We’re in full swing for Black Friday deals as we approach the big day for retailers and shoppers, but the tech news cycle doesn’t stop for the biggest and best sales.
A lot of this week’s news has focused around Android and particularly Google. Indeed the US government is planning to change the face of Google as we know it by forcing it to sell off the Chrome browser to half monopolies.
There was better news on the Android front, with Google already getting the Android 16 developer preview out months before last year. That’s a great sign for a prompt roll out of the completed OS in 2025.
We also got word of a new digital wellbeing tool from Google that should help with doomscrolling on social media. Also on the Google front, there’s word the company is planning to ditch Chrome OS completely in favour of a version of Android that can more effectively battle the iPad.
Finally, WhatsApp is working on transcriptions for your voice messages. But keep reading to learn who we named our winner and loser in tech this week.
Winner: Oppo
Our winner this week is Oppo, which returned to the UK flagship market to give us a first look at what a true 2025 flagship looks like – sounding a warning to rivals in the same space.
The Oppo Find X8 Pro was announced for the UK market and it looks like it’ll give the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra a run for its money (until the S25 Ultra arrives next year, of course).
It’s the first mainstream phone to arrive in the UK packing the powerful new MediaTek Dimensity 9400 processor that’ll unlock powerful new AI tools. There’s four 50-megapixel cameras tuned by Hasselblad, all of which that can shoot video at 4K in Dolby Vision HDR.
Oppo is also promising a cool-sounding Telescope Zoom feature it describes as a “breakthrough technology that uses AI and computational photography to significantly improve zoom quality at long distances.”
It’ll arrive with Android 15 out of the box and starts at £1,049 with 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM, making it a little more attractive than rival devices, but it’s still a significant outlay.
Our reviewer has already put the Oppo Find X8 Pro through its paces, so check out his verdict here. Right now, this is the ultra-premium flagship to beat in 2025.
Loser: Google Pixel Tablet
Google has had some wins this week, for sure. However, reports suggest the company has practically given up on the Pixel Tablet range.
Apparently there will not be a Pixel Tablet 2, with Android Authority suggesting the company is concerned over the potential profitability of a second-generation homegrown slate.
This is somewhat unsurprising. The Pixel Tablet was massively underwhelming. The design was drab, the price was too high in the UK, the display maxed out at 60Hz, and the companion speaker dock didn’t offer good sound.
Google had its work cut out to inspire users with a sequel device and now, it appears, the company may have sent the Pixel Tablet range to the Google Graveyard, where they’re probably going to have to start burying the products on top of each other soon.
It’s still possible the Pixel Tablet range might live on. Earlier in this very same week, it was reported Google had grand plans for Android based tablets and laptops moving forward. It is being claimed Google plans to abandon the Chome OS (another one for the graveyard?) that powers the popular and affordable Chromebook line of notebooks, in favour of a souped-up desktop version of Android that’s more equipped to take on the might of the Apple iPad.
Apple has been gradually blurring the lines between macOS and iPadOS for years now, so maybe Google is just removing the Pixel Tablet from the line of fire while it figures out this new approach? For now, though, the Pixel Tablet range is a massive loser.
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