Sommaire pour August 2025 de Tech Advisor

We haven’t even heard anything solid about the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 smartphone chip yet – keep your eyes peeled for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit on 23 September – but we’re already receiving some fascinating information about its potential successor. According to established tech tipster Digital Chat Station, Qualcomm’s late 2026 flagship chip – codenamed the Qualcomm SM8950 – will come in two distinct flavours. With the move to a new TSMC 2nm process, the cost of production is predicted to soar. That increased price will need to be passed onto the devices themselves, supposedly leading to a two-tiered approach. The leaker likens this to the current situation with Apple’s iPhone range. At present, the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus run on the Apple A18 chip, while the iPhone…

Google has made Gemini 2.5 Pro and Flash more widely available, and alongside this comes the ability to understand video content. Gemini 2.5 Pro and Flash are now available as stable versions, alongside a new Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite preview. The latter is described as Google’s “most cost-efficient and fastest 2.5 model yet”. Alongside these new AI models, Google has started rolling out the ability to upload video clips for Gemini to analyse and respond to. It works through the existing + button, with the ability to add video clips from your Gallery. After a protracted spell of processing, Gemini will allow you to ask questions about the clip, just as you could already do with images. GEMINI VIDEO AVAILABILITY I’ve checked on a couple of my own UK-based Android devices,…

Samsung releases dozens of phones each year, but few have generated a buzz like the Galaxy S25 Edge. First teased at the end of the Galaxy S25 series launch in January, Samsung’s new ultra-thin flagship was the subject of near-constant leaks in the months leading up to its May launch. So, does the S25 Edge justify the hype, or fall flat on its face? What, if anything, do you have to give up to get an incredibly thin phone? I spent over a week using the Galaxy S25 Edge to find out – here are my in-depth thoughts. DESIGN It feels very appropriate that form is the first thing to be discussed, as the design of the S25 Edge is the only reason to buy it over the other Galaxy…

The Amazfit Bip 6 is a smartwatch that goes big on smarts and cheap on price. For less than £100, one of Amazfit’s cheapest smartwatches serves you up an AMOLED display, Bluetooth calls, offline maps and potentially weeks of battery life. These are features you’d typically have to pay a lot more for. As we’ve already seen with the firm’s other smartwatches like the T-Rex 3 and Active 2, Amazfit is capable of delivering the goods. On paper, there’s a lot to like about the Amazfit Bip 6, but is it the best budget smartwatch to buy this year? Let’s find out. DESIGN The Bip 6 is a square smartwatch you won’t mistake for an Apple Watch, yet also doesn’t feel low quality and reminds me a lot of the…

A new BlackBerry phone was supposed to launch in 2021, with the brand seemingly back from the dead…yet again. No such handset emerged, but that hasn’t stopped a fresh swell of hype around classic BlackBerry handsets in 2025. Many phone brands and operating systems have fallen by the wayside over the years, including the might of LG and Microsoft’s Windows Phone. BlackBerry has had a storied history, from the phone of choice for businessmen and women to the choice of brand for teenagers chatting online, thanks to the rise of BBM (BlackBerry Messenger). Fast forward to 2025, and suddenly the famous brand is making waves again, but why are BlackBerry phones suddenly popular, how are old models getting relaunched and should you get on board? Let’s take a look. IS…

The world’s biggest smartphone maker just sprung a surprise on us all, effectively announcing that it was working on a Samsung Galaxy Fold Ultra. Who says that there’s no such thing as a surprise launch in the leaky world of smartphones? Samsung, not renowned for maintaining a tight ship when it comes to leaks and rumours, just hit us with one. Over on the company’s newsroom, Samsung just issued a post titled ‘Meet the Next Chapter of Ultra’. The post explains that there’s the demand out there for “an Ultra-experience that goes beyond a simple list of upgraded features in a smaller and more portable form factor”. If there was any doubt as to the kind of thing it’s referring to (and it’s slightly odd that Samsung doesn’t name the…

The Honor Magic V5 has been tipped to set a new foldable standard in one particular area, potentially packing in a much larger battery. We all know the old story by now. Foldables are great and all, but they have four lingering issue: cost, dust resistance, camera, and battery life. The first two issues are still very much going concerns, but camera quality is on the up, and now battery life seems to be following. The Honor Magic V5 could have the best stamina yet for a full-sized foldable. HONOR CMIITS TO HAVE SUPERIOR BATTERY LIFE Honor’s next foldable flagship has just appeared in CMIIT certification. That’s the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which is China’s equivalent of the FCC. Essentially, before any phone appears on the Chinese…

How time flies. Just over a year since we reviewed the Honor Pad 9, the company has returned with a follow-up that fixes many of the issues we had with that affordable tablet. Shifting focus to mid-range has worked wonders here, and the Honor Pad V9 is a worthy successor in just about every way to the lower-priced Honor Pad 9. It has improved performance, a sharper display, and the whole thing just hummed along with anything we threw at it. While we do acknowledge there are fewer Android tablet apps than there are on the iPadOS side of the fence, this sub-£400 model feels like a genuine challenger to Apple’s dominance. DESIGN At quick glance, you might be shocked to find out that the Honor Pad V9 isn’t made…

The Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro lands as an amped up version of the Watch Fit 4, aiming to offer an upgraded smartwatch design and plenty of extra smarts to make it an even better buy than its predecessor, the Watch Fit 3. There’s big gains for both outdoor lovers and those who want to closely monitor their health, with Huawei’s HarmonyOS sewing things all together to give you that feel of using one of Huawei’s pricier smartwatches. We were big fans of the Watch Fit 3 and with a little more money to spend on the pro model of the Fit 4, it feels like that extra spend, at £249, will be worth it for some. DESIGN The Watch Fit 4 Pro comes in green, blue or black colours,…

Telephone fraud is widespread, and even prudent users can fall for the tricks of experienced scammers. Whether it’s shock calls, the well-known but still successful grandchildren scam, or supposed calls from banks and authorities, the scams used by criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated. They aim to exploit our fear, willingness to help or curiosity, combined with a lack of appropriate risk awareness. The consequences are often serious, ranging from financial loss to considerable emotional stress. But there’s also good news: if you remain alert, act cautiously and use modern technology in a targeted manner, you can protect yourself effectively against attempted fraud. In this article, we’ll show you how to recognise typical scams used by telephone fraudsters and what specific measures can help you protect yourself against calls to your…

Samsung is mulling over making you pay a subscription fee for certain core Galaxy Watch features. In an interview with Samsung’s head of digital health, Dr Hon Pak, the company apparently told CNET that it was exploring a premium subscription model like that of rivals services Fitbit Premium and Garmin new Connect Plus. This would seemingly only be for so-called ‘advanced coaching features’. Access to these might also be free for newer devices – such as the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 – leaving owners of older Galaxy Watch devices – potentially including the current Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 – to pick up the subscription slack. However this subscription model shakes out, it would represent a first for Samsung. The company didn’t even implement a subscription fee with its…

When flip phones were reborn with the introduction of a foldable version, many people had visions of them taking over from regular smartphones as the industry standard. Almost six years later, that’s yet to materialise, but it’s not for lack of trying. Plenty of companies have launched foldable flip phones recently, yet two brands have come to dominate the market, at least in the West. The Galaxy Z Flip line might seem like the obvious choice, but Samsung continues to face strong competition from Motorola and the revival of its classic Razr line. In 2025, the latter is available in two models. The regular Razr 60, known as the Razr (2025) in some markets, is likely to be a popular option. But the focus here is on the flagship Razr…

Larger tablets feel less common these days. It’s not long ago that it seemed that tablets would just keep growing and growing, and while there are some outliers, many of the best tablets these days stick to the same 10- to 11-inch format. The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro bucks that trend, aiming to offer a sizeable tablet that’s not as expensive as flagships from the likes of Apple. For the most part, it succeeds, packing a stylus in the box for creatives, offering quad speakers for music and videos, and a big 13-inch screen. Sadly, there are caveats throughout. The MediaTek Dimensity 8300 is more powerful than its prior version, but it remains less than ideal for getting any real work done or multitasking more than a few apps at…

If you want two different phone numbers, getting two different phones is the most logical option. But that can be very expensive, and still means you have to carry around two devices almost everywhere. Luckily, there’s a much easier solution: dual-SIM phones. As the name suggests, they allow you to have two SIM cards (and consequently, phone numbers) on the same device. Paired with a couple of great SIM-only deals, it takes the hassle out of having two different phone numbers. However, not all dual-SIM phones are created equal. Some, such as Samsung Galaxy phones or Apple’s iPhone in most countries, combine one physical SIM slot with support for eSIM. Typically, the As useful as eSIM is, especially while travelling abroad, sometimes you can’t beat the convenience of moving physical…