Android Circuit: Galaxy Z Fold7 Leak, RedMagic 10 Air Launch, Pixel 9a Promise
Taking a look back at this week's news and headlines across the Android world, including Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 benchmarks, Pixel 9a for the future, Oppo Find X8 Ultra launched, Honor Power released, RedMagic 10 Air arrives, more AI for Google Photos, and the Android specs are lifted.
Android Circuit is here to remind you of a few of the many discussions around Android in the last seven days. You can also read my weekly digest of Apple news here on Forbes.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6
Ahead of a summer launch, Samsung's flagship foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold7, is showing up on various online benchmarking sites. This gives us an indication both of the raw performance of the phone, and the core hardware. It looks like Samsung will continue to use its exclusive overclocked 'For Galaxy' Snapdragon chipset from Qualcomm.
"Geekbench reveals that the Galaxy Z Fold7 (SM-F966U) features the full 8-core version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, unlike the Oppo Find N5. Added to that, clock speeds of 4.47 GHz on its two prime cores confirm that Samsung has chosen the 'for Galaxy' variant of Qualcomm's latest flagship chipset. Based on an OpenCL score of 18,143, the Galaxy Z Fold7 outscores the Oppo Find N5 by about 2.6%. Conversely, a 27.9% gap exists between the Galaxy Z Fold7 and Galaxy Z Fold6.'
(NotebookCheck).
With the Pixel 9a now released globally, the reviews note the wealth of features available at the competitive $499 price point. It's also worth noting that Google is, once again, using the Pixel family to highlight the route it believes the smartphone ecosystem should be moving down.
"The Pixel 9a's ability to highlight the potential of artificial intelligence on lower specification devices, the ability to deliver a new camera experience through software, and the bland design that leaves room for innovation and styling will all be noted by Google's manufacturing partners. The Pixel 9a is a critical success, but the real success may be in the signpost it offers the whole Android community."
(Forbes).
The continued race to offer bigger, better and bolder cameras on your smartphone has a new leader. The Oppo Find X8 Ultra sports a 6.82-inch display in an 8.78mm thick, which is thinner than the competition Xiaomi 15 Ultra and Vivio X100 Ultra smartphones. But we're really here for the camera:
"With four 50-megapixel rear lenses tuned by Hasselblad, including both 3x and 6x periscopes that have been upgraded with faster apertures, the X8 Ultra arrives with a credible claim to rival Xiaomi and Vivo on the photography front. It includes a dedicated haptic shutter button with touch controls for zooming, along with a new customizable shortcut button that replaces the popular alert slider."
(The Verge).
Price and photos are not the only battleground highlighted this week. Honor has decided to put its flag in the ground marked 'battery', with the launch of the first Power smartphone, which comes with a monster 8,000 mAh battery:
"As a flex, Honor compared the battery capacity of the Power with that of the iPad Air 11 (2025) – it's 29.60Wh vs. 28.93Wh in favor of the phone. The phone's battery has an impressive power density of 821Wh/L thanks to a high amount of silicon. In terms of endurance, the battery can last 25 hours of long-form video playback, 23 hours for TikTok, over 23 hours of navigation and 14 hours of gaming."
(GSM Arena).
Alright, let's add thinness into the mix as well! Redmagic's latest variant of its 10 Series gaming phones is the Redmagic 10 Air. This sports a body just 7.85mm thick, shaving more than 12 percent off the regular Redmagic 10 Pro. How has it achieved that?
"For example, RedMagic has swapped out the Snapdragon 8 Elite that powers the RedMagic 10 Pro for the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Also, it has installed a smaller, slower, dimmer and lower resolution panel than the one found in the RedMagic 10 Pro. Specifically, the RedMagic 10 Air has a 6.8-inch AMOLED display that outputs at 2,480 x 1,116 pixels with a 120 Hz refresh rate and 1,600 nits peak brightness."
(NotebookCheck).
The latest push from Google to introduce artifical intelligence features through Android is in Google Photos. It is rolling out AI-powered search and backup to the popular media tool:
"After previewing last month, the Google Photos app/Extension/integration is now rolling out to the Gemini app on Android. This Google Photos app, or Extension, has two components. The first lets you find your backed up images and videos… The second aspect lets you find 'ask for important details found in your photos,' which is similar to the standalone Ask Photos functionality in Google Photos."
(9to5Google).
Google has confirmed that the minimum storage specification for a certified Android tablet will be 32 GB. This doesn't stop manufacturers from using their builds of Android from the Open Source Android Project, but it does mean those hoping to bundle Google Services, including the all-important Google Play Store, will have to ensure they meet the new minimum:
"Google now requires Android devices to have at least 32GB of internal storage. Google mandates that 75% of this 32GB must be allocated to the data partition, which stores preinstalled system apps, system app data, certain system files, and crucially, all user apps and files. This doubles the previous minimum flash storage requirement of 16GB, introduced with Android 13 in 2022. Consequently, devices with less than 32GB of storage cannot upgrade to Android 15, as Google's new requirement applies to both new and upgrading devices."
(Android Authority).
Android Circuit rounds up the news from the Android world every weekend here on Forbes. Don't forget to follow me so you don't miss any coverage in the future, and of course, read the sister column in Apple Loop! Last week's Android Circuit can be found here, and if you have any news and links you'd like to see featured in Android Circuit, get in touch!
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