Table of contents for 60 in Android Advisor

The folding phone war has officially begun. Just days after Samsung showed off its Galaxy Fold (see page 53), Huawei took the wraps off the Mate X, which it is calling the world’s fastest and thinnest folding phone. It comes in a different shades of blue. Plus, it has 5G. Oh, it’s on Huawei’s spin on the folding phone is quite a bit different than Samsung’s. Unlike the Galaxy Fold, the Mate X folds outward, so the outside screen is the same as the inside one. When opened, it measures a full eight inches with an impressive 2,480x2,200 resolution, versus 7.3 inches and an unknown number of pixels on the Galaxy Fold. The main outside screen – which Huawei calls the “daily driver” display – measures 6.6 inches (2,480x1,148) and…

Ever since the brand’s revival at the hands of parent company HMD Global a few years ago, Nokia has become a major player in the budget and mid-range smartphone markets, but it’s struggled to crack the flagship space. Can the Nokia 9 PureView change that? Announced at Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona, the 9 PureView has one clear selling point – it’s the first smartphone with a whopping five rear camera lenses – but it comes with a few major compromises that leave us still wondering whether it can really compete with the latest phones from the likes of Samsung and Sony. Price and release date So far Nokia has only announced that the 9 PureView will be available in March, with pre-orders starting soon. As for the price,…

Xiaomi’s new Mi 9 smartphone has some seriously impressive specifications and an outrageous price. Read on to find out more. Price and release date We don’t have a UK price yet, but the Mi 9 will start at just €449, and we expect the cost in pounds will be similar. That base level will get you a 64GB model, though you can double that to 128GB and still only spend €499. This means the Mi 9 is off to a great start and could be one of the best value handsets of the year. It rivals the OnePlus 6T and Honor View 20 at the top end of the mid-range price bracket. Design The Mi 9 is a striking phone when you look at the back thanks to its snazzy…

If you always wanted a Galaxy S phone, but didn’t like the high price, then the S10e is for you. It takes the winning Galaxy formula, shrinks it, flattens it, and reduces the price. Win-win, right? Read on to find out. Price and release date Prices for the Galaxy S10e start from £669. It’s available to buy now. E is for extra small Even though it has a 5.8in display the Galaxy S10e can be considered pretty small thanks to the new design. It’s practically bezel-less with a 19:9 aspect ratio and a single cutout camera in the display in the top right. You might like this, you might not, but it could prove better than a notch. It shifts status icons to the left but if that doesn’t bother…

While mobile phones used to come in all shapes and sizes, device makers have largely standardized around the flat glass slab. But we could be looking at another big shift in smartphone design now that the Galaxy Fold has arrived, bringing a brand new way to work and play on our phones. Parts of the necessary technology have existed for years, but with Xiaomi, Motorola, and others expected to follow Samsung’s lead in 2019, how will Android handle this shift? Well, that depends. The current state of Android OLED panels are flexible by their very nature – you’ve probably seen demos of bendy screens for years. But to deploy a flexible OLED in a phone, manufacturers need to ensure the display can fold multiple thousands of times without failing. This…

It was Mobile World Congress, which meant it was time for LG to unveil its latest flagship phone: the G8 ThinQ. Although this year it’s been accompanied by a second flagship device – the 5G-capable LG V50 ThinQ (see page 19) – the G8 is arguably the more interesting of the two. That’s because it’s the first to feature LG’s new ‘touchless’ controls – an undeniably silly gimmick – and the related Hand ID unlocking tech – an equally silly gimmick, but one that might actually be a major step forward for device security. Price and release date This we don’t know much about. LG hasn’t announced any price for the G8, or any release date – though it’s probably fair to expect it to arrive within the next month…

Just when we thought Sony had settled into a naming pattern for its flagship smartphones it changes track again. Before MWC we got a sneak peek at the Xperia 1, the company’s latest stab at smartphone relevancy. It’s a shame that Sony doesn’t get a proper look in when it comes to mainstream Android sales because it produces good phones. The Xperia 1 changes design language yet again by opting for an elongated aspect ratio, a world-first display and more cameras than ever before. We like the look of it and it’s packing a hell of a lot of tech, both hardware and software-wise. But it won’t change the wider smartphone conversation. Price and release date The Xperia 1 starts from £849 putting it a full £150 more than the…

I attended Samsung Unpacked with a singular mission: to go hands-on with Samsung’s Galaxy Fold. With a 4.6in display on the front, and a 7.3in display tucked inside, it looks to be a revolutionary smartphone – assuming the phone is as elegant in the hand as it was during Samsung’s scripted presentation. But, alas, while Samsung’s demo space was packed silly with Galaxy S10s, the Galaxy Fold wasn’t available. There wasn’t even a Galaxy Fold entombed in a glass display case. So I’m left with only unanswered questions – like whether the $1,980 (around £1,515) Fold will have a visible seam running down its unfolded display like the seam I spied during the live Unpacked demo. Check out the seam at the 42:59 mark in our screenshot below. So what’s…

The Galaxy S10+ is a larger, more powerful version of the S10. It adds an extra front-facing camera as well as a bigger screen and battery. But because the smaller S10 has the exact same three rear cameras, this phone is no longer the obvious upgrade choice it once was. We went hands-on with the phone at Samsung’s Unpacked launch event to see if it’s worth the extra spend. Price and release date The Galaxy S10+ starts from £899 putting it right in competition with the iPhone XS. It’s available to buy right now. Plus or bust? The Galaxy S9+ has dual rear cameras compared to only one on the regular model. For some, that was worth the upgrade. You don’t get that advantage this time with the S10+ as…

Apple might be struggling to sell the iPhone XR, but that’s not stopping Samsung from using a similar strategy with the launch of the new Galaxy S10 line. Alongside the usual regular and plus models, Samsung has also released the S10e, which takes – nay rips out – a page from Apple’s playbook. As with everything Apple and Samsung, the two phones are not created equal. They may both have the similar price tag – the iPhone XR costs £749, while the Galaxy S10e costs £669 – and premium sensibilities, but the S10e plays by a different set of rules, for better and worse. 1. The S10e has an OLED screen The biggest difference between the iPhone XR and XS is obviously the display. Where the XS has a brilliant…

LG has usually staggered its flagship phone releases, with different models hitting stores six months or so apart each year. In 2018, the company began moving to a more flexible schedule though, and this year it’s thrown caution to the wind and decided to release two flagships simultaneously: the G8 ThinQ (see page 12) and the V50 ThinQ 5G. That means we’re getting the V50 ThinQ just months after the company released the V40 ThinQ, but it’s for good reason: LG has shifted its schedule to get the V50 out in time for the release of 5G. We got to spend a bit of time playing around with the new phone before the launch at Mobile World Congress, and here’s what we think so far. Price and release date This…

Sony launched the Xperia 10 and 10 Plus at MWC alongside the flagship Xperia 1. They boast unusual but endearing 21:9 displays for a cinematic landscape, Android 9 Pie, dual cameras and decent build quality. As sequels to the Xperia XA2 and XA2 Ultra, they’re looking quite promising. Price and release date While prices weren’t confirmed at our briefing a Sony executive said the Xperia 10 should be around £329, with the 10 Plus at £429. This does place them at the higher price bracket of the mid-range, which could be their undoing, but we’ll have to see what contract prices are like. For comparison, the Moto G7 Plus with the same Snapdragon 636 processor as the Xperia 10 Plus costs £269 only. Widening appeal The Xperia 10 and 10…

After the Galaxy S9 looked practically the same as the S8, Samsung had to find a way to tweak its winning big display smartphone formula enough to make the S10 look like a new step forward. The company has done this by skipping the trend for notches and opted for the newer hole punch-style cutout for the front-facing camera. This pushes the 6.1in screen’s borders even wider, the bezels even narrower and the price even higher. We went hands-on with the Galaxy S10 before Samsung’s Unpacked event. Here are our first impressions of Samsung’s new flagship smartphone. Price and release date The Galaxy S10 will cost from £799 for the base model. It’s available to buy now. Infinity but not quite beyond If you thought the S8 and S9 had…

At long last, the Samsung Galaxy S10 has arrived. And, well, it’s pretty much exactly what we thought it would be, with three sizes, a hole in the display for the front camera, and all sorts of new colour options. But even with months of leaks and rumours, there were still a few announcements during Unpacked that legitimately surprised us. 1. That massive 5G model really is coming This was the big one, literally. While we fully expected the 5.8in S10e, the 6.2in S10, and the 6.4in S10+, Samsung also teased its first 5G phone in the form of a 6.7in behemoth with a 3D depth-sensing rear camera and a time-of-flight sensor on the front, along with a 4,500mAh battery, all firsts for a Galaxy phone. 2. Facial recognition still…

Samsung is so confident in the Galaxy S10’s battery that it’s letting you give away some of your precious percentage points. A new feature called Wireless PowerShare lets you literally turn your S10 into a wireless charging mat so you can power up another Qi-enabled phone just by laying it on the back of the S10. It works on all three models. Here’s how to use it. • Pull down on the notification shade until the Quick Settings appear. If you don’t see a Wireless PowerShare button, swipe to the left to find it and tap the button to turn it on. • Lay the S10 on its face and place a second phone, Galaxy Watch, or Galaxy Buds case back-to-back against the S10. For the best results, you’ll want…