Table of contents for 84 in Android Advisor

Price: £229 (inc VAT) from fave.co/3tq5NSh The Redmi Note 9T is the latest phone in Xiaomi’s budget range, offering 5G capability. It joins the Redmi Note 9, Note 9S and Note 9 Pro, but comes with some key differences beyond the 5G capabilities. There’s a slightly lower battery life, a different processor and a more stripped back design. However, it still manages to clock in just over £200. With all that in mind, how does the phone stack up in actual use? DESIGN Like other Redmi 9 phones, this is quite a big handset. It measures 161.9x77.3x9.05mm and weighs 199g. If you’re looking for a phone that will slip into your pocket or something you can use one-handed with ease, this isn’t the one. However, the size does make it…

Price: £539 (inc VAT) from fave.co/3jpeqIf As a global tech giant, Samsung produces an incredible amount of hardware each year. Its high-end TVs and flagship smartphone usually make most of the headlines, but there are plenty of devices specifically targeted to certain industries. Among them is the Galaxy Tab Active3, a rugged tablet that’s aimed at B2B customers and those working in extreme environments. With a host of durability features, it feels well optimized for this purpose, but does it make sense for consumers to pick one up? Read on to find out. DESIGN The design of the Tab Active3 feels like taking a trip back in time, with huge bezels and physical navigation buttons below the screen. Both of these have long since been upgraded on consumer-focused tablets, but…

Gaming on phones has been a thing ever since we all first booted up our Nokia 3310s for hours on Snake, before our phones became clogged with hours of Candy Crush Saga. But increasingly smartphones are becoming viable gaming devices alongside home consoles and over the following pages we reveal our favourite models. Such is the power of modern smartphones. Gaming sensations such as Fortnite and PUBG can thank their mobile platform and portability for ridiculous run-away success. And it’s no wonder considering the power inside the best smartphones around. While the latest phones are capable of running the most demanding mobile games, the market is so popular that there are also dedicated gaming phones including the Asus ROG Phone 2 (page 54), Red Magic 5S (page 62) and Black Shark 3…

You can stop using your smartphone at night with a little help from Android. We know it’s hard to let go – even when research shows it’s better for your sleep if you unplug and wind down. Android 11 includes a raft of features that can help you set some common-sense limits. Here’s how to get started. 1. CHECK YOUR USAGE The first step is to face facts, by checking how long you’re using your phone each day and what you’re doing with it. To get started, head into your system settings and scroll down to Digital Wellbeing, which should be available on virtually all Android smartphones. The Digital Wellbeing hub contains many of the tools we’ll use to make your phone less distracting at night, but for now, just check…

Price: £179 (inc VAT) from fave.co/39RrL9n Motorola launched the budget G9 Power in the tail-end of 2020, as the last of three phones in the G9 series, which includes the G9 Plus and the G9 Play. The G9 Play impressed me last year: it neatly packed all the essentials you could want in a handset and tied it with a pretty £159 bow. The G9 Power takes it one step further, offering even more value for money. DESIGN It’s hard to believe the G9 Power packs a massive 6,000mAh battery when it’s so light, relatively speaking. At 221g, it’s just a touch heavier than the 200g Moto G9 Play. On the back, you’ll find a matte surface textured with concentric ridges which help add grip. It looks hardy yet handsome, with a…

Price: £769 (inc VAT) from fave.co/3aH8rL3 The Galaxy S21 might be the smartest phone Samsung has ever made. Like the iPhone 12, it doesn’t have the best specs or the biggest screen. But it delivers where it counts, at a price that’s very attainable for a phone with a full complement of 5G, a high-end camera, and the latest Exynos 2100 processor. At £769, £30 less than the iPhone 12, and £170 more than the Google Pixel 5 and Galaxy S20 FE, the S21 is already a strong contender for smartphone of the year. Android and Galaxy enthusiasts will moan and wail over the things that are missing, which is admittedly a pretty lengthy list: 12GB of RAM, QuadHD+ resolution, expandable microSD storage, MST payment support, earbuds, a glass back…

It has been a great few years in the world of mobile gaming. While mobile games were once limited to the likes of Candy Crush and Angry Birds, the mobile gaming scene has truly taken off in recent years, with AAA game releases like PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile and even PC game ports such as ARK: Survival Evolved. Plus, thanks to cloud gaming services such as Nvidia GeForce Now and Google Stadia, you can now play PC games on your smartphone. That’s all welcome news, but let’s be honest, touchscreen controls can be frustrating – especially when it comes to fast-paced shooters like Call of Duty where split-second response times are the difference between virtual life and death. That’s where third-party controllers come into play. Luckily, there’s a wide range of…

Ultraviolet (UV) sanitizers are marketed as an effective way of sanitizing small items you carry around and use a lot. They started to gain attention in 2020, as the spread of COVID-19 made people more aware of the presence of bacteria and viruses on the surfaces we touch multiple times a day. You can wash your hands all the time and regularly disinfect high-touch surfaces such as door handles, but what about the tech you carry around and touch all the time? You can’t dunk your phone in soapy water or scrub your earbuds. That’s where sanitizing devices come in. They can also be used to disinfect the other small items you take with you when you go out – your phone, glasses and keys – and they may help to prevent you from transferring microbes…

Price: £229 (inc VAT) from fave.co/36K83dH The past few years have seen many successful Chinese smartphone manufacturers expand into Western markets, bringing a wealth of high-quality, low-cost handsets with them. Established players such as Huawei and OnePlus were joined in the UK by Xiaomi in late 2018, before Oppo and Realme arrived in 2019. Completing the BBK (Oppo, OnePlus and Realme’s parent company) representation is Vivo, with the Guangdong-based company officially entering Europe in late 2020. One of the four phones to hit these shores is the Y70, a handset which aims to offer the premium smartphone experience at a more affordable price point. We’ve seen this strategy many times before, though. Can the Y70 stand out, considering the fierce competition at this lower mid-range price point? DESIGN The Vivo Y70…

The year has barely begun and we already have our first heavyweight smartphone battle of 2021. Samsung has released its line-up of Galaxy S21 phones a little earlier than usual this year, and it’s clear they have Apple’s newest phone in its sights. Samsung hasn’t reinvented the S21 as much as it’s retooled it to take on the iPhone 12, with a lower price point, sharper design, and some new camera tricks. Here’s how the two £800 smartphones stack up. DESIGN Samsung’s Galaxy S is always at the forefront of Android smartphone design and the S21 continues that tradition. Samsung has crafted a truly unique design where the metal sides seamlessly blend into the camera array, as if it were snapped onto the back. The back is made of plastic rather than glass,…

Android 11 includes numerous quality of life improvements and security enhancements, some of which might replace features you had in the previous version. Here are eight things you should look for when acclimatizing to the latest OS. 1. NEW MEDIA PLAYBACK CONTROLS Media controls have been part of the Android notification shade for years, but that changes in Android 11. That playback notification still exists, but it’ll be above your notifications in the quick settings. The upshot is your controls will always be in the same place, and they won’t push important notifications out of the way. You can even swipe left and right to switch between multiple media apps. However, you do lose a row of quick settings toggles. It’s probably a worthwhile trade-off. 2. SCREEN RECORDER…

Early last year I wrote a column titled, ‘If you got a Pixel 4 for Christmas, you should probably return it’. I didn’t want to write it. Ever since the Pixel launched in 2016, I’ve rooted for Google’s phone to succeed. No other company is in such a position to bring an iPhone-like level of hardware/software integration and an experience unsurpassed on any other Android phone. Unfortunately Google never quite nailed it. The pieces were all there – flagship processor, fantastic camera, regular Android updates – but the design always left much to be desired, the features were gimmicky and the battery was merely good-enough. On the Pixel 4, the compromises became too much to bear. But things might be looking up. In 2020 Google switched up its strategy with the Pixel 4a and 5,…