Android Advisor Issue 14 2015

LATEST SMARTPHONE, TABLET AND APP REVIEWS

ANDROID ADVISOR ANDROID M NEW NEXUS

ISSUE

14

PHONE

Coming soon from Google

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LG G4 - is this the best new phone of 2015?

Welcome... I

t's that time of year again when Google lets us know exactly what it's got in store for Android. Google I/O was scheduled to run just after we went to press with this issue, and on the following pages we examine exactly what we should expect. It's more than likely we'll get a first glimpse at the forthcoming Android M OS (page 15), and although it may be too early for I/O we're already hearing rumours of a new Nexus phone for 2015 (page 9). But as well as looking at what's to come, we're celebrating what we've already got. We had big hopes for the finally announced LG G4, but is it another flagship killer? Find out on page 58. When you're at home you probably switch to a Wi-Fi- rather than mobile connection for getting online on your Android phone or tablet. It really bugs us that in order to get Wi-Fi we also have to pay for a phone line we never use. But do we? We investigate the alternatives to ADSL on page 26. If you are using a mobile connection, and particularly a 4G connection, you might be wondering about those advertised high speeds. It's fast, sure, but there's an important difference between 4G and LTE. If you're not getting the speeds you expect we explain why not on page 39. As always, we hope you’ve enjoyed this issue of Android Advisor. Feel free to send us your feedback via facebook.com/AndroidAdvisorUK or email [email protected].

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GOOGLE I/O: What to expect Google's annual conference runs at the end of May. What will the Android maker bring to the table in 2015?

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oogle I/O will be held at Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco from 28- to 29 May. We take a look at what to expect from Google in 2015 including Android M, Google Glass 2.0, Project Ara and more.

Android M One of the most obvious things to expect this year from Google is a new version of Android. Following the alphabetical list of sweet deserts, this version will begin with the letter M (place your bets for the name now). Don't be expecting a big new version, though: ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 3 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 3

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Android M is likely to be 5.1 and bring along new features and tweaks. After all, 5.0 Lollipop was the big overhaul with the Material Design. As to when Android M will arrive is unclear, but it's likely to be during the summer and in the second half of the year. The first time we're likely to hear about it from Google is at Google I/O.

Google Glass 2.0 Whether or not you think Google Glass is a passing fad, we could well see a new version this year. Google closed the Explorer Program on 19 January


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so you can no longer purchase the Explorer Edition, but that's not the end of the wearable gadget. Google has confirmed that it is "continuing to build for the future, and you’ll start to see future versions of Glass when they’re ready". According to the Wall Street Journal, we'll see a new version this year that will use an Intel chip. And at Google I/O we could get some more details. Google Glass was first introduced at Google I/O, so this year's conference seems like the perfect time and place to unveil the new version – even if it is in a prototype stage of development.

Android Silver/Nexus A grey area is Android Silver, which is Google's supposed scheme for creating Android devices under a set of requirements, a bit like Ultrabooks. This would mean any manufacturing partner to make a smartphone or tablet within the rules would get the Android Silver branding. Google has not confirmed plans for this and recent reports claim it's been scrapped due to a lack of interest from partners. It's also unclear whether Android Silver will replace the Nexus range of devices. That Google will ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 5 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 5

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continue with Nexus is more likely, and as we'll see on page 9 we're expecting to see at least one new Nexus phone (and likely a tablet or phablet) this year.

Project Ara One thing we can definitely expect for 2015 is Project Ara, Google's modular smartphone concept. It will allow you to upgrade individual parts of the phone such as the camera or processor in a plugand-play fashion. There is some competition in this area, but eyes are on Google to lead the way. "Project Ara is a development effort, not an official Google product. Consequently, we don’t have a market launch date. However, we’re working toward a limited market pilot in 2015," said Google on its website for the project.

Android TV and Android Auto Google spent some of its 2014 I/O conference talking about Android TV and Android Auto, versions of the OS for the living room and the car. We expect to see the firm push on with these in 2015 as


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Android TV replaces the failed Google TV. Sets from Sony, Sharp and Philips will come with Android TV this year. We expect to see some set-top boxes, too. It might take a little longer to see Android Auto integration, as this is still a new area for this kind of tech. However, big strides are set to take place in 2015. For example, we saw Parrot announce the RNB6 at CES, which is both Android Auto- and Apple CarPlay ready – it's due to launch later this year.

Android Wear For a while it seemed as though Google would introduce an update to the Android Wear OS for smartwatches at I/O 2015, but it didn't wait for May and instead got out its update out there around the time of the rival Apple Watch launch. The 'Diamond' update brings various new features, including Wi-Fi support, new gestures and emojis. That news doesn't mean we won't hear about Android Wear at Google I/O 2015, though. It's likely we'll hear about what the firm plans to do next and we could even see new devices at the conference. ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 7 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 7

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We're hoping Google will launch its own Nexusbranded smartwatch.

Child-friendly products and services According to a report by USA Today, Google is looking to launch child-friendly versions of its products and services this year. We're talking kids aged 12 and under. This should mean new versions of Chrome and YouTube at least. "The big motivator inside the company is everyone is having kids, so there's a push to change our products to be fun and safe for children," said Pavni Diwanji, vice president of engineering.


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NEW NEXUS PHONE: Google's plans for 2015 Nexus fans not so keen on phablets will be pleased to learn talk of a new Nexus phone is of a Nexus 5!

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oogle unveils a new Nexus phone every year, and a 2015 Nexus phone is already in the works. But with the names Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 6 and Nexus 7 already in use, what exactly will we get in 2015? We examine the rumours surrounding what should be the new Nexus 5 2015. In October 2014 Google announced its Nexus 6 phone. It was expected to go on sale in November, but it was actually getting on for Christmas before stock was available. People were desperate to get their hands on the new Nexus 6, despite the fact it was possibly ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 9

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Google's most unexciting phone launched yet. Sure, it had the brand-new Lollipop OS and some powerful hardware inside, but for many customers the 5.96in Quad HD display was simply too big, while the £499 price no longer offered such brilliant value as did the previous Nexus 5 and Nexus 4. Google noticed the difference in its Q1 2015 earnings call, too. While takings were up 23 percent YOY from Google Play, revenue was down 3 percent compared to the previous quarter, and the Nexus 6 hadn't been nearly as successful as previous Nexus devices. It's possible that the 2014 Google phone was simply priced too high to garner the same kind of mass appeal as did the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5. And those phones really were killer Google phones, with the Nexus 4 announced in 2012 with an unbelieveably low SIM-free price of £239, and in October 2013 the Nexus 5 followed that tradition with unrivalled value for money at £299.


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That's the Nexus 4, Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 covered. Meanwhile, the Nexus 7, which was last refreshed way back in 2013, is still one of the bestvalue 7in tablets around (the Nexus 9 and Nexus 10 are larger tablets). Google no longer officially stocks the Nexus 7, but you can still get your hands on one online, and for not much more than £100.

Early rumours suggest Google is in talks with both LG and Huawei for its new Nexus phone What will the new Nexus phone be called?

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With only the Nexus 8 model name going spare, Google's either going to have to start refreshing its existing product lines, adding the year as it did with the second-gen Nexus 7, or go down the Apple route with the addition of an 'S'. Perhaps in 2015 we'll get a new Nexus 5s, or a new Nexus 6s. …Or both. Since early rumours circulating on the web suggest Google is in talks with both LG and Huawei for its new Nexus phone (which LG has now confirmed, saying the new Nexus phone is "under consideration at LG"). It's possible that we'll see both a new phone and a new tablet, or maybe a new phone and a new phablet, with LG making one device and Huawei the other. LG, of course, made the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5, while Motorola made the Nexus 6, Asus made the Nexus 7, HTC made the Nexus 9 and Samsung the Nexus 10. Huawei, meanwhile, has just launched ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 11 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 11

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a very interesting, very good-value phablet in the Huawei P8 max, alongside its flagship Huawei P8. It's possible, then, that we'll see a new Nexus 5 2015 from LG and a new Nexus 6 2015 from Huawei, although most sources online suggest there will simply be a new Nexus 5, and it's up in the air whether LG or Huawei will make it.

Google might return to its previous tack: high-end devices with mid-range prices When is the new Nexus 5 coming out? Google I/O 2015 will be held at the end of May 2015, and it's then that we'll get our first glimpse of Android M, the OS that will run on the new Nexus phone(s). Following tradition, though, the new Nexus phone(s) won't be unveiled until later in the year, and most likely October, alongside the final version of the new Android OS. We expect Google would like to get the new Nexus device(s) on sale in November. In terms of pricing, until we know the exact specification, we can merely speculate. The Nexus line is known for its value, and we really can't see Google taking prices any higher than its £499 Nexus 6. Much more likely, given the findings of its Q1 2015 earnings call, is that it will return to its previous tack: high-end devices with mid-range prices. The fact it's in talks with Huawei is very interesting. Huawei is a Chinese manufacturer that makes devices with specs to rival the big brands such as Apple and Samsung, but at significantly

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lower prices. It's one of the better-known Chinese phone makers in the UK, and in the first quarter of this year in China itself it was second only to Xiaomi in terms of market share. Both are more popular over there than Apple and Samsung, with Xiaomi taking 14 percent of the market and Huawei 11 percent, according to IHS Technology. If Huawei is to build the next Nexus phone, we could see the price fall right back down to around £300- to £350. However, if Huawei is in charge, we're really hoping availability won't become an issue once again: the P8 and P8 max should have gone on sale in the UK on 15 April, but in early May were still impossible to find on sale.

What to expect from the new Nexus 5 Concept images of a new Nexus 5 2015 have been posted on Google+ by designer Miqdad Halim. These feature both an LG Nexus 5 2015 and a

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Samsung Nexus 5 2015. Halim lists some specs below each concept, although you should take them with a pinch of salt. Both suggest there will be a 5.2in full-HD screen, an octa-core processor and a 13Mp rear camera. A more convincing leak is the phone used in Google's own promo video for Project Fi, from which the pictures in this article were taken. It's clearly not a Nexus 6, despite the fact that is the only available handset that works with Project Fi right now, so could it be a Huawei-made Nexus phone? It's impossible to tell what specification a Huaweimade Nexus 5 or Nexus 6 might carry, but based on its recent P8 and P8 max launch we're going to guess that there will be a 5.2in full-HD display, 3GB of RAM, 13- and 5Mp cameras, and a Kirin- rather than Qualcomm octa-core processor. It'll be a 4G phone and, fingers crossed, since this will be a Chinese phone, potentially dual-SIM - are we about to see dual-SIM make real inroads in the UK? Alternatively, if Google opts to work with LG once again, we could very well see another Quad HD display, as was seen on the Motorola-made Nexus 6. 14 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 14

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ANDROID M: What we want to see We've got a list of fixes and new features for you, pretty please, Google

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ndroid 5.0 Lollipop is now in use on many smartphones and tablets, but we're futurethinking and here's what we want to see in Android M, which we expect Google to give us the first glimpse of this month.

Better performance Android Lollipop supports 64-bit and uses the Android runtime instead of Dalvik, therefore offering improved performance over previous versions, but we don't want Google to stop there – and we're pretty sure it won't. ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 15 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 15

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Modern smart devices such as phones and tablet are brilliant but the hardware inside them means that battery life is always a struggle. Project Volta in Android Lollipop improves things, but we want more. Whether it's a software or hardware thing, or a combination of both, we don't really care.

Synched notifications If you own multiple devices (not necessarily all running the same OS), such as a smartphone and a tablet, you'll probably get annoyed at dismissing notifications you've already seen and to which you have responded. We get frustrated when we respond to an email on a phone only to be told about it again when we then pick up a tablet. Add other devices into the mix, such as a smartwatch, and it's notification overload. What we want are notifications that dismiss themselves once they've been seen on one of your logged-in devices. Cross-platform, too.

Better parental controls Android, unlike iOS, allows you to have multiple accounts on the same device. This is a great feature


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and means parents can set up accounts for their children. Using a restricted account gives the ability to restrict access to certain apps and content, but we'd like some more advanced tools such as time limits and the ability to shut off access to any app or feature, not just those for which developers have chosen to allow it. It would also be good to be able to switch off in-app purchases or Google Play purchases to avoid the sting of an unexpected bill.

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Customisable gestures would allow you to set gestures for the features that matter most to you Clever gestures Android has all sorts of clever features and tricks, but Google's manufacturing partners have proved that there's more you can do with a touchscreen than simply swipe to unlock. LG, with the G2, implemented smart gestures such as KnockON allowing users to switchon and off the screen with a double-tap. Others have copied this and added more, allowing you to quick-launch features even when the screen is off. It's this kind of thing we'd like to see in stock Android, and preferably customisable so you can set gestures for the features that matter most to you.

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down and doesn't need to be. The Quick Settings menu (when you pull down the notification bar a second time) shows handy functions such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, location and mobile data. Why can't it show what we want it to show?

Ultra power saving We've seen many Android device makers create their own ultra power-saving modes that can, typically speaking, get around 24 hours of life from 10 percent of battery. This is achieved by switching to a simple greyscale interface, switching off powerhungry Wi-Fi and giving access only to basic features such as the dialer and messages. While you'll find it in various guises, it's not a part of stock Android, and we think it should be.

Enterprise Google needs to make it possible and easy to manage and secure a fleet of Android handsets in order to maintain its position in the mobile market. 18 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 18

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COMING SOON: Samsung Galaxy S6 Active It's the Galaxy S6 but tougher, and it features an SD card slot and a removable battery

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amsung's brilliant Samsung Galaxy S6 will be joined by a number of smartphone variants, including the Samsung Galaxy Edge, Samsung Galaxy S6 mini and Samsung Galaxy S6 Active. Here we round up the Samsung Galaxy S6 Active rumours, including new leaked photos.

Will there be a Samsung Galaxy S6 Active? The first mention of a Samsung Galaxy S6 Active came from a user on Reddit, who claims to have spoken to a Samsung rep who says there will indeed be a Samsung Galaxy S6 Active. More recently, Sammobile's various reports suggest the S6 Active does indeed exist, having passed the Bluetooth ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 19 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 19

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certification and been spotted in the Indian import listings. And it's been spotted in AT&T's inventory. Perhaps the clearest evidence of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Active's existence comes from Samsung itself, however. On Samsung's own site the S6 Active is among those devices listed as being eligible for its US Samsung Plus points scheme. The Samsung Galaxy S5 Active was announced in May 2014, two months after the standard Samsung Galaxy S5. Expect to see the same with the Samsung Galaxy S6 Active. (Our Reddit tipster also claims it'll get a mid-summer release.)

S6 Active specification According to Sammobile, the S6 Active will have many of the same specifications as the Samsung Galaxy S6, with a 5.1in Quad-HD Super AMOLED display, Android 5.0 Lollipop, octa-core Exynos 7420 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and 16- and 5Mp rear- and primary cameras. It will be slightly larger at 73.6x146.9x8.8mm, allowing for a more capacious 3500mAh battery. According to the aforementioned Reddit tip, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Active will also get the microSD card support missing from the S6. However, it will lose the heart-rate monitor and fingerprint scanner, and the camera will be downgraded. That goes against recently leaked photos purporting to be the Samsung Galaxy S6 Active, however, which show that although there's no fingerprint scanner, there is the same rear camera and heart-rate sensor at the back as on the standard Samsung Galaxy S6. The speakers have also been moved to the back. 20 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 20

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COMING SOON: Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2 Samsung's high-end iPad-rivalling Tab S tablets are due a refresh any day now

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uccessors to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and 10.5 tablets have leaked as the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2 8in and 9.7in. Here's everything we know.

When is the Tab S 2 coming out? According to Sammobile the Galaxy Tab S 2 8in and 9.7in will be released in the UK in June. The new Tabs will also go on sale worldwide, including the US, Canada, European markets, China, Latin America, Hong Kong, Korea and India. Samsung's Galaxy Tab S line-up are high-end tablets that are firmly pitched as Apple iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 rivals. We reckon we'll see the same ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 21 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 21

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again in 2015, which means prices starting at £319 for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2 8in and £399 for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2 9.7in.

What to expect from the Tab S 2 Sammobile has leaked specifications for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2 8in and 9.7in tablets, which use the model numbers SM-T710 and SM-T810 respectively. The leaked image at the top of the previous page also shows the Tab S 2 looking like a larger version of the Galaxy A5 phone. However, the leaker says the Galaxy Tab S 2 9.7 will be inspired by the Galaxy S6 and will be around 5.8-5.9mm thick. The tablets will be very similar to each other, with the main difference being a new metal frame and their screen size. While both screens have been slightly reduced over the 8.4- and 10.5in of the original Samsung Galaxy Tab S tablets, they have also switched to a 4:3 aspect ratio and the resolution has been reduced from 2560x1600 pixels to 2048x1536 pixels. The reduction in screen size means the drop in pixel density isn't as great as you might expect, and you're unlikely to notice the difference between the old (359ppi) and new (320ppi) compact Tab S, and old (288ppi) and new (264ppi) large-screen Tab S. As before, they will use Super AMOLED panels. Inside Sammobile says you'll find a Samsung Exynos 5433 processor (although this may be upgraded to the Exynos 7420 before the Tab S 2's release, given that the tablets will run Android Lollipop and therefore support 64-bit processing). There will also be 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage (plus up to 128GB via microSD). 22 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 22

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A tablet with the model name SM-T815, which is likely the cellular version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2 9.7in, has shown up in the GFXBench 3 database. According to the information held there, the processor is a 1.9GHz octa-core model using an ARM Mali-T760 MP6 GPU. Cat 6 LTE connectivity is rumoured to feature (we expect this will be optional, adding around £100 to the price), and there will be 3580- and 5870mAH batteries on the small and large models respectively. Both tablets will feature an 8Mp camera at the rear and 2.1Mp at the front. The new Samsung tablets are slimmer and lighter than their Apple rivals, with the Tab S 2 8in measuring 198.2x134.5x5.4mm and weighing 260g, and the larger Tab S 2 9.7in measuring 237.1x168.8x5.4mm and weighing 407g. By comparison, the 331g iPad mini 3 and 437g iPad Air 2 are 7.5- and 6.1mm thick respectively.


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Google makes mobile sites more app-like Chrome push notifications are coming, with eBay and Facebook soon taking advantage of the feature

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oogle has taken a big step in its efforts to make mobile websites act more like native applications on Android smartphones by adding notifications to its browser. One of the most convincing arguments for building an application instead of a website has been the ability to send notifications to users. Google is hoping to narrow that advantage by adding the feature to v42 of Chrome for Android. As a result, Android developers no longer have to decide between the engagement potential of a native app and the reach of a mobile website. For users, the notifications will look and act as those sent from applications. They still show up in the notification tray, but a click takes users to a website instead of an app. Users still have to opt in before a website can send them any messages. Early adopters in the coming weeks will include eBay, Facebook and Pinterest, according to Google.


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What notifications offer was a major theme at a recent event organised by the Online News Association in London. While they offer the opportunity to engage more closely with users, they are also the easiest way to get them to uninstall an app if not done right. It’s important to be upfront with how many notifications will be sent and what they will cover, and then stick to that. Companies such as Roost and Mobify are providing services that aim to make it easier for developers to integrate push notifications with their sites. The former allows companies to use its dashboard, its APIs and its WordPress plug-in to send notifications to Chrome users on Windows, Mac, and now Android, it said in a blog post. This upgrade is part of a larger effort by Google to make mobile-optimised websites look more like installed apps when using Chrome. The upgraded version also lets developers add a pop-up banner that users can click on to add the site to their home screen. Other changes include full offline support, and access to device capabilities such as the camera and geolocation.


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HOW TO GET BROADBAND WITHOUT A LANDLINE Why pay £17 a month for a phone line you never use?


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ou want broadband, but you don’t need a phone line. Sound familiar? Fortunately, there are ways to get your internet fix without paying BT’s monthly fee. This feature explains how you can have broadband without a phone line. Alternatives to traditional ADSL promise broadband connections without also demanding that you sign up for a phone line you may well never use. Shop carefully, though, as while such connections are often faster, they aren’t always as cheap as you might expect.

So why do we still pay £17 a month for a landline that few of us use and even fewer actually need? Landlines are so last century. If you’re anything like us, you’ll make most of your calls on your mobile phone, and other than that you’ll use email, WhatsApp, Hangouts and instant messaging to keep in touch with friends and family. Video calling is easy and – even better – it no longer requires thousands of pounds worth of kit to make it happen, so you can talk to distant relatives using nothing more than your voice and a cheap smartphone or tablet. So why do we still pay £17 a month for a landline that few of us use and even fewer actually need? Doesn’t it feel like a waste of money to be paying for it on top of your monthly broadband subscription? Isn’t it a con that you can’t get online with most of the headline broadband providers without being forced to pay for a hardly used voice line on top?

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You can stop paying for your landline right away – so long as you’re happy to change your broadband provider. If you’re not tied into an ongoing contract that imposes penalties for ducking out early, you should look again at the alternatives to traditional ADSL. We’re talking satellite, fibre to the house, cable and the ever expanding 4G wireless network. As we’ll show here, it’s easy to get online without signing up to ADSL. However, before jumping straight in, think carefully about your needs – and about the overall costs too. Some people may well be better off with an ADSL broadband deal that includes a monthly line rental charge.

Satellite broadband Ten years ago, satellite broadband would have been your only option if you lived far away from a major conurbation, but as access by traditional means has got faster and more comprehensive it’s now just one of several choices for most of us.


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Eutelsat champions satellite broadband as one of the cleanest means of communication The technology behind it isn’t particularly new, with Eutelsat launching its broadband-enabled e-BIRD satellite in 2003. Built by Boeing and launched on the back of an Ariane rocket, e-BIRD was designed to fly for a decade, but it’s still going strong and provides satellite broadband to Turkey, Greenland, and a whole swathe of Europe in between, Britain included. Eutelsat champions satellite broadband as one of the cleanest means of communication. The satellites themselves work off solar power, there’s no need to build expensive and polluting infrastructure on the ground – exchanges, cables and the like – and the launch procedure, potentially the most damaging part of the whole process, creates about the same amount of carbon pollution as a single jumbo jet flight from one side of the US to the other. Eutelsat sells its services under the Tooway brand through a range of distributors. To sign up, you’ll need to navigate a fairly Byzantine pricing structure that takes both usage and speed into account. At the budget end, Avonline Broadband’s entry-level service gets you 2GB of data, with downloads maxing out at 5Mb/s and uploads at 1Mb/s. It’s a 24-month contract, with the first three months charged at £9.99 and the remainder at £19.95 a month. Neither the speeds nor the cap compare favourably with a lot of regular ADSL.

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Avonline’s most popular package is a 25GB bundle with uncapped overnight downloads, which would make it worthwhile sitting up to grab your iPlayer programmes outside of peak. Or you can opt for uncapped email and browsing round the clock for £74.95 a month, with a 100GB cap on other data, such as streamed media. Multiply those prices by 24 months to find out what it’ll cost you over a standard contract and you’re looking at £448 at the lower end, rising to

£1,798 for the gold standard. You’ll need to add on either £5 a month to rent the necessary hardware (or £275 to buy it outright), £100 for installation (or £10 a month for 12 months if you want to pay it off over the first year) and £49.95 if you want to cut your commitment from 24 months to 12. All in all, it works out rather expensive when compared to ADSL and a landline combined. For example, ignoring any introductory deals, Plusnet’s unlimited broadband and calls package, with download speeds of up to 17Mb/s and free weekend calls, costs £9.99 a month plus £15.95 line rental for a 12-month term. That’s £311 over your first 30 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 30

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Satellite broadband is still struggling to compete in the speed-versus-value equation year, plus installation at £49.99, giving a grand total of £361 without the need to pay ongoing costs for equipment rental. Upgrading to Plusnet’s 18-month fibre contract with speeds touching 40Mb/s at best ups the annual cost to £371.28 (£14.99 a month for the broadband and £15.95 monthly line rental) and commits you to 18 months of service. Again, there’s an installation fee of £49.99 to consider, but that still pegs the overall cost at £421 for the first year, and £371 for each subsequent year. That’s bad news for satellite broadband. While it might save you the cost of a landline you’ll never use, unless you live in one of the increasingly rare spots where reliable broadband still isn’t an option, satellite is struggling to compete in the speed versus value equation.

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Cable You could be forgiven for thinking that the UK has just one cable provider – Virgin Media – but in fact we have two. WightFibre remains the only standalone cable-co in Britain, and the only cable option for subscribers on the Isle of Wight. It offers speeds of 30 to 152Mb/s for between £22.50 and £37.50 a month without line rental (£270 to £450 a year, plus an additional installation fee of £30 for the cheaper of those), although right now it’s ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 31 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 31

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offering broadband for free for the first 12 months if you pay £15.30 a month for a landline. That reduces the cost to a flat £183.60 for up to 152Mb/s. If you’re not on the Isle of Wight, none of these deals applies, so you’ll have to look to Virgin Media instead. Its regular ADSL service is available nationwide, but we’re interested in the cable service, which doesn’t yet boast national coverage and isn’t ever likely to do so. If you’ve spotted service plates in the street bearing the acronym CATV, there’s a good chance you’re living in a cabled area, but enter your postcode at store.virginmedia.com to be sure. If you’re not yet covered, you can click 'Cable My Street' to add support for a roll-out in your direction. Virgin Media’s ‘slowest’ connections start at 50Mb/s (£28.50 a month, £342 annually) and top out at a WightFibre-matching 152Mb/s (£41 a month, £492 annually). None of them requires a landline and there’s no fee for the installation of hardware, either. However, signing up for a landline does reduce the cost of the broadband. For example, 152Mb/s broadband without a landline costs £41 a month and ties you in for 12 months for a total cost of £492. Add a landline and


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the contract extends to 18 months, but the cost of your broadband drops to £24.50 for the first 12 months and £30 thereafter. You need to add on £16.99 a month for the landline rental, but there’s still no fee for installation, so the overall cost is £779.92. The saving you’d make over the same period by not taking the landline is therefore a little less than £40. How does that compare to BT’s superfast Infinity service? Assuming that you have coverage (you can check at tinyurl.com/c3ntbwq to see whether superfast Infinity is available in your area), its

Virgin Media's cable packages don't demand you pay for a landline, but doing so will reduce the cost of the broadband Unlimited BT Infinity 2 + Weekend Calls option including free BT Sport and 50GB of cloud storage costs £25 a month for the broadband, plus £16.99 monthly line rental, for a total year one cost of £503.88. Add the one-off £6.95 charge for delivering a HomeHub and the total’s around £10 more than Virgin Media is charging for a faster pipe without the bundled phone line.

”

4G Cellular connections are by far the most flexible option, as you can take them with you wherever you go. Just be wary of the fact that, as Britain’s 4G roll-out remains incomplete, performance will vary from place to place and you may well find yourself stepping back to slower 3G. ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 33 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 33

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Relish is a dedicated 4G broadband provider serving central London and London Docklands. It claims that no-one else has as much 4G spectrum as it does, nor as much capacity. So if you live or work in its area, it’s a tempting proposition, not least on account of its competitive prices. There’s no setup fee, just one speed – up to 50Mb/s – and one price, which is £20 a month whether you sign up for one month or 12. The only inducement to tying yourself into an annual contract is the upfront cost of the 4G router, which is £50 on monthly pay as you go, but waived on the 12-month package. Pay upfront, then, and your first year of coverage is £240, all in, with no restrictions on how much data you use. EE’s 4GEE service works beyond this limited swathe of the capital, offering 3G and 4G coverage nationwide (subject to network propagation). There are three hardware options: Buzzard 2, which plugs into a car socket for broadband on the move, and Osprey or Kite, which are more traditional pocketsized wireless 4G routers. 34 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 34

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“

Contracts on each of these options run for one month or two years, with the upfront costs being lower on the longer-term deals. There are also two levels of service: 4GEE for light users and 4GEE Extra for heavy users. Opt for the smart Apple TV-like Osprey router on the entry-level 4GEE service and it’s £10 a month for 1GB of data, £15 a month for 3GB and an upfront cost of £19.99 on the 1GB, two-year deal. The router is free if you sign up to £15 a month for two years, but if you sign up for just a month you’ll be looking at a £39.99 bill for the router before you’ve even got online, whichever package you choose.

Beware of quickly eating few your monthly data allowance when relying on 4G None of these prices is extortionate when you consider the convenience of being able to create a Wi-Fi hotspot wherever and whenever you need (you can connect up to 10 devices to Osprey simultaneously), with a two-year commitment to the 3GB bundle tipping the scales at just £360 – or £180 a year. Beware, though, that with a few catchup downloads, some music streaming and a bit of YouTube action, you’ll quickly eat through your monthly allowance. You might accordingly want to look at 4GEE Extra instead, which offers bundles of 15GB, 25GB and 50GB for £20, £30 and £50 a month respectively, each on 24-month contracts. These come closer

”


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to matching entry-level ADSL connections, but the convenience of being able to hook up wherever you find yourself comes at a price. That £50 deal for the top-end data pack means you’ll end up paying £1,200 over the course of the contract, which is more than most ADSL plus landline combos.

Fibre to the building

“

Perhaps the most exciting of all the current options is fibre to the building. We’re not talking about BT Infinity or Virgin Media here, but a dedicated fibre line running directly to your router. Hyperoptic offers synchronous connections of 1Gb/s flat-out. That means there’s no difference in the speed of uploads and downloads as there is with ADSL, and you shouldn’t see any degradation in the speed of the service as you move away from the connection point either.

Perhaps the most exciting of all the current options is fibre to the building Prices start at £29 a month for the first six months, and £60 a month thereafter, but you can step down to 100Mb/s for £17 a month for the first six months (£35 a month thereafter), or 20Mb/s for £10 a month for the first six months (£22 a month thereafter). In each case, there’s a £40 connection fee to add on top, but the £200 installation fee is waived. At the top end of the scale, then, you’re looking at a year one cost of £574; that’s roughly what you’d

”


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be paying for the 152Mb/s deal available from Virgin Media and slightly more than BT’s fibre-based Infinity service, while enjoying far higher speeds. The midrange package, which in speed terms sits between what BT and Virgin Media offer, costs a total of £352 in the first year and £310 a year thereafter, which is excellent value for money. But there is a catch. Because it’s building its own fibre network, Hyperoptic is concentrating on multidwelling buildings and, as it explains on its website, if your building is within its catchment area, and enough residents show support by registering for it online, then the company can connect you to its ‘future-proof full-fibre network’. Its service is currently installed in 100,000 homes spread across 1,000 buildings, and if yours is among them you’ll already know. If it’s not, and you live in a block of flats, your best bet is to enter your postcode at hyperoptic.com, fill in the form to register your interest in the service and get your neighbours to do the same. If you live in a terrace, semi or detached house, though, don’t get your hopes up just yet.

Are landlines a necessary evil? So it’s not as clear-cut as you might think. Yes, a lot of us are paying for landlines we don’t use, and that hurts, but the alternatives aren’t always better value. Fibre to the home is the fastest option since it’s 21st century technology all the way from the exchange to your router, rather than fibre to the cabinet in your street, and limiting copper from there to your house. Cable has better coverage, and again it’s faster than ADSL at present, but it’s not been rolled out nationwide. ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 37 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 37

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“

For many of us traditional ADSL is the only practical option And then there’s 4G, which can’t be beaten for convenience. But you may find the data caps restrictive and the coverage variable. Which brings us back to traditional ADSL. For many of us it’s the only practical option, which means we’re stuck with the landline charge. By splitting it out from the headline cost of their broadband deals, though, Britain’s ISPs aren’t exactly helping themselves. Yes, it’s great to be able to advertise a £5.99 broadband package – until you hit the customer with an extra £16.70 a month that they’d rather not pay. If there is no option but to cough up for the service, then the advertised cost in this case should be £22.69, not sub-£6. It doesn’t make the charge any easier to swallow, but you can at least console yourself with the thought that your landline fee is paying to maintain the line from your house to the nearest box on the street, which the fee for a traditional ADSL contract almost certainly isn’t. In that respect you can think of it as a digital standing charge, like the one you pay to hook up your home to the National Grid, the gas lines and the water supply – or, indeed, the road tax you pay to drive your car. It’s an investment in the national infrastructure, and as such it probably ought to be renamed. Perhaps then paying the fee will feel less like you're being fleeced.

”


19/05/2015 17:31

4G vs LTE: Why you're not getting true 4G speed 4G isn't the same thing as LTE. We explain the difference between the two mobile technologies

4

G, LTE, LTE-A, carrier aggregation. It’s all tech nonsense if you don’t understand what the jargon means. Here we’ll explain the differences between 4G and LTE so you’re better equipped to choose not only the best phone, but also the best tariff for you. There are a lot of decisions to make when getting a new phone. Along with deciding which handset is best, you might also have to choose a new tariff, and that’s a complex business in itself. 4G is the latest buzzword you’ll hear or come across, but what exactly is 4G? Is it the same as LTE? ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 39


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In a word, no, but phone manufacturers and mobile operators love to use them interchangeably, and tend to further muddy the waters with dumbed-down marketing materials. We’ll explain everything you need to know about 4G, the speeds you can expect to get, and how to choose a phone and tariff that’s right for you.

What is 4G? The International Telecommunications Union-Radio (ITU-R) is the United Nations official agency for all kind of information and communication technologies. It decided on the spec for the 4G standard in 2008. It decided that the peak download speeds for 4G should be 100Mb/s for high mobility devices, such as when you’re using a phone in a car or on a train. When a mobile device is stationary, the ITU-R decided that 4G should be able to deliver speeds up to around 1Gb/s.


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So if true 4G is supposed to offer us download speeds of up to 1Gb/s, why are we getting 100 times less than that in the UK, at around 10- to 12Mb/s in real-world speeds? Unfortunately, the ITU-R doesn’t control the standard’s implementation, which led to firstgeneration technologies like LTE being criticised for not being true 4G. The reason for this is that other groups (3GPP is one example) that work with the technology companies who develop the hardware had already decided on the next-generation technologies, leaving us with substandard 4G capabilities.

What is LTE? Though originally marketed as 4G technology, LTE (Long Term Evolution) didn’t satisfy the technical requirements outlined by the ITU-R, meaning that many early tariffs sold as 4G weren’t 4G at all. ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 41 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 41

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However, on account of marketing pressures and the significant advances that LTE brings to 3G technologies, the ITU subsequently decided that LTE could be called 4G technology. So LTE is a first-generation 4G technology that should theoretically be able to reach speeds of around 100Mb/s. Unfortunately, Ofcom reports that the UK average for LTE is around 15.1Mb/s. While that’s around twice the speed of an average 3G connection, it’s a long way off the theoretical top speed of LTE. As well as lacking in overall download speed, LTE is deficient in uplink spectral efficiency and speed. Uplink spectral efficiency refers to the efficiency of the rate at which data is uploaded and transmitted from your smartphone. LTE falls short of true 4G capacity mainly because of the lack of carrier aggregation and because phones don’t have many antennas. MIMO (Multiple 42 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 42

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Input Multiple Output) is a practical technique for sending and receiving more than one data signal on the same channel at the same time by using more than one antenna. With better carrier aggregation and MIMO, we can head towards a new standard: LTE Advanced. This is also known as ‘true’ 4G. Imagine playing a PlayStation 3 when you could be playing a PlayStation 4. The PS3 isn’t necessarily too slow to use, but you’d have a better experience using the faster console, the PS4. It’s the same with LTE: LTE is the PlayStation 3 and LTE Advanced (LTE-A) is the PlayStation 4.

Why carrier aggregation matters Carrier aggregation is part of the LTE-Advanced spec. It lets operators treat multiple radio channels in different bands (or the same frequency band) as if they were one, producing quicker speeds


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and allowing users to perform bandwidth-hogging activities much faster than ever before. Think of your wireless connection as a pipe. You might not be able to increase its size, but you can add a second and even a third pipe. Use all three simultaneously and you’ll have three times the flow rate. It’s the same concept with carrier aggregation. Another advantage of carrier aggregation is that speeds don’t decrease, however far away from the cell tower you are. Combining two signals (or channels) should theoretically double the download speed to around 150Mb/s. In future, there could be aggregation across more channels, potentially up to five, which was defined in the LTE Advanced standard.

What about HSPA+? HSPA+ may be marketed as 4G technology but it’s technically 3G. HSPA+ stands for High Speed Packet 44 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 44

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Access Plus. It was the next step after 3G, with UK network provider Three aiming for it to be used by 2012 (before the introduction of LTE). The technology was developed with a theoretical top speed of 21Mb/s, which is pretty impressive for technology that doesn’t count as 4G (3G has an average speed of around 1Mb/s). However, it was quite a way away from its theoretical top speed as the average is around 4Mb/s.

Who offers the fastest 4G LTE? Now you know more about what the difference is between true 4G and the 4G LTE we’re being sold, it’s worth considering which UK network provides the best 4G LTE connection. In November 2014, Ofcom tested the 3G and 4G connections of every major provider in the UK in five cities. The results howed EE has the fastest 4G LTE connection, with 18.4Mb/s on average, although that’s still a long way from the theoretical top speed of LTE. It’s not just the download speed that dictates responsiveness of a 4G connection; latency also Average speed (Mb/s) 20 15

18.4 15.6

15.1

14.3 10.7

10 6.8

6.1

5.6

6.7

5 0

All

EE

0.2

Vodafone

5.2

4G 3G

Three

Research and graph by Ofcom


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plays an important part. A lower latency provides better responsiveness and reduced delays when using data for browsing, video calling, and so on. Surprisingly, EE wasn’t the best provider when it came to latency – that award went to Three. Ofcom reports that Three took the least time to deliver data on both 4G (47.6ms) and 3G (53.8ms). O2 came last, with the highest levels of latency, measuring in at 62.7ms on 4G and 86.4ms on 3G.

LTE-A availability Surprisingly, LTE-A is already available in selected areas. Vodafone announced the start of its LTE-A roll-out in October last year in Birmingham, Manchester and London. EE has also joined the LTE-A race, trialling the technology in London’s Tech City. Upgrading infrastructure to support LTE-A will be a slow process and is likely to take a couple of years, much like the initial 4G roll-out did. And you won’t automatically get LTE-A when it has been rolled out, as there are other factors that have to be taken into consideration. The main one is compatibility. Your phone needs to support LTE-A. Just as was the case with the 3G to 4G migration, many existing phones don’t have the technology to be compatible with LTE-A. There are a few exceptions though, including: ■ Amazon Fire phone ■ iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus ■ BlackBerry Z10/Z30/Q10/Passport ■ HTC One M8 and M9 ■ Google Nexus 6 ■ LG G Flex 2 and G3 46 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 46

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■ Huawei Honor 6 ■ Galaxy Note 3 and 4 ■ Galaxy Note Edge ■ Galaxy Note S4, S5 and S6 ■ Sony Xperia Z2 and Z3 The good news is that it looks like neither Vodafone nor EE is charging people for the extra speed. As long as you’re in a supported area and using a compatible phone, you should be able to enjoy the benefits of LTE-A’s carrier aggregation and see download speeds of around 150Mb/s. Just watch out that you don’t burn through your monthly data allowance in a few minutes.


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EE Wi-Fi Calling solves poor mobile signal problems Wi-Fi Calling means you can make calls and send texts without a mobile signal. Here's how to get it

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f you struggle with poor reception at home your options are limited. One is to get hold of a signal booster box, but these aren’t always freely available. However, EE has introduced a new service called Wi-Fi Calling, which allows you to route calls through your router and the internet to solve the problem with no additional hardware.

What is Wi-Fi Calling? Although Three and O2 offer similar services (InTouch and TuGo, respectively), these require apps and therefore keep calls and texts separate from 48 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 48

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your regular ones. The same is true of Skype and WhatsApp. EE’s new Wi-Fi Calling is different – it’s built into the phone and allows you to make calls and send text messages even when there is no mobile signal. This means if you’re on the London Underground or you live in an area with poor network coverage, you can still carry on using your phone like normal.

Who is eligible for Wi-Fi Calling? It’s currently available to those who pay monthly, and small business customers. Corporate 4G clients will be able to sign up for the service in the summer.

Which phones work with EE Wi-Fi Calling? At the time of writing, the Lumia 640, Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge were the only devices with the feature. More models will, of course, be added to this list. For example, EE has committed to bringing


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“

Once set up just use your phone as normal – the calls and texts come out of your allowance Wi-Fi Calling to the Samsung Galaxy S5 and has confirmed that some iPhones are compatible. You’ll need to purchase your handset from EE to have the correct software. Putting an EE SIM in your existing unlocked phone won’t add the feature.

”

How do you use EE Wi-Fi Calling? Your phone from EE should come with a sticker on the box explaining what to do, but you can text ‘wifi calling’ to 150 to set it up. You might also need to head into the settings of the dialler app to switch it on. You’ll get a new symbol onscreen, but you may not even know you’re using Wi-Fi Calling. Once you’re set up, you simply use your phone as normal – the calls and texts come out of your allowance and don’t appear on your bill any different. There’s no need to use anything apart from the regular dialler and messages app. Ring or call someone as per usual and if there’s no mobile signal, the phone will use a Wi-Fi connection instead. Note that the other person doesn’t need Wi-Fi Calling for it to work as only your end of the communication requires Wi-Fi. A quick ping test will check if the connection is good enough to handle the call but, for now, the call will drop if you lose the Wi-Fi connection. The service doesn’t yet have the ability to switch from Wi-Fi to mobile network. 50 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 50

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How to bypass internet tethering blocks Your operator knows you're tethering – but how? And what can you do when it puts an end to your fun?

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f you have a tablet without a SIM slot, the only way to get an internet connection is via Wi-Fi. That's fine when you're at home or near another Wi-Fi hotspot, but when you're on the move the only option is to connect to a hotspot generated by your smartphone. This is called tethering, and you might also use it to get a laptop online. Here we explain how mobile operators know you're doing it and how to avoid tethering blocks. Not all smartphones let you create a 'personal hotspot' and share your 3G or 4G connection, but many do. However, not all 3G and 4G tariffs allow ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 51


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tethering, so you could end up with a warning or even being cut off if you break the rules. It doesn't any more, but Three used to limit tethering only to certain mobile tariffs. If you weren't on one of these and you tethered anyway, you'd likely get a message telling you to cease and desist, or face your connection being suspended. So how does Three - and other operators know that you're sharing your mobile data connection? We put the question to Three, which declined to answer. However, if you think about it logically, it should be simple to detect tethering. Every device with a network connection has a unique hardware identifier called a MAC address. Assuming that the operator can trace the final destination of the data packets, it should be able to determine that the final MAC doesn't match your phone's. There are lots of other ways, too, from web browser identifiers, software, firmware revisions and 52 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 52

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more. For example, if you were tethering a full-blown Windows tablet which requested a software update, this would raise a red flag, since it's not a mobile operating system. Similarly, the type of data could be used. If you start using bit torrent to download files, you're probably tethering.

How to bypass tethering blocks If you were hoping for a step-by-step guide to getting around a tethering ban, you're about to be disappointed. Most operators allow tethering these days. Both Three and Giffgaff - companies which used to restrict or ban it - now allow tethering up to your monthly data allowance. This is what we've always thought was the fairest way to deal with it: you've paid for the data, so you should be able to use it for whatever you like on any device. So, if you're on a tariff that doesn't allow tethering then the simplest option is to switch to one that does. There are some excellent pay monthly deals around, so you'll probably save money to boot.


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Can a smartwatch get a virus? If you've got a new Android Wear watch you might be wondering whether it needs security software

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an a smartwatch get a virus? Yes. But it won't. However, you do need to secure your wearable. Here are our crucial tips for protecting your smartwatch. The nature of personal tech is that devices such as smartphones, tablets and - yes - smartwatches are vulnerable to theft or hack. If someone access your smartwatch, they could likely access all of your personal data, and in turn empty your bank account. So it is important that you secure your smartwatch. But does that mean you need antivirus? Just how do you secure a wearable device? Let's take a look.


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In most cases a smartwatch is mostly an extension of your smartphone. It connects to your phone via Bluetooth or some other wireless tech. This peer-topeer connectivity should mean that it is more safe than even your smartphone. Or, to put it another way, a hacker would have to hack into your phone to get at your smartwatch (and once they are in your phone they don't need your watch). Remember that virtually all malware these days exists to make money out of the victim, and thieves always go for the low-hanging fruit. If your watch is harder to hack than your laptop, the laptop will get it. It is the same data, after all. But that is not to say that you should be complacent. If you can install software on a device, you can install malware. So although it is unlikely anyone can (or will) hack their way on to your wrist with a drive-by attack, you can certainly be tricked into installing a dodgy app or opening up a dodgy


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link. In reality, however, this isn't the real security threat posed against you and your smartwatch.

Can a smartwatch get a virus? That threat is two-fold, and very real. But not the biggest threat you face every day you transact online. Because despite what antivirus makers will tell you, there isn't really a direct malware threat aimed at your Android smartphone, nor your Android Wear watch. Smartwatches are a tiny nascent market. Yes, where there is data and transation there is a potential threat, but there are many more easy ways of stealing your data than installing malware on your smartwatch. The principal two of those threats: hardware theft and your behaviour. Simply, if you are walking the streets waving around a smartwatch that set you back £300, you are vulnerable to personal theft. It shouldn't happen, but we all know that it does. 56 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 56

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“

I'm not about to tell you not to wear your watch, nor to be scared as you walk the mean streets. But it does make sense to be discreet when required. And as with a phone, the ability to block and track your watch if it is stolen, is an important safeguard. Personal security via a password, fingerprint or passcode is valuable, too. Even if someone nicks your watch, they can't access your data. (If you can remotely track- and brick it, so much the better.)

You don't need security software for any wearable, just a sensible attitude The argument for security software And that is where the other threat vector can be found. As described above, it is very difficult for someone to infect your smartwatch via a driveby attack. But if you can be persuaded to give up your details via a phishing attack they don't need to. So as on the streets, in your virtual life. Behave sensibly, and think before you share, click or download. This is the only area in which I would argue that security software can be helpful for your smartwatch. With the best security packages you can protect your most sensitive data by placing it under a digital lock and key, and by changing a password negate most of the damage wrought by some kind of hack attack. But in general you really don't need security software for any wearable. Just a sensible attitude, and a healthy disregard for your own intelligence.

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REVIEW: LG G4 Arriving fashionably later than other 2015 flagships, has the LG G4 stolen the crown as best phone of 2015? £500 • lg.com/uk •

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t's been a little wait for the LG G4 after a no-show at MWC 2015 back in March. However, the flagship phone is finally here and LG is calling it the 'most ambitious smartphone yet'. We were seriously impressed with the LG G2 and LG G3, so the G4 has a lot to live up to and fierce competition from rivals. The LG G4 will arrive in the UK on 28 May and, as we expected, the firm has undercut rivals as it did with previous flagship devices with a price of £500


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(£525 for leather). For comparison, the HTC One M9 is £579 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 is £599.

Design and build Despite rumours of a metal build, LG has gone for genuine leather instead which is unusual as a main option (you can choose it for the Moto X but it's a premium extra). The leather feels nice with the stitching so it's preferable to faux leather as found on some Samsung devices but some colours aren't great such as yellow and sky blue. Although the leather is vegetable tanned and LG says the colour will change over time. If the idea of leather puts you off the LG G4 straight away then don't worry because there is a ceramic option too which has a smooth diamond texture and comes in three colours: Metallic Gray, Ceramic White and Shiny Gold. However, this feels pretty plasticky, especially the white model, with


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LG confirming the polycarbonate is only 5 percent ceramic. You'll need to pay £25 extra for the leather. That cover is still removable giving you access to the battery and microSD card slot which is good to see. What we don't know is how the leather will wear over time so we hope we can have a sample long enough to see what happens. Unfortunately, we've been sent the Metallic Gray model but we have seen the leather options at the G4 launch event. Since the cover is removable, we're hoping to see third-party case makers offer some nice alternatives to LG's range. The LG G4 looks pretty similar to the G3 apart from the switch to leather and ceramic. However, it's a shame that like the HTC One M9, the firm hasn't managed to slim it down. It's heavier at 155g and thicker at 9.8mm which isn't ideal. We were also hoping for the phone to be thinner on the width as the G3 is a tad difficult to use in this sense but the G4 is actually taller and wider at 76x149.9mm. 60 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 60

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Another shame is that the frame is still plastic, this time with a slightly chromed effect. It feels cheap compared to rival flagships and we're not keen on the sharp edges around the microUSB- and headphone ports. LG uses a Slim Arc curved shape which makes it comfortable to hold and supposedly makes it 20 percent more durable than a flat smartphone in face-down drops. This subtle curve applies to the entire phone, not just the back, making it a little like the G Flex 2. It's certainly not a curved screen phone, but does make the G3 feel distinctly flat.

Hardware We knew a lot about the LG G4 prior to the launch, partly thanks to LG and partly the usual leaks online. The firm has stuck with a 5.5in screen size and a Quad HD resolution (1440x2560), which offers


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a high pixel density of 538ppi. It's not the same panel though as LG has fitted its new IPS Quantum Display which is says has 20 percent greater colour reproduction, 25 percent improvement in brightness and 50 percent greater contrast. Percentages aside, the display is better than the G3 (which was the first Quad HD phone to market) but it's not a huge leap. Colours do, on the whole, look better - especially whites but some look a little over the top. For example, the YouTube icon icon looks neon red like it's eaten too many Haribo. LG hasn't done itself any favours with the default garish colour scheme but that's something easily changed. Once again, we think the LG G4's screen is top quality so it's really the size which is more of an issue here as 5.5in will be too large for some users. Which processor LG would opt for was something we had to wait to find out and it's not the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (as used in the LG G Flex 2) or the 62 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 62

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firm's own Nuclun processor. Instead the LG G4 has a Snapdragon 808 making it the first device we've seen with the chip. The reason is unknown but suspected to be behind the overheating issues of the 810, although Qualcomm denies this. Nevertheless, the Snapdragon 808 is a six-core processor rather than octa-core offering dual-core ARM Cortex A57 and quad-core A53 with 64-bit support. It also has an Adreno 418 GPU which supports 3D gaming on 4K displays and X10 LTE which has integrated LTE Advanced for download speeds of up to 450Mbps (theoretically). It can't keep up with rivals on pure benchmark numbers, as you might expect, but that doesn't mean the LG G4 is slow. It feels nippier than the G3 and can keep up with the Galaxy S6 some of the time in a side-by-side comparison but Samsung's phone does feel that little bit silkier in operation. Geekbench 3

GFXBench T-Rex

GFXBench Manhattan

SunSpider

LG G4

3513

25fps

9fps

715ms

LG G3

2233

20fps

7fps

959ms

Samsung S6

4438

30fps

14fps

462ms

HTC One M9

3778

50fps

24fps

867ms

iPhone 6

2794

49fps

26fps

351ms

LG says it has worked with Qualcomm on the 808 touting is as 'snappy yet energy-thrifty'. It claims the change means an extra 20 percent battery life compared to the G3 despite having the same battery capacity. A removable battery is a key feature of the LG G4 when compared to rivals as it's the only flagship with this option. In terms of battery life, we've not noticed it being dramatically different to the G3 which lasted a ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 63 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 63

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couple of days with normal usage. After a number of days with the LG G4 it lasts a day and half to two days so there's really no difference. In our battery test, the LG G4 managed four hours and 44 minutes with a numerical score of 2841 which quite a way off the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge which produce close to seven hours and a score over 4000. Our real quibble on the battery front is that LG has downgraded to no wireless charging as standard, which is not a good move. You'll need to buy the Quick Circle case to gain this feature, which seems silly when having a leather cover is one of the main reasons to buy the G4. It's also strange that the LG G4 doesn't offer Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0 despite the Snapdragon 808 supporting this feature. Like the G3, it is supplied with a 1.8A charger though, which is still pretty speedy. It's also odd to see no type of extreme power saving mode which rivals offer which gives you basic functionality on a black and white interface. LG has simplified things when it comes to memory and storage with a flat 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage matching rivals - the amount varies on the G3. There is, however, that microSD card slot which many were annoyed to see dropped on the Galaxy S6 so you can bump things up if you need to. The G4 has the kind of wireless you'd expect from a top-end phone with 11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 LE and NFC. This does mean that LG hasn't added features 64 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 64

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you can find elsewhere such as a fingerprint scanner and heart rate monitor but the IR blaster remains from the G3.

Cameras A major feature which LG has been pushing since before the launch event is the camera which is confirmed would have an aperture of f/1.8 – narrowly beating the Galaxy S6 by 0.1. We now know the main camera is 16Mp, up from 13Mp, and has OIS 2.0 (optical image stabilisation). A new feature called Quick Shot means you can double tap the Rear Key to launch the camera and take a photo but while this is fast, it's difficult to frame the shot with the screen off so you'll probably need to do some cropping. Not that the camera was bad on the G3, but this is the biggest area of upgrade for us. The LG G4's main camera is up there with the best taking predominantly great shots in a range of conditions.


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“

The new version of OIS can move up to two degrees which is double what the G3 has to offer and now has a third z-axis of movement. You can really see and feel this in action when you're shooting with the G4 and is the best optical image stabilisation we've seen on any smartphone. We also like the addition of the Manual Mode which lets you start controlling the settings yourself

The LG G4 has the best optical image stabilisation we've seen on any smartphone – it's fun to try even if you're not into photography. You can tweak the shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation, white balance and use manual focus. You can even shoot in RAW if you like! Selfie fans will love the 8Mp front camera which has an f/2.0 aperture. It's easy to take photos using the Rear Key as a shutter button but you can also use the new Gesture Interval Shot feature to take a series of four selfies.

”

Software The LG G4 comes preloaded with the latest version of Android, 5.1 Lollipop, and the firm's new UX 4.0 interface which it teased before the launch. It looks similar to the G3's user interface as you'd expect and still has existing features such as Smart Bulletin and Smart Notice, but there are some new features. Smart Bulletin sits to the left of the home screen, a now common place for a special feature like 66 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 66

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Google Now, Flipboard and BlinkFeed depending on the device. On the G4, this vertical feed gives you information such as fitness tracking, calendar events and also gives you control such as music playback and the QRemote. If you don't like it, Smart Bulletin can be switched off in the settings menu. Smart Notice is improved and the widget now changes colour to match your wallpaper. There's also an improved Gallery app and a new feature called Event Pocket allows you to create a unified calendar by dragging and dropping appointments and activities from multiple calendars and social media sites. It's also worth noting that the LG G4 comes preinstalled with Google Office and G4 owners will receive an additional 100GB of Google Drive storage free for two years which is a lot of extra space. LG also said VW owners will be able to "view a carfriendly version of the G4 interface on the in-dash ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 67 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 67

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display for full integration with contacts, navigation and music on the smartphone". Beyond these additions, what we really like is the number of things you can customise and some cool things hidden away in the settings menu. Like previous devices, you don't have to make do with the standard navigation buttons. You can have up to five on the bar including one to open and close the notification bar, QMemo+, QSlide and Dual Window. You can also manually choose whether to show or hide the navigation bar in apps you have installed rather than letting the phone decide. You can once again choose the font (and size) for the interface and turn the notification LED off if you really don't want it. There's also the ability to adjust the strength of vibration for haptic feedback and notifications, which is great.


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New for the G4 is a new section called Smart settings. This means you can automate a lot of things like switching Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on and off plus changing your sound profile. You can set these to automatically adjust when you're at home or away from home plus when earphones are plugged in. Another feature is Smart cleaning which will help you clear some space on the G4 by cleaning some apps and deleting temporary files.

Verdict LG has gone down an unexpected route with leather models, which we like apart from a couple of colours. The so-called ceramic model is less expensive but we think it feels cheap and plasticky. On the whole, hardware is once again strong – particularly the camera – but not massively different from the G3 and the G4 has some tough competition. We feel build quality could be better, with a metal frame and dimensions going down, not the reverse. This is the flagship to go for if you want a removable battery and expandable storage, but it's a shame to see features such as wireless charging dropped. (Remember the G3 is now a steal at under £300 SIM-free.) ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 69 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 69

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REVIEW: Samsung Galaxy A5 A stylish, thin phone with good cameras that's available for a lot less than the flagship Galaxy S6 £299 • samsung.com/uk •

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e’re big fans of the new Galaxy S6, but if you can’t afford one then the mid-range Galaxy A5 should be on your shortlist. It’s the latest model in Samsung’s Alpha range and is a smart-looking mid-priced phone. It comes in black, silver, gold and white. The 5 refers to the screen size, and it weighs a feather-like 123g.


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In the hand, it feels remarkably svelte, and that’s mainly because it’s just 6.7mm thick. These figures are slightly lower than those for the iPhone 6, which is 129g and 6.9mm. It may have a plastic rear cover, but the chamfered aluminium band around the sides and smooth glass front make it feel more like a premium phone. Plus, the absence of any flex means build quality is right up there with the best. Turn it on and you’ll immediately notice the vibrant colours of the Super AMOLED display, which also has excellent viewing angles. You also get a 13Mp camera at the rear, complete with LED flash and a 5Mp front-mounted ‘selfie’ camera. Inside, it’s clear that there have been some compromises. The Snapdragon 410 processor isn’t going to top any benchmark charts, and the phone runs the older version of Android: KitKat instead of the latest Lollipop. Set into the metal band are two removable trays whose design is so similar to the iPhone that at a glance you could mistake the A5 for a bigger version of the iPhone 5.


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The bottom edge is home to the Micro-USB charge and sync port as well as a headphone jack. On the left-hand side is a volume rocker, and opposite on the right is a power button – the same setup as the iPhone 6. On top is only a tiny hole for the microphone. The screen has a 1280x720 resolution, which is acceptable on, say, the latest version of the Motorola Moto G, but at almost £300 SIM-free from online retailers it’s not as easy to swallow. Don’t get us wrong: the A5 has a great-quality AMOLED screen with some nice features including extreme power saving, but if you’re prone to notice individual pixels, the A5 is obviously lower resolution than the Galaxy S6. And, for that matter, the S5.


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The Galaxy A5 has 16GB of internal storage, 2GB of RAM and a microSD slot for adding up to 64GB of extra storage. You don’t get 802.11ac Wi-Fi, but the 802.11n radio works on both 2.4- and 5GHz. There’s also Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, GPS and ANT+. And when compared to the Samsung Galaxy S5, there’s no fingerprint scanner, IR blaster or heart-rate sensor. Few people will miss these extras, but it’s worth noting. There were no surprises in our benchmarks, with the Snapdragon 410 performing just as it does in the £109 Motorola Moto E. The Geekbench scores of 483 and 1476 for the single- and multicore tests respectively were within the margin of error. Somewhat strangely, the Adreno 306 GPU in the A5 produced slower framerates than the 2015 Moto E, which uses an identical chip. On the A5 we saw 3.9fps in Manhattan and 9.2fps in T-Rex, while the ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 73 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 73

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Moto E managed 6 and 13fps respectively. None are great results, of course, but both phones will play casual games well enough. Battery life is comparable with other similar size phones. With a 2300mAh cell on board, Samsung says you’ll get eight hours of 3G web browsing and 12 hours of video playback. There’s also an Ultra Power Saving mode that you get with Samsung’s flagship phones. This turns the display to greyscale, disables mobile data when the screen is off and restricts which apps you can use in order to extend standby time to 1.2 days when you have 10 percent power remaining. It’s a little odd that Samsung didn’t use the Galaxy S5’s rear camera in the A5. The S5 has a 74 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 74

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16:9 16Mp sensor, whereas the A5 has a 13Mp 4:3 sensor. By default, it’s set to a 9.6Mp 16:9 setting, meaning you’re effectively cropping off the top and bottom of each photo. You’d think there would be little difference in quality between the cameras, but you’d be wrong. The S5’s photos are visibly better than the A5’s and there’s a noticeable lack of detail when you zoom in to make the A5’s photos the same size at the S5’s at 100 percent. Of course, we’re being picky here and the A5 still has a great camera when compared to many phones: it captures more detail than an 8Mp iPhone 6 and is leagues better than the 5Mp Moto G. Exposures are accurate, colours realistic and the lens is sharp right to the corners. Photo quality from the 5Mp front camera is good. Detail levels are better than phones with fewer pixels, so the A5 is a good choice if you take a lot of selfies. Video, which tops out at 1920x1080 at 30fps from the rear camera, is sharp and detailed but there’s no optical stabilisation, and this makes handheld footage shakier than we’d like.

Verdict The Galaxy A5 is a stylish, thin and lightweight phone with good cameras. However, its processor isn’t particularly powerful and also happens to be found in the Moto E which costs only £109. The Moto E is also a 4G phone and if you’re not fussed about its slightly smaller, lower resolution screen and mediocre cameras it’s a much better value choice. ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 75 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 75

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REVIEW: Kingzone Z1 If you're willing to buy a Chinese phone, the Z1 is the fastest you'll find under £200 £199 • coolicool.com •

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t’s not often we’re blown away by a mid-range smartphone. Supplied to us by Coolicool.com, the Z1 has an awful lot going for it. At less than £200, it’s faster than the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 Plus. It’s also well-built, supports dual-SIM and 4G connectivity, has decent cameras, features some useful gestures, and it even has stereo speakers and a fingerprint scanner.


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The Kingzone Z1 is supplied in the UK via Coolicool.com – a Chinese site. You have two options: you can buy it from the European warehouse for £199.91 and you won’t be liable for import duty; or you can buy it from the Chinese warehouse for £132.59, but you will be liable for import duty if it’s picked up by Customs (of course, you are liable whether or not you’re caught out). For a mid-range phone, the Z1 is very goodlooking. It’s built around a metal frame that ensures a sturdy, premium feel, and although the rear cover is plastic the up side is the fact it’s removable and reveals an also-removable battery. It’s got a grippy, textured finish that feels good in the hands. There’s a huge 5.5in screen on the front of the Z1, which makes this a phablet. Incredibly slim bezels and a 7.5mm frame mean it’s still comfortable to hold in a single hand. It’s also reasonably light for a phablet at 169g – by comparison the 7.1mm iPhone 6


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Plus and 8.5mm Samsung Galaxy Note 4 weigh 172g and 176g respectively. A key difference here, of course, is the resolution. The Kingzone has an HD resolution of 1280x720 pixels, which means it has a density of 276ppi. That’s not at all unusual at this price, but it does mean it isn’t as sharp as the 401- and 515ppi screens found on the iPhone 6 Plus and Galaxy Note 4. Nevertheless, the JDI IPS panel is reasonably bright, with realistic colours and strong viewing angles. It’s also of a good size for enjoying games and media, or whatever you want to do on your phone, including browsing web pages and e-books. And that’s where one of our favourite features comes in: the rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. This is a swipe- rather than touch-based scanner, and shares the same problems as those found on Samsung phones prior to the S6’s release. As a fingerprint scanner it’s a pain to use, and we gave 78 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 78

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up trying to get it to register our digits. But used as a scrolling control or a dedicated capture button for the selfie camera it’s a very welcome addition to this phablet, and makes one-handed use so much easier. Stereo speakers are found on the bottom edge of the handset. On the right edge is a power button, while separate volume controls are on the left. This positioning can make them difficult to access when using the supplied (to us, at least) flip cover, which features a window for the time and date, automatically wakes or sends to sleep the screen, and allows you to answer calls without flipping open the case. Also in the box is a silicone rear cover. At the top is a Micro-USB charging port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. A pair of earphones are supplied in the box, along with a Micro-USB cable and, very usefully, an OTG adaptor. The latter allows you to connect the Z1 to other USB devices, such as storage devices.


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The phone uses a 64-bit MediaTek MTK6752 octa-core chip clocked at 1.7GHz. This is paired with Mali-T760 graphics, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage (a microSD slot lets you add another 64GB). Performance is amazing for a £200 phone. In Geekbench 3.0 we recorded a staggering 3689 points in the multi-core component, making the Kingzone Z1 faster than both the iPhone 6 Plus (2917) and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (3272). It fared better than the Note 4 in SunSpider, too, with 963ms against its 1367ms, while the iPhone 6 Plus performed spectacularly with 369ms. The Kingzone Z1 recorded five hours 45 minutes with a battery score of 3074 points. By comparison the S6 saw six hours 53 minutes and 4136 points, while the latest Moto G managed seven hours 35 minutes but scored just 2024 points. 80 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 80

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In real-life usage we found that the Kingzone Z1 lasted for several days in standby mode, and even with heavy use the 3500mAh removable battery should easily get you through the day. Everything you need is covered on the connectivity front. There’s GPS and GLONASS, NFC, 4G LTE (although it’s supported by only one of the dual-SIM slots, the other maxes out at 3G), dualband 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, USB OTG support and Bluetooth 4.0. The 13Mp Sony camera is a pretty good camera, with an f2.0 aperture, 28mm lens and LED flash. We were pleased with our test shots, which show reasonably good detail and largely realistic colours. You can apply filters at the composition stage, and you’ll find various modes such as multi-angle shot, panorama, motion track and live photo. The 8Mp selfie camera at the front takes a good picture, but beyond real-time application of filters and the ability to smooth wrinkles and whiten your face there is little in the way of manual control. The Kingzone Z1 runs Android 4.4.4 KitKat with Kingzone’s KOS 1.2 UI. The app icons are squares with rounded edges, but in other respects it will be incredibly familiar to KitKat users. The Z1 will get a wireless upgrade to Android Lollipop, too.

Verdict For a £200 phone, the Z1 is a very decent proposition. It has a nice build, some pleasing connectivity features, and faster performance than phones that cost three times the price. ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 81 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 81

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REVIEW: Bluboo X6 It costs just £90 but packs 4G connectivity, a 5.5in screen and a fingerprint scanner. What's not to like? £90 • bluboo.com.cn •

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he Bluboo X6 is a 4G LTE Android KitKat phablet with a fingerprint scanner that costs just £90 from Geekbuying. Shipped from China you should also take into account import duty. The Bluboo X6 looks good for a budget phone. It ships with a smart case not too dissimilar to the LG G3’s Quick Circle case, with a silicone rear cover and a front flap that has a circular window through which you can see a clock face.


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The plastic build keeps down the weight, and at 167g the X6 is light for an 8.8mm-thick phablet. The rear cover is thin but clips on tight. It’s removable, too, giving access to an also-removable 3000mAh battery and dual-SIM slots. One of these doubles as a microSD slot, although Bluboo doesn’t specify how much storage it can accommodate (many budget phones allow 32GB). Available in blue or white, the rear cover features a chequered design that aids grip in the hand. With a 5.5in screen and an 8.8mm-thick body this is a large phone, although its slim bezels to the left and right make it just about manageable in a single hand. Around the edges you’ll find two speaker grilles at the bottom, a volume rocker and power switch on the right side, and a Micro-USB charging port and 3.5mm headphone jack on top. A 13Mp camera is on the rear, surrounded by a pink anodised aluminium ring and supported by a dual-LED flash.


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At the front is a 2.5D Arc screen, which means it is curved at the edges. This has a nice effect, but it doesn’t lie flush to the case. The top and bottom bezels are larger, with a physical home button at the bottom that builds in a fingerprint sensor. The screen itself is an IPS panel. While colours are realistic and it’s usefully bright, a quarter-HD resolution of 960x540 is pushed almost to its limit on a 5.5in screen. The X6 has a pixel density of 200ppi, which isn’t horrendous but it’s not as sharp as we’d like. For web browsing it’s fine, but for viewing media you might prefer an HD display. The large panel is useful in this regard, mind. When you’re paying £90 for a smartphone, you can’t expect blistering performance. However, in many of our benchmarks the Bluboo impressed us. Its performance is due to the phone’s MediaTek MTK6732 SOC, which integrates a 1.3MHz ARM Cortex A-53 quad-core CPU and Mali-T760 MP2 dual-core GPU, plus 1GB of RAM. 84 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 84

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In Geekbench 3.0 we measured 654 points in the single-core test, and 1940 points multi-core. Other 5.5in phablets we’ve tested such as the ZTE Blade S6 Plus are faster, but in the real world performance is adequate, but it’ll take a second to launch most apps, though. Performance was also good in GFXBench 3.0, which tests the graphics performance. The Bluboo recorded 25fps in T-Rex, and 13fps in Manhattan. In our Geekbench 3.0 battery test, the Bluboo recorded 2946 points, and seven hours 22 minutes. To put that into perspective, its time recording is on par with the 2015 Moto G, but its point score falls just below the Kingzone Z1, another Chinese 5.5in phablet (page 76). Storage-wise you get 8GB built in, with around 6GB available, and if you don’t need the second SIM slot you can insert a microSD card. This is Android, too, so expect to be able to make use of all manner of third-party cloud storage services - Google Drive is preinstalled for you.


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When you’re buying a phone from China you should always check the frequency bands to ensure it will be supported by your UK mobile operator. The Bluboo X6 supports GSM 850/900/1800/ 1900MHz, WCDMA 900/1900/2100MHz, and Cat 4 FDD-LTE B1/B3/B7/B20. Other connectivity specs include Bluetooth 4.0, single-band 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, GPS and A-GPS, and USB OTG. While there’s no NFC there is HotKnot, which is MediaTek’s alternative. If you’re not using the second SIM slot as a microSD slot, you can take advantage of dualstandby dual-SIM functionality. For photography, there’s a 13Mp camera at the rear and an impressive 8Mp at the front. It’s not all about the megapixels, but we were impressed with the photos and test video we captured on the X6 (it’ll record 1080p at 30fps). A dual-LED flash is also useful for improving low-light performance. 86 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 86

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The X6 runs a slightly customised version of Android KitKat, and it’s not one we’re particularly keen on. The key difference between vanilla KitKat and what we have here is the X6’s use of themes. Four are installed on the Bluboo X6, and not one of them is what we’d consider normal. The default theme, for example, switches the Google Play icon to a red tile with rounded corners and a white house icon; the only thing giving away its purpose is the legend below. The themes will change the wallpaper and icons, but you can also separately customise the wallpaper and lock screen, but not through the Settings menu. Themes and wallpaper customisations are instead made through the Theme manager, which is found in the App menu.

Verdict For a cheap phablet the Bluboo X6 has a lot going for it. It’s reasonably fast compared to its similarly priced rivals, it supports 4G and dual-SIM functionality, and the large screen is useful.


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REVIEW: Amazon Fire TV Stick This £35 media-streaming dongle from Amazon is a rival to Chromecast and the Roku Streaming Stick £35 • amazon.co.uk •

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he Fire TV Stick media-streaming dongle is a cheaper alternative to the Fire TV set-top box for those who can make do without the microphone built into the remote control and can plug directly into an HDMI port on their TV, so it may be a better choice for anyone who doesn’t want a series of black boxes below their TV. Unlike the slightly cheaper Chromecast, you get a remote control with the Fire TV Stick. The Stick might


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plug into your TV’s HDMI port with no problems, but a short extension cable is included for situations where a direct connection isn’t possible. On our Panasonic TV, other HDMI cables blocked access to the Stick’s microUSB power input, and its rear end protruded from the TV’s bezel. A USB cable and power supply is included too – you’ll probably have to use both since most TV USB ports won’t provide enough power for the Fire TV Stick. You’ll get a warning to tell you if that’s the case as the Stick can boot up even from an underpowered port. The remote is similar to the one bundled with its big brother, but has no microphone. It communicates via Bluetooth, so you don’t need line of sight to the Stick for it to work: handy since it will be tucked away behind your screen. You can buy the Voice Remote separately if you want to (it’s £25), or install the free app on your phone. As well as enabling voice search, the app lets you enter search terms via your phone’s keyboard: much quicker and easier than faffing around with the directional pad on the remote control.


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It will come as no surprise that Amazon’s own Prime Instant Video takes centre stage, which is fair enough. But the Stick gives you access to a variety of other services as well, including main rival Netflix. There’s also YouTube, BBC iPlayer and Demand 5 (apps which are free to download and install to the 8GB of internal storage). Beyond this, though, there’s not much of interest unless you have a big collection of your own videos that you want to stream using the Plex app. Some might appreciate Vimeo, Vevo, Dailymotion and STV Player, but it’s a shame there’s not yet All 4 or ITV Player apps. If, for some reason, you feel the need to listen to music on your TV, you can get Spotify, Amazon Music, Ministry of Sound Radio, Muzu.TV and Musixmatch apps. If you didn’t know, it would be impossible to tell whether you were controlling a Fire TV or Fire TV Stick since their interfaces are basically identical. Down the left-hand side is the main menu, and the 90 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 90

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content you see on the right-hand side relates to the section currently selected in the main menu. At the top of the list – below Search and Home – is Prime Video. Your recent list is prominently displayed along with ‘recently added’ shows and movies, plus featured shows. Our biggest complaint concerns not the content itself, but the fact you can’t filter out payper-view shows. This means you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled for the little ‘Prime’ logo on a video’s thumbnail to see if it’s included in your subscription. A fair chunk is, but some movies and TV programmes have to be bought or rented. When you do pay for something like this, it appears in its own Video Library section. Considering that you can filter out paid-for content in the Prime Instant Video iOS app, it’s maddening you can’t on Amazon’s own hardware. The good news is that the beefy hardware inside the Fire TV Stick – a dual-core CPU, 1GB RAM and dual-band 802.11n MIMO Wi-Fi – means it’s very responsive and can always keep up with even the most fervent of button pushers. On top of this, the software predicts (or tries to) what you’re going to watch so playback is almost instantaneous. The Stick also supports Dolby Digital Plus (and passthrough up to 7.1 channels) so if you have a suitably equipped surround-sound system, you’ll get decent audio where the content has it. Just bear in ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 91 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 91

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mind that there are no other connectors on the Stick: if you want to route audio out of it, you’ll either need a TV with the appropriate audio outputs for HDMI devices, or to plug it directly into an AV receiver which passes the video signal to your television. If you own a compatible tablet (or a Fire Phone) you can use it as a second screen while you watch Prime videos to get ‘X-ray’ information such as which actors are in a particular scene, other films or TV shows they’ve been in and more. Like the Apple TV, the Fire TV Stick will provide an eye-catching slideshow of your personal photos: Amazon offers 5GB of free storage and an app to automatically back up your phone’s camera roll, so photos will appear on your TV without you lifting a finger. It’s a nice touch, and certainly worth having the extra app if you do buy a Fire TV. TV and movies aren’t enough for media streamers these days, and the Fire TV Stick lets you play casual games just like its big brother, the Fire TV. You can play most with the remote control, and it also works with Amazon’s £35 Bluetooth Gamepad if you want more of a console experience. The games available aren’t blockbusters, but the ability to download Hill Climb Racing, Tetris and Sonic certainly add an extra dimension.

Verdict Thanks to its internals and nice interface, the Fire TV Stick is a great gadget for watching Prime Instant Video, Netflix, iPlayer and Demand 5.


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REVIEW: Asus ZenWatch It's not a bad first attempt at a smartwatch by Asus, but there's room to improve £170 • uk.asus.com •

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he ZenWatch is Asus’s first venture into the smartwatch market, and we were hoping for big things. Though it may not be as stylish as other smartwatches such as the Moto 360, it does a good job of standing out against similar Android Wear smartwatches. It has a large face, measuring in at 51x40mm with a 1.5in screen, but is a lot thinner than its rivals at 9.7mm. Polished stainless steel adorns the ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 93


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majority of the watch, with a slight hint of rose gold on the sides, a colour that’s complemented by the accompanying brown leather strap. The ZenWatch has fewer buttons than its competitors, and while this may be more aesthetically pleasing, it throws up issues when navigating the UI. Its one and only button can be used to turn on and off the watch, but it’s underneath the watch, well out of reach when being worn. The OLED (320x320) display is pretty standard for Android Wear watches. While the resolution is fine for day-to-day use, the pixels are visible onscreen. The Asus ZenWatch has an ‘always-on’ mode that keeps the display turned on, even when not being used. In an attempt to salvage battery life, after a few seconds of inactivity your watch face will be replaced with a slightly pixellated version that looks like it’s displayed on an e-Paper display. When you raise your wrist, the display switches back to its full colour display and is ready to use


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automatically. The responsiveness of the smartwatch was something that we were pretty surprised with, as many aren’t great at detecting the movement of raising your wrist. There is a down side to it being so sensitive though, as we found that the display can be activated when moving naturally. Inside, you’ll find a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, complete with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. There’s also a microphone for audio prompts – a lifesaver for a device with a lack of navigational buttons. It also comes with a host of sensors including a 9-axis accelerometer, compass and gyroscope, along with a barometer, all of which come in handy with regards to fitness tracking and navigation apps. There’s even a sensor that can track your heart rate at various stages of exercise. The issue is that it requires two fingers, gently pushing both sides of the display, which can be tricky. The Asus ZenWatch is water- and dust resistance with an IP55 rating. ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 95 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 95

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Android Wear is Google’s OS for wearables. The main issue is that it is still in its early days, which in turn hinders the enjoyment of using a smartwatch. It adds a whole host of features such as notifications, navigation, Google Now, music control, step tracking and messaging. Third-party apps are also available, as well as notifications that have custom actions, such as being able to dictate a reply to a WhatsApp message for example – something that’s strangely not possible when viewing a text message on the ZenWatch. Asus has made some tweaks to the stock Android Wear OS in a bid to make the device stand out from the crowd. It offers smart features such as unlocking your smartphone when in proximity, toggling a flashlight on the device (a brightly coloured screen) and the ability to send a preset SOS message to a person in an emergency. It also has its own Asus 96 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 96

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ZenWatch app for watch management, though this doesn’t do much that you can’t do on the watch. As we mentioned earlier, the ZenWatch has only one button. This means that you’ll have to rely on audio prompts and a disappointing touchscreen to navigate the smartwatch. We found scrolling between menus a frustrating experience as, on many occasions, the Asus thought that we had selected something that we wanted to scroll past, and would open it. The left- to right swipe is meant to take you back to the clock face, and while it does, there were many occasions where the gesture wasn’t recognised. The saving grace is voice recognition, which we found to be surprisingly accurate. We’ve been disappointed in the past by other voice-recognition technologies we’ve tested, which have felt awkward to use. That definitely wasn’t the case this time, although it should be noted that people do tend to feel a bit silly talking to a watch in public.


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There’s also a great selection of watch faces to choose from, ranging from traditional-looking designs to more unusual options that find unique ways of displaying the time, date and other crucial information. You also have the option to tweak many watch faces from the ZenWatch app, as well as having the option to download third-party watch faces from Google Play. The Asus also has a unique feature – you’re able to display your phone’s camera viewfinder on your watch. This lets you take your time when composing shots, become more creative and make sure your selfie is perfect before you take it. The ZenWatch has a 22-hour battery life, though this shrinks dramatically if the display is in ‘alwayson’ mode and you’re receiving notifications all day. To charge the watch, you simply place it in the supplied cradle.

Verdict The Asus ZenWatch is a good-looking smartwatch. The lack of buttons is an issue, especially with the touchscreen input being as frustrating as it is. It does, however, have impressive voice recognition. 98 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 98

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How to find a lost Android phone or tablet Prepare now to help you find your Android phone or tablet in the event that it is lost or stolen

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f you've lost your phone or tablet it's not always gone forever. But don't wait until you lose it to prepare: you'll need to configure it now to enable you to find a lost Android device. Here's how to set up phone tracking and how to find your phone. Note that the solutions offered in this tutorial will require your phone to be switched on in order to give you an accurate idea of its location, and to access options to remotely lock or wipe it. If your battery runs out or your phone is stolen and switched off, you may be out of luck. Back up everything now, just in case you can't get it back. ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 99


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Here we'll consider the options built into Android to explain how to track your lost or stolen device. You will need to be signed into your Google account on the phone or tablet before you begin. Some third-party options are also available. Prey is a particularly popular option, available not only for mobile devices but also Windows, OS X and Ubuntu laptops. If you have several devices spanning multiple platforms, it's worth considering an option such as this that lets you track them all from a single interface.

How to locate a lost Android Device Manager offers the easiest way to track an Android phone or tablet. You don't need to have the app installed on your device to use it, but you do need to check that your settings are correctly configured before you lose it. To start using Device Manager, open the Google Settings app (not the device's own Settings app) and


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tap on Security. Under Device Manager ensure the options to 'Remotely locate this device' and 'Allow remote lock and erase' are enabled. Location access also needs to be switched on for Device Manager to work. Once again open the Google Settings app, but this time choose Location. On the next screen tap 'Google Location History' under Location Services and ensure it's switched on.

You now have two ways of tracking a lost Android. If the device is switched on and has a signal you'll be able to track it in Device Manager - head to android.com/devicemanager on another device and sign into your account. It should find your device and report its location on a map. Also in Device Manager you'll find options to make the phone ring, lock out a suspected thief or wipe its contents. There is also an Android Device Manager app you can install to your Android phone or tablet, which is ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 101 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 101

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useful if you have several Android devices to track. It's free from Google Play. Another option, if your Android is switched off, is to check your location history to find its last reported location. You can do this by visiting google.com/ settings/accounthistory and tapping on Manage History under Places you go. You'll now see a map of all the places in which your device has reported its location during a time period that you specify. The last known location is where Google last saw it before the battery died, and if your luck's in it may still be there. Note that location history uses Wi-Fi- and mobile signals rather than GPS, so it won't be as accurate as Android Device Manager.


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How to speed up browsing in Android Two great ways to supercharge your Android smartphone- or tablet's web browser

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o an extent the dream of a mobile webbrowsing device has become something of a nightmare. Despite the proliferation of mobile-, adaptive- and responsive websites, browsing on an Android phone or tablet can be a slow, laggy and buggy affair. It doesn't have to be. In this article we look at one useful tweak that allows you to add greater memory allocation to the Chrome browser, making it a faster web-surfing experience. And we also offer a couple of tips for getting the Android Browser to play more nicely. Here is speed up Android browsing. ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 103


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Allocate more memory to Chrome browser This works only on the Chrome browser, which you may have to access from within the 'Google' section of your home page. Open a new Chrome tab and type into the URL bar: chrome://flags/#max-tiles-for-interest-area You should see a warning about experimental features in Chrome, and beneath it a list of such features. Scroll down until you find 'Maximum tiles for interest area', which should be highlighted. Click the drop-down and you will see several options on a menu dialog. We could see 'Default', '64', '128', '256' and '512'. As you might expect the numbers refer to the amount of memory set aside for the web browser. Switching up to 512MB from the default 128MB should speed up the web browser.

Once you have selected the required amount of RAM, you will be invited to 'Relaunch now'. Do so and Chrome will relaunch with the new memory allocation. You should find that pages load much more quickly. And you can reverse the process if for any reason the new allocation causes problems. 104 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 104

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Disable Javascript (and Flash) on the Android browser Unlike the Chrome tweak outlined on the previous page, these changes require you to lose some functionality. But given that this functionality is Flash and Javascript, you may not be too upset. You are in essence using an ad blocker on your mobile browser. Turning off JavaScript will significantly speed up web browsing on all Android devices, but it will also make some web pages look plain and lifeless. You could care less. To disable Javascript on your Android, open up the Browser, and hit the three dot 'Menu' icon in the top righthand corner. Choose Advanced, and then scroll down to 'Enable JavaScript'. Untick this option and you should see speed improvements, in particular on desktop websites that haven't been optimised for mobile devices. Flash is an option only on older Androids, so it probably isn't important for you. But if it is on your handset you probably do want to disable it - and you have nothing to lose from looking to see what is going on. To do so, go into the Android browser, select the menu icon and choose Advanced. If you can see an 'Enable plugins', it is likely your browser is utilising a Flash plugin. So untick that option. You should see immediate speed dividends. ISSUE 14 • ANDROID ADVISOR 105 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 105

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How to send and receive texts on a tablet Fancy a bigger screen for managing your text- and multimedia messages? We reveal how

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phone is all most people need to send and receive text messages, but sync your inbox to your Android tablet and you can more easily manage your SMS- and multimedia messages. You get a bigger screen and larger keypad for typing too, so here’s how to get text messages on a tablet. The service we demonstrate in this article is completely free. It syncs text messages between your phone and tablet over the internet (Wi-Fi or mobile), but the messages themselves are still carried through your mobile network. This might be useful if you are going somewhere you know you will


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have Wi-Fi but no mobile reception, allowing you to leave the phone at home and take the tablet instead. All you pay is whatever your mobile operator charges you to send a text. Most mobile contracts include free texts, but rarely picture messages. If the reason you need to be able to text from your tablet is that your phone never gets a signal, or you’re looking for a free messaging service that syncs between phone and tablet, sidestepping mobile operator charges, try WhatsApp. Step 1. On your Android phone launch the Google Play Store app and search for MightyText. Select it in the list of results, then tap Install on the next screen. Accept the requested permissions. Step 2. If your Android phone is logged into a Google account MightyText should pick this up. Select which Google account to use if you have more than one, then tap ‘Complete Setup’, OK.


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Step 3. Pick up your Android tablet and either browse to mightytext.net/app and select ‘Install tablet app’ or launch the Google Play Store app and search for ‘SMS Text Messaging – Tablet SMS’. As before, tap Install and accept the permissions.

Step 4. Open MightyText on your tablet, select your Google account and tap Complete Setup. Tap OK on the next screen. You’ll get a message confirming your tablet has been linked with MightyText. Tap Launch MightyText Tablet App.

Step 5. On your tablet you’ll see what looks like an email inbox. In the left panel you get a list of 108 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 14 Android Advisor Issue 14.indd 108

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Android Advisor Issue 14 2015

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