Home Blog Page 848

Fender Newport: The king of guitars arrives into the Bluetooth speaker scene (Review)

Gerson Noboa
-
0

I shouldn’t even introduce a brand like Fender. They are so famous and renowned throughout the world that there’s nothing I could say that you didn’t know already… Except for one thing: they are now making Bluetooth speakers. It’s like a match made in heaven: a brand that has dedicated its entire life to creating music instruments is now manufacturing their own Bluetooth speakers. What could go wrong?

The answer is: almost nothing. Fender didn’t make these devices just for fun or for making a quick buck. They actually thought this through and has come up with a superb product that, despite some very minor flaws, matches or outperforms its competitors.

Specs

These are the specs for the Fender Newport, right out of Fender’s official website:

  • Maximum Output Level: 30 watts.
  • Speakers: Two woofers and one tweeter.
  • Dimensions: 3″ (7.5 cm) W x 7.25″ (18.41 cm) L x 5.25″ (13.3 cm) H.
  • Weight: 3.2 lbs (1.5 kg).
  • Battery: Up to 12 hours.
  • Ports: 3.5mm auxiliary port, USB-A port, charging port.
  • Bluetooth: Version 4.2, range of approximately 33 foot, codecs apX, AAC, SBC
  • Microphone: Integrated, echo cancellation.

In the box you will find the speaker, AC adapter, 3.5mm audio cable, a USB to microUSB cable, and manuals.

Design and Build

Upon receiving your box, the first thing you will notice will be its weight. It’s not an assumption, it’s a fact. This thing is heavy, but it could be worse. Other speakers with similar prices, such as the Marshall Kilburn and JBL Xtreme are even heavier. However, the Bose SoundLink Mini II and Marshall Stockwell are lighter, allowing easier transportation.

I had to carry this around New York City while taking pictures of it and it was definitely noticeable. It is not something you would carry with you “just in case,” but rather because you are 100% sure that you are going to use it.

After you stop lamenting about the speaker’s weight, you will be amazed at how good it looks. You will not mistake it for one of Fender’s original amplifiers (like you might do with a Fender Monterey), but this is no conventional Bluetooth speaker either.

The metallic grid on the front accompanied by the Fender logo looks and feels superb. While the Monterey used a rugged plastic that closely resembles an amplifier, the Newport uses a soft, smooth surface that still manages to avoid feeling cheap.

On the top you will find perhaps the most unique aspect about this speaker. If the overall design wasn’t enough for you, Fender made sure that you actually feel like you are using an amplifier by making its controls look like one. Instead of having buttons only, the Newport has three knobs (for volume, bass, and treble), one switch for power, two small buttons for pairing and answering calls, and one indicator light. They all feel incredibly sturdy and premium.

I had the chance of checking out some actual Fender amps and the similarities are incredible. The Newport knobs feels strikingly similar to the ones in real Fender equipment.

As always, looks are subjective, but this device has caught the attention of absolutely everyone that has seen it. I always get a “that is so cool” (or its equivalent in Spanish) from the people I’ve shown it to, and the fact that it is made by Fender means that everyone immediately associates it with high quality and superb sound. Of course, it was just a small social experiment that I made, but I think it is safe to say that Fender has done a superb job in the design department, and that very few devices in the market look as good as this one.

Connectivity

Fender didn’t stop with the amplifier resemblance at the design level. Each action that you do will trigger a nice guitar sound. The company has included tunes for turning it on, pairing, low battery, and everything in between.

My only gripe with them is that they don’t respect the volume knob setting. Even if I have it at position 0, it still sounds loudly. I feel sorry for my flatmates, since they have to listen to these guitar tunes every day every time I turn the speaker on and there’s no way I can make something to avoid it.

Pairing the speaker with your preferred Bluetooth device is extremely easy. You just need to press the Pair button, select it from the available devices in your device, and away you go. The speaker will make a sound accordingly and the pair button will stop blinking to let you know that everything went as expected.

I haven’t had any connection drops, even when I moved my device to other rooms with several walls between the speaker and my Samsung Galaxy S8.

I did notice a couple of skips when testing with a Huawei Honor 7 Lite, but, since these skips were not present when testing with the S8, I attribute it to a poor antenna in my Huawei phone rather than a flaw with the speaker.

Apart from the Bluetooth connection, the speaker has a couple of tricks up its sleeve. The first one is a regular AUX port. I tested it with the included cable and found no troubles with it whatsoever. I would definitely not use it but it’s good to know that it’s there for people who prefer the reliability of a regular AUX connection.

The other one is a USB port. No, not a microUSB port, but a regular USB port. You can use this port to charge your device. I am really glad that Fender decided to add this to the speaker because there’s nothing sadder than having to stop the music at your social gathering because the phone with the premium Spotify account just died (been there).

Sound Quality

Of course, any connectivity features or nice looks are irrelevant if the speaker sounds bad, right? Fortunately, it doesn’t. From the moment I played my first tune, I quickly realized that this was one of the best Bluetooth speakers that I’ve had the chance of using.

This is courtesy of Fender’s tri-driver system, in which they have incorporated two woofers and one tweeter into the speaker. The arrangement produces a (maximum) output level of 30 watts. Fender hasn’t provided figures for the frequency range of the speakers, though, but it is probably no different than competing products, around the 90 to 20000 Hz range.

Sound is clear and powerful, but it’s is fairly balanced. There is no emphasis on anything, just a balanced, crisp sound. You could say that bass sounds a bit muffled and not as strong as it could be, but, other than that, the sound that the Newport produces is top-notch.

In case the default sound is not up to your standards, you can change the bass and treble knobs to adjust the output. I normally setup my devices to have a bit more bass than the default. I found out that setting the Bass knob on 10 is not as noticeable as one would expect, but it is a huge improvement from the normal setting.

I don’t consider myself a person with a varied taste in music, but I did test songs like The Solace System by Epica, Panic Station by Muse, Hell Yeah by Rev Theory, and On the Rocks by Amaranthe. Songs like Panic Station, which rely heavily on bass (you could say the same for a lot of Muse’s songs, frankly), are greatly enhanced with the bass knob turned up a bit. Songs from Dragonforce, for example, that don’t rely as much on bass sounds, benefit from adjusting the treble instead. It’s just a matter of finding what works best for you, but when you do, the Fender Newport sounds as good as the best speakers in the price range.

Another thing. This thing can get VERY LOUD. At first, I thought that it wasn’t as loud as I would expect when testing it with my S8, but nothing ever tested with this phone is loud. That’s when I figured that maybe I should try it with something else, and my Honor 7 Lite came to the rescue.

The first time I tested the maximum volume, my mother freaked out about the fact that I would disturb our neighbors. This is incredibly handy in open spaces and gatherings with several people, where a speaker with middle-range volume won’t cut it.

Finally, in case you receive a phone call, the Fender Newport has a built-in, echo-cancelling microphone. When you receive a phone call, the Talk button will flash on the top of the speaker and you will be able to answer the call. Overall, it worked pretty well the two times I received a phone call while testing this, and the other party didn’t mention anything in particular, neither positive nor negative. It’s there and it does its work the way it should.

Battery Life

The official specs say that this speaker can last for up to 12 hours. You don’t have to be so modest, Fender. This thing lasts forever. I haven’t been able to replicate this figure, but I’ve been getting at least 15 hours of playback time consistently. This is while having it on max volume (through the hardware knob only, not through Spotify) throught days and days of testing. I’ve always had the bass and treble on five (out of a possible ten).

Granted, I’m not much of an outside person, but knowing that, if the time comes where I have to see the outside world, I can just take this speaker with me and blast some Nightwish for 12 to 15 hours in a row, makes things much easier. I use this speaker every day for at least a couple of hours in my apartment, and not having to worry about its charge is something I appreciate a lot.

If that wasn’t good enough, the charging time for the speaker from 0% to 100% was approximately one hour and a half. However, this is possible thanks to a propietary charger that comes with the device.

Hopefully you are careful with your stuff, since, if you lose it, then that’s the end of your air jamming sessions. In case you were wondering, you can charge it and play music at the same time.

Apart from laptops, I can’t think of another device that comes with a propietary charger these days. It’s either microUSB, USB-C, or Lightning, and any of the three are easily available. I’m pretty sure that you could find this charger online as well in case something happens to yours, but I would gladly trade up charging time in return of a more universal cable.

On the bright side of things, this charger is capable of accepting 110V to 240V currents, so you can just use an adapter if you buy the US version and want to use it in Europe, for example. Believe me, that’s exactly what I did.

Conclusion

Even though it is Fender’s first foray into the Bluetooth speaker scene, it is definitely a solid one. It should definitely be on your list if you are in the market for a high-end Bluetooth speaker. If you want to buy one, you can head to Fender’s website and get yours. It will set you back $199.99/€225. This positions the Newport in the upper end of the market, competing with products like the Bose SoundLink Mini II, Marshall Kilburn and JBL Extreme. However, you get a quality, good-looking speaker with great sound quality and impressive battery life for your hard-earned cash. That sounds like a good deal to me.

Buy the Fender Newport from Fender’s official website.

The iPhone X features new Face ID but did you know your Android already has that?

Dan Bartram
-
0

The iPhone X was recently announced for a ludicrous price of $999 and perhaps the less we talk about that the better. What was significant about the launch of the latest iPhone was Apple dropping the traditional fingerprint sensor – Touch ID – in favor of a ‘new’ facial recognition Face ID.

Instead of using your fingerprint as a security mechanism to unlock your device you simply now look at your device for it to recognize your face and unlock the device. While Apple presented Face ID as some new kind of technology, did you know the facial recognition already exists on Android and has done for some time?

Samsung obviously introduced its own implementation of facial recognition with the Note 7, Galaxy S8, and Note 8, but the feature has been available since Android 5.0 Lollipop.

The feature is called “Trusted Face” and the idea is exactly the same as the iPhone X Face ID. You simply wake your device, look at your phone, and it’ll recognize your face and authorize your smartphone to be unlocked without needing to enter a PIN.

To address the elephant in the room, yes the iPhone X has additional sensors that will improve the accuracy and reliability of the facial recognition but the fundamentals are exactly the same.

If facial recognition like Face ID is something you think would like on Android then follow these simple steps.

  1. Enable a lock screen method such as a PIN or password.
  2. Head into settings and into the security menu.
  3. You’ll see “Smart Lock” as an option where you’ll be asked to confirm your PIN.
  4. From the Smart Lock menu, select “Trusted Face”.
  5. Follow the instructions to register your face by aligning it with the red circle.
  6. Lock your device and stare at your camera to unlock your device.

Pretty cool huh?

Ultimately results will be varied depending on lighting conditions and your smartphones camera quality but will nevertheless provide you with facial recognition similar to that found on the new iPhone X and Note 8.

Drop us a comment and let us know what you think of the feature and if it’s working well for you.

How to enable the Pixel 2 Android Oreo Always on Display on AOSP right now

Dan Bartram
-
0

Android Oreo while a small update it terms of visual changes brought some interesting new features. The new Autofill API paved the way to improve the way in which apps like LastPass interact with the OS, as well as things like Project Treble.

Another new feature enabled by Android Oreo is the Always on Ambient Display mode that seems to be reserved for the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 as it is currently disabled.

Despite the next generation Pixel devices only a month away, the always on display feature seems to be fully functional in Android Oreo and just needs activating. This means you don’t have to wait for the new Pixel 2 devices and can get started with any device that supports Android Oreo AOSP.

The new ambient display setting works pretty similarly to all of those other “always on display” modes from Samsung or LG that have included it with its devices for a few generations. When you receive a notification, it’ll display on the AOD for a few seconds before facing away leaving just the icon below the clock.

The method to enable this in Android Oreo AOSP is pretty simple and comes courtesy of XDA that found the “alwaysOnAvailable” code that is tagged as “false” can be reversed by simply changing the method to “true”.

Check out XDA Developer Mishaal Rahman’s post to try it out and see for yourself.

Forget drones! This kit lets you control paper planes from your Android smartphone

Alexandra Arici
-
0

If you’ve been flying drones as a hobby, but recently found yourself craving a new distraction, then you listen to this. Remember the good old days when you used make paper airplanes?

You’re not probably aware of this but now, in the era of technology you can actually get them to perform complicated tricks.  All you need to do that is the Powerup Dart conversion kit. The project – which is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter – can turn a regular paper plane into a controllable flying toy.

Powerup Dart adds a module which includes a motor and Bluetooth-enabled intelligent controller on the nose of the plane. A second cross-shaped component is placed along the plane and connected to the rear, where the rudder and propeller live.

Once the paper aircraft is ready you will need to install the accompanying Android app on your device. From there you should be able to control your paper plane by means of gestures (a gamepad mode is also available) and get it to perform all kinds of tricks including spin, loop lazy 8 or hammerhead.

Don’t worry if you don’t know how to build a paper airplane anymore, as the Powerup Dart comes with paper templates so you can easily build your aircraft.

We should also note that the little plane can fly at a maximum speed of 40 km/h for 10 minutes in a range of 60m. Once depleted, it takes up 25 minutes to fully recharge its battery via a microUSB cable.

If you too would like to recapture some of your childhood moments, you can head on to Kickstarter and pledge $29 for a Barebone DART bundle which includes a DART Module and two Blue Paper Plane Templates.

Since the project has already been fully funded, you can expect the DARTs to start shipping out in December.

Defense Zone 3 HD: What’s not to love about this game? (Review)

Gerson Noboa
-
0

When was the last time you played a tower defense game? Probably some of you have done it recently, but the truth is that this enjoyable and thorough kind of game has taken a seat back in favor of endless games in recent years. There is a huge fanbase around the genre, though, and it is easy to see why. The games are entertaining, add strategy and progression elements, and most of the time look very polished in the audiovisual department. Defense Zone 3 HD is one of the most recent games in the genre, ticking the boxes for everything that a tower defense game should have.

Developer: Artem Kotov
Price: Free

Overview

Defense Zone 3 is, at its core, a tower defense game. You need to protect your base from incoming enemies through the deployment of weapons and special skills along a twisty corridor. It is funny that the game never exactly shows what you are protecting. We can all assume it is a friendly base, but the only way of knowing that you are failing in your tower defense duties is by letting enemies go through the end of the long path you’ve sworn to protect.

There are 15 missions to choose from, and each one provides four levels of difficulty. They range from Easy to Nightmare. Since the premise of the game is pretty simple, the developer decided to omit some kind of tutorial or help for newcomers. Even though this means that you can start gaming right away, the amount of stuff on-screen can be a little bit daunting at first and you still have to figure out some stuff before you can actually enjoy the game to the fullest.

When starting the game, you will have some resources allocated to you. The primary one is money, which is used to buy new weapons to deploy through the war zone. In order to deploy one, you just need to drag them from the bottom of the screen to the designated areas, which are marked by blue squares. These weapons will start to fire automatically as soon as it detects an opponent wandering through their premises.

The armament at your disposition varies in price, strenghts, and abilities. For example, the cheapest one is a machine gun that works best when deploying at the beginning of a stage when your resources are limited, but it gets too weak for subsequent waves. There’s a much stronger missile launcher, but it is also more than twice as expensive to deploy and the firing speed is rather slow. You need to find a combination that works best for your situation.

Enemies come at you in waves (insert Trivium meme here). The last wave is normally a huge single boss that takes a lot of effort to destroy. How many waves the game throws at you depends on the level, but these can be rather long. My first game took approximately 30 minutes to complete, which could be too long for you, depending on the situation where you play mobile games. Fortunately, there are some speed settings you can change to suit your needs.

You will quickly realize that the stock weapons are too weak for some enemies, so the game lets you upgrade your turrets to increase their power, range, and firing speed (or amount of ammunition fired at the same time). Since space is limited, this is the only way to effectively stop later waves from invading your base.

Also, some weapons can engage in something called Hellfire, which is a temporary boost of power and firing speed you get from time to time at no additional cost. Finally, there are some additional weapons that you can activate from time to time, such as help from aircrafts or some weird waves that slow enemies.

General Impressions

When starting the game, you could feel a bit lost with all the options at your disposal. For people who are not used to tower defense games (or that haven’t played them in a long time), the first couple of waves could be very confusing.

However, once you get the hang of it, Defense Zone 3 is loads of fun. Enemies get more complicated as you cruise through the different levels, weapons at your disposal get more powerful, and the strategic decisions you have to make on the fly means you are challenged at all times.

The fact that you unlock weapons as you clear levels means that you feel a sense of progression when playing the game. However, I feel like the game could have experimented with some type of in-game currency in order to unlock weapons.

Graphics and Interface

Being powered by the Unity engine, graphics look superb. From trees to weapons to enemies, everything has a great amount of detail and looks outstanding. If your phone is struggling a bit, you can deactivate the drawing of certain elements. I tested this game on a Samsung Galaxy S8 and on a Huawei Honor 7 Lite and neither suffered from performance drops, so it seems like the developer found a great balance between superb graphics and smooth performance.

If there is something to complain about, it is the interface. In an attempt to follow the visual guidelines imposed by the sprites used in the game, the interface uses similar colors to the background. If favors a lot the use of brown and gray colors, which makes it difficult sometimes to clearly distinguish between the interface and the background. Also, font could be rather small in some situations.

 

Some other interface quirks include the lack of bulk upgrading or activation of Hellfire. If you want to upgrade several weapons, or activate Hellfire on all of them, you have to tap on each one individually and then tap the upgrade button (or Hellfire, depending on the case). Depending on the positioning on the map, tapping a weapon can get a little bit tricky, and sometimes I found myself pausing or speeding the game instead of tapping a weapon.

These are some minor annoyances, though, and they don’t erase the fact that the developer has done a great job in the graphics department. If some small UX could be fixed, then the game would have absolutely no issues in this area.

Sound

I have found out that normally war games have a good sound, since it is their duty to immerse us in the mayhem that is going on. Fortunately, Defense Zone 3 is no different. The weapons all sound great, with everything from explosions to aircrafts being executed in a great way.

However, the real star of the show is the background music. It is composed of epic, dramatic tunes that really add to the experience. Coupled with the audio effects, they converge to create a truly exceptional experience.

Conclusion

Tower defense games experimented a spike in popularity years ago with the likes of Kingdom Rush, Toy Defense, and Plants vs Zombies. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t good tower defense games in the current market, and Defense Zone 3 is a good example of that.

While some of the other tower defense games are more focused on flashy, sci-fi elements, Defense Zone 3 tries to adhere more to a real war zone, with some futuristic turrets and special skills sprinked on top. With its 15 stages and four difficulty levels, I assure you that there is something here for everyone.

Download and install Defense Zone 3 HD from the Google Play Store.

Rumor: Sony finally moving on from OmniBalance to bezel-less in early 2018

Alexandra Arici
-
0

While manufacturers like Samsung, LG or Xiaomi are racing to release the most appealing bezel-less smartphone out there, other Android OEMs like Sony or Nokia seem to prefer the classical approach.

Case in point, Sony at IFA 2017 unveiled its latest Xperia XZ1 flagship, which despite bringing some impressive features to the table, comes with the same old OmniBalance design the company has been bringing for years. Not that fans aren’t complaining about it.

Anyway according to a recent rumor, it seems like Sony is finally getting ready to ditch the old and adopt the new. Hello, bezel-less Sony smartphones? Perhaps.

Apparently, the Japanese tech giant is all set to adopt a new design language dubbed “Mirai” in 2018 and the first fruits of its efforts will be showcased at MWC 2018 in Barcelona. Mirai translates to “future” from Japanese, but it’s also the name of malware – which was first detected in 2016 – which turns networked devices running Linux into remotely controlled bots can be used as part of a botnet for large-scale network attacks. Pretty awkward, Sony!

It’s not the first time we’ve heard about Sony going bezel-less. A few months ago we told you the company was working on a phone said to taking advantage of a Japan Display LCD panel with 18:9 aspect ratio. The handset was rumored to launch at IFA 2017, but that obviously didn’t happen.

Anyway, for the time being we advise you to take this information with a grain of salt, seeing that none of this information has been confirmed. But with bezel-less smartphones becoming more common place these days, Sony will have to adhere to the trend at some point. Or risk being shunned by Android phone customers.

Essential Phone is getting Android 8.0 Oreo in the next month or two

Alexandra Arici
-
0

Earlier this week Reddit hosted an AMA during which Andy Rubin and other Essential officials answered a series of questions asked by users from around the world.

One of these queries was regarding the Essential getting the Android 8.0 Oreo update. The phone is currently shipping out to customers with Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box, but according to Essential’s VP of Software, Rebecca Zavin users can expect to see the new update arrive “in the next month or two”.

Another interesting detail revealed during the AMA is that Essential is prepping two new modular accessories for the smartphone due to be released in the upcoming months. The first one is a charging dock (which was teased during the phone’s launch), while the second one will be a high-end audio add-on that will offer DAC support and 3.5mm headset jack. Right now customers can only purchase the 360-degree camera accessory.

Users also wondered what’s the status on the other color versions of the phone. Essential is currently shipping only Black model, but the good news is that the Pure White color option is in build trials which means it should start going out to customers in the upcoming weeks.

As for the more interesting Ocean Depths and Stellar Gray color versions, you’ll have to wait some more. Essential didn’t give an estimate of how long it would take before these hues become available.

Low-end Nokia 2 smiles for the camera

Alexandra Arici
-
0

While we’re waiting for the Nokia 8 flagship to land in the US, it seems that HMD – the company behind the new Nokia Android phones – is gearing up to unveil a new product.

The handset dubbed the Nokia 2 has leaked in the past, but this time we can actually take a look at it thanks to prolific leakster @evleaks who posted an image showcasing the upcoming device in black and white color versions.

The Nokia 2 is going to be a low-range handset which is expected to arrive with a 5-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution, a Snapdragon 212 processor aided by 1GB of RAM and a large 4,000 mAh battery. In contrast, the Nokia 3 includes a much smaller 2,630 mAh battery, while the Nokia 6 relies on a 3,000 mAh power house.

The phone will feature virtual navigation keys and will come with Android 7.x Nougat out of the box, although HMD recently pledged it will update all its current Android models to Android 8.0 Oreo at some point. So maybe Oreo is in the cards for the Nokia 2 as well.

There’s no information available related to launch date or pricing, but the phone’s announcement seems imminent.

Would you consider buying the Nokia 2?

NUU Mobile intros a pair of affordable 18:9 aspect ratio phones

Alexandra Arici
-
0

American maker of affordable smartphones, NUU Mobile has just unveiled the new G series which includes two handset models, the G1 and G3.

One of the major trends in smartphones this year is the inclusion of 18:9 format displays. However, most of the phones boasting a screen with this particular aspect ratio are high-end affairs (think Samsung Galaxy Note 8 or LG V30).

But NUU Mobile’s new G1 and G3 will offer this format on the cheap, as both smartphones will come with a 5.7-inch 18:9 HD+ display with rounded corners. Yet, the G3 is the more modern looking of the two, boasting a bezel-less dual curved glass design reminiscent of the high-end phones launched by top Android OEMs this year.

While the G1 includes a 13-megapixel primary shooter and a 5-megapixel selfie camera, the G3 rocks a dual-camera setup which pairs a 13-megapixel sensor with a 5-megapixel one on the back. The self-portrait snapper is of 13-megapixel variety.

On its official page, NUU Mobile reveals the G1 will arrive with a MediaTek processor clocked at 1.5GHz under the hood, as well as 2GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable storage and a fingerprint scanner.

As for the G3, the device will take advantage of a MediaTek Helio P25 chipset (octa-core processor clocked at 2.6GHz) aided by 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable memory (up to 256GB). The phone should also include NFC (for Android Pay), USB Type-C and a fingerprint scanner on the back. Both the G1 and G3 have VoLTE enabled and will be sold unlocked.

NUU Mobile says the G Series will become available at Target, Best Buy, Amazon, HSN, as well as NUUMobile.com. Prices are yet to be announced yet, but the phones are bound to be affordable.

Motorola released the list of devices getting Android Oreo 8.0 update

AndroidGuys
-
0

Android Oreo 8.0, the latest and the fastest version of Google’s mobile operating system was unveiled last month by Google. The update was initially rolled out to the Google Nexus and the Pixel line-up officially and several other devices have been getting it via unofficial custom ROMs.

Traditionally, OEMs other than Google, take at least a few more months after the official launch to bring the latest update of Android to their devices. The primary reason to this is that manufacturers like Samsung, LG and HTC use a custom skin which is built on top of stock Android. So, they have to modify the stock Android to make it compatible with their exclusive skins.

However, Motorola has always been one of those OEMs to roll out the latest Android update to its devices much earlier than the others. This is mainly because Motorola, unlike other phone manufacturers does not include custom skins in their devices. They prefer a closer to stock Android experience with minimal extra functionalities and features.

Since this doesn’t require them to heavily modify the stock version of Android to be compatible with their devices, they manage to roll out the OTA update for the latest version of Android to their devices soon after the official announcement of the update.

This might also be the case for the Android Oreo 8.0 update and Motorola has already announced which of its devices would be getting the official update to the sweetest and the safest release of Android yet. But, the list is not as huge as you expect but nevertheless, Motorola has tried to cover most of the major devices from the past and current year.

Here is the list of both unlocked and carrier specific variants of the Motorola devices that will be officially getting the OTA update to Android Oreo 8.0.

  • moto z
  • moto z Droid
  • moto z Force Droid
  • moto z Play
  • moto z Play Droid
  • moto z2 Play
  • moto z2 Force Edition
  • moto x4
  • moto g5
  • moto g5 Plus
  • moto g5S
  • moto g5S Plus

Android Oreo 8.0 comes with a few interesting new features like the picture in picture mode, app notification badges, lock screen shortcuts, adaptive icons, smart text selection, autofill, improved doze functionality, and a lot of behind the screen improvements.

Motorola has also announced that the Android Oreo 8.0 update will be sent to the above devices starting from this fall. While there is no definitive order on which of these devices would be the first one to receive the update, you can expect the ones that are most recently released, like the Moto Z2 Play, Moto Z2 Force, and the Moto G5S, to receive it before the older ones.

You can track the update for your device based on your country and carrier at the Motorola support page for upgrades here.

Do you own any of the devices in the above list? Are you excited about the Android Oreo 8.0 update? Let us know in the comments below about your favourite feature of the latest version of Android.

1...847848849...1,263Page 848 of 1,263