Firmware News: OnePlus Nord Gets its First Update, and More

This week, on our weekly firmware news roundup: The Moto G8 Plus is now being upgraded to Android 10, OnePlus Nord is already receiving its first update which brings camera improvements, and more!

What's New This Week?

Motorola

• Moto G8 Plus is now being upgraded to Android 10

Huawei

• New update for the P40 series brings selfie camera improvements to the table

OnePlus

• OnePlus Nord is now receiving its first update

Samsung

• The S20 series may soon get updated to One UI 2.5
• Galaxy M31 is now receiving July's security patch
• Samsung may be already testing Android 11 on the Galaxy S20
• Verizon's Note 9 is now receiving One UI 2.1

Motorola

Moto G8

Android smartphones may offer a ton of advantages compared to the competition. But there is no doubt that updates are currently not one of them. There are tons devices that are still on Android Pie or even Android Oreo

Up till now, the Moto G8 was one of them as well. But, thankfully, it's now also receiving Android 10.

The update is currently being delivered to Spain and Brazil. So, chances are we're soon going to see it in other regions as well. Speaking of which, if you end up getting it, feel free to let us know about it in the comments.

As it brings Android 10, you can also expect to get most, if not all of its features. Things like Digital Wellbeing, improved privacy controls, Google's new gesture-based navigation system, Dark Theme, Focus Mode, and more!

Other than that, you can also expect to find the latest Android security patch. Keep in mind that as a major update, chances are it's going to be rather large in terms of size. So, do seriously consider enabling Wi-Fi connectivity before downloading.

Huawei

P40 Series

A relatively large update is here for the Huawei P40 series that's currently being delivered to European Huawei P40, P40 Pro, and P40 Pro+ devices. It brings a handful of new features for the front-facing camera that are surely going to improve your overall experience with it.

These features include:

• Smart Eye Tracking
• Low-light selfie mode
• And Super Night Portrait mode
• Night Mode recording

They are mostly pretty self-explanatory.

Smart Eye Tracking can recognize and focus on your eyes for a more stable auto-focus experience, low-light selfie mode is just night mode for selfies and the same goes for Super Night Portrait mode which is the Portrait variant.

You can now also take better videos in the dark with the help of Night Mode recording. Other than that, you can also expect to get the latest Android security patch (July).

OnePlus

OnePlus Nord

The OnePlus Nord is OnePlus' latest mid-range device. The only reason we didn't cover it is because we don't feel like it's too much of a big deal - especially when there are certain Xiaomi devices offering similar specs at similar or lower price points.

In the end, the OnePlus Nord is no doubt a decent mid-range with 6 gigs of RAM (Minimum), a FHD AMOLED display at 90Hz, Android 10 out of the box, and the Qualcomm SDM765 chipset. On top of that, it's now also receiving its very first software update.

This update includes a bunch of improvements including, but not limited to:

• Improvements in video calling performance
• Camera performance
• Better depth sensor effect
• Better indoors image quality
• Greater power efficiency in 4K 60FPS video recording mode
• Along with minor system stability and system performance improvements as well

The update only weighs a bit more than 100 megabytes and chances are that it's going to be immediately available after you buy OnePlus' new device.

Samsung

Galaxy S20

One UI 2.5 Rumors

The Galaxy S10 immediately went from One UI 1.1 to One UI 2.0. So, one would think that the same would apply to the Galaxy S20 as well - which makes even more sense if you consider the fact that One UI 3.0 is reportedly under testing.

However, according to some of the most popular leaksters on Twitter, including @UniverseIce and @MaxWeinbach, the Galaxy S20 may actually end up receiving One UI 2.5!

Chances are that the 2.5 update is going to be a big one. That's usually the case with small jumps in numbers. For example, the jump from One UI 1.0 to 1.1 wasn't a huge deal - but going from One UI 1.0 to 2.0 and 2.1, especially with the new camera features, is quite a big jump. And we expect to see a similar story from 2.0 to 3.0.

As for One UI 2.5, rumor has it that we're going to see support for Google's gesture-based navigation system in 3rd party launchers, improvements and bug fixes, along with further improvements in camera features such as Pro mode for videos.

Most of that information is currently nothing but leaks and rumors. So, take it with a grain of salt.

Android 11 May be in Development

In other news, XDA developer member, carlitobahsoun, recently noticed that Samsung's official version tracker for the S20 Ultra mentions Android 11 as the latest version - not Android 10.

This could mean that Samsung is already working on a very early Android 11 developer preview for the S20 series. We haven't received an official confirmation about it as of yet and we honestly highly doubt that anything like that is going to happen in the upcoming weeks.

Not to mention that Android 11 will most likely arrive with One UI 3.0 anyway - - which is still in development. So, all we can do is sit here and wait patiently like we always do until an open beta comes out.

Galaxy M31

Samsung is known for delivering new security patches to most of its devices faster than anyone else. In most cases, even faster than Google. But that's not to say that they can do it for every single device. It's unavoidable that some of them will have to lag behind - even if they were released relatively recently.

The Galaxy M31 is one of these devices. We may be reaching the end of the month now, but the M31 started receiving July's update just a couple of days ago in India and all that matters is that in the end, it got it.

To be more specific, it's currently being delivered in India and apart from July's patch, it also brings support for RCS on Vodafone-Idea's network. Unfortunately, it looks like now you'll also be getting ads on your lockscreen through Glance.

In case you're not familiar with it, RCS is a feature that you can use text messages and multimedia ones as well by using a Wi-Fi or mobile data instead of your cellular network. Well, technically speaking, if you're using mobile data then you're already relying on the cellular network. But, you get the point. It's mostly just using the internet instead of the cellular network to send messages which can save you some money.

The update weighs roughly 660 megabytes and is currently being rolled out OTA. Chances are that it's an incremental update. So, some of you will have to keep on waiting a bit longer until you get your chance.

Note 9 (Verizon)

We've probably already mentioned this quite a few times already, but US carriers are not the best at keeping up with software updates. It's not unusual for US citizens to have to wait a bit more than others. This could be days, weeks, or, in some cases, even more than a month before receiving the same update that everyone else has already received worldwide.

A similar story unfolds here with Verizon and Note 9 owners. The One UI 2.1 update was released a month ago for unlocked units. But it's only now that the same update is being pushed to Verizon's Note 9 units.

Despite the delay, the good thing is that you'll be getting all of the features that One UI 2.1 has to offer. This includes July's security patch, the S20's camera features, Music Share, Quick Share, AR Zone, custom filters, and more.

If you're on Verizon's network, chances are that you're going to receive an OTA notification either this week or the next one. We expect that only a minority will have to wait a bit longer. That's due to the fact that such updates are usually incremental - which means that some of you will have to keep on waiting a while longer to receive the second or third batch.

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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SOURCES: SAM MOBILE 1, 2, XDA DEVELOPERS, GSM ARENA 1, 2