which implied shorter intervals of heart rate detection during physical activities, and
  • GPS for outdoor positioning for at least an hour every day.

The battery backup on Amazfit GTR 2 gives delight.

With all these features turned on, I could get 4 days of usage per full charge. Having recently shifted from the OPPO Watch, which needs charging every day, this is surely delightful. Furthermore, the battery saver feature can extend the battery life by only measuring steps and sleep data. While using the battery saver, I could get nearly 10 hours of battery backup with 7% of battery left, and within this duration, the watch was also able to track five hours of sleep. Unfortunately, there is no way to turn off sleep tracking in the mode; otherwise, the backup could have been much longer.

Huami Amazfit GTR 2 Sports Edition smartwatch review

The Amazfit GTR 2 with a charging cradle in the box draws power from USB and supplies power to the smartwatch through pogo pin connectors that align with the electrodes on the back of the watch. Using the in-box charger, the Amazfit GTR 2 takes about 2 hours to charge fully, and that matches up to the official claims for 2.5 hours of charging time.


Conclusion

In my Amazfit GTR review last year, I stressed how the smartwatch was among the most visually appealing smartwatches — primarily for its bright display and the leather strap. This year, the Amazfit GTR 2 builds upon its strong point while also fixing most issues with the previous generation. The slight improvement in design is pivotal, but the most impact is that the user interface is now much more fluid and that the smartwatch now supports onboard storage. In addition to these features, the new SpO2 sensor might appease a few stat nerds that have the patience to deal with it.

Huami Amazfit GTR 2 Sports Edition smartwatch review

Even despite so many improvements and new features, the Amazfit GTR 2 may not be the perfect smartwatch. Some users might even argue about calling it a smartwatch because it lacks support for third-party apps. But all of those expectations are neutralized when we look at the price of the smartwatch. The Amazfit GTR is priced at $179 in the US, £159 in the UK, and ₹12,999 (~$177) in India, making it an excellent value for money.

It lacks a few software features, especially guided breathing and tracking for menstrual cycles — both of which are available on the much cheaper Mi Band 5 — but these features can be added with software updates over time. In terms of hardware, the Amazfit GTR 2 is a solid contender in the budget smartwatch market and could be a great choice for anyone looking for slightly more storage and better community support against the likes of the Honor Magic Watch 2. If you want a square dial, you can check out the Amazfit GTS 2, which was also launched alongside the Amazfit GTR 2 globally and in India.

    Amazfit GTR 2
      The Amazfit GTR 2 is one of the two new smartwatches launched by Huami and features premium features and extensive fitness tracking abilities despite a non-premium price tag.

        Pros:

        Cons:

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    TWRP 3.5.0 released with support for devices that launched with Android 10

    One of the most common reasons that users come to our forums is to flash custom mods, kernels, or ROMs. But none of these aftermarket development efforts are feasible without having the means to install them. That’s where the incredibly popular Team Win Recovery Project, or TWRP for short, comes in. Available on a plethora of Android-powered devices, TWRP has been the go-to custom recovery for anyone looking to modify the software on their device. And now, the project has been bumped to version 3.5.0, bringing many improvements in decryption, bug fixes, and support with devices that launched with Android 10.

    The full changelog for the new major version of TWRP can be found below, but for regular users and developers, the most important change will be Android 10 compatibility. Till TWRP 3.4.0, support for dynamic/logical partitions and many other changes introduced in AOSP 10 hadn’t been fully implemented. Most of the limitations are no longer present in TWRP 3.5.0, which means devices that are released with Android 10 out of the box can finally install official TWRP builds when available. XDA Recognized Developer Captain_Throwback worked with XDA Recognized Developer mauronofrio, XDA Senior Member noahajac, and AndroidableDroid to make this possible by rewriting a significant portion of the TWRP codebase from scratch.

    Going forward, TWRP maintainers will be presented with two separate branches while porting the custom recovery: Devices that are released with Android 10 will be supported under the android-10 branch, while legacy devices will be built out of the android-9.0 branch. Moreover, two lead TWRP team members, XDA Senior Recognized Developer Dees_Troy and bigbiff, are already working on an Android 11 release, with the Google Pixel 5 bring up slated for the near future.

    Here’s the full changelog for the update:

    TWRP 3.5.0 Changelog

    • Android 9
      • Fix building in android-5.1 trees – CaptainThrowback
      • New QTI Haptics Support – AndroidableDroid
      • New TSPDriver Haptics Support – LameMonster82
      • Selinux restore issues – AndroidableDroid
      • OEM build fixes – Fighter19
      • More file extension support in Gui file selector – Mauronofrio
      • FBE Fixes – CaptainThrowback
      • Ozip Decryption – Mauronofrio
      • Don’t use persist for recovery logs – bigbiff
      • Delay touch startup if necessary – bigbiff
      • Spanish translation Updates – R0rt1z2
      • Fix cache wiping on Slot A only devices – AndroidableDroid
      • Exclude dumpsys directory from backups – DarthJabba9
      • Gerrman translation Updates – 4ndyZ
      • HW Rotation during runtime (does not affect touch panel) – webgeek1234
      • API 24 fixes – AndroidableDroid
      • vold_decrypt error on unmount – CaptainThrowback
      • Multiuser – warn when users are not decrypted – noahajac
      • FDE encryption fixes – CaptainThrowback
      • Crypto state fixes – nebrassy
      • Chinese translation Updates – Whyle
      • Theme updates to match android-10 release: CaptainThrowback
      • Move TWRP App install to Advanced page – Dees_Troy
      • Update Russian Translation – f2065
    • Android 10
      • You can see the list of changes at Github

    You can download the latest build of the custom recovery for your device from the official website linked below. For now, version 3.5.0 will be built for only Android 9 Pie and Android 10-based devices, so if your device is currently being maintained, then you should see an update in a few hours or days. Be sure to check the XDA forum for your device as the TWRP maintainer for your device may post updates when the build goes live.

    Download TWRP for your device

    In case you want to download the latest version of TWRP right from your device, you should check out the official TWRP app from Google Play.

    Official TWRP App (Free+, Google Play) →

    The post TWRP 3.5.0 released with support for devices that launched with Android 10 appeared first on xda-developers.



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    Brighten up your living room with a new Hisense 4K TV, currently on sale at Best Buy

    I have a story for you all. TVs are a big-ticket item during Black Friday sales, and of course, I covered a lot of TV sets. I didn’t look for one myself, though, as even if my TV was older, it was still going strong. Wouldn’t you know it, shortly after the big rush, one of my two HDMI connections started acting up, which is a big problem because the Chromecast with Google TV doesn’t play well with an HDMI splitter.

    So suddenly, after the holiday season, I’m in the market for a new TV. Thankfully, Best Buy is closing out 2020 with a Smart TV sale! All sorts of different brands and sizes are on sale, but the ones that caught my eye are the Hisense 4k TVs. The most impressive deal of the Hisense bunch is probably the 70-inch H65. It’s a large 4K UHD TV with Android TV with 3 HDMI ports. A 60Hz refresh rate isn’t always ideal for gaming, but I mean… it’s a 70-inch 4k TV for just $530. You can’t really beat it!

      Hisense 70-inch H65 4K TV
      Looking for a big TV upgrade? The Hisense 70-inch H65 4K TV is on sale for just $530! With Android TV included, you'll have all your entertainment in one place.

    For me, though, 70-inches is a bit too big for my room, which is on the small side. I’m not able to sit too far away from the TV, so a 70-inch Hisense 4K TV model could make me motion sick unintentionally because I’m too close. In that case, the 50-inch H6510G 4K TV would suit me better. This model effectively has the same specs as the 7-inch Hisense 4K TV, with Android TV and 3 HDMI ports, but it’s on sale for $280. That’s an extremely affordable price!

      Hisense 50-inch H6510G 4K TV
      Looking for a not-so-big TV upgrade? The Hisense 5-inch 4K TV is also on sale! With Android TV included, you'll have all your entertainment in one place.

    These Hisense 4K TVs aren’t the only two TVs that are on sale, though, and Hisense isn’t the only brand on sale either! Check out Best Buy’s Smart TV sale page and see what all is on offer–who knows if this deal will continue in the new year!

    The post Brighten up your living room with a new Hisense 4K TV, currently on sale at Best Buy appeared first on xda-developers.



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    XDA Awards – The Best Tech of 2020

    Despite all the notable events this year, 2020 has been incredible for consumer tech, and more specifically, smartphones. A lot of companies went all out with their devices, flooding the market with great options catering to a wide variety of needs and wants. We at XDA have used a lot of these gadgets throughout the year, so here are what we think are the best smartphones of 2020.

    Navigate this article:


    Best Overall Smartphone: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2

    The best smartphone overall is the one phone that everyone should consider buying to get the best overall experience. It’s the phone that is not only at the pinnacle of smartphone innovation but is also one that is refined enough to deliver a cohesive experience to the average consumer. Of course, it also needs to have the best combination of top-tier specifications to carry forward the weight of the whole brand with it. It’s not just about the specifications alone—it’s about the whole story. It’s quite a no-brainer that the award for the best overall smartphone this year goes to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2.

    The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 does everything that a flagship can do, and then it folds. It’s the first foldable that is truly consumer-ready with no major flaws, refining the experience from the original Fold and the Galaxy Z Flip. The pricing on the device is high, there’s no escaping that. But what you do get out of it is a phone that stands out in the crowd in all the right ways. It’s big on style, raw horsepower, and practicality. If you want customization, you can choose a different hinge color. You get to be the talk of the town and also get your work done while you’re at it. If we sound obsessed, it’s probably because we are — the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is a great phone that sets the bar very high in a nascent category that has immense potential. It lives up to the Fold legacy but has enough of its own brand power to carve out its own identity. The Galaxy Z Fold 2 is the smartphone of the year, and having one in our hands makes us very excited in anticipation of what could be next.

      Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2
      The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is the phone of the future available in the present. It's got everything we want out of a top tier flagship -- great design, great specifications, great display -- and then it folds. You can even add a touch of customization by selecting your own hinge color, giving you one unique phone in your hand.

    Honorable Mentions for Best Overall Smartphone

    The runner-ups for this section are two smartphones that also provide excellent experiences all around — smartphones with just the right hint of extras to deliver a nearly perfect experience. They aren’t necessarily bleeding edge in what they do, but they handle their duties with a level of finesse that is difficult to find in other smartphones. It’s about the experience, and two of the best ones on offer are the Apple iPhone 12 and the Google Pixel 5.

      Apple iPhone 12

      The Apple iPhone 12 is the iPhone to get this year, because it offers the best of the Apple experience without the extra fluff (and price bump) from the Pro and Pro Max versions. It will serve all your modern smartphone needs, especially with a very capable camera for photos and videos.
      Google Pixel 5

      The Google Pixel 5 may not have the top-end processor, but there is more to a smartphone experience than just raw horsepower. If you're looking for a refined Android experience, with arguably the best photography setup on a smartphone, the Pixel 5 deserves all of your attention.

    Best Premium Flagship: Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra

    samsung galaxy note 20 ultra copper

    A premium flagship is, to us, a phone that pulls no punches in packing specs, features, and (unfortunately) price. It’s not enough to have just the latest processor — it needs to have all the extra bells and whistles too. A premium flagship is almost always expensive, but the target audience is okay with that. In fact, they want to flaunt the premium-nature of their purchase. And for us, the best premium flagship this year is the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

    Everything about this phone — from the 6.9-inch Super AMOLED display that can refresh up to 120Hz and get as bright as 1500 nits, to the matte copper finish that under certain lighting appears gold, to the seemingly purposefully bulky camera module housing three prominent lenses — screams premium. This is the powerful phone for the power user. With a Snapdragon 865+, 12GB of RAM, and a speedy UI that can act as a desktop computer via Samsung DeX, the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra can handle everything you throw at it, and then some more. That gorgeous OLED display with razor-thin bezels and a variable refresh rate ensures it’s optimal for fun too. Then there’s the S Pen. While a stylus is not useful for day-to-day browsing, when we do need to sign the occasional e-document or make pinpoint photo crops, the S Pen is still mightier than the fingertip.

      Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
      The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is the maximum flagship with overkill across the board. It's the most premium experience that you can get on Android, with unique features like the S Pen that continue to stay unmatched by competitors. All bells and whistles included in this power package.

    Honorable Mentions for Best Premium Flagship

    We’ve tested a lot of excellent premium flagships in 2020, but one that a lot of us keep coming back to is the OnePlus 8 Pro. It’s the first truly premium flagship from OnePlus, and it delivers OnePlus’s signature clean and fast experience in an absolutely impressive package. It is one of the best performing Android smartphones on the market, but it’s also one that is a better eye candy than the usual crop of gaming smartphones. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 also receives an honorable mention. While it does deliver one of the best overall experiences on Android, it does hold back a few very small punches in areas like camera and some more, primarily to accommodate all the folding tech.

      OnePlus 8 Pro

      The OnePlus 8 Pro is a proper premium flagship from the company forever known for starting off the affordable flagship trend. This premium flagship goes head-to-head against all the bulls of the market, and comes out towards the top thanks to its clean experience and powerful hardware.
      Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2

      The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is the phone of the future available in the present. It's got everything we want out of a top tier flagship -- great design, great specifications, great display -- and then it folds. It remains a great choice as a premium flagship.

    Best Affordable Flagship: OnePlus 8T

    The homescreen of the OnePlus 8T Cyberpunk 2077 Edition

    An affordable flagship smartphone is a phone that comes with a flagship-grade processor (meaning Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 or its MediaTek/Exynos/HiSilicon/Apple equivalent) and all the other parts necessary to be a top-dog, but costs under $800 to satisfy users who want to splurge within reason. Pricing is definitely a factor here, but so is the experience, so the best affordable flagship is the one that most users look at to get top-tier performance without breaking the bank. And we don’t think any phone does that better than the OnePlus 8T.

    The OnePlus 8T carries over a lot of what made the OnePlus 8 Pro a runner-up for our premium smartphone category, but it has a few compromises that let it hit a lower price tag. It’s the T upgrade that makes sense. The phone trades the QHD+ display for a still-respectable FHD+ display but retains the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 that gives the device its great performance. Other trade-offs are smaller downgrades, but you do get an upgrade in charging speeds with OnePlus’s proprietary Warp Charge 65 on the 8T, letting you spend less time hugging a wall than with any other OnePlus smartphone.

      OnePlus 8T
      The OnePlus 8T is our choice when it comes to the best affordable flagship this year. It packs in the latest top end processor and several key technologies while compromising in just the right areas to keep the price under $800.

    Honorable Mentions for Best Affordable Flagship: Apple iPhone 12 and Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G

    The runner-ups for this section are two smartphones that also come with flagship processors and deliver flagship performance, right on par with our winner. The race is close, and the runner-ups could arguably swap places with the winner too. The Apple iPhone 12 and the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G are our runner-ups for the best affordable flagship, letting users experience the best in terms of performance while staying within a practical budget.

      Apple iPhone 12

      The Apple iPhone 12 is the iPhone to get this year, because it offers the best of the Apple experience without the extra fluff (and price bump) from the Pro and Pro Max versions. It will serve all your modern smartphone needs, especially with a very capable camera for photos and videos.
      Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G

      The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G comes with the flagship Snapdragon 865 SoC, granting it performance comparable to the other stalwarts in Samsung's lineup. The polycarbonate body fits right into the simple look, bringing down the price tag to the realms of practicality.

    Best Mid-Range Smartphone: Google Pixel 4a

    Google Pixel 4a Barely Blue

    Google’s Pixel phones have consistently offered less value-for-money compared to Samsung’s Galaxy phones and dozens of more affordable models from Chinese OEMs. But despite the gap in hardware, Pixel phones have remained competitive because of Google’s prowess in software support and image processing. Down in the mid-range space, which we define as phones with sub-$500 prices and Qualcomm’s 7-series chips (or their MediaTek/Exynos/HiSilicon equivalent), excellent software can elevate the otherwise middling experience that we’ve come to expect from phones with middle-of-the-road hardware components. No phone demonstrates this better than the Google Pixel 4a, which is why we’ve crowned it the Best Mid-Range Smartphone of 2020.

    Announced in early August, the Google Pixel 4a is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 730G, 6GB of RAM, and a 3140mAh battery. It has a relatively small 5.8” Full HD OLED panel at a standard 60Hz refresh rate and the same front and rear cameras we’ve seen in previous generations of Pixel phones. Where the Pixel 4a truly shines is with the official Google Camera app—features like HDR+, Night Sight, Astrophotography, Portrait Mode, and Super Res Zoom make for some compelling shots from both cameras. And the Pixel 4a has already received an OS upgrade to Android 11, with further updates planned to bump the OS to Android 12 and 13, not to mention the consistent monthly security updates and Pixel Feature Drops to keep your phone feeling fresh. At a price of just $349 in the U.S., the Google Pixel 4a is also arguably one of Google’s best value-for-money phones yet.

    Other OEMs like Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Samsung have made great strides in improving their mid-range smartphones, so the next Pixel A phone will need to make a great showing next year, or Google risks losing its edge.

      Google Pixel 4a
      The Google Pixel 4a is our pick for the best mid-range smartphone thanks to Google's software prowess elevating good hardware to a great experience.

    Honorable Mentions for Best Mid-Range Smartphone

    Both the OnePlus Nord and the POCO X3 are excellent devices in their own right and even trump the Pixel 4a in regions where it isn’t on sale. While the POCO X3 offers a more complete hardware package, OnePlus’s OxygenOS elevates the OnePlus Nord to deliver a stronger punch compared to POCO’s MIUI experience. This makes the software one of the defining features in our determination of the best mid-range smartphone since everyone can throw together a good combination of specs, but many fail when it comes to software.

      OnePlus Nord

      The OnePlus Nord marks OnePlus's return to the mid-range, and it does so with a good combination of specifications that should serve most users very well. OxygenOS is the cherry on top, highlighting the clean user experience that is also seen on the company's flagships.
      POCO X3 NFC

      The POCO X3 (/NFC) pulls together one of the strongest combination of hardware components in the mid-range segment, and further pulls the price down to ~$220 in some regions. It's a no-brainer purchase at that point, thanks to the insane value proposition it brings about.

    Best Value for Money Smartphone: POCO X3

    Many people looking to make a purchase on a new smartphone ask whether or not they’re getting their money’s worth. The smartphones that offer the most value give you the strongest combination of hardware at the lowest possible price. Our pick this year for the best value for money you can get in a smartphone is the POCO X3. POCO’s smartphones have always been great choices for when you want the best bang for your buck, but the POCO X3, in particular, takes the cake for the best value proposition the company has ever put out. For a price of €205 (~$250) in Europe and even less in China and India (albeit with some changes like a bigger battery and no NFC in the latter market), the POCO X3 offers a 120Hz LCD panel, a 5,160 mAh battery with 33W fast charging (charging brick included), the Snapdragon 732G, a really solid 64MP main camera, and Gorilla Glass on the front and back.

    POCO didn’t skimp on the little things either: The haptic engine is strong and precise, there’s a headphone jack, and the phone is even rated IP53 for splash resistance. We’ve handled a lot of smartphones this year, but the POCO X3 is the best budget smartphone that can pass for a great mid-range flagship unless you really nitpick.

      POCO X3 NFC
      The POCO X3 (/NFC) pulls together one of the strongest combination of hardware components in the mid-range segment, and further pulls the price down to as low as ~$220 in some regions. It's a no-brainer purchase at this point, thanks to the insane value proposition it brings about. This is the most smartphone you can get for the least money.

    Honorable Mentions for Best Value for Money Smartphone

    The Google Pixel 4a is our pick for the best mid-range smartphone, but it is also a strong contender in the best value for money category. The iPhone 12 Mini also makes an appearance despite its higher-than-Android price tag since it is practically a proper Apple flagship, just in a smaller package and a relatively-cheaper price tag to match. Both of these smartphones offer a great software experience, and you’ll notice them as also being the cheaper options of the devices that made it in our runner-ups for the best overall smartphone. Software does indeed matter a lot for both the overall experience and for value-for-money, and you get the best with these.

      Google Pixel 4a

      The Google Pixel 4a is our pick for the best mid-range smartphone thanks to Google's software prowess elevating good hardware to a great experience. This also makes it a great value-for-money smartphone.
      iPhone 12 Mini

      The iPhone 12 Mini is practically a flagship in a small form factor, with most bells and whistles included. You even get the signature Apple photography experience, all at a relatively cheaper price.

    Best Compact Smartphone: Apple iPhone 12 Mini

    The iPhone 12 Mini

    The iPhone 12 Mini

    Compact smartphones are a dying breed on Android, if not completely dead. We can expect Android OEMs to take a renewed interest in this space thanks to the Apple iPhone 12 Mini, which wins our award for the best compact smartphone this year.

    The Apple iPhone 12 Mini is practically an Apple flagship packed into a tiny body, which as a consequence, means it has a smaller battery and lacks the third rear camera. Other than these, you get all the bells and whistles that you get on the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 Pro, making this the premier choice for people who prefer smaller phones. Smaller Android phones have traditionally been butchered by compromising heavily on the specifications. Hopefully, that changes in 2021. For now, bow down to the iPhone 12 Mini as your miniature smartphone king.

      iPhone 12 Mini
      The iPhone 12 Mini is practically a flagship in a small form factor, with most bells and whistles included. You even get the signature Apple photo and video experience, all at a fraction of the cost and size of Apple flagships.

    Honorable Mentions for Best Compact Smartphone

    The Google Pixel 4a and the Google Pixel 5 may not be the smallest smartphones around, but they shine as two of the few relatively smaller Android smartphones that still deliver a great experience. There’s just a big vacuum for compact devices in the Android smartphone market, especially from mainstream brands, so the Google Pixel 4a (5.8″) and Google Pixel 5 (6.0″) come up as runner-ups for lack of better options.

      Google Pixel 4a

      The Google Pixel 4a is a good, compact, mid-range smartphone thanks to Google's software prowess elevating good hardware to a great experience. This also makes it a great value-for-money smartphone.
      Google Pixel 5

      The Google Pixel 5 might be walking the line on being a 'compact' smartphone, but its smaller than most Androids. If you're looking for a happy-medium sized Android, the Pixel 5 deserves all of your attention.

    Best Gaming Smartphone: ASUS ROG Phone 3

    Gaming used to be reserved for PCs and consoles, but these days, it’s totally feasible for a gamer to spend the majority of — if not the entirety of — their time on a mobile device. Thanks to cloud gaming services, mobile gamers no longer have to settle for bite-sized adventures with limited gameplay loops. And as modern phones continue to get beefier, the processing power needed to flawlessly run retro console emulators can be found in more and more devices. But while basically every mid-range and flagship Android phone can play Google Stadia or emulate a PS1, only gaming phones can provide an out-of-the-box experience that truly makes your phone feel like a handheld console. By far the best phone that does just that is the ASUS ROG Phone 3, which is why we think it’s the Best Gaming Phone of 2020.

    The ROG Phone 3 features Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 Plus system-on-chip; up to 16GB of RAM; a 6000mAh battery; and a 6.59” notchless, Full HD+ resolution, 144Hz refresh rate display. That’s more than enough power to run every mobile game flawlessly or near flawlessly — including the graphically intensive Genshin Impact — for hours on end. In addition, the ROG Phone 3 provides the best out-of-the-box mobile gaming experience with its plethora of gaming-related features, such as the ultrasonic AirTrigger 3 gestures, per-game Armoury Crate customizations, and in-game GameGenie overlay. If you splurge a bit on accessories, you can pick up the excellent ROG Kunai 3, which can turn your phone into a pseudo-Nintendo Switch-like console when placed in a special case. There’s much, much more to the gaming experience than we can describe here, but we can comfortably say that the ROG Phone 3 blows its competition out of the water when it comes to gaming features.

      ASUS ROG Phone 3
      The ASUS ROG Phone 3 is the phone to get if smartphone gaming is your top-priority. It over-delivers on all aspects necessary for a great gaming experience, even on the go with its huge 6,000 mAh battery. It also has a wide accessory ecosystem to further improve your gaming experience.

    While ASUS maintained the edge in mobile gaming hardware this year, they have old and new competitors to watch out for next year. Nubia’s Red Magic phones significantly undercut ASUS ROG phones in terms of price while still offering flagship-tier gaming performance, but Red Magic phones lack the same polish, offer worse software support, and are accompanied by fewer high-quality gaming accessories. Lenovo’s new Legion gaming phone is an interesting contender on paper, but we haven’t had the opportunity to put it to the test just yet. We’ll be keeping an eye out on Nubia, Lenovo, and whatever other brands try to enter the growing — but niche — gaming phone market.


    Best Smartphone Camera: Huawei P40 Pro+

    huawei p40 pro xda periscopic camera

    Smartphone cameras improved a lot this year, with many OEMs choosing to up their game on the main sensor while adding in even more sensors as well. For our award in this category, we are not only considering the overall photo and video quality but also taking into account the versatility of the front and rear cameras. The best camera on a smartphone needs to be an overall camera champ, and in our opinion, the Huawei P40 Pro+ does it best this year across the board.

    The Pro model of Huawei’s P-series has been the pioneer in mobile photography over the past couple of years. The Huawei P20 Pro was the first smartphone to use a larger image sensor with more pixels for pixel-binning purposes, and the Huawei P30 Pro used a Periscope zoom lens a full year before Samsung. With this year’s Huawei P40 Pro, Huawei made more game-changing camera improvements, including a 50MP RYYB camera with the industry’s largest image sensor and an ultra-wide-angle camera that is significantly more detailed than other ultra-wides. But while the Huawei P40 Pro’s 5x optical Periscope zoom lens is still class-leading, Huawei saved its biggest camera breakthrough for the Huawei P40 Pro+ in the form of a 10x optical zoom lens. The technology is still a Periscope camera — meaning the lens is placed sideways in the phone’s body to allow light information to travel further — but the Huawei P40 Pro+’s implementation features a larger sensor and a longer travel path, hitting five magnifying glasses along the way. The result is 10x zoom images that are near-lossless in quality and 20x shots that are still easily Instagrammable. In terms of pure camera hardware prowess and versatility, the Huawei P40 Pro+ was a step ahead of the competition.

      Huawei P40 Pro+
      The Huawei P40 Pro+ has arguably the best camera setup on a smartphone across the board, whether it be front or back, photo or video, versatility or quality. It flew under the radar for most people because of its limited availability.

    Honorable Mentions for Best Smartphone Camera

    The runner-ups in this category are crucial because these are phones that you can readily buy. It should come as little surprise that the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra occupy these spots. The Google Pixel 5, albeit excellent in what it does, misses out as it is less versatile compared to these two, even though a lot of users do find Google’s phone excellent for still photography.

      Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max

      The iPhone 12 Pro Max is Apple's premier flagship, and the best choice for videography on a smartphone. It's equally competent for still shots too, with a lot of prowess towards low-light photography.
      Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra

      The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is the maximum flagship with overkill across the board. It's got an equally overkill camera setup that aces with both video and photo on the front and back camera setups.

    Best Design on a Smartphone: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2

    Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 review

    We’ve all come to know smartphones are those rectangular slabs of glass, plastic, and metal that everyone is glued to. Smartphone makers have come up with a few design tricks to make their phones seem unique – color-changing backs, quad-curved displays, and most recently, under-display cameras. But hiding the cameras and trimming the bezels doesn’t change the fact that these phones still have the same basic rectangular shape that we’ve seen in years past. However, there are a few smartphone makers bucking design conventions with nontraditional form factors. By far the most innovative, promising, and thus far successful alternative smartphone design can be found in Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 2, which wins our Best Design of 2020 award.

    To put it simply: the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is an engineering marvel. Samsung’s foldable is so far ahead of its competitors — of which there are very, very, few — that it doesn’t seem like the competition has a chance at catching up. Samsung made so many dramatic improvements in its gen-two foldable that we’re utterly convinced that foldables are the future of smartphone design. Everyone else’s foldables — again, of the very few that actually exist — feel like they’re stuck in gen 1 while Samsung is gearing up to launch gen 3 of its product.

      Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2
      The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is the phone of the future available in the present. It's got everything we want out of a top tier flagship -- great design, great specifications, great display -- and then it folds. You can even add a touch of customization by selecting your own hinge color, giving you one unique phone in your hand.

    That’s not to say that others aren’t trying. Far from it, in fact. While Samsung dominates the foldable display market, it has yet to challenge smartphone makers in other emerging form factors. Had Microsoft’s dual-screen Surface Duo featured better specs and a lower price, we might have sung its praises. LG’s swiveling Wing phone is as zany as it sounds but somehow makes sense. Many people were initially skeptical about foldable phones, but Samsung’s gen 2 product convinced enough people to back the form factor. Who’s to say that the same won’t happen with the gen 2 versions of Microsoft’s Surface Duo and LG’s Wing?

    Honorable Mentions for Best Design on a Smartphone

    As mentioned, the LG Wing appears to be truly whacky, but it works well. We applaud LG for taking a big risk with design and delivering a phone that stands out (and swivels!). On the other hand, Apple went back a few years in history with the Apple iPhone 12 series, and consumers actually applauded the nostalgia this brought along.

      LG Wing

      The LG Wing takes your typical glass slab design, and turns it around, quite literally. The swivelling screen and the pop-up camera give us a smartphone that has more screen real estate than we know what to do with.
      Apple iPhone 12

      The Apple iPhone 12 series was praised for its boxy design that rode upon nostalgia. Consumers loved it, strangely, and it worked out for Apple in the end with a glass slab that looked different from other glass slabs.

    Most Innovative Smartphone: LG Wing

    We just got done crowning the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 as the best-designed smartphone of 2020, but we aren’t crowning it as the most innovative. That’s because, despite how substantial its improvements are over the original Galaxy Fold, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 doesn’t show us anything we haven’t been expecting already. The LG Wing, on the other hand, completely turns the notion of how you use a phone on its head. That’s why the LG Wing wins our Best Innovation of 2020 award.

    Despite its many quirks, the LG Wing has made us rethink how multitasking should work on smartphones. It seems obvious that simply having a bigger footprint (like on a foldable device with its display unfolded) will make multitasking easier — after all, you have more room to work with, right? But it’s not that simple because there are generally very few apps that take advantage of the expanded screen size of an unfolded device. Instead, what if you had a second, much smaller screen that exists solely to augment the experience of using the larger, more standard screen? That’s exactly what LG envisioned with the Wing, and it turned out far better than we had thought.

    With the LG Wing, you can efficiently type by holding the phone in either an inverted T position so the larger screen serves as a full-screen keyboard. With the phone in a T position, you can watch videos on the larger screen up top and control the brightness, the volume level, and scrub back and forth with controls on the smaller screen below without having to interrupt playback, pull down the notification panel, or press any physical buttons. While you’re driving, you can have Google Maps open in portrait mode on the larger screen and keep your YouTube Music pinned to the smaller screen on the left or right. There are surprisingly a lot of ways to use the LG Wing, and the best part is that you can totally ignore the smaller screen when you don’t need it since it tucks away underneath the larger screen. The LG Wing has a lot of gen 1 quirks — most Android apps don’t scale very well onto the tiny 3.9” display, the LG keyboard app is terrible, and there just aren’t that many apps that show anything useful on the second screen — but it’s an innovative take on smartphone design that we never expected to see this year.

      LG Wing
      The LG Wing takes your typical glass slab design, and turns it around, quite literally. The swiveling screen and the pop-up camera give us a smartphone that has more screen real estate than we know what to do with.

    Honorable Mentions for Most Innovative Smartphone

    The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is a runner up for the most innovative phone because let’s admit it: folding phones are cool, and Samsung deserves a pat on the back for taking the risk and driving the whole industry forward. Microsoft also attempted to make a foldable, albeit not one with a foldable display. The hinge on the Microsoft Surface Duo gets it the spot on this list because of how well executed it is — if you get a chance to open and shut a Surface Duo, do it.

      Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2

      The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is the phone of the future available in the present. It's got everything we want out of a top tier flagship -- great design, great specifications, great display -- and then it folds.
      Microsoft Surface Duo

      The Microsoft Surface Duo may not exactly have a folding display, but it folds really well and completely flat, thanks to its excellent hinge implementation and thin profile. Definitely a unique approach, even if the software experience was a let-down.

    Best Smartphone Accessory: Sony WH-1000XM4

    Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones

    Apple’s AirPods Pro Max — which, despite its name, are headphones and not earbuds — may be the talk of the town, but Sony’s premium headphones are our pick for the Best Accessory of 2020. The WH-1000XM4 is the successor to the acclaimed WH-1000XM3, Sony’s high-end headphones from 2019 which won the hearts and minds of tech reviewers around the world. The WH-1000XM4 feature the same stellar audio quality, noise cancellation, and comfort from last year’s model, but they also fix some of last year’s pain points. With “Speak-to-Chat”, you can just talk and the headphones will pause music and turn Ambient Sound Mode on for you. Best of all, the new headphones can connect to two Bluetooth devices at the same time, so you don’t have to disconnect from one just to listen to music from another device.

      Sony WH-1000XM4
      The Sony WH-1000Xm4 are Sony's top-tier consumer headphones, and they are worth their full price. Enjoy your music as it was meant to be, with no external interference thanks to the golden standard of active noise cancellation.

    Honorable Mentions for Best Smartphone Accessory

    It actually is very difficult to condense choices down to a handful of best smartphone accessories, but we tried anyway. Spigen’s cases are the runner up namely for their extensive product lineup that is available across a wide portfolio of smartphones across the world. But it’s not just because of their variety, but also because of the actual protection they offer at a fairly cheap price. We’ve (accidentally) knocked a fair few flagships around, and if it weren’t for Spigen cases (namely the Ultra Hybrid series), we’d definitely have more cracked screens around.

    Further, true wireless earbuds may be a dime a dozen these days, but Huawei’s FreeBuds Pro win our runner’s up spot for its exceptional active noise cancellation that, thanks to its intelligent chip and algorithms, can adjust noise canceling levels on-the-fly depending on the sound. As is usual with Huawei products, the FreeBuds Pro has best-in-class battery life too — seven hours on a single charge.

      Spigen Cases

      Spigen's cases have saved us a lot of money over the years. Make the wise choice, avoid cracked screens -- just get a good case.
      Huawei FreeBuds Pro

      The Huawei FreeBuds Pro are the TWS you should consider, namely for their great fit and excellent ANC, alongside great sound and battery life.

    Best Tablet: Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus

    For years, Android tablets have been (rightly) derided for their inferiority to Apple’s iPad. Often featuring lackluster hardware and poorly optimized software, Android tablets struggle to compete with the iPad, so instead, most of them just don’t. However, Samsung, and to a lesser extent Huawei, never gave up on competing with Apple, often being the only two OEMs to release flagship tablets each year. With the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus, however, Samsung has finally proven that it can not only make a tablet that’s competitive with Apple’s most premium iPad Pro, but one that’s arguably even better. That’s why the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus is our pick for Best Tablet of 2020.

    The Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus is visually breathtaking. It has the best display on any tablet, period. It has the processing power to match Samsung’s best flagships on the market, including the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. Samsung’s efforts with the S Pen and DeX, their partnerships with Microsoft on Windows and Harman on audio, and their work on optimizing One UI have culminated in an Android tablet experience that is finally not just acceptable, but good. The relatively small number of tablet-optimized apps is the Tab S7’s Achilles’ heel, but it’s now no longer the dealbreaker it once was. Android finally has a proper contender to the iPad in the Tab S7 Plus, it’s just a shame it took so long for that to happen.

      Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus
      The Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus is not only an iPad competitor, it actually manages to beat the iPad in some areas. While it is still held back by Android, it's one of the best choices to go for if you do not want to dip into the iOS ecosystem.

    We mentioned that Huawei was one of the only other OEMs putting any kind of effort into tablets, and the company’s latest MatePad Pro is proof of that. Due to geopolitical reasons, the MatePad Pro is hampered by a lack of Google apps, which heavily reduces the already small number of available tablet apps. Huawei hasn’t thrown in the towel just yet, despite the many hardships they face, so we’re excited to see what their next tablet will be.

    Honorable Mentions for Best Tablet

    The Apple iPad Pro comes in as a close runner-up, for very obvious reasons. Apple dominates the tablet market, and the iPad Pro is its flagship range. A big beautiful display, plenty of processing power, and an iPadOS that actually complements the larger screen real estate — if your loyalty is not strictly resting with Android, the iPad Pro is the tablet you should pick up.

      Apple iPad Pro
      The Apple iPad Pro is a very close runner-up as the best tablet, thanks in good part to iPadOS that takes advantage of the bigger display. If you aren't too loyal to Android as an OS and don't mind dipping into the Apple ecosystem, the iPad Pro is the obvious choice.

    Best Wearable: Samsung Galaxy Watch 3

    When it comes to wearables, Android’s Wear OS-based options once again are pretty lacking. If you have an Android smartphone, your options then further get narrowed down to pretty much one de-facto option: Samsung’s Tizen OS-based smartwatches that work best with Samsung Galaxy smartphones but are also largely supported across Android. Choosing the best wearable that appeals to most people becomes an easy decision then, as it will obviously be the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3.

    The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 might not be the absolute best smartwatch in terms of features or experience, but it edges out the Apple Watch Series 6 mainly because of its much-better compatibility with Android smartphones. Android smartphones have a very large market share, so we can’t consider a watch that does not support this popular OS as the best when another highly-competitive watch exists which does. Smartwatches are largely meant to be complementary experiences to smartphones even though they can be sometimes standalone thanks to LTE, but it still makes sense to look at the overall picture instead of just the smartwatch alone. In both scenarios, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 presents a very solid package. And not being based on Android’s Wear OS is actually a very strong point.

      Samsung Galaxy Watch 3
      The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 is one of the best smartwatch options for Android users. You can monitor your health, sleep patterns, receive notifications, call, text, stream music, and a lot more. Unless you wish to tie into the Apple ecosystem, this is best smartwatch option.

    Honorable Mentions for Best Wearable

    The Apple Watch Series 6 is a very, very close runner up, providing an arguably better experience as long as you are okay with investing further into the Apple ecosystem. And if for some reason you do wish to stick around with Android’s Wear OS, then your best option in 2020 is the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 3, which packs in excellent hardware as long as you are okay with the sub-par software experience.

      Apple Watch Series 6

      The Apple Watch Series 6 is the best wearable option if you have an iPhone. It has the best set of hardware features and a software experience that enhances the overall product. As long as you do not mind the Apple ecosystem, this is the watch to get.
      Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 3

      The Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 3 is the smartwatch to get for users interested in sticking around with Android's Wear OS. While the hardware is excellent, especially with the dual display, the software has room for improvement, but that's on Google to fix.

    Best Smartphone Manufacturer: Samsung

    If it weren’t for Samsung, Android might not be where it is today. The South Korean tech giant has consistently been the largest smartphone maker by volume for years now, but unlike Intel, they haven’t been resting on their laurels. Samsung continues to innovate, diversify its portfolio, and improve its software and services. To be clear, Samsung hasn’t shifted gears in any way this year, but doubling down on what made them successful last year has only further widened the gap between them and other top-tier smartphone makers.

    In 2020, Samsung continued its dominance in foldables. The company is the overwhelming market leader in manufacturing foldable displays and designing foldable phones, grabbing an estimated 88% of the foldable smartphone market share according to industry analysts at Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC).

    To continue challenging the growth of Chinese smartphone makers, Samsung has dramatically expanded its existing budget and mid-range smartphone lines. While it’s sometimes difficult to differentiate between Samsung’s latest phones, Samsung’s overall strategy is evident: flood the market with phones across all different price points by changing a few components here and there. Chinese OEMs do this too, but Samsung manages the same while offering stellar software and after-sales support, an abundance of useful software services, and integrations with its suite of wearables, hearables, PCs, and TVs.

    While Samsung was once the recipient of ire for its TouchWiz skin, they’re now one of the most praised OEMs for One UI. One UI 3.0 doesn’t add much over One UI 2.0, but Samsung has already packed so many features into One UI that there isn’t much for us to complain about. Plus, they continue to release new Good Lock modules for those of you who really care about software customization. And with the company’s recent commitment to 3 generations of OS updates, Samsung’s phones will soon be among the best-supported Android phones on the market.

      Samsung
      Samsung had a stellar year, and it brought along enough cheer for consumers across the globe. With excellent hardware across phones, tablets, smartwatches, truly wireless earbuds, and more, the South Korean company had something for everyone. And if you care about software, Samsung has massively improved its update situation with prompt security fixes across the board.

    The work put in by Xiaomi this year hasn’t gone unnoticed by us, but the crown for Best Smartphone Manufacturer remains on Samsung’s head this year.

    Honorable Mentions: Xiaomi and Huawei

    Xiaomi and Huawei come out as honorable mentions for the best smartphone manufacturers. Xiaomi goes neck and neck against Samsung in major markets around the world across a wide variety of segments, and its approach to the ecosystem experience around smartphones is along the same lines as Samsung. Without Xiaomi, we’d probably be seeing major stagnation in the smartphone space as they are one of the prime competitors to practically everyone. On the other hand, Huawei comes out as the OEM that just refuses to give up despite monumental odds against its existence. In circumstances that would have caused other OEMs to fold twice over, Huawei began the mammoth task of building up its own parallel ecosystem competing against Google and Apple. If the roadblocks to Huawei had not materialized, Samsung would have had a tough time staying on as a winner in this list.

      Xiaomi

      Xiaomi emerged as a prime competitor across the board, and even emerge the winner across key markets primarily because how accessible the brand is to everyone. They can make quality budget phones and overkill premium flagships and everything else in between too.
      Huawei

      Despite external pressure that the company could not win against, Huawei preserved across the smartphone space with premium flagships that continued to push the envelope on what we expect out of a smartphone. In an alternate reality, Huawei would have been our top choice.

    Best Community Project: Google Camera Mods

    Back in 2017, a developer by the name of B-S-G posted a modified version of the Google Camera app extracted from the first-gen Pixel. Our coverage of this mod blew up on the Internet, with over 1.3 million downloads just on the initial release of the modded camera app. Since then, dedicated modders have spent hours, days, and even weeks tinkering with the image processing algorithms of Google’s coveted camera app, tuning the HDR+ algorithm to produce stunning results on millions of non-Pixel smartphones. Sometimes, these modders even figure out how to enable new features before release. Few community projects on XDA have the staying power of GCam mods, which is why we award them—and their creators—our award for Best Community Project of 2020.

    These days, Google Camera mods are more popular than ever, with tens of millions of individual downloads and dozens of modded versions available. Our own Google Camera Hub is the best way to find discussion on which GCam port is the best one for your particular device, and we constantly find new threads to add to the list. Throughout the years, GCam modders have banded together to overcome hurdle after hurdle, including figuring out ways to import/export settings, enable auxiliary camera access without root, and enable new Pixel camera features like Super Res Zoom on all devices. As more and more Google Camera features become hardware-dependent, the camera app itself becomes more complex (notably, GCam 8.X came with encrypted strings), and OEMs get better at tuning their own image processing software, GCam mods may decrease in popularity. But for now, they’re the best and most popular community project on XDA, and we have our dedicated modders (and, of course, Google!) to thank for that.

    Our honorable mention goes to LineageOS, the most popular aftermarket Android-based distribution. There’s a lot of reasons we love LineageOS, and it can’t be understated how important it is to have a semi-professional, organized custom development team take the reins on bringing up AOSP on dozens of older smartphones and tablets. Without support from one or more maintainers in the LineageOS team, there often wouldn’t be a development community at all for many less popular devices. We wanted to close off our Best of 2020 post with a special shout-out to not just LineageOS but to all independent developers on our forums that share their work with users and fellow developers — XDA wouldn’t exist without you.

    The post XDA Awards – The Best Tech of 2020 appeared first on xda-developers.



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