Table of contents for 42 in Android Advisor

Free Never mind the name rumours, here’s the final product. It was always going to be called Oreo, wasn’t it? Android 8 is now available for Google’s own devices following a surprisingly stable beta period. We’ve been using it on Pixel and Nexus devices here at Android Advisor, and it’s a pleasingly refined update to Nougat. Google’s attention to detail is improving, and Oreo represents an Android user’s dream of granular customization mixed with genuinely useful and thoughtful tweaks to the user interface. It’s an operating system that is reaching maturity following the larger aesthetic changes brought about by Marshmallow and Nougat. There aren’t any big new headline features to show off here, but Google is wise to resist. The only thing to worry about now is how skin-heavy manufacturers…

The V30 isn’t the typical fall flagship from LG. While the V20 was a bountiful bag of tricks for hardcore Android nerds, the V30 is more subtle and refined – LG’s bid to make a premium Android phone that appeals to a wider audience. The philosophy shift starts with ditching two novel features that were unique to the previous V phones: the removable battery and the second screen. While their usefulness was debatable, they definitely gave the earlier V phones some identity, and there will certainly be a faction of LG fans who rage-tweet about the loss. But for everyone else, the V30 could be the best phone of the year. The competition is fierce with the Note8 and Pixel 2, not to mention the iPhone 8 if we’re talking…

As we report on page 4 Google has launched the latest version of its mobile operating system, Oreo, and it’s already in use on Google phones like Pixel or Nexus 5X. Thousands of Android phones are bound to receive the update in late 2017 or early 2018. You can find out when your phone will likely get Oreo here. On the surface, Oreo does not seem to differ that much from Nougat, but if you dig a little deeper, you will find there are many new interesting features on the upgrade. Here’s how Android 8 improves on Android 7. Performance Every update usually mentions performance improvements, but in the case of Oreo you will actually notice how the new version improves your phone. The system is a lot faster to…

£879 inc VAT from fave.co/2x6WEUZ Both beauty and the beast, the gorgeous Note8 has an extraordinary feature set and magnificent performance. It’s expensive, but can you really afford not to consider it? Find out what we made of Samsung’s brand-new flagship in our in-depth Note8 review. Design Samsung’s Note 7 was a gorgeous handset, but the Note8 is in a different league with its Infinity Display. It’s not entirely bezel-less, but it’s close enough, with a screen-to-body ratio of 83 percent and an 18.5:9 aspect ratio. In real terms, there’s about a centimetre of frame visible above and below the display, but the rest is all immaculately polished and largely fingerprint-free glass, with a load more space for enjoying media and games, and for working with multiple apps at once.…

Google’s new phones for 2017 will be the Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2. At least one of the pair will feature an always-on 18:9 display, and the other is likely to have a squeezable frame. No prizes for guessing they’ll likely be made by LG and HTC then. What’s more, the brand-new Snapdragon 836 processor could make them even faster than rivals announced earlier in 2017. The new Google phones will almost certainly be the first to showcase Android Oreo, which was announced on 21 August. The phones themselves are likely to be announced on 5 October. Release date Google Senior Vice President of Hardware, Rick Osterloh, has confirmed that a Pixel 2 will arrive in 2017. “There is an annual rhythm in the industry. So, you can count…

The Gmail app has been on Android literally since the beginning, but it’s gotten much more powerful over the years. Today, the app does so many things, it can be hard to keep track of them all. Now, you don’t have to know everything Gmail can do in order to improve your efficiency, so here are the six most useful Gmail features you probably aren’t using. 1. Gmail Smart replies When Google’s Inbox app came out a few years ago, it offered a different approach to email with various ‘smart’ features like bundles, reminders, and Smart Replies. Now Smart Replies is available directly in Gmail, and you might not understand how useful this feature can be if you haven’t also used Inbox. Smart Replies appear at the bottom of emails…

£229 inc VAT from tinyurl.com/yb6krsor Sony’s Xperia XA1 offers 23Mp stills (as well as facial recognition and a bunch of nice photographic features) for £229. We test out the camera and feature set, as well as putting the phone through our rigorous battery of processor and graphics tests, to help you work out if this is the device for you. Design The XA1 has an appealingly simple look. Viewed front-on it’s a blocky design, with comparatively square corners, but this is offset by a very slight curvature on the left and right-hand edges of the screen. There’s a refreshing lack of gumpf on the back, too: just a single camera lens and accompanying flash top left (these are arranged vertically, which seems to be the vogue this year) and a…

Google used to produce a rather bare-bones version of Android, counting on OEMs like Samsung and LG to add in all the other cool features people might want. But today’s stock Android is more powerful, more feature-rich, and more attractive without any help from the device makers. This could mean some great features that you don’t even know about. So here are eight cool features inside Nougat you’re probably not using. 1. Split-screen Chrome Android 7.0’s split-screen app capabilities are well known, but there’s one app that includes a useful feature that isn’t so obvious: the Chrome browser lets you run two different tabs on the screen at once. To run two web pages in split-screen, open Chrome and ensure you’ve got at least two tabs open. Long-press your Android…

There are loads of round-ups of the best Android games on the web, so what makes ours different? Well, for a start, we’ve included not only the most recent trending titles, but also our favourite games of all time – the ones we routinely go back to, despite them being released several years ago. These games never get old. We also recognize that sometimes you have to put your hand in your pocket if you want something truly special, so while the majority of the Android games in our list are free, there are a couple of paid-for games, too. On the subject of payment, you should be aware that even free games usually contain paid-for elements – extra coins or customization options, for example. If anyone other than you…