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INSIDE: ASUS ROG PHONE 5 & OPPO FIND X3 PRO

ANDROID ISSUE

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BEST ANDROID PHONES 2021

PLUS: HOW TO BEAT GOOGLE’S DATA CAP

CONTENTS

Credit: Getty Images/Alessandro Biascioli

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NEWS 4

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REVIEWS Google will automatically enrol users in two-factor authentication soon Android loses a huge innovator as LG quits making phones

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BEST ANDROID PHONES 50

Best Android phones

FEATURES 105 109

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Asus ROG Phone 5 Oppo Find X3 Pro Samsung Galaxy A52 5G

Fight Google’s data cap with a simple change to Google Photos Google Assistant’s Broadcast feature can now reach you from your phone

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NEWS

Google will automatically enrol users in two-factor authentication soon Google hates passwords, so it’s trying to replace them with two-factor authentication. MARK HACHMAN reports

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ost security experts agree that two-factor authentication (2FA) is a critical part of securing your online accounts. Google agrees, but it’s taking an extra step: it’s going to sign up Google account holders up for twofactor accounts automatically.

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Google sees two-factor authentication as a replacement for passwords, which Mark Risher, Google’s director of product management for identity and user security, in a statement called “the single biggest threat to your online security”. Because they’re easy

to steal and hard to remember, users will end up reusing passwords. If stolen, they can be used to unlock multiple user accounts, adding to the risk.

Google already uses 2FA to secure accounts, but it’s been optional until now. If you have 2FA enabled on your Google account, for example, you can view the passwords Google knows by entering your passwords, then confirming your login on a separate phone via Google’s Authenticator app. (It was no coincidence that Google announced this on so-called World Password Day.) This is two-factor authentication: compounding your security by taking something you know (a password) and combining it with something you have (an authorized phone).

According to Risher, Google will start “automatically enrolling users in 2SV [what Google calls 2FA] if their accounts are appropriately configured”. Google said that users would be given an opportunity to opt out, too.

HOW GOOGLE’S 2FA ENROLMENT WILL WORK What does “appropriately configured” mean? According to Jonathan Skelker, product manager for account security at Google, the term means “users that already have recovery information on their accounts, such as a phone number

or [secondary] email”. Google’s Security Checkup page (fave.co/2RGKptT) already communicates whether 2FA is set up on your account, and will presumably be the way by which you’ll know if you need to set up 2FA, and how you’ll do it.

Google already allows you to import your passwords stored in other browsers or password managers into Google’s own Password Manager.

The tech giant can also generate its own passwords, and use them when you sign up for a new service or site via Chrome. The company’s Password Checkup feature (fave.co/3hmlPJg), for the web as well as for Android, also automatically checks your passwords against known password breaches.

After the initial announcement, Google issued a clarification saying that users would be given the ability to opt out, in the case where they needed to be able to access their accounts.

“More factors means stronger protection, but we need to ensure users don’t get accidentally locked out of their accounts,” Google said in a statement attributed to Risher. “That’s why we’re starting with the users for whom it’ll be the least disruptive change and plan to expand from there based on results.

“The reality is passwords are no longer a sufficient form of authentication – they are painful for people and easy ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 5

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for hackers to access. It used to be that multifactor authentication was considered tedious and challenging to set up – that is no longer the case.

Many users are already positioned to use a second step of verification across their accounts – this auto enrolment process is a way for us to help get them there. Users can opt out of this change and keep their account security settings the same.”

If you hate passwords, though, take heart: Google’s working to eliminate them eventually. “One day, we hope stolen passwords will be a thing of the past, because passwords will be a thing of the past,” Risher said.

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Android loses a huge innovator as LG quits making phones LG phones pushed the bleeding-edge of innovation, but it wasn’t enough. BRAD CHACOS reports

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ne of the biggest innovators in Android is bowing out. LG has revealed that it is exiting the phone business to focus on other “growth areas” like smart home devices, robotics, and electric vehicles.

Existing phones will remain available until the stock is sold through, and the

company said, “LG will provide service support and software updates for customers of existing mobile products for a period of time which will vary by region.” Don’t expect to see that nifty rollable phone that LG showed off a CES, though. And an OS update to Android 12 in the autumn probably isn’t on the ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 7

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cards either, since many of LG’s phones haven’t received Android 11 yet.

The shutdown comes as no surprise – LG’s phone division has posted huge losses over the past few years, and rumours of its demise have been whirling for months – but it’s still a shame. LG delivered consistently good (if not quite great) flagship phones in recent years, along with some affordable handsets that struck blows against phones that cost hundreds more. But the company’s lasting legacy may be its never-ending push for innovative features.

Witness the aforementioned rollable screen concept, or the dual screens on the LG V60 ThinQ 5G, or the wildly modular (and sadly short-lived) LG G5.

But as the (de)motivational poster with a

LG Wing.

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bent fork notoriously declares, ‘unique’ doesn’t always mean useful. We said the LG V8’s gesture-based “gimmicks are just too much to bear”, and called the swivelling secondary display on last year’s LG Wing as “a radical cry for attention”.

“The Wing seems like little more than a desperate attempt by LG to gain back some of the attention it’s lost over the years and maybe it’ll work,” we said.

“But it’s hard to imagine that it’s going to transfer into relevance.”

It did not.

LG swung for the fences as often as any Android maker – but aiming for high rewards comes with a lot of risks too. The company never managed to land a true mainstream hit, and in a world where most people opt for the reliable nature of Apple, Samsung or Google phones, LG is finally striking out. The company expects to wind down its mobile business by 31 July.

Asus ROG Phone 5 Price: £799 from fave.co/3bgkArs

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ollowing months of whispers, Asus has unveiled the fourth-generation ROG Phone 5, completely skipping the ‘4’ branding which is often seen as unlucky in China. Though it might appear similar to its predecessor on the outside, Asus has been hard at work improving not only the hardware capabilities of the gaming phone but the software too.

Throw in a bunch of accessories, a new dot-matrix RGB system and Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 888, and you’ve got all

the ingredients for a great gaming device. But, is it worth buying a phone dedicated to gaming when there are so many capable alternatives, including the Red Magic 6 and Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra? I’ve been spending some time gaming on the ROG Phone 5, and here’s what I think.

DESIGN The Asus ROG Phone 5, available in both white and black flavours, is immediately identifiable as a gaming ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 9

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phone, complete with space-age graphic detailing on the glossy rear and the illuminated ROG logo that has fast become a staple of the ROG Phone design language, although it comes in an entirely different form this time around.

Asus has borrowed the dot matrix design from the popular ROG Zephyrus G14, which allows the laptop to display text and other simple graphics on the lid, and slapped it onto the rear of the ROG Phone 5. While the idea of displaying text and simple graphics in a dot-like fashion might sound exciting, hold your horses: unlike its laptop counterpart, you can only display the ROG logo on the ROG Phone 5.

Asus is keen to point out that you can now choose two colours simultaneously

for a more customizable experience, and while the colour gradients are pleasing to the eye, it’s not as exciting as many had hoped – especially when the ROG Phone 5 Pro and limited edition 5 Ultimate sport an upgraded (and fully customizable) PMOLED Vision display in place of the dot-matrix logo.

You can customize the dot-matrix logo to display different colours when performing different actions, like pulsing when charging or flashing a particular colour when you get a text, which is a nice touch, but it’s arguably more for the people around you than for your own benefit. It’s not like you can see the RGB lighting while you’re gaming, after all.

That glossy RGB-enabled rear is protected by Gorilla Glass 3, while the front gets the Gorilla Glass Victus treatment.

Those worried about damaging the smartphone will be happy to hear that a case – complete with cut-out for the RGB panel – is provided free of charge.

You’ll find it in the box alongside the phone itself.

Flip the The illuminated ROG logo on the rear has become a staple of the ROG Phone design language. smartphone over and 10 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

you’ll notice a larger display than that of its 6.6in predecessor, measuring in at 6.8in, but there isn’t much of a difference in terms of dimensions at 172.8x77.2x0.3mm.

That’s possible thanks to the reduction of the bezels – by 25 per cent, according to Asus – and while it’s a welcome change, there’s still a The display is tall, making it easier to grip with one hand. noticeable forehead and chin on the ROG Phone 5. Asus claims that’s intentional, It’s also a bit of a chunk, weighing in allowing for the inclusion of front-facing at a rather hefty 238g, and it’s noticeable stereo speakers and to help reduce when you first pick the smartphone unintentional touches during gaming, up. It’s not a problem if you’re gaming but still. They’re there. two-handed, but like with the tall The display is tall, sporting a 20.4:9 nature of the display, it can become a aspect ratio, which does make it easier to bit uncomfortable in the hand during grip with one hand, but the downside is everyday use. that it’s far too long to be able to use it You’ll find a USB-C port and 3.5mm with one hand. I’ve got fairly large hands jack on the bottom, along with the return and even I can only just about reach the of the secondary side-mounted USB-C middle of the screen with my thumb, port. It’s a smart feature, allowing you having to awkwardly shimmy the phone to charge the phone while holding the down my palm if I need to tap something smartphone horizontally, but the small at the top of the display. You’ll quickly rubber casing does feel a bit cheap, find yourself reverting to two-hand use, and without any attachment to the and that’s not always ideal. smartphone, I feel it could eventually ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 11

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come loose and get lost. Oh, and don’t bother using the ROG Phone 5 in the shower, as there’s no IP rating and thus, it could malfunction if it gets wet.

placement for an improved trigger experience when gaming, and Asus has expanded on the gesture-based offering too, allowing you to trigger actions by tilting, turning or shaking the phone.

THE ULTIMATE AirTriggers are hands-down my GAMING EXPERIENCE favourite feature of the ROG Phone in Of course, the ROG Phone 5 is general, providing something close to designed to be the ultimate gaming traditional controller triggers without smartphone, so what’s on offer? the need for additional accessories, and Actually, the better question is, where you can customize the actuation points should I start? Because boy oh boy, depending on whether you want touch there’s a lot going on here. or press-based activation too.

Those that do want a more Switch-like Hardware experience have the option of picking up Let’s start with one of the most the optional Kunai 5 controller, providing beloved features of the ROG Phone, dual shoulder buttons, analogue sticks the AirTriggers. It shouldn’t come as and other buttons to further elevate a surprise that the tech is present and the mobile gaming experience. Both accounted for on the ROG Phone the built-in triggers and Kunai 5 are 5, offering more sensors and better mappable to any game, not just those that support controllers, offering compatibility with most popular titles, including Call of Duty Mobile and Fortnite.

It’s worth pointing out that the older Kunai The optional Kunair 5 controller has dual shoulder buttons.

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with the ROG Phone 5, but with minor dimension changes, you’ll need a new bumper case to do so.

The display, though slightly larger than the ROG Phone 3, is similar in many respects: it caps out at the same 144Hz refresh rate for buttery-smooth gameplay, sports a FHD+ Asus has improved the wired audio experience.

(2,448x1,080) resolution with an impressive 1ms response time and, with a maximum accuracy, it’s great for watching movies brightness of 482cd/m2 in our tests, it’s and YouTube videos as well as playing more than enough for a casual game the latest AAA mobile titles. of PUBG at the park.

As well as great-sounding frontThe refresh rate isn’t set to 144Hz by firing speakers, Asus has focused on default, instead automatically optimizing improving the wired audio experience, the refresh rate based on what you’re including the ESS Sabre ES9280AC doing, but you can force it to always use Pro DAC for Hi-Res audio playback the top-end 144Hz setting as well as that benefits both gameplay and the lower 120Hz and 60Hz settings. general music-listening experience on There’s also HDR10+ support, the ROG Phone 5, offering professional and there’s an improved 300Hz touch DAC-level performance with the sampling rate on offer, providing ability to handle both high and low lightning-fast response times when impedance loads with ease. playing games.

That’s further enhanced by Asus’s The screen, flanked either side by Audio Wizard software, offering four impressively loud front-firing stereo audio playback modes tuned by speakers, is gorgeously detailed, buttery audio specialist Dirac alongside a smooth and with Delta-E <1 colour customizable 10-band EQ to further ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 13

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customize the output to your preference, be it more bass-heavy to intensify the sound of gunfire or focused on the high-end to hear the clink of reloading weapons nearby.

Software That’s hardware out of the way, now let’s talk software.

The ROG Phone 5 Asus’s ROG UI icon rings turn red when X Mode is enabled. comes running Android 11 out of the box with Asus’s ROG UI applied. It’s similar in performance and other background many ways to ZenUI with a gaming twist, tweaks to enhance the gaming be it the icon rings that turn red when X experience and take full advantage of Mode is enabled or the gamer-focused the 144Hz refresh rate on offer. themes available, but Asus does offer X Mode Plus, as the name suggests, the ability to revert to the standard takes that even further, pushing the ZenUI look if you prefer. system to its absolute limits, but it’s Regardless of the UI you opt for, only enabled once you’ve attached the within the Armoury Crate app – the heart AeroActive Cooler 5. The cooler helps of the ROG gaming experience – you’ll reduce the overall temperature of the find a redesigned performance manager, phone to help keep performance steady, boasting system-wide performance cooling the CPU by 10°C and the surface tweaks with a single tap. Dynamic by up to 15°C, and it offers an additional mode offers the best of battery and two mappable buttons and a kickstand performance, but when it comes to for gaming, but unlike the ROG Phone gaming, X-Mode and the even more 3, it’s not included in the box this time powerful X Mode Plus are the go-to. around – that’s exclusive to the Pro and X Mode improves performance at Ultimate variants. the detriment of battery life, allowing If you want the best performance for higher frame rates, better GPU possible from the standard ROG Phone 14 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

5, it looks like you’ll have to fork for the AeroActive Cooler.

Alongside the preset performance modes in Armoury Crate, you’re able to tweak CPU and GPU clock speeds, display refresh rate, touch sensitivity and more on a per-app/game basis, giving you PC-like control over your mobile gaming experience. The combination allows everyday gamers to simply enable X Mode when gaming, while the more technically minded can tweak the performance to squeeze the most out of the phone in a particular title.

Asus has also introduced the Scout mode, which inverts colour on-the-fly to make it easier to spot enemies in shooters, and for supported titles like PUBG, there’s new listening-based haptic system that adjusts haptic response based on sound for a unique feel when

firing different weapons. There’s also Quick Controls, which work in a similar way to macros on PC, allowing quick access to functions like screen recording, scout mode and taking a screenshot while in the heat of battle.

And, like with previous iterations of ROG Phone, there are a plethora of optional accessories to further improve the gaming experience, including the Kunai 5 controller and AeroActive Cooler 5 mentioned earlier alongside the ROG Clip, the Lightning Armour case, new ROG Cetra II earbuds and the full-on ROG Strix Go BT II gaming headset too.

PERFORMANCE

With such gaming prowess, it should come as no surprise that the ROG Phone 5 boasts impressive specs.

At the heart of the gaming phone you’ll find the top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, offering a 25 per cent boost in the CPU department and a 35 per cent boost in the GPU department compared to the Snapdragon 865, and that’s paired with up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 256GB of lightning-fast UFS 3.1 If you want the best performance you’ll have to fork for the AeroActive Cooler. storage depending on ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 15

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the options available in your region.

For clarity, I’ve been supplied with a 16GB/256GB combination for review.

That’s a lot of specs, but in reality, it means the ROG Phone 5 is fast. Like, rapidly quick, no matter what you’re doing. Scrolling through social media is a buttery smooth experience and thanks to the combination of a powerful processor and a large high refresh rate display, playing games on the smartphone is a joyous experience. I’ve yet to experience even the slightest hint of a stutter on the ROG Phone 5, and frankly, I don’t expect that I will anytime soon.

There is a variant of ROG Phone 5 with an incredible 18GB of RAM – the ROG Phone 5 Ultimate – and while that’s a cool badge to wear, in reality, I suspect there won’t be much of a difference in performance. You reach a point of diminishing returns when you enter the realm of 12GB+ memory on a smartphone, especially as there aren’t any games or apps designed to take advantage of such large amounts of RAM right now – it’s more an exercise in future-proofing than anything.

That impressive performance is backed by the benchmark results, putting the ROG Phone 5 in line with Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro in the CPU department and beating most of the competition in the graphics department by a country 16 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

mile. You can see a complete breakdown of the results below:

Geekbench 5 (multi-core)

Asus ROG Phone 5: 3,725 Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra: 3,511 Xiaomi Mi 11: 3,684 Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max: 4,241 Apple iPhone 12 Pro: 3,797

GFX Manhattan 3.1

Asus ROG Phone 5: 94fps Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra: 50fps Xiaomi Mi 11: 54fps Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max: 59fps (meta) Apple iPhone 12 Pro: 60fps (meta) I will say though, the ROG Phone 5 certainly runs hot when gaming. Asus tried to combat the effects with the GameCool 5 system, which split the battery into two segments – one located on each side of the main PCB – and put the Snapdragon 888 and other heatgenerating components in the centre to keep them as far away from your fingers as possible, but even the edges of the phone begin to get warm after 10 to 15 minutes of gameplay.

There’s also a reshaped vapour chamber and graphene sheets that help spread and dissipate heat build-up, but in reality, it’s only the AeroActive Cooler 5 that’ll keep the ROG Phone 5 cool to

the touch during extended gameplay sessions. In terms of connectivity, expect the latest and greatest including 5G, support for the super-fast Wi-Fi 6E in markets where it’s available and Bluetooth 5.2 too.

On the rear you’ll find a triple camera set-up.

PHOTOGRAPHY Let’s be honest, cameras are never really the focus when it comes to gaming phones, but that doesn’t mean Asus has skimped in the ROG Phone 5’s camera department.

On the rear you’ll find a triple camera set-up comprised of a main 64Mp Sony IM686 sensor offering pixel-binning tech to produce 12Mp images with enhanced detail alongside a 13Mp 125-degree ultra-wide lens and a 5Mp macro lens.

Camera quality, particularly from the main sensor, is surprisingly impressive, using image processing tech from the ZenFone series to enhance images, producing snaps that are sharp, detailed and offer great dynamic range when combined with the HDR shooting modes.

It’s also capable of producing decent low-light results with an f/1.8 aperture.

That’s further enhanced by the built-in Night Mode and, if you know your stuff, you can take things a step further still with the built-in Pro mode.

There’s a similar quality on offer from the ultra-wide lens, making it a great lens for landscape photography and group snaps (whenever they become a thing again, anyway) and, more importantly, there isn’t a drastic difference in colour like with some main and ultra-wide pairings.

There 5Mp macro lens is good for capturing close-up shots, but it’ll likely be an afterthought for most – it’s not even one of the easily accessible shooting modes in the Camera app.

Still, it’s there if you need it!

On the video front, the ROG Phone 5 offers the ability to shoot 8K at 30fps – more than the Samsung Galaxy S21 ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 17

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We were impressed by the quality of the photos we took with the Asus ROG Phone 5.

Here’s a selection of our favourites.

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Ultra – but with very few 8K-ready monitors, it’s likely you’ll be shooting in the equally-stellar 4K at 60fps. It has EIS instead of OIS, but the results are the same – gimbal-like smoothness when recording video.

Flip the phone over and you’ll find a 24Mp snapper that’s more than enough for the occasional selfie and video chats with friends, and it’s capable of 1080p at 60fps video recording for the vlogging crowd.

BATTERY LIFE Battery life is another area where the ROG Phone 5 truly excels, sporting 6,000mAh of power split across two 3,000mAh cells. That’s a serious amount of battery power, and while it’s true that the high refresh rates and highend performance will drain more than a standard smartphone, there’s still potential for all-day battery life here.

In fact, if you keep the phone set to its dynamic mode, automatically adjusting performance and the refresh rate of the display depending on what you’re doing, you can easily squeeze a day out of the phone with moderate use.

I’d go as far as to say that if you’re using the smartphone less frequently than me, who is constantly texting, checking Twitter and playing the occasional game of Call of Duty Mobile, it’s possible to 20 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

extend that battery life to a full two days. That’s backed up by the battery benchmark results, which saw the ROG Phone 5 last an impressive 15 hours and 44 minutes when on the recommended Dynamic mode.

Battery life

Asus ROG Phone 5: 15 hours, 44 minutes Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra: 11 hours, 4 minutes Xiaomi Mi 11: 9 hours Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max: 9 hours, 8 minutes Apple iPhone 12 Pro: 7 hours, 22 minutes

Fast charge (30 minutes)

Asus ROG Phone 5: 74% Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra: 56% Xiaomi Mi 11: 79% Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max: 14% It has to be said that, with X Mode or the even more powerful X Mode Plus enabled, battery life does begin to trickle away. It’s half the reason why Asus included a side-mounted USB-C port, allowing you to keep the phone charged during extended gameplay sessions, but of course, that’s not great for battery life.

Asus knows it, and introduced bypass charging on the ROG Phone 5, allowing you to power the system

without charging the battery itself, helping extend the overall cycle of the battery and to keep the phone cool.

It’s one of many battery-extending techniques employed by the ROG Phone 5, including scheduled The ROG Phone 5 is the best gaming phones you can get. charging and imposing charge limits, but bypass charging will likely other flagships stripping the charger be the most popular addition to the and headphones in the box in a bid to gaming phone. become more environmentally friendly.

When it comes to charging, the VERDICT 30-watt fast charge capabilities of the The Asus ROG Phone 5 undoubtedly ROG Phone 3 were decent, but not offers one of the best mobile gaming ground-breaking. experiences around, complete with Asus has taken that to the next level built-in triggers, a gorgeous 144Hz with the ROG Phone 5, offering a 65AMOLED display with impressive touch watt HyperCharge experience out of the response times, impressive audio chops box. That translates to an incredibly fast and incredible power under the hood charging experience, going from 0 to in the form of the Snapdragon 888 and 73 per cent in 30 minutes in our tests, up to 16GB of RAM. and Asus claims it’ll go from flat to full in There are plenty of accessories 51 minutes. Considering the incredible available, from the Switch-like Kunai 5 combined 6,000mAh capacity of the controllers to the AeroActive Cooler 5 to phone, that’s an impressive feat and one keep your phone cool during extended that gamers will likely come to adore. gameplay sessions. The software is topYou’ll even get the charger and notch too, offering granular per-game cable in the box, a stark difference to ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 21

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performance tweaks alongside systemwide performance modes.

However, while the large display means it’s great for gaming, some may find it too tall to use effectively onehanded, plus, at 238g, it’s much heavier than most flagships in 2021 – and it’s noticeable when you pick it up too.

There’s also the lack of the AeroActive Cooler 5 in the box, a required accessory if you want to get the most out of the processing power built into the smartphone. That, alongside the upgraded Vision display on the rear, are exclusive to the ROG Phone 5 Pro. It’s also very much a premium option compared to the likes of the Red Magic 5G and Black Shark 4 Pro, so be sure you’ll make the most of the niche gaming features if you’re looking to splash out on the ROG Phone 5 and its plethora of optional accessories. Lewis Painter

SPECIFICATIONS

• 6.78in (2,338x1,080; 395ppi) AMOLED, 144Hz, HDR10+ display • Android 11, ROG UI • Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 5G (5nm) processor • Octa-core (1x 2.84 GHz Kryo 680, 3x 2.42GHz Kryo 680, 4x 1.8GHz Kryo 680) CPU • Adreno 660 GPU • 8GB/12GB/16GB RAM 22 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

• 128GB/256GB storage • Three rear-facing cameras: 64Mp, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/1.73in, 0.8µm, PDAF; 13Mp, f/2.4, 11mm, 125-degree (ultrawide); 5Mp, f/2.0, (macro) • Selfie camera: 24Mp, f/2.5, 27mm (wide), 0.9µm • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot • Bluetooth 5.2, A2DP, LE, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive • GPS with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS, GNSS • NFC • USB Type-C 3.1 (side), USB Type-C 2.0 (bottom), accessory connector, USB On-The-Go • Fingerprint scanner (under display, optical) • Non-removable 6,000mAh lithiumpolymer battery • Fast charging 65 watts • 172.8x77.3x10.3m • 238g

Oppo Find X3 Pro Price: £1,099 from fave.co/3y1MWiY

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he Find X3 Pro sees Oppo pick up right where the Find X2 Pro left off, emphasizing a colouraccurate 10-bit display, equally (and exceptionally) capable primary and ultrawide cameras, and super-fast charging.

Throw in a microscopic lens and curved glass camera module and you have a phone that builds on the best of what came before while still carving out its own identity.

And yes, at £1,099 it’s expensive, belonging to the new class of super-

flagship alongside the likes of the Galaxy S21 Ultra and ROG Phone 5 Ultimate.

But if you can afford a phone of this calibre, then right now the Find X3 Pro is the one you should buy.

DESIGN I suspect it’s no exaggeration to suggest that the Find X3 Pro will go down as the most memorable phone design of 2021, even if it doesn’t win over everyone.

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protruding awkwardly from one corner, Oppo has instead curved the glass itself to meet the lenses where they sit, incorporating the module seamlessly into phone’s back panel.

I’ll admit, at first I wasn’t a fan of what felt like an ungainly solution to the design problem, but over the past week the X3 Pro has won me over. Much like the tiered module favoured by Vivo in the X60 series, the curve has the effect of making the whole phone feel sleeker and slimmer. More than that though, it’s a design choice that simultaneously draws the eye while making the camera feel like an essential part of the phone, rather than an extra component bolted onto the rear.

That’s especially exaggerated on the Gloss Black model I’ve been reviewing, on which light shimmers and warps around the curved lens mount. It is a horrendous fingerprint magnet though, so if you prefer, there’s a matte blue model available too The lenses here sit almost flush – the main and ultra-wide sensors each project by a millimetre or so – and in fact, the whole phone is pretty slender at just 8.26mm thick – though it’s closer to a centimetre at those lenses. That makes it thinner than the otherwise similarly sized S21 Ultra, but more importantly, at 193g it’s more than 30g lighter, which is a 24 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

huge difference that means the phone is actually comfortable to use one-handed.

All that curved glass hasn’t got in the way of durability, with IP68 water and dust-resistance, and Gorilla Glass 5 found on both the front and back of the phone – though admittedly it’s not the newer and tougher Gorilla Glass Victus.

That’s really the only compromise you’ll have to make from a design perspective here, so long as you don’t mind the sheer size of the thing – somewhat of a necessity if you want the roomy 6.7in display, despite Oppo’s best efforts to save space elsewhere.

DISPLAY Speaking of that display – what’s on offer is a curved 6.7in AMOLED panel with a dynamic refresh rate up to 120Hz, a QHD+ resolution and 10-bit colour depth.

That latter spec is what Oppo wants to highlight, emphasising that the Find X3 Pro can display over 1 billion colours.

The company included a 10-bit panel on the Find X2 Pro as well, but this time around it’s supporting the display with what it calls a “full-path 10-bit Colour Management System”.

That’s a fancy way of saying that in addition to the display, the camera system is also capable of 10-bit colour photography, and the phone is able to

Everyone will benefit from the HDR10+ certification for compatible media at least, and in addition to 10-bit colour depth, there’s 100 per cent coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut, so you’re getting phenomenal The Oppo’s display is one of the best we’ve ever seen. colour range.

Meanwhile, a 0.4 encode, store and decode the resulting JNCD rating guarantees professionalshots with 10-bit colour too. That means grade colour-accuracy too. Again, this is there’s no loss of colour accuracy or mostly overkill, but at least you know the range at any point in the process – at X3 Pro has got it when it counts. least until the photo leaves your phone.

Besides, you can’t argue with Oppo’s Of course, that mostly matters when display prowess elsewhere. The adaptive it comes to your own photography, and refresh rate – from 5Hz to 120Hz – keeps in terms of Instagram or Netflix, or files the phone smooth and snappy when it from elsewhere, you’ll still be limited needs to be, and conserves power the by their native bit-rates; meaning this rest of the time. It runs simultaneously is one of those features that remains with the 3,216x1,440 QHD+ resolution overkill for most users. too. Last year, Oppo delivered the best Interestingly, Oppo is trying to deliver phone display ever in the Find X2 Pro. colour accessibility too. The phone offers This year’s panel is even better. Need I various colour palette options to improve say more? visuals for different types of colourPERFORMANCE blindness, and a colour vision test to From a design and display perspective help deliver a personalized colour profile the Find X3 Pro is unique, but on the to best suit your vision.

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inside, I’ll admit you will find a device that’s pretty much par for the course for a 2021 flagship. The Snapdragon 888 chipset is here, of course, paired in this case with 12GB of DDR5 RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. There’s only the one set-up available, and it’s also worth noting that there’s no support for expanding the storage via microSD. Between the chipset and the RAM, there’s a lot of power under the hood here, though curiously the X3 Pro slightly under-performed in CPU-focussed Geekbench tests; with results closer to some of last year’s Snapdragon 865 flagships than this year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra and Xiaomi Mi 11 – though it held its own better on the graphical tests that best indicate gaming performance.

Geekbench 5 (multi-core)

Oppo Find X3 Pro: 3,360 Xiaomi Mi 11: 3,684 Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra: 3,511 Apple iPhone 12: 3,746 Google Pixel 5: 1,625 OnePlus 8 Pro: 3,316 Oppo Find X2 Pro: 3,295

GFX Manhattan 3.1

Oppo Find X3 Pro: 40fps Xiaomi Mi 11: 54fps Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra: 50fps Apple iPhone 12: 60fps (Metal) 26 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

Google Pixel 5: 20fps OnePlus 8 Pro: 43fps Oppo Find X2 Pro: 43fps The issue seems to be one of temperature management – as tests go on performance seems to degrade, and the chassis itself gets a little warm to the touch.

I haven’t noticed this sort of overheating in day-to-day life, only while benchmarking, and similarly, the phone has never felt sluggish in normal use. I do worry that intense gaming sessions would produce the same thermal throttling though, and it does seem notable that right now this phone isn’t quite matching other Snapdragon 888 rivals for pure performance.

Beyond processing power, the 888 means 5G, with 13 5G bands covered guaranteeing near-global support. It’s also a dual-SIM device, with support for both physical and eSIMs. Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 and NFC are supported.

As for security, fingerprint unlock is handled by an under-display optical sensor that’s been both fast and reliable in my testing, though face unlock is also available.

BATTERY LIFE This is another area where Oppo has decided to build on what’s come before,

There’s a lot of power under the hood here.

rather than take any radical steps. Like its predecessor, you’ll find 65-watt fastcharging included in the Find X3 Pro, which is fast enough to deliver 96 per cent of the phone’s battery back in just half an hour in my testing.

Fast charge (30 minutes)

Oppo Find X3 Pro: 96% Xiaomi Mi 11: 79% Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra: 56% Apple iPhone 12: 45% Google Pixel 5: 63% OnePlus 8 Pro: 63% Oppo Find X2 Pro: 97% Unlike its predecessor, it’s paired with support for wireless charging. It’ll go at up to 30-watt speeds using a compatible Oppo AirVOOC charger (sold separately)

but works fine on standard 5 watts and 10W Qi chargers too.

You also get 10 watts reverse charging for other phones or accessories.

The 45,00mAh battery is a little larger than last year’s, and according to Oppo battery life has been improved further by the dynamic refresh rate display.

The result is a phone that’ll last a day comfortably, and usually a little over. It’s not exactly exceptional battery performance, but it’s commendable for a flagship – which normally suffer in this area, thanks to the higher power components – and there’s little reason to complain here.

PHOTOGRAPHY If the display and design are two of the key pillars of the Find X3 Pro, then the camera is the third – and inextricably intertwined with both, as it lies at the heart of that curved glass design and 10-bit promise.

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shooters: Oppo is pitching this as a ‘dual primary’ camera system, where both the standard lens and the ultrawide are on equal footing.

Both use the same 50Mp sensor – Sony’s IMX766, a 1/1.56in sensor – and both use All Pixel Omni-Directional PDAF, which helps find focus points even in dim lighting. The idea is that photos taken from either lens should not only be of comparable quality but also match in tone, exposure and colour.

Things aren’t quite so simple though, as the two lenses use different apertures – f/1.8 on the standard and f/2.2 on the ultra-wide – and only the regular lens supports OIS. That means that slight disparities do begin to creep in when lighting is worse, especially in night mode where that stabilization really counts.

Still, in good lighting the results are impeccable. Colour consistency between the two lenses is the best I’ve seen on a phone yet, and those colours are punchy but natural. There’s also almost no lens distortion at all on the ultra-wide, the result in part of using a freeform surface lens.

In low light, the two cameras do pull apart a touch, but honestly, even here you would have to go looking for problems to find them. With its narrower aperture the ultra-wide 28 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

struggles just a touch to expose low light images properly, and the main camera’s optical stabilization helps that camera’s night mode shots come out ever so slightly crisper.

Both cameras hold their own in low light though, even using the camera app’s standard shooting mode. The dedicated night mode is there for when conditions are really dark or when there are bright spots of light interrupting a mostly dark environment. It will even out those bright spots, but like many night modes, it tends to over-expose dark areas like the night sky, with the regular shots sometimes striking a better balance.

You can take photos in 10-bit colour across both of these cameras, along with the telephoto, from either regular photos or night mode, though you’ll have to turn this on in your phone’s settings. The resulting shots will be saved in HEIF, and labelled as 10-bit in the phone’s gallery.

Of course, I can’t helpfully show you any, because unless your display is also 10-bit you won’t be able to see the difference – and that’s before I get into the compression they’d go through in uploading. That’s as good an example as any of how niche this functionality really is – for a select few people it’ll really matter, but most of us won’t see much benefit until 10-bit support improves elsewhere.

These images were taken using the main camera (top) and the ultrawide lens (bottom).

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Our next series of shots were taken using the 2x zoom….

…the 5x zoom…

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…and finally the 20x zoom.

Here we have an example of an image taken using the microlens.

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Here we have a low light shot (top)…

…and one taken using the phone’s night mode.

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Our final two test photos are a selfie (left) and a selfie portrait (right).

I mentioned the phone’s telephoto.

Last year Oppo included a 5x optical zoom telephoto on the Find X2 Pro – at the time a relative rarity – and with this year’s S21 Ultra moving up to 10x optical you’d think Oppo would try to keep pace.

It’s thus a little surprising to reveal that instead the phone ‘only’ has a 2x optical telephoto camera, which goes up to 5x hybrid zoom, and caps at 20x digital zoom. Results remain good – exceptional 2x, good at 5x, and decent enough beyond that – but it does seem unusual that just as the arms race for periscopic zoom lenses

is heating up, Oppo seems to have dropped out of the fight.

The company told me that this was to make space for the dual primary lenses; there’s only so much camera one can fit in without making the module itself unreasonably large. It’s hard not to wonder instead though if it’s the new microlens that’s squeezed the periscope out.

This is something undeniably different, for better and worse. A 3Mp, f/3.0 microscopic camera that can take shots at up to 60x magnification.

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distance is measured in millimetres – latter is limited by the narrow aperture, and the lens has its own tiny ring light so don’t expect results comparable to to make up for blocking out all the light. the rear set-up.

Alternatively, you can always take shots Video is another strong point, at a distance for some extremely blurry especially for those confident enough to light shows. dive into the dedicated Film mode, with For lack of a better word, this camera enhanced settings and controls. Support is ‘cool’. I’ve taken shots of individual for 10-bit colour and HDR extends to LEDs on my computer monitor, or the video too, with BT.2020 colour gamut structure of the cells on a plant leaf, that and log recording options for pros.

I never would have imagined a phone The only curiosity is that recording could capture. You’ll have to shimmy the caps at 4K at 60fps – more than most phone around a little each time to find people need, to be sure, but not the 4K the focus, but once you get it right the at 120fps we’ve seen rivals offer, and results are phenomenal. there’s no support for 8K recording at all.

Of course, I do have to ask the SOFTWARE obvious question: will you actually use The Find X3 Pro ships with Android 11 it often? Probably not. Perhaps you’ll and Oppo’s own ColorOS 11.2. use it more than you would have used a After a rocky start, ColorOS has 10x zoom camera, perhaps not – they’re become one of the best Android skins both fairly niche. Either way, I wouldn’t available. I’ll admit that the aesthetic isn’t let your purchasing decision hinge on the microlens, fun as it is to play around with.

Swing around to the front and you’re presented with a 32Mp, f/2.4 selfie camera. This, too, delivers excellent results in good lighting but struggles more in dimmer conditions. It also supports both portrait The Find X3 Pro runs Android 11 and Oppo’s ColorOS 11.2. and night modes, but the 34 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

my favourite, but on pure functionality, it’s hard to knock Oppo.

You get most of the best features of the stock Android experience, along with extras like improved multi-tasking options, quick launch options from the fingerprint scanner, and an extremely customizable always-on display.

Despite that feature creep, usability isn’t impaired; the OS as a whole is clean, sleek and easy to navigate.

Unlike some rival brands, Oppo doesn’t yet promise a set number of Android version updates or a set number of years for security updates, so future software support is not guaranteed.

VERDICT The Find X3 Pro is a flagship’s flagship, a phone that’s deliriously expensive and not ashamed of it. But hey, if you can afford to drop more than a grand and want to invest in the device you probably spend half your time staring at – and all your time carrying – then more power you.

And if you are willing to spend that kind of money, then right now this is where I would spend it. The display is the best around, the charging speeds and battery life are both exceptional, and the core specs are hard to fault – though I’m hoping firmware updates will shore up the shaky thermals a little.

The camera will be a large part of the appeal here, and for the most part, I think Oppo’s struck a smart balance.

The main lens and the ultra-wide are the two lenses most of us use the most, so I appreciate the move to make these the best they can be. I’m sure some will miss the periscope, but the included telephoto is great at lower zoom levels.

My only real hesitation is the microlens – a fun toy to play around with, but you do have to wonder how much it adds to the overall cost of the hardware, and how often you’re really likely to use it.

All in all though, there’s far more to like here than dislike. Yes, a lot of it is overkill, but at this price that’s sort of the point, isn’t it? Dominic Preston

SPECIFICATIONS

• 6.7in (3,216,440; 525ppi) LTPO AMOLED display • Android 11, ColorOS 11.2 • Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 5G (5nm) processor • Octa-core (1x 2.84GHz Kryo 680, 3x 2.42GHz Kryo 680, 4x 1.8GHz Kryo 680) CPU • Adreno 660 GPU • 8GB/12GB RAM • 256GB storage • Four rear-facing cameras: 50Mp, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/1.56in, 1.0µm, ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 35

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omnidirectional PDAF, OIS; 13Mp, f/2.4, 52mm (telephoto), 2x optical zoom, PDAF; 50Mp, f/2.2, 16mm, 110-degree (ultra-wide), 1/1.56in, 1.0µm, omnidirectional PDAF; 3Mp, f/3.0, (microscope), AF, ring flash, 60x magnification • Selfie camera: 32Mp, f/2.4, 26mm (wide), 1/2.8in, 0.8µm • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot • Bluetooth 5.2, A2DP, LE, aptX HD • GPS with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS • NFC • USB Type-C 3.1, USB On-The-Go • Fingerprint scanner (under display, optical) • Non-removable 4,500mAh lithium-polymer battery • Fast charging 65 watts • 163.6x74x8.3m • 193g

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Samsung Galaxy A52 5G Price: £399 from fave.co/2QZpItf

S

amsung has long dominated the Android flagship scene with its prestigious Galaxy S series. But it’s also been steadily stepping up its mid-range efforts, of which the Samsung Galaxy A52 5G is the latest entry.

Rather than excelling in any one area, this £399 phone provides an allround level of competence that should keep most casual users satisfied. With a fast and vibrant display, a decent main camera and solid build quality,

the Samsung Galaxy A52 5G does most of the basics well.

But the competition is strong in this part of the market, and rival efforts from Xiaomi and OnePlus risk making the Galaxy A52 5G look a tad overpriced.

DESIGN The Galaxy A52 5G doesn’t exactly wow with its design language, but you can still see Samsung’s mastery of the manufacturing process.

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A Gorilla Glass 5 front meets with a shiny metal frame that sits in pleasing contrast to the matte finish of the rear panel, standing as a blessed relief from all the greasy glass-effect materials that are widely used across the budget market.

The phone feels solid in the hand with a This is the kind of vibrant display that Samsung has built a comforting lack of flex to formidable reputation on. it, but at 189g, it’s hardly This is the kind of vibrant 6.5in what you’d call lightweight.

Super AMOLED panel that Samsung We’re pleased to see an IP67 rating has built a formidable reputation on. here, as this is often one of the first Together with a Full HD+ resolution, a things to be jettisoned in the name maximum brightness of 800 nits, and a of cutting costs. It’s one of those little 120Hz refresh rate (which it defaults to, instances of going the extra mile that can refreshingly), it competes with anything really pay off when shopping for a midoutside of the flagship class. range phone, particularly when you don’t There are a couple of quirks, such intend to replace it any time soon. as the lack of HDR streaming support.

You can also count on a 3.5mm But despite this omission, video content headphone jack on the bottom of the looks great on such a vibrant canvas. phone, right alongside the USB-C port It’s a dead flat display, which shouldn’t and across from one of two slightly be seen as a mid-range compromise. reedy stereo speakers.

Samsung has gradually steered back in DISPLAY this direction with the Galaxy S21, and The Samsung Galaxy A52 5G isn’t a the lack of curves makes for a much phone that’s packed with stand-out more usable phone day-to-day. components, but if you were to name With an 84.1 per cent screen-to-body one it would undoubtedly be its display. ratio, the Galaxy A52 5G’s bezels aren’t 38 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

the slimmest you’ll find, even on a midrange phone, but they are thin enough and sufficiently well proportioned to not prove distracting.

We’re not fans of the reflective ring around the hole-punch selfie camera, though. This is something we’ve seen in other cheaper phones, including the Poco F3, and it always proves annoyingly eye-catching.

Another display element we struggled with was the Galaxy A52 5G’s in-display fingerprint sensor. It’s slow to unlock and just a little too unreliable for our liking.

PERFORMANCE Samsung has successfully walked the spec tightrope in creating its latest mid-range phone. But if it wobbles at any point, it’s when it comes to raw performance.

The phone’s Snapdragon 750G chip is an improvement over the Galaxy A51’s home-brewed Exynos 9611, but it still doesn’t impress. In fact, it falls behind a number of similarly priced alternatives.

For example, the OnePlus Nord runs on a Snapdragon 765G, which recorded 20 to 30 per cent higher frame rates across our suite of GFX benchmark tests. Meanwhile, a more contemporary device like the Poco F3 runs on the even faster Snapdragon 870, and scored two

to three times higher on those same tests. Genshin Impact on the Galaxy A52 5G defaults to low settings straight off the bat. You can force those settings up to High and 60fps, but the result is extremely sluggish and stuttering.

The Poco F3, by comparison, defaults to Medium and can be pushed up to High/60fps with perfectly playable results.

In terms of pure CPU performance, a Geekbench 5 multi-core score of 1,886 pitches the Galaxy A52 5G just a little behind the OnePlus Nord (1,963) and way behind the Poco F3 (3,151).

Geekbench 5 (multi-core)

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G: 1,886 Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC: 1,764 OnePlus Nord: 1,963 Google Pixel 4a: 1,640

GFX Manhattan 3.1

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G: 28fps Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC: 27fps OnePlus Nord: 34fps Google Pixel 4a: 27fps Most people won’t be comparing the Galaxy A52 5G’s performance so directly, of course, and in general use, it runs just fine. Samsung’s 120Hz display felt nice and fluid here when scrolling through menus and between home screens, which isn’t always the case in cheaper ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 39

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120Hz phones. You’ll get either 6GB or 8GB of RAM, so switching between open apps isn’t a problem either.

Those who have used any more capable phones, however, will be able to notice the difference. It’s there in the odd half-pause when opening up an app, or the aforementioned delay in unlocking the phone.

For most people, and in most scenarios, this won’t be particularly problematic. We’re not shopping in flagship territory, after all. But the Poco F3 gets noticeably better performance from an enhanced version of last year’s leading chip, and it does so for £70 less than the Galaxy A52 5G.

PHOTOGRAPHY You can fudge the issue with most smartphone components, but there’s no mistaking a mid-range phone with a flagship phone when you compare camera results. Unless you’re a Pixel phone, that is.

While the Galaxy A52 5G camera doesn’t match the point and shoot poise of the Google Pixel 4a, though, it does give a decent account of itself.

In particular, its 64Mp main sensor takes bright, reasonably detailed shots with Samsung’s trademark exaggerated colour science. You either take to Samsung’s punched up colours or you 40 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

don’t, but the Galaxy A52 represents them well.

Compared to something like the Poco F3, which we happened to be using side-by-side during our test shooting, the Galaxy A52 5G’s shots are much brighter and generally better with fine detail. Samsung often manages to rescue more detail in HDR situations too, though the trade off can be the odd hyperreal or overexposed scene.

In certain scenarios, the Galaxy A52 5G’s camera goes too far with punchy processing. For example, when shooting a pizza that was being consumed under a lockdown-friendly gazebo, the Samsung made the whole scene look weirdly and unappetisingly yellow, whereas the Poco F3 captured it in all its meat-and-cheesy glory.

We’ve mentioned already that the Galaxy A52 5G nails a few small but significant details, and one of those is the inclusion of OIS. This shot-steadying technology still isn’t a given in midrange phones – neither the Poco F3 nor the more expensive OnePlus 9 have it, for example, though the OnePlus Nord does. Props to Samsung for including it, at any rate.

Thanks partially to this OIS, the Galaxy A52 5G produces relatively bright and clear Night shots. They’re certainly brighter than the Poco F3’s, with more

Here are our first two Galaxy A52 5G photos.

The top image was taken using the main lens, while the bottom shot is an ultra-wide photo.

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This series of photos were taken using 1x zoom…

…2x zoom…

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…4x zoom…

…and finally 10x zoom.

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Here’s an example of a portrait photo…

…and here’s a selfie.

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This image was taken at night.

Our final test image is a macro shot.

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detail pulled out of the murk, though you’ll pay the price with more obvious levels of grain.

Similarly, you won’t mistake the Galaxy A52 5G’s 12Mp ultra-wide sensor with a flagship equivalent, but the shots it produces are decent for the money.

To compare it to the Poco F3 again, the Galaxy A52 5G’s ultra-wide shots came out much better, with superior detail and exposure, far less softness towards the edges, and a considerably wider 123-degree perspective.

The Galaxy A52 5G captures portrait shots well, with a sharply delineated subject and creamy bokeh. Samsung still needs to work a little on its skin tones though, as they don’t look quite as natural as with some of their rivals.

Selfies using the phone’s 32Mp front camera look okay too, though the results are more washed out than the main

camera. Being able to take wider selfies is nice in theory too, but the difference in perspective isn’t all that pronounced.

It’s a shame that Samsung gave into current stat-buffing trends and fitted its phone out with a pair of superfluous 5Mp sensors – one for depth assistance, another for macro shots. We would much rather have seen it pour all of its effort and considerable resources into those two main cameras instead, but that seems to be the way of things right now.

There’s no telephoto sensor with the Galaxy A52 5G, sadly, but the pixeldense 64Mp main sensor does at least enable acceptable 2x shots through cropping. We wouldn’t recommend pushing it any further, though.

Add in serviceable 4K at 30fps or 1080p at 60fps video shooting, and you have a solidly capable but unspectacular camera. Again, Samsung appears to have gone for consistency over stand-out quality, and it seems to have been a smart choice for the most part.

BATTERY LIFE

Overall, you have a solidly capable but unspectacular camera.

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We can’t really complain about Samsung’s provision of a 4,500mAh battery here. That’s the kind of component that

you’ll find in a modern flagship phone like the OnePlus 9 Pro, which of course has a far more demanding display to run.

And while the Galaxy A52 5G isn’t the two-day phone that you might be hoping for, it will last you comfortably through a full day with change.

Battery life

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G: 11 hours, 3 minutes Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC: 14 hours, 24 minutes OnePlus Nord: 11 hours, 26 minutes In our own practical tests, we managed to get through to 15:30 on a second day of use, which is roughly a day and a half, with four hours of screen on time before the 15 per cent low power state was triggered. This was with the always-on display and 120Hz active, too.

When you do plug in, this isn’t the fastest charging phone in the world.

Samsung’s provision of a 15-watt brick falls way behind the 30 watts-and-above provisions of Xiaomi, Oppo and co. We were able to charge the A52 5G from 0 to 31 per cent in 30 minutes of charging, which is really nothing special in 2021.

Fast charge (30 minutes)

Samsung Galaxy A52 5G: 31% Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC: 59%

OnePlus Nord: 61% Google Pixel 4a: 51% You don’t get wireless charging either. This isn’t a common feature in the £400 category, of course, though it’s worth mentioning that the iPhone SE provides just that.

SOFTWARE The A52 5G comes with Samsung’s own One UI 3.1 layered over Android 11.

Samsung’s software has come on considerably since the bad old days of TouchWiz, which occasionally resembled some kind of ‘my first smartphone’ app you might use to distract a toddler. The company now shows a considerably lighter touch with its customization efforts, even when compared to previous versions of One UI. Samsung Daily has been swapped out of its position to the left of the main home screen in favour of Google Feed, which is a change for the better.

Make no mistake, though, One UI still presents a busy front. The pointless Bixby assistant is still buried in there, ready to be discovered with an extended power button press.

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was annoying. Notifications proved to be a bit flaky on the A52 5G too, as we found that the phone wouldn’t always jump into the related apps direct from our taps.

Meanwhile, you get a number of pre-installed apps that you may or may not want out of the gate, even apart from the extensive list of optional installations.

That includes the Samsung Free news app, TikTok, Netflix and Microsoft OneDrive. It’s far less egregious on this front than the likes of Xiaomi, however.

Even with its divisive software provision, Samsung manages to go the extra mile. Four years of security updates is a promise not to be sniffed at, especially at this end of the market. All in all, One UI is a fast, fluid and usable

interface, and one that offers ample potential for customization.

VERDICT The Samsung Galaxy A52 5G provides a balanced, well-considered mid-range smartphone package for £399. Its standout component is an excellent 120Hz Super AMOLED display, but the overriding impression is of a phone that covers all the bases and pays attention to the smaller details.

Elements such as an IP67 rating, OIS for the camera, a 3.5mm headphones jack, and four years of security updates might not be as sexy as a glass and metal body or a fast processor, but they combine to create a surprisingly complete package.

If you have less than £400 to spend, then the Galaxy A52 5G won’t let you down, 48 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

It’s not perfect, though. Performance could and perhaps should be better for the money, the fingerprint sensor is curiously sub-par, and this isn’t an alltime classic Samsung design.

But people place their trust in Samsung for a reason. And if you have less than £400 to spend on your next phone, the Samsung Galaxy A52 5G won’t let you down. Jon Mundy

• NFC • USB Type-C 2.0, USB On-The-Go • Fingerprint scanner (under display, optical) • Non-removable 4,500mAh lithium-polymer battery • Fast charging 25 watts • 159.9x75.1x8.4m • 189g

SPECIFICATIONS

• 6.5in (2,400,080; 407ppi) Super AMOLED display • Android 11, One UI 3.1 • Qualcomm SM7225 Snapdragon 750G 5G (8nm) processor • Octa-core (2x 2.2GHz Kryo 570, 6x 1.8GHz Kryo 570) CPU • Adreno 619 GPU • 6GB/8GB RAM • 128GB/256GB storage • Four rear-facing cameras: 64Mp, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/1.7Xin, 0.8µm, PDAF, OIS; 12Mp, f/2.2, 123-degree (ultrawide), 1.12µm; 5Mp, f/2.4, (macro); 5Mp, f/2.4, (depth) • Selfie camera: 32Mp, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 1/2.8in, 0.8µm • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot • Bluetooth 5.0, A2DP, LE • GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 49

Best Android phones Smartphones are better than ever, but which is the best phone for you?

These are the best phones on the market. ALEX WALKER-TODD reports

T

here are so many good phones to choose from right now but which one is the king of the castle? Is there even a winner? In truth, there’s no one perfect choice for everyone, so bear in mind that the best phone for you might not be number one in our chart.

Phones come in all shapes, sizes and prices. Here, we have ranked and reviewed the best phones money can buy. While you’re going to find established brands like Google and

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Samsung in this list, you might not be familiar with every phone-maker we’ve recommended. With that said, trust us – these phones are all top-notch.

When choosing a phone you should consider these things: build quality and design, ease of use, features, performance and value.

Generally speaking, a flagship phone in 2021 will start at around £700 but can cost over £1,000 in some cases.

On contract, you’re looking at between

Credit: Getty Images/Alessandro Biascioli

BEST ANDROID PHONES

£30 and £50-per-month on average but you can spend a lot more if you want an expensive phone and lots of data.

Buying a phone outright will usually give you the best value, but we appreciate finances in the real world don’t always accommodate such big one-off purchases. If you can, you’ll obviously need a SIM card and plan, as well as the phone.

WHY YOU SHOULD BUY AN UNLOCKED PHONE An unlocked phone is one which is not tied to any particular mobile operator.

Buying ‘unlocked’ usually means buying the phone outright without a SIM card or contract attached.

The most important point is that an unlocked phone is almost always a better deal than buying a phone on contract – if you can afford it.

Generally speaking, if you can afford the upfront cost of the handset, you will pay less over the life of your phone by buying unlocked. More importantly, you are not locked into a lengthy contract.

If you want a new handset at any time, you can buy one without having to up-purchase your way out of said contract or commit to another two years.

Just be sure to make certain the phone you’re getting is not locked to a certain network.

THE RIGHT SIM One other thing to consider is the size and shape of the SIM required for your phone. Make sure you get a nano-SIM if a nano-SIM is what your phone requires.

For the record, every phone here takes a nano-SIM. If you get that wrong it is easily solvable – every network will gladly send over a different-sized SIM. SIM cards tend to come in all three sizes – you simply pop out the one you need.

But that’s assuming you are getting a new SIM, and if you’re looking for a SIM-free phone or unlocked phone you probably already have one.

More important is to make sure that if you want 5G you get a 5G-enabled phone and SIM.

1. SAMSUNG GALAXY S21 ULTRA Price: £1,149 (inc VAT) from fave.co/38kqM0d

There are all sorts of concessions that you can pay to a phone depending on factors like price or its standing within a brand’s portfolio; when it comes to the Pro Maxes and Ultras of this world, however, there’s far less room for error.

Just as hypercars have emerged as a class above supercars, so too have phones like the S21 Ultra in the flagship space – billed as uncompromising ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 51

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devices that can handle anything a user dares to throw at them, without so much as breaking a sweat – albeit for a premium, of course.

The idiom ‘the bigger they are the harder they fall’ felt apt for last year’s Galaxy S20 Ultra, The rear of the phone has a lightly-textured satin-finish back. which promised so much – primarily from the S20 line’s design, it’s experienced its impressive-sounding camera specs – something of a ‘glow-up’ that brings but under-delivered as a final product. sharper aesthetics and more confident With this year’s S21 Ultra, we’re hoping forms to the table.

Samsung has righted the wrongs of its The Galaxy S21 and S21+ may turn predecessor and in the same breath, heads with their two-tone signature created a phone truly fitting of the Phantom Violet colourway but the Ultra ‘Ultra’ moniker. comes in far more sedate finishes that Design draw the eye to the phone’s form first There’s no getting around the fact that and foremost, and that’s no bad thing. aesthetically 2020 was an off-year for The ‘contour cut’ camera module is Samsung’s Galaxy S phones. The S20 the new defining design element across Ultra was possibly the worst offender this year’s Galaxy S range and the Ultra’s of the bunch; with its large glossy form interpretation is the boldest and most rendered in flat colours and laden with imposing yet, spanning almost half of the an unsightly black rounded rectangle phone’s width (it’s so big that the phone of a camera arrangement, that seemed actually benefits from less-severe wobble like an afterthought. when placed back-down on a flat surface, Almost one year on and while the compared to the narrower camera S21 range is undeniably an evolution of arrangements of its launch siblings).

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In the case of the Ultra, there slightly curved Gorilla Glass Victus on was no way this module wasn’t the back and front ensure that despite its going to be huge though; with four size, the S21 Ultra feels comfortable to imaging sensors – including a 108Mp hold. This sizeable 6.8in handset – with primary camera – a periscopic zoom its all-glass-and-metal construction (for arrangement, a laser autofocus system reference, the base Galaxy S21 features and an LED flash to accommodate. a plastic back) – also proves deceptively Rather than contrasting colours, it’s lightweight, despite clocking in 228g. the contrasting textures that give the Being a Samsung flagship, there’s S21 Ultra a more sophisticated look and the expected top-tier fit and build feel than its competition; with a glossy quality, the absence of a headphone colour-matched metal frame against a jack and IP68 dust and water lightly-textured satin-finish back and resistance to consider too. camera frontage that collectively imbue Display the phone’s aesthetics with a subtle While 0.1in smaller than last year’s confidence, while also deftly repelling entrant, you’re still getting an expansive fingerprints and smudges.

6.8in panel to play with; using the Something about the alternative Phantom Silver colourway evokes the stylings of vintage 1980s Japanese tech and grant the phone a distinct retro feel as a result, while the two-tone carbon-fibretoting Samsung.comexclusive finishes seem poorly-considered and executed by comparison – particularly the Phantom Brown option.

Beyond finish, the The S21 Ultra’s display is a joy to interact with. rounded edges and ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 53

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same WQHD+ resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio and HDR10+-compliant ‘Dynamic AMOLED 2X’ technology.

There was little to complain about with the screen on last year’s Ultra and while the expansive size and the rounded edges won’t be to everyone’s taste, the S21 Ultra’s display is a joy to interact with; boasting stunning contrast, vibrant colours, broad dynamic range and pinsharp clarity that nothing else (save for perhaps Oppo’s Find X2 Pro) collectively comes close to matching right now.

One small improvement is a maximum peak brightness of 1,500 nits (up from 1,400), although both this year’s and last year’s phones offer excellent visibility regardless, even in bright surroundings.

Where the S21 Ultra’s display pulls out in front is with its ability to display

content at both its native resolution and at its maximum 120Hz refresh rate, simultaneously. Last year’s Galaxy S and Note devices had you choose between full resolution or super-smooth viewing; with the S21 Ultra, there are no compromises to be made in this regard.

While you can lock resolution, refresh rate (under the ‘Motion Smoothness’ setting) can only be dialled from ‘Standard’ (60Hz) up to ‘Adaptive’; which means the Ultra doesn’t run at 120Hz constantly but instead automatically scales from as low as 10Hz to a peak of 120, depending on the use case at hand. This dynamic adjustment isn’t unique to Samsung’s devices but serves as an essential means of guaranteeing respectable battery life, while also still delivering high refresh rate viewing.

Beyond a top-tier visual experience, the screen also showcases an upgraded ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, which finally feels genuinely competitive against older capacitive sensors (like the one found on the back of the Pixel 5), thanks to improved read speed and, perhaps more importantly, more The S21 Ultra’s screen also showcases an upgraded ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. consistent reliability.

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S Pen One other display party piece is – for the first time on a Galaxy S phone – support for Samsung’s S Pen stylus. At launch, Samsung introduced two new styli alongside the S21 Ultra; a conventional S Pen and the still-unreleased (at the time of writing) S Pen Pro. For most users looking to pull in Note-like functionality, the standard S Pen will do the trick (or if you have an existing Note device, their S Pens work too). Latency is excellent (when testing with the Note 20 Ultra’s S Pen), with a seemingly-identical 9ms response time, or something very close to it (likely made possible by its use of an LTPO display, instead of the S21/S21+’s LTPS panel, just like the Note 20 Ultra).

The main difference between the S Pen experience and that of the one promised by the S Pen Pro is the additional Bluetooth functionality that Note 20 users will already be familiar with; controlling the phone’s camera and navigating around the user experience with simple air gestures. That said, thanks to the Wacom tech at play, you can still press the side button on the S Pen (even the standard model) when hovering the nib above the surface of the display for additional features and functions.

While the S21 Ultra is already a more niche device compared to the standard

S21 and S21+, and the subset of those who buy one who might also consider pairing the experience with an S Pen is smaller still, it’s nice to see that Samsung has brought as much of the established feature set of its signature stylus to a product line that previously had nothing to do with the peripheral.

Samsung also sells numerous cases that feature a cavity to hold the S Pen, as unlike the Note, there’s no integrated S Pen storage on the S21 Ultra, while we’re yet to hear of any storage set-up for the S Pen Pro.

Software The latest build of Samsung’s user experience – One UI 3.1 – debuts on the Galaxy S21 range. For those familiar with the previous generation of One UI, this iteration doesn’t rewrite the rulebook but it does focus on improving aspects like notification clarity and dress in a few new adornments, such as animated call screens.

For those coming from Android devices that run closer to a stock experience (Google’s, Motorola’s or Nokia’s, for example) One UI will take a little getting used to, although the learning curve will likely be shallower than moving to a heavier-handed skin like Oppo’s ColorOS, Xiaomi’s MIUI or Huawei’s Emotion UI. ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 55

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Free – Samsung’s dedicated news and experiences feed – is also optional, with the ability to display it or replace it with Google Discover, as you’d find on a nearstock Android device.

Another area where the Ultra sets itself apart from its The latest build of Samsung’s user experience – One UI 3.1 – launch siblings is debuts on the Galaxy S21 range. in its connectivity; Beyond the platform’s distinct squircle being the only member of S21 range app iconography and a reworked to boast the latest Wi-Fi 6E and sharing notifications/quick settings pane in the S21+’s UWB (ultra-wideband) (compared to stock), One UI features support. Beyond these highlights, the its own app store in the Galaxy Store Ultra also brings NFC and Bluetooth (which sits alongside the Google Play 5.0 to the table.

Store), as well as standout features like Performance Edge Screen – designed to improve At launch, the S21 range features as part the productivity chops of the user of a rather exclusive group of phones experience – particularly useful on the powered by Qualcomm’s latest flagship Ultra’s expansive display.

Snapdragon 888 SoC – or in markets At the same time as ensuring including Europe and the UK – serve as One UI is distinct, the experience the debut devices for the company’s own doesn’t completely turn its back on top-tier Exynos 2100 chipset (as in the the underlying improvements and model tested here). tweaks introduced in Android 11, with Those in Exynos-toting regions have, notifications grouped by app category in the past, been driven to frustration, and active media playback controls as the models relying on Samsung’s own contained within a dedicated carousel silicon have consistently fallen short of in the notifications shade. Samsung 56 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

their Snapdragon-based doppelgängers, with regards to both performance and power efficiency.

In the lead up to the Exynos 2100’s release, however, Samsung and the early benchmarks suggested that its latest chip would finally be able to hold its own against Qualcomm’s 888.

While we didn’t perform any side-byside testing with the Ultra specifically, working with our colleagues at sister site PCWorld in the US and our respective Snapdragon and Exynos-powered base S21’s, we learnt that both variants offered up a pleasing consistency.

In the wider review sphere too, while 888-toting Ultras still tend to lead over Exynos versions, the performance gap is insignificant, especially with regards to real-world use cases. Power efficiency does also still favour Qualcomm’s hardware but what was once a chasm of disparity is now more of a crack that we home Samsung continues to close.

In the case of the Ultra, the phone’s top-tier silicon comes accompanied by the most amount of (LPDDR5) RAM across the S21 range, with a baseline of 12GB (as tested) and a top-tier 16GB – if you fork out for the highest 512GB storage capacity model.

While fast UFS 3.1 storage is appreciated, the removal of microSD expandability across the S21 range feels

like a loss, especially on the otherwise feature-crammed Ultra. The Galaxy S series has long been one of the last flagship phone families to offer such flexibility, so its removal is disappointing.

Fixed storage aside, it’s hard to argue with the rest of the hardware Samsung has chosen to slot into the S21 range and, in particular, the Ultra.

Geekbench 5 (multi-core)

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra: 3,511 Samsung Galaxy S21+: 3,589 Samsung Galaxy S21: 3,263 Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra: 2,646 Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max: 4,241

GFX Manhattan 3.1

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra: 50fps (WQHD+, 120HZ) Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra: 81fps (FHD+, 120HZ) Samsung Galaxy S21+: 98fps (FHD+, 120HZ) Samsung Galaxy S21: 67fps (FHD+, 120HZ) Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra: 39fps (WQHD+, 120HZ) Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra: 39fps (FHD+, 120HZ) Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max: 59fps (metal) The results from our benchmarking tests, which include all three ExynosISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 57

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powered S21s devices, revealed that generally speaking, the S21+ delivered the most consistent performance, although the gap between each device was negligible.

For those looking to pick the S21 Ultra up with competitive mobile gaming in Samsung has ditched in-box power adapters. mind, it’s also worth with the exception of the benchmarks dropping resolution down to Full HD+, specifically stated below, the device as graphical tests place it on-par with its was tested with both these key display launch siblings by doing so (all of which features enabled at all times. are some of the highest scores we’ve tested on any phone).

Battery life If you’re buying a phone for Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra: 11 hours, performance above all else, then right 4 minutes (WQHD+, 120Hz) now, the S21 range as a whole are Samsung Galaxy S21+: 9 hours, 2 among the best options out there; the minutes (FHD+, 120Hz) additional RAM packed inside the Ultra, Samsung Galaxy S21: 8 hours, 20 will simply help ensure the phone can minutes (WQHD+, 60Hz) more readily multitask and remain more Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max: 9 hours, responsive in the long term.

8 minutes

Battery life

Battery capacity remains consistent compared to last year’s S20 Ultra, at a respectably large 5,000mAh. Considering the S21 Ultra is the first Galaxy device to offer 120Hz high refresh rate viewing at WQHD+ resolution, 58 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

Fast charge (30 minutes)

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra: 56% (25-watt Samsung charger) Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra: 33% (27-watt PD charger) Samsung Galaxy S21+: 33%

(30-watt PD charger) Samsung Galaxy S21: 56% (25-watt Samsung charger) Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra: 56% (25-watt Samsung charger) Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max: 14% (5-watt Apple charger) In spite of the expected strain running the display at full tilt undoubtedly causes, the S21 Ultra’s longevity is impressive, able to deliver a day’s worth of heavy use, and a day and a half of more conventional use; with almost six hours of screen-on time on offer each charge. Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra USB-C port In a market where companies like Oppo and Xiaomi are pushing past 65-watt fast charging, the S21 Ultra’s maximum 25-watt charging speeds sound comparatively pedestrian.

While there’s no escaping the fact that Samsung is dragging its feet on fast charging (having actually pulled back on the 45-watt charging exclusive to last year’s S20 Ultra), in real-world testing 56 per cent charge after 30 minutes is wholly respectable and should see most users through to the day’s end.

The big caveat with the Ultra isn’t charging speed so much as the charger itself – there isn’t one, not in-box, at least. Samsung has followed Apple’s

lead and ditched in-box power adapters, meaning the Ultra comes in much more compact packaging but will also likely charge slower than the advertised maximum rate, unless you’ve already invested in Samsung’s 25-watt charger.

Unlike the base Galaxy S21, which produced near-identical results in testing when charging with a generic 27-watt PD charge and an official 25-watt Samsung fast charger, for whatever reason – be it the charging management system tied to the Ultra’s larger battery or something else – the official Samsung charger produced refills the phone’s battery markedly faster than the PD charger, which only gets the cell to 33 per cent in the same time frame. As such, while forking out for an official Samsung charger doesn’t hold any value if you already have a fast PD charger where the Galaxy S21 and S21+ are concerned, it makes a notable difference when paired with the S21 Ultra.

Photography As touched on earlier, the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s biggest stumbling block was a bold camera set-up that, in practice, under-delivered – primarily as a result of some problematic focusing issues and zoom capabilities that just weren’t as impressive as Samsung had hyped them up to be.

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expected disparity between the phone’s main sensor and say, its 10x telephoto, for example, improvements to Samsung’s Samsung has reworked every facet of the S21 Ultra’s camera set-up.

HDR algorithm are clearly in With the S21 Ultra, the company effect in shots across the board. has reworked every facet of this system As for focusing, the S21 Ultra is faster and the results speak for themselves. and far more confident in both finding An updated 108Mp (ISOCELL HM3) and holding focus, compared to the S20 lead sensor is now supported by a laser Ultra, even in low light; which is likely a autofocus module (as implemented result of both the addition of the laser on the Note 20 Ultra) and while the system and the new 108Mp sensor’s autofocus-capable 12Mp ultra-wide ‘Super-PD Plus’ tech. is just as you’d find it on the S21 and When it comes to the phone’s S21+, there’s new a dual telephoto zoom exceptional zoom capabilities, those system that features dedicated 3x and dedicated 3x and 10x lenses consistently 10x optically-magnified lenses (the latter result in higher quality results, and using a periscope set-up). The front-facer although the improved 100x ‘Space is also the highest resolution among the Zoom’ is still a gimmick above all else, S21 range, at 40Mp (up from 10Mp). zooming past 30x now adds in a ‘Zoom The biggest improvements to the Lock’, which helps lock a subject in-frame S21’s camera appeared to be softwareat extreme levels of magnification for led, with the S21 Ultra the hardware greater ease of use. is undoubtedly a step up on last year.

Video capture is also some of the Dynamic range and autofocus are the best tested on a smartphone, with most obvious improvements when great dynamic range, stability and zero snapping, and while there’s still the apparent artifacting; with the versatility 60 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

The top image is an HDR photo, while the bottom shot was taken using the ultra-wide lens.

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The photos here use the S21 Ultra’s 1x zoom…

…the 3x zoom…

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…the 10x zoom…

…and finally the 100x zoom.

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Here we can see how the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra compares to similar phones in low-light conditions.

The S21 Ultra takes some of the best photos we’ve ever seen from a phone.

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to move between the various lenses on the fly allowing for some creative shooting. The collective result is not only an improvement on the S20 Ultra and a delivery on the promises of the phone’s marketing but this might be the best camera phone on the market, albeit offering different strengths to its biggest contender, the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Verdict The ‘pros and cons’ list at the start of this review should have been an early indicator of how picky we had to be to find any notable faults with the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Provided you’re already aware of the product line’s reputation for big screens and high prices, those aspects of this year’s Ultra shouldn’t really come as a shock.

The S21 Ultra goes to show that the company actually listens to feedback and actions it with the care and attention a four-figure phone like this demands.

Every facet of the phone is exceptional; from its display to its performance, battery life to camera versatility; the collective effect also renders the Ultra one of the greatest all-rounders to date, befitting of its name. Alex Walker-Todd

Specifications

• 6.8in (3,200x1,440; 515ppi) Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+ display

• Android 10, One UI 3.1 • Exynos 2100 (5nm) processor • Octa-core (1x 2.9GHz Cortex-X1, 3 x2.8GHz Cortex-A78, 4x 2.2GHz Cortex-A55) CPU • Mali-G78 MP14 GPU • 12GB/16GB RAM • 128GB/256GB/512GB storage • Four rear-facing cameras: 108Mp, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.33in, 0.8µm, PDAF, Laser AF, OIS; 10Mp, f/4.9, 240mm (periscope telephoto), 1/3.24in, 1.22µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS, 10x optical zoom; 10Mp, f/2.4, 70mm (telephoto), 1/3.24in, 1.22µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom; 12Mp, f/2.2, 13mm (ultra-wide), 1/2.55in, 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, Super Steady video • Selfie camera: 40Mp, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 1/2.8in, 0.7µm, PDAF • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot • Bluetooth 5.0, A2DP, LE • GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO • NFC • USB Type-C 3.2; USB On-The-Go • Fingerprint scanner (under display) • Non-removable 5,000mAh lithium-ion battery • Fast charging 25 watts • 165.1x75.6x8.9mm • 227g ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 65

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2. OPPO FIND X3 PRO Full review on page 23.

3. SAMSUNG GALAXY S21 Price: £769 (inc VAT) from fave.co/3aH8rL3

The Galaxy S21 might be the smartest phone Samsung has ever made. Like the iPhone 12, it doesn’t have the best specs or the biggest screen. But it delivers where it counts, at a price that’s very attainable for a phone with a full complement of 5G, a high-end camera, and the latest Exynos 2100 processor.

At £769, £30 less than the iPhone 12, and £170 more than the Google Pixel 5 and Galaxy S20 FE, the S21 is already a strong contender for one of the smartphones of the year.

Android and Galaxy enthusiasts will moan and wail over the things that are missing, which is admittedly a pretty lengthy list: 12GB of RAM, QuadHD+ resolution, expandable microSD storage, MST payment support, earbuds, a glass back and a charger. But if you aren’t the kind of person who dives deep into spec sheets, the S21 will give you everything you need in a 2021 smartphone at a price that won’t make your eyes water.

Design

Samsung’s smartphone design has become somewhat predictable in recent years, as bezels shrank and camera arrays grew. But the S21 is something truly different with an Apple-like level of attention to design.

The pictures here don’t really do it justice. Samsung incorporated the camera array into the metal band that connects the screen to the back, which serves both to minimize the bump and make it flow better into the overall design of the phone. It’s The edge of the S21 extends into the camera array. one of the only 66 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

still feels more premium than the Pixel 4a due to its weight, and the texture feels closer to aluminium or frosted glass than the plastic material it is.

Display Around the front, the S21 has the same The 120Hz refresh rate on the S21 is adaptive now to save battery.

6.2in display camera modules I’ve seen that doesn’t as the S20, surrounded by very skinny feel like it was tacked on, and it makes bezels. The screen is flat here rather the phone truly feel like a cohesive than curved, but the visual difference unibody enclosure. is minor. The phone is slightly The camera design isn’t just about narrower (151.7x69.1x7.9mm versus looks. Where the S20 was extremely top151.7x71.2x7.9mm) as a result, making heavy and somewhat clunky to hold, the it easier to hold and a bit less prone to S21 feels much lighter despite actually accidental touches. weighing more than its predecessor Also less accident-prone is the (171g versus 163g). The new camera fingerprint sensor. Samsung is still array adds a bit of balance to the S21 using an ultrasonic scanner built into and makes it much more pleasant to the display, but it’s bigger and faster hold for longer periods of time. than the previous sensor in the S20.

Also helping the weight distribution The difference is noticeable and cut is the choice of materials. You down dramatically on my errant scans. probably wouldn’t know it to look at It’s not quite as consistently accurate it, but the S21 is made of ‘reinforced as the physical sensor in the Pixel 5, polycarbonate’ to keep costs down. It and I’d much prefer a 3D facial scanner, ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 67

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automatically adjusts the screen’s colours based on the time of day. It’s similar to Apple’s Night Shift and an upgraded version of Samsung’s own blue light filter that has shipped for years. If you’ve already been using it, it won’t make all that much of a difference The back of the S21 is plastic, but you won’t really notice that. except now it’s called ‘Eye Comfort Shield’. but when it works, it feels closer to a Even with a somewhat gimmicky premium biometric. new feature and lower resolution, the Like the S10e and S20 FE, the S21’s S21 is still one of the best smartphone screen tops out at Full HD (2,400x1,080), screens I’ve ever used. If you compare the lowest for a standard S21 in some them side by side as I did, you can tell time. Much like the plastic back, that the Ultra is a bit superior, but the however, you’ll need very discerning compromises Samsung made with the eyes to see the deficit of pixels.

S21 are acceptable and unnoticeable Otherwise, it’s just as bright, vibrant, even if you spend many hours looking and speedy as before, and it’s a bit at your screen each day. more efficient too. The S21 has the same Performance speedy 120Hz refresh rate as the S20, The S21 uses an Exynos 2100 but a new ‘Adaptive’ setting dials it back processor, so performance is as you to 48Hz when not in use. You can also would expect: excellent. Even with still set it to 60Hz, but I’m much more ‘just’ 8GB of RAM (4GB fewer than the comfortable with recommending it stay S20), apps, animations and transitions on 120Hz now. fly around the screen. That has mostly to Also new to the S21 display is do with the super-speedy 5nm systeman adaptive blue light filter that 68 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

on-chip. Benchmarks posted a modest increase over the S20’s processor, but there are plenty of improvements that won’t show up in the standard tests.

Most notably, the chip now has an integrated 5G modem to deliver greater power efficiency. Samsung is also using UFS 3.1 storage for noticeable faster read/write speeds:

S20 (UFS 3.0)

Sequential read: 1,592.46MB/s Sequential write: 662.75MB/s Random read: 45,172.27 IOPS Random write: 33,764.08 IOPS

S21 (UFS 3.1)

Sequential read: 1,861MB/s Sequential write: 782.63MB/s Random read: 75,319.69 IOPS Random write: 67,353.96 IOPS These are the kind of year-overyear improvements you expect from a Samsung flagship. They matter less if you’re coming from an S20 or even an S10, but upgrading from an S8 will be a noticeable improvement. Smartphones have been fast enough for many years now, but small things can make a big difference in how fast they feel, like Wi-Fi 6 and 5G, both of which are on board.

A couple of notable things are missing. The MFT chip that let you

use Samsung Pay at older credit card terminals is gone, and the ultrawideband chip necessary for precisely locating Samsung’s SmartTags isn’t here either (you’ll get it on the S21+ and S21 Ultra, though). You also won’t be able to expand the 128GB of base storage with a microSD card like in Galaxies past – that slot is gone. But like the screen, those are acceptable sacrifices that few users are likely to notice.

The S21 has the same 4,000mAh battery as the S20, but the integrated modem as well as the adaptive, lowerresolution display help it last a little longer. In benchmarks, I approached 10 hours, and in regular use, I rarely had to worry about charging until the end of the day. I put it somewhere between the iPhone 12 and 12 mini, which is to say the battery life is very good.

The Galaxy S21 ships with One UI 3.1 based on Android 11, making it the earliest phone Samsung has shipped with the latest version of Android. Samsung offers a dizzying array of customization and personalization options, but even if you leave the stock settings as-is, it’s one of the better Android skins.

You’ll still have to deal with Bixby and occasional ads for Samsung apps and products, but you can make the same criticisms about the iPhone 12.

Plus, you’re guaranteed to get three ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 69

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full generations of updates, so the S21 will get Android 14, the same promise Google makes with the Pixel 5. Hopefully, major updates will be delivered quicker by then, but either way, buying a premium Samsung phone is no longer a guessing game when it comes to Android support.

Photography For the first time in a while, the Galaxy S21 has the exact same camera hardware as the Galaxy S20, with 12Mp wide and ultra-wide lenses and a 30X hybrid optical Space Zoom telephoto lens. Like Apple and Google, however, Samsung has done work behind the scenes to boost the quality, so the photos you snap with the S21 will be a bit better than they’d be from the S20.

With the exception of zoomed photos, however, the photos I took with the S21 still aren’t quite as good as the ones I took with the iPhone 12.

The differences come down to small bits of detail here, white balance there.

Samsung has definitely refined the S21’s photo-taking abilities, but there’s still room for improvement.

Most notably, the S21 tended to brighten photos excessively even when night mode wasn’t activated, which often led to blown-out details and washed-out colours. As you can see in the image left, some of the details of the stamen and the petals are lost due to overexposure. You can also see some slight struggles with night mode above as compared to the iPhone 12 and Pixel 5. Again, these are extreme

In this shot of a flower, the S21 (left) blew out the colours and detail a bit while the iPhone 12 (centre) and Pixel 5 (right) handled the bright surrounding light well.

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In dark photos, the S21 tended to overly brighten photos so they lost some detail as seen here in this shot. All three phones did extremely well capturing a very dark scene but the S21 (left) missed a bit of the detail that the iPhone 12 (centre) and Pixel 5 (right) grabbed.

examples that are very nitpicky. Overall, the colour accuracy and focus is sharp, and it was very easy to snap quick photos with excellent results.

However, as you can see in my S21 Ultra review (page 51), the differences are quite noticeable. It’s frustrating that phone makers are reserving the best cameras for phones with the biggest screens, but if photography is important to you, then you should definitely consider the Ultra, even at a £180 premium.

Verdict When you boil it down, the Galaxy S21 isn’t all that different from the S20. It has the same size screen and the same

camera, along with less RAM and a lower resolution. You’re also giving up a microSD card slot.

But those changes won’t be all that noticeable to most users, and it comes with a nice £200 price cut over the S20.

At £769, the Galaxy S21 is one of the best premium smartphone bargains I’ve seen in years. You’re also unlikely to find a Exynos 2100 phone for less until the second half of 2021. Michael Simon

Specifications

• 6.2in (2,400x1,080; 421ppi) Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+ display • Android 10, One UI 3.1 • Exynos 2100 (5nm) processor • Octa-core (1x 2.9GHz Cortex-X1, ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 71

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3x 2.8GHz Cortex-A78, 4x 2.2GHz Cortex-A55) CPU • Mali-G78 MP14 GPU • 8GB RAM • 128GB storage • Three rear-facing cameras: 12Mp, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/1.76in, 1.8µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS; 64Mp, f/2.0, 29mm (telephoto), 1/1.72in, 0.8µm, PDAF, OIS, 1.1x optical zoom, 3x hybrid zoom; 12Mp, f/2.2, 13mm, 120-degree (ultra-wide), 1/2.55in 1.4µm, Super Steady video • Selfie camera: 10Mp, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 1/3.24in, 1.22µm • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot • Bluetooth 5.0, A2DP, LE • GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO • NFC • USB Type-C 3.2; USB On-The-Go • Fingerprint scanner (under display) • Non-removable 4,000mAh lithium-ion battery • Fast charging 25 watts • 151.7x71.2x7.9mm • 169g

4. XIAOMI MI 11

Price: £749 (inc VAT) from fave.co/3ewSpqf The Mi 11 is yet another compelling flagship from Xiaomi, with serious 72 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

internal specs paired with product design that’s been polished to a tee, so long as you don’t mind that it’s a big phone even by modern standards.

The main gripe remains a familiar one – Xiaomi’s MIUI Android skin remains middling at best, and the clunky software keeps tripping the hardware up, holding the Mi 11 back from being truly perfect.

Design I’ve already said that the Mi 11 is big, but it’s worth emphasizing. At 164.3x74.6mm across the front, it’s only a hair smaller than the Galaxy S21 Ultra (page 51) – the largest phone in the new Samsung line-up.

In Xiaomi’s defence, it’s kept the Mi 11 impressively slim at 8.1mm, which has no doubt helped it keep the weight just below 200g, at 196g for the standard glass model. That means while the phone is undeniably bulky, it at least never feels uncomfortably heavy.

Even so, this will be a dealbreaker for many (and of course, a selling point for as many more). While the likes of Samsung, Apple and OnePlus offer a smaller standard model with the option to upgrade to a larger display, Xiaomi has gone all-in on the big phone, so bear that in mind.

Setting the size aside, Xiaomi has applied some lovely touches to the

Grey (our review unit). There’s also a limited edition version wrapped in leather if you can find it.

If I had to knock any element of the design other than the phone’s sheer size, it would probably be the rear camera module. Credit to Xiaomi for opting for a bold design, one which accentuates the At 164.3x74.6mm across the front, it’s only a smidgen smaller than the Galaxy S21 Ultra. lenses rather than try to hide them, but I design here. The most noticeable is the have to admit that the set of mismatched quad-curved display, which features circles and squircles isn’t to my taste – a subtle curvature on each of the four though it may be to yours. sides of the panel.

It’s also worth noting that there’s no It’s not enough to impact usability official waterproof rating here to speak – as on some of the super-curved of. That doesn’t mean the phone won’t ‘waterfall’ screens – but it really improves survive a bit of rain, but it does mean the hand-feel of the phone, especially there are no guarantees it would survive when swiping in from the top and a drop into the bath. bottom edges. Even curved screen Display sceptics – of which I am one – should If the Mi 11 is a large phone, you’ve got enjoy the implementation here. the 6.81in display to blame – or thank.

On the standard edition of the This substantial screen is an AMOLED phone you’ll find Gorilla Glass 5 on the panel with a slim bezel thanks to the back (with the stronger Gorilla Glass quad-curving I’ve already mentioned, Victus over the screen), and Europe gets and interrupted only by a small corner two colour options: Horizon Blue, and punch-hole selfie camera. the admittedly slightly dull Midnight ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 73

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The display’s colours are bright and vibrant, and contrast is solid too.

With a 120Hz refresh rate and WQHD+ resolution (3,200x1,440 which nets an impressive pixel density of 515ppi) it’s difficult to fault the screen specs here, and it looks fantastic in most use cases. And yes, you can use that high refresh rate and maximum resolution simultaneously.

Colours are bright and vibrant, and contrast is solid too, while HDR10+ support ensures that it’s a capable display for video playback too.

If there’s one fault it’s that maximum brightness is a little low. This won’t often pose a problem, but I worry that in bright sunlight (which the UK hasn’t had much of lately) visibility might suffer.

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It also holds back HDR performance, with blacks collapsing together a bit at times – expect the HDR to be good, but perhaps not great.

Performance There’s less to worry about when it comes to performance, as the Mi 11 was the first phone released to pack the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset. The global version of the phone is paired with 8GB of RAM, though in some markets it’s also available in a 12GB variant.

Performance in benchmarks is phenomenal, especially on the CPU side, with the highest Geekbench scores we’ve seen outside of the iPhone 12 series.

The GFXBench graphics test scores may look underwhelming at first glance, but bear in mind that this is the only phone in our comparison chart running at both 120Hz and WQHD+ resolution, a combination which makes the frame rates hit here much more impressive than they may seem.

Geekbench 5 (multi-core) Xiaomi Mi 11: 3,684 Samsung Galaxy S21: 3,263 Apple iPhone 12: 3,746 Google Pixel 5: 1,625 OnePlus 8T: 3,133 Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro: 3,388

GFX Manhattan 3.1

Xiaomi Mi 11: 54fps Samsung Galaxy S21: 67fps Apple iPhone 12: 60fps (Metal) Google Pixel 5: 20fps OnePlus 8T: 61fps Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro: 50fps With benchmarking performance this strong, it should come as no surprise that in day-to-day performance the phone is also a dream. In my two weeks of testing I haven’t hit so much as a moment of lag or a single freeze.

As for storage, the Mi 11 ships with a choice of 128GB or 256GB UFS 3.1 storage, though there’s no microSD

slot – so that’s all the storage you get.

The phone is dual-SIM however, and of course supports 5G over Sub-6GHz bands. You also get the latest Wi-Fi 6E standard support, along with Bluetooth 5.2, making the Mi 11 hard to beat from a connectivity standpoint.

Biometrics are handled through optional face unlock and in-display fingerprint sensors – the latter of which is among the fastest and most reliable I’ve tested yet.

Unusually, it also doubles as a heartrate monitor. You’ll have to check this within the Mi Health app, and a single scan takes 15 seconds. If you already own a smartwatch or fitness tracker this is unlikely to be any more convenient, but if not then it’s handy to have an easy way to check your heart rate on the go.

Battery life With a 4,600mAh cell, battery life in the Mi 11 is unsurprisingly decent, but perhaps not as exceptional as other elements of the phone.

It reliably lasts a full day of use, but it’ll be running low by the time it gets there, so you will likely need to charge the phone daily. That’s fine when it’s new, but bear in mind that with battery degradation it’s likely that within two or three years of use it won’t quite make it to sundown so reliably.

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The comfort here is that charging speeds are phenomenal. Xiaomi ships the phone with a 55-watt USB-C charger in Europe (unlike in China, where it followed Apple in ditching the in-box plug) and it managed to top the phone up to 79 per cent in 30 minutes, with a full charge not taking much longer.

Battery life

Xiaomi Mi 11: 9 hours Samsung Galaxy S21: 9 hours, 2 minutes Apple iPhone 12: 6 hours, 36 minutes Google Pixel 5: 10 hours, 49 minutes OnePlus 8T: 13 hours, 24 minutes Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro: 14 hours, 24 minutes

Fast charge (30 minutes) Xiaomi Mi 11: 79% Samsung Galaxy S21: 56% Google Pixel 5: 45% OnePlus 8T: 91% The Mi 11 also supports 50-watt wireless charging, but bear in mind that you’ll have to buy the charger separately, and Xiaomi hasn’t yet confirmed how much it will charge for a compatible

charging pad to make the most of the speeds – the fastest the company sells in the UK right now is a 20-watt pad.

If you don’t mind slower speeds, the Mi 11 is compatible with existing chargers that use the Qi wireless standard (typically much slower at 5 watts or 10 watts). It also offers 10-watt reverse wireless charging for headphones and other accessories.

Photography The Mi 11 has a triple rear camera array – along with a single selfie shooter – consisting of a main lens, ultra-wide, and macro (there’s no telephoto sadly, perhaps the biggest drawback here).

Really though, this camera set-up is all about one lens.

The main camera is a 108Mp monster, with a large 1/1.33in sensor

The main camera is a 108Mp monster, with a large 1/1.33in sensor.

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and an aperture of f/1.9 that combine to allow the camera to capture more light than most rivals. It supports optical stabilization, and PDAF for focus.

While there’s an option to capture at 108Mp, most photos will capture at 27Mp with the help of quad-pixel binning – in which four pixels are combined into one for lower size photos that preserve most of the detail and light capture. In good lighting, there’s very little to complain about with the Mi 11’s main camera. Colours are punchy but remain realistic – there’s no aggressive over-saturation here – and shots are packed with detail, with little noise or artifacting. Shooting in 108Mp cranks up the noise a little, though the resulting increase in detail may make it worthwhile on occasion, especially in good light.

Although the camera app presents a 2x zoom option, this is really just a digital crop, with no proper zoom lens on the hardware here. This is convenient on the fly, but the resulting shots suffer from poor exposure and aggressive sharpening – if you have the time you’ll get better results by taking regular shots and cropping in later.

The digital zoom goes up to 30x, but shots are so shaky and grainy that for the most part it’s really never worth it.

The 13Mp, f/2.4 ultra-wide may not sound like a serious step down in specs, but I was unexpectedly pleased with the quality of the resulting shots, which remain crisp and well-exposed.

There’s an inevitable loss of detail, and the colour-tuning is different here – the saturation and vibrancy are more

This image was taken using the main lens.

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The following pictures (from top to bottom) were taken using the ultra-wide lens, 2x zoom and 30x zoom.

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aggressive, resulting in less natural colours. This isn’t best-in-class for an ultra-wide, but it won’t disappoint.

The final lens in the rear trio is a 5Mp macro camera. I’m used to some pretty terrible macro cameras in most phones, so I was pleased to note that it is possible to get good shots out of this one. That’s helped by the rare inclusion of autofocus, though it’s a little loose, so it’ll still take work to get your subject looking crisp. With no stabilization on

this lens shots also come out shaky all too often, and in low-light results get even worse. Ultimately, the macro lens here can get great close-up results out, but you’ll have to be patient, and prepared to put in the work to get them.

Finally, turning to the front, the selfie camera is a 20Mp, f/2.2 number. Selfies come out a touch soft – even after turning off the skin-smoothing that’s on by default – but generally the results here are strong too.

Here are a couple of photos taken using the Night mode. The top image was shot using the automatic setting, while the bottom photo was taken using the manual setting.

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Both the main camera and the selfie lens are capable of portrait shots.

Unsurprisingly the main camera does a much better job at subject and edge detection, only missing the occasional strand of hair, while the selfie camera managed to blur out the frame of a pair of glasses perched on the forehead (see below) – far from ideal.

Night mode is available on not only the main camera, but also the ultrawide and selfie. In fact, it’s not only available, but switched on by default – much like the latest iPhones, the Mi 11 will automatically switch to night mode in low light, though you also have

the option of manually triggering the effect, which seems to prompt a slower, stronger version of the effect.

It should come as no surprise that night shots through that main 108Mp camera impress. With the big sensor catching as much light as possible, Xiaomi’s algorithm is able to balance out exposure and reduce blowout, while preserving colours and avoiding washing out the sky.

The longer exposure of the full manual night mode definitely loses some detail to blur and occasionally overexposes scenes, but it also preserves much more colour range than the

Our final shots are a selfie (left) and a portrait selfie (right).

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comparatively muted automatic shots. I’m not sure which I prefer.

While night mode is available on both the wideangle and selfie cameras, results are considerably less impressive.

Lighting is uneven, colours artificial, and an unnatural The Xiaomi comes with the MIUI 12 Android skin. sharpening effect is noticeable. The Software selfie camera in particular does a decent So far I’ve focused on the Mi 11’s job at salvaging low light backgrounds, hardware, and the phone excels on but introduces so much noise and that count. Unfortunately, despite artifacting into faces that it doesn’t seem improvements to Xiaomi’s MIUI Android worthwhile. Useful in a pinch on a night skin, the software side remains the out, but that’s about it. stumbling block.

As for video, the Mi 11 can record MIUI 12 here sits on top of Android up to 4K at 60fps or 8K at 30fps on the 11. From an aesthetic perspective rear, or HD at 60fps on the front. It also Xiaomi has reined itself in a little, and features a few new video modes called most Android users should find the ‘movie effects’ that let you do things like experience familiar enough, with little freeze specific elements of the frame, or to object to once you play around with re-create the iconic cinema dolly zoom a couple of settings. Unfortunately, (here dubbed ‘magic zoom’). They’re fun, over time the frustrations build. Chief but finicky to pull off and obviously very among them are notifications, which situational. Great for TikTok no doubt, are far from reliable; all too often I’d but I doubt you’d find yourself reaching open WhatsApp to suddenly receive a for them often otherwise.

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deluge of messages from the last hour or two. Setting WhatsApp exceptions in the aggressive memory and battery management software helped somewhat, but hasn’t fixed the problem entirely.

Other irritations are less crippling. It’s all too easy to actually drag a notification down into a ‘floating window’, leaving you stuck with a tiny version of an app hovering around when all you wanted to do was read a message. Sometimes the volume slider just doesn’t appear when you press the volume buttons, leaving you unable to adjust distinct volume sources separately without diving into the full settings menu.

Even the strong camera isn’t devoid of app awkwardness. Like most Android camera apps the settings are littered about nonsensically – why is the macro lens hidden in the aspect ratio menu, rather than with the other camera modes?

More frustratingly, by default the camera shoots in the ‘Full’ aspect ratio – which confusingly means ‘full screen’ rather than ‘full photo’, and in fact crops your images to 20:9 to fit the display best, leaving you with weirdly narrow shots and a very tight field of view.

Make sure to switch to 4:3 if you want to actually use the full camera.

The phone also ships with a variety of pre-installed Xiaomi apps, some of which 82 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

can be uninstalled, and some of which can’t. Take care though – I uninstalled the Mi Health app, only to discover it isn’t in the Play Store and so can’t be re-installed without sideloading via an APK. Bemusingly, the Disney+ app is also listed as unavailable for the phone on the Play Store – though I can’t say if that’s Xiaomi’s fault or Disney’s.

Most of these problems are slight and easy enough to overcome, but it’s not really on to have to worry about them at all on a phone that costs £749.

This more than anything, is the reason I would still caution less tech-savvy buyers to look at Samsung, Google or OnePlus phones instead.

Verdict The Mi 11 is a fantastic bit of hardware for the price. The fastest chipset around, a beautiful display, and strong cameras are all packaged within a lovely bit of industrial design.

Some will miss the IP rating, though for me the bigger downsides are the choice of a macro over a telephoto lens, the only average battery life, and a software experience that still lags behind the key rivals. Dominic Preston

Specifications

• 6.81in (3,200x1,440; 515ppi) AMOLED, 1B colours, 120Hz, HDR10+ display

• Android 10, MIUI 12 • Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 (5nm) processor • Octa-core (1x 2.84GHz Kryo 680, 3x 2.42GHz Kryo 680, 4x 1.8GHz Kryo 680) CPU • Adreno 660 GPU • 8GB/12GB RAM • 128GB/256GB The OnePlus 8 Pro Ultramarine Blue colour doesn’t reflect light like the 8’s Interstellar Glow, but it’s a beauty in its own right. storage • Three rear-facing cameras: 108Mp, f/1.9, 26mm (wide), • Fast charging 55 watts 1/1.33in, 0.8µm, PDAF, OIS; 13Mp, • 164.3x74.6x8.1mm f/2.4, 123-degree (ultra-wide), 1/3.06in, • 196g 1.12µm; 5Mp, f/2.4, (macro), 1/5.0in, 5. ONEPLUS 8 PRO 1.12µm Price: £799 from fave.co/2SnYKc1 • Selfie camera: 20Mp, f/2.2, 27mm The OnePlus 8 Pro ushers in a bunch (wide), 1/3.4in, 0.8µm of firsts for the humble Android phone • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, maker. It’s the first OnePlus display Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot with a hole-punch camera and a 120Hz • Bluetooth 5.2, A2DP, LE, aptX HD, aptX refresh rate. It’s the first OnePlus phone Adaptive with wireless charging and a quad• GPS with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, camera. It’s the first time OnePlus GALILEO, BDS, QZSS, NavIC has made Wi-Fi 6 and 5G standard.

• NFC It’s even the first OnePlus phone with • USB Type-C 2.0, USB On-The-Go IP-rated water resistance.

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is also the first OnePlus handset to cots almost £900. To be fair, things have changed a lot since 2014, when Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S5 cost just £549 off-contract. But even though OnePlus can claim the 8 Pro costs hundreds of pounds less than the closest apples-to-apples comparison Galaxy phone, the price is still much more shocking on a OnePlus phone than a Samsung one.

While the 8 Pro is a fantastic phone that continues to shine a light on just how expensive premium Android phones have become, the light is less illuminative this time around. By throwing out its own playbook to give diehard fans everything they wanted, the OnePlus 8 Pro has joined the ranks of the phones it was supposed to undercut.

Design The design of the OnePlus 8 Pro doesn’t deviate much from that of its predecessor, the 7 Pro. Its dimensions are a touch bigger, and it’s a bit lighter (199g versus 210g) and thinner (8.5mm versus 8.8mm). There’s one noticeable deviation: the curved display now has a hole in the upper left corner for the selfie cam, rather than the delightful pop-up cam introduced on the 7 Pro. It’s probably for the best that OnePlus removed the moving and inherently 84 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

breakable parts, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I missed it. The pop-up selfie cam might have been a little gimmicky, but it gave the 7 Pro a unique feature that set it apart from other premium Android phones. The hole-punch camera gives it a sameness that makes it feel less special, amplified by the fact that the bezels haven’t really shrunk much either.

But while the overall look may be a little on the safe side, the OnePlus 8 Pro is still a very nice phone. My chief complaint is the rather bulbous camera bump, which is once again centred and vertical but noticeably thicker, making the OnePlus 8 Pro all but impossible to use on a flat surface. It’s better with one of OnePlus’s bumper cases, but with such a beautiful, fingerprint-repelling frosted glass finish in Ultramarine Blue or Glacial Green, you won’t want to cover it with a slab of silicone.

Display While there are plenty of ‘pro’ components inside the OnePlus 8 Pro, none of them matter more than the display. OnePlus isn’t often at the forefront of screen tech – its first OLED screen didn’t arrive until late 2015, in fact – but the Fluid Display on the 8 Pro is on the absolute cutting edge of smartphone screen tech, belying the seemingly minor spec-sheet improvements over the 7 Pro:

edge rejection, which is a constant nuisance on a phone this size.

The brightness of the display helps the optical fingerprint scanner. On the whole, it’s speedier and more reliable than the S20’s ultrasonic sensor, but despite conscious effort from OnePlus to improve the experience, it’s still very hit-and-miss. All things being equal, I’d much The matte frosted glass on the OnePlus 8 Pro (right) looks even classier next to the glossy OnePlus 8. rather have 3D facial recognition such as the OnePlus 7 Pro: 6.67in 3,120x1,440, Google Pixel 4’s Face Unlock, even if that 516ppi, 19.5:9, 90Hz refresh rate meant a return to a notch.

OnePlus 8 Pro: 6.78in 3,168x1,440, Biometrics aside, the OnePlus 8 Pro 513ppi, 19.8:9, 120Hz refresh rate isn’t just the best screen OnePlus has made – it’s the first I’ve used that rivals We’re talking about a tenth of an inch the latest from Apple and Samsung. The more screen, a slightly taller aspect ratio, brightness, colour gamut and colour 30 more hertz of refresh, and three fewer accuracy truly raise the bar. But I’m pixels per inch. Taken together, though, not sure anyone who would consider all those small changes make a huge a OnePlus phone necessarily needs a difference. The faster refresh rate is the screen this good. It’s not that OnePlus most noticeable, with simply effortless customers aren’t discerning, but when scrolling and super-smooth transitions. faced with a £899 price tag, I wonder But even when you’re not touching the how many would-be buyers would just screen, the brightness, refined motion pick up a Galaxy or an iPhone instead. interpolation algorithms and HDR Boost Besides, the display on the £549 are noticeable. My only complaint is with OnePlus 7T is very good too.

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Performance With the Snapdragon 865 processor and next-gen Wi-Fi onboard, the OnePlus 8 Pro is every bit the screamer you’d think it is. I regularly topped 10,000 in PCMark Work 2.0 benchmarks, and my gigabit home Internet with an Orbi Wi-Fi 6 System delivered consistently fast speeds better than 600Mb/s (versus 450Mb/s on the OnePlus 7T). The S20 Ultra benchmarked a little better overall, but the 8 Pro is insanely fast. I didn’t get a chance to test the 5G modem. We’re still years away from super-fast 5G being as ubiquitous as 4G, so the extra expense for the 5G modem in the OnePlus 8 Pro won’t pay off for awhile.

What’s more impressive about the 8 Pro is the 4,500mAh battery. It’s a good size, but it performs like it’s much bigger.

Even with the 120Hz screen turned on, I was able to make it through a full day of heavy use with juice to spare, rivalling the performance of the 5,000mAh battery

in the S20 Ultra. Benchmarks bore this out, topping 10 hours in PCMark’s tests, an impressive feat for a battery under 5,000mAh in an Android phone.

The OnePlus 8 also introduces wireless charging for the first time. It’s a welcome addition, even though thirdparty charges are only supplying slow 5-watt charging. You’ll need to buy a separate Warp Charge 30 Wireless Charger (priced £70) to get the full 30 watts of power that the OnePlus 8 Pro is capable of, but most people should probably skip it. Not only is it pricey, but the built-in fan is so loud that OnePlus built a configurable bedtime mode that limits the charger to 10 watts, so it won’t disturb your sleep.

Helping the speed and power management is OnePlus’s delightfully minimal Oxygen OS. The new parts are relatively slight – most notably dark mode has been enhanced a bit, and Live Caption makes a welcome appearance –

The camera bump on the OnePlus 8 Pro is quite large.

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Samsung and Google are pushing out system updates near the beginning of every month, OnePlus’s update schedule seems stuck in the past.

Photography With such a high price tag, the expectations for the OnePlus 8 Pro are If not for the OnePlus logo on the back, you might mistake the 8 Pro for a Samsung phone. high as well, and no other component will but as usual, OnePlus’s skin is less about be more scrutinized than the camera. features than functionality. For example, On paper, the OnePlus 8 Pro’s camera the system can detect when you’re less is top-notch, sporting four lenses likely to use the screen – when you’re including a novel colour filter camera playing a movie, for instance – and and a new Sony IMX689 image sensor effectively lower the refresh rate to with a 1/1.43in sensor.

60Hz to preserve battery. Conversely, In a general sense, the OnePlus 8 the touch sampling rate is bumped to Pro takes great pictures, and anyone 240Hz when you are using the screen, who uses one to snap a landscape or a so tapping and scrolling feel even faster portrait in good-enough lighting will be than they look. However, OnePlus is happy with the results. However, it still still only promising bi-monthly Android feels like a generation or two behind updates with the 8 Series, a schedule the smartphone leaders. Just like last that’s not going to cut it for such as year’s 7T Pro was bested by the iPhone pricey phone. To be fair, updates could 11 Pro and Galaxy Note 10+, the 8 Pro arrive sooner than that, as OnePlus has isn’t quite at the level of its newest peers a robust beta programme to make sure when it comes to processing, particularly the final release is free of bugs. But when with night mode and action shots.

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In pitch black, the Pixel 4 (right) was still able to pull the correct colours and some detail, while the OnePlus 8 Pro, left, and OnePlus 8 (centre) struggled with white balance.

With solid hardware, the 8 Pro’s camera abilities could change with updates – and as such, a mid-review update did improve the speed of autofocus and quality of low-light shots –

but it’s unlikely the 8 Pro will see a huge leap. You can argue that the issues I’ve outlined are nitpicky, but for the price, the OnePlus 8’s camera should stand up to those in other like-priced handsets.

In dark lighting, the OnePlus 8 Pro (left) outdid the OnePlus 8 (centre), but the Pixel 4 does a better job with both exposure and clarity.

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When capturing motion, the OnePlus 8 pro (left) and OnePlus 8 (centre) both struggled, while the Pixel 4 (right) was able to perfectly freeze the moment.

Take night mode. While OnePlus has done a fine job with improving its phones’ low-light abilities over the years, the OnePlus 8 Pro still doesn’t quite measure up to Google’s stellar output.

In the image above, both phones are able to pull out an impressive amount of detail from pitch blackness. The Pixel 4 handled the colour properly, however, and captured far greater detail than either OnePlus phone. That advantage served the Pixel 4 in typical low-light conditions as well: Google’s processing engine did a better job with sussing details and preserving the integrity of the scene.

OnePlus’s inferior processing is evident with action shots as well. While OIS and Super Steady mode do well to

keep videos stable, the photo engine struggles to capture clean motion even in brilliant sunshine. In the photos below, the 8 Pro (left) was able to lock in on my son’s face, but his feet and hands are blurry, and the badminton shuttlecock and racket are barely recognizable. The Pixel 4, on the other hand, snapped the whole scene as if everything were perfectly still.

OnePlus’s most unique camera feature is its fourth lens, which introduces a colour filter lens for snapping Instagram-worthy shots at the source.

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You can have some fun with the filter camera on the OnePlus 8 Pro (from left, Photocroma, Vivid, B&W), but ultimately it’s a useless gimmick.

main lens. Granted, these are smallish problems, but for the price, good enough isn’t good enough anymore.

If OnePlus is going to compete in this space, it’s going to need a camera that challenges the Pixel and iPhone in the areas where they excel. The 8 Pro just isn’t on their photography level yet.

Verdict There’s no denying that the OnePlus 8 Pro is a great phone. It can hold its own against any other Android flagship when it comes to performance, and in an apples-to-apples comparison, you won’t find a better price for a phone with these specs. That said, the £799 starting price isn’t the same bang-for-your-buck deal that the £649 7 Pro was, especially when 90 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

you consider that it’s limited to just one colour, green. If you want the OnePlus 8 Pro in black or blue you’ll need to swing for the £899 model with 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM. That’s still less than the £999 S20+ or the £1,199 S20 Ultra, but the value isn’t nearly as apparent as it once was. OnePlus had an opportunity to expose how excessively expensive high-end Android phones have gotten. All it has proved with the 8 Pro is that building a cuttingedge 5G phone in 2020 is expensive.

Michael Simon

Specifications

• 6.78in (3,168x1,440; 513ppi) Fluid AMOLED capacitive touchscreen • Android 10.0; OxygenOS 10.0

• Qualcomm SM8250 Snapdragon 865 connector, USB On-The-Go (7nm+) processor • Non-removable 4,501mAh lithium• Octa-core (1x 2.84GHz Kryo 585, 3x polymer battery 2.42GHz Kryo 585, 4x 1.8GHz Kryo • Fast charging 30 watts 585) CPU • 165.3x74.4x8.5mm • Adreno 650 GPU • 199g • 8GB/12GB RAM GOOGLE PIXEL 5 • 128GB/256GB storage Price: £599 from fave.co/2SYhfnc • Four rear-facing cameras: 48Mp, Hot on the heels of the Pixel 4a, Google f/1.8, 25mm (wide), 1/1.43in, 1.12µm, has expanded its 2020 mobile portfolio omnidirectional PDAF, Laser AF, OIS; yet further to now include the Pixel 4a 8Mp, f/2.4, (telephoto), 1/1.0µm, 5G and the long-rumoured Pixel 5.

PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom; 48Mp, On the surface, the Pixel 5 serves f/2.2, 14mm, 116-degree (ultra-wide), to right the wrongs made by 2019’s 1/2.0in, 0.8µm, PDAF; 5Mp, f/2.4, (depth) • Selfie camera: 16Mp, f/2.5, (wide), 1/3in, 1.0µm • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dualband, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot • Bluetooth 5.1, A2DP, LE, aptX HD • GPS with dualband A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, SBAS • NFC • Fingerprint scanner (under display) • USB 3.1, Type-C Google’s Pixel 5 serves to right the wrongs made by the previous year’s erroneous Pixel 4.

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erroneous Pixel 4; namely by dropping the experimental Motion Sense gesture tech, trading its secondary telephoto camera in for an ultra-wide sensor and almost doubling battery capacity so that the phone actually lasts beyond a few hours at a time. While these changes may seem obvious, the The Pixel 5 sees the welcome return of a centrally-positioned rear fingerprint sensor.

Pixel 5 – and where it sits in the wider smartphone portability, weight, ease-of-use and landscape – is indicative of a shift in comfort in the hand.

Google’s smartphone strategy and points The Pixel 5, with its 6in display, to a very different future to the one that definitely cements its place on our Best older Pixel phones were designed for.

Small Phones list (see fave.co/2SWdNcO) Design because of its diminutive footprint, The most striking thing about the Pixel paired with a comfortable hand feel 5 isn’t its camera tech or how well the that’s wholly unique to this device.

Google Assistant is integrated into its It has a beautifully balanced design, software experience, it’s its design and being the only phone with what appears that’s thanks to two main factors: its size to be equally-sized bezels along all four and its finish. edges of the screen (most usually have It’s fair to say that there just haven’t a thicker bottom bezel). really been any good small Android The move away for the Motion Sense phones in recent years, with a few radar array of last year’s Pixels, plus the exceptions that barely scrape by. Most use of an in-display hole-punch front manufacturers have pushed for bigger camera (a trend Google first adopted displays in order to show off their with the Pixel 4a), is why the bezels of multimedia capabilities but in most the Pixel 5 are so much thinner; and cases, that’s been at the expense of then there’s the rounding.

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It’s a small detail, but both the body and the display of the Pixel have rounded corners that share proportionally complimentary radii; something you might overlook on paper, but in reality taps into that part of your (are at least my) subconscious that’s appeased by the visually congruent.

It brings a pleasing balance to the look of the Pixel 5 that’s also supported by its relatively thin 8mm waistline, rounded sides and impressively low weight (just 151g).

There’s also the finish, you won’t readily find metal-bodied smartphones nowadays, with glass or plastic being the preferred material of choice, especially when it comes a phone’s back panel.

The Pixel 5 is an enigma in this regard, as, along with signal performance, wireless charging is one key reason you don’t want to use a metal back and yet the Google has clad the 5’s internals in recycled aluminium, while also retaining support for wireless charging. How has it achieved this feat? Simple, it cut a hole in it.

It’s very hard to perceive, but in the right light you can actually see the shield-shaped cut-out Google has sliced out of the phone’s aluminium frame to allow the wireless charging coil to function. The Pixel 5 is covered in what it describes as a “bio-resin” which

gives the impression of a continuous unibody and the overall effect is wholly convincing; with the Pixel 5 presenting itself as a clean, well-built device.

There’s a light surface texture that offers a touch less grip than a glossy back would and picks up small abrasions disappointingly easily but it is, at least, brilliant at repelling fingerprints and feels nice in the hand.

This year, potential buyers only have two colour options to choose between: Just Black or Sorta Sage – a muted pale green that serves as a notable contrast to last year’s Clearly White and Oh So Orange colourways.

Google says this year’s choice of just two finishes comes as a direct result of supply chain limitations in the face of the global pandemic.

The colour-accented power button has also been replaced with a chromed button (along with a chromed ‘G’ logo on the lower half of the phone’s back) which Google says helps differentiate the more premium Pixel 5 from the Pixel 4a (5G) that it was announced alongside (which features a white power key).

The finishing touches that round out the Pixel 5’s design are its pleasingly small camera bump, the return of a centrally-positioned rear fingerprint sensor – which is undoubtedly more responsive and convenient than the Pixel ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 93

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a result, so it’s best left on Maximum brightness could be a touch higher but generallyspeaking, there’s little that detracts from the visual experience; with pleasing colours, contrast There’s little that detracts from the visual experience on the Pixel 5. and viewing angles at play.

4’s face unlock or in-display fingerprint You have the option to change sensors (both optical and ultrasonic) – between Natural and Boosted colour and IP68 dust and water resistance. profiles or opt for Adaptive mode, which is enabled by default (I never felt the Display need to change it), while Night Light will A taller, slimmer 19.5:9 aspect ratio warm up the screen colour temperature means the Pixel 5 offers a larger 6in in the evenings to help reduce eye strain. display compared to last year’s Pixel As for the Pixel 5’s audio chops, 4, without becoming that much wider a headphone jack doesn’t feature in-hand. Google hasn’t pushed the and there’s no in-box 3.5mm adapter boat out with the panel on this year’s or USB headphones, so you’re left Pixel, but it’s still a pleasingly crisp and either forking out extra for Bluetooth clear HDR10+-compliant, 90Hz, Full headphone or sourcing your own HD+, OLED offering.

USB-C to 3.5mm adapter (Google, That adaptive higher refresh rate no doubt, hopes that you choose to is enabled by default and although pick up a pair of its latest Pixel Buds technically consumes more battery life [£179] or its own-brand adapter [£12]). than locking the phone down to 60Hz, If that is an important consideration for gives you a far more responsive and you, the Pixel 4a (5G) does feature a premium-feeling user experience as headphone jack.

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With no visible earpiece, it was assumed that the Pixel 5 would host an under-display speaker, and sure enough, it works well in calls but doesn’t bring much to the table when serving as a loud-speaker.

It handles the higher frequencies while a downward-facing secondary speaker does most of the heavy lifting regarding the mids and bass tones.

That said, despite the promise of stereo sound and the frequency split across both speakers, the overall sound profile lacks punch or clarity, especially the louder you push it.

Software

functionality (the latter now lets you edit audio recordings and auto-transcriptions by highlighting each one to affect the other – it’s pretty impressive in practice).

Hold For Me – the Google Duplexpowered automated call holding feature – sounds promisingly helpful on paper but isn’t available at launch and if you’re outside the US, won’t be coming to your Pixel phone for the foreseeable, which is a real shame.

It’s really the small tweaks the elevate the software experience on the Pixel 5; the ability to both screenshot or grab on-screen information in a context-aware format with a simple swipe up, support for Live Captions (introduced last year) and the improved wallpaper and home screen customization tools.

There was never any doubt about the software experience that the Pixel 5 would be running outthe-box. Android 11 is the latest and greatest of Google’s mobile OS’s and as ever, this newest Pixel serves to show it off at its best.

This mainly takes the form of iterative improvements across a number of established features, with apps like Google Duo and Google’s Recorder Unsurprisingly, the Pixel 5 comes with Android 11. getting some additional

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None of this is groundbreaking stuff but Google has managed to both add and improve features without leaving the resultant software experience feeling bloated. That’s before you fold in the promise of three years of both security and OS updates, as well as a handful of camera and battery-related additions that we’ll come to in a moment.

The Pixel 5’s primary 12.2Mp sensor is accompanied by a 16Mp ultra-wide sensor.

Photography The Pixel line has grown to represent the power of computational photography on smartphones and as the years have gone on, that fact has only solidified further.

The Pixel 5’s primary 12.2Mp (Sony IMX363) sensor is the same unit used Google has replaced the Pixel 4’s telephoto for a new ultrawide lens.

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by the Pixel 4 series and even the Pixel 3 series before that; it’s a decidedly ageing component that’s remained in high regard, only because of what Google’s engineers have been able to achieve on the software and image processing side.

The Pixel 5’s video stabilization options.

This year, it’s accompanied by a 16Mp ultra-wide sensor, which sports a 107-degree field-of-view; not as wide as its competitors (the iPhone 12’s ultra-wide sensor sports a 120-degree FoV, for example) but still a great way to gain a new perspective on a subject or fit more in-frame without having to move position.

The biggest upgrade isn’t so much the decision to swap out the Pixel 4’s telephoto for this new ultra-wide (despite that being one of the biggest criticisms of the camera set-up on last year’s Pixels) but that Google has expanded standout features like Night Sight to work across all of the Pixel 5’s various sensors, automatically.

There’s also the addition of virtual portrait lighting, a multitude of new specialized video stabilization options and the ability to top out at 4K 60fps recording (up from 4K 30fps on the

Pixel 4). And all this while Google has seemingly dropped the use of a dedicated chip, like its predecessors’ Pixel Visual Core and Pixel Neural Core.

In side-by-side testing, the Pixel 5 was able to capture and process Portrait shots as quickly as, or faster than last year’s Pixel 4, so it looks as though Google’s confidence in this move seems valid.

As for picture quality, you’re getting a very similar result to last year’s Pixels.

Crop in and you’ll see some variation in sharpness, dynamic range and colour science – with the Pixel 5’s images being sharper, dynamically wider and a fraction cooler in those three regards – but the different decisions the camera is making over last year’s Pixel are both subtle and more a matter of personal preference, rather than an empirical improvement.

Video quality does seem improved, namely thanks to the option of that ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 97

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Here’s a shot of a rainbow taken using the defaults settings.

This is the same subject, but taken with the ultrawide lens.

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This photo was taken when the light was extremely low.

Here’s the same scene, but shot using the Pixel 5’s Night Sight mode.

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Virtual portrait lighting is well implemented on the Pixel 5.

higher frame rate, as well as different stabilization for different use cases. It’s definitely worth familiarizing yourself with these modes ahead of time though, as they all treat footage differently and most importantly, crop in on the frame to a different degree; depending on what type of content the phone thinks you’re going to capture.

Standard stabilization is on by default and seems wholly capable if you’re simply walking down the street or panning around from a fixed spot.

Locked is great for a zoomed, tripodstyle fixed position shot, while handheld, although the crop is quite heavy (starting at 2x).

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on the motion the phone is trying to counteract. Cinematic Pan is the most creative but also the most specialized – trimming out audio and slowing footage down to half speed while helping you capture a super-smooth horizontal pan while shooting handheld.

You can also disable image stabilization (although there’s no real need) although it’s clear that this only really kills the EIS (electronic image stabilization), while the main camera’s OIS (optical image stabilization) remains on.

HDR processing has also been improved and the feature-set expanded upon, along with a richer post-capture editing suite, but the other stand-out feature is virtual portrait lighting, which lets you add a virtual light against your

subject’s face that you can drag around on-screen, change intensity or have the phone automatically place and adjust.

While the feature isn’t new to smartphones in general, the Pixel 5 has one of the most impressively reliable and easy-to-use implementations of such functionality.

Geekbench 5 (multi-core)

Performance

Pixel 5: 20fps Pixel 4a 5G: 20fps Pixel 4a: 27fps Pixel 4: 48fps OnePlus Nord: 34fps OnePlus 8T: 61fps

The Pixel line has always been about a software and user experience that outshine – and aren’t explicitly limited by – the hardware that supports them.

This is most evident in the phone line’s camera technology, but with the Pixel 5 it’s also true of the processor running the show.

Google has always stuck Qualcomm’s flagship chip into its mainline Pixel phones, but near the end of said chip’s time in the spotlight. This was originally because a successor was always scheduled to be announced by Qualcomm only a month or so later, or in more recent years, because Qualcomm started to push out superior mid-life cycle revisions, such as in the case of the Snapdragon 855+ and 865+.

This year, Google is taking a different tack altogether, dropping from Qualcomm’s flagship-tier Snapdragon 800 series down to its 700 series chips instead.

Pixel 5: 1,625 Pixel 4a 5G: 1,631 Pixel 4a: 1,640 Pixel 4: 2,270 OnePlus Nord: 1,963 OnePlus 8T: 3,133

GFX Manhattan 3.1

Battery test

Pixel 5: 12 hours 34 minutes OnePlus Nord: 11 hours 26 minutes OnePlus 8T: 9 hours 17 minutes

Fast charge in 30 minutes Pixel 5: 45% Pixel 4a: 51% Pixel 4: 48% OnePlus Nord: 68%

Admittedly, the Snapdragon 765G that powers the Pixel 5 is the best that the 700 series has to offer and holds an advantage over the current 800 series when it comes to one of the phone’s key selling points – 5G. The 765G has an integrated 5G modem, while the ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 101

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865 still relies on a standalone unit. This means greater power efficiency, but the 765G has also proven to be a superb processor in its own right, regardless of its standing in Qualcomm’s portfolio.

It’s the same chip found in top-notch phones like the Nokia 8.3 5G, Vivo X50 Pro and OnePlus Nord.

In real-world use, the Pixel 5 handles as you’d expect any flagship phone to and paired with the lightweight Android 11 software and 8GB of RAM (the most of any Pixel so far), makes for one of the cleanest and most responsive user experiences on the market, right now.

Oddly, it benchmarks relatively poorly to comparable devices, so poorly in fact something seems amiss. The numbers produced by our performance-focused Extreme Battery Saver is useful in a pinch.

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benchmarks don’t reflect the real-world performance that the phone clearly delivers and tests from other Android 11-based phones also show notably lower scores than Android 10-toting devices powered by similar hardware.

As such, we’ve concluded that either the benchmarking apps or Android 11 require better optimization. The original point still stands, however, the Pixel 5 delivers superb real-world performance and is as well-suit to gaming as it is multi-tasking or photography.

Battery The Pixel 4 was a promising Android phone undone by some of the worst battery life in recent memory. It was an issue fundamentally caused by the

small 2,800mAh cell that the phone all Google really needed to hit. It’s no used and it was at the top of our wish battery champ, though. list of improvements that the Pixel 5 Android 11 on the Pixel 5 does also needed to make. introduce the Extreme Battery Saver Thankfully, Google looks to have feature (coming to older Pixel devices in listened and while the bump in battery future), which if enabled locks down app capacity isn’t transformative, it turns the access to the phone’s base functions, Pixel 5 into a phone that you’d be happy save for any apps you white list. to live with, rather than one that you’d Google proudly promises up to 48 be scared to use for fear of it dying the hours of use using this mode, but that’s moment the screen lights up. something other phones are capable Despite its small proportions and of during normal use, so wouldn’t be relatively thin frame, the Pixel 5 features the first thing we shout about when a far larger 4,080mAh cell, compared to recommending the Pixel 5. its predecessor. Like before, it supports Verdict fast charging (still 18-watt PD charging) The Google Pixel 5 sheds some of the and up to 12-watt wireless charging. series’ more experimental features to Reverse wireless charging is now part of deliver a more focused smartphone the Pixel recipe too.

In battery benchmark tests, the Pixel 5 delivers promising numbers, lasting 12.5 hours under artificial conditions.

In real-world use, the phone proves to be far more pedestrian, with a somewhat unexciting 4.5 to 5 hours of screenon time per charge.

However, this works out to a day’s use without worry and with the bar The Pixel 5 is the most balanced Android phone you can get. as low as it was, that’s ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 103

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experience that exemplifies some of the best qualities of Android as a platform.

The hardware isn’t competitive to the same degree as offerings from the likes of Oppo, OnePlus or Realme, but that doesn’t stop the Pixel 5 from being greater than the sum of its parts.

This device is a reliable all-rounder, a great long-term purchase – both in terms of software support and based on the fact that 5G infrastructure continues to improve – a superb small Android phone and an outstanding camera phone to boot. Google has finally realized that the Pixel can’t compete with the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach of some top-tier smartphones, but also that it doesn’t have to. The Pixel 5 is perhaps the most balanced Android smartphone on the market and if you related to any of the use cases I just mentioned, then this is definitely worth considering, even if rivals offer more for less. Alex Walker-Todd

Specifications

• 6in (2,340x1,080; 432ppi) OLED, 90Hz, HDR10+ touchscreen • Android 11 • Qualcomm SDM765 Snapdragon 765G (7nm) processor • Octa-core (1x 2.4GHz Kryo 475 Prime, 1x 2.2GHz Kryo 475 Gold, 6x 1.8GHz Kryo 475 Silver) CPU 104 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

• Adreno 620 GPU • 8GB RAM • 128GB storage • Two rear-facing cameras: 12.2Mp, f/1.7, 27mm (wide), 1/2.55in, 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS; 16Mp, f/2.2, 107-degree (ultra-wide), 1.0µm • Single selfie camera: 8Mp, f/2.0, 24mm (wide), 1/4.0in, 1.12µm • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot • Bluetooth 5.0, A2DP, LE, aptX HD • GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS, BDS • NFC • USB Type-C 3.1 • Fingerprint scanner (rear mounted) • Non-removable 4,080mAh lithiumpolymer battery • Fast charge 18 watts • 144.7x70.4x8mm • 151g

Fight Google’s data cap with a simple change to Google Photos Do you want to pay Google to store photos for the rest of your life? No? We have a simple, free solution to avoid it. MARK HACHMAN reports

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ntil now, uploading photos on your Android phone had seemed like a perfectly good idea. Now, however, that decision is going to hit you right in the wallet.

From 1 June, Google began to enforce its new storage policy. Going forward,

blocking photos from uploading to Google Photos, as weird as it sounds, will eventually save you money.

Let us explain. If you take a photo on an Android phone, it automatically uploads itself to the Google cloud, where it’s stored in perpetuity. Those ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 105

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photos are stored in what Google calls “high resolution” by default – something close to the original resolution you shot.

What Google previously offered was an agreement to store every single one of those ‘high resolution’ photos for free, no matter how many there were or how much space they consumed. Now, every new photo, movie, Google Doc, Sheets, Drawings, Forms or Jamboard starts counting against your Google data cap – which is 15GB by default, as part of the free tier of what Google now calls Google One. Remember, your Google One cap includes Google Drive, Google Photos, and your Gmail email. (An exception applies to all Google Pixel phones.

Google will continue to store all photos in high-quality resolution on any Pixel phone for free.)

When you hit your limit, you’ll start to receive emails from Google, asking you to pay the oh-so-affordable rate of £1.59 per month (£15.99 annually) for an extra 100GB. If you ignore these warnings, Google will start deleting your old photos and movies after two years.

It’s a very, very subtle push to encourage you to pay for Google’s services for – let’s face it – the rest of your life.

HOW TO BLOCK YOUR PHOTOS FROM UPLOADING TO GOOGLE

That is, unless you do something about it. And it’s easy. Open the Photos app on your phone, and click your user icon in the upper right-hand corner.

A small menu will open that shows you where your photos are being synced to, and how much of your phone’s storage is already backed up in the cloud. What we want to do is prevent further backups, so the next step is to click Photos Settings. At the top of the Settings menu is an option, Back up & sync. Click it, and there’s a toggle to turn this functionality off.

That’s it. When you return to the main Google provides you an estimate of how much cloud storage you have available via Google Photos at photos.google.com/storage.

Photos page, your user 106 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

*19 61 $#%- UP YOUR PHONE’S PHOTOS TO 16*'4 %.17& 5'48+%'5

Google’s Google One storage plans.

icon will display a minuscule cloud with a line through it that may be just barely visible. This tells you that your photos aren’t being backed up.

(Note: you’ll still see the photos on your phone in the Google Photos app.

They just won’t be backed up.)

Click the Backup & sync option, then toggle it off.

There are alternatives to Google Photos.

At least on Android, Microsoft’s OneDrive offers the most convenient cloud alternative, as its app can be automatically set up to back up photos and movies. The free version allows only 5GB of free storage before Microsoft, too, demands payment.

(If you already pay for Microsoft 365, Ì Õ} ] Þ Õ½Ài «À L>L Þ w i° 1Ãi Ì >Ì instead.) Otherwise, you’ll want to use the OneDrive app on Windows and simply cut and paste your photos out of OneDrive and store them on a PC or an external drive.

Unfortunately, Box doesn’t offer automatic photo backup on Android, though you can ‘share’ photos on your Camera Roll to the Box cloud.

(A separate app exists for iOS, called Box Capture.) The free tier offers 10GB of storage.

Dropbox is much more convenient, as it, too, has a mobile app that can upload your entire photo gallery and ISSUE 87 • ANDROID ADVISOR 107

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sync as it goes. But Dropbox offers only 2GB for free.

At this point, you may just shrug and add Google’s monthly fee on top of your Netflix, Disney+, Amazon, Sky, ISP, and every other service and subscription that you already pay for. But if you don’t want to give in to Google, you don’t have to.

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Google Assistant’s Broadcast feature can now reach you from your phone Family members can now get broadcasts from Google Assistant even when they’re not near a Google smart speaker. BEN PATTERSON reports

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ooking to summon the entire family even when some loved ones are out and about? Google Assistant’s Broadcast feature can now do just that, thanks to a recent update. Google has

also rolled out an improvement to the Assistant’s Family Bell feature.

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group on their phones as well as on Google smart speakers and displays.

For example, you could say “Hey Google, tell my family, dinner will be ready in an hour” from the Google Nest Hub Max in the kitchen, and Google Assistant will broadcast the message to all the other Google speakers and displays in your home, as well as on the iPhones and Android phones of any on-the-go family members.

If you receive a Broadcast from Google Assistant on your smartphone, you’ll be able to reply by voice, or you could tap out a reply by hitting the Reply button.

Previously, the Google Assistant mobile app only let you create Broadcast messages on your phone, not receive them.

FAMILY BELL IMPROVEMENTS Google also unveiled some updates to its Family Bell feature, which lets you set Google Assistant to remind family members when lessons are about to start, when it’s time for a snack, when lunchtime begins, and so on. I’ve become a dedicated Family Bell user since the feature first arrived, particularly given that our daughter was having remote lessons.

Frustratingly, however, Family Bell reminders have – until now, at least – 110 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 87

been restricted to sounding from only one Google smart speaker or display.

That means my daughter wouldn’t hear the ‘Time for morning lesson’ bell on the Nest Hub Max in the kitchen if she happened to be downstairs.

I’ve been bugging Google reps about this issue for months now, and it looks like they’ve finally done something about it. Google says it’s rolled out the ability for Family Bells to ring on multiple Google speakers and displays rather than just one.

Besides multi-speaker Family Bell functionality, the Family Bell feature will support eight new languages in the ‘coming weeks’, including French, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Hindi, and Korean.

Also coming soon to Family Bell: the ability to simply say “stop” to silence a bell, rather than having to preface the command with “Hey Google”.

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