Table of contents for Issue 29 in Android Advisor

Samsung Galaxy Tab S tablet launches are annual, so we expected the S3 family to arrive in July 2016 ahead of the new Note7 that was announced on 2 August. However, that hasn’t happened, and the Tab S3 is now widely expected to be announced during Samsung’s IFA 2016 press conference on 1 September. As before, we expect there to be a smaller (8in screen) and a larger model (9.7in) screen. These will be premium tablets, so expect to pay around £329 for smaller tablet and £399 for the larger one. Add another £100 for the 4G versions. What to expect When we first heard rumours of a potential Galaxy Tab Edge, we wondered whether Samsung might go down the same design route as it has for its S-series phones,…

Motorola has updated its best budget smartphone line-up for 2016 with two different models: the G4 (£169) and the Plus, which we look at here. Despite its name, the Plus isn’t any bigger, but comes with a fingerprint scanner, extra RAM and storage, plus a higher resolution camera. Design The G4 Plus is a stylish-looking handset that retains the look and feel of previous Moto G phones. It’s bigger than Motorola’s previous generation of Moto phones due to a larger screen, though so some users will find the device unwieldy. It’s not too thick and heavy either at 9.8mm and 155g. Build quality is good, though the Moto G4 Plus is still very much a plastic phone and there’s better available at this price point elsewhere if this is important…

Xiaomi has excelled itself with the Redmi 3S, taking the already very good Redmi 3 and fitting a newer processor and a fingerprint scanner, and tweaking the design. The resulting Xiaomi Redmi 3S has all the things that made the Redmi 3 great, including phenomenal battery life, but now it’s even better. Just over £120 really isn’t a lot of money when it comes to buying a SIM-free Android phone, and you will pay much more than this for a comparable UK network-locked budget Android. But while the Redmi 3S offers incredible value at this price, it’s also worth checking what deals are available on the 3S Pro. Separating the two right now is a gig of RAM, 16 gigs of storage, and just a fiver. You won’t get the…

The idea behind Pokémon GO is simple, but in the space of a month this augmented-reality mobile game created by The Pokémon Company and Niantic has become the highest-earning mobile app in history. What gives? First, I have to level with you: I didn’t grow up as a Pokémon fan, and I never understood what all the younger kids were so excited about. I guess I thought it was all a bit ‘sad’, but I now feel weirdly defensive of the game. Just the other day I had to hold myself back when a stranger in the pub told me I was too old to be playing Pokémon GO. Outrageous. Things changed in September last year when I wrote an article about the then upcoming Pokémon GO game. Site traffic…

One of the hottest apps on Android and iOS at the moment is the photo editing marvel Prisma. Unlike the filters found on Instagram or Snapchat, Prisma offers a far more artistic flourish thanks to its colourful and painting-like effects. We’ll take you through the basic features so that you can share your images in no time at all. Here’s how to use Prisma on Android. The interface At its heart Prisma is quite a simple app. Loading it up on your smartphone will present you with two main areas. The upper section is where your image can be seen or captured, while the lower half holds a few settings options. On the left you’ll see the lightning icon which represents the flash. The default option is to have it…

Google unveils a new Nexus smartphone every year (in 2015 it announced two), which it uses as the launch vehicle for its annual Android update. In 2016 we will see Android Nougat. Tradition sees the new operating system Developer Preview announced at Google I/O in early summer, and then released on the new Nexus 5 and/or new Nexus 6 phone around October time. (The Nexus 5X, pictured opposite, and 6P were announced at the end of September 2015, and the Nexus 6 before it in October 2014.) However, the Android Nougat Developer Preview was released a couple of months early this year, ahead of Google I/O. In July we saw the release of the final Developer Preview, which means it is possible that we’ll see an earlier release for the…

Samsung is holding an IFA press conference on 31 August 2016. It’s here that we expect it to announce the new Gear S3 smartwatch. Price The Gear S3 will most likely follow the pricing model for the Gear S2, which has an RRP of £249 but is available online from £219. A premium model with a leather strap and grooved bezel that looks more like a traditional wristwatch costs an extra £50. Given the various codenames that are reported to be in use for the Gear S3 (SM-R760, SM-R765, SM-R770, SM-R765V and SM-R765S, with the latter two carrier variants) it’s likely we’ll see standard- and premium versions of the Gear S3. A luxury model has also been tipped, with jewellers de Grisogono (which made a £15,000 diamond-studded version of the…

The focus might be on the new Galaxy Note7 but Samsung also announced a new Gear VR headset to go along with it. Here’s what you need to know about the new virtual reality gadget, when you can get one and how much it will cost. Release date The Gear VR ships late August if you live in the US, but those in the UK will have to wait until at least September. The earliest you can get a Note7 in the UK is 2 September, and although there’s no confirmed UK release date for the new Gear VR, Samsung has already confirmed that some pre-orders of the Note7 will come with a free headset, so it’s safe to assume that 2 September is the UK release date for the…

For the past few years, Sony has updated its Xperia Z range almost every six months, an act that not only frustrates fans locked into two-year contracts, who see several new handsets hit the market, but also makes us wonder if the firm is clutching at straws. The Xperia Z5 was an excellent phone, but now the flagship model appears to be the Xperia X – that’s not this phone though. Released at the same time at the X is this, the Xperia XA. It’s cheaper and better looking, but has fewer features and lower specs. Design The Sony Xperia XA excels in the design department. This is a slim, solid smartphone that will tick all the right looks boxes if you like smaller handsets; it has a 5in screen.…

The ZenPad 10 has a low price, a nice design, a UK keyboard, great sound, microSD support and okay battery life on its side, but it’s also slow and running old, bloated software. It can’t stand up to the best Android tablets, but at just under £200 it may well do the job. Price There are two variants of the Asus ZenPad 10. The Z300C (£129) is simply the tablet, while the ZD300C reviewed here comes with the AudioDock keyboard. A Z Stylus is also available for the ZenPad 10, which costs £26. Design One of the best things about the ZenPad 10 is its design. It might be a plastic tablet, but it’s finished to a high standard with a metal-effect trim around the screen, smooth rounded corners and…

While the Android Wear front has been relatively quiet recently, two new Nexus-branded smartwatches are rumoured to be heading to the market this year, flaunting the yet-unreleased Android Wear 2.0 OS with a gorgeous design. Android Police received a tip from a reliable source that Google is working on two smartwatches, one codenamed Angelfish and one codenamed Swordfish, and here’s all we know about them so far. Release date So, when are we going to be seeing the Google Nexus Angelfish and Swordfish smartwatches? While there are no solid rumours at the moment, the general consensus amongst tech publications is that the smartwatches will be revealed after the launch of the upcoming Google Nexus 5/6 smartphones, which are due out later this year. Looking at the evidence we speculate that…

Google has confirmed the Android N name – Nougat – and that it will be released in the not too distant future – possibly late summer/early autumn. Compatible devices It’s hard to be too specific at the moment but we do know some things for sure, partly because Google has announced expiration, or life cycle, dates for current Nexus devices. The 5X and 6P are the most recent and will both be upgraded to Android N, and the Nexus 9 should get it too considering you can get the Developer Preview for it, as you can for the Pixel C and Nexus Player. Older devices have already passed the date of a guaranteed Android update. We’ll have to wait for more details when it comes to third-party Android manufactures but…

Samsung offers phones and phablets to suit every user, from the top end Galaxy Note and S-series to the mid-range A-series, budget J-series and plenty more. Things get even more confusing when you consider that older-generation models within these lines are still available, and often they present better value. An important thing to keep in mind when looking for a Samsung Galaxy phone is that more so than any other brand they rapidly drop in price following launch. Within three months of their UK release date you can often find in excess of £100 off their price. This means previous-generation phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 (which we’ve included here despite the fact it’s a 2015 phone) can offer extraordinary value in comparison. All Samsung phones run Android (the…

Few flagship phones launch today with performance with which you’d be disappointed, and thus our benchmark results that reveal which is the fastest phone or the most powerful phone become less relevant. Rather, consumers look to which phone offers the longest battery life, the best cameras or the coolest extra features, or they go with the brand with which they are most familiar or the phone they think looks the best. We all have our own opinions on which is the best smartphone, but this doesn’t mean benchmarks don’t matter. As such, we continue to run all smartphones that enter the Android Advisor Test Centre through our usual benchmarks, which look at processing performance, graphics performance, JavaScript performance and battery life. These tests include: AnTuTu3Dprocessingperformance) Geekbench 3 battery test…