Innholdsfortegnelse for 71 i Android Advisor

Samsung just unveiled the Galaxy S20 range at its Galaxy Unpacked event, with three new phones culminating in the absurdly over-specified S20 Ultra. But for my money, it’s the regular S20 that would, well, get my money. Omitting the S11s through 19, Samsung is keen to push the S20 range as the start of a new age for the company – it’s a whole 10 better than last year’s phone, after all – touting headline features like 100x zoom, a 120Hz refresh rate display, 8K video recording, and 5G support across the range. If previous years are anything to go by it’ll be the high-end Ultra that Samsung pushes across its marketing, but all of those key features – except the 100x zoom – can be found in the base…

Yes, you can still walk into a store and buy a BlackBerry in 2020, but those days may soon be over given a recent announcement from BlackBerry phone maker TCL. TCL says that as of 31 August 2020, it “will no longer be selling BlackBerry-branded mobile devices… (and) has no further rights to design, manufacture or sell any new BlackBerry mobile devices”. That’s pretty much a death blow to the company’s slim hopes of mounting a revival. If you own a BlackBerry KeyOne or Key2, TCL says it will continue to provide support for phones through August 2022, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for an Android 10 update anytime soon. Granted, TCL’s investment in BlackBerry was always an uphill struggle. When it announced it was licensing the brand back…

Price: £228 (inc VAT) from fave.co/2GWMw3Y As soon as I took the Puma Smartwatch out of the box, I wanted to like it. Unlike the sea of bulky, all-black Wear OS entries of late, the Puma Smartwatch is lightweight and sporty, with a slimming aesthetic and minimal single-button design. Add to that Puma’s fitness pedigree, Qualcomm’s newest Wear 3100 processor and built-in GPS, and I had high hopes that I was strapping a rare Wear OS winner to my wrist. Sadly, that’s not the case. I’m not sure whether to blame Google or Qualcomm or Puma, but I’ll say this: the Puma Smartwatch was at its best when it was in Battery Saver mode and served no other purpose than showing the time and date. That’s how frustrating the Puma…

Most people don’t give a second thought to using Google Photos to store and share their personal images and videos – until something goes wrong. Like this: Google is warning some users that their videos might have accidentally ended up in someone else’s hands. Before you freak out, let us explain. According to a tweet from Jon Oberheide, who was a victim of the breach, it took place between 21 and 25 November 2019, and involved Google Takeout, which lets you export a copy of content in your Google Account to back it up or use it with a third-party service. It’s not clear exactly what went wrong, but Google says: “Some videos in Google Photos were incorrectly exported to unrelated users’ archives.” Photos were, however, not affected. The search…

Price: £449 (inc VAT) from fave.co/2v6pncS I suspect I’ll always have a soft spot for dual screen phones. It’s the most absurdly over-engineered solution to a simple problem – minimizing the impact of a selfie camera on the display – but the sheer, unadulterated novelty of having two screens on one phone is hard to overstate. The first dual screen phones admittedly weren’t great, but the Nubia Z20 feels like a surprisingly mature example of a charmingly immature design, and the best case yet for slapping an extra screen on the back of a phone, thanks to a combo of attractive design, clever interfaces and a strong price point. Screens: Two for the price of one So yes, this phone has two displays. The main one is a 6.42in AMOLED…

Many flagship phones are prohibitively expensive for most of us, but as the top end gets better so do more affordable models. In fact, it’s now possible to buy a decent model for under £200. The best budget devices are also more attractive in the long-term thanks to cheaper contract prices, though you might prefer to buy these outright and then pay only for your minutes, texts and data. Our current favourite is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T. It might not be the most familiar brand name but it is the best combination of value, specs and design out there right now. In our experience, the ideal way to get a cheap phone is to buy it SIM-free then grab a great-value SIM-only deal. You won’t be paying £50 per…

A recent report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation fave.co/2OsWChi once again has Amazon’s Ring in the hot seat regarding the privacy and security of its fleet of home monitoring devices. According to the non-profit industry watchdog, the Ring app on Android is “packed with third-party trackers sending out a plethora of customers’ personally identifiable information”. In its study, EFF found four main analytics and marketing companies – Branch, Mixpanel, AppsFlyer, and Facebook – to be on the receiving end of Ring’s data, which includes such information as screen resolution, names and email addresses. EFF notes that all of the data they monitored was sent using encrypted HTTPS and “was delivered in a way that eludes analysis”. The organization used a Ring Video Doorbell and a Nexus 5X running Android Oreo…

Price: €169 (around £141) from fave.co/39ePMUE Oppo, the biggest smartphone manufacturer in China, had experienced limited global success until just a few years ago. However, its launch was a defining moment in what has been a rapid expansion into European markets. Its Realme sub-brand is clearly targeting the affordable market, with four of the five phones it currently sells in Europe retailing for under €300. The Realme 5 is the cheapest in that line-up, yet on first impressions there’s little to tell it apart from much more expensive handsets. Will extended usage reveal many shortcomings, or can it truly be considered one of the best cheap phones around? Read on to find out. Design and build One of the first things you notice about the Realme 5 is the unique…