Table of contents for Issue 30 in Android Advisor

At IFA 2016 Sony unveiled its new Sony Xperia X Compact smartphone, which will go on sale in the UK on 25 September as a smaller version of its Xperia X flagships with mostly high-end specs. Standout specifications include 3GB of RAM, 32GB of built-in storage, and a high-quality 23Mp camera. Price Thanks to its plastic build and compact HD screen the Xperia X Compact should command a significantly lower price tag than its bigger brothers. In the past Compact phones have tended to cost around £400 – the Z5 Compact launched at £429. Features It might be a ‘Compact’ phone, but the new mini Xperia X’s specs are far from insignificant. There’s a huge 23Mp camera at the rear (5Mp at the front), plus a generous 3GB of RAM…

Announced back in June in the US, the Moto Z was launched alongside the Moto Z Force, a phone with a screen that – just like the Moto X Force – is ‘unbreakable’. Motorola has no plans to launch this in the UK, but the Moto Z will be arriving this side of the pond in mere weeks. Price At £529, the Moto Z is undeniably expensive, especially when many people consider most Motorola phones to be budget or mid-range offerings. Not so with the Moto Z: this is every inch a flagship phone. It may be cheaper than the iPhone 6s Plus and Galaxy S7, but it’s £80 more than the Huawei P9 and £100 more than its modular rival, the LG G5. Design Modular is the name of…

In the previous preview (page 48), we looked at the Huawei Nova. It’s now time to look at its sibling – the Nova Plus. Price So before we go any further, let’s first discuss UK pricing and availability of Huawei’s latest smartphone. The Huawei Nova, along with the Nova Plus are both marketed as being mid-range smartphones, meaning they’re not designed to compete with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S7 or iPhone 6s – and the price reflects that. UK users will be able to pick up a Huawei Nova for €429 when it’s released in Europe – we’re yet to hear about UK pricing. As announced by Huawei during its IFA 2016 press conference, the Nova Plus will be available to buy in over 50 countries from October,…

The Honor 8 has a beautiful design and an impressive build quality. Priced £369, it’s a £40 more expensive than the OnePlus 3, and £120 more than its predecessor, the Honor 7. However, its features justify the extra cost. Design The Honor 8 has a 5.2in Full-HD (1920x1080) IPS display with a pixel density of 423ppi. The display is sharp, with clear text, and bright enough to be visible in sunny conditions. It can be calibrated in the phone’s settings too. We like the ‘Eye comfort’ mode, which reduces the amount of blue light emitted from the screen. This works like Apple’s Night Shift and the Night Mode feature that was tested during the Android Nougat beta. The display has a 96 percent NTSC colour coverage, resulting in accurate colours…

Before we go on to explain how to use Instagram Stories, we thought we’d explain about what it is and where it came from. Why “where it came from?” – many argue that Instagram Stories is the exact same as the hugely popular Snapchat Stories, minus the augmented reality filters that make Instagram’s rival service so popular. But it goes beyond that – the way you interact with it and the UI are extremely similar to Snapchat Stories, leading many to believe that it was essentially ‘stolen’ from Snapchat. While we’re not accusing Facebook-owned Instagram of stealing the service, the similarities between the two simply cannot be ignored. If you want to learn more about Snapchat and the arguably better Snapchat stories, take a look at this: How to use…

Compatible Google devices On the day of its release, the Android blog talked more about the rollout: “Today, and over the next several weeks, the Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, Nexus Player, Pixel C and General Mobile 4G (Android One) will get an over the air software update to Android 7.0 Nougat. Any devices enrolled in the Android Beta Program will also receive this final version.” It went on to say that the LG V20 (see page 16) will be the first Android phone to ship with Nougat out of the box, which is another surprise, since many were expecting the new operating system to be the first preinstalled on the new Nexus 5 and 6 phones for 2016. If you have a recent flagship phone or…

LG has unveiled the LG V20, successor to the LG V10, as the first Android Nougat smartphone out of the box. The firm also announced that it will go on sale in the UK on 23 September. (Interestingly, that means it will launch before Google’s Nexus Sailfish and Marlin, which are now widely tipped to be the Pixel X and Pixel XL and launch on 4 October.) It’s important to note that the LG V10 was not officially sold in the UK, and LG has not confirmed that its successor will make it over here either. Price At the time of writing no official price had been announced, though it’s thought that it will be available for between £500 and £550. Features The V20 is a good-looking smartphone, built using…

Announced during IFA 2016 in Berlin, Sony’s Xperia XZ is the latest flagship smartphone to enter the 2016 market, boasting impressive tech, especially in the camera department. We’ve spent some time with the device and here’s what we thought of it. Price Sony has announced that the flagship smartphone would be available in early October, although an exact release date is still unknown. It’s a similar story with the UK pricing too, as Sony is staying tight-lipped on the price tag of the Xperia XZ, however we feel that it’ll cost somewhere between £500 and £600 SIM-free once it launches. Design The Sony Xperia XZ is a nice-looking smartphone, if a little uninspired – all Sony smartphones seem to follow a similar angular design aesthetic, which is great if you…

The Moto Z range isn’t yet available in the UK, but has been on sale in the US for a couple of months. It’s the third model in the Moto Z line-up, and it’s coming soon along with the Moto Z (see page 33), though not the Moto Z Force. Price The Z Play is a mid-range phone which costs £369 and you will be able to buy it from Amazon and John Lewis. It comes in black or white. It’s £160 cheaper than the flagship Moto Z and the same price as the recently launched Honor 8 and £40 more than the OnePlus 3. Design Unlike the Moto Z, which is just 5.2mm thick and has to ditch the headphone jack, the Z Play is 7mm thick, allowing it…

For years a strictly B2B company, Huawei is making strides in the consumer market in an attempt to put the pressure on rivals like Samsung and LG. The MediaPad M3 is the company’s latest attempt to make the best tablet on the market. Announced at IFA 2016 alongside the Nova smartphone and its bigger version the Nova Plus, we got our hands on the slate beforehand to put it through its paces. We take a look at the Huawei MediaPad M3 and, basically, see if it’s as good as an iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab. Price At the time of writing, the MediaPad M3 is not yet on sale. It’ll be available in selected regions, including the UK, from 26 September 2016. The UK pricing is not yet confirmed, but…

The rumour mill was going insane over the possibility of a new Nexus 7 tablet being announced at the Google I/O keynote event on 18 May 2016, and of course it didn’t happen. But it is still very much a thing, and it’s reportedly on track for release before the end of the year. Here’s what we know so far. Release date Until now much of the talk around the possibility of a new Nexus 7 has been speculation. However, at the beginning of September, trusted leakster @evleaks tweeted that the Huawei-built Nexus 7 was on track for release before the end of the year. For us that’s as good as confirmation that a new Nexus 7 is in the works. We already know Google is holding an event on…

As expected, HTC has launched the new One A9s smartphone at IFA 2016 in Berlin. A company spokesman said: “Drawing on HTC’s iconic design pedigree and world-renowned technological innovation, the One A9s is created to inspire a new generation of phones that offers impeccable precision craftsmanship and quality at remarkably affordable value.” Availability We’ve not heard from any retailers on the One A9s price just yet but it’s not going to be a budget phone. The original One A9 launched with prices as high as £479, so we’re hoping that HTC will be able to undercut this. Features Although the screen remains at 5in, the resolution drops from 1080p to 720p and the tech is now Super LCD instead of Super AMOLED. Mainly, this means a fall from 441- to…

Huawei has gone from strength to strength in the UK, with recent releases including the flagship Huawei P9 proving popular in Britain, but it isn’t done yet. Announced at IFA 2016 in Berlin, it launched a new range of smartphones to take on the mid-range market, the Huawei Nova and Huawei Nova Plus (see page 54). Price The Huawei Nova, along with the Nova Plus are both marketed as being mid-range smartphones.UK users will be able to pick up a Nova for €399 when it’s released in Europe in the autumn. Design Huawei’s brand new Nova isn’t to be sniffed at – sporting 2.5D glass and a curvy body, the Nova doesn’t look or feel like a mid-range smartphone. This isn’t news though, as Huawei is famous for offering users…

Huawei is on the up and up in the UK with its latest flagships, the Huawei P9 and the larger P9 Plus. While the P9 launched shortly after its announcement in April, it has taken a bit longer for the P9 Plus to reach UK shores. Design Looks wise, the Huawei P9 Plus is simply gorgeous – with a design reminiscent of the Huawei P8, the curved metal unibody of the P9 Plus is sleek and with varying textures and finishes available for the smartphone, there’s something for all tastes. The model we’ve used had a rather smooth, shiny finish that admittedly does pick up fingerprints fairly easy, but if that’s not for you, you can also opt for a sandblasted finish which should stop grubby fingerprints from appearing as…

It’s true that you can already make free video calls on Google Hangouts, but Duo is an optimised, simpler service that uses your mobile phone number rather than Gmail address as the basis of the account. Like Hangouts it’s also cross platform, meaning you can make calls to friends who use either Android or iOS devices, plus Google states that the service uses end-to-end encryption, so your calls should remain private. Perhaps the most unusual and unique feature of Duo is Knock Knock, which allows the person you’re calling to (only on Android phones, currently) see a video feed from you before they answer. While this could potentially lead to some embarrassing moments if you forget the feed is live, it also creates the opportunity to ensure people take your…