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Android Circuit is here to remind you of a few of the many things that have happened around Android in the last week (and you can read the weekly Apple news digest here).
Galaxy S6 Ready For Your Close-Up
Since Nokia’s departure from mainstream mobile phones a few years ago, Apple has been seen as the leading smartphonein terms of image quality through the smartphone camera. At the launch of the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, Samsung’s JK Shin suggested that the S6 family would claim that crown from Cupertino. Was he right? I took a closer look this week:
What’s clear looking at all the comparison images I have from both the Galaxy S6 and the iPhone 6 is the advantage in the increased amount of light that the Galaxy S6 can capture. More light means more information, more information means the imaging software has far more data to work with, and more data means the pictures are better. The engineering to gather more light at similar camera speeds is not easy, but if there’s anything that easily stands out it is this.You can read my camera-focused review here on Forbes.
Pair up the extra light falling on the more sensitive sensor with the improved lens, and the simple argument is that you get more detail in your images. It’s not just a simple matter of scaling up the megapixels, it needs to be in tandem with the lenses and filters already in place, and to work with the software processing, but Samsung has achieved all of this.
The Bullpen Smartphones Go Head-To-Head
While the Samsung Galaxy S6 is clearly up against the Apple iPhone 6 in terms of comparison reviews, but this week I took a look at the secondary handsets – Apple went large with the iPhone 6 Plus while Samsung focused on design and innovation with the S6 Edge. But which is ‘better’?
Apple has taken the available hardware it has on the shelf and made the best phablet it can make, without disrupting the iOS ecosystem or the user base. Cupertino has maximised the available resources and if it wants to build a next-generation phablet, it’s going to have to release and sell a new model. That might be great for business, but it leaves consumers looking at the iPhone 6 Plus in an awkward place.
Samsung has taken the opposite approach. The curved screen has been put in place, the basic functionality has been added to the software, but there remains a huge amount of optimization that could be done to make the S6 Edge worthy of the ‘edge’ moniker. The question for me is when will that optimization will come? The Galaxy S6 Edge has far more promise than the iPhone 6 Plus, but with the iPhone 6 Plus it’s clear what you are getting in the package and it’s easy to predict what functionality will be available as a two-year contract approaches its end. The same cannot be said of the S6 Edge.
Go Large Or Go New?
Staying with comparisons, Samsung stuck with the 5.1 inch screen size for the Galaxy S6 family, which means phablet fans need to look at the older Galaxy Note 4. How does the new cutting-edge handset measure up against one of the best Android phablets on the market? Gordon Kelly investigates:
what makes the S6 look great results in a loss of practicality and functionality that the Note 4 simply doesn’t have to stomach. Consequently the Note 4 may have a plastic back, but it is less slippery to hold, actually feels more durable and means you get both the upgradeable microSD storage and removable battery the Galaxy S6 gave up in its quest for style.Sssh, Or You’ll Miss The Sony Xperia Z4
I’ll see how this settles for me, but right now this isn’t the walkover I expected. The Galaxy S6 looks the part, but the Note 4 has far more substance to it.
Sony’s mobile division has not been having a great time of it during 2015. With huge staff reductions, targets missed, and rumors that the division could be sold, keeping the focus on the mobile hardware has not been easy. The expectation has always been that the Xperia Z4 Android flagship would be announced at some point this year, but the reveal – through a blog post – on Monday was anti-climatic and felt like a company trying to hide a product rather than promote it strongly to every potential buyer:
…The new flagship won’t be immediately available internationally [it is currently limited to Japan - Ewan]. I reached out to Sony for more information but was told nothing other than there’s “no press release at this time”.
As expected, the Xperia Z4 is small upgrade on the Z3, which was released last September. Sony has continued with its partial-improvement policy of making minor changes to its main-line of smartphones with the Z4, save for the new Snapdragon 810 processor.
The Z4 keeps the same shape and design as previous models but weighs in at a slightly lighter 144g, compared to the Z3’s 152g. It’s also marginally slimmer at 6.9mm.
Google Reveals Its MVNO For America
It’s taken longer than some analysts expected, but Google has finally showed its hand in terms of becoming an MVNO and providing cellphone services to customers. Project Fi will allow customers two switch between Wi-Fi, Sprint, and T-Mobile for voice and data, at a competitive price in the US market. Pricing starts at $20/month for the basic package that includes unlimited domestic texts and calls, and data is priced at $10/GB.
Brad Reed has posted his take on it at BGR, including the limited support for handsets:
The most intriguing part of this is that Google will refund you for data you don’t use every month. So let’s say you buy 3GB of data for $30 in a given month and you only use 1.4GB of it. Instead of taking all your money, Google will actually give you back $16.You can request an invite for early access at the Project Fi homepage.
Right now Google isn’t launching the service for everyone but is instead offering interested prospective subscribers the opportunity to participate in its Early Access Program, which will be by invitation only. What’s more, you’ll only be able to access Project Fi at first if you own a Nexus 6, which Google specifically developed with Motorola to use with its service. There’s no word yet on when Project Fi will be open to more users.
LAS VEGAS, NV – JANUARY 06: A model displays
the LG G Watch R at the LG booth during the 2015 International CES at
the Las Vegas Convention Center (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)
In the week that Apple shipped the first Apple Watches, Google rolled out an update to Android Wear – its vision of a mobile OS for wearable devices. It includes improved wrist-movement gestures, the ability to sketch emoji with Android Wear’s OS choosing the closest character, an improved ambient mode expected to help with battery life, improved launching of applications, and further use of standalone Wi-Fi support.
These are all minor issues, and Kyle Wiggers thinks that the big changes are being held back for Google’s I/O Developer conference in a few weeks time:
While Android Wear devices can undoubtedly count value in their favor — the average price for a smartwatch hovers around $250, while the cheapest Apple Watch is $350 — they haven’t quite achieved feature parity with Apple’s offering. Notably missing is support for payments, NFC and otherwise. But Google’s big developer conference is right around the corner, and it’s almost a sure thing we’ll learn more about big Android Wear plans then.Digital Trends reports on all the changes.
And Finally…
Arguably the best email client for Android has made its way out of beta. Microsoft’s Outlook app for the mobile platform has not only received an update, but it has also lost the ‘preview’ tag. Mary Jo Foley covers the news on ZDNet:
Since the first preview, Microsoft has updated the Outlook for Android code base 17 times, or more than once a week, Microsoft officials said in a blog post announcing general availability. There have been UI changes, performance, stability, localization and accessibility changes in that time.…and it’s definitely worth a look, grab it from the Google Play Store now.
The new Outlook Android app supports Office 365, Exchange, Outlook.com, iCloud, Gmail, Yahoo Mail and IMAP providers like AOL.com and Comcast.net.
BELLEVUE, WA – DECEMBER 3: Microsoft CEO
Satya Nadella addresses shareholders during Microsoft Shareholders
Meeting December 3, 2014 in Bellevue, Washington. (Photo by Stephen
Brashear/Getty Images)
You can find more of my work at ewanspence.co.uk. I’m on Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In. You should subscribe to my weekly newsletter of ‘Trivial Posts’.
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