News Weekly is our column where we highlight and summarize some of the week's top stories so you can catch up on the latest tech news.
This is Android Central's News Weekly, your go-to source for a concise roundup of the week's most significant tech stories. This is where we delve into the top headlines that provide the latest developments and innovations contributing to the digital landscape.
This week, Qualcomm unveiled its powerful new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip for 2025 flagship phones, Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Special Edition, Arm is terminating its licenses with Qualcomm, Boox launches new e-readers, and Google Messages is tackling message spam.
Qualcomm is taking your next Android phone to new heights
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The Snapdragon Summit kicked off on October 24, and the company announced its latest flagship chip. Dubbed the Snapdragon 8 Elite, the chip adopts Oryon cores similar to its PC counterpart, which brings boosted power and efficiency, and, most importantly, AI performance.
The 3nm chip offers 45% better CPU performance and 40% better GPU performance compared to the already impressive Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. NPU performance is also up by 45%, meaning the chip is much more capable of handling AI tasks.
Interestingly, the chip brings 44% better efficiency even though it does not include any efficiency cores, and Qualcomm explained to Android Central that the Oryon cores make it so that they are not necessary.
The first phones with the chip are launching this month, including the OPPO Find X8 series, OnePlus 13, and Xiaomi 15.
The Galaxy Z Fold SE is what the Z Fold 6 should've been
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We just got the Galaxy Z Fold 6 in July, but Samsung is back with a brand new foldable phone, which has us scratching our heads a bit. The new Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition features an updated design with larger displays, a thinner profile, and a powerful 200MP primary camera.
Other spec upgrades include 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, all things we wish we had on the standard Galaxy Z Fold 6. That said, according to the official specs on the product page, there isn't S Pen support. That could be a deal breaker for some, as the regular Galaxy Z Fold 6 supports the S Pen, although that would still be an additional cost for those who want one.
And while the new phone sounds fantastic, the phone has launched exclusively in Korea, and it doesn't seem like it's coming to other regions. Fingers crossed that Samsung expands availability or at least brings us a much-improved Galaxy Z Fold 7 without the need for a special edition model.
Arm isn't too happy with Qualcomm
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Qualcomm is riding high on the success of the Snapdragon X Elite for PCs and the newly launched Snapdragon 8 Elite for phones, but Arm is spoiling the party. The company, whose cores are used by major chip makers such as Apple, Samsung, and MediaTek, has issued a 60-day notice to end Qualcomm's architectural license. Why? Because of the company's continued use of Arm technologies following its purchase of Nuvia back in 2021.
Arm sued Qualcomm a year later, claiming that the company was illegally using its chip designs and architecture through the Nuvia acquisition. Through the lawsuit, it has sought for Qualcomm to "destroy certain Nuvia designs" and is further seeking an injunction as well as fair compensation for the trademark infringement.
As for the recently announced cancellation notice, Arm says it was "left with no choice but to take formal action." Meanwhile, Qualcomm is claiming that the move is "completely baseless," calling it "anticompetitive." Android Central senior editor Jerry Hildenbrand believes the companies will come to a last-minute agreement before anything drastic happens, but he also points out that Qualcomm needs Arm more than Arm needs Qualcomm.
The new Boox Palma gets some nice upgrades
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We're fans of the original Boox Palma e-reader, and now the company is back with a sequel, offering some welcome changes. The new Boox Palma 2 comes with a faster processor and the Boox Super Refresh technology, meaning the device should feel much faster in daily use and handle scrolling better than some other e-readers. And even better, the device runs Android 13, an upgrade from Android 11 on the previous device.
The e-reader retains the 16MP camera but also gains a side-mounted fingerprint sensor so you can securely and quickly unlock the device. Otherwise, you get 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and access to cons of apps via the Google Play Store.
The Boox Palma 2 is available to order now in white or black and costs $279.99. It will ship on November 12.
In addition to the new Palma, Boox launched the $499 Note Air4 C with an improved display with better color and contrast while also teasing the Note Max, which features a 13.3-inch, "ultra-crisp" Carta 1300 e-ink display and a keyboard "shell" that gives it a laptop-like look and feel. Boox has not revealed when the Max will be available, but it will retail for $649.
Google Messages and the fight against spam
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We all hate spam texts, and companies try different ways to tackle it. With Google Messages, Android is about to become a lot better at not only detecting scams but also warning users about potentially harmful/offensive messages.
To do this, the company is rolling out five new features to Google Messages, including enhanced scam detection for beta users. When the system detects scammy package delivery or job-seeking messages, it will either warn the user or move the message into the spam inbox.
Google Messages will also give users more control over messages from unknown international senders and warn users about potentially harmful links. A new on-device feature will detect and blur images if they contain nudity, similar to Google Search's SafeSearch, although this is an opt-in feature unless the user is under 18 years of age (in this case, it'll be opt-out).
Finally, Google is working on an identity verification feature to help weed through spam messages of senders trying to impersonate contacts or someone you may know. We'll have to wait a bit longer for this, as it won't arrive until next year.
More stories this week
Those are some of the biggest stories from this week. Meanwhile, here are some other stories that are worth catching up on:
- Motorola Razr update finally adds Circle to Search
- OnePlus 13 is arriving early this year; it already has a launch date
- The Google TV Streamer's best feature comes to more streaming devices
- Pixel Camera update brings enhanced underwater photography to the Pixel 9
- The wait is over — OPPO's Find X8 and X8 Pro are launching globally
- Find My Device on Android is finally adding a much-awaited login method
- YouTube Music is finally letting you add custom playlist thumbnails
- Google Chat's Gemini update gives you all the deets before opening a thread
- Chrome's 'Listen to this page' now lets you hear articles while doing other tasks
- WhatsApp is about to introduce usernames so you can ditch those phone numbers
