Table of contents for Issue 48 in Android Advisor

£869 inc VAT from fave.co/2sXJKXV The Galaxy S9+ might not be the biggest upgrade compared to the Galaxy S8+, but it’s perhaps better than having to wait longer for a new device. Overall, you might struggle to tell the new Galaxy S9+ apart from its predecessor, apart from the new purple colour, but there are improvements namely in the camera department, which Samsung says it has “reimagined”. Design Since the Galaxy S9+ is an incremental upgrade from last year’s smartphone, there’s not a huge amount to say when it comes to design and build. Samsung hasn’t changed much about the handset at all. In fact, you might struggle to figure out which one is the new model in a side-by-side test unless you’re looking at the new Lilac Purple colour.…

M5 Pro from €499 (£TBC) M5 from €399 (£TBC) Not well-known in the UK, Huawei has yet to carve out a name for itself in the tablet world. Its MediaPad range has been around for a long while, though, and three new models were launched at MWC 2018. Two of those have a 10.8in screen and are identical aside from the fact that the Pro version comes with a stylus – the M-Pen – in the box. We saw the 8.4 in model on page 58. Price UK prices are yet to be announced, but the entry-level Wi-Fi only 32GB model costs €399. Prices for the Pro model start at €499. Design Unsurprisingly, the 10.8in version of the MediaPad M5 looks exactly like a larger version of the 8.4in model.…

While Android smartphones and tablets can be brilliant ways to entertain, educate, and keep your children safe, they do have the downside of being addictive. For a parent, the sight of your little ones mesmerized by glowing rectangles for extended periods of time is not a happy one. But, there are ways to limit this exposure and ensure that your child gets up off their backside every once in a while. We show you a few easy ways to control the amount of time your children spend with their screens. Use a dedicated screen time app There are a few different apps that can automatically limit the time children spend on their devices. These include Screenlimit (fave.co/2sYVREn), Boomerang (fave.co/2sZvMoG), Kids Zone Parental Controls (fave.co/2t2cOxL), and MM Guardian (fave.co/2t29x1k). Another example…

Sony used Mobile World Congress 2018 to unveil the Xperia XZ2, the Japanese giant’s first phone to boast the now-ubiquitous 18:9 aspect ratio on its screen. We went hands-on with the XZ2, and are our thoughts. Price Sony hasn’t confirmed a release date or price for the handset yet, but did hint that it’s expected to arrive in the first week of April. That sees it arrive a little over six months after the company’s previous flagship, the Xperia XZ1, a break from the usual strategy of releasing a ‘Premium’ version at MWC. As for price, the XZ1 launched at £599, so the XZ2 will almost certainly cost at least that much. We wouldn’t be surprised to see it run a little higher, to fall in line with flagship pricing…

If the ZenFone 5 sounds familiar, it probably should – Asus released a phone called the ZenFone 5 way back in 2014. Unsurprisingly, this latest version has had a few upgrades. Price So far we don’t have any official price for the ZenFone 5, or a firm release date. The ZenFone 4 started at £449, so we’d expect to see something similar from the 5 though. It’s worth noting that Asus has also announced the ZenFone 5Z and 5 Lite – the 5Z is expected to come to the UK later this year, but the 5 Lite probably won’t. The 5Z is essentially identical to the 5 though, except with a faster processor, so all of our hands-on reactions here will apply to that phone too. Design No, that isn’t…

£199 inc VAT from fave.co/2t0pN2H There’s no let up in the smartphone market and Honor has yet another new handset to tempt those looking for a stylish phone at an affordable price. Over the following pages we take a close look at the 9 Lite. Honor’s range can get a little confusing, especially when you include Huawei, the firm’s parent company, devices into the mix. So the Honor 9 Lite sounds like a cut-down version of the excellent Honor 9 and while it is to some extent, it’s also a sort of mini or light edition of the Honor View 10 because of its 18:9 screen. However, the device is closest – almost identical in fact – to the Huawei P Smart which has just launched on Vodafone. Honor’s version,…

Google’s answer to Spotify is called Google Play Music, a music streaming service that costs £9.99 per month and gives you unlimited access to millions of songs. You can get Google Play Music for free, though. Here we show you how. Get the Google Play Music free trial The best way to get Google Play Music for free is by taking advantage of the 30-day trial. It is completely ad-free and you’ll have access to the entire library with unlimited skips. You can sign up for the trial by at fave.co/2sZyLxo, but be sure to cancel before you’re charged. You can cancel the subscription right away and continue using your 30 day trial confident that you won’t have to pay the £9.99 at the end of it. Get the free…

Sony has broken its usual smartphone release cycle to bring its next flagship, the Xperia XZ2 (page 31), to Mobile World Congress 2018, a few months earlier than expected, and alongside it comes a smaller sibling: the Xperia XZ2 Compact. The Compact packs a smaller screen (no surprise there), but the rest of its specs are impressively close to the bigger version. We’ve tested the phone out ourselves, and here’s what you’ll get when the XZ2 Compact arrives later this year. Price First up, Sony hasn’t announced an official price or release date for the phone yet, but it’s expected to be out some time around the first week of April, presumably alongside the main XZ2. The XZ1 Compact retailed at £499, and we’d expect the XZ2 Compact to hit…

Tablet launches are few and far between these days, so the MediaPad M5 is something of a rarity. It’s the follow-up to the MediaPad M3 – the number four is considered unlucky in China – and has similarly premium specifications. Price Price will depend on capacity and whether you go for LTE or not. UK prices are yet to be announced, but the entry-level Wi-Fi only 32GB model costs €349. Design There’s an all-new design for the M5, and it no longer looks like an scaled up Huawei Mate smartphone. Gone is the stripe at the top of the rear, replaced by an antenna line, which hugs the edges. The lozenge-shaped fingerprint scanner stays below the screen on the front, though. It comes in two colours – Champagne Gold and…

£79 inc VAT from fave.co/2F8JBpr The Vodafone web listing for the Smart N8 says: “Access your messages, apps and contacts via the Smart N8’s fingerprint sensor.” This doesn’t actually make sense, but hints at the limitations of an incredibly cheap smartphone. If all you need is a phone to call, text, dabble with email, Facebook and online banking, then the Smart N8 will suffice. But you’ll find a whole host of frustrations if you want it for anything more than that. Design The plastic Smart N8 is surprisingly sturdy considering its £79 price tag. There’s hardly any flex or bend in the frame despite the removable back panel that gives access to the nano-SIM card and SD card slot. It’s an odd design choice given that the battery is not…

There a good deal of smartwatches on the market. If you don’t have an Apple Watch or a Samsung smartwatch, then chances are it’s an Android Wear model. If you’re not sure, many of the current models are listed here. The latest Android Wear watches run Android Wear 2.0, popular models such as Huawei Watch 2 and the LG Watch Sport. These watches can store music directly on them, and stream it to Bluetooth headphones. Here’s how. Step 1: You need to use Google Play Music Okay, so you need to be a big Google user to get music onto your smartwatch. While you can use your Android Wear 2.0 watch as a remote control for the phone app versions of Spotify, Deezer and more, you can only physically download…