This week, on our weekly firmware news roundup: The S20 Ultra is now receiving a few camera-related improvements with the latest update, Xiaomi temporarily cancels the Mi A3 Android 10 rollout, and more!
What's New This Week?
- Google releases a new set of Pixel features with its latest monthly update
Xiaomi
- Mi A3 gets Android 10 - but gets canceled shortly afterward
- The global variant of the Redmi Note 8 Pro is now receiving the latest version of Android as well
Poco
- Pocophone F1 is now receiving another Android 10 stable beta update
Samsung
- Numerous Samsung devices are now receiving the March security patch
- S20 series is now receiving improvements to the camera and gestures
- S10 Lite gets a few camera-related improvements with the latest update
Pixel Series
This month, Google decided to take things one step further and released a bunch of new features for their Pixel series. Or at least for the phones that are still supported.
The first thing that we've been previously seen on some wearables is the "Car crash detection". As the name implies, this feature uses the sensors of your phone to detect a strong car crash in order to call for help when you can't.
Unfortunately, after digging a bit deeper, we found out that it's currently only available for the Pixel 4 series in the UK and Australia.
There is currently no information about other regions and Pixels. But, we assume that at the very least, anything from the Pixel 2 and later is going to be included.
Other than that, Google also mentions that Motion Sense on the Pixel 4 series will now work with music playback controls as well.
Moving on, we see a few new AR filters, dark theme scheduling, and quick access to the wallet. Regarding the dark theme scheduling - you can either set a manual time or you can also set it "Automatic" where it'll disable itself once the sun goes down.
In other news, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL should now support Live Captions, but no mention has been made about the original Pixel. We assume that after all these years, Google decided to give up on it. =
Xiaomi
Mi A3
Xiaomi recently started pushing Android 10 to the Mi A3. However, the update was very quickly pulled back.
According to our sources, this is due to some sort of bug which makes the phone unresponsive.
Another update came out shortly which contained nothing more than a newer security patch. But, we assume that once the issue is fixed, the update will once more become widely available for Mi A3 users.
Redmi Note 8 Pro
The Note 8 Pro has been running MIUI 11 for quite some time now - but that was based on Android Pie. Only the Chinese variants had the latest version of Android.
And we say "had" because as of this week, the global variants are now receiving Android 10 as well! The rollout started in Pakistan. But, after a few days, we saw it being delivered in various EU regions as well. We assume that it'll soon be globally available.
The changelog only mentions February's patch, Android 10, and improved security - most likely to the security patch. And we assume that's mostly true as MIUI 11 was already offering the vast majority of Android 10 features like gesture-based navigation, system-wide dark mode, etc.
Still, you can expect to find a few "under the hood" changes that are exclusive to Android 10. Things like improved privacy controls, system-wide subs (When they become available), improved Digital Wellbeing, and things like that.
That's all for now. We'll let you know if anything else comes next week. So, stay tuned!
Poco
Pocophone F1
It's been quite a while since we first saw the Poco F1 - but Xiaomi/Poco is still giving it a lot of love as it's now receiving another stable beta update. We assume that this will be the last beta but only time will tell.
In case you're not familiar with them, stable beta updates are basically stable - except they are not available for everyone just yet. A beta update, on the other hand, is known for having issues or is very likely to have issues that are waiting to be discovered.
That said, we expect that this update will soon become available to stable users and everyone is going to finally be running Android 10.
As for this one, keep in mind that it's being pushed out in waves. Even if you're into the beta program, you're not going to receive it immediately.
Poco hasn't mentioned anything about additions, changes, or improvements. But, according to our sources, many people are getting better overall performance after the update along with a few fixes for features that were previously broken (AAC Bluetooth, calendar widget, etc).
Samsung
Numerous Devices
Samsung is now known for pushing security updates extremely fast. Sometimes even faster than Google and this month is not an exception as there are quite a few devices that are now receiving this update.
To be more specific, here are all of them and the location/s where they are receiving it at the time of writing this article:
- Galaxy Note 9: Germany
- Note 10 and Note 10+: Spain, Hungary, UK
- Galaxy Tab S4: Southeast EU, Hungary, Switzerland, Baltic States, Italy, France, UK, Austria, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and other EU regions
- Galaxy S10 Series: Switzerland and is expected to soon become available for other regions as well
Samsung hasn't mentioned anything about new features, improvements, or fixes. But, we assume that there are a few minor adjustments for at least one of the aforementioned devices.
As for the security patch itself, according to our sources, you can expect to find a few patches that are Android-related and 25 more that are exclusive to Samsung's software.
S20 Series
The Galaxy S20 series is now receiving its 2nd update. You can expect to find some minor camera improvements along with gesture navigation improvements.
This update can only be found in South Korea at the moment. But, we assume that we'll get it on a global scale soon enough now.
You only have to download about 253 megabytes which means that you're unlikely to find any other additions.
Many people are currently complaining about the focus speed of the main camera on the S20 Ultra. And while Samsung did improve the situation a bit with this update, there is still quite a bit of room for improvement.
At the same time, this could be a hardware-related issue with the huge 108MP sensor. Only time will tell.
That said, the update does improve the autofocus of the camera a bit (At least according to those who installed it). But, admittedly, there's still a bit of room for improvement here.
Galaxy S10 Lite
The latest update for the Galaxy S10 Lite seems to be almost entirely focused on the Camera.
According to the changelog, we're looking at 2K 60FPS recording, super steady mode at 4K/UHD, along with improvements in the overall stability and quality of the camera.
Camera improvements aside, we're also looking at February's security patch, performance improvements/optimization for the fingerprint scanner, and as per usual, a few minor improvements and bug fixes as well.
You only need to download 416 megabytes for it. And while it's quite a shame that March's patch is not included, we can only assume that it'll soon become available. Until then, stay tuned!
Closure
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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