Table of contents for 98 in Android Advisor

Price: £799 from fave.co/35YrCBA OnePlus has undergone a lot of change since we first met the brand as a plucky upstart all those years ago. Having been partially folded into sister company Oppo over the past 18 months or so, the phones that OnePlus is now releasing exist in a very different context to the company’s early handsets and the new OnePlus 10 Pro embodies this shift perfectly. While an initial January release in China gave us our first taste of what a OnePlus flagship in 2022 looks like, the phone’s more recent expansion into new markets globally highlights the influence of the brand’s passionate fandom, while reflecting the change that the company is going through internally, all at once. With no standard OnePlus 10 (and only rumours of a…

Price: £149 from fave.co/3utkbMg At first blush the Nokia G21 looks like a compelling option, with the promise of excellent battery life and a predominantly stock Android experience. Its chipset, the Unisoc T606, looks to be a fair workhorse, and it does offer a 50Mp lead camera too, but it’s also pushing a resolution of 720p. That puts it in an awkward spot, especially alongside the likes of the Redmi 10, which bumps up the resolution to a much better 1080p in the same kind of price bracket, so what else can this long-lasting affordable blower bring to the table? DESIGN Available in both Nordic Blue and Dusk (our review unit is the former), the Nokia G21 looks as you’d expect a modern affordable smartphone to look, but there are…

Price: £299 from fave.co/3Dn4vNi JVC has produced a worthy entry in the crowded noise-cancelling headphone category with its £299 model HA-S100N. It features a Bluetooth 5.1 radio, hybrid noise cancellation, and one of the better touch-control mechanisms I’ve seen on a wireless headphone. JVC’s cans are priced lower than the most popular headphones in this category, and they have some definite pluses. Even if JVC hasn’t quite delivered a pair destined to take the crown, the HA-S100N is a worthy alternative to the market leaders. The HA-S100N have a novel means of powering on and off that should extend their battery life. While in its case with its earcups turned perpendicular to the headband, they’re off. When you put them on your head, they automatically turn on and connect. Take…

It wasn’t so long ago that everyone was completely convinced Google had to be working on combining its two primary platforms: Chrome OS and Android. For years, we heard endless declarations about how Chrome OS was a dead man walking and how Android would somehow swallow it up to form a magically merged new mega operating system. The reality, of course, was more nuanced: Google has kept both Chrome OS and Android around and worked little by little to align the two entities and make them more complementary, consistent and connected. We’ve seen that alignment taking shape for years now, but with rare exception, it’s mostly been a one-way road – Chrome OS, in other words, taking on more and more Android-like qualities and feeling ever more connected to its robot-themed…

As a parent, one of the biggest struggles of modern times is managing what your child can do on their phone (or tablet) and restricting the amount of screen time they can have each day. It seems like an impossible task, and it’s certainly far from easy. Even if you manage to block one device, they’ll probably find another or turn on the TV and watch Netflix. There is no magic bullet and you’ll still have to do some supervision (as well as hiding the TV remote) to ensure your child isn’t seeing stuff they shouldn’t. Plus, you should sit down with them and talk about the dangers of unrestricted use and explain why you’re about to install an app that will let them control how much their use their precious device.…

Price: £1,049 from fave.co/37Db9TN Forget the name: the Xiaomi 12 Pro is really the direct successor to last year’s Xiaomi Mi 11. A re-shuffle in Xiaomi’s flagship line-up has introduced the smaller Xiaomi 12, now giving the Chinese company a pair of high-end phones in different sizes to directly rival Samsung’s Galaxy S22 and S22+ – with a 12 Ultra rumoured to arrive later this year to take on Samsung’s own Ultra handset. Being pitted directly against the S22+ (not to mention the likes of the Oppo Find X5 Pro and OnePlus 10 Pro, see page 4) gives the Xiaomi 12 Pro a lot to live up to. For the most part the hardware here is clearly up to the task, matching its rivals in most of the places it…

Price: £259 from fave.co/3JIsgRP Xiaomi-owned Poco revealed the Poco X4 Pro 5G at MWC 2022, describing the phone as the ‘industry standard’ for the mid-range price point, sporting flagship features like a 6.67in 120Hz AMOLED display, 67W fast charging and more, all for a budget-friendly starting price of £259. The problem is that the mid-range market is much more competitive than it once was, so has Poco got what it takes to tempt brands from beloved mid-rangers like the OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G (reviewed last month)? Well… DESIGN If there’s one thing I can confidently say about the Poco X4 Pro 5G, it’s that it doesn’t look like a mid-range smartphone, sporting a premium design with relatively slim bezels and flat edges that wouldn’t look out of place on Samsung’s…

Price: £249 from fave.co/3NzZNk1 Astell&Kern has a sterling reputation in the audiophile world, so you have to think they carefully considered the decision before they put the A&K name on a pair of wireless in-ear headphones priced for a broader market. The AK UW100 utilize technology originally developed for the company’s hi-fi gear and certainly qualify as a product that deserves the Astell&Kern name. Building high-quality in-ear headphones is quite the challenge. Sure, there are plenty of inexpensive earbuds that will keep a Bluetooth connection and there are also plenty of listeners who can’t tell the difference or don’t care. When a manufacturer aspires to something better, they’re usually tripped up at the digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) stage. Most choose low power consumption DACs to maximize battery life, but that trade-off…

Keeping sensitive images or video on your Android smartphone? You should consider protecting them from prying eyes, whether your collection is comprised of makeshift scans of tax documentation, vaccination records or personal videos. A secured folder requires additional verification – typically a PIN or biometric data like a fingerprint – to gain access. On Samsung phones, this feature is known as Secure Folder. On Pixels and select other Android phones, you can use Google Photos’ Locked Folder for the same purpose. Getting set up takes only a few minutes. Here’s how. HOW TO SET UP SAMSUNG’S SECURE FOLDER Secure Folder is available on higher-end Samsung phones dating back to the S6 – you’ll know your phone doesn’t support the feature if you don’t see the option in Settings. To activate this…

Price: £369 from fave.co/35YvFhg The Samsung A52s is the follow-up phone to the mid-range A52, which was released back in spring 2021. While it is nearly identical to its sister handset in its exterior appearance, it has an upgraded chipset which Samsung claims improves the performance and battery life. But how does this translate to daily use? I have spent some time with the mid-range Samsung Galaxy A52s, seeing how it fairs and compares to rivals of a similar price, including this phone’s successor, the A53 5G. Our device sample was supplied by Box. DESIGN To keep costs down, mid-rangers always have sacrifices when compared to flagship models. For the A52s, this is in the build quality. It is quite bland and feels cheap in your hand, like the standard…

Price: £119 from fave.co/3DpOciL Sitting between the entry level CX (£99) and the top of the line Momentum True Wireless 2 (£279), Sennheiser’s £119 CX Plus True Wireless is the proverbial ‘middle child’ of the manufacturer’s wireless earbud line-up. But while Sennheiser has clearly cut some corners in terms of sonics and design, the CX Plus still packs plenty of value thanks to a bevy of high-tech features, solid active noise cancellation, and competent overall audio performance. FIT AND FINISH One of the first things you’ll notice when you unbox the Sennheiser CX Plus is its size. The included USB-C charging case dwarfs the cases of Apple’s AirPods Pro and B&O’s Beoplay EQ. And while the charging case may shorter than the Bowers and Wilkins’ PI7, it is stockier, making…

Pixel phones are filled with efficiency-enhancing features, and one area that’s all too easy to overlook is the way the devices can improve the act of actually talking on your cellular telephone. Talking on your phone, you say? What is this, 1987? Believe me, I get it. We’re all perpetually busy creatures these days, and the timeless art of speaking to another human on your mobile device can seem both archaic and annoying. But hear me out. Here in the real world, placing or accepting (or maybe even just avoiding) a good old-fashioned phone call is occasionally inescapable. That’s especially true in the world of business, but it’s also apparent in our everyday lives. Whatever the case may be, your trusty Pixel can make the process of dealing with a…

Notifications. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a bit of a love-hate relationship with the things. On the one hand, sure, notifications can be useful. Having an alert about an important email, text message or Slack reminder pop up on my Pixel keeps me connected to critical communications and (allegedly) important updates. On the other hand, though, those same sorts of notifications make it almost impossible to get away from work – and/or family – and focus on anything else. That’s why, for me, the Pixel’s always-on display option has never been especially optimal. The always-on screen, if you aren’t familiar, is that feature where your Pixel shows you a dimmed view of the time, date, weather and any pending notifications on your screen all the time – whenever you aren’t…