Innehållsförteckning för Issue 45 från Android Advisor

£449 inc VAT from fave.co/2jclVDD Making a mark on the smartphone market is hard enough. Muscling in to compete in the same arena – if not at the top step – doesn’t happen often. OnePlus has bucked this trend with its phones of high specifications and low prices. Times change though. You may have needed an invitation to buy the OnePlus One in 2014, but the clamour was justified when the phone cost just £229 at a time when the then-flagship iPhone 5s sold for £549 and could compete on specifications. The £449 OnePlus 5T is an upgrade on the five-month-old OnePlus 5 in the same way the 3T was to the 3 a year ago. In 18 months, there have been four flagship devices from a company that had…

£269 inc VAT from fave.co/2k0UUno After the jaw-dropping Xiaomi Mi Mix back in 2016, phone manufacturers quickly started launching ‘bezel-less’ phones. And many decided to cram in a larger screen rather than make a physically smaller phone. They did this by making it taller with an 18:9 aspect ratio instead of 16:9. 18:9 is super fashionable, but until now with the 7X, was out of reach for those on a budget. Even the OnePlus 5T costs £449, which is the very top of mid-range. The Honor looks a lot like Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro, but saves on cost to bring the price right down. Design Let’s start with the screen, as it’s the most obvious feature. On paper the specs – 5.93in, 18:9 aspect, 2160x1080 resolution – could fool you…

With the Pixel 2, Google’s message is clear: For the best Android experience, come to us. Call it the Google stamp of approval. Where the Nexus phones were born of partnerships with the likes of HTC, Huawei, and LG, Google’s name was purposefully absent. They were ‘pure’ Android phones. Even though the Pixel 2 and 2 XL are manufactured by HTC and LG, respectively, the ‘G’ logo on the back is there to remind us that it’s Google through and through. As Mario Queiroz recalled at the October event: “We set out to design a phone ourselves because we believed we could make the smartphone experience better.” Simply put, the Pixel phones are about Google first, Android second. When Google launched the original Pixel, it loaded it with features no…

Android 8.0 Oreo’s autofill API is here to save you from one of technology’s biggest hassles: passwords. Google’s API allows apps to act as autofill providers at the system level. So, instead of opening a password manager and copying your passwords, the app can simply authenticate you and fill in the information automatically. This feature requires some setup, but it’s well worth your time. Autofill was somewhat possible in older versions of Android using the Accessibility service, which allows apps to input text and highlight fields. However, this process was slow and extremely buggy. Filling in passwords is not what it was designed to do. Google’s Smart Lock came to Android in Nougat, and it worked a little better, but most developers didn’t add support. So, the autofill API was…

One of the (many) great things about Android is that it’s so customizable. Sometimes it’s hard to know where to go to change settings, though, so here we explain how to turn off predictive text on Android and how to set other keyboard preferences. Turn off autocorrect First, open the Settings menu on your phone or tablet and select Languages & Input. Tap Virtual keyboard under Keyboard and input methods, and select Android Keyboard. Next, select Text correction, then slide off the toggle next to Auto-correction. Turn off predictive text Open the Settings menu on your phone or tablet and select Languages & Input. Tap Virtual keyboard under Keyboard and input methods. Next, select Android Keyboard, and then Text correction. Finally, slide off the toggle next to Next-word suggestions. Text…

£349 inc VAT from fave.co/2j8Kphb Motorola’s mid-range X series of smartphones is back with the new Moto X4, which follows 2015’s Moto X Play, X Style and X Force line-up. This time, Motorola has opted to go back to just the one model to keep things simpler, and it’s certainly a compelling offering with plenty of interesting and impressive features. But it has stiff competition from Honor and OnePlus. Design In a bit of a departure from the rest of its phones, Motorola has gone for glass on the front and back (like many of 2017’s phones) mated to an anodized aluminium frame. This results in a premium-look and feel that’s lovely at first glance but little too shiny and smudge-prone. It’s available in Sterling Blue or Super Black. The…

£699 inc VAT from fave.co/2jiBUAh The Razer Phone is a bit of a puzzle. It’s not surprising that it exists, given that Razer, best known for PC hardware and peripherals, acquired smartphone maker Nextbit in January of 2017 in order to produce this device. Nor is it surprising that, based on our hands-on time with the device at a recent briefing, the Phone seems to be equal parts Nextbit’s Robin and Razer’s laptop line, touting impressive specs at a reasonable price of £699. What’s confusing is what it isn’t. Razer says this isn’t meant to be a gaming phone. Rather, it’s a phone for gamers, Razer fans, and Android enthusiasts, meaning it’s intended to deliver a great experience for all kinds of ‘content consumption’, not just gaming. But it’s a…

Google’s Pixel 2 is one of the few Android phones that actually looks better after you turn it on. From the functionally elegant Pixel Launcher to the stock Oreo icons, there’s a lot to like about the Pixel 2 Android experience. It’s smart, stylish, and sophisticated, and it’s the number one reason to spend hundreds of pounds on one. As good as it looks, Android on the Pixel is just as customizable as it is on any other phone. The Pixel 2 features all sorts of little tweaks and tune-ups, so check out these 10 tips. 1. Pick a live wallpaper Last year’s Pixel brought Live Earth wallpapers that gave your home screen a cool three-dimensional feel, but this year’s live wallpapers go beyond parallax effects. Simply press down on…

Sometimes you want to watch a video on your phone, but you’ve also got some serious business to handle. So, what’s a busy slacker to do? Google added split-screen mode for apps in Nougat, but that wasn’t designed with video playback in mind. Oreo finally makes video playback more friendly with the addition of picture-in-picture (PiP) mode on phones and tablets. Launch picture-in-picture mode To launch picture-in-picture mode, just tap the home button. Okay, that sounds easy, but there’s more to it. You need to be watching a video or other live content that is enabled for PiP. Additionally, the app needs to have support for the new API in Oreo. We’re still in the early days, so it’s mostly Google apps that work with PiP. YouTube will work, but…

Taking a screenshot on Android is usually as simple as simultaneously holding down the power button and volume-down button, but various alternative methods can be found on the great many Android phones and tablets on the market. For a quick standard screenshot, first try exactly this: press the power button and volume-down button together, and hold for a few seconds until the screen flashes to signal the screen grab has been captured. There is a slight knack to this action: press the power button too soon and the display will switch off; press the volume-down button too soon and your screenshot may be marred by an on-screen volume slider. In most versions of Android you will get a notification pop up to confirm the screenshot was successful; some will automatically…

£399 inc VAT from fave.co/2jgqcpM BlackBerry continues to morph into its true second phase in 2017. The KeyOne was a minor success in tech circles, with people enjoying the classic aesthetic, physical keyboard and up to date Android experience. The Motion continues that revival as part of BlackBerry Mobile’s licensing deal with TCL. The former markets, the latter manufactures. On this evidence, it is doing a pretty great job. The Motion is a solid, austere slab of smartphone at an affordable price point, but when you look at the specifications, there are high-end options out there for less than £100 more. Design BlackBerry is remembered for its mid-2000s heyday when handsets like the Bold 9900 were strictly business looking and felt close to indestructible. The Motion is going to pick…

Google is pushing Android 8.0 Oreo to Nexus and Pixel devices as device makers scramble to get their phones updated. Google’s devices will be the only ones running the new software, at least for a while. What’s this Oreo update all about, anyway? Everyone knows about the big stuff, like picture-in-picture and autofill apps, but a lot more is going on if you dig deeper. Here are five awesome hidden Oreo features to get you started. 1. Widgets via app shortcuts Google has changed the location and appearance of the home screen widget picker several times, and Oreo brings yet another alteration. This one might make using widgets much easier, though. All of an app’s widgets are accessible with a long-press on the app icon. This works in the app…

One of the best reasons to buy an Android phone is the sheer number of ways you can manipulate it to your liking. Even without rooting, there are hundreds of apps that add, enhance, and tweak functionality to make the Android experience that much better. But a change coming to Google’s Play Store terms could put an end to it. At the time of writing, Google is preparing to shut down universal access to its accessibility services APIs within the next 30 days. According to letters sent out to a wide range of developers, apps that use accessibility services that are not explicitly being used “to help users with disabilities use Android devices and apps” may be booted from the Play Store unless the functionality is removed or changed. Google…

Microsoft’s Edge browser was a welcome inclusion with Windows 10, bringing with it many interesting new features and an elegant user interface. Now Android users can get in on the action, as Edge comes to the world’s most popular mobile platform. We show you how to get Edge on your Android phone, and why it’s a good idea. Downloading the app Microsoft has added an early-access version of its Edge browser to the Google Play store, which goes under the name Microsoft Edge Preview (Unreleased). This means you can download it now, but as it’s still in the beta stage there will inevitably be a few bugs still to iron out. If you’re happy to put up with the odd crash or erratic behaviour while Microsoft perfects the app, then…