[Update: Zoom Edition confirmed] Redmi K30 Pro Zoom Edition, Redmi Note 9, and Redmi 10X 4G names found in MIUI 11

Update 1 (03/16/2020 @ 06:32 AM ET): Redmi’s General Manager Mr. Lu Weibing has confirmed that the Redmi K30 Pro Zoom Edition does exist. Scroll to the bottom for more information. The article as published on March 2, 2020, is preserved below.

There are a handful of established players in the smartphone market; and thanks to how releases have worked out in the past, we have now fallen into a predictable pattern of releases. Every year few months, these established players release another iteration in their successful product lines, cashing in rightfully on the hard-earned goodwill from those lines. So when we hear about Xiaomi working on the Redmi Note 9, we aren’t really surprised. But when we hear about Xiaomi working on a Redmi K30 Pro Zoom Edition and Redmi 10X, we do take notice.

XDA Senior Member kacskrz discovered the names of a few upcoming Xiaomi/Redmi smartphones in the latest MIUI 11 China Developer ROM. These include:

• Redmi K30 Pro
• Redmi K30 Pro Zoom Edition
• Redmi Note 9
• Redmi 10X 4G

Of these, we already know that Xiaomi is going to launch a Redmi K30 Pro flagship smartphone in China. Xiaomi has also revealed that the Redmi K30 Pro will come with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC as well as 5G capabilities. However, this is the first mention of a special “Zoom Edition” of the flagship. We do not know what exactly is special about this “Zoom Edition”, but judging from its name, it may obviously have something to do with better zoom capabilities on the phone.

As for the Redmi Note 9, there is no surprise that it is in the works. According to market research firm Canalys, the Redmi Note 7 had a spot in the top 10 selling smartphones globally in 2019, while the Redmi Note 8 and Redmi Note 8 Pro both occupied spots in the top 10 selling smartphones globally for Q4 2019. In fact, the Redmi Note 8 was the best selling Android smartphone for Q4 2019 — so it was entirely expected that Xiaomi would follow up with a successor.

Redmi Note 8 Pro XDA Forums || Buy Redmi Note 8 Pro from Amazon.in

The Redmi 10X 4G is a peculiar find. Xiaomi has sold several “X” phones as part of its Mi and Redmi series, like the Mi 5X and Mi 6X. We do not know what is special about this phone outside of the name. We speculate that the 10X could refer to either zoom capabilities (following the theme from the K30 Pro Zoom Edition), or it could be variant of the Redmi 10 (unlikely, since the Redmi 9 is yet to be released, pushing the Redmi 10 and then Redmi 10X to even further timelines). Curiously, the name also includes the words “4G’, which indicates that there might also be a 5G variant in the work.

We’ll let you know when we receive more information about these upcoming phones.

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Update: Redmi K30 Pro Zoom Edition confirmed by Redmi

Redmi General Manager Mr. Lu Weibing shared a small post on Weibo, which roughly translates into “Changed my phone”. While this piece of information is not of particular interest, the post was shared through a yet-unreleased device going by the name “Redmi K30 Pro zoom version”. This essentially confirms the existence of a special Zoom Edition of the upcoming Redmi K30 Pro.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi did launch the Redmi Note 9 Pro and Redmi Note 9 Pro Max in India. The Redmi Note 9S is also slated for release in certain markets. Curiously, the Redmi Note 9 is nowhere to be found just yet. We also do not have any new information on the Redmi 10X 4G.

Source: Weibo

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Samsung rolls out Android 10 with One UI 2.0 to the Galaxy A40, Galaxy A80 and Galaxy A7 (2018)

The latest version of Samsung’s in-house Android skin, i.e. One UI 2.1, is currently available on the Galaxy Z Flip as well as on the Galaxy S20 series, while phones like the Galaxy Note 10, S10, Note 9, and S9 are scheduled to get the update soon. On the other hand, a bunch of  ‘A’ series mid-rangers from the company have received the One UI 2.0 update on top of Android 10. The list includes the Galaxy A30, Galaxy A50s, Galaxy A70, Galaxy A70s and the Galaxy A6 (2018) so far, but now we have three new candidates in the roster. The One UI 2.0 update is reportedly hitting the Galaxy A7 (2018), Galaxy A80 and the Galaxy A40 units in selected regions.

Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018)

As a matter of fact, two different variants of the Galaxy A7 (2018) have simultaneously picked up the Android 10 update. While Indian users carrying the phone with the model number SM-A750F are being greeted with the software version A750FXXU4CTBC, the SM-A750G model in Panama has received the update with the build number A750GUBU5CTC1. The latter also contains an updated bootloader (v5 from v4), which is enough to prohibit downgrading attempts to Android Pie. The Android Security Patch Level (SPL) is March 2020 for both the firmware packages.

Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) XDA Forums

Samsung Galaxy A80

Talking about the Galaxy A80, the SM-A805F variant of the phone has secured the update in France at the time of writing this article. The new firmware is tagged as A805FXXU4BTC3 and carries February 2020 security patches. The bootloader version, however, remains the same as the previous Android Pie-based firmware.

Samsung Galaxy A80 XDA Forums || Buy Samsung Galaxy A80 from Amazon.in

Samsung Galaxy A40

Unlike the above two phones, the rollout of the One UI 2.0 update for the Galaxy A40 is quite widespread. We can spot multiple Android 10-based regional builds for the SM-A405FM/N variants, and the OTA should be available in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Russia and other European countries with March 2020 security patches. The respective build numbers are A405FMPUU3BTC1 and A405FNXXU3BTB8.

Samsung Galaxy A40 XDA Discussion

One UI 2.0 with Android 10

In terms of software features, the owners of the aforementioned phones can now utilize an overhauled Dark Mode with enhanced image, text, and color adjustments. There is also a new way to access the one-handed mode and several UI improvements in the stock camera app. The updates for all the devices are rolling out in batches, but you can skip the queue and download the new firmware packages directly from the Samsung update server using Frija.

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Thanks to Samsung Members Community user SH31H for the screenshot!

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Google Maps tests a faster way to start Live View AR navigation

Google Maps turned 15 earlier this year in February and the company celebrated its birthday by giving the app a new look and additional features. The app, both on Android and iOS, received a major update which included a new icon, a redesign for the bottom navigation bar, new transit features, and updates to Live View. For the unaware, Live View in Google Maps is an augmented reality feature that lets you view your surroundings in real-time with overlays highlighting the directions to your destination. In the anniversary update, Google added a new capability in Live View which lets you search for a destination on the app and see exactly how far, and in which direction, the place is. The company also revealed that it had plans to expand Live View functionality even further in the coming months.

Now, as per a recent report from 9to5Google, the company has already started testing a new feature in Live View which will give users faster access to AR navigation. Currently, in order to access Live View in Google Maps, you first have to initiate walking directions in the app and then hit the Live View button to open the camera-based UI. While this may seem easy enough for many of us, Live View still doesn’t have a prominent place in the app and it can easily be missed by people who aren’t familiar with the feature. To remedy this, Google is now testing a new Live View floating action button (FAB) which appears right above the existing button that helps you center yourself on the map.

As you can see in the attached screenshots, the new Live View FAB appears right as soon as you search for a location in Google Maps. Tapping on the button opens up the camera interface to show “how far away and in which direction a place is” from your current position. The UI has an arrow that prompts you to move your phone and shows the end destination as a floating pin in the distance. Once you’ve located the destination, a card at the bottom allows you to start the AR-guided navigation.

Making Live View more prominent and easier to use increases the likelihood of more people using the feature in Google Maps. It also allows you to get oriented without starting the full navigation first. However, you’ll have to wait a while before you can use the new Live View FAB on your device as the feature is currently only available for a handful of users in beta and Google has released no information regarding a wider rollout.

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Via: 9to5Google

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The Motorola Razr with a vertically folding OLED display launches in India for ₹1,24,999 (~$1,700)

Motorola’s iconic clamshell phone – Razr – was recently reincarnated by the company. In its new avatar, the Motorola Razr comes with a foldable plastic OLED display in coherence with its vertically folding design, which took almost a decade to perfect. The foldable display is complemented by a rigid and premium build as well as a secondary Quick View display. Today, Motorola is launching the Razr in India with a hefty price tag to justify the premium offering.

Motorola Razr XDA Forums

To enable a jitter-free experience of folding and unfolding, Motorola uses a special hinge that curves the display around the fold and prevents it from creasing. This allows the two faces of the phone to stay in perfect contact without any space between them. The Motorola Razr features a metallic frame on the inner side while the outer upper and bottom faces are made of with Gorilla Glass and a rigid polycarbonate panel respectively. Like the classic Moto Razr, the new foldable smartphone also comes with a chin and this area houses the capacitive fingerprint scanner.

 

The Motorola Razr features a single 16MP Sony IMX517 camera outside and a 5MP selfie camera inside, which is housed in the notch on the top of the display. It also features a 2,570mAh battery and comes with an 18W Turbo fast charger. There no slot for a physical SIM but the foldable phone supports a single eSIM.

For more details about the design of the smartphone, you can read our first impressions of the Motorola Razr in India or watch the following video shot by our friends at Pocketnow.

Motorola Razr Specifications

Specification	Motorola Razr
Dimensions	Unfolded: 72 mm x 172 mm x 6.6 mm Folded: 72 mm x 94 mm x 14 mm
Weight	205g
Display	Main “Flex View”: 6.20-inch pOLED 2142×876 (21:9) Closed “Quick View”: 2.69-inch gOLED 800×600 (4:3)
Camera	Outer: 16MP (Sony IMX517) f/1.7, 1.22μm with EIS, Night Vision support Internal: 5MP f/2.0, 1.12μm
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 710
RAM	6GB
Storage	128GB
Battery capacity	2510mAh with 15W TurboPower charging
Connectivity	eSIM, NFC, CDMA, LTE bands 2/3/4/5/7/13/20/28/66, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, GPS/GLONASS, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Security	Capacitive fingerprint scanner
IP Rating	None, splash-proof nano-coating
Audio	Speaker at the bottom, no 3.5mm headphone jack, 4 microphones
Software	Android 9 Pie
Ports & Buttons	USB 3.0 Type-C port at the bottom, fingerprint scanner in the bottom bezel, power and volume buttons on the right side

Price & Availability

The Motorola Razr will be available in India at a starting price of ₹1,24,999 (~$1,690) starting April 2nd through Flipkart and major offline retail channels. Citibank card users can avail a cashback of ₹10,000 on the purchase of the foldable smartphone in India.

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Samsung announces the budget Galaxy A11 smartphone with triple rear cameras

The budget smartphone market deals with thin profit margins, surviving on the concept of “the smallest piece of the largest pie”. OEMs in this space rely on achieving massive quantities of scale, and it comes as no surprise that some of the best selling Android smartphones of 2019 came from budget lineups. Samsung’s Galaxy A-lineup saw plenty of top performers in this space, with the Galaxy A10 being the best-selling Android smartphone of last year according to a report. Now, Samsung has quietly launched the successor to the Galaxy A10 in the form of the new Samsung Galaxy A11.

Samsung Galaxy A11: Specifications

Specification	Samsung Galaxy A11
Dimensions and Weight	161.4 x 76.3 x 8.0 mm 177g
Display	6.4″ HD+ TFT LCD; Punch-hole display (Infinity-O)
SoC	Octa-core 1.8GHz
RAM and Storage	2GB + 32GB 3GB + 32GB Expandable through microSD card slot
Battery & Charging	4,000 mAh battery 15W fast charging
Rear Camera	Primary: 13MP, f/1.8 Secondary: 2MP, Depth Sensor, f/2.4 Tertiary: 5MP, Wide-Angle Camera, f/2.2
Front Camera	8MP, f/2.0
Other Features	3.5mm headphone jack Rear fingerprint sensor
Android Version	–

The Samsung Galaxy A11 is a humble smartphone, and that is exactly what is needed for the target audience. While having extra features is always nice, Samsung has a wide portfolio with different devices at different price points with differing levels of high-end features. So it does make sense to have some options that are much more grounded than the others. On the Galaxy A11, there are very few fancy features to be spotted — no glass back, no AMOLED display, no in-display fingerprint scanners, and so on.

Samsung did not even specify the processor on the phone, and the RAM and storage are humble as well. On the plus, the phone does have a healthy 4,000 mAh battery with support for 15W fast charging, which should translate well into real-life battery life and charging. There’s also a triple rear camera onboard, which should lend some versatility for its users to take advantage of, though we wouldn’t raise our expectations too high.

Samsung has not revealed any further details about the phone, so we do not know in which markets the phone will reach, and at what price. If we had to speculate, we can take a guess that it would make its way to regions where the Galaxy A10 is officially on sale.

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Smartphones to become more expensive in India following tax increase

India’s Goods and Services Tax Council decided on Saturday to raise the tax rate on smartphones and specified components to 18%, a sharp 6% increase from the previous 12%. This hike will inevitably cause an increase in smartphone prices across all segments, and many fear it will have negative consequences on the growth of the Indian smartphone market.

“It was decided by the Council that the GST rate on mobile phones and specified parts which presently attract 12% will now be at 18%.”

Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister, at the 39th GST Council meeting in New Delhi.

The move comes at the time when smartphone OEMs are already struggling with razor-thin profit margins, depreciating currency rate, and battling cut-throat competition to retain their identity. The resultant price hike from the increased GST rate, therefore, will likely be passed down to the consumers as smartphone makers are currently in no position to absorb the additional tariff imposed by the government — not without sustaining some serious losses or decline in business.

Xiaomi India’s MD‌, Mr. Manu Kumar‌ Jain was swift to react to the tax hike. Manu tweeted that the move will be detrimental to the growth of the Indian smartphone industry and would work against the Govt’s Make In India initiative.

In a separate tweet, he urged the govt to reconsider the move, citing that the industry is already fighting two battles with depreciating value of Indian Rupee against US dollar and supply chain disruption due to COVID-19. He even suggested that the devices that cost below RS. 15,000 ($200) should be exempted from the new tariff.

My humble request to Hon. PM @NarendraModi ji and FM @nsitharaman ji – please reconsider this #GST hike.

The industry is already struggling with depreciating INR & supply chain disruption due to Covid-19.

At least all devices under $200 (=₹15,000) must be exempted from this. https://t.co/hOMpSpTyKk

— Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) March 14, 2020

The surge in the GST rate is said to be a corrective measure to fix the inverted duty structure (IDS), a situation where the tax rate on input raw material is higher than the rate on the finished product (output). At last year’s GST Council, the issue of inverted duty was raised to the tax body on close to a dozen items including smartphones, footwear, fabrics and more.

The experts, however, do not agree with the GST Council’s rationale behind the tax hike. In a letter to Finance Minister, India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) chairman Pankaj Mohindroo said:

“We understand that one of the logic being put forward is that the industry is suffering from inverted GST! Instead of correcting this wrong by rationalizing GST on parts, components and inputs of mobile phones, a bizarre move to increase GST on the final product is now being considered. Mobile Phones is the only sector that has performed under flagship ‘Make In India’ program of the government. Hence, any change in the GST will be detrimental to the consumer sentiment which in turn can impact domestic manufacturing activity.“

The revised GST‌ tariff on smartphones is set to come into effect from 1st April. It remains to be seen whether the government will consider making any adjustments or exemptions or go along with the recommendation of the GST‌ Council. It will also be interesting to see how various smartphone OEMs respond to the increased tariff and what will be their new pricing strategy for their existing as well as upcoming smartphones.

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Via: HindustanTimes

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Download: Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 receives stable Android 10 update with MIUI 11

The initial MIUI 11 beta update for the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 was based on Android Pie, but the phone eventually received a taste of Android 10 via the closed beta channel back in October of last year. The stable version of MIUI 11 for the Mi Mix 3 landed in the beginning of November, but the underlying Android version was still based on Android 9 Pie. Xiaomi dropped a hint about the upcoming OS upgrade when they published the kernel source code of the Android 10 update for the Mi Mix 3, alongside the POCO F1, Mi Mix 2s, and the Mi 8 series in December. The wait is finally over, as Xiaomi has now started rolling out Android 10 for the Mi Mix 3 in the form of MIUI 11.0.3.0 via the stable channel.

Mi Mix 3 XDA Forums

The version numbering scheme coined by Xiaomi is enough to confuse most regular users. The last Android Pie-based build for this phone was tagged as 11.0.4.0, thus the newest update apparently looks like a downgrade. The Android Security Patch Level (SPL) is bumped from October 2019 to February 2020 though, which is a significant improvement in terms of security. Apart from the multitude of Android 10 software enhancements, the update also contains fixes for various glitches related to the notification shade as well as overlap issues in scrolling screenshots.

Download MIUI V11.0.3.0.QEEMIXM for the Mi Mix 3 (codename: perseus)

• Recovery ROM (2.0GB)
• Fastboot ROM (2.5GB)

The update is no longer considered a “stable beta“. As a result, you don’t explicitly need an “authorized Mi Account” to sideload this build. People with an unlocked bootloader can also flash the Recovery ROM via TWRP or opt for the Fastboot package to perform a clean install.

It is worth mentioning that the Mi Mix 3 5G (codename: andromeda) is still running MIUI 10 on top of Android Pie. The aforementioned firmware is not at all compatible with the 5G variant, so do not try to force-flash this build unless you want a costly paperweight for your desk.

Source: Mi Community

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Thanks to XDA member mattstifler for the screenshot!

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