Table of contents for 119 in Android Advisor

REVIEWS Price: £579 from fave.co/48nvJCg Nubia has updated its smartphone gaming line again with the new Redmagic 9 Pro. It looks like we’re just getting one model globally, with no sign of the Redmagic 9 Pro+ being released outside China. So, are there improvements in terms of speed and cooling that make it worth upgrading from predecessors? And is this the new best gaming phone you can buy? I load up some games and see how it handles the chaos. DESIGN If you’re familiar with the Redmagic smartphones, the 9 Pro will look instantly recognizable. It shares much of the design aesthetic used on the previous Redmagic 8S Pro and 8 Pro. This means you get a smartphone that will fill your hand and then some. Here’s how the past…

REVIEWS Price: £369 from fave.co/3H4CRY2 If you have an iPhone and want a smartwatch, then the Apple Watch is an easy choice. It’s not so simple if you have an Android phone. Though the first Google Pixel Watch is a good wearable overall, it has poor battery life and forces you to buy into the Fitbit ecosystem for fitness tracking. I’ve used both an Apple Watch Series 8 and Pixel Watch extensively over the past year and enjoyed both, so I have been pleasantly surprised to find that after a week with it, the Galaxy Watch6 Classic might be my favourite of the three. It’s the best Android smartwatch by a distance, beating Google at its own game. With good design, top hardware including a clever rotating bezel and genuine…

AUDIO Price: £79 from fave.co/3H3FwBt It’s well known that headphone listening can cause irreversible damage to your hearing if the content is played too loudly. As an adult, you might chalk it up to aging, but imagine your child having difficulty hearing birds sing or the teacher giving classroom instruction because you let them wear your headphones while they watched YouTube or played games on the tablet you gave them. Puro Sound Labs has a solid reputation for building headphones that limit the volume of sound pumped into children’s ears, and their latest product – the BT2200-Plus Bluetooth headphone – is a superbly well-made product comparable to the best personal audio products designed for adults. Its key feature is that it delivers very good sound, with its output volume limited…

FEATURE Your smartphone is a powerful computer in your pocket – and with Android, part of that PC-like muscle means being able to plug your phone into any Windows, Mac or ChromeOS system and then drag and drop files either way. Unlike iPhones, Android devices allow you to access their file systems directly from a desktop, without the need for any cumbersome interfaces or complicated procedures. In fact, transferring files to or from an Android device is basically no different than plugging an external hard drive into your computer and moving data to or from it. All you need is your phone, your computer, and a cable to connect them – with Micro-USB or USB-C on the phone side and USB-A or USB-C on the computer side, depending on the…

REVIEWS Price: £1,049 from fave.co/41LmnxG I can’t decide if folding phones are great or stupid, and it’s messing with my brain. On one hand, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 is a marvel. It folds down from a regular smartphone size into a smaller, pocketable square shape. It’s fun. It comes in mint green. But on the other hand its outer screen, while larger than on previous versions, is an admission of the compromise of a folding flip phone. It is meant to be folded shut sometimes. If you need a screen, just open it up. Don’t make me run apps on a tiny outer screen. I’ve also found battery life to be merely okay, and the cameras on this £1,000+ phone are not good enough – both areas have not…

BUYING GUIDE In a world where so many regular smartphones look the same, foldables continue to be a source of excitement. A screen that can literally fold in half still feels pretty remarkable, despite having been around for several years. Apple is yet to release a folding iPhone, but there are plenty of different options to choose from on the Android side. These can be grouped into two main categories. One is a reimagining of the classic flip phone of the 1990s and 2000s, with the physical number pad replaced by an all-screen design. This makes the device more portable and pocketable, but still offers access to key functionality via a small cover screen. The other is a thicker than usual phone which opens horizontally to reveal a small tablet…

AUDIO When you’re in the market for headphones, you’ll see that noise-cancelling headphones are becoming the most popular variety. There’s a good reason for that: They block out ambient noise that can distract from you enjoying your favourite tunes. While they’re particularly useful for air travel and daily commutes – especially via public transport – they’re also great at isolating you from at-home noise pollution, whether that be the whoosh of your HVAC system, the whir of your computer’s cooling fans, or your neighbour’s lawn mower. Many people, on the other hand, don’t like active noise cancellation, believing that it compromises audio reproduction. Indeed, that was a much bigger problem a few years ago, and we’d encourage you to check out a modern set. GETTING STARTED Headphones with active noise…

ANDROID TIPS & TRICKS Android is brimming with buried treasures – phenomenal time-saving and productivity-boosting possibilities built right into the software on our existing phones, no matter who made them or how old they may be (within the realm of reason, anyway). And that’s never more true than within the domain of Google Assistant – the friendly if sometimes slightly sassy virtual companion that’s always standing by and ready to lend a helping hand (and/or voice). Assistant may be on the brink of a major transformation, but for the moment, at least, it’s hanging around on our phones in its traditional form and waiting to be called into action. And the best part about Assistant-associated gems is that they’re every bit as beneficial with a four-year-old Moto jalopy as they…

REVIEWS Price: £179 from fave.co/48Doupu The budget phone sector is filled with underpowered handsets that can leave you feeling disappointed about what you just bought. Not so the Motorola Moto G54 5G. It’s not going to trade blows with the latest iPhones or Samsung Galaxys at the top of the rankings, but it also costs less than £200. Despite this price, the G54 5G feels like something a bit more expensive. It comes with an eight-core processor, 8GB of RAM, a generous 256GB of storage and even a 120Hz refresh rate on the display. There are laptops out there that aren’t that well specified for more money. There has been some corner-cutting, notably in the screen and cameras, but this is still a good-looking phone at a reasonable price that’s…

AUDIO Price: £379 from fave.co/3vhOqZz Bowers & Wilkins describes its all-new Px7 S2e headphone as an “evolved” form of the Px7 S2 I heaped praise on in my June 2022 review. Indeed, any changes in industrial design are quite subtle. The evolution comes in the form of a new digital signal processing engine that gave B&W’s audio engineers an opportunity to retune the 40mm drivers in this new headphone. Oh, the Px7 S2e are also available in a new colour, Forest Green. The review sample B&W sent for this review is the very pretty Ocean Blue. Both shades are a nice departure from the black headphones I typically get in for review, but you’re not considering £379 headphones based on their colour scheme. I described the previous model as possessing…

FEATURE So, you’re ready to leave your iPhone for greener pastures – specifically, the bright green hue of Google’s Android ecosystem. It’s a major move, to be sure, but it doesn’t have to be daunting. Beneath the surface-level differences, Android and iOS actually have a lot in common – and with the right steps, you can switch from an iPhone to an Android device without losing anything significant (including your sanity). Make your way through this easyto-follow guide, and you’ll be happily settled in your new high-tech home in no time. ALL-IN-ONE iOS-TO-ANDROID SWITCHING TOOLS First things first: Google itself now offers a universal iOS-to-Android switching service (fave.co/3SbvLr2) that works with any device running 2020’s Android 12 software or higher. That’s hands-down the simplest way to get everything from your…

ANDROID TIPS & TRICKS It’s an inevitable moment in the smartphone-owning cycle: the point at which a newer, shinier model comes along and your trusty old device is no longer needed. Maybe your company bought you a new Android phone. Maybe your old one was getting too slow. Or maybe you just love electronics and couldn’t resist the lure of whatever eye-catching new Android handset your favourite manufacturer started selling. Whatever the case, it’s common nowadays to find yourself with an extra phone. And while there are plenty of practical uses for an old Android device, there’s also a time when the best choice is to sell, donate or otherwise pass it along. Before you do, though, you’ll want to make sure you securely erase the device and remove all…