Содержание выпуска: July 2025 — Tech Advisor

Samsung has revealed when One UI 8 could be set to launch, and it’s probably sooner than you think. With Google set to launch Android 16 earlier than expected in June, the onus is now on third-party manufacturers to come up with an Android 16-based UI update in a timely fashion. It’s not something that many have been too hot at under the current scheme of thing, so we’re not expecting a universally speedy adaptation to Google’s more urgent schedule. Samsung, however, could be one of the first to jump. WHAT SAMSUNG HAS TO SAY ABOUT THE ONE UI 8 LAUNCH In Samsung’s recent Android Show: I/O Edition section, company VP and Head of Smartphone Planning Minseok Kang had an interesting comment on Android 16. “This summer, the all new…

Sony just unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the Xperia 1 VII, and at a glance, it looks just like the previous version. So, what’s new? Let’s take a closer look. With the new model, we get the obligatory upgrade to the latest Qualcomm SoC. The Xperia 1 VII is powered by the almighty Snapdragon 8 Elite, which we already know is the chipset-of-choice for keen gamers. It comes with an ample 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but that can be expanded to 2TB of storage if you insert a microSD card. Hats off to Sony for being one of the last manufacturers to continue supporting expandable storage on its flagship phones. We love to see it. There’s even a headphone socket, which is a truly rare sight in…

Android 16 is coming soon, and it’ll introduce some of the biggest visual changes we’ve ever seen to Google’s phone software. The new ‘Material 3 Expressive’ design is a dramatic refresh of the familiar Android experience, which aims to make your device feel more ‘unique to you’. Using elements of colour, shape and motion, Google says it “inspires emotion, communicates function, and helps users achieve their goals”. The target audience for this new design is no secret: it’s Gen Z. In an official blog post, Google specifically highlights the high approval rates for this so-called ‘expressive design’ among people aged 18 to 24. At 27, I don’t quite fall into that category, though I am just about young enough to be considered Gen Z. As someone who already uses Android…

Iterative updates are the name of the game for mobile devices in 2025 and Xiaomi’s flagship tablet range is no different. The Pad 7 comes along with a similar design and set of specs to its predecessor. That’s not an inherently bad thing, however. The Xiaomi Pad 6 was an excellent Android tablet and iPad alternative and the new model comes in at the same price, £369, and it’s not completely lacking in upgrades. You get a big jump in software to HyperOS 2, a brighter screen, a new(er) processor and faster charging. Xiaomi also has a wide range of accessories available including its first floating hinge keyboard design, helping the Pad 7 to rival the iPad Pro as a laptop replacement. DESIGN The dimensions might be a few millimetres…

The Oura Ring 4 is arguably Oura’s most important smart ring because there are more rivals than ever before. That increased competition led by the Samsung Galaxy Ring along with the likes of Ultrahuman, RingConn and Circular shows that Oura is not the only smart ring in town. To keep ahead of the pack, Oura has improved its ring design, promises more accurate tracking, new metrics to help make better decisions about your day (and night) and delivered a better battery life than the Ring Gen 3. As a long-term Oura Ring Gen 3 user and having also tested pretty much all other smart rings available, the Ring 4 is a reminder that there are things Oura gets right that its rivals haven’t quite cracked yet. DESIGN The Oura Ring’s…

When I say I review phones for a living, what I really mean is that I review Android phones for a living. That shouldn’t come as a massive surprise: have you seen how many new Android handsets come out every year? That’s not to say iPhones aren’t important here at Tech Advisor – quite the opposite. But with a maximum of five new handsets a year, my chances of reviewing one as a junior member of the team were slim. That all changed when I became Mobile Editor last year. Suddenly, it became a priority for me to see what was going on in the mysterious world of Apple smartphones. So that’s what I did. But after putting my SIM card into the iPhone 16 Pro – the first iPhone…

Google has been purging apps from its Android app store, with around half culled in the past year. A new report from TechCrunch (tinyurl.com/362r85su, using figures from Appfigures) notes that, from the start of 2024 to today, the Google Play Store dropped from 3.4 million apps worldwide to around 1.8 million apps. That’s a loss of 47 percent of the apps available to Android users. This isn’t a general trend either, as Apple’s iOS App Store library grew ever so slightly during the same time, from 1.6 million to 1.64 million apps. WHY ARE ANDROID APPS DISAPPEARING? Google’s shorter, more lax app review process has led to a proliferation of poor quality and even downright scamming apps on the Google Play Store. The sheer number of apps has made it…

Google releases a major new version of its mobile operating system every year, and it’s no different in 2025 with Android 16. Here’s everything you need to know about its release date, expected device compatibility and those all-important new features. RELEASE DATE Google officially revealed Android 16 at its ‘The Android Show: I/O Edition’ event on 13 May. The company hasn’t officially said when the new OS will be publicly available. However, Allen Huang, Google’s Director of Product Management for Pixel and Android system UI, all but confirmed in a press briefing that the public release would take place in June. That aligns with an earlier official road map, which suggested that the ‘major release’ could take place in Q2, so before the end of June 2025. While Google has…

Of the so-called ‘big three’ phone manufacturers (the most popular brands in the UK and US), Google was the last to launch a mid-range handset in 2025. But after mixed reviews of Samsung’s Galaxy A56 and Apple’s iPhone 16e, the Pixel 9a might be the best of the lot. While its controversial new design is getting a lot of attention, it shouldn’t take away from everything this £500 phone has to offer. On paper, you’re getting a premium display, flagship-level performance and a capable rear camera, not to mention the signature Pixel software experience and a full seven years of update support. But specs rarely tell the full story. To understand just how good the Pixel 9a is, you need to use it for an extended period of time. So…

Apple first announced the iPad Air line back in 2013, three years after the introduction of the iPad. It was designed to be a slimmer and lighter version of the iPad, and while there’s less to differentiate it from the standard model these days, it still has those characteristics 12 years later. The iPad Air (M3) sits in the middle of Apple’s tablet portfolio, replacing the iPad Air (M2) which only launched in May 2024, and sitting between the regular iPad (A16) and the all-singing, all-dancing iPad Pro (M4). In 2023, Apple introduced a 13-inch model of the iPad Air, matching the sizes available in the iPad Pro line, and while nothing has changed on the design front for this year, a new Magic Keyboard was announced for the Air…

After deciding between Android and iOS, the next big decision you need to make is how much you are willing to spend on a new phone. For some people, only the very best phones will do, and they’re willing to pay for it. At the other end of the scale, the best budget phones deliver a solid core experience at a fraction of the cost. But what about if you’re somewhere in between? You still want some of those premium features, but your budget can’t quite stretch to flagship prices. That’s where a mid-range phone comes in. To be eligible here, a phone must cost between £300 and £700 when bought outright at launch. That’s a fairly wide price range, with dozens of possible devices, but only the very best…

Samsung has just announced the Galaxy S25 Edge, and it may have just spelled the end of the Plus smartphone series as we know it. According to a new report from South Korean website The Elec (tinyurl.com/4bhp3w3d), next year’s Samsung Galaxy S26 Edge could arrive earlier in the year as part of the wider Galaxy S26 range. That has the potential to annoy any Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge buyers, who will find their £1,099 phone superseded within eight months. GAINING AN EDGE, LOSING A PLUS However, that’s not the biggest news to emerge from this latest rumour. Apparently, the Galaxy S26 Edge wouldn’t join the existing roster so much as it would replace one of the members. It’s claimed that the Samsung Galaxy 26+ would be jettisoned in favour for…

Google has just announced its new design approach for Android, and it gives us some key insights into the changes we’ll see when Android 16 arrives on our phones. The new UX update is called Material 3 Expressive, and it builds upon the success of Google’s Material You interface, which launched almost four years ago. Google says it’s one of the biggest updates in years, and it’s designed to add features and functionality, while at the same time being more customisable, expressive and fluid. Of course, what Android 16 will actually end up looking like on your phone all depends on the manufacturer. If you use a Google Pixel phone, there’s a good chance you’ll see all of this in full effect. Other brands like to put their own spin…

The CMF Phone 1 was my favourite budget phone of last year, and honestly, probably my favourite budget phone ever. It’s an incredibly stylish phone with a fun modular design, which tend to be things reserved for pricey flagship devices – and not a phone that costs just over £200. Now, less than a year later, its successor has landed. The CMF Phone 2 Pro has everything that made the original a hit, but it now comes with a better main camera, two new auxiliary lenses, a speedier chip, added NFC and plenty more besides. The ‘Pro’ moniker hints that a non-Pro model could be on the horizon, but we’ve had confirmation that this phone is the only successor. Thankfully, though, the new model doesn’t come with much of a…

The Honor Watch 5 Ultra is Honor’s first Ultra smartwatch, but this isn’t necessarily like putting an Apple Watch Ultra 2 or a Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra on your wrist. It does offer some qualities of those ultra smartwatches like giving you a dive-friendly design and introducing an ECG sensor to provide more accurate heart rate readings, and does that for considerably less money. Unlike the Honor Watch 5, the Watch 5 Ultra is playing at a slightly different end of the smartwatch spectrum. One where there are some pretty great smartwatches from Huawei, Xiaomi along with a host of WearOS-packing watches. It’s also going up against the Apple Watch SE 2, which means it is up against some pretty stiff competition. DESIGN The Watch Ultra 5 looks absolutely nothing…

My life revolves around my phone. Ashardasthatis to admit, it’s the truth. For basically my entire waking life, I’m tethered to my smartphone, and I hate it. As Tech Advisor’s Mobile Editor, using my phone regularly is a necessity. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that – a smartphone offers tonnes of features that can enhance our lives. But all too often, it feels nearly impossible to separate these benefits from the well-publicised downsides. Most of the time, I don’t reach for my phone to use one of its many handy tools; I use it as a form of distraction. Whether it’s procrastinating or escaping a moment of discomfort, my phone has eliminated boredom from my life. Sadly, it’s had the same effect on any genuine relaxation. I knew something had…