Table of contents for 112 in Android Advisor

REVIEWS Price: £1,299 from fave.co/3PjK6ki You certainly couldn’t call Sony inconsistent. The Xperia 1 V is the fourth Sony flagship phone in a row to look essentially identical. It’s not just the design that’s stayed similar either, with a fundamentally similar ethos that means this shares the same strengths and weaknesses as the phones that came before. Expect a slender build, a detailed display, and a powerful chipset at the heart of the phone – all held back by slow charging, a complicated camera and an excessively high price point. If Sony’s idiosyncrasies line up with your own, then you might well love the Xperia 1 V, but if their former flagships have left you cold then this latest model will do nothing to change your mind. DESIGN From the…

REVIEWS Price: £279 from fave.co/3N90GAN Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 12 line includes no fewer than eight different models, but only half of those have made it to Europe. The Note 12 5G is the second most affordable of these, even if the £279 price tag makes it more expensive than your average budget phone. Compromises are still inevitable compared to the pricier Note 12 Pro and Pro+, with performance, cameras and charging taking the biggest hit. The Note 12 5G isn’t nearly as exciting as a result, but the core experience remains impressive. Is that enough to make it your next phone, though? That decision hinges on the flexibility of your budget and willingness to tolerate some key shortcomings. Here’s our full review. DESIGN The most obvious downgrade on the Note…

AUDIO Price: £54 from fave.co/3OWIEnJ Like each of Amazon’s smart speakers, its second-generation Echo Buds in-ear headphones do a fantastic job of summoning the company’s digital assistant, Alexa. And like each of those speakers, audio performance takes a back seat to listening for and responding to that wake word. The second-generation Echo Buds are generally a more polished product than Amazon’s other audio gear – with the possible exception of the Echo Studio (£219 from fave.co/3CgHUlN) – so it’s not a surprise that they received a generally warm reception when released a couple of years back. They’re most definitely the best audio product I’ve heard from Amazon. Unfortunately for Amazon, it’s competing in a category filled with excellent alternatives, and these don’t really stack up. The Echo Buds have a…

Google Chrome is the default browser on Android phones. But maybe you want to use another browser because you prefer to avoid Google apps, you’re looking for stronger privacy safeguards, or other reasons. Or maybe you simply want to keep a secondary browser on your phone to serve as a backup or for specific tasks. There are a lot of alternative browsers that you can download from Google Play, but when using a browser for business, it’s best to stick with the most trusted, well-known brands: DuckDuckGo, Microsoft Edge, Firefox and Opera. This guide highlights the main features that set five businessfriendly alternative browsers apart from Chrome, along with a few tips for getting the most out of each one. Unless otherwise noted, these browsers are free. DUCKDUCKGO The DuckDuckGo…

REVIEWS Price: £179 from fave.co/441p3Hw Samsung may be best known for its flagship S-series and foldable devices, but it also has a range of phones to suit those with a more conservative budget. There are several phones in the A-series, and the Samsung Galaxy A14 reviewed here is the entry-level device, clocking in at a very affordable £179. There is also a 5G version of this phone which comes with slightly higher specs, though this does bump up the cost slightly. But how does this smartphone compare to rival phones? Here’s my experience with the Galaxy A14. DESIGN It may be made from plastic, but the Samsung Galaxy A14 is a good-looking phone that takes inspiration from the flagship Galaxy S23. I was a big fan of my light green…

BUYING GUIDE Just five years ago, the idea of the smartphone in your pocket having a foldable screen was a futuristic dream. But in 2023 it’s very much a reality. They might cost more than their flat glass screen counterparts, but if you want a gadget that’s on the cutting edge of modern consumer technology, you can’t go wrong with a folding phone. Or can you? Given the technology is so new, we have found that some foldable smartphones are better than others. We’ve reviewed several different models to find out which is best. All the phones on our list take one of two basic form factors – either book or flip. The former open with a vertical hinge like a book, while the latter flip open on a horizontal…

ANDROID SECURITY Protecting your online accounts is more important now than ever – and in spite of some recent high-profile hacks, relying on a third-party password manager is still the easiest and most effective way to ensure that your most important credentials remain secure. Why? It’s simple: reusing passwords puts you at a heightened risk for hacking. If someone discovers your password at just one website – via any sort of breach, be it large-scale or targeted – they can then use that same password to crack into your accounts at countless other places. And until our still-very-theoretical password-free future arrives, virtually any security guru will give you the same advice: the key to keeping yourself safe is relying on long, random passwords (in conjunction with two-factor authentication, whenever possible).…

REVIEWS Price: £949 from fave.co/3qDZtty Once the budget wing of Huawei, Honor is now its own, independent beast. And that independence has freed it to move up from the cut-price mid-range market and into selling its own full-on flagships. This year has already seen the company release the Magic Vs, a rare global challenger to Samsung’s foldable dominance, but the Magic5 Pro is a little more traditional: a big slab of glass with some very powerful cameras. But just how powerful are they – and is there enough on offer here to tempt buyers away from the likes of Samsung, Google and Apple? DESIGN The Magic5 Pro fits comfortably into modern flagship phone design trends: a huge slab of curved glass and metal with an outlandishly large, round camera module…

AUDIO Price: £199 from fave.co/3J1xw58 The Skullycandy Crusher ANC 2 is aptly named. It will almost literally crush your ears with its thumping bass response, but its active noise cancellation is pretty weak sauce. Skullcandy says it’s targeting ‘tech-savvy audiophiles’ with this headphone, but most audiophiles eschew active noise cancellation, and I don’t know of any who would seek out an audio product that so zealously overemphasizes a given frequency range the way the Crusher ANC 2 does the low end. But for those looking for a headphone with massive amounts of thump, this is the one to buy. Note: some places sell these headphones in a box labelled Crusher ANC XT 2, but the same product is inside. AUDIO QUALITY The Skullcandy Crusher ANC 2 is equipped with 40mm…

FEATURE Your phone is essentially your personal assistant – and like any aide, it needs the right set of tools to do its job effectively. The good news? As an Android phone owner, you’ve got no shortage of efficiency-enhancing options. Unlike certain other mobile platforms, Android grants you the opportunity to customize and control the core user interface, so it’s perfectly tailored to your needs and the way you like to get things done. And while the more advanced UI-adjusting tools tend to be targeted at the power-user crowd, you don’t have to be an expert to take advantage of what they offer. All of the apps here have sensible and responsible privacy policies, as provided by their developers. They don’t require any permissions beyond what’s appropriate for their purposes…