The term “Dark Mode” might sound mysterious, but in the end nothing hides the fact that most of the screen changes to a black background, and only the script and symbols stand out.

Sense and purpose of the whole is of course the saving of battery capacity, because the screen diagonals of smartphones are getting bigger, but the battery capacity is growing (probably due to space and weight reasons) not to the same extent.

Basically, although a nice thing that this now synonymous in the operating system is integrated, but a similar feature offer most manufacturers for some time under the point “energy saving mode” in the settings menu.

Previously, owners of an Android smartphone were used to control their device with the three buttons (which can often be customized). In Android 10 now holds with the gesture control another operating option.

With gestures enabled, apps will show a thin bar at the bottom. This will not be visible on the start screen.

The operation should then work as follows:

• Swipe right or left over the bar to go to the previous or next app.
• Swipe from bottom to top to return to the home screen.
• Swipe from outside to inside (either over the left or right edge of the display) to come back or forward within an app. (An example would be in the browser “Page before” or “Page back”)

But also outside of apps different gesture control types should be available:

• A little bit from the bottom up, and it shows the most important (most used) apps, the task manager and the search function.
• Swipe on the Home screen from bottom to top displays all installed apps.
• Swiping across the left or bottom right corner of the screen brings up the Google Assistant.

But the whole thing does not work so well. Especially for apps in which functions can be displayed in the form of a drawer on the edge of the picture. Here, the gestures to open the drawer bite with other gesture functions.

Ultimately, it should be here but minor teething that will certainly be eliminated in the context of troubleshooting by Google with an update.

While the Share feature is not a Google invention, it has now been made more manageable. In the upper section, up to four contacts from messenger services (eg WhatsApp, Threema), with whom you were in contact recently, appear. Among them you will find the most commonly used apps that were used to share content.

The whole is thus context-sensitive and refers to the content to be shared. For example, when sharing images, the gallery app is also displayed. If the displayed apps are not sufficient, you can see all available apps with a swipe upwards.

Also the function to share the WLAN access Google has put to the test, and revised. In the settings menu on Android 10, not only the Wi-Fi password but also a QR code will be displayed.

This of course makes it even more convenient for your guests to quickly and easily log in to the local Wi-Fi network instead of having to type in the passwords, which are usually quite long.

In times of data leaks and general data misuse of large platforms, data protection and privacy are becoming more and more the focus of users. Google has also taken this development into account with Android 10, making security and privacy settings easier to understand and expanding.

For one thing, there are now three main categories with:

• Data Protection
• Location
• Security

On the other hand, for example, you can now restrict the location access of an app to its usage time, and not permanently allow it to exchange data. This not only creates more privacy, but also spares the battery at the same time.

Google usually delivers its latest offshoot of the most popular and widely used operating system on time. But that does not mean that all manufacturers will equip all their devices.

Because that too is part of the product policy of the manufacturer. Why buy new smartphones when the old device is still up to date?

In the following list you will find the statuses that are known so far which devices will get Android 10, which are not, and which are still unclear:

What we noticed in the compilation of the list in any case, is that the flood of smartphone models has become completely unmanageable. But presumably, that’s a bit of a will, so if in doubt, the customer will always buy the latest model in the hope that this will always be the best.

We are constantly identifying the bestseller lists of the largest German online retailers in the smartphone sector, and find that customers are not chasing the trend of “new equal to better”. And rightly so, because very few users are really teasing the full power of current smartphones.