Table of contents for Issue 24 in Android Advisor

Xiaomi is one of the biggest phone makers in China, and it’s increasingly getting its name heard elsewhere. It unveiled the Mi 5 flagship Android phone at MWC 2016. Here we reveal how to buy one in the UK, plus its 5 release date, price, features and specifications. How to buy the Xiaomi Mi 5 in the UK Xiaomi phones are not officially sold in the UK, however, it is possible to get hold of them through Chinese sites such as Geekbuying.com, GearBest.com and Coolicool.com, which we use to supply us with Xiaomi products for review. The Mi 5 is to cost ¥2,600 (£285) for the high-end 128GB model and ¥1,999 (£219) for the entry-level 32GB version, but the official prices are largely irrelevant if you’re buying in the UK,…

Cubot isn’t a brand we’ve come across before, but its P12 is a well-designed budget Android smartphone that costs just £75. At this price there are both hits and misses, as we see here. Price At just £74.99 from Amazon with free UK delivery, the Cubot P12 is cheaper than all but one of the devices in our best budget phones round-up, and yet it looks more expensive than many of them. There are some drawbacks associated with buying a phone this cheap, for example 4G connectivity is not supported, but on the whole the Cubot P12 appears at first glance to be a real bargain. In the UK, the Cubot’s most fearsome rival is the £79 Vodafone Smart Prime 6. The Vodafone is a 4G phone while the Cubot…

It was reported toward the end of last year that Google would update its Gmail for Android app and introduce ‘Block’ and ‘Unsubscribe’ options to the Settings menu for individual emails. This should make it much easier to block an email or unsubscribe from an email in a couple of taps, but we’ve yet to see the update filter through to the app. In the meantime, we’ll show you how to block or unsubscribe from email on an Android device. If you’re looking for a way to block spam messages from Gmail for Android, it’s important to first differentiate between spam messages and those emails from companies you have perhaps unwittingly authorised to send you marketing information at some point in the past. When you mark an email as spam…

Quick Charge 3.0 is the latest revision to Qualcomm’s fast-charging technology, and it features in new flagship phones and tablets launching at this year’s MWC 2016, such as the LG G5 and Xiaomi Mi 5. It has come on significantly over the years. The initial standard, Quick Charge 1.0, could charge up to 40 percent faster than a standard charge. When Quick Charge 2.0 was introduced it offered up to 75 percent faster charging (you can see a list of compatible devices at tinyurl.com/ n64pua4), and it wasn’t long before we began to see compatible accessories such as the Tronsmart Titan desktop charger and USB Rapid Car Charger and Anker PowerCore+ 20100 USB power bank come on to the market. Such devices were able to speed up charging enough to…

Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge After winning our crown for best phone of 2015 with its Galaxy S6, Samsung has gone one better with the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. There aren’t many revolutionary features, but Samsung has added an always-on display, bumped up processor- and camera performance and, as fans will be glad to know, brought back the microSD slot and waterproofing, and improved battery life. LG G5 Usually appearing a little later in the spring, LG has opted for an early launch for its G5 flagship. If Samsung has skimped on revolutionary features, the LG fills that gap. In common with the S7, the G5 has a new always-on display, but what’s really intriguing about this phone is its ‘Friends’. Sony Xperia X and XA Sony…

UMI phones were until recently available only from third-party Chinese distributors such as Coolicool.com, which supplied our UMI Rome for review. It offers the phone from its EU warehouse with free shipping at £113.59, or you can take a gamble and buy the Rome from the Chinese warehouse for £85.19. Be aware that you may have to pay import duty when shipping the UMI Rome from China, however. UMI phones are also now available in the UK via Amazon. They usually cost a little more from Amazon, but at the time of writing the Rome was on offer at £112.55 with free UK delivery. Design Out of the box we had an interesting first impression of the UMI Rome. It was absolutely freezing cold – ice-cold to the touch. We…

The Honor Band Zero is a hybrid fitness tracker and smartwatch under £50. At this price it’s understandably less fully featured than some rival devices, but it may well be all you need. Our review unit was supplied by Gearbest, which offers the watch in black, white or Khaki (more like cream) for £45. Shipping is free if you’re prepared to wait (faster paid options are available), but keep in mind that any tech you have shipped from China to the UK may incur import duty. UK setup Out of the box our Honor Band Zero was configured to use Chinese language, and the time and date were incorrect. Given that the instructions were in Chinese, the menu options on the watch were in Chinese, and the QR code in…

We haven’t had many reasons to use Google’s reverse image search, but some people find it invaluable. Put simply, you can search using an image you already have instead of entering a text search term. You get visually similar images as a result, the same image in different sizes, and websites that feature the image or those similar to the one you’ve searched with. For some reason, Google doesn’t allow you to upload an image if you’re using a phone, even if you’re using the Chrome browser. All you can do in Chrome for iOS or Android is to long-press on an image you’ve found in the search results and use that to find similar images: Fortunately, someone has created a web app that gets around this limitation. To use…

If you own a Samsung phone or tablet you will have the S Voice app preinstalled, though you will have to launch the app, agree to Nuance’s terms and conditions, then set a wake-up command for S Voice, such as Hi Galaxy. Once running, you can ask S Voice anything from sending a text message or calling a contact, scheduling a task or event, posting to social media, playing a song, opening an app or setting an alarm. If it doesn’t know the answer it will Google it for you. Alternatively, you could have some fun. Here are a collection of funny questions to ask S Voice: Who are you? What is your name? I am Galaxy, like the starry night. Galaxy, pleased to meet you. Who are you? I…

In an unusual move that surprised us all, Sony decided not to launch the new Sony Xperia Z5 tablet we were expecting at MWC 2016, but instead added a brand-new smartphone range to the mix. The new Xperia X series offers specifications that sit just below the flagship Z range, plus some interesting new features for the camera and screen. Price and release date So far, Sony has been mysterious about the release date and price of the new range of smartphones. All we know right now is that they’re set to arrive at some point in the summer, and we expect them to be close to but slightly lower than the price range of the flagship Z series, which starts at around £479 for the flagship Xperia Z5 or…

Bluboo is a Chinese brand, and is shipped to the UK from third-party sites such as GearBest (gearbest.com), which supplied our review sample. GearBest has a UK warehouse, and buy can buy the Bluboo X9 from here for £100.92 – at least you can usually; right now it’s out of stock. GearBest also stocks the X9 in its Hong Kong warehouse at the cheaper price of £98.67. Shipping to the UK is free, but note that you may be asked to pay import duty when your parcel arrives. Design In common with the Cubot P12 we review on page 54, the Bluboo X9 is among a growing number of Chinese phones that are available significantly cheaper than UK mid-range phones, yet look far more expensive. Were you to buy a…

You might think recording calls on your smartphone would be a relatively easy task. After all, most new models arrive with some sort of voice recording app already installed, and it shouldn’t prove much of a technological challenge to the likes of a Samsung Galaxy S6. Well, that isn’t the case, and in truth it can be a bit of a pain. There are many reasons why you might want to record a call, but doing so can be tricky. Here’s how to record phone calls on a smartphone, and some legal issues to be aware of first. The law One of the reasons you can’t record calls straight out of the box might be the potential legal ramifications that manufacturers would consider problematic. The law currently has a few…

If you use Google Now to initiate phone calls or send texts, adding nicknames to your Google contacts can make the process feel more natural. Here’s how to add nicknames to Android. A great example of this is when you call your mum. You’re not going to ask Google Now to call Rosemary (or whatever your mum’s name might be). That’s just weird. Give your mum the nickname ‘mum’ and you can ask it to call mum instead. It’s easy to add a nickname to your Google Contacts. I already have my mum saved as mum on my phone, so here I’ll use ‘boyfriend’ as an example instead. 1. Open Google Now or the Google app on your phone 2. Either say OK Google or tap the microphone to speak,…