Android Advisor 91

Price: £199 from fave.co/3A6NvbD Just as with 2020’s Realme 7 Series, the 5G-capable entry of this year’s Realme 8 line made its debut a little while after its siblings. But was it worth the wait? Despite the promise of super-fast 5G connectivity, at first glance the Realme 8 5G looks to be the most modest entry in the line-up; swapping out the punchy AMOLED visuals of the standard 8 for a more muted LCD panel and sporting a simpler camera arrangement compared to both the 8 and the 8 Pro. All that trimmed fat, however, means the Realme 8 5G can wrest the title of the company’s ‘cheapest 5G phone’ from its predecessor and all the while give like-minded rivals – such as Xiaomi’s budget 5G devices – a run for their…

Price: £429 from fave.co/3nGQJzB ZTE’s Axon 20 was the first Android smartphone to offer an under-display camera, buried beneath the phone’s OLED panel beneath a layer of pixels. But while the tech was exciting, it was still in its infancy. Fast forward a year and the ZTE Axon 30 5G is official, offering second-gen under-display camera tech that represents a huge advancement and blowing even ultra-premium competition out of the water – and that’s just in the selfie camera department. Throw in a gorgeous 6.92in AMOLED panel, top-end processing power, rapid fast charging speeds and a premium form factor, and you’ve got a show-stopping mid-range smartphone that’ll cost you just £429. Intrigued? You should be. DESIGN The ZTE Axon 30 5G is a good-looking smartphone, but let’s be honest, it doesn’t rewrite the rules of…

5G phones are everywhere now, with the latest networking tech gracing everything from Apple’s iPhones even to some of the cheapest Android phones on the market. That means there is a great selection of 5G-capable phones worth considering, and very little reason not to buy a 5G phone. For a while 5G was limited to high-end and flagship devices. That’s no longer the case, with more and more mid-range and even budget handsets now supporting faster networking. In this guide we’re focusing on mid-range and flagship phones, but be sure to check out our guide to cheap 5G phones next month. BEST OVERALL: ONEPLUS 8 PRO Price: £1,149 (inc VAT) from fave.co/38kqM0d There are all sorts of concessions that you can pay to a phone depending on factors like price or its standing…

When Google announced it would guarantee Pixel phones three years of security updates, the news reports were largely positive. At the time, the reaction made sense. For years and years, Google left it up to smartphone makers to decide update releases – and they chose to do so very erratically. Setting a standard of three years seemed like a big step. Well, my Pixel 3 is coming up on its three-year mark, and instead of feeling gratitude for that time, I’m extremely annoyed about the end of its security updates next month. The phone still runs perfectly well. Apps and websites load quickly, and the battery is holding up. I have no urge to upgrade it, much less spend £700+ on the newest Pixel (and definitely not as much as £1,200 for…

These days, mobile data is money – and if you don’t optimize your phone to handle it intelligently, you’re throwing money down the drain. After all, whether you have a plan with a monthly data cap or a set-up where you’re billed for the data you use, you’re essentially paying for all the virtual info you transmit over your carrier’s network. In the former case, reducing your Android data usage could let you move to a cheaper level of service – while in the latter, every megabyte you save will directly lower your monthly bill. The good news is that it’s relatively easy to save data on Android without seeing much meaningful impact on your day-to-day experience. Just follow the steps below, starting small and ending with the nuclear-level Android Data Saver…

When it comes to Google’s Android 12 update, most of our attention has revolved around the interesting improvements the software’s set to deliver. After all, from privacy enhancements to the surface-level interface progressions and the numerous small but significant touches, there’s certainly no shortage of shiny new things to focus on with this latest Android effort. Amidst all of that, though, one factor that’s gone mostly unnoticed is a seemingly subtle shift in the way Google’s handling a core Android concept introduced just one year ago. It’s a system called Bubbles, and I’m growing increasingly concerned that Google is ready to give up on it before it ever got the chance to shine. Bubbles, if you don’t recall, was a promising-sounding new multitasking system we first heard about in 2019. It aimed…