Android Advisor 23 - 2016 UK.pdf

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ISSUE
ANDROID
ADVISOR
The best
music phones
revealed
LATEST SMARTPHONES, TABLETS & WEARABLES
23
BEST AUDIO PHONES
THE BEST
ANDROID TABLET. EVER
PLUS
REVIEWED:
Contents
3
Welcome…
Group Test
4
Best-sounding smartphones
Feature
46
Does the cold weather kill your tech?
How To
52
54
57
61
63
65
Add emoji to your tweets
Take a Snapchat screenshot
without the sender knowing
Block spam email
Recover deleted contacts from Android
Get Marshmallow’s
app tray on any phone
Mirror Android device with Chromecast
Reviews
68
79
88
96
108
Google Pixel C
Amazon Fire HD 8
Xiaomi Mi Pad 2
Huawei Mate 8
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
Best Buy Charts
118
Our top phones, tablets, and more
2  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 23
Welcome...
W
hen we consider what is the best phone
for our needs, we tend to look at how
much it’ll cost us, how nice it looks and
how well it performs. Specifications such as the
screen come into that last part, and you’ll want a
decent panel if you’re going to watch video on
your phone. But what about audio? Don’t assume
the best phones on the market are also the best
sounding. We find out which handsets really are
the best for music lovers and audiophiles.
We’ve loads in this issue to keep you busy, from
blocking spam email (page 57) to taking sneaky
screenshots on Snapchat without them knowing
(page 54) and littering your tweets with emoji
(page 52). And if you’re still holding out for the
Marshmallow update, we’ll show you how you can
at least get the new app tray now (page 63).
Our reviews coverage kicks off with the best-
ever Android tablet, the Google Pixel C (page 68).
We also look at tablets from Amazon (page 79)
and Xiaomi (page 88), plus Huawei’s flagship Mate
8 smartphone (page 96) and the wallet-friendly
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (page 108).
Plus, how cold does it have to be before you
should start worrying about your beloved tech?
We separate fact and fiction on page 46.
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
marie_brewis@idg.co.uk.
ISSUE 23 • ANDROID ADVISOR  3
Group Test:
Best-sounding phones
Christopher Minasians
round ups the nine best handsets
T
here’s a huge number of smartphones out
there, each offering a different hardware
configuration. The same applies to audio
chips: they vary between manufacturer, with some
opting to utilise the audio codec found within
the phone’s chipset, while others prefer to use
dedicated chip manufacturers. To make this a
fair test, we took all the phones into an isolated
room, and tested them using a range of different
head- and earphones at various price ranges. The
majority of our testing was based mainly on the
Harschacoustic SH-2 custom in-ear models and the
modified Denon AH-D2000 headphones.
4  ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 23
When it comes to listening to audio, it doesn’t
take an audiophile to hear the differences between
smartphones. The only advantage an audiophile
has over the average consumer is that they
know what to listen out for and have high-end
audio equipment that allows them to distinguish
the differences. This article isn’t just aimed at
audiophiles, though. In this comparison, we will
reveal the variations we heard between the phones,
which are applicable to everyone, using any gear.
The differences will, of course, be more
distinguishable with higher-end equipment,
and the same goes for the quality of the music
recordings. With higher bitrate, sample sizes and
higher-quality codec files, the differences become
more distinguishable.
We conducted our tests using a variety of
different songs at various recording qualities – our
lowest sampled song was a 256kb/s, 44.1kHz MP3.
This is the default music standard when buying
MP3 audio tracks from resellers, such as Amazon or
iTunes. Higher quality songs are harder to find, more
expensive and are often a lot bigger in size.
Speaker quality
Each phone was tested at a safe level near our
ears. We intentionally did not test the phones at a
distance or maximum volume, where we might hear
distortion or miss important sound quality traits.
We did, however, ramp up the volume of each
handset to maximum before we started testing. We
listened out for any distortion and then held the
phones in our hands to test for any vibrations that
might cause discomfort in prolonged periods of
ISSUE 23 • ANDROID ADVISOR  5

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