This week, on our weekly news roundup: the Huawei Y6 (2019) is now getting EMUI 9.1 while the Galaxy J5 (2017) is receiving its slice of Pie, and more!
What's New This Week?
Xiaomi
- Another update for the Redmi 7A brings Portait Mode and AI Scene detection to the table
Huawei
- Huawei Y6 (2019) is now getting EMUI 9.1
Samsung
- Galaxy M20 and M30 are now receiving August's security patch
- T-Mobile's Galaxy J7 Star is now receiving Android Pie
- Galaxy J5 (2017) is now receiving Android Pie as well
- Latest update for the Galaxy M40 brings a few new features
- 3D scanner for the Galaxy Note 10+ is now available on the Galaxy Store
Xiaomi
Redmi 7A
A new update is here for the Redmi 7A and while it doesn't bring the much anticipated August security patch, it does include July's along with a couple of new features. To be more specific, AI scene detection and Portrait Mode.
Portrait Mode works for both the selfie and the rear camera and we assume that the same goes for AI scene recognition/detection. Speaking of which, Xiaomi has listed 33 scene categories while 6 of them are specifically for India.
In case you're not familiar with it, scene detection automatically recognizes what you're trying to capture and adjusts the camera settings accordingly so that we can get the best possible result without having to touch anything.
Is it as good as a human who is manually adjusting everything in manual shooting mode? Probably not. But, it's still better than nothing and it can come in handy when you're in a hurry to just take the shot.
Huawei
Y6 (2019)
EMUI 9.1 has been arriving to more and more Huawei devices and now the time has come for the Y6 (2019) as well. It was originally meant to receive it in July, but oh well.
The update weighs more than 2 gigabytes and is rolling out in waves. So, it may take a while before all of you receive the notification.
As we've mentioned before, EMUI 9.1 is still based on Android Pie with the same UI, but it also brings a few new, interesting features like GPU Turbo 3.0, a new file system, Huawei's Ark Compiler, and more.
Our only small complaint is that the security patch is still stuck on July's and we hope that Huawei will soon fix that.
Samsung
Galaxy M20 and M30
Both the Galaxy M20 and M30 are now receiving the August security update. For now, the M30 is only getting it in India while the M20 is getting it in Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
We don't have the changelog for the M20, so we don't know if any new features are included. But, the changelog for the M30 does mention that the camera stability has been improved.
The security patch itself fixes 17 issues that are present only on Samsung devices and it weighs 360 megabytes. As for the delivery, we assume that more regions are going to join the party soon enough.
And with that being said, if you got this update and you're living in a different region, please do let us and everyone else know about it in the comments section down below!
Galaxy J7 Star
So what if Android 10 is right around the corner? Numerous devices are still running on Android Oreo or an even older version.
Up till recently, the J7 Star used to be one of them. But, as of now, T-Mobile's Galaxy J7 has started receiving its slice of Pie.
Apart from a newer version of Android, this update also brings a few Pie-related features, like Digital Wellbeing, improved Adaptive Brightness, Adaptive Battery, and more. But, at the same time, it also brings Samsung's One UI to the table!
It weighs just a bit over 1.1 gigs while including the July's security patch as well. That's a bit of a shame if you consider that August is almost over, but, oh well.
In case you still haven't received the update do keep in mind that it may be getting out in waves. So, some of you may have to wait for a while before getting your turn.
Galaxy J5 (2017)
The J5 may be getting kinda old now, but that's not to say that Samsung forgot about it. In fact, quite the opposite; it's now receiving Android Pie.
As per usual, this update doesn't only bring Android Pie and its features, but also Samsung's One UI. The security patch is also August's, which is always a nice thing.
At the moment of writing this article, the update is only available in Russia. But, we assume that more and more markets will follow soon enough.
As for the size, there is not a lot of information about it. But, since this update does bring a new UI and a newer Android version, chances are that it's going to be at least 800-1000 megabytes big. So, do remember to enable Wi-Fi before downloading it.
Galaxy M40
The Galaxy M40's latest update brings August's security patch to the table along with a few new features and improvements.
To be more specific, we're talking about a dedicated QR scanner, which eliminates the need for installing 3rd party scanners from Google Play, and Night Mode for the camera.
Other than that, as per usual, the changelog mentions that generic improvements and bug fixes are included in the update as well. Seeing how it doesn't offer a lot of new stuff, it's no surprise that it only weighs 366 megabytes.
Note 10+
Not too long ago, we talked about the Galaxy Note 10 Plus' ability to interact with our world by capturing real-life objects and turning them into 3D ones. Well, the app that's responsible for that is now available on the Galaxy Store, so, if you own a Note 10+, go ahead and give it a try.
Do keep in mind that this is only for the Plus version of the Note 10. The smaller one can't use it as it doesn't have a TOF sensor.
The S10 5G should technically be able to use it as well. After it all, it does have a TOF sensor. However, we don't have any info on that just yet. So, if you know anything about it, do let us and everyone else know about it in the comments section.
In case you own a Note 10+, but you still can't find the app on the Galaxy Store, you can try manually installing the APK from Sam Mobile's inventory.
And if you don't know about it, this app takes advantage of the TOF sensor to capture real-life objects, turn them into 3D models, and that allows you to use them in your photos and/or videos. We're not sure as to how useful that can be, but it's certainly worth giving it a try just for the heck of it.
That's all for now. Feel like we forgot to mention something important? Got anything wrong? Then let us and everyone else know about it in the comments section down below!
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