This week’s top stories: Black Friday deals, Pixel 3 Lite, Android TV, Fuchsia testing, more

Ben Schoon | Nov 24 2018 - 9:30 am PT

In this week’s top stories: Black Friday deals land with huge discounts, Huawei tests Google’s Fuchsia OS, Android TV stories, more Pixel 3 Lite leaks, and more.

As Thanksgiving closed off this shortened week, Black Friday delivered some crazy deals around the web, including plenty of big discounts on Google products. From up to $400 off the Pixel 3 to a $99 Google Home Hub, we saw some great deals this week which extend to the weekend. Check out the links below for more, and stay tuned to 9to5Toys for more Black Friday and Cyber Monday coverage.

Our own Stephen Hall took a closer look at why Black Friday is the perfect time to start your Google-powered smart home.

Google makes some of the best and most popular smart home devices on the market. From Google Home Hub to the Nest x Yale door lock, the ecosystem is one of the — if not the — most comprehensive out there. The prices this holiday shopping season, but particularly this Black Friday 2018 weekend, make now a better time than ever to go all-in…

Our own Kyle Bradshaw also picked up on the trail of more ongoing testing with Google’s Fuchsia operating system. It’s been uncovered that Huawei is apparently testing out the new OS on its Honor Play based on the Kirin 970 processor.

In a new commit posted late last night, another engineer from Huawei has directly revealed that the company has been working on making the fledgling OS run on devices based on their Kirin 970 processor, starting with the Honor Play.

Android TV also hit the news cycle this week with AT&T’s upcoming streaming box having its heavily modified interface revealed. The new UI is designed around the DirecTV Now service and doesn’t look much like a typical Android TV device. Further, we also rounded up the best Android TV products you can buy this holiday season, and Google confirmed that the ADT-2 Android TV streaming dongle would be available to developers “soon.”

After last week’s first leaks surrounding the Pixel 3 Lite, aka “Sargo,” more leaked images this week reveal some shots from the camera from this upcoming smartphone. So far, things are looking great for this mid-range device.

These pictures make it very clear that if this is indeed a budget-minded Pixel phone, Google is not compromising on the camera quality. Rozetked notes that some camera features may be disabled in the prototype, as they were in Pixel 3 XL prototypes. However, some features like Portrait mode are clearly on display.

We also took a closer look at the Nokia 7.1 this week from a US perspective. In short, it’s the best $350 phone on the market right now, hands down.

When you boil it all down, the Nokia 7.1 is just a solid phone through and through. If I picked it up without a spec sheet or prior knowledge, I’d probably assume a higher price tag. At $350, it’s a bargain.