Samsung Galaxy A31 launched with 48MP quad rear cameras, 5000mAh battery, MediaTek Helio P65

Last year, Samsung incorporated the J series into the Galaxy A series. The realigned Galaxy A series now comprises a wider variety of mid-range and sub-premium devices and caters to users who prize a smartphone’s looks and camera features over its performance. After launching several devices in the series – ranging from Galaxy A10 to Galaxy A90 5G – and even bringing mid-cycle upgrades to several of these devices in 2019, Samsung has already started launching the second generation of Galaxy A series devices. The latest one in the series is the Galaxy A31, which comes with a 48MP quad cameras, MediaTek Helio P65, 5000mAh battery, and Samsung Pay.

The Samsung Galaxy A31 is the fifth A series phone this year. Samsung started the year by unveiling the Galaxy A51 and the Galaxy A71, followed by the Galaxy A11 and the Galaxy A41 launching earlier this month. In terms of design, the Samsung Galaxy A31 aligns with the “Prism Crush” design on the other phones in the bunch. On the back, it features a quad camera with setup in an L-shaped orientation, which seems to be Samsung’s design mantra for 2020.

On the front, there’s a 6.4-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-U display, which is an upgrade over the HD+ Super AMOLED display we saw on the Galaxy A30s. Just like the Galaxy A30s, the Galaxy A31 also comes with an in-display fingerprint scanner. The front-facing camera has also been upgraded from 16MP to 20MP.

The quad-camera setup on the back appears identical to the Galaxy A51. It includes a 48MP primary camera, an 8MP wide-angle camera, and two 5MP cameras for macro photography and depth-sensing.

In terms of performance, the Samsung Galaxy A31 is equipped with a MediaTek P65 SoC and comes in 4GB and 6GB RAM variants. The two RAM variants feature 64GB and 128GB storages, respectively. The phone also supports Samsung Pay but the availability of NFC or MST will vary as per the country. Onboard, there’s a 5,000mAh battery that supports 15W fast charging.

In terms of software, the Galaxy A31 is expected to come pre-loaded with One UI 2.0 based on Android 10.

Samsung has not revealed the price or the date of availability for the Galaxy A31 and the same will vary as per your country. It is available in black, blue, red, and white colors.

Samsung Galaxy A31: Specifications

Specification	Samsung Galaxy A31
Dimensions and Weight	73.1 x 159.3 x 8.6 mm 185g
Display	6.4-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-U
SoC	MediaTek Helio P65 12nm process 2 x Cortex A75 @ 2.0GHz 6 x Cortex A55 @ 1.7GHz
RAM and Storage	4GB + 64GB 6GB + 128GB Expandable through microSD card slot
Battery & Charging	5,000 mAh battery 15W fast charging
Rear Camera	48MP, f/2.0 8MP ultra wide-angle, f/2.2 5MP depth sensor, f/2.4 5MP macro, f/2.4
Front Camera	20MP, f/2.2
Other Features	Samsung Pay

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Source: Samsung Mobile Press

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OnePlus starts recruiting early reviewers for the upcoming OnePlus 8 series through The Lab program

OnePlus has been undertaking its “The Lab” program for a few years now. Under this program, the company picks 10 people who want to get their hands on the upcoming smartphone from OnePlus and ships the phone to them ahead of the official release. In return, the company expects an open and honest review of the product from these users. We’ve seen the company do this for a fair few devices, including the OnePlus 5T, 6, 6T, 7 Pro and 7T. Now, the program has been resuscitated once again, this time for the upcoming OnePlus 8 series.

For this edition of The Lab, OnePlus will be shipping the phone to 10 users before the launch event in return of a solid and unbiased review. The program is open to everyone, including non-OnePlus users and non-community members, although the company is reserving at least 6 spots for its community members. Reviewers under The Lab will be selected according to their writing, photography and videography skills, creativity and demographic diversity. They will receive their OnePlus 8 series phone before the launch and will be asked to attend an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on their experience in using the device after 21 days, as well as present a review. The company will also be evaluating the reviewers and their reviews. If you pass the evaluation, you get to keep the device, and you will also receive a custom-made The Lab special edition phone case.

Applications for The Lab are open from now until April 1, 2020. You need to sign up by entering your information on this page. Selected reviewers will be announced on April 2, 2020. Keep in mind that if you do get selected, you will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement with OnePlus. The company has not specified which phone will be shipped to these reviewers, but it will be one of the three present within the OnePlus 8 series.

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Source: OnePlus Forums

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Vivo suspends new product launches in India, Realme postpones Narzo sales due to COVID-19

COVID-19, commonly referred to as the novel coronavirus, has had a very wide scale impact on all of our lives. The effects of the pandemic are being felt all around the world, and the smartphone industry is no exception. Most notably, events like MWC 2020 and Google I/O 2020 have been canceled for the year, both of which were considered to be major events for the industry. Smartphone and component production and related supply chains have been hit in China, which has caused disruption in schedules and plans for several players. As COVID-19 spreads rapidly in other parts of the world, it is causing further disruption to the smartphone industry. Vivo has now announced that it is suspending the launch of new products in India, while Realme has postponed the sale of Realme Narzo, because of COVID-19-related disruptions.

Vivo was scheduled to launch the Vivo V19 in India on March 26, but the launch was pushed back to April 3, 2020. However, the Indian government has tightened the restrictions within the country to control the spread of the pandemic, and the country has entered a full lockdown phase since March 22. Only essential services are exempted from the lockdown, and smartphones do not come under this category. Consequently, even if companies in India do go ahead with online launch events and online sales, there will be very limited options available to actually deliver the products sold to the consumers.

In light of the lockdown and restrictions, Samsung, OPPO, Realme, Vivo had decided to temporarily suspend smartphone production within India. Now, Vivo has gone ahead and canceled the launch of products in India for the foreseeable future.

Dear friends,
A heartfelt message for all of you. pic.twitter.com/SdPIXDpLpr

— Nipun Marya (@nipunmarya) March 24, 2020

Vivo had an impressive Q4 2019, as it had overtaken Samsung to become the second-most shipped brand in India, so the decision to indefinitely suspend launches was not an easy one to take for the company.

Meanwhile, Realme is putting on hold the sales plans for its upcoming Realme Narzo series.

During these tough times, we are taking initiatives to:
Postpone sale of #realmeNarzo series, current stocks on hold.
Halt our ‘Make in India’ facility till further Govt. notice.
WFH for all

Hope the health of our people & country’s economy gets minimum impact. pic.twitter.com/6MDZq0na9A

— Madhav 5G (@MadhavSheth1) March 24, 2020

Realme Narzo 10 and Narzo 10A are scheduled to launch in India on March 26, 2020. Realme seems intent on moving ahead with the launch, but only postponing the sale of the device. No new dates have been announced yet as doing so right now would be unrealistic.

Xiaomi also has an upcoming launch in India. The company is scheduled to launch the Mi 10 in the country on March 31, 2020. While the country has not announced anything on this end just yet, we expect sales to be postponed in this case as well. To Xiaomi’s credit, the company has been proactive in relief efforts.

Nonetheless, we do feel that these decisions to suspend events and postpone sales are sound and in-line with current priorities of health and safety. Hopefully, the situation improves soon and we can get back to our scheduled routine of launches and events.

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Source: @NipunMarya, @MadhavSheth1

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Magisk v20.4 released with script consistency changes and bug fixes

Magisk has basically become synonymous with root access on Android at this point. One of the most popular custom ROM distributions, LineageOS, is even dropping support for its own addonsu binary in favor of this systemless solution developed by XDA Recognized Developer topjohnwu. The developer recently talked about potential shortcomings of the MagiskHide component, originating out of some changes in Google’s SafetyNet Attestation API. While Google might take a while before fully enforcing the new rules, topjohnwu has now released another stable version of Magisk with MagiskHide disabled by default. Tagged as v20.4, the latest build is focused on the core components only, as the redesigned UI of Magisk Manager “isn’t fully ready for prime time yet“.

The release note posted on GitHub puts quite a lot of emphasis on the BusyBox Standalone Mode to improve script consistency, which is primarily targeted towards developers and Magisk Module maintainers. Starting with this version, Magisk forces every script to use the internal BusyBox binary, which is enhanced by XDA Recognized Developer osm0sis. Users, however, still have the option to call a command outside of BusyBox, but they need to use the full path.

Here’s the official changelog for Magisk v20.4:

• [MagiskInit] Fix potential bootloop in A-only 2SI devices
• [MagiskInit] Properly support Tegra partition naming
• [General] Load libsqlite.so dynamically, which removes the need to use wrapper scripts on Android 10+
• [General] Detect API level with a fallback method on some devices
• [General] Workaround possible bug in x86 kernel readlinkat system call
• [BusyBox] Enable SELinux features. Add chcon/runcon etc., and ‘-Z’ option to many applets
• [BusyBox] Introduce standalone mode. More details in release notes
• [MagiskHide] Disable MagiskHide by default
• [MagiskHide] Add more potential detectable system properties
• [MagiskHide] Add workaround for Xiaomi devices bootloop when MagiskHide is enabled on cross-region ROMs
• [MagiskBoot] Support patching special Motorolla DTB format
• [MagiskPolicy] Support ‘genfscon’ sepolicy rules
• [Scripts] Support NAND based boot images (character nodes in /dev/block)
• [Scripts] Better addon.d (both v1 and v2) support
• [Scripts] Support Lineage Recovery for Android 10+

Download Magisk v20.4 from GitHub

Google might be cracking down hard on the ability of Magisk to hide the bootloader unlock status from applications, but that doesn’t lock down other potentials. From achieving true dual boot to jailbreaking an iPhone, Magisk is still being actively used by the modding community.

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Source: GitHub

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Xiaomi ends MIUI 11 beta development in favor of MIUI 12

Xiaomi’s MIUI beta ROMs play a vital role in letting the company prioritize the development of new features. Based on the feedback from beta testers, the MIUI team can choose which features will align more with user requirements than others and, therefore, require more efforts for development and evolution. Not only that, MIUI betas also give us hints about the features that may or may not make to final successive versions of the UI. Every year, the company splits efforts between betas and the next incremental update but this year seems different. With the objective of now focussing on MIUI 12, Xiaomi is halting the development of MIUI 11 China beta.

In a post on the China chapter of MIUI Community, an admin announced that the MIUI 11 China beta will be halted next week. The admin confirmed that MIUI 11 build no. 20.3.23 will be the last beta and there will be a break in development for a while. Many Chinese tech bloggers suspect this is an effort to focus on the development of MIUI 12.

Below is a screenshot of the announcement translated from Chinese to English using Google Translate. We regret any contextual errors due to the language barrier.

Xiaomi first introduced MIUI 11 in China back in September 2019 and it was followed by a global launch in India in October. In spite of a later launch than usual, the development of MIUI 11 had begun in as early as January 2019.

Last year, Xiaomi also suspended the roll-out of MIUI 11 global beta to focus on stable updates. The Chinese beta, however, had remained unaffected. But, over the past few months, Xiaomi has been pushing out stable MIUI 11 diligently and appears to focus on these updates as the company moves towards completing 10 years of operations.

As for MIUI 12, while there is no official word on the release date, the progress of development, or the features. The official MIUI account on Weibo did, however, release the official logo for MIUI 12 but much hasn’t come out since then. Although an alleged roadmap for the MIUI 12 release did surface a few weeks ago, claiming that the first Chinese beta based on Android 11 will go live in September, we can’t vouch for its credibility since the original poster was only a tech blogger and not someone working for Xiaomi.

We will keep you updated about the progress of MIUI 12 as and when we hear from official sources. x

Thanks to XDA Member kacskrz for the tip!

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Xiaomi launches the Redmi K30 Pro with a notchless pop-up camera design and Snapdragon 865

The Redmi K20 series was the premier foray of the Xiaomi sub-brand into the flagship killer space. With two products, the Redmi K20 and the Redmi K20 Pro — Redmi used the same design language but different specifications to capture two adjacent segments in the smartphone market. But with the successors, the Redmi K30 series, Redmi is doing something different. Xiaomi launched the Redmi K30 in 5G and 4G variants in China in January 2020, of which the Redmi K30 4G was subsequently launched in India as the POCO X2. Now, Xiaomi is launching another entrant to the Redmi lineup, in the form of the Redmi K30 Pro and Redmi K30 Pro Zoom Edition.

Redmi K30 Pro: Specifications

Specification	Redmi K30
Dimensions and Weight	– mm – g
Display	6.67″ FHD+ AMOLED 180Hz touch response rate Max brightness of 800 nits and peak brightness of 1200 nits HDR10+ support Notchless display with pop-up camera Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on front and back
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 865: 1x Kryo 585 (ARM Cortex-A77-based) Prime core @ 2.84GHz 3x Kryo 585 (ARM Cortex-A77-based) Performance core @ 2.4GHz 4x Kryo 385 (ARM Cortex A55-based) Efficiency cores @ 1.8GHz Adreno 650
RAM and Storage	Redmi K30 Pro: 6GB LPDDR4X + 128GB UFS 3.0 8GB LPDDR5 + 128GB UFS 3.1 8GB + 256GB Redmi K30 Pro Zoom Edition: 8GB + 128GB 8GB + 256GB
Battery & Charging	4,700 mAh battery 33W fast charging
Rear Camera	Photo: Primary: 64MP Sony IMX686 sensor, 1/1.7” sensor, 0.8μm pixels, EIS, OIS Secondary: 5MP, Macro Zoom Edition: 8MP, telephoto, 3x optical zoom, 30x digital zoom, support 50mm macro, OIS, EIS, four-axis image stabilization Tertiary: 13MP, Wide-Angle Camera, 123° Quaternary: 2MP, depth sensor Video: 8K video recording (resolution of 7680 × 4320)
Front Camera	20MP
Other Features	3.5mm headphone jack Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.1 IP53 water and dust resistance 5G Multi-link Game Turbo 3.0 with voice changer Multi-function NFC IR Blaster
Android Version	MIUI 11 based on Android 10

The Redmi K30 Pro had most of its information released prior to the launch, thanks to official posters on Redmi’s Weibo account (1, 2, 3). So, we already have a clear idea of what to expect out of the newest flagship. The face of the device gets a clean look, with full focus on the — ” FHD+ AMOLED display as Redmi has chosen a popup camera instead of opting for a hole punch or a notch. The display supports HDR10+, and has a 180Hz touch response rate. Curiously, the Redmi K30 Pro skips out on the high refresh rate display trend, as the company has chosen to omit this crucial specification, which indicates that we get the ordinary 60Hz refresh rate on this display.

On the inside, we get the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC with 5G support. There’s LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage on most variants, though the base variant gets a slight downgrade on these technologies. You also get a decent-sized 4,700 mAh battery with support for up to 33W fast charging that can charge the battery completely in about an hour.

For the camera, the highlight of the device is 64MP Sony IMX686 sensor, with a large 1/1.7” sensor size, 0.8μm pixels pre-binning, and dual stabilization through EIS plus OIS, as well as HEIF image format support and 8K video recording support. There’s a 13MP wide-angle camera sensor too, as well as a 2MP depth sensor. The fourth sensor is different on the two variants. The regular Redmi K30 Pro gets a 5MP macro camera that supports 50mm macro photography. The Redmi K30 Pro Zoom Edition replaces this with an 8MP telephoto sensor that is capable of 3x optical zoom, OIS and four-axis image stabilization. The front camera within the popup is a 20MP shooter capable of 120fps slow-motion.

Other notable features on the device include a larger vapor-chamber to aid in cooling and sustaining peak performance, improved vibration motor, Game Turbo 3.0 with night vision and voice changer, a 3.5 mm headphone jack,

Pricing and Availability

The Redmi K30 Pro will go on sale in China in four color variants. You can get the device for CNY 2,999 ($423) for the base 6GB + 128GB variant (which has slightly downgraded speeds on storage and RAM), CNY 3,399 ($480) for the 8GB + 128GB variant, and CNY 3,699 ($522) for the 8GB + 256GB variant. The Redmi K30 Pro Zoom Edition will cost CNY 3,799 ($535) for the 8GB + 128GB variant, CNY 3,999 ($564) for the 8GB + 256GB variant. Pre-orders begin on 27th March 2020. International availability is unknown at this stage.

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HMD Global’s bootloader unlock server for the Nokia 8 has been down for days

HMD Global wasn’t the fastest to jump onto the 5G bandwagon, but they did bring the first Android One smartphone with global 5G support. The company has a clear Android 10 update roadmap for their users, and they are not shy to explore the possibility of running a touchless version of Android on feature phones. However, the brand hasn’t caught on among a segment of power users due to its controversial bootloader unlock policy. HMD Global took a long time to set up an official method to unlock the bootloader – and it only did so for the Nokia 8 – but it seems that they have now pulled the plug.

Nokia 8 XDA Forums

According to recent user reports from our own forums as well as on Reddit, the unlocker app recently started to fail to communicate with the token generator server. This is different from the error you could get by running the same app on Android Pie, which can be solved by downgrading the firmware to a specific Android Oreo build. HMD Global might have closed down the server altogether, thus the popular NB1-Collision bootloader unlock method, created by XDA Senior Member hikari_calyx, for first-generation Nokia phones is now non-functional as well.

It is worth mentioning that HMD Global unintentionally shipped an unlockable bootloader inside the initial factory firmware for the Nokia 6.2 and Nokia 7.2. The community also discovered a few loopholes to bypass roadblocks and unlock the bootloader of select Nokia phones, such as the Nokia 3.2 and Nokia 4.2, but the complexity involved and stability issues of those methods were enough to prevent the modding community from picking up those phones for tinkering. Now that HMD Global’s official unlock server went offline, there is virtually no hope left for Nokia power users.

The existing unlock token received via email can theoretically be reused by Nokia 8 owners in the future, which is the only silver lining to this news. This is not the first time an Android OEM has abruptly stopped giving out the bootloader unlock codes or unnecessarily complicated the unlocking mechanism, and it is no good for aftermarket development.

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Thanks to XDA Senior Member hikari_calyx for the screenshot (via Twitter)!

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