Table of contents for 80 in Android Advisor

Google Assistant can do a lot of things on our phones, but it’s not so great at interacting with our Android apps. Sure you can ask Spotify to play a song or send a text with Telegram, but for the most part, apps and Assistant are mutually exclusive. That’s no longer the case. As part of last month’s Google Assistant Developer Day, the tech giant announced that a handful of “your favourite Android apps” have begun working with Assistant voice commands, including Discord, Etsy, MyFitnessPal, Mint, Nike Adapt, Snapchat, Spotify and Twitter. As long as the corresponding app is set up on your phone, all you need to do is summon Assistant and ask to do something within an app. Google is calling the new feature App Actions, and they’re similar…

Price: £89 (inc VAT) from fave.co/3dtau6o The replacement for Google’s original, now discontinued, smart speaker is here, and after listening to it for a few days, I’m not missing the old Google Home one bit. The rectangular Nest Audio delivers truly impressive sound considering its £89 price tag, and its sturdy, fabric-covered design looks handsome in person. With Google Assistant on board, the Nest Audio can also respond to voice commands and take charge of smart home devices. Waiting in the wings, however, is Amazon’s refreshed Echo speaker, which also costs £89 and packs in stereo (rather than mono) sound, plus a Zigbee smart home hub. DESIGN From the moment pre-announcement photos of the speaker appeared online, the Nest Audio’s industrial design provoked furrowed brows and even some derision; indeed, I…

Price: £599 (inc VAT) from fave.co/31c9KOa Unlike Apple’s iPhone SE branding, Samsung had no qualms in explaining the logic behind the FE branding. The Fan Edition of the flagship Samsung Galaxy S20 looks to offer the favourite high-end features at a more palatable price tag, and with a Snapdragon 865 included as standard, it could be the only Samsung smartphone in the 2020 roster that UK fans are truly interested in. DESIGN The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE has the same design ideology as the rest of the S20 range – complete with rear-facing rectangular camera block and centrally-placed hole-punch front-facing camera – but there are plenty of small differences in design that make the S20 FE stand out on its own. The most noticeable is that unlike its siblings, the Galaxy…

Price: £279 (inc VAT) from fave.co/3nVJeCs Six months on from the release of 6 series, Realme is back with another assault on the ultra-competitive affordable phone market. One of the biggest criticisms of Chinese manufacturers has been the long delay between devices launching in Asia and then coming to Western markets. That’s not the case here, with the Realme 7 and 7 Pro arriving in Europe just a few weeks after they were first launched. The move reflects Realme’s growing reputation for budget handsets globally, although there are some significant differences between the two devices in its late 2020 line-up. The processor, graphics card, front-facing camera, screen, battery and charging speeds all vary, and it’s not as simple as paying more for better specs across the board. DESIGN The Realme…

It’s already pretty easy to ask Google Assistant to forget what you just said, or to forget all your conversations for the day. Soon, though, there will be an easy way to keep the Assistant from remembering what you said in the first place. Google has announced that Guest mode is coming to Nest speakers and other Google Assistant-enabled devices in the “coming weeks”. You’ll be able to activate Guest mode by giving the Assistant a voice command (Google hasn’t revealed what the exact command is yet), and while Guest mode is on, Google Assistant won’t remember anything you say. A second command will disable Guest mode, at which point the Assistant will resume saving your interactions with it. The upcoming Guest mode feature could come in handy if you want to keep a…

Price: £59 (inc VAT) from fave.co/3lQ4BDf At its best, the Chromecast with Google TV represents how streaming is supposed to work. You shouldn’t have to sift through a dozen apps – Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, and so on – just to figure out what to watch. Everything should instead be accessible from one menu that acts as a universal guide to streaming. Google’s new £59 4K streaming dongle tries to deliver on that. But because the new Chromecast often works so well, it’s all the more glaring when it doesn’t. The device suffers from inconsistent integration with streaming services, and the underlying Android TV operating system could use a bit more polish. Google’s bold new approach to streaming feels like the future of TV, but it’s a work…

Price: £549 (inc VAT) from fave.co/2SWVPXI OnePlus is breaking all its own rules this year. First came the Nord, a step away from its numbered line and a return to the company’s mid-range roots. And now here comes the OnePlus 8T, but on its own – with no 8T Pro in sight. That leaves the brand in an odd position where its biggest new feature – 65-watt charging – isn’t available in its most expensive phone, still the 8 Pro. Beyond that fast charging – and it is fast – there’s little new in the 8T. It has the same processor as the 8, and basically the same cameras, even if they have moved to the side now. It bumps the display refresh rate to 120Hz to match the 8…

Price: £349 (inc VAT) from fave.co/3iz9QoH DALI (Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries) was founded in 1983 to create ‘loudspeakers with outstanding performance and natural sound at competitive prices’. Since then, the company has upheld that mandate with many wonderful-sounding speakers. Now, DALI has entered the headphone arena with its IO-4 and IO-6 models. When I tried on the IO-6 at CES 2020, I was impressed with what I heard, so I requested a review sample. After more extended listening, I’m even more impressed than I was in Vegas. (Editor’s note: In case you find our font confusing, DALI’s IO branding is eye-oh, not one-zero.) FEATURES The IO-4 and IO-6 are both Bluetoothenabled wireless headphones available in two colours: Iron Black and Caramel White. Their over-ear, closed-back design uses replaceable memory-foam earpads covered with synthetic…

Price: £599 (inc VAT) from fave.co/2SYhfnc Hot on the heels of the Pixel 4a, Google has expanded its 2020 mobile portfolio yet further to now include the Pixel 4a 5G and the long-rumoured Google Pixel 5. On the surface, the Pixel 5 serves to right the wrongs made by last year’s erroneous Pixel 4; namely by dropping the experimental Motion Sense gesture tech, trading its secondary telephoto camera in for an ultra-wide sensor and almost doubling battery capacity so that the phone actually lasts beyond a few hours at a time. While these changes may seem obvious, the Pixel 5 – and where it sits in the wider smartphone landscape – is indicative of a shift in Google’s smartphone strategy and points to a very different future to the one…

At its core, the new Chromecast with Google TV is an attempt to simplify streaming. Rather than just presenting you with an app launcher for streaming services, it tries to aggregate each service’s movies and TV shows into one easy-to-use menu. Beyond that slick veneer, you’ll also find lots of powerful features to make the most of your TV viewing. Here are 15 ways to make your Chromecast with Google TV even more useful: 1. SELECT YOUR SERVICES During set-up, you should have been asked which streaming services you use. The selections you made then will dictate which services recommend content to watch on the Google TV home screen. If you need to add or remove services later, head to Settings > Accounts & Sign In> [Your Account] >…

Price: £899 (inc VAT) from fave.co/34ZXod4 Oppo’s Find X2 range has proven to be a hit so far – from the premium Find X2 Pro to the more affordable Find X2 Lite and the mid-range Find X2 Neo. The standard Find X2 sits just below the Pro version when it comes to price – but does the lack of extra flourishes make this a more competitive phone to buy? In all honesty, yes. The Oppo Find X2 still manages to retain the core features of what makes a powerful flagship phone – a killer display, sharp camera and ridiculously fast charging – while undercutting other handsets on the market on price. I’ve spent some time with the Oppo Find X2 to see how it performs in everyday life and compares…