The glories and shadows, or three weeks with Android 10

On September 3, a new version of Android became publicly available, whichóra this time does not have a cute name, but starts a new wayób numbering. Android 10 (during beta testingócalled „Q”) introduces quite a few new features – In addition to the improvements themselves, there are also things resulting from advances in technology, such as support for foldable screensóin or optimized for a supportedó5G network support.

I’m the lucky owner of a Pixel 3, one of five phone modelsóIn (all Pixels + Essential Phone), whichóThe new version of Android 10 (which could be updated on the day of the release of Android 10). After three weeks, I’m ready to share my impressions.

On the plus side, the Dark Theme

Overall, I’ve never been a fan of the dark themeóin systems or applications. I just didn’t feel the need to have it. When it appeared in the new Android (admittedly in Android 9.0 was already a dark theme, but it did not cover the entire system), I decided to test it headóNot least because of battery savings. On OLED displays, where the screen pixels can actually be turned off, this makes a lot of sense. And… I didn’t notice any spectacular increase in battery life, but the dark theme itself is very nice to look at and it’s much better to use the phone in the dark – no more glare.

It is very easy to turn on the dark theme – just go to Settings -> Screen -> Dark theme and activating it. It will also turn on automatically in battery saving mode. In order for the whole thing to really make sense, all the apps with whichóThe most important thing is that you should be able to switch on a dark theme. Note that this is appearing in more and more apps. Recently, for example. in Messenger from Facebook.

Wi-Fi settings

This is actually a thing, with whichóI don’t use it most of the time, but the way itób, in which Google approached the topic shows that the little tidbits also count, and not just more RAM or Megapixels in the camera. Android 10 makes it extremely easy to share your Wi-Fi passwords, with whichóWe are connected to. Often the password we have for Wi-Fi is a random string of charactersóin alphanumeric, które generated by our router manufacturer. When a friend comes to us and wants to connect, looking for and giving this password is not the most convenient.

In Android 10 you can share passwords using a codeóin the QR. Then at the network, with whichóWe are connected to a QR icon which, when clicked, appears on the screenówhich the code appears. In a Wi-Fi setting, it is róalso a code readeróin the QR, so you just need to read it and the password to the network is quickly and safely transferred. A really nice process.

On the downside – gesture-based service

Android 10 introduces a new wayóThe Pixel is one of the main. I have already mój Pixel wyróIt was not as intuitive as the analogous navigation on iPhone X and its subsequent versionsóin the navigational controls (Back up, Home screen, etc.)óTask Manager – remember when they were still hardware’ew?) and replaced it with what I would call „drop”, który pulled in the right direction, performed a specific action. Anyway, the button „Back” It also appeared, but only when it was contextually necessary.

New version of Android does away with all the buttonsóat the bottom of the screen. Instead, Google bet on gestures. And so dragging from the bottom edge of the screen can either open the app drawer for us or start multitasking mode. It all depends on how vigorously we drag our finger across the screen. A similar move needs to be made to wróto the headóonscreen. Swipe right-left where the navigation keys used to be will switch you between applications.

The Google Assistant, on the other hand, can be called with a gentle swipe from the bottom right or left corner of the screen.

And it all does not work too badly, although it is not as intuitive as the analogous navigation in iPhone X and its subsequent versions. But the worst part is the undo motion (replacing the button”Back”, któ(the new version of Android does not use any buttons at all, which took us to the previous screen). Undo by swiping from the left/right edge towards the center of the screen.

Unfortunately, very often próThe gross value of the Polish e-commerce market is found on the Polish website – This is due to the very high similarity between these activities and requires a lot of caution and practice to achieve the effect thatóthat you were expecting at that moment. I still haven’t managed to get it perfect.

Fortunately, it’s possible to wróI am still ambitious to fight with gestures in Android 10.

And some things not mentioned, but good

Of course Android 10 means many more changes, but not necessarily important, or transparent from the point of view of the average user. Google has put a lot of attention to security of its system, e.g. giving the user great control over what specific apps have access to.

Along with Android 10 is also expected to launch the so called. Mainline project, whichóry will allow Android developers to upload critical security patches without having to prepare an entire system update package, and in very critical cases even bypassing the manufactureróin devices. It is one of the mainótion of the Internet of Things to consumers, e.gón the enormous fragmentation of Android and the small number of updates to this system in already existing devices.

The worst for the end – a chance that the phone, with whichóhe amount of time it takes for your app to update to the latest Android version is really small. And this is the real problem of this system.