Consumer Tech Android Circuit: Stunning Honor 70 Launches, Nokia Circular Subscription Service, Pixel 7 Pro Specs Leak Ewan Spence Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Storyteller exploring digital worlds, mobile, music and podcasting Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Sep 2, 2022, 05:57pm EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Taking a look back at seven days of news and headlines across the world of Android, this week’s Android Circuit includes a review of the Galaxy Z Fold 4, the Nokia Circular subscription, stunning Honor 70 launches, Pixel 7 Pro specs leak, Pixel Watch pricing, Sony Xperia 5 IV arrives, and Android’s satellite internet is coming. Android Circuit is here to remind you of a few of the many things that have happened around Android in the last week ( and you can find the weekly Apple news digest here ). Reviewing The Galaxy Z Fold 4 While the Galaxy S22 smartphones will no doubt be the biggest selling premium handsets from Samsung, the South Koren company considers the Galaxy Z Fold the flagship line of devices, bringing together high specs and cutting-edge engineering. It’s also useful in day-to-day use by consumers. Adnan Farooqui reviews the folding wonder for SamMobile, starting with the hinge and display: "The hinge is an integral part of any foldable smartphone and Samsung has utilized a new hinge for the Galaxy Z Fold. It’s 6mm narrower and slimmer. The new mechanism inside also makes it easier to open and close the hinge. This enables the device to fold and unfold more smoothly. “…while the 6. 2-inch AMOLED 120Hz display is the same size as its predecessor, it has a wider 23. 1:9 aspect ratio. This makes an incredible difference in the user experience. The cover display almost feels like a regular 6. 3-inch phone. Almost being the key word here, as ideally you’d want a 22:9 ratio on a screen of this size. " ( SamMobile ). MORE FOR YOU Google Issues Warning For 2 Billion Chrome Users Forget The MacBook Pro, Apple Has Bigger Plans Google Discounts Pixel 6, Nest & Pixel Buds In Limited-Time Sale Event BERLIN, GERMANY - SEPTEMBER 01: A Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 mobile phone (L) and Samsung Galaxy Watch5 . . . [+] are seen during a press preview at the IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung) 2022 consumer electronics trade fair on September 01, 2022 in Berlin, Germany. IFA, running at its normal capacity for the first time in three years after a hiatus due to lockdowns amidst the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, is open to the public from September 2-6. (Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images) Getty Images Three New Nokia Handsets With Two Curious Services HMD Global has launched three new handsets this week; Nokia G60 5G, Nokia C31, and Nokia X30 5G - and is leaning into two features to engage consumers. The first is the green credentials of the handset with a frame using 100 per cent recycled aluminium, a rear pane of 65 per cent recycled plastic, and 70 per cent recycled paper in the packaging. HMD Global is also using a new subscription service to extend the life of the phone, offering green incentives to consumers who stick with the handset. "As well as being sold outright, the Nokia X30 5G will be one of a handful of phones available via HMD’s new subscription service called “Circular,” where customers can subscribe to get a handset for a monthly fee and receive incentives to use a phone for as long as possible. Circular will initially be available in the UK and Germany, but HMD says it’s planning a global launch “in the coming months. ”" ( The Verge ) or ( Tech Advisor ). Honor 70 Captures The Mid-Range Flag Honor’s latest mid-range handset has been released. The Honor 70 has an attractive price and hits many of the bit ticket items that regular consumers are looking for - notably long battery life and fast charging, a good camera, and a modern design: "If you want a phone with a big, bright screen, a fairly snappy processor and a decent set of cameras, the Honor 70 can offer all that for less than £500. What’s more, it can actually offer you a full day of use - something many of the top manufacturers have struggled to do since they all switched to 120Hz displays. " ( IT Pro ). Improving The Pixel 7 and 7 Pro Audio With Android 13 supporting the new Bluetooth LE Audio standard, the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro could well be the first to offer a higher bandwidth than the updated standard. This would allow the LC3 codec to be used for better audio quality and improved latency: "In a recent Android code change, Google introduces a way for a phone to have “higher quality” or “higher bandwidth” options than Android 13 includes by default. While Google’s work toward this is already a decent assumption that this would be for the sake of Pixel phones, a discussion between Googlers actually tells us that this is in preparation for the Pixel 7 series and Pixel 7a. " ( 9to5Google ) How Much For A Pixel Watch? As well as the two new Pixel smartphones, Google is expected to along a smartwatch. The presumptively named Pixel Watch enters a space dominated by two key players at the high end, and price-wise Google’s new wearable looks set to sit between the standard Apple Watch, and Samsung’s Galaxy Watch: "Based on pricing across the smartwatch industry, we would expect Google to charge approximately US$50 less for a Bluetooth version of the Pixel Watch than its LTE sibling. In other words, the Pixel Watch could start at US$349, US$50 less than the cheapest version of the Apple Watch Series 7. In comparison, the Galaxy Watch5 starts at US$279. 99 as a 40 mm smartwatch and US$309. 99 if you choose the 40 mm variant. Purportedly, the Pixel Watch will arrive with a 40 mm case size, along with 20 mm-wide bands. Hence, it seems that the Pixel Watch could cost more than the equivalent Galaxy Watch5 at launch. " ( NotebookCheck ). Sony Xperia 5 IV Aims High Sony has continued to use ‘small’ as a selling feature of the Xperia 5 family through 2022, and this week’s release of the Xperia 5 IV doesn’t change that. This phone is geared towards creators, and the camera specs bear that out: "All three 12MP lenses benefit from 4K 120fps slow motion, Real-time Eye AF and Real-time tracking and 4K HDR with accurate contrast grading, and the front camera is 12MP with great performance in very bright or dark lighting conditions. You can also use it as a monitor for an Alpha DSLR. The only significant omission from the flagship Xperia 1 IV is the optical zoom lens: here the telephoto lens is fixed. " ( T3 ). And Finally. . . Android 14, due up in late 2024, will support satellite-based internet connectivity, according to Google VP Hiroshi Lockheimer. The next major version of the OS will allow various partners (notably Space X and T-Mobile ) to implement the new stellar route: “[Lockheimer] recounted how it “was a stretch to get 3G + Wifi working” on the first shipping Android phone (HTC Dream / T-Mobile G1) in 2008. The Android team is now “designing for satellites” and this support is planned for the “next version of Android,” which Google confirmed to us as Android 14. That OS release should arrive in mid-to-late-2023. " ( 9to5Google ). 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! Check out my website . Ewan Spence Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.