Xiaomi Mi 5 review: Incredible hardware, irritating software

The Mi 5 offers great hardware, but software drawbacks and availability issues continue to hold the device back.

Quick take:

Xiaomi was quick to roll out the Mi 5 in the Indian market, with the vendor trying to make a statement in the country after seeing sluggish sales over the course of the last 12 months. However, the Mi 5 available is the 32GB edition with 3GB of RAM and an underclocked 1.8GHz Snapdragon 820, and not the Pro model with 4GB of RAM and 128GB storage. Combine that with a confounded flash sales model and software that’s reminiscent of the KitKat era, and you get a phone that feels overpriced at ₹25,000.

The good

• Great display
• Premium design
• Fast hardware

The bad

• Annoying flash sales
• Software niggles
• Camera not great in low-light
• No microSD slot

Almost there

Xiaomi Mi 5 Full review

India is a huge market for Xiaomi. With 2015 turning out to be a dismal year, Xiaomi is betting big on the country this year. The vendor launched its budget behemoth, the Redmi Note 3, earlier this year, and is now following up with its 2016 flagship, the Mi 5. The phone is available in India barely a month after its debut at MWC, which in itself signifies Xiaomi’s commitment to India.

Xiaomi’s claim to fame thus far in the country has been with budget devices sold under ₹20,000 that offered great value for money. The vendor has been largely successful at doing just that over the course of the last two years. However, with the Mi 5, it is trying to break away from its shackles as a budget vendor. The base variant of the Mi 5 is priced at ₹25,000, putting it firmly alongside the OnePlus 2, Samsung Galaxy A7, Moto X Style, and others.

The price is certainly on the higher side considering Xiaomi’s pricing strategy thus far, but you’re getting a lot for that price, most notably the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC. But the question remains: is the Mi 5 worthy of its ₹25,000 price tag? Let’s find out.

Nerdgasm

Xiaomi Mi 5 Specs

Display	5.15-inch Full HD IPS display | Pixel density of 428 ppi
SoC	1.8GHz Snapdragon 820 510MHz Adreno 530 GPU
RAM	3GB of LPDDR4 RAM
Storage	32GB UFS 2.0 flash storage
Camera	16MP camera with 4-axis OIS, dual-LED flash, PDAF 4MP front camera
Connectivity	USB Type-C, LTE (bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 38, 39, 40, and 41) Wi-Fi ac MU-MIMO, NFC, IR blaster
Software	MIUI 7 with Android 6.0
Battery	3000mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0
Dimensions	144.6 x 69.2 x 7.3 mm
Weight	129g
Colors	White/Black/Gold

Full Metal Jacket

Xiaomi Mi 5 Design

The first thing you’ll notice about the Mi 5 is its lightness. Weighing in at just 129g, the phone is unbelievably light. For comparison, the Galaxy S7 comes in at 152g. When it comes to the design, Xiaomi borrowed heavily from last year’s Mi Note, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing as that device saw limited availability.

There’s 3D glass at the back of the Mi 5, which curves along the sides where it meets the metal frame, leading to excellent in-hand feel (or “hand feel,” as Xiaomi calls it). The build quality is top-notch, as you’d expect from a vendor aiming to challenge the likes of Samsung, and the glass back and chamfered metal frame give the phone a premium look that wouldn’t look out of place on a device that costs twice as much.

Xiaomi scores a design win over the Galaxy S7 and the iPhone 6s with the rear design, which sees the camera sensor sitting flush with the body. An impressive feat when you consider the fact that the camera comes with a four-axis optical stabilization module. You can place the phone on a flat surface and not have it wobble when you interact with it. Although it is a metal-and-glass design, the Mi 5 has proved to be fairly resilient to tumbles (well, more than the Galaxy A7 anyway).

Xiaomi designed the front of the Mi 5 to appear virtually bezel-less, and while the effect looks great, the edge of the display does tend to stick out sharply against the metal frame. A 2.5D curved finish would not be amiss here. The entire frame of the phone is metal, barring the plastic antenna lines at the top and bottom. Although there are two grilles at the bottom, the phone doesn’t offer stereo sound. The right grille houses the speaker, with the left grille incorporating the microphone.

The power and volume buttons are on the right, and they offer a decent amount of tactile feedback. There’s a dual-SIM card tray on the left, and the 3.5mm jack and IR blaster are located at the top. The physical home button at the front is interesting, as it comes with an embedded fingerprint sensor. The home button is narrower than the one you’d find on the Galaxy S7 or S7 edge, but the sensor itself is just as fast at reading fingerprints. The button is made out of ceramic, and unlike the S7 edge, is yet to attract any scratches after two weeks of usage.

The back and recent buttons are unmarked, and Xiaomi allows you to switch out the configuration of the buttons according to your preference. It takes a few days to get accustomed to the unlabeled buttons, but that’s a decent trade-off considering the customizability on offer. As for color choices, we received a white review unit, but the black version of the phone looks far better. There’s also a gold version that offers a textured back. There’s no mention as to whether either model would be made available in India. For now, the white color option is the only one available to customers in the country.

Trailblazer

Xiaomi Mi 5 Hardware

With the Galaxy S7 in the country offering Exynos 8890, the Mi 5 is the first phone with the Snapdragon 820. As such, it is a good time to look at all the architectural changes Qualcomm has undertaken with the Snapdragon 820, starting with its new Kryo cores.

With the Snapdragon 810, Qualcomm decided to stick to regular ARM Cortex cores, breaking its tradition of developing custom CPU cores that offered better performance. It also went with octa-core designs partly due to the insistence of Chinese vendors, and to counter MediaTek’s rise. The troubles that the move introduced are well-documented at this stage, so this year the vendor went back to a custom-core implementation with Kryo.

Qualcomm has also reverted to a quad-core CPU configuration, shifting to a 14nm FinFET architecture. The quad-core Kryo cluster sees two high-performance cores clocked at 1.8GHz, and two energy-efficient cores at 1.53GHz. Manufacturing is done on Samsung’s second-gen 14nm LPP (Low-Power Plus) node, which offers additional energy gains when compared to last year’s Exynos 7420.

The Mi 5 is offered in three variants: the entry-level 32GB model is clocked at 1.8GHz, with the 64GB and the Pro 128GB models offering the 2.15GHz edition of the Snapdragon 820. Other limitations of the 1.8GHz variant include throttling the frequency of the Adreno 530 GPU to 510MHz, and the RAM to 1333MHz (compared to 1866MHz on 2.1GHz).

That said, the 1.8GHz Snapdragon is still plenty fast, and comes close to matching the Galaxy S7 on synthetic benchmarks. These benchmarks are not indicative of real-world performance, but they offer an insight into how fast (or slow) a device is at a quick glance.

In India, it looks like the 32GB edition is the only one that will be available, which is a shame considering that the phone does not offer a microSD slot. However, you get a lot for the asking price, including NFC, an IR blaster, and USB-C connectivity. The 32GB storage uses Samsung’s UFS 2.0 standard, which is the same internal memory used in the Galaxy S6 and this year’s Galaxy S7. The phone also offers VoLTE, which comes in handy as voice services over LTE are set to take off in the country later this year.

Even with class-leading hardware, the Mi 5 was sometimes weirdly laggy.

Even though it has class-leading hardware, the Mi 5 isn’t without its drawbacks, as the phone turned out to be weirdly laggy at times. This wasn’t an issue when playing visually-intensive games, but we saw the phone stuttering quite badly when handling routine tasks like making a Hangouts video call or scrolling web pages in Chrome. Usually, we’d ignore it if it were the case once or twice, but the situation occurred enough times that it turned out to be an annoyance.

As for connectivity, the Mi 5 offers 802.11ac Wi-Fi with MU-MIMO, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.2, and LTE. The phone comes with Indian LTE bands (3 and 40), and if you’re looking to use the handset overseas, it supports TD-LTE bands 38, 39, 40, 41, and FDD-LTE bands 1, 3, 5, and 7. The limited LTE bands means that you can’t use the Indian variant of the Mi 5 on any U.S. carriers.

Thankfully, there’s no thermal overheating during normal usage.The only times we saw the phone getting uncomfortably hot was during while charging and 4K video recording.

LEDs everywhere

Xiaomi Mi 5 Display

The 5.15-inch Full HD display with a pixel density of 428 ppi won’t match up to the 577 ppi on offer with the Galaxy S7, but the IPS LCD screen is one of the best we’ve seen this year. Xiaomi says that it used 16 LEDs under the display instead of the usual 12, and the result is a screen that has a maximum brightness of 600 nits and a minimum of 0.7 nits. The extra LEDs are also the reason for the 5.15-inch size of the display.

The IPS LCD screen is one of the best we’ve seen this year.

The display has high saturation as well as sharpness, and comes with a Reading Mode that filters out blue light. There’s also a Night Display that turns down the brightness, and a Sunlight Display feature that lets you view the screen under harsh sunlight. Sunlight Display adjusts the contrast of each pixel in real-time, making the screen readable under glare.

You can enable a double-tap to wake the screen, and alter the color temperature of the screen from warm to cool based on your preferences. Contrast settings can also be tweaked, and there’s a one-handed mode located in Settings -> Additional settings -> One-handed mode that lets you shrink the size of the screen to either 4.5, 4.0, or 3.5 inches. One-handed mode is accessed by swiping left to right across the navigation buttons.

The only complaint in terms of the screen is that even though it’s protected by Gorilla Glass 4, we’ve seen a litany of micro-scratches all over the surface in the two weeks we’ve used the device.

Stuck in a KitKat world

Xiaomi Mi 5 Software

There was a time when users on Nexus devices would make the switch to MIUI for all the features it offered. Now, that situation has been reversed. Users are clamoring for stock ROMs to be available on Xiaomi’s handsets. And the reason for that is because there isn’t a noticeable difference between a phone running MIUI 7 based on KitKat and one that’s on Marshmallow. There is something to be said for software consistency, but that goes out the window when a vendor doesn’t introduce any visual changes in nearly three years.

This is based on Marshmallow, but a lot has changed.

Even though MIUI 7 on the Mi 5 is based on Marshmallow, there are several key features missing, including runtime app permissions and Google Now on Tap. Apps designed for marshmallow (API 23 and above) are granted access to all permissions during the installation phase, and there’s no way for you to selectively allow access. You have to head into security settings and manually enable permission manager, which cedes control over to MIUI. Through permission manager, you can control individual app-based access to things like location, camera, internal storage, and such.

Let’s see how this works with Zomato’s app. With permission manager disabled (which is its default state), Zomato has access to your device’s GPS, camera, accounts, internal storage, and the ability to make phone calls and view messages. All of this is grayed out as you can see in the first screenshot, which means that all permissions are enabled by default. Once the permission manager is enabled, you’ll have granular control over which permissions to give access to.

You can enable permission manager by navigating to System -> Security -> Permissions -> Permission manager. Considering the nature of permissions, this is something that you should absolutely enable as soon as you start using the phone.

For its lack of visual flair, MIUI does offer a bevy of settings that let you customize the phone to your liking. You can change the system icons, backgrounds and fonts from the themes store, where there’s a selection of free and paid content.

There’s a Mi Remote app that lets you use the IR blaster to control your set-top box, TV, air conditioner, and more. Fleksy as well as Google Keyboard are pre-installed, which is great. Mi Mover is a nifty utility, which lets you transfer content from your older device wirelessly with ease. If you’re moving from another Xiaomi device, you can access Mi Mover from Settings -> Additional settings and get started. If you’re switching from another handset, you can download the app from the Play Store and transfer content. MIUI also offers pinch in and pinch out gestures, which you can use to get previews on the recent apps window and the notification shade.

MIUI itself is constantly updated, with bi-weekly updates rolled out based on suggestions from Xiaomi’s user community.

Shake it off

Xiaomi Mi 5 Camera

The camera on the Mi 5 uses a 16MP Sony IMX298 imaging sensor with an f/2.0 lens and dual-tone LED flash, phase detection autofocus, and 4-axis optical image stabilization. You get incredibly detailed shots in bright conditions, but the camera struggles to keep up with the likes of the Galaxy S7 or LG G5 when it comes to low-light photos. That has always been a downfall of mid-range cameras, and the same holds true for the Mi 5 as well.

Xiaomi’s camera app is easy to navigate, with the interface offering quick shooting modes for stills and videos, as well as toggles for HDR Auto, flash, and switching between the front and rear cameras. You can access panorama mode, manual controls, timer, tilt-shift, beautify filters, fish-eye mode, and more by pulling up the settings menu through a swipe left gesture, while a swipe to the right gives you access to 12 different filters that offer real-time previews.

Juice me up

Xiaomi Mi 5 Battery life

Battery life from the 3000mAh cell was decidedly average over the first week of using the phone, but it balanced itself out after that. You will be able to get a day’s worth of battery life with conservative usage. If you’re one to use location-based services and consume a lot of cellular data, you’ll be plugging in before the end of the day.

The phone offers Quick Charge 3.0, but the charger that’s included in the box is Quick Charge 2.0 — in real-world usage, this doesn’t make a huge difference in charge times.

How is this still a thing?

Xiaomi Mi 5 Availability

Even if you’re interested in shelling out ₹25,000 for the Mi 5, which in itself is a sizable investment, you’ll have to put up with Xiaomi’s flash sales model to get your hands on one. The whole idea behind the flash sales model is that Xiaomi is able to eke out the maximum cost-savings on a phone by producing in small batches, eventually making profits as the cost of the individual hardware comes down.

This Mi 5 is a sizable investment, and you have to put up with a flash sale to get it.

Thus far, the move made sense as in return for going through flash sales, you were getting a value-for-money device that was sold at near manufacturing cost. That’s not the case with the Mi 5, as the edition that’s on sale in India is being sold with premium pricing. As such, Xiaomi should have made the device available for purchase in general sale. But that’s not the case. You’re going to have to struggle to get your hands on the phone.

In the two sales we were registered for, we saw the phone up for grabs for barely a second, and in both instances we failed to procure one. That’ll be the case for a majority of customers lining up, as Xiaomi draws huge numbers — numbering in the millions — and sells relatively few units. It’s great for the vendor to tout that it was able to sell its stock of units in two or three seconds, but it’s the customers — who have registered and lined up to buy the phone — that come away with nothing.

This time around, the vendor is also rolling out something called F-Codes. Essentially, you have to stalk Xiaomi’s social media accounts, and partaking in contests will let you stand a chance to win F-Codes, which will allow you to buy a phone or accessory without having to wait in line during a flash sale. As you’d imagine, they’re hard to come by.

Not good enough

Xiaomi Mi 5 Bottom line

The Mi 5 is a great phone, offering incredible hardware in the mid-tier segment. Overall refinement is still missing when you compare the Mi 5 to the Galaxy S7, but then again Samsung’s offering costs twice as much.

With the Mi 5, you’re getting a great display, and the phone’s design with its curved glass back is sure to turn heads. However, the software is badly in need of an overhaul, and Xiaomi needs to address availability issues. There’s also the camera, which isn’t great in low-light conditions, and the battery isn’t going to last an entire day.

Should you buy it? Nope

Ultimately, Xiaomi’s reputation will be its biggest hurdle in the Indian market, as the vendor has built up its market share in the entry-level segment, and that’s what consumers associate with the brand. The most difficult part for Xiaomi will be to convince customers to fork out ₹25,000 for the Mi 5. Over time, the price of the phone will come down, making it a much more palatable option. For now, it’s just not worth the money or the hassle to buy.

ASUS is doubling down in India

ASUS is looking to scale up its operations in India, targeting a 5% market share in the country. The Taiwanese vendor wants to double its local production capacity to 600,000 phones this year, with Foxconn handling the actual assembly. To increase its presence in the market, ASUS will launch budget phones in the sub-₹6,000 segment and mid-tier handsets that will retail for over ₹20,000.

Speaking to ET Tech, ASUS’ Regional Head for South Asia and India Peter Chang said:

Internally, we’re thinking we should make India as our home base, especially in smartphones. We would be doubling our marketing budget this year, from 2-3% of revenue, because we want to have 5% market share. Asus Corporate will support some extra funding on top of our profit and loss, to increase our marketing.

Chang also talked about the challenges in setting up a base in India:

Vivo and Oppo have a big home base, they can take from home and invest in India. For us, it’s difficult to compete the same way… we have no way back.

The vendor’s ZenFone 2 was well-received in India, and with its successor slated for an official unveil next month at Computex, the company will have a strong contender in the mid-range segment.

PlayStation 5 might never happen, reveals Sony

With all the talk of a PlayStation Neo, PS4K or PS4.5 (whichever moniker you fancy) it seems that Sony is looking to morph its current console into something more powerful and proficient.

Where does that leave the next generation though? If Sony is able and happy to upgrade rather than overhaul its technology, will there even be a PlayStation 5? Will there be a need for one?

The head of Sony’s Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, suggests not.

Oddworld’s creator Lorne Lanning has revealed that Yoshida told him that PS5 isn’t a when, it’s an “if”.

READ: Sony PlayStation 4K: What is PS4.5, when is it coming and how will it affect VR?

During a video podcast with Game Informer, Lanning detailed a discussion he had with the Sony executive: “I asked Shu question at dinner a few nights before DICE (in 2015). I said, ‘What’s the PlayStation 5 look like?’ And he said, ‘You mean if.’

“I said, ‘Are you willing to say that on a stage?’. He said, ‘Yeah, it’s an if.’ He didn’t give me a clear answer, but he’s hinting that we need to be more agile. None of us know what the future looks like, so how do we adapt to it faster?”

READ: 20 years of PlayStation: The consoles and accessories that changed gaming forever

The PS4.5 certainly fits that ideal. Updating and upgrading technology quickly rather than waiting six or seven year cycles for another device.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer also hinted at a similar concept for the Xbox One. At the Xbox Showcase event in February, he suggested the current machine will be upgraded rather than replaced any time soon.

Lanning also stated during the podcast that he believes virtual reality devices to be upgraded every “six months”. VR technologies will be more like smartphones in that there will be new devices coming out quickly from now.

Opera is the first big web browser with a built-in VPN

If you’ve wanted to use a virtual private network to improve your web privacy or (let’s be honest) dodge content restrictions, you’ve usually had to either install a third-party client or use a relatively niche browser with the feature built-in. As of today, though, you have a more mainstream option: Opera has released a developer version of its desktop web browser with native VPN support. You only have to flick a virtual switch to get a 256-bit encrypted connection that hides your connection details and prevents sites or governments from blocking content they don’t want you to see.

The preview version only gives you three simulated locations for the VPN (Canada, Germany and the US), so this won’t give you access to a whole lot until the finished browser is ready. However, the VPN is free. If all you want is to access a forbidden streaming service or make it harder for snoops to monitor your traffic, this might be your easiest and most affordable solution.

Source: Opera

Bang and Olufsen’s new compact speaker packs big sound

Bang and Olufsen is well-known for its high-end audio gear, but the Danish electronics company has a number of portable devices under its belt, too. Today, the company announced the BeoPlay A1: the company’s smallest portable speaker to date. The Bluetooth-enabled accessory not only offers a wireless speaker for listening to tunes, but it’s small enough to easily pack away in your rucksack. Similar to other wireless gadgets, the A1 also handles calls via a built-in microphone should the need arise. B&O touts a full 24 hours of battery life for its newest BeoPlay device, which is certainly an attractive feature.

Similar to other B&O products, the BeoPlay A1 sports an aluminum top and speaker grill. Underneath, the bottom half is covered in a soft-touch rubber and threre’s a leather cord for hanging the speaker on a peg or coat hook. Starting on the right edge, you’ll find a power button and volume controls. As you make your way around the outside, towards the center lies a USB-C port for charging and a battery indicator light. That light flashes orange while the A1 is charging and turns green when it’s fully recharged, which takes about 3 hours. The indicator also lets you know when the battery level hits 15 percent with a solid red light. When that red light starts flashing, head for an outlet because you’ve got less than 10 percent battery power left.

Continue around that outer edge and you’ll come to controls for speakerphone, Bluetooth pairing and a feature B&O calls Connect. Connect serves as a play/pause button of sorts that resumes playing the last thing your were listening to. It even reconnects to the last device you were using with the speaker. While there is a BeoPlay app for iOS and Android, I had no trouble connecting both my Moto X and my MacBook Air to the A1 without downloading the extra software.

In terms of sound, I was actually quite surprised by the audio quality of the rather compact A1. Not only does it get quite loud without distorting, the speaker offers a range of tones smaller Bluetooth options typically don’t. There’s plenty of low end for a fuller sound and the speaker’s design blasts tones in 360 degrees, maintaining clarity the whole time. I found myself using it laying flat almost always, perhaps because I don’t have a coat hook to hang it from. The A1 sounded great on my desk, kitchen bar and dining room table — all places I could see myself using it on the regular.

The B&O BeoPlay A1 comes in two colors: natural (silver/gray) and moss green. If you’re looking to nab one, you can do so today for $249 (£199). That’s $20 more than Beats’ Pill+, but $50 less than the UE Megaboom. There are some other features to consider with those two alternatives, but sound-wise the A1 bests them both. Sure, there are cheaper options, but if you want a solid mix of sound, design and portability, B&O’s latest checks all three boxes.

Australian researchers developed a blood test for Parkinson’s

By the time Parkinson’s disease makes itself known in humans, it’s already too late for treatment. But La Trobe University in Australia has developed a test that detects a biomarker present in blood cells in folks with the disease. The school describes the test as a means of detecting problems within cell mitochondria that cause an energy-and-stress-sensing protein, dubbed AMPK, to permanently activate and start damaging cells.

The research is being bankrolled in part by Parkinson’s perhaps highest-profile patient, Michael J. Fox. Well, his foundation dedicated to further research on the debilitating malady, that is. The downside is that even with Fox’s Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and the Shake It Up Australia Foundation’s $640,000 grant to La Trobe, more money is still needed for the test to be ready for the public. And beyond that, it’d still take five years to hit the market with additional funding.

For now, the school is increasing the amount of testing it’s doing, going from a group of 38 people to 70. According to The Guardian, the ultimate goal is to do a longitudinal study with “thousands” of people in their 40s prior to them being at risk for the disease and before they start showing physical symptoms. From there, the researchers could test beyond Parkinson’s and see if the same method could be used to diagnose other neurological disorders, like Alzheimer’s, as well.

Via: Popular Science

Source: La Trobe University

Samsung highlights the Galaxy A 2016 series in new commercials

Samsung has rolled out a series of commercials showcasing what’s on offer with the mid-range Galaxy A 2016 series. The videos highlight the metal and glass designs of the phones, the f/1.9 camera with OIS, and also offer a quick look at how you can use Samsung Pay with the handsets.

The Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 are available in a handful of countries including China and India. Be sure to check out our review of the Galaxy A7 to see how Samsung is trying to solidify its position in the mid-range segment:

Galaxy A7 2016 review

Oppo’s selfie-focused F1 Plus goes up for sale in India for ₹26,990

Oppo F1 Plus is now available in India. Pre-orders for the phone kicked off on April 11, and the handset is now available for purchase in retail stores across Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai for ₹26,990.

The phone offers a 5.5-inch Full HD display, MediaTek Helio P10 (MT6755) SoC with eight Cortex A53 cores at 2.0GHz and a Mali-T860MP2 GPU, 4GB of RAM, 64GB storage, 13MP camera at the back, a 16MP front shooter designed to make you the “selfie expert,” LTE, 2850mAh battery with VOOC Flash Charge at 4A. On the software front, you’re looking at Color OS 3.0 running on Android 5.1 Lollipop, which is looking stale at this point.

There’s plenty to like about the F1 Plus, and if you’re interested in getting a hold of one, be sure to read our initial impressions:

Oppo F1 Plus unboxing and first impressions

Samsung wants to go hyperlocal in India to boost online sales

Samsung is looking to go hyperlocal to increase sales through e-commerce stores. Under the strategy, Samsung authorized dealers and its own brand stores will fulfil deliveries for orders placed on e-commerce sites, ensuring price parity between online and offline retailers while facilitating faster delivers.

Citing a source close to the matter, ET Tech writes:

Samsung is localising ecommerce order delivery, installation and even collection of payment for cash-on-delivery orders through authorised distributors and dealers who will be market specific.

Samsung sells its wares through WS Retail on Flipkart and Cloudtail on Amazon, but the recent regulatory change means that no single vendor can contribute to more than 25% of the sales. By letting its own dealers handle sales and deliveries, Samsung has more control over its online portfolio.

It looks like the manufacturer is working with Amazon, Flipkart, and Snapdeal to list its local sellers on the e-commerce platforms, with customers automatically redirected to the closest brand store based on their pin code. While the move is certainly interesting, it remains to be seen how the switch will affect after-sales service. From Rahul Saigal, MD at digital marketing consultancy Netimpact Solutions:

While there may be potential advantages for consumers such as installation, but the real test will be in service delivery and post-delivery issues for which the ecommerce sellers have already built their name.

AT&T rolling out April security patch to Galaxy S7, S7 edge

AT&T Galaxy S7 and S7 edge users are seeing an update that brings the April security patch. The update comes in at 173MB, and includes the latest security fixes from Google.

Not much else is known about what’s new, but from the discussion in our forums, it looks like the update includes the touchscreen and stability fixes that have been rolling out to the S7 and S7 edge globally.

Haven’t received the update yet on your AT&T Galaxy S7 or S7 edge? Be sure to head into Settings > About device > Download updates manually to download the update.

Thanks Ed and Drew!

Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge

• Galaxy S7 review
• Galaxy S7 edge review
• Here are all four Galaxy S7 colors
• Should you upgrade to the Galaxy S7?
• Learn about the Galaxy S7’s SD card slot
• Join our Galaxy S7 forums

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