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dimanche 5 juillet 2020
Protected: Take this quiz to find out what kind of smartphone user you are [DEMO]
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OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z Review: Comfortable Earphones with Exceptional Battery Life
The OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z are entry-level Bluetooth earphones, built upon OnePlus’s philosophy of offering a unique product experience at a competitive price. Launched alongside the OnePlus 8 series in April, the new wireless neckband earbuds retain some of the key features of the more premium Bullets Wireless 2 while also bringing improvements of its own. Priced at just ₹1,999 or $49.95, the Bullets Wireless Z are among the most value-for-money Bluetooth wireless earbuds available on the market right now—at least on paper. But do they live up to its spec sheet? We find out in this review.
Disclaimer: I personally bought a pair of Bullets Wireless Z. OnePlus also sent a review unit to Aamir, which we used for comparison and to corroborate our findings.
OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z: Specifications
| Specification | Bullets Wireless Z |
|---|---|
| Build and Weight |
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| Driver setup |
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| Connectivity |
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| Battery & Charging |
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| In The Box |
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Buy OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z: Amazon India (Affiliate) ||| OnePlus.com USA ||| OnePlus.com UK
Design & Comfort
The Bullets Wireless Z looks almost like a replica of the Bullets Wireless 2. If they were lying on a table side-by-side, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell them apart from a distance. However, they differ in terms of the material they’re made of. Unlike the Bullets Wireless 2, which used metal casing for the earcups, the Bullets Wireless Z opts for an all-plastic build. The rest of the body remains the same with both earbuds using a soft, flexible rubberized collar and plastic modules on either side housing the battery, audio chip, and other circuitry. The left module has a new OnePlus logo inscribed on the outer side. Just beneath it, you’ll find a tiny LED and circular multi-function button. Meanwhile, the USB Type C port is placed on the edge close to the logo.
The in-line controls are enclosed in a small strip on the left wire along with a single microphone. The controls are easy to reach and can be used to adjust volume, play/pause/change tracks, and receive/dismiss calls. The Bullets Wireless Z are incredibly comfortable thanks to their lightweight build and can be worn for hours on end without irritating your ears. Their ergonomic design provides the perfect snug fit that doesn’t pop out during workouts or other physical activities. The Bullets Wireless Z might not be as futuristic-looking as some of the truly wireless earbuds on the market right now, but they still make their own statement, in our opinion.
The Bullets Wireless Z feels really solid and look like they could withstand some abuse. The IP55 protection is the icing on the cake. It goes beyond the standard sweat resistance offered by most earbuds, allowing you to use them around water. I briefly used them under drizzle on two occasions and faced no interruption/connection drops or any malfunctions afterward. The added protection also makes the earbuds ideal for physically demanding activities such as workouts and running—something you wouldn’t risk doing with the Bullets Wireless 2 as they lacked an official IP rating.
Similar to its predecessors, the Bullets Wireless Z features magnetic locks, allowing you to power on and off the earbuds by simply separating the ear cups and snapping them back together. The mechanism is robust, and I never had any issues with them being detached accidentally (and thus connected to my phone unintentionally). There’s no carrying case provided inside the box, but I didn’t find that to be an issue. When I’m not using the buds, I just simply snap-lock them together and leave them hanging around my neck.
Image courtesy: Aamir Sididiqui
One of my favorite features of the Bullets Wireless Z is Quick Switch which lets you quickly switch the active Bluetooth connection between your paired devices. For example, if you’re listening to music on your laptop and want to take a call on your phone, you don’t have to disconnect from your current device and enter the pairing mode to swap connections. Just double press the multi-function button, and the Bullets Wireless Z will automatically connect to your phone—no need to touch your phone and open Bluetooth settings.
Sound & Call Quality
The similarity between the Bullets Wireless 2 and Bullets Wireless Z stops at visuals, though. There’s a stark difference between the two earphones when it comes to audio quality and driver setup—not surprising when we take into account the price gap. The Bullets Wireless 2 featured two Knowles-balanced armature drivers that handled vocals and treble and a 10mm dynamic driver that took care of the bass. The Bullets Wireless Z doesn’t enjoy the same luxury due to its tighter price envelope and only features a single 9.2mm dynamic driver.
Not only do the Bullets Wireless Z have an inferior driver setup, but they also leave out the high-quality Bluetooth codecs such as aptX HD and LDAC. You only get AAC and SBC codecs, a definite step down from the Bullets Wireless 2 which boasts aptX HD support. All of the abovementioned codecs offer higher bitrate throughput and lower latency compared to AAC and SBC. For what it’s worth, OnePlus says the earphones do support the Low Latency mode on OnePlus devices through the phones’ Fnatic gaming mode.
Image courtesy: Aamir Siddiqui
Coming to the audio quality, the Bullets Wireless Z has a warm, bass-forward sound that’s suitable for pop, EDM, and Hip Hop music. Mids are a bit laid back but still come clean without being muffled by the emphasized bass. This was quite evident when listening to Lost In Yesterday by Tame Impala, where Kevin Parker’s vocals pierced through the heavy bass presence. Treble performance, on the other hand, lacks sparkle and zing. On overly bright tracks, this could have a positive effect as it would tame down some of the harshnesses and make the sound more bearable for ears. However, when listening to acoustic and classical music, it often lacks energy and loses out finer details.
Although the bass on the Bullets Wireless Z takes center stage, it’s not particularly well-balanced. The sub-bass feels all over the place and lacks a satisfying punch. Some people might enjoy the elevated low-end bass, but I personally prefer a tighter punch that only kicks in when needed and doesn’t stick around too long.
The Bullets Wireless Z has a narrow soundstage that’s located inside the user’s head. Tracks that don’t utilize too many instruments will sound fine and you’ll be able to identify different instruments easily. On The Run by Pink Floyd incorporates multiple panning effects with footsteps moving from side-to-side and pulsing synth sounds fading in-and-out, all of which were faithfully reproduced by the Bullets Wireless Z.
Full Test Playlist
- Time — Pink Floyd
- On the Run — Pink Floyd
- Money For Nothing — Dire Straits
- Mystery of Love — Sufjan Stevens
- Intuition — Maejor
- Unsquare Dance — Dave Brubeck
- When the Morning Light Shines In — Dan Romer (Far Cry 5)
- The Mummers’ Dance — Loreena McKennitt
- Lost In Yesterday — Tame Impala
- Take My Breathe Away — Berlin
- Locke — PYLOT
The Bullets Wireless Z might not be the best sounding product in the wireless earphones category, but they do make for an excellent movie-watching experience thanks to their emphasized bass and clean mids, giving a sort of home-theatre like feel in your ears.
Overall, the sound quality of the Bullets Wireless Z is a mixed bag. For me, they don’t sound as good as my trusty Bullets V2. There is a smoothness and excitement to the Bullets V2’s sound, which I found missing on the Bullets Wireless Z. The neutral sound profile of the Bullets V2 also makes them an excellent choice for a vast genre of music. With the Bullets Wireless Z, your experience will largely depend on the type of music you listen to. Songs with a simple bassline and few instruments will fare well, but anything complex and multi-layered tends to lose clarity and sounds muddy.
The call quality on the Bullets Wireless Z is serviceable. With no secondary microphone or software-based noise reduction solution in place, callers on the other end of my voice calls often complained about background noises when I was in the middle of city traffic and noisy environments.
Noise Isolation
The Bullets Wireless Z offers very good passive noise isolation. Just putting the earphones in will effectively block out a fair amount of outside noise, including the rumbles of engines and the humming of a ceiling fan. Once you start playing music, it’s difficult to make out of what’s going on around you. To achieve the perfect isolation, it’s vitally important that you experiment with the different ear tips and choose the ones that give you a perfect seal. For me, the smallest ear tips provide the best fit and seal. Try out each size one-by-one and decide for yourself which one works for you.
Bluetooth Range & Latency
The Bullets Wireless Z offers Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity and is backward compatible with older Bluetooth specifications. The signal range is excellent, as you would expect from any Bluetooth 5.0 audio accessory. For me, it’s a big step up from my Sennheiser HD 4.50, which uses Bluetooth 4.2 and easily drops connection when I’m in another room away from my phone. With the Bullets Wireless Z, I don’t have to ensure a clear line of sight or worry about physical obstructions interrupting my audio playback. I could roam in different parts of my house with my phone plugged into the charger in my bedroom, and yet there was no hint of music or calls suffering from connection drops or showing a loss of clarity.
The lack of aptX or other high-quality Bluetooth audio codecs means the latency on the Bullets Wireless Z isn’t that impressive. Using the Audio Tester app, we measured the latency to be above 300ms, which is far from ideal for gaming. Although OnePlus does offer a low-latency mode for a reduced lag gaming experience, it’s only available on its own phones using the Fnatic mode, which is available on the OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro, OnePlus 7 series, OnePlus 7T, OnePlus 7T Pro, and OnePlus 6T (the OnePlus 6 will receive it via an OTA in August). Aamir was able to test the low-latency mode on his OnePlus 7 Pro and found that it did cut the latency significantly in PUBG Mobile. It doesn’t come quite close to a wired solution—you can still spot the delay if you listen closely for it—but it’s far better than what you get out-of-the-box. For non-OnePlus phone owners looking to buy these earphones primarily for gaming, we would advise sticking to wired headsets or looking for something else with at least aptX codec support.
Battery Performance & Charging Speed
The battery performance is the strongest aspect of the Bullets Wireless Z. The company claims up to 20 hours of non-stop music playback on a single charge, a marked improvement over the Bullets Wireless 2’s 14-hour claim. In my experience, the Bullets Wireless Z’s battery life does live up to this claim. During my three weeks of heavy usage, which included hours of music listening, watching YouTube videos, and taking calls, I only had to fully charge the earphones three times.
Image courtesy: Aamir Siddiqui
The amazing battery life of the Bullets Wireless Z is accompanied by the equally amazing Warp Charge wired fast charging tech, which fills up the empty battery at a moment’s notice. OnePlus says a 10-minute charge is enough to give you 10 hours of music playback. To test this claim, I charged the Bullets Wireless Z for precisely 10 minutes and looped the earphones through a playlist with the volume set to 50%. The earbuds lasted for 10 hours and 55 minutes before being disconnected. This better-than-expected result is due to the fact that I used a 5V/2A adapter, which is higher than OnePlus’s minimum requirement of using a 5V/0.6A charger. We performed a similar loop test to check the 20-hour endurance claim. Again, the earbuds delivered on their promise and managed to last for 20 hours and 8 minutes before finally dying.
The OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z are simply incredible when it comes to battery performance. There are few if any Bluetooth wireless earphones on the market in this price range that can deliver such a marathon battery life on a single charge.
OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z: Conclusion
The Bullets Wireless Z succeeds in its goal to deliver a practical, value-for-money wireless audio package that doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket. Where the Bullets Wireless 2 were a niche product aimed at providing a premium audio experience, OnePlus has taken a more mainstream approach with the Bullets Wireless Z by lowering the price barrier and retaining some of the most useful features from last year’s model.
The OnePlus Bullets Z are fantastic entry-level Bluetooth earphones that nail the fundamentals. They have a reliable build quality that can withstand rough handling, an ergonomic design that’s comfortable to wear for extended periods, and battery life that just goes on and on. The sound quality is decent for everyday listening but certainly not the best in its class. If sound quality is your top priority, you should perhaps take a look at the OPPO Enco M31 earbuds, which cost the same as the Bullets Wireless Z but are Hi-Res certified, offer LDAC codec support, and have a neutral sound profile. I primarily bought the Bullets Wireless Z to replace my wired Bullets V2, hoping to enjoy a similar audio experience with the convenience of Bluetooth. While I can’t say I’m pleased with the overall sound quality, I can totally see myself enjoying that extra kick of bass while listening to EDM and trance. On top of that, I also find the convenience and comfort offered by them to be immensely helpful in day-to-day usage.
Buy OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z: Amazon India (Affiliate) ||| OnePlus.com USA ||| OnePlus.com UK
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samedi 4 juillet 2020
How to install custom ROMs or GSIs on Samsung Galaxy devices without TWRP
Samsung ships its “Galaxy” branded smartphones and tablets highly modified Android software builds, the latest generation of which is known as One UI. Besides all the UI/UX related differences from stock Android, there is one specific feature that makes Samsung’s Android devices very unique compared to devices from other manufacturers. The Korean OEM substitutes the regular Fastboot mechanism with its own protocol in their products. Internally named after characters from the Norse Mythology, the piece of code running on the device is known as “Loke”, while the remote-side (usually a PC) component is called “Odin”.
How to Download Odin Firmware to Downgrade, Upgrade, or Restore your Samsung Galaxy
The lack of a Fastboot compatible interface might sound like a huge roadblock for the modding scene, but the aftermarket developer community has always managed to get their hands on leaked Odin binaries to get things done. The custom protocol itself was reverse-engineered long ago, resulting in a cross-platform open-source flashing tool called Heimdall. One can compile Heimdall from source or simply grab a patched version of Odin in order to root their Samsung Galaxy devices, install a custom recovery like TWRP, and perform many other flashing jobs.
Once you’ve got TWRP installed, you can easily replace Samsung’s version of Android with a custom Android ROM like LineageOS. Even if there are no custom ROMs available for your Samsung model, you can technically install a Generic System Image (GSI), provided the device is Project Treble compliant as well as comes with an unlockable bootloader. However, porting TWRP to recent Samsung devices running Android 10/One UI 2 out of the box (e.g. the Galaxy S20 series) is a complicated task. The unavailability of a stable custom recovery directly hinders the ability of installing custom ROMs/GSIs on such models.
XDA Junior Member kkoo has now come up with a clever idea to bypass most of these hurdles. Given the fact that Samsung’s official firmware package is nothing but a collection of LZ4 compressed archives, a similarly packed custom ROM (or GSI) can be flashed using Odin. The Verified Boot feature of the target device has to be disabled beforehand, which can be achieved by installing a null vbmeta image provided by Google.
All the instructions you need to follow have been posted in the forum thread linked below. The process described by XDA Junior Member kkoo requires executing some command-line scripts from your computer running Windows. Instructions for flashing and configuring GSIs are also linked in the same forum post.
Using Odin to install custom ROM/GSI on Samsung Galaxy device without TWRP
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Realme Buds Air Neo Review: A distinctly average pair of TWS earbuds
Realme’s vision of becoming a tech lifestyle brand is slowly coming to fruition. Since its debut back in 2018, the technology brand has launched some great smartphones in a variety of price segments, along with TWS earphones, a fitness band, a smartwatch, and smart TVs. Realme’s foray into the TWS earbuds segment has been quite promising so far, as the Realme Buds Air from last year offered an impressive package at an affordable price point. This is why I was looking forward to getting my hands on the new Realme Buds Air Neo when they were initially announced earlier this year in May.
The Realme Buds Air Neo is a more affordable version of the Realme Buds Air, featuring an almost identical design but lacking a few features as a trade-off for the added affordability. Priced at ₹2,999, the Realme Buds Air Neo doesn’t include a couple of useful features that helped the Realme Buds Air stand out from the competition, including wireless charging support, a USB Type-C port, a proximity sensor, and a secondary microphone for environmental noise cancellation. On the plus side, the Realme Buds Air Neo does include slightly larger 13mm drivers and an IPX4 water resistance rating. With just a ₹1,000 price difference between the models, choosing between the two can prove to be a bit challenging. To help make that choice simpler, I’ve been testing the two models for the last few weeks. Here are my thoughts on Realme’s new TWS earbuds.
Note: Realme India sent us a pair of Realme Buds Air Neo for review. However, the company did not have any input on the content of this review. This review is written after nearly two weeks of use.
Design
Much like the original Realme Buds Air, the Realme Buds Air Neo features an AirPods-like design with a pill-shaped charging case that has a single function button on the front for easy device pairing. The case also includes an indicator LED that glows white when the earbuds are in pairing mode, and it also indicates the current battery level of the charging case. The LED glows green when there’s a sufficient amount of battery in the charging case and orange when the battery is low. The case has a magnetic lid that closes with a satisfying click and keeps the earbuds secure when they’re not in use. Even when the lid is open, the earbuds are held snugly in their respective slots with the help of magnets. The case has a micro-USB port on the bottom for charging and, as mentioned earlier, it doesn’t offer wireless charging support.
As far as the earbuds are concerned, they look almost identical to the original Redmi Buds Air with a few minor differences. The Realme Buds Air Neo doesn’t feature a proximity sensor, has an additional cutout at the top (presumably for better audio tuning), doesn’t include the secondary environmental noise cancellation microphone, and doesn’t have a chrome ring at the bottom. Much like the Buds Air, the Realme Buds Air Neo also features a touch-sensitive area towards the top of the stem for playback controls.
Design-wise, the Realme Buds Air Neo look inoffensive, but they suffer from the same issues that I’ve observed with other earbuds that have a similar design. While the fit is definitely comfortable and great for long hours of use, it isn’t as reassuring as that of the Redmi Earbuds S. This is why I constantly felt the need to adjust them while working out. Additionally, due to the fact that the earbuds don’t feature a silicone tip, they offer practically no passive isolation, and you can hear almost everything going around you at low volumes. On top of that, when playing music at high volumes, the sound leaks out quite a bit, which is a gripe I had with the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 as well.
Features
The pairing process for the Realme Buds Air Neo is identical to that of its predecessor. To connect to a new device, you’ll need to pop open the lid while both the earbuds are in the charging case and then press on the function button for three seconds. This will enable the pairing mode, after which you’ll be able to find and pair the earbuds with your smartphone. In case you use a Realme smartphone, the pairing process is even simpler. Just opening the lid near the device brings up a pairing notification that you can tap on to get started. Once you have the earbuds paired to your devices, reconnecting is as simple as pulling out the earbuds and putting them in your ears.
The touch controls on the Realme Buds Air Neo are also the same as that of its predecessor. You can double-tap on the touch-sensitive area on either earbud to play/pause music, triple tap to skip to the next song, tap and hold for two seconds to hang up an ongoing call, or tap and hold on either earbud for one second to bring up the voice assistant of your choice.
The earbuds also feature a low-latency game mode that can be toggled by tapping and holding on both earbuds for two seconds. Realme claims that the game mode can reduce the latency to just 119.2ms and, in my testing, I did notice a considerable difference while playing games with the game mode enabled. Since the earbuds don’t include a proximity sensor, they don’t support the automatic play/pause feature found on the original Buds Air.
While these controls are pretty standard for TWS earbuds in this price range, what helps set the Realme Buds Air Neo apart is that it also lets you customize the controls using the Realme Link app. To do so, you can open the Realme Link app on your phone when connected to the earbuds and then tap on the Realme Buds Air Neo option on the home screen. On the following page, you’ll see a list of all the available gestures, and you can tap on the arrow next to each gesture to customize it to your preference.
realme Link (Free, Google Play) →
Audio Quality
The Realme Buds Air Neo feature slightly larger 13mm dynamic drivers instead of the 12mm drivers found on the original Buds Air. While the larger size of the drivers doesn’t necessarily contribute to better audio output, Realme has tuned the new Buds Air Neo in a way that they sound slightly better than the older model. Overall, the sound signature of the Buds Air Neo is almost the same as that of the older TWS earbuds, with the only exception being that the newer pair lays more emphasis on the bass than the high and mid frequencies.
In a side-by-side comparison, I preferred the audio output of the Realme Buds Air Neo over the original. However, if you’re someone who doesn’t prefer a bass-heavy sound signature, you might be more inclined to prefer the Buds Air over the Buds Air Neo. I listened to the following playlist while testing the earbuds, and in almost all songs, the Realme Buds Air Neo performed slightly better.
Playlist
- Hometown — French 79
- Teardrop — Massive Attack
- Safety — Gashi (ft. DJ Snake)
- Panda — Meute
- Time Goes By — Kupla
- Seven Nation Army — The White Stripes
- Mad World — Gary Jules (ft. Michael Andrews)
- The Blower’s Daughter — Damien Rice
- Tadow — FKJ
- Rockstar — Post Malone (ft. 21 Savage)
- Young Folks — Peter Bjorn and John
- Wasted Years — Iron Maiden
- Purusha — NVDES
- Parallel Jalebi — Four Tet
- Who We Want to Be — Tom Day
Much like the Realme Buds Air and Mi True Wireless Earphones 2, the lack of noise isolation due to the design took a toll on the overall listening experience in noisy environments, meaning the earbuds are better suited for indoor use.
As far as call quality is concerned, I faced no issues while taking calls on the Realme Buds Air Neo. However, the lack of a secondary environmental noise cancellation microphone means that the person on the other end won’t have as pleasant of an experience. Overall connectivity was pretty good and the earbuds didn’t disconnect while I was walking around my house without my phone.
Battery Life
Realme doesn’t explicitly mention the battery capacity of the Realme Buds Air Neo, but the fine print inside the charging case reveals that it packs in a 400mAh battery. Each of the earbuds also feature smaller batteries, but the exact rating is unknown. Realme claims that the Buds Air Neo can last 3 hours on a single charge at 50% volume and up to 17 hours with the charging case. In my testing, I found that the earbuds lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes at 50% volume, which is quite close to Realme’s claims. However, increasing the volume to 80% decreased the battery life to just 2 hours and 20 minutes, which isn’t nearly as good as other TWS earbuds in this price range.
When the battery is drained, you can use the case to charge the earbuds back up to 100% around four times over. This gave me a total battery life of just about 11 hours and 40 minutes at 80% volume and 13 hours and 20 minutes at 50% volume, both of which were significantly lower than Realme’s 17-hour claim. Charging the earbuds from 0-100$ using the case took about 30 minutes, and the case itself took just over 2 hours to get back to full. The battery life of the Realme Buds Air Neo is below average when compared to other TWS earbuds in this price range, so if you choose to buy them, you might find yourself charging them more often than you’d like.
Conclusion
Overall, the Realme Buds Air Neo offers better value than the original Realme Buds Air. Despite the fact that they’re missing a couple of features, the Realme Buds Air Neo more than make up for the lack of wireless charging and a secondary noise cancellation microphone by offering slightly better audio quality and IPX4 water resistance at a lower price point. If you’re in the market for a pair of TWS earbuds and you’re not sure what to pick between these two, then I can safely recommend the newer Realme Buds Air Neo.
However, if you’re open to exploring other options, then the Realme Buds Air Neo wouldn’t be my first choice for several reasons, including the unimaginative design and poor battery life. I’ve had the opportunity to test quite a few TWS earbuds over the last few weeks and, in the entry-level segment, the Redmi Earbuds S is one of the best options by far. The recently launched Realme Buds Q also looks quite promising and, if you’re not in a hurry, I’d recommend waiting for our review of the Buds Q before you make a decision.
Buy the Realme Buds Air Neo: Flipkart || Realme
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vendredi 3 juillet 2020
Download: Xiaomi Redmi 7A receives stable beta Android 10 update with MIUI 11
The Redmi A series is intended for the entry-level Android smartphone market, and the lineup truly offers the best bang for the buck. They can easily outperform the Android Go-powered phones from the same budget segment, thanks to the better hardware configuration. In terms of software updates, Xiaomi usually delivers one major Android version update to these phones, albeit the MIUI layer is refreshed more than once before EOL. Staying true to its reputation, the company has now rolled out the Android 10 update for the Redmi 7A.
The Snapdragon 439-powered Redmi 7A was launched back in 2019 with an exceptionally low ₹5,799 ($85) price tag for the base (2GB RAM/16GB storage) version. The factory-installed operating system was MIUI 10 on top of Android 9 Pie. Although Xiaomi managed to deliver the MIUI 11 update in a fairly quick manner, they didn’t upgrade the underlying Android layer at that time.
Redmi 7A XDA Review – Great Phone, Even Greater Pricing
The wait is finally over, as the long-anticipated Android 10 update has now landed on the Redmi 7A. At the time of reporting, the OTA is available on the European variant of the phone, but it is technically possible to cross-flash it on other regional models. The version number of the new build, which is still based on MIUI 11, is V11.0.1.0.QCMEUXM, and it bumps the Android security patch level (SPL) to May 2020. Other regions should get their updates soon.
Download MIUI V11.0.1.0.QCMEUXM for the Redmi 7A (code-name: “pine”)
It is worth mentioning that the aforementioned build is considered as “stable beta” at the time of publishing. As a result, users need an “authorized Mi Account” (with beta tester privileges) to sideload the above package. The restriction can be bypassed by flashing the recovery ROM using a custom recovery like TWRP. Once Xiaomi greenlights the build to be stable enough, they will flip a server-side switch to remove the Mi Account verification requirement. The same download file will then be installable on the phone without needing a beta tester Account. But as of right now, you can either flash it through TWRP, or arrange for an authorized Mi Account with beta tester privileges.
Update: Redmi 7A units in India are also receiving Android 10 update
The Indian variant of the Redmi 7A is now getting its Android 10 update with the May 2020 security patches in the “stable beta” form. The build number is V11.0.1.0.QCMINXM. You can download the relevant recovery ROM by clicking on this link.
Update 2: The global variant of the Redmi 7A gets Android 10
The Android 10 OTA is now gradually hitting the global Redmi 7A units. Moreover, Xiaomi has released a new build of Android 10 with the June 2020 security patches in Europe after pulling back the initial build. Grab the appropriate package for your model from the list below.
- Redmi 7A
- Global
- Europe
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ASUS rolls out a third Android 10 beta update for the ZenFone Max Pro M1
ASUS is one of the few smartphone makers that offer more than one kind of Android software experience on their smartphones. The company maintains a dedicated product lineup for Android purists that was initiated back in 2018 with the release of the ZenFone Max Pro M1. The phone was shipped with a close-to-stock build of Android 8.1 Oreo and received its Android 9 Pie update later on. Regarding Android 10, ASUS has been conducting a public beta test for a while. The OEM is now ready to offer the third beta build of Android 10 for the ZenFone Max Pro M1.
ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 XDA Forums
The new build bumps the internal software version number from 17.2017.2004.424 to 17.2017.2006.429. Similar to the previous beta updates for this phone, users need to manually download the full firmware package from ASUS’ download portal. The lack of an incremental OTA means that the required download size is nearly 1.7GB. The Android security patch level of this build is June 2020.
The changelog published on ASUS’ official download portal is a bit strange as it contains entries from the second beta build as well. Due to the fact that the builds are cumulative in nature, all the fixes and feature enhancements from the previous two beta updates are definitely present in the newest beta build. Here are the changes that are actually new:
- Fixed VOIP call silent issue after opening “OK Google” in the voice assistant.
- Fixed HD, HDR HD, High frame rate missing issue in PUBG.
- Fixed NFC not working issue after upgrading to the Android 10.
It is worth mentioning that the update ZIP file might not be compatible with TWRP. You must either restore the stock recovery image in order to flash the package or manually modify the updater script to make it TWRP-friendly. Also, note that the Japanese SKU of the ZenFone Max Pro M1 is not officially supported for the current beta program.
Download the third Android 10 beta for the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1
Download downgrade package to revert back to Android Pie
Source: ASUS
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Firefox for Android ditches Preview builds to simplify releases
We talk a lot about Chrome when it comes to Android browsers, but there are several other great options available. Firefox is one such browser and Mozilla maintains a few different builds for people looking to try the latest features. There is stable Firefox, Firefox Beta, Firefox Nightly, Firefox Preview, and Firefox Preview Nightly. Sound messy? Mozilla agrees, which is why they’re eliminating the Preview builds.
Mozilla has started alerting users that they are making some changes to Firefox releases. Soon, there will only be Firefox, Firefox Beta, and Firefox Nightly. The Preview builds will be combined with Nightly, and the Preview Nighty builds will be discontinued entirely. This is a much more straightforward approach and should make it easier for users to decide which build to use.
If you want to use “new” Firefox (a.k.a. Fenix), the version powered by GeckoView, the Nightly build is the one to download. The Firefox Beta builds are more stable but still preview some upcoming features. Lastly, there’s the stable version for those who just need a rock-solid browser. Mozilla is also keeping the privacy-centric “Firefox Focus” browser around, but that’s a separate product from the main browser.
The transition is going to be a little rocky at first. Currently, there are still three different “Nightly” versions of Firefox listed in the Play Store. Eventually, there will only be the three browsers listed below. A Firefox developer clarified how the three builds were chosen:
There were some technical reasons along with keeping the apps with the largest active userbases why the 3 builds were chosen. The people in r/firefox made some incorrect assumptions about what builds were going to survive. The active full-featured browsers are:
-
- Nightly <org.mozilla.fenix>
- Beta <org.mozilla.firefox_beta>
- Release <org.mozilla.firefox>
Firefox Browser (Free, Google Play) →
Firefox for Android Beta (Free, Google Play) →
Firefox Nightly (Free, Google Play) →
Source: Reddit
The post Firefox for Android ditches Preview builds to simplify releases appeared first on xda-developers.
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