Android Circuit: Galaxy Note 5 Launches Early, Nokia's Smartphone Return, New Moto X Reveal

Taking a look back at seven days of news across the Android world, this week’s Android Circuit includes the release dates of the Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+, the Galaxy S6 measured as the ’most powerful phone’, Nokia’s plans to return to the smartphone world, a first review of the Sony Xperia Z3+, Google’s quarterly results, the second Fairphone going on pre-sale, the Commodore smartphone, Booking.com’s Android Wear app, and the launch dates for the next Moto handsets.



Android Circuit is here to remind you of a few of the many things that have happened around Android in the last week.

Galaxy Note 5 And S6 Edge+ Launch Dates And Availability

Last week, Android Circuit noted that Samsung had brought forward the launch of the Galaxy S5 Note from its traditional unveiling at Berlin’s IFA event into August. This was to give it some ‘clear space’ before Apple updated the iPhone 6 Plus phablet (presumably with the iPhone 6S Plus). Turns out that Samsung is going for a ‘Two for One’ offer and will launch the Galaxy S6 Edge+ alongside the Note 5 on August 12th, with availability of both handsets starting on August 21st.

The Note 5 will be the next iteration in the product line, but will mimic many of the features from the Galaxy S6. That leaves the Galaxy S6 Edge+, which skips the ‘Note’ branding but to all intents is the phablet version of the curved screen smartphone.

When it comes to the Galaxy S6 edge+, there’s really not much to tell. The device will be a phablet version of the Galaxy S6 edge, with a curve on either side of the screen and the same color options as the Note 5. We can, however, confirm that the S6 edge+ will be powered by the Exynos 7420 instead of a Snapdragon 808, and have 3GB of RAM.

This is a similar strategy to the launch of the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge in March. Supply issues played a big part in that campaign with the S6 Edge in short supply. This double-up will maximise the short-term visibility of the handsets. What that means for sales remains to be seen, but with the S6 family sales not matching market speculation, the South Korean company will be hoping for a hit.

Samsung Galaxy S6 vs Galaxy S6 Edge (image: Ewan Spence)

Galaxy S6 And S6 Edge Win The Power Wars

Online benchmarking site AnTuTu has released data on how powerful the current batch of smartphones are. Topping the list with internal scores of 67520 and 63910 are the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge respectively. Going back one generation, the Galaxy S5 family forced its way into the top with a score of 49402 good enough for the S5 Prime to win ninth place. SamMobile picks up on the details:

Data for the list was gathered through the users who tested their devices on the AnTuTu benchmark over the past six months… Third place went to the Xiaomi MiNote Pro with 57163 points… These performance scores have been averaged from user benchmark results gathered between January 1 and July 1 with AnTuTu clarifying that it has not taken into account false entries that had been “rigged” to achieve a higher score.

Nokia Lays Out Plans For Potential 2016 Return

While Nokia did not announce a new smartphone at the MWC Shanghai event this week, it did lay out what would have to happen for it to return to the smartphone market. As expected, it involves finding a partner to help with the manufacturing, sales, and support of a new handset. Nokia spokesman Robert Morlino:

The right path back to mobile phones for Nokia is through a brand-licensing model. That means identifying a partner that can be responsible for all of the manufacturing, sales, marketing and customer support for a product.

If and when we find a world-class partner who can take on those responsibilities, we would work closely with them to guide the design and technology differentiation, as we did with the Nokia N1 Android tablet. That’s the only way the bar would be met for a mobile device we’d be proud to have bear the Nokia brand, and that people will love to buy.

This is the same route to market that saw the Nokia N1 tablet released. With that hardware, Nokia partnered with Foxconn. No doubt the Nokia stand at MWC Shanghai will have seen a number of ‘white label manufacturers’ stopping by to find out what’s in the small print.

How Much Energy Does Your iPhone (And Other Devices) Really Use?

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iPad: $1.50 per year

If you fully drain and charge your iPad every other day it will use about 12 kWh of electricity per year. 

Source: Electric Power Research Institute

Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

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