it was our year

We say goodbye to the last hours of 2020 in Europe, and take advantage of the end of the year, we will recall some of the most important moments for Android of this particular year where we had everything and who did not leave indifferent person.

Both due to unique events and certain versions, 2020 has been loaded with moments around Android, which are not all equally important but are also worth considering. In these last few hours, we’re going to talk about the 10 that resonated the most in our heads, in no specific order.

And before you start with them and in case you get to the middle of the article, happy New Year. Can we start 2021 as well as possible and make the next year much better.

Farewell to tech fairs

One of the most notable losses of 2020 has been massive technology events. The first big casualty was the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, ​​an event that remained tense throughout February, heralding toughened security measures and inadvertently canceling as large companies began to pull back.

At that point, we all underestimated the impact of COVID-19, how innocent we had.

Mobile World Congress 2020 has been canceled due to coronavirus, what now?

After deliberating on the possibilities, the Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2020 has been definitively canceled to avoid any risk.

And hello to video calls

And with the advent of containment, we’ve seen how technology can make everything more bearable. Whether through Zoom, Duo, Meet, HouseParty or WhatsApp, among others, millions of people have experienced video calls for the first time. And those of us who have done this once in a while, we have started using them more frequently, now that their use has been standardized.

The new generation of consoles consolidates streaming

2020 was also the year the new generation of consoles arrived, and with them the supply issues for the next generation consoles. While Stadia and GeForce Now were already fully functional in 2019, 2020 was their highlight, especially with the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 (Stadia being one of the best platforms to play it). It’s also been a year since Xbox Game Pass arrived on Android.

Wear OS hasn’t changed, but Qualcomm has taken the first step to change it

Wear OS is a system that while still the best on Android when it comes to notifications and services like Google Pay and Maps, its evolution is not as favorable as it should be given the success of ‘Android. Part of that stagnation was Qualcomm’s fault, since the best chip for Wear OS was still based on the 2013 Snapdragon 400, but that’s something that was fixed with the 4100, a chip that finally appears to be designed to do. bring out the full potential of Wear OS.

There is still work to be done with Wear OS, but at least there is already a hardware platform that rivals Apple and Samsung from you to you.

TicWatch Pro 3, test: now, long live Wear OS

After several weeks of testing the TicWatch Pro 3 GPS, we are sharing our impressions with you. It is the best choice if you want Wear OS.

The first Android surface is real

Microsoft introduced it in 2019, but it wasn’t until 2020 that the first Android-based Surface came to us. In the old days, Microsoft was Android’s competitor with Windows Phone, so seeing how they adopted this operating system on mobiles was curious.

ARM processors in computers, now without compromise

Computers equipped with an ARM processor have always been more or less present with products like the Raspberry Pi, but until then, the processor platform that brings our mobiles to life had not yet shown its capabilities in the PC world. Qualcomm and Microsoft showed us the potential of ARM on Windows with the Surface Pro X, but it wasn’t the show of force it deserved, with performance issues and incompatibilities.

Apple has realized with the very powerful M1 that ARM is able to offer everything a computer needs, with greater efficiency and with almost complete compatibility for the majority of human beings. A success that will not remain only for Apple and which we will surely see how 2021 ends up surprising us.

Google Photos betrayal

Google Photos since its launch has been one of our favorite Google products, a service with free and unlimited backup copies of all our photos in the cloud. Although this is still the case in 2020 and until mid-2021 it will remain completely free, Google has announced the end of this era.

Google destroys Google Photos: end of unlimited free storage

Google will change the behavior of Google Photos, making it impossible to have unlimited free storage for our photos.

The rise of mobiles at 1000 dollars and the success of moderates

$ 1,000 mobiles have been with us for years, but it wasn’t until 2020 that we saw more brands join a trend that was previously reserved for Apple and the best Samsung models. These have been joined by OnePlus, Xiaomi, Sony, Oppo (although these have already reached that figure with the Find X) and even Motorola.

The second part of the year was more interesting, with a success of more moderate mobiles with the Snapdragon 765 processor and some models with maximum power and more reasonable prices. Terminals such as the Galaxy S20 FE, OnePlus 8T and Xiaomi Mi 10T were the big protagonists of the last stage of 2020.

The landing of Vivo in Europe

Vivo is one of the largest Chinese manufacturers in its home country, and the last of the BBK Electronics group (a group that also includes Oppo, realme and OnePlus). His arrival was very early, being the tallest of the 4 (in a bitter fight with Oppo, that if).

His arrival in Europe surprised us with a commitment to a very own layer of personalization that contrasts with the layer of personalization they have in China. Vivo has done her homework well and we are very interested to see what they will do in 2021.

Huawei and the post-Android era

Donald Trump’s veto on Huawei seems far away, but Chinese society continues to struggle to reinvent itself every day. Its catalog of new mobiles has had to do without Google, but the commitment to its mobile services is growing stronger. It was also a great year for the rest of the devices in its ecosystem, highlighting the Huawei FreeBuds Pro and Huawei Watch Fit.