Android Advisor - Best Phone Camera 2016

LATEST SMARTPHONES, TABLETS & WEARABLES 

ANDROID 

ISSUE 

26 

ADVISOR 

FROM IDG 

BEST 

PHONE 

CAMERA 

2016 

PLUS 

BEST NEW 

ANDROID TABLETS 

& MOBILE GAMES 

COMING THIS 

YEAR 

REVIEWED: 

Huawei P9 • HTC 10 • LG G5 • Xiaomi Mi 5

Contents 

3 Welcome… 

Group Test 

4 Smartphone cameras 

Round up 

43 Best Android tablets of 2016 

48 Best new Android games of 2016 

Reviews 

54 Huawei P9 

66 HTC 10 

79 LG G5 

91 Xiaomi Mi 5 

How To 

103 Speed up an Android phone or tablet 

107 Keep your Android device secure 

115 Get free Wi-Fi anywhere 

Best Buy Charts 

120 Our top phones, tablets, and more 

2 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 26

Welcome... 

Every Android phone manufacturer will tell 

you its smartphone has the most awesome 

camera, but they can’t all be the best. 

With Samsung, HTC, LG and others having all 

updated their flagships for 2016, we took the 

opportunity to run the lot head to head to judge 

their photography skills. You can check out which 

smartphone camera comes out on top overleaf. 

Of course, new phones means new reviews. 

Last month we told you all about Samsung’s new 

Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, and this month we’ve gone 

hands‐on with Huawei’s P9 (page 54), HTC’s 10 

(page 66), LG’s G5 (page 79) and Xiaomi’s Mi 5 (page 

91). All are excellent Androids we’d love to own. 

If you’re splashing out on one of these pricey 

handsets you’ll want to make sure it’s secure, and 

we’ll show you how on page 107. For those who are 

still stuck with their old Androids there’s still hope: 

we’ll show you how to ramp up performance and 

get that new‐device feeling on page 103. 

The good news is to keep on coming this summer, 

with Google I/O imminent as we went to press and 

the arrival of a new Nexus 7 (2016) tablet hotly 

rumoured. Be sure to pick up a copy of the next 

issue of Android Advisor for all the details. 

We hope you’ve enjoyed this issue. Send us your 

feedback via facebook.com/AndroidAdvisorUK 

or email marie_brewis@idg.co.uk. 

ISSUE 26 • ANDROID ADVISOR 3

Group Test: 

Smartphone cameras 

Jim Martin and Dominik Tomaszewski test out the cameras 

of the latest flagship phones to find out which performs best 

As the old adage goes, the best camera 

is the one that’s with you. Since most 

people carry a smartphone with them just 

about everywhere, it’s no wonder we’re taking 

more photos on phones than cameras these days. 

And now that phone cameras can actually take 

decent photos and videos, we’re using them 


to record special events such as weddings and 

birthdays instead of lugging around a DSLR. 

But which smartphone has the best cameras, 

takes the best photos and is the best for taking 

videos? What about selfies? We’ve rounded 

up seven flagship phones in order to put their 

cameras to the test and answer these questions. 

• Google Nexus 6P 

• HTC 10 

• Huawei P9 

• LG G5 

• Samsung Galaxy S7 

• Sony Xperia Z5 

• Xiaomi Mi 5 

What to look for 

Looking at specifications and features will tell 

you only so much, and it’s a bad idea to choose 

a phone purely on the basis of its cameras’ 

megapixel ratings. However, features can make 

a difference. Not all phones can record video 

at 60 frames per second (fps), for example, and 

some are limited to 1920x1080 rather than the 

more detailed 4K (or Ultra HD). 

Some phones, such as the Huawei P9, use 

dual cameras to create clever effects such as 

shallow depth of field, while others use their 

dual cameras very differently. The LG G5 has a 

‘standard’ camera next to a wide‐angle camera, 

which is great for capturing action, and offers a 

viewpoint much like a GoPro. 

The stock camera app itself varies between 

phones, but if you don’t like it you can download 


6 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 26 

another. Changing app can also give you extra 

features, but it’s unlikely you will find higherresolution 

or higher frame rates: a phone’s raw 

performance is often the limiting factor, particularly 

when it comes to slo‐mo video. 

The Nexus 6P doesn’t support time‐lapse 

natively, but this is easy to do with a third‐party app 

as it isn’t dependent on performance. However, 

this same phone can’t shoot 1080p video at 

60fps, which will be an issue for some people. If 

your priority is video, look for good stabilisation 

as this can make a big difference to the footage. 

Don’t forget sound, either. You can listen to the 

quality of the microphones on our website at 

tinyurl.com/hqkh9eu.

Google Nexus 6P 

It’s one of the oldest phones here, but 

it’s also still one of the best for photos. 

The rear 12.3Mp ‘Google camera’ has 

a sharpness that’s almost unrivalled. 

Photos are packed with detail and show 

every last skin blemish and wrinkle. 

The auto HDR mode works well, and 

while the 6P tended to underexpose 

images in some of our tests, it was far 

less likely to blow out highlights: you’ll 

see more blue skies than the flat white 

skies as you get with many phone 

cameras. Low‐light performance is good, 

but not as good as the Samsung Galaxy S7’s. 

It can shoot slo‐mo video at 1080p or at double 

speed if you drop down to 720p. However, there’s 

no optical stabilisation and no option to record 

video at 60fps. The front camera is good, too. It 

delivers sharp photos and a wider field of view. 

Overall, the 6P is a superb choice if your priority 

is photos. However, the LG G5 is more versatile 

with its extra wide‐angle camera, while the Galaxy 

S7 is arguably a better all‐rounder. 

Key features 

Rear: 12.3Mp; 4K video; 1080p at 30fps 

Optical image stabilisation: No 

Front: 8Mp; 1080p video 

Panorama: Yes 

Slo-mo: 1080p at 120fps; 720p at 240fps 

Time-lapse: No 


Landscape 

ABOVE: The 6P shows 

good dynamic range 

and although a little 

underexposed, this is 

easily corrected either 

using an app on the 

phone or in Photoshop. 

Detail levels are good, 

as is sharpness. 

1:1 crop 


Outdoor Portrait 

LEFT: The Nexus 

6P tended to 

underexpose 

photos in our test, 

but although we 

must present the 

original image here 

for comparison 

purposes, it’s very 

easy to fix this in 

a photo editor. 

Details are crisp 

and sharp without 

being over‐sharp. 

Dynamic range is 

also good (this was 

shot using the auto 

HDR mode). 

RIGHT: With 

good colour 

and detail, 

only the slight 

underexposure 

counts against 

the Nexus 6P’s 

selfie photo. 

Selfies 


Low light 

LEFT: A wellexposed 

photo and 

not too many 

negative 

effects 

of noise 

reduction. 

There’s less 

detail here 

than in the 

Samsung 

Galaxy 

S7’s photo, 

though. 

Close up 

Video 

To see the clips from each phone at 

the best quality, you should ensure 

that you view them full screen 

and select the appropriate quality 

by clicking on the cog icon at the 

bottom right of the YouTube player. 

Naturally, you will need a 4K monitor 

to see all the detail in the 4K videos. 

To view the above video, go to 

tinyurl.com/hqkh9eu. 


HTC 10 

It may have the UltraPixel branding, 

but the HTC 10’s rear 12Mp camera 

has a normal sensor. Each pixel is 

relatively large at 1.55µm; this and 

the optical stabilisation help to give 

decent photos both day and night. 

There’s an auto HDR mode along 

with a decent manual mode, and 

you have the option to shoot in 

RAW and then process the DNG 

files yourself. However, you can’t 

tap to set a metering point, which 

is disappointing. 

In auto mode, the HTC 10 is 

capable of some excellent photos 

and our portrait shot is a good example of a wellexposed 

scene with realistic skin tones. 

Video quality is pretty good, too. In 4K you get 

plenty of detail, and the optical stabilisation really 

helps to smooth things out if you have shaky hands, 

or you’re walking along. It does struggle with 

dynamic range in video, though. 

A bonus is that it can record Hi‐res audio with 

videos, and the quality of the mics is definitely a 

notch above most other phones. 

The revamped camera app is good, but it 

doesn’t support video recording at 60fps. Also, 

there’s no quick access to the camera short of 

swiping up on the screen. Other phones, such 

as the Nexus 6P allow you to double‐press the 

power button to launch the camera. 


Selfies proved below par, despite the front 5Mp 

camera also having optical stabilisation. Colours 

tended to be washed out and the beauty mode 

makes faces look like they’re made of plastic. 

Key features 

Rear: 12Mp; 4K video; 1080p at 30fps 

Optical image stabilisation: Yes, front and rear 


Panorama: Yes 

Slo-mo: 720p at 120fps 

Time-lapse: Yes 

Outdoor Portrait 

ABOVE: A natural‐looking photo from 

the HTC 10 here. Saturation is ideal, 

and the skin tone is spot on. 


Landscape 

ABOVE: A reasonable 

landscape shot from 

the HTC until you 

examine the photo at 

1:1 where it’s easy to 

see that details aren’t 

nearly as sharp as the 

best phone cameras. 

Side by side, the 

effect is like smearing 

Vaseline on the lens. 

1:1 crop 


Selfies 

ABOVE: Like the 

LG G5, the HTC 10 

reverses the image 

for selfies. Colours are 

washed out and the 

default beauty mode 

gives a plastic look 

to faces. Some may 

like this, but we’d 

always turn it off. 

Close up 


Low light 

ABOVE: The 

HTC can’t 

keep highlights 

in check but 

retains a fair 

amount of detail. 

Video 

To view the above video, go to tinyurl.com/hqkh9eu. 


Huawei P9 

The highlight of the Huawei P9 is 

its cameras – all three of them. The 

rear dual‐camera arrangement is 

a tie‐in with Leica, although the 

hardware is actually manufactured 

by Sunny Optical Technology in 

China with Leica’s say so. 

One of the rear cameras has a 

standard RGB sensor, while the 

other is monochrome. Images 

are taken with both cameras and 

combined to give better light 

sensitivity, but you can shoot high 

quality black‐and‐white photos 

using only the mono camera. 

The camera app has been influenced heavily by 

Leica and has plenty of options including a manual 

mode and the option to shoot in RAW and JPG at 

the same time. There’s also a clever depth‐of‐field 

mode which gives DSLR‐style bokeh – a blurred 

background and sharp subject. 

You can even choose what you want in focus 

after taking a photo in this mode, and the results 

can be stunning. It’s certainly the most effective of 

all the ‘blurred background’ modes we’ve seen on 

a phone but it can still be fooled as it is software 

processing rather than being a true optical effect. 

You also get Huawei shooting modes such as 

light painting and also ‘beauty video’. 

The bad news is that we weren’t that impressed 

with the standard photos from the P9. There’s far 


too much processing going on: mainly increased 

contrast and saturation. 

Photos are incredibly sharp though, and it could 

be that Huawei is applying too much sharpening 

for some tastes. We shot in the Standard mode, 

which is just one of three Leica modes designed 

to ‘meticulously reproduce the look of authentic 

Leica photographs’. 

In low light, the dual cameras mean that it does 

a better job than many smartphones. However, the 

laser autofocus system did struggle on occasion 

and failed to produce sharp faces. 

HDR is a separate mode, so you’ll have 

to invoke it manually when you think a 

scene demands it. It also seems that so much effort 

went into photography that Huawei forgot about 

video. There’s no support for 4K, but at least you 

can opt to record 1080p at 60fps. 

At the front is an 8Mp selfie camera. It has a 

decent wide‐angle lens, but we found that details 

were soft, potentially due to noise reduction, but 

more likely as a result of the beauty mode. 

The P9 has the best cameras of any Huawei 

phone, but it’s not on a par with the Galaxy 

S7 overall. If you like being creative with your 

photography though, it is a compelling choice. 

Key features 

Rear: 12Mp dual camera; 1080p at 60fps; 

720p at 120fps 



Panorama: Yes 



Outdoor portrait 

RIGHT: Noise 

reduction 

leaves soft 

detail in the 

P9’s selfie, 

but the wide 

angle means 

you can get 

three people 

in the frame 

without 

stretching 

too much. 

Selfies 

LEFT: The P9 

oversaturates 

photos by default, 

so it’s no surprise 

that the skin tones 

here don’t look 

very natural. The 

background is 

sharper than we’d 

like from a portrait 

(some phones have 

a narrower depth 

of field), but you 

can of course use 

the P9’s shallow 

depth of field mode 

to create stunninglooking 

portraits. 


Landscape 

ABOVE: On this 

overcast day, the 

oversaturation 

serves to make this 

photo a little more 

appealing with 

warmer colours, 

but it arguably has 

too much contrast. 

1:1 crop 


Low light 

LEFT: 

Despite all 

the clever 

tech, the P9 

appeared 

to struggle 

with focus 

in low light. 

Details are 

soft, but it 

does handle 

the bright 

lights well. 

Close up 

Video 

To view the above video, go to 

tinyurl.com/hqkh9eu. 


LG G5 

Although the G5 is modular and 

allows you to plug in a separate 

camera, the built‐in cameras are very 

capable. One is a ‘standard’ 16Mp 

offering, which is slightly unusual 

in that it has a 16:9 sensor rather 

than the typical 4:3, and the other is 

an 8Mp camera, with a 135‐degree 

wide‐angle lens. 

It’s easy to swap between the 

cameras is all the shooting modes 

in which they’re available, and while 

the wide‐angle offering doesn’t even 

come close to the main camera for 

quality, it opens up a whole load of 

interesting shooting options which would either 

require a GoPro‐type camera or an add‐on lens 

such as those from Olloclip. 

You can select UHD video with both cameras, 

although as with photos, the drop in quality is 

noticeable with the wide‐angle. 

Using the main camera, the G5 is capable of 

excellent photos whether you’re taking landscapes, 

portraits or close‐ups. It exposes well and the laser 

autofocus only struggles in low light. Photos aren’t 

the best in low light: they’re grainy and noisy but 

with decent levels of detail. 

For selfies, it’s not a great phone. It took 

washed‐out photos which were soft at the edges. 

Like the HTC, it reverses the image so it’s as if 

you’re looking in a mirror. 


Selfies 

Overall, the G5 is a decent choice for 

photography, if not so much for selfies. It’s the only 

phone to offer a built‐in wide‐angle camera, but it’s 

a shame that LG didn’t make it waterproof like the 

Galaxy S7, so you could really take advantage of 

those cameras in all conditions. 

Key features 

Rear: 16Mp + 8Mp wide‐angle, 4K and 1080p at 

30fps (both cameras); 720p at 120fps 

Optical image stabilisation: Yes (both rear 

cameras) 


Panorama: Yes 


LEFT: Compared 

to the G5’s 

excellent rear 

camera, the front 

one is not great 

at all. It has a 

wide‐angle lens 

and reverses 

the image. The 

problems, though, 

are that it’s soft 

at the edges 

and colours are 

washed out. 



ABOVE: The G5 has good dynamic range, preserving 

the highlights while bringing out shadow detail here. 

White balance is good and skin tones are realistic. 

Overall a pleasing portrait. 

WIDE-ANGLE 

LEFT: Using the 

G5’s wide‐angle 

lens introduces 

the expected 

distortion but 

again shows great 

dynamic range, 

if slightly 

oversaturated 

colours. 


Landscape 

ABOVE: A nice, well‐exposed 

photo from the G5. It’s sharp 

and with good dynamic range. 

There’s lots of detail, too. 

1:1 crop 


Landscape 

WIDE-ANGLE 

ABOVE: Here’s a comparison 

when using the wide‐angle camera 

on the G5. It lacks detail and 

sharpness compared to the main 

camera. 

1:1 crop 


Low light 

LEFT: In the 

dark, the G5 

struggles with 

noise. It seems 

LG prefers to 

leave this rather 

than use noise 

reduction and 

sacrifice detail. 

It does leave 

this shot looking 

rather grainy, 

though. 

Close up 

Video 

WIDE-ANGLE 

To view the above video, go 

to tinyurl.com/hqkh9eu. 


Samsung Galaxy S7 

Samsung has shied away from high 

pixel counts and gone for a 12Mp 

main camera rather than the 16Mp 

on the S6. It’s a bold but wise move 

and makes the S7 one of the best 

phones for photography. 

It ticks almost every box, too, 

with optical stabilisation, 4K 

video and the option for 60fps in 

1080p. It can shoot slo‐mo, albeit 

not in 1080p, and will shrug off a 

downpour because the whole phone 

is water resistant. 

Colours are vibrant and exposures 

are generally spot on. And in 

low light, the larger pixels (1.4µm 

versus 1.22µm) really seemed to 

help: the S7 is capable of superbly 

detailed photos with virtually no noise. You don’t 

get a dual‐tone flash – or a front flash – but few 

will miss these. 

4K video is also highly detailed and thanks to 

an HDR option, doesn’t blow out the sky when 

other phones can’t avoid it. Audio is decent 

from the built‐in mics as well. The OIS helps, but 

there’s a bit of video wobble if you’re moving it 

around too much. 

You can double‐tap the home button to launch 

the camera, and there’s minimal focus lag, which 

means you’re less likely to miss the moment: 

another reason why the S7 makes for such a 


good camera. Reviewing photos on the AMOLED 

screen is a treat, too. 

The app includes a manual mode where you 

can change the metering mode, ISO, shutter 

speed and exposure compensation. Plus you can 

choose to shoot in RAW mode and enable the 

tracking autofocus mode. 

Samsung has also copied Apple and added a 

Motion Photo mode, which records a couple of 

seconds of video before and after you take a full 

resolution photo. Arguably more useful is the ability 

to take 9Mp photos while shooting 4K video. 

If you’re into selfies, the front 5Mp camera has 

a decent wide‐angle lens and produces sharp, 

well‐exposed self‐portraits. This all‐round goodness 

makes the S7 the best phone camera right now. It 

does a fantastic job in auto mode, but offers manual 

options for those that want them. And in addition 

to superb quality 

results, Samsung 

has nailed the user 

experience, too. 

Key features 

Rear: 12Mp; 4K; 

1080p at 60fps 

Optical image 

stabilisation: Yes 

Front: 5Mp; 

1080p video 

Panorama: Yes, 

plus motion panorama 


Rear: Time-lapse: Yes 



LEFT: The S7 

captures a 

great portrait 

here, with good 

exposure and 

white balance. 

Detail is also 

good and 

the blurred 

background 

means it isn’t 

a distraction 

from the focus 

of the photo. 

RIGHT: The 

Galaxy S7’s 

selfie has the 

widest field 

of view of all 

the phones 

we tested. It’s 

also one of the 

best photos: 

loads of sharp 

detail and 

well exposed. 

Remember to 

turn off the 

beauty mode if 

you don’t want 

to have a plastic 

face, though. 

Selfies 


Landscape 

ABOVE: One of the 

most impressive of 

the bunch, this photo 

from the S7 has loads 

of detail, and is sharp 

and well exposed. 

1:1 crop 


Low light 

LEFT: 

A great 

performance 

by the S7: 

this photo 

is sharp and 

detailed 

with no 

noticeable 

noise. Our 

only criticism 

is the 

blown out 

highlights. 

Close up 

Video 

To view the above video, 

go to tinyurl.com/hqkh9eu. 


Sony Xperia Z5 

Sony makes the sensor for the 

Z5’s 23Mp camera, but somehow 

the Z5 gets it wrong on quite a 

few levels. While some – notably 

DxOMark – rate the Z5 very highly, 

we’ve tested both the Z5 and 

Z5 Premium and come to very 

different conclusions. 

First up, that massive megapixel 

rating. Sony has been cagey about 

revealing specific details about 

the sensor and the phone defaults 

to 8Mp so you have to actively 

change it to 23Mp. And as you can 

plainly see from our landscape comparison crops, 

there’s less detail in the Z5’s photo than you get 

from phones with 12Mp cameras. Really, that high 

number is misleading. 

There’s more trouble, too. You’ll find SteadyShot 

in the menus, but this isn’t optical stabilisation. 

It’s actually software cropping which smooths out 

video in the same way video editing software does. 

Plus, it can only record slo‐mo video at 120fps at 

720p. Most rivals offer double the frame rate and 

some will record 120fps at 1080p. 

There is one bonus: a dedicated two‐stage 

shutter button, something no other rival in this 

group possesses. The phone is also water resistant 

like the Galaxy S7, so you don’t have to put it away 

if it starts raining heavily. Unfortunately, Sony did a 

U‐turn on its waterproof claim in September 2015 


and you’ll now void the warranty if you start trying 

to take underwater photos and videos. In low light, 

its photos aren’t too bad but lack detail compared 

to the best (the Samsung Galaxy S7) and in good 

light, colours tend to be washed out. For selfies, 

the front 5Mp camera has a very wide field of view, 

but images are very soft at the edges. 

In the right circumstances, the Z5 can take a 

decent photo and video, but it’s far from the best 

phone camera. 

Key features 

Rear: 23Mp, 4K, 1080p at 60fps 



Panorama: Yes 




LEFT: Using 

the iAuto+ 

mode, we 

expected 

better from 

the Sony 

Z5. The 

highlights are 

completely 

blown out and 

colours look 

washed out. 

However, 

focus is good. 


Landscape 

ABOVE: It’s a disappointing 

landscape from the Z5: 

washed out, over exposed 

and lacking in detail. Look 

at the 100 percent crop 

below and you’ll see smudgy 

brickwork and text in the 

Comedy Loft logo. 

1:1 crop 


Selfies 

ABOVE: With it’s nice wide‐angle 

lens the Z5 can fit in several people 

at arm’s length. However, the image 

is soft at the edges and detail levels 

are below what we’d expect. It’s 

also a bit underexposed. 


Low light 

LEFT: The Z5 has 

better highlight 

control than some 

and it has clearly 

tried to correct 

colours, but other 

phones produced 

a more true‐to‐life 

photo in these 

conditions. 

Close up 

Video 




Xiaomi Mi 5 

Xiaomi takes the cameras 

seriously on the Mi 5 and uses a 

16Mp Sony sensor and a sapphire 

cover for the main camera. It has 

what the Chinese company calls 

4‐axis optical stabilisation and can 

record video at 4K. It has its limits, 

though. There’s no 1080p60 mode 

and slo‐mo is a mere 120fps at 

720p. But these minor gripes 

aside, this is a surprisingly good 

camera on a phone that’s half the 

price (or less) than the other flagships on test here. 

The app is a little confusing at first because you 

have to swipe in from the left to change modes and 

options. Also, settings are separate for video and 

photos, and it’s easy to accidentally apply digital 

zoom when swiping to access these options. 

There are a few unusual options, such as a 

long shutter setting up to 32 seconds: something 

you won’t even find on the HTC 10, which is 

limited to two seconds. 

Typically, cameras on mid‐range phones have no 

hope of competing with the best out there, but the 

Mi 5 holds its own. Photos aren’t as sharp as the 

Samsung S7 or the Google Nexus 6P, but they’re 

respectable. Colours are generally natural and 

exposure good. In our portrait photo we discovered 

that face detection didn’t always work: it focused 

on buildings in the background. But when it 

works – which is most of the time – you won’t be 


disappointed. In low light it doesn’t embarrass 

itself. 4K video is nice and sharp, and stabilisation 

is effective too. Even audio is clear. 

Key features 

Rear: 16Mp; 4K; 1080p at 30fps 

Optical image stabilisation: Yes 


Panorama: Yes 




LEFT: A good effort 

from the Mi 5 with 

decent exposure. 

However, a more 

limited dynamic 

range than its rivals 

means highlights 

are blown out. 

Colours are slightly 

oversaturated and 

details a little soft. 

(Note: we had to 

use a backup photo 

here as our model 

was blurry in the 

main portrait photo 

as the phone had 

decided to focus 

on the buildings in 

the background.) 


Landscape 

1:1 crop 

ABOVE: Compared to 

the LG and Samsung 

shots, the Xiaomi’s 

photo is softer, but it is a 

decent effort and better 

than the HTC 10’s. 


Selfies 

ABOVE: The Mi 5 has 

quite a narrow field 

of view from it’s front 

camera. Detail is soft, 

possibly due to heavyhanded 

noise reduction. 


Low light 

LEFT: Almost 

as good at 

the iPhone 

6s’s low light 

performance, 

albeit with worse 

colour balance 

and softer detail. 

Another good 

effort from the 

underdog here. 

Close up 

Video 





Verdict 

Aside from the Sony Xperia Z5, which proved a 

disappointment for a second time, none of the 

cameras here are bad. The best phone for you, 

though, will depend on your priorities. If you 

specifically want to shoot video at 60fps, this rules 

out a surprising number of new phones: LG G5, 

HTC 10, plus the Xiaomi Mi 5 and Google Nexus 6P. 

But not the Samsung Galaxy S7, which shoots great 

1080p at 60fps (and also 4K at 30fps). 

If, however, you want to get creative with photos, 

the LG G5 with its wide‐angle secondary camera 

is fun, as are the special modes on the Huawei P9. 

The P9 might suit some people, but the focus is 

firmly on photos: it doesn’t support 4K video and 

has no optical stabilisation. The Galaxy S7 offers 

both. The HTC 10 takes decent photos and videos, 

but they’re not the sharpest, and the ‘experience’ 

could be better: we want a fast way to launch the 

camera app and support for 60fps when shooting 

in 1080p. Some people will gravitate towards 

the phone because of its Hi‐Res audio and the 

option to shoot photos in RAW, but apart from the 

Hi‐Res audio recording in videos, the Galaxy S7 

has everything that’s missing here. 

If your budget is limited, the Xiaomi Mi 5 is 

a fine choice and if you can live without 60fps 

video and optical stabilisation, the Nexus 6P takes 

fantastically sharp photos (and video). 

Ultimately, though, the Samsung is the best 

all‐rounder. It ticks all the feature boxes apart from 

a couple that don’t particularly matter to most 

people – 120fps, 1080p slo‐mo and Hi‐Res audio 

recording – and takes superb photos and videos.

Amazon Fire HD 8 

Round-up: Best 

Android tablets of 2016 

If you’re looking to buy a new tablet, Marie Brewis 

reveals the most exciting models coming later this year 

Amazon Fire HD tablet(s) 

Amazon recently announced updates to its Kindle 

Fire and Kindle Fire Kids Edition, with new colours 

and an upgraded 16GB of internal storage, but 

we’re more interested in forthcoming updates 

to its Fire HD tablet line‐up. The Fire HD 8 and 

HD 10 were announced in September 2015, 


so it’s likely we’ll be waiting until September 

2016 for any new models. These are likely to be 

wallet‐friendly budget tablets that will appeal to 

customers primarily for their value. 

We might see slightly faster performance and 

higher‐resolution screens, but we don’t suppose 

you’ll feel the need to rush out to upgrade. 

New Google Nexus 7 (2016) 

We’ve seen various Android tablets from Google 

over the years, including the Nexus 9, Nexus 10 

and Pixel C, but none has proved so popular with 

consumers as the Nexus 7. Offering unparalleled 

value and a decent specification, you can still buy 

the Nexus 7 today. 

So it’s about time Google updated its best ever 

tablet, and if rumours are to be believed this year it 

will do exactly that with the new Nexus 7 (2016). 

The word on the street is that it could be 

announced later this month at Google I/O (fuelled 

by news that the Nexus 9 has been removed from 

Google Nexus 7 (2015) 


Google’s store) – but we don’t think a developer’s 

conference is a likely place for its outing, and 

that it’s much more likely to come alongside 

new Nexus phones in September or October. 

That said, Google did announce the Android N 

Developer Preview early this year, and there may 

be a good reason for this. 

Huawei is thought to be the manufacturer of the 

new Nexus budget tablet, taking over from Asus 

which made the first‐ and second‐generation Nexus 

7 tablets. Inspiration is expected to come from the 

Pixel C, though, and it’s possible that as with that 

tablet Google will handle the manufacturing. 

Rumoured specifications include a 7in 

Quad‐HD display, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 

820 or Nvidia Tegra X1 processor, 4GB of RAM, 

4G support and a 3000mAh battery. The new 

Nexus 7 could even feature a Force Touch 

similar to that found in Apple’s iPhones. It has 

to be said though, that’s an awesome – and 

slightly unbelievable – specifications for what 

is expected to remain a budget tablet. 

Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 8in and 9.7in 

Samsung’s premium Tab S line is among the very 

best tablets you can buy, and better than anything 

else we’ve seen in the Android world. We’re 

expecting great things from the 2016 update to 

the line‐up, with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3. 

We’ll more than likely see two Tab S3 models, 

with a compact model measuring around 8in, and 

a larger‐screened tablet around 9.7in. Rumours 

abound that we could see a Samsung Galaxy Tab 

S Edge, borrowing from the curved‐edge design of 


Samsung Galaxy Tab S 

the Galaxy S7 edge. However, while a glass‐rear 

tablet would be interesting, sketches of the Tab 

S3 found at the FCC suggest the design will be 

remarkably similar to that of the Tab S2. 

Whatever the Tab S3 is called, you can bet your 

last pound on the fact it will have a high‐resolution 

display and way more power than anyone really 

needs. The Tab S3 is expected to feature a 

1536x2048‐pixel screen and Qualcomm’s octa‐core 

Snapdragon 652 processor with 3GB of RAM and 

32GB of storage. Cameras are likely to be 8Mp at 

the back and 2Mp at the front. Following on from 

the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, we’d expect it to stick 

with a Micro‐USB port for charging the internal 

battery, which is alleged to be 4000mAh in the Tab 

S3 8in and 5870mAh in the Tab S3 9.7in. 

Expect the Tab S3 8in and 9.7in to be announced 

around July 2016. 


Sony Xperia Z6 Tablet and Tablet Compact 

There might be rumours flying around that Sony 

has killed off its Z‐series family of phones and 

tablets with the introduction of the Xperia X and 

XA at MWC 2016, but Sony has never officially 

confirmed this is the case, instead taking the line 

“never say never”. And its tablet series is long 

overdue an update, having not been refreshed 

since the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet – and the compact 

version is even older, having not been updated 

since the Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact. 

Sony’s tablet, when it arrives (which could be 

at September’s IFA tradeshow), will be a premium 

model with a circa‐£500 price tag if history is 

anything to go by. This being Sony, you can expect 

an IP68 waterproof build and a sleek design. Other 

features might include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 

820 processor, a Quad‐HD display, 4GB of RAM 

and 32GB of storage with microSD support. 

Sony Xperia Z4 


Round-up: Best new 

Android games of 2016 

Lewis Painter showcases the best upcoming games of 2016 

Rush Rally 2 

Rush Rally 2 is an upcoming racing game for not 

only Android, but iOS and Apple TV too – and 

it boasts some impressive features. First of all, 

the developers claim that the game will run at 

60 frames per second and will feature over 72 

tracks across a number of game modes including 

Rallycross and Rally Championship. There are eight 

cars available at launch with a plan to add more 

over time, all featuring realistic physics gathered 

from “real car telemetry data”. The iOS/Apple 

TV variants even feature MFi controller support, 

allowing you to use a gaming controller to play. 


The good news is that the developers claim 

the game is completed, and it’s just a matter 

of deciding on a launch date. The developers 

hope that’ll be some time in May, but nothing is 

confirmed just yet. Check out the launch trailer, 

complete with gameplay, at tinyurl.com/jfr85zy. 

Hackers 

Hackers, as you’ve probably guessed already, is a 

game about hacking – don’t worry, you won’t get 

into trouble with the NSA for this kind of hacking, 

though. The idea is that you build up your hacking 

network and then hack your friends and other 

online players. Though details about gameplay are 

scarce, the idea is that you have a network, and 

you have to build up your defences and resources 


in such a way that you make the core of your 

network impenetrable to hackers. 

The game is currently in beta testing, which you 

can sign up for at tinyurl.com/h85vaac, with a plan 

to release for Android in the coming months. 

The Elder Scrolls: Legends 

The Elder Scrolls: Legends was first announced at 

E3 2015, and while there still isn’t a solid release 

date in sight, it looks promising. It’s a collectable 

card game, with gamers collecting cards with 

stats including agility and strength to be used in 

battles, although there isn’t much else to go on 

as Bethesda is being tight‐lipped about the whole 

situation. There’s an overview of the gameplay 

element on YouTube at tinyurl.com/opux5fr. 


Bethesda has recently announced a beta test 

which should be starting soon, and those interested 

can sign up at tinyurl.com/hcynze8. The game is set 

to be available for both PC and Mobile and while 

we assume this means both iOS and Android, there 

is no platform confirmation so far. The release date 

is still unknown, but with E3 2016 fast approaching, 

we imagine it’ll get some kind of mention then. 

Leap of Fate 

Leap of Fate is an interesting game already 

available for PC, but is due to be released on 

mobile ‘soon’. The game is best known for being 

hardcore. It may have something to do with the 

fact that you have one life to survive a journey 

across a futuristic, slightly cyberpunk looking New 


York. There’s no health regeneration either, so 

you’ll probably die quickly and have to start all 

over again. You can play as one of four characters, 

all technomages (using science to create the 

illusion of magic), and there are over one hundred 

upgrades available over four categories: Mobility, 

Passive, Attack Skills and Equippable Glyphs. 

You can find out more about Leap of Fate on its 

official website at tinyurl.com/j8ghja4. There’s no 

word on the release date for the mobile companion 

just yet, but we’ll update this when we know more. 

Samurai Rising 

Square Enix recently posted a teaser for something 

called Project: Rising with promises that we’d hear 

more soon. Well, it turns out that the “more” it 


was referring to was yet another trailer, although 

this one included a few more details – the only 

issue is that it’s in Japanese. A Japanese‐speaking 

writer over at Touch Arcade translated the trailer, 

and gave us the following insight: “…it’s another 

free to play social action RPG from the same 

artist responsible for Bravely Default. The game 

centralizes around four player co‐op, with players 

taking the role of various Final Fantasy‐ish classes.” 

The video specifically mentions the Dragoon, 

White Mage and Black Mage classes, so it’s safe 

to assume that other Final Fantasy‐esque jobs will 

make an appearance in the full game. Samurai 

Rising looks to be a Japan‐exclusive game at 

launch, but we’re holding our breath that it’ll come 

to UK shores sooner rather than later. 


Review: 

Huawei P9 

£449 inc VAT • consumer.huawei.com/uk 

Huawei took to the stage in London in early 

April to announce the widely anticipated 

(and hugely leaked) Huawei P9, the latest 

Android flagship with a dual‐camera arrangement 

never seen before on a phone. 

Design 

The Chinese company has a history of releasing 

top‐end smartphones at a much cheaper price 

point than its rivals, and the Huawei P9 is no 


exception. While its design is reminiscent of the 

Huawei P8 and Mate 8, the P9 has a number 

of changes including a brand new fingerprint 

scanner on the rear (similar to many other Huawei 

smartphones, including the Mate S) but with more 

advanced technology inside. There are two Leica 

cameras on the rear, but we’ll come to those later. 

The 6.95mm thick Huawei P9 has a 5.2in screen 

and an all‐metal body which makes the phone feel 

reassuringly expensive, with a gorgeous polished 

brushed metal finish on the rear of the device. 

The brushed metal finish stops grubby fingerprints 

from showing up on the rear of the smartphone, 

although the same can’t be said for the display. 

It measures in at 145x70.9x6.95mm and weighs 

a fairly lightweight 144g, an impressive feat when 

you consider that similar 5.2in smartphones like 

the recently announced HTC 10 weighs 161g and 

is 2mm thicker at 9mm. 

However, it’s the smaller details which complete 

the premium feel of the P9, from the chamfer 

around the edges to the slightly curved front 

glass which makes swiping in from the edge of 

the display a more comfortable experience. It also 

means that the Huawei P9 is nice to hold and is 

comfortable to use over long periods, a key factor 

for a smartphone with a large display. As we’ve 

seen from Huawei before, it also has near‐invisible 

side bezels only 1.75mm thick, producing the 

illusion of an edge‐to‐edge display and helping to 

keep the dimensions as small as possible. 

Instead of the same colour options as the P8, 

Huawei has decided to make the P9 in six colours: 

Ceramic White, Haze Gold, Rose Gold, Titanium 


Grey, Mystic Silver and Prestige Gold. If some 

of those sound familiar, they’re actually subtly 

different to Apple’s hues. Still, it would have been 

nice for Huawei to come out with its own colours 

instead of copying Apple. 

Display 

The first thing you’ll notice is the gorgeous display 

– a 5.2in IPS panel. Its resolution of 1920x1080 

may be lower than you’d expect ‐ the Huaweimanufactured 

Nexus 6P has a 2560x1440 screen 

– but the P9’s display still looks sharp and is bright, 

with a claimed maximum of 500cd/m 2 . We found 

the display to be incredibly bright, so much so that 

we used it in direct sunlight with no issue. In fact, 

we found ourselves turning the display down on 

occasion as it was too bright for our eyes. 

The Huawei P9 display boasts 96 percent 

saturation, and while we were initially impressed 

by the vibrant colours produced by the display, we 

now feel like the display is almost too saturated. 

It’s most apparent when looking at photos taken 

on the Huawei P9 – the vibrant, high saturation 

display makes the colours of the photo ‘pop’ but 

when viewed on a standard computer screen, it’s 

not as impressive. The high saturation also means 

that the colours displayed aren’t ‘true to life’, which 

may be an issue for some, and unlike the Galaxy 

S7, it doesn’t feature an always‐on display for the 

time and notifications. 

The Huawei P9 is protected by Corning Gorilla 

Glass 4, glass that the manufacturer claims is 

up to 2x stronger than the “leading competitor” 

(although we’re not quite sure who that is). While 


we didn’t specifically run any drop tests with the 

Huawei P9, we can confirm that it survived a 1m fall 

screen first onto gravel with only a couple of small 

scratches on the display. 

Performance 

Inside the P9 is the all new Huawei‐manufactured 

octa‐core Kirin 955 CPU (a slight tweak on the 

950 in the Mate 8) coupled with 3GB of RAM. 

And if you’re familiar with the Mate 8, you won’t 

be surprised to hear that the P9 is a brute when 

it comes to performance. We’ve put the P9 to the 

test over the past few weeks and we found it to 

be very responsive with no real signs of lag, even 

when firing up the camera – a stumbling block for 

many other smartphones. 

If the P9 does start to show signs of lag, users 

can run the built‐in optimiser standard on many 

Huawei smartphones to close running background 


processes and speed up the performance of the 

smartphone with a single tap. 

Anyway, it’s time to talk specifics. We ran a 

number of benchmark tests to test the various 

features of the Huawei P9, and here’s what we 

found out. In Geekbench 3, the P9 scored 1789 

in the single‐core test and 6505 in the multi‐core 

test. That’s a little behind the Galaxy S7, but ahead 

of LG’s 2016 flagship, the LG G5 (in the multi‐core 

test anyway). In AnTuTu, it scored a brilliant 97,584, 

which put it ahead of the Mate 8 (92,746) but 

considerably behind the Galaxy S7 (129,077). 

For gaming, it’s not the best option on the 

market. We saw results of just 19fps in GFXBench 

Manhattan, 36fps in T‐Rex and only 7fps in the 

new Car Chase test. The Galaxy S7 was faster 

in all three tests, despite the higher resolution 

2560x1440‐pixel screen, with 27fps, 53fps and 8fps 

respectively. With that being said, we found no real 

issues with gaming on the P9 in our real world tests 

– it may struggle with high‐end 3D games, but it 

can more than handle standard mobile games such 

as Slither.io and Faily Brakes. 

Storage and connectivity 

In terms of storage, there’s 32GB onboard but 

you can supplement this using a microSD card up 

to 200GB. That’s an odd limit, but you can buy 

200GB microSD cards for around £100. 

Along with improved internals, the Huawei P9 

has a 3000mAh battery that Huawei claims will last 

around 1.2 days with “extreme” use, and over a 

day and a half with standard use. We ran a battery 

benchmark during our time with the Huawei P9 


and it scored 4305 with a runtime of seven hours 

and 10 minutes, putting it in line with the Galaxy S6 

(4136 and six hours, 53 minutes) but way behind the 

Galaxy S7 Edge (6855 and 11 hours, 25 minutes). In 

the real world, we found the P9 would comfortably 

last all day with normal usage, but we wouldn’t go 

as far as to say it lasts up to a day and a half. 

Though there was no mention of QuickCharge 

technology, the P9 has a USB‐C port which the 

company claims should allow for fast charging 

– specifically, 10 minutes of charging time should 

produce up to five hours of use. However, in our 

real world tests, we found the charging time to 

be average for a 3000mAh smartphone. In terms 

of connectivity, the P9 has dual‐band Wi‐Fi, NFC, 

Bluetooth and 4G LTE. There’s confusion over 

whether the UK model will support two SIM cards 

or not, but we can confirm that the phone is not 

Dual‐SIM in the UK. 



Leica cameras 

The highlight is the rear‐facing pair of cameras which 

were developed with Leica, a high‐end camera 

specialist. Unlike similar setups we’ve seen on other 

phones, this one is different to others on the market 

because it uses one standard colour sensor and 

one monochrome sensor. Here’s how it works: the 

standard 12Mp camera takes the primary photo and 

the 12Mp monochrome sensor also takes a photo. 

When combined you get up to 300 percent more 

light and 50 percent better contrast when compared 

to other smartphone cameras (there were many 

comparisons with the iPhone 6s at the launch). 

We’re quite impressed with them – the photos 

taken are vibrant and crisp, and the cameras 

capture a great amount of detail (see our sample 

photo below) in well‐lit conditions. However, 

while Huawei claims that the P9 can take in up 

to 300 percent more light than other smartphone 

cameras, we’re not blown away by the quality of 

images taken in low light. Take a look at the below 

unedited image, taken at sunset.

Photos taken in low‐light conditions generally 

lack definition with visible levels of noise, and 

look relatively flat in terms of colour, even when 

showcased on a heavily saturated display. 

It also has a hybrid focus system, using a 

combination of laser, depth and contrast focus which 

is said to deliver perfectly focused images almost 

instantly. The new autofocus system is much faster 

and more accurate than what we’ve seen with the 

iPhone 6s (and possibly the Galaxy S7). However, 

we have to admit that there were several occasions 

where the P9 got the focus completely wrong and 

required us to retake the photo – we’d recommend 

tapping on the subject on‐screen to focus, rather 

than relying on the automatic focus all the time. 

Along with a redesigned camera system, the 

camera app has been developed with Leica and 

uses the familiar Leica font. At first glance, it looks 

pretty basic with a lack of buttons, but that’s because 

the app relies heavily on gesture control. You can 

swipe in from the edge of the display to access your 

camera settings and a variety of shooting modes, 

but our favourite was the Pro mode (activated by 

swiping near the camera trigger). Why? It offers 

complete control over the dual‐camera, providing 

users with an opportunity to tweak settings including 

the ISO, shutter speed and even the autofocus area 

to capture the perfect photo. 

Another favourite mode of ours is the ‘shallow 

depth of field’ mode (we’re not sure that’s the official 

name, but that’s what it’s called in‐app). The mode 

allows you to tweak the ‘aperture’ settings and focus 

of a photo after it has been taken. This is nothing 

new – HTC got there first with the Duo camera on 



the One M8, but the good news is that it works 

better. A lot better. Chances are you wouldn’t know 

the photos below were taken on a smartphone. 

The photo below was taken using the native 

camera app and some of the effects and controls 

on offer. No processing or sharpening has been 

applied – we’ve simply resized it. 

At the front is an 8Mp camera, which doesn’t 

feature autofocus like the P9 Plus but offers a 

variety of photo and video modes, though not 

as many as the rear‐facing camera. The photos 

taken with the front‐facing camera were reasonably 

crisp, but we feel like it would really shine with 

autofocus capabilities.

Above you can see the depth of field effect 

in conjunction with the colour isolation option: 

it makes the out of focus parts black and white. 

However, the effect doesn’t quite work on this 

phone box as you can see. 

Video recording 

Oddly, the P9 doesn’t support video recording in 4K. 

Instead the highest resolution is 1080p, although 

it’s nice you can shoot it at 60fps as well as 30fps. 

There’s also no optical stabilisation, so while 60fps 

improves smoothness a little, it’s still obvious that it’s 

only software stabilisation. If video recording is one 

of your priorities, there are better choices. 

Software 

No surprises here: the Huawei P9 ships with the 

latest version of Android, Marshmallow. More 


specifically, it will come with Android 6.0 in the box, 

but with the Emotion UI (or EMUI for short) overlay. 

This has extra features when compared to stock 

Android along with a heavily tweaked interface, 

including a redesigned notification centre that 

displays notifications in a timeline view. Essentially, 

it’s about as far from stock Android as it comes. 

It also offers Wi‐Fi+, a service that automatically 

analyses the quality of your internet connection and, 

if necessary, switch to a mobile data connection. 

Wi‐Fi+ will also detect that you’re near a known Wi‐Fi 

network and will toggle Wi‐Fi on if switched off, and 

won’t connect to known Wi‐Fi networks that have no 

internet connection. 

Huawei’s EMUI overlay does take a little bit of 

getting used to because, for example, the Settings 

menu has been redesigned and there’s no quick 

access as you get with stock Android. Plus, there’s 

no app tray, so all your apps have to sit on the home 

screen like iOS. With that being said, we think that 

even though it may take some getting used to, the 

extra features of Huawei’s EMUI make it worthwhile. 

Verdict 

When comparing the P9 to other flagships, it’s 

important to remember the £449 price which makes 

it considerably cheaper than many of its rivals (but 

not the identically priced Nexus 6P that’s also made 

by Huawei). Overall, we’re impressed with the 

phone: it’s well built, feels good and looks good. The 

cameras aren’t the absolute best out there, it doesn’t 

top the charts in game tests and the screen isn’t 

Quad HD, but these minor quibbles are outweighed 

not only by the price but also because, unlike the 


Nexus, the P9 lets you stick in a microSD card to 

expand the storage. If you can afford it, the Galaxy 

S7 is a better phone overall, but this is a great 

choice if you can’t. Lewis Painter 

Specifications 

• 5.2in (1920x1080) FHD display 

• Android 6.0 Marshmallow 

• Front facing 8Mp camera 

• Rear facing 12Mp dual‐camera system 

• Rear‐facing fingerprint sensor 

• USB‐C enabled 

• Bluetooth 4.2 

• Wi‐Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 

• Emotion UI overlay 

• Octa‐core Kirin 955 processor 

• 3GB RAM 

• 32GB storage 

• 3000mAh battery 

• MicroSD card slot 

• 145x70.9x6.95mm 

• 144g 


Review: 

HTC 10 

£569 inc VAT • htc.com/uk 

HTC had been hyping and teasing the launch 

for the weeks leading up with the slogan 

‘power of 10’ and it’s not just because the 

phone is called the HTC 10. It also represents a 

decade of building smartphones and the perfect 

score – the bar is set high then. 

“Symbolizing greatness and independence but 

also that the whole is greater than the sum of its 


parts,” said HTC claiming “this newest addition 

to the HTC phone family combines a world class 

camera with gold standard audio, bold new metal 

unibody design and unparalleled performance.” 

Design 

While the HTC 10 follows a clear pattern of design 

– it along with its predecessors is essentially the 

same size and shape – there are a number of 

tweaks to be aware of. 

At the back not a great deal has changed with 

a similar look and feel to the One M9, the new key 

feature is a diamond cut chamfered edge which 

runs around the phone. It looks great giving a 

two‐tone effect to the metal body and also feels 

nice in the hand. There’s no doubt when picking 

up the HTC 10 that it’s made from solid metal. 

The new shape mean the sides of the phone 

are 3mm, though the phone is still big and heavy 

when you measure it elsewhere at up to 9.1mm 

(without the camera bump, 10.1mm with) and 161g. 

Elsewhere things have transformed more 

dramatically with a new style at the front which is 

extremely plain. There are no speaker grilles and 

not even a logo. HTC calls it the ‘purest’ Android 

on the market but not everyone will like this 

understated look. 

We’re not convinced and it overall feels like a 

step backwards from the stylish M9. While we’ve 

got a bit more used to it over time, the lack of a 

logo and things like the large front camera staring 

at you make it look unfinished and like a prototype. 

Although there are no front facing speakers, the 

HTC 10 still has BoomSound but partly via a new 


grille on the bottom of the phone (we’ll talk about 

audio performance later). The headphone socket 

has moved to the top, too. That’s not a criticism, 

we’re just letting you know. 

The HTC 10 mimics the One A9 with a home 

button with a built‐in fingerprint scanner below 

the screen. The firm hasn’t confused things by 

having on‐screen buttons, opting for capacitive 

ones instead but they’re a little too close to the 

bottom of the phone, despite being in‐line with 

the sensor. It also uses a similar power button 

with ridges for better grip. 

The HTC 10 is available in a range of colours: 

Carbon Grey, Topaz Gold, Glacier Silver and 

Camellia Red. 

Moving on from the innovative Dot View case is 

the new Ice View case – a sort of frosted glass style 

cover (made from plastic, though) which displays 

information and still allows you to interact with the 

phone such as taking calls. We’re worried about the 

longevity of the plastic hinge on it, though (our M9 

Dot View case broke fairly quickly). 

Like the LG G5, the HTC 10 is not waterproof 

so it’s bad news if that’s a design upgrade you 

we’re hoping for. It’s a shame but it appears HTC 

has focused on improving other areas such as 

the camera and audio instead. If you really want 

or need waterproofing, then look to the Samsung 

Galaxy S7 or Sony Xperia Z5. 

Hardware and specifications 

It’s getting harder and harder for phone makers to 

improve and upgrade their devices to make them 

even better than before (we don’t envy the position 


they are in). In many areas we’ve reached a point 

where tech hasn’t been developed any further and 

at times, you arguably don’t need it to be any better. 

While the HTC 10 might only be matching rivals 

in a lot of main areas it does improve on the HTC 

One M9 in various ways. As usual we’ve prodded, 

poked and tested the HTC 10 in every area – we’ve 

split the hardware and specifications section up 

into smaller chunks, so you can read the parts 

which interest you the most. 

Display 

Sitting between the Galaxy S7 and G5, the new HTC 

10 has a 5.2in Super LCD screen. That’s slightly 

bigger than the One M9 – although the phone isn’t 

really any bigger due to a better screen‐to‐body ratio 

– and sits between the S7 and G5 in size. 

The firm has finally bumped the resolution to 

Quad HD (1440x2560), too which we’re pleased 


about so the HTC 10 has a pixel density of 564ppi. 

The display is super crisp and bright, too, but the 

contrast isn’t as good as rivals; the display shows 

whites and blacks slightly on the grey side. 

HTC hasn’t gone down the always on route 

(displaying information even once you’ve switched 

the screen off) but does say the screen is the fastest 

and most responsive around – 50 percent more 

than its predecessor means it feels faster regardless 

of other component upgrade. The display certainly 

feels very receptive to us so far. 

Although the screen is decent, it’s other areas 

of the phone which HTC is really pushing including 

the ‘world‐class camera’ and ‘gold standard audio’. 

Before we get to those, let’s look at some of the 

core specs for the HTC 10. 

Processor, RAM and benchmarks 

Matching the LG G5, which has slick performance, 

the HTC 10 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 

820 processor which is a popular choice for 2016 

already. This is backed up with a healthy 4GB of 

RAM and we’ve not noticed any problems since 

getting a review sample. 

It might be partly related to the responsiveness 

of the screen, but the HTC 10 feels super nippy. 

That’s despite the benchmark scores lagging 

slightly behind the LG G5 which has the same 

processor and amount of RAM. 

Both are generally outpaced by the Galaxy 

S7 in benchmark results but don’t worry about 

the numbers too much. We really have reached 

a point where all flagship devices are more than 

powerful enough for day‐to‐day tasks. 


Geekbench 3 

GFXBench Manhattan 

GFXBench T-Rex 


JetStream 


Storage matches rivals at 32GB and HTC continues 

to offer expandable storage via a microSD card slot 

which can accept up to 2TB capacity cards. Unlike 

the S7 and G5, it’s good to see HTC supporting 

Android’s Adoptable Storage which allows a memory 

card to be viewed as internal storage. 

There’s plenty of high‐end connectivity with the 

HTC 10 including dual‐band 11ac Wi‐Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, 

NFC and AirPlay support (alongside many others) 

making it the first non‐Apple device to do so. What 

some users will find disappointing is the IR blaster 

(infrared sensor) has been dropped so no more 

using the phone as a TV remote. 

Fingerprint scanner 

The fingerprint sensor is a key addition to the 

specification sheet and works extremely quickly, 

according to HTC – just 0.2 seconds. Like the HTC 

One A9, it’s below the screen and isn’t a moving 

button like some rivals. You can add up to five 

fingerprints and we’ve found it pretty accurate, 

although it doesn’t always work. If you’re having 

trouble, try recalibrating. 


While most fingerprint sensors simply unlock the 

device, some phones allow you to do more with it. 

For example, Huawei cleverly lets you swipe to do 

things like pull the notification bar down. HTC hasn’t 

gone this far but it does work locking apps via the 

Boost+ app – you’ll need to set an unlock pattern for 

this feature but you can use the fingerprint scanner 

as an alternative if you’ve set it up. 

Battery life and charging 

HTC has adopted the new reversible USB Type‐C 

port (see below) and the HTC 10 supports Qualcomm 

Quick Charge 3.0 and combined with the firm’s 

own tech offers a day of usage (50 percent) with 

30 minutes charging. Just to be clear, the battery is 

still non‐removable – the LG G5 is the main current 

flagship which does offer this feature. 

You can only charge the 3000mAh battery via the 

USB port as there’s no wireless charging. We’d like 


oth, but HTC told us that it thinks faster charging 

is more convenient than the lack of wires. With the 

supplied charger, we found the HTC 10 charged to 

45 percent in 30 minutes and reached full after just 

64 minutes which is impressive. 

A two day battery life is touted for the HTC 10 

and while you might reach this mark if you use the 

phone lightly, use it a lot throughout the day and, 

although it won’t necessarily run out completely, 

you’ll need to charge it overnight. 

In our battery life benchmark, using Geekbench 

3, the HTC 10 lasted six hours, 41 minutes with a 

score of 4090. That’s 10 minutes short of the LG 

G5 which has a smaller battery and the Samsung 

Galaxy S7, with the same battery capacity, lasted 

for more than nine hours. 

Cameras 

Cameras are increasingly important on a 

smartphone and HTC is making bold claims 

about the HTC 10 in this area calling it “the best 

smartphone camera available on the market today”. 

There’s a drop in resolution from the 20Mp 

sensor in the M9 to a 12Mp UltraPixel sensor in 

the new phone. But this is far from a bad thing. 

And while it has the UltraPixel branding, there’s 

no weird stuff going on here: it’s a regular 12Mp 

sensor. It has large 1.55µm pixels (not quite the 

2µm found on the M8, but larger than the 1.22µm in 

the iPhone 6s). There’s also a larger f/1.8 aperture, 

second‐generation laser auto focus, optical image 

stabilisation (on both the back and front cameras) 

and a dual‐tone flash. In auto mode, the HTC 10 is 

capable of some excellent photos and our portrait 


shot is a good example of a well‐exposed scene 

with realistic skin tones. 

Video quality is pretty good, too. In 4K you get 

plenty of detail and the optical stabilisation really 

helps to smooth things out if you have shaky 

hands, or you’re walking along. It does struggle 

with dynamic range in video, though, and you 

can’t record at 60fps. 

HTC understands the importance of the front 

camera so the HTC 10 has a 5Mp UltraSelfie camera 

which features a wide‐angle 86 degree lens, a 

screen flash and 1.34µm pixels. More importantly, it’s 

the first front facing camera to come with OIS. Sadly, 

the results are a little disappointing with washed out 

colours and you can forget about the beauty mode 

unless you want to look like you’re made of plastic. 

A new camera app in on board with a simplified 

interface and like rivals, there’s both a pro mode and 


the ability to shoot in RAW. What we’d like, since the 

camera is such a headline feature, is a dedicated 

launch/shutter button or at least a way of quickly 

launching the camera when the phone is asleep. 

Ultimately, the cameras don’t live up to the claims: 

they’re not the best available on a smartphone 

today. That honour goes to the Samsung Galaxy 

S7 which is the best all‐rounder and also has one of 

the best “camera experiences”. (See our smartphone 

camera Group Test on page 4). 

Software 

After the HTC One A9 was the first non‐Nexus 

phone to ship with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, it’s no 

surprise that the HTC 10 does too. 

As you would expect, the HTC Sense user 

interface is preinstalled but it’s closer to stock 

Android than ever. The layout and style are mostly 

stock Android elements (notification bar, recent 

apps, and so on) with the main addition being 

BlinkFeed which you can switch off anyway. 

This is the closest interface we’ve seen to stock 

Android without buying a Nexus phone and HTC 

has tweaked many of its apps to fit with the Material 

Design. It’s also aimed to cut down on bloatware by 

not offering duplicates of apps. While this has been 

achieved to an extent (there’s no Gallery app for 

example leaving just Photos), there are still some 

such as Mail and Gmail, though. 

Features from previous versions of HTC Sense 

such a motion launch gestures and Zoe are still 

present. We’re a little annoyed to find preloaded 

apps such as Asphalt 8 and Instagram. That doesn’t 

help when you’re going for a ‘pure’ experience. 


A new app called Boost+ is designed to make 

your phone faster and more efficient – it’s also 

available on the Google Play app store for anyone 

to download. It includes a game battery booster 

which uses less battery while you play and a new 

PowerBotics system, which auto detects and shuts 

down apps that use excessive power. 

It’s a handy way to check things in one place – 

your storage and memory usage – but you don’t 

always want to clear your cache or kill running 

processes so feel free to ignore this app or switch 

off the automatic features if they’re actually 

hindering instead of helping. 

You can change the look and feel of the interface 

with Themes but an interesting addition is the new 

Freestyle layout for the homescreen which sets you 

free of the confines of the traditional grid system. 

This lets you place apps and widgets wherever you 

want and you can also use stickers as shortcuts. If 

you choose not to label them you can effectively 

hide things throughout the homescreen. There aren’t 

many to choose from at the moment but worth a try, 

just in case you think it’s the best thing ever. 


Verdict 

There’s a lot to like with the HTC 10 including a 

number of hardware upgrades across screen, 

camera and audio, plus a Nexus‐like stock 

Android experience. However, we’re not sold 

on the design and it’s tough at the top these 

days. While the HTC 10 is a solidly good phone 

and a respectable upgrade for M9 owners, it 

doesn’t blow the competition out of the water. 

The features that appeal the most are more 

niche than mass market. Chris Martin 


• 5.2in (2160x1440) Quad HD screen 

• Android 6.0 Marshmallow with HTC Sense 

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 64‐bit, 

quad‐core 

• 4GB RAM 

• 32GB storage 

• MicroSD card slot (up to 2TB) 

• 12Mp UltraPixel rear camera with laser auto focus, 

OIS and dual‐tone flash 

• 5Mp UltraSelfie front camera with OIS 

• Dual‐band 11ac Wi‐Fi 

• NFC 


• GPS 

• Fingerprint scanner 

• USB Type‐C 

• BoomSound Hi‐Fi Edition 

• Non‐removable 3000mAh battery with Quick 

Charge 3.0 

• 72x146x9mm 

• 161g 


Review: 

LG G5 

£529 inc VAT • lg.com/uk 

Alongside Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, 

the LG G5 is one of the biggest phone 

launches of 2016 – and we’re not just talking 

in the Android world. It’s one of the heavyweights 

and LG will be looking to set the market alight with 

the G5’s alternative and innovative modular design. 


Design 

It’s great to see LG doing something different with 

the design of the G5. After all, it’s easy to follow a 

formula, but the firm has ripped up the blueprints 

for its flagship phone and gone back to the drawing 

board. Brand recognition is important, but over 

the course of years devices can become a bit 

boring and too similar if the same design is simply 

tweaked each time. 

Dimensions and the loss of the RearKey 

It seems the battle to make the thinnest and lightest 

phone on the market may have ended. The big 

names seem more concerned with features than 

simply the race to nothing and we’re all for it. The 

G5 is 7.7mm thick and weighs 159g. 

The phone fits well in the hand, though the small 

groove that runs around the edge is a little sharp 

and makes things uncomfortable, which is a shame. 

The LG has a much more pleasing shape than its 

predecessor. The front is more stylish and we like 

the way the glass curves away at the top. The G5 is 

available in Titan Grey, Silver, Gold and Pink. 

Due to the large camera module on the back, 

which sticks out a little, LG has removed the 

RearKey. The volume buttons are now on the side, 

while the power button remains on the back and is 

combined into the fingerprint scanner. 

Unibody metal build 

Since announcing the G5 there’s been some 

controversy about its metal build. A YouTube video 

appears to show what looks like a layer of plastic 

with an aluminium layer underneath. That’s not the 


kind of metal unibody we were expecting. LG has 

commented on the video directly, with Ken Hong, 

senior director of global communications at LG 

stating: “What you’re seeing there is primer, not a 

plastic cover. As you know, primer is used to get 

paint to bond to aluminium, which is what we used 

for the G5’s body.” 

He goes onto explain that LG has used an 

aluminium alloy LM201b (patent pending) in order 

to integrate the antenna bands, so you can’t feel 

them, and to keep weight down. The process means 

tiny particles of metal are infused in the coating and 

bonded to the aluminium. The bottom line is that the 

back of the G5 is in essence metallic paint rather 

than solid metal. While we realise LG is trying to offer 

a smooth, seamless metal finish that’s durable and 

lightweight, the results feel different feeling. The G5 

doesn’t feel like, say, the metal of the HTC One M9. 

More worrying is how durable this makes the 

device. Of course, metal can scratch but this paint 


method is more likely to show up marks, chips and 

potentially gouges. 

The frame around the edge is solid metal and 

feels great, however, the shiny pin stripe around the 

edge stops twice on the top of the phone, which is 

odd and looks unfinished. We feel the overall look 

would be improved if it wasn’t there. 

LG Friends 

Modular design 

The modular design of the LG G5 isn’t like Project 

Ara or the Fairphone 2, you can’t replace or upgrade 

individual parts. Instead, the bottom of the phone is 

removable (see image, left), so you can access the 

battery. It also means you can add modules should 

you want to buy them separately. 

These modules are called ‘LG Friends’. They 

include the Cam Plus (£69), a clip‐on battery pack 

that adds some photography controls. Audiophiles 

fans will be tempted by the Hi‐Fi Plus from Bang & 

Olufsen (£149), a digital to analogue converter. 

Cam Plus 


Not all the LG Friends plug directly into the slot 

at the bottom, though. There’s the 360 Cam (£199) 

for 360‐degree photos and videos, and the 360 

VR headset (£199), too. 

There’s certainly potential for these, but the 

future of the G5 and its modules (LG or third party) is 

unclear, so it makes it hard to come to a conclusion 

on this element. Hopefully developers will get 

on‐board and make some interesting accessories. 

Display 

The G5 has a 5.3in screen, making it smaller than 

the previous two models. LG has stuck with the 

Quad HD resolution, instead of bumping things to 

unnecessary 4K territory. A pixel density of 554ppi 

is plenty for us and we’ve got no major complaints 

about the display. 

That said, compared side‐by‐side with the 

Samsung Galaxy S7 and Apple iPhone 6s, the G5 

offers a dimmer experience, with poorer viewing 

angles, while colours are less vibrant and the 

contrast isn’t as impressive. Even though the 

SuperAMOLED screen on the S7 has colours 

that pop too much, Samsung offers different 

modes. There’s no such option on the G5 and it’s 

slightly sub‐par compared to the competition. The 

stage we’re at with smartphones means we have 

to get a little pedantic on the details to highlight 

how they stack up. 

Although the brightness isn’t the best at full 

whack, make sure it’s in auto mode when you need 

it to be higher as it can push it further than when 

in manual mode. Like the Galaxy S7, the G5 has an 

always‐on screen, but it’s not the same experience. 


Neither has got it right if you ask us with each 

getting it right and wrong in different areas. 

On the LG there’s far less control, so you can 

choose only between displaying the time or your 

signature (along with the date), with no choice of 

fonts or styles. However, it shows more notifications 

– not just calls and texts – and doesn’t ping 

distractingly around the screen. What it needs is 

the ability to control how bright the information is 

as it’s a little on the dim side, so can be difficult 

to see at times. 

Performance 

The G5 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 

820 processor. It’s a quad‐core chip and has an 

Adreno 530 GPU all backed up by 4GB of RAM, 

which looks like it will be the standard for many 

Android flagships this year. 

While the LG G5 isn’t the fastest in Geekbench 

3, it still produced some impressive numbers on 

the graphics side of things. The bottom line here 

is that flagships have long since reached a point 

where performance is more than enough for most 

and shouldn’t be the deciding factor when choosing 

a new phone. The G5 is smooth and speedy in 

operation throughout. 

JetStream 


Geekbench 3 




Storage sits at 32GB and LG continues to offer 

expandable storage with a microSD card slot that 

supports up to 200GB cards. 

Connectivity remains a strong point, with the G5 

offering 11ac dual‐band Wi‐Fi, Bluetooth 4.2 with 


aptX, Cat 9 4G LTE and GPS. LG still offers NFC 

and an infrared port. The two big additions are a 

Type‐C USB port 9 and a fingerprint scanner on 

the back. The best position for a this is debatable, 

but putting it on the back is ergonomic when 

you’re holding the G5 – not so much when it’s 

sat on a flat surface, though. What’s impressive is 

how accurate and fast the sensor is, even when 

touching it at an awkward angle. 

Battery life 

Despite rumours of a 4000mAh battery, the LG has 

a more modest 2800mAh cell. Although it doesn’t 

sound great and there’s no wireless charging, the G5 

supports Quick Charge 3.0, so you can pump it full of 

juice in less time – around 80 percent in 30 minutes. 

The key here, compared to the Samsung Galaxy S7, 

is that it’s removable. 

In our battery benchmark, it’s no surprise to find 

the G5 a little way behind the leading handsets with 

its smaller cell. It managed a respectable six hours, 

51 minutes, with a score of 4111. The Galaxy S7, 

however, went more than nine hours. 

In real‐world use, the LG G5 lasted comfortably. It 

will potentially keep going for a couple of days if you 

are a light user – we’re talking no gaming or other 

power hungry tasks such as watching videos. 


Most of the specifications so far are pretty 

predictable, but the dual‐camera setup is not 

something we’d have put money on. The G5 has 

two rear cameras, optical image stabilisation and 

laser autofocus. One is 16Mp with a regular field 


of view, while the second 8Mp shooter has a wide 

135‐degree lens, so you can fit more into the photo 

– see our test shot below. One the front is a decent 

8Mp with the ability to record 1080p video. 

Once again LG provides a compelling experience 

on the photography front. It has a decent camera 

app that launches quickly and offers plenty of 

modes and features to get creative with. 

It’s quick and easy to switch between the two 

cameras and you can even combine them with 

the Popout mode that let you add or even stack 

effects such as lens blur and vignette. Multiview 

can combine two, or all three cameras for 

something unique and there’s a Manual mode if 

you want to get stuck in with controls such as ISO, 

shutter speed and white balance. 

At 8Mp, photos from the wide‐angle camera 

are hardly brimming with detail, but exhibit good 

contrast and colour. You won’t want to zoom in and 


crop photos, but they’re fine for sharing online as 

they are. The 16Mp main camera is an excellent allrounder, 

providing great results in natural light and 

low light indoors. Overall, the G5 is up there with 

the best smartphone cameras around and the dualsensor 

setup is unique. 

Software 

As you would expect, the G5 comes preloaded with 

Android 6.0 Marshmallow and LG’s own UX 5.0 UI. 

The firm has, however, committed an Android crime. 

It’s removed the app menu/tray, so all your app icons 

now sit on the homescreen panels like iOS. You can 

get it back by switching to the EasyHome layout, 

but we don’t want to have to do that so we suggest 

getting the Google Now launcher if you share our 

desire for the app menu. 

LG has opted for a light coloured interface, with 

a mint green accent colour throughout. It would 

be nice to be able to customise this, though. What 

you can do is get different themes from the LG 

SmartWorld store. Features that we’ve become 

accustomed to over the years are still around, 

such as being able to double‐tap to switch the 

display on and off. 

Smart Bulletin, which debuted on the G4, is still 

part of the user interface, but you’ll need to head 

into the settings if you want it active. We’d suggest 

trying it out if you haven’t used it before. 

While recent apps is the stock Android card 

style, other elements of the users interface are LG’s 

own way of doing things. For example, the settings 

menu is split into four tabs. We like the drop‐down 

notification bar, which can be customised so you can 


make sure the things you need the most often are 

front, and centre. 

It’s also handy to be able to personalise elements 

such as the navigation buttons. LG lets you, change 

the colour, rearrange and add other buttons, such as 

one to open and close the notification bar down so 

you don’t have to stretch for it every time. 

LG has kept things light on preinstalled apps 

with just the usual Google selection, some LG apps, 

such as QuickRemote and QuickMemo+, plus the 

likes of Facebook, Instagram and Evernote. Inside 

the Management are some handy apps that helps 

you keep on top of things such as battery, memory 

and storage. 

You can’t display two apps at once, which is a 

shame. Instead, LG offers Qslide, which means 

certain apps, such as calendar and calculator, can be 

used in a floating style with a transparency slider. 


Verdict 

The G5 is one of the most radical phones to come 

along in a while and we’re glad LG has shaken 

things up with the modular design. It’s innovative 

and interesting with unique features, but it’s a shame 

the design and build feels unfinished in areas. It’s a 

top‐notch device that can hold its own with the best 

phones in performance and cameras, but it’s LG’s 

modular design which is the real selling point here. 

There is bags of potential, but the future of this is 

unclear, so it’s hard to be definite right now. The G5 

is one of the best phones around but for completely 

different reasons than the Galaxy S7. Chris Martin 


• 5.3in (2560x1440) Quad HD IPS 

• Android 6.0 Marshmallow 

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor 

• 4GB RAM 

• 32GB storage; microSD card slot (up to 200GB) 

• Dual‐rear cameras 16/8Mp with OIS and laser 

autofocus 

• 8Mp front camera 

• 11ac dual‐band Wi‐Fi 


• GPS 

• NFC 

• Infrared 

• Fingerprint scanner 

• Cat 9 4G LTE 

• USB Type‐C 

• 2800mAh removable battery 

• 149x74x7.7mm 

• 159g 


Review: 

Xiaomi Mi 5 

£286 (plus import duty) • xiaomi-mi.com 

Xiaomi’s phones are rarely seen in the UK, but 

the company’s market dominance in China 

and increasingly India means many more 

people are starting to hear of Xiaomi. Not officially 

sold here, the only way you’ll get your hands on one 

is through unofficial channels. 


Price 

Our Xiaomi Mi 5 came from GearBest, which stocks 

all three versions of the Mi 5 in white, black and 

gold. We tested the white Mi 5 with 3GB of RAM 

and 32GB of storage, which is currently available 

for £286.09 (note that prices will fluctuate daily at 

grey‐market sites). Shipping to the UK is free, but 

note that you should pay import duty on anything 

you buy from China, and you will be billed for this 

if your parcel is stopped at Customs. We were 

charged an additional £40.73, which includes 20 

percent of the phone’s value on the paperwork, 

plus a £10 disbursement charge. This took the 

total price up to £326.82. 

Even with the import duty on top, the Mi 5 

offers excellent value for a flagship smartphone 

– especially given that its rivals cost in excess of 

£500. The difference with this phone is you won’t 

get it on contract in the UK, but while you might pay 

more up front you’ll save huge amounts of cash if 

you also switch your contract to a SIM‐only deal. 

And, on that subject, O2 customers and those of 

piggyback networks such as GiffGaff should note 

that they will not receive 4G on this phone. With no 

support for band 20 (800MHz), which is O2’s only 

4G band, the most you’ll get is 3G. Customers of 

other mobile operators needn’t worry, since 4G LTE 

bands 3 and 7 are supported. 

Design 

Xiaomi’s Mi 5 feels awesome in the hand. In 

common with the Samsung Galaxy S7 it has a 

Gorilla Glass 4 front and rear, with the left and 

right rear edges tapered to give a comfortable 


fit in the hand. This phone is thinner and lighter, 

though, just 7.25mm and 129g. 

Although this rear panel can apparently be 

replaced should you crack it, the insides are not 

user‐accessible. The SIM (two Nano‐SIMs if you 

like) is loaded via a slot tray at the phones top left 

edge, while the 3000mAh built‐in battery may be 

non‐removable but it’s incredibly fast to charge. 

Unlike the Galaxy S7 there’s no camera bump at the 

rear, nor curved glass at the front: the Mi 5 is flat 

as a pancake, save for the ever so slightly raised 

Home button. This is the first time we’ve seen a 

fingerprint scanner built into a physical Home button 

on a Xiaomi phone, and it works very well – fast to 

recognise your touch and unlock the device. 

Either side sit back and recent buttons. These 

aren’t labelled, and you can switch them around to 

suit how you want to use the phone. 

The screen bezels are virtually nonexistent, 

resulting in an extremely premium‐looking design. 


There’s not a single rough edge on the chamfered 

metal chassis, and save for its non‐waterproof body 

we are seriously struggling to find fault with the 

design. The white model we tested even battles 

fingerprints incredibly successfully. 

The screen is a standout feature. While some 

of Xiaomi’s rivals are fitting Quad‐HD panels with 

always‐on tech, Xiaomi’s display is merely full‐HD 

(1920x1080, 428ppi). You wouldn’t know it. It’s pinsharp, 

brilliantly bright (600cd/m 2 ), bursting with 

colours and has very good contrast. Pixel‐level 

adaptive contrast and Sunlight Display make it 

easily visible in all scenarios. 

Either side of the bottom‐mounted USB‐C 

charging‐ and data‐transfer port are speaker grilles, 

though there is just the one speaker on this phone. 

It’s loud, though, and we found it to be of acceptable 

quality for a phone speaker. And at the other end: an 

IR blaster. Such an under‐rated feature and removed 

from Samsung’s latest Galaxy S‐series flagship. 

Performance 

The top‐end Mi 5 is capable of faster performance 

than we’ve ever seen from a smartphone. But this is 

not the top‐end Mi 5. With a slightly lower‐clocked 

Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor running at 

1.85GHz and a smaller complement of RAM (3GB 

versus 4GB in the Mi 5 Pro), this Xiaomi might not be 

as fast as the Pro, but it’s still devilishly fast. 

The only thing that will stop you in your tracks 

when using this phone is the odd Chinese‐language 

notification that might pop up from the Mi App Store, 

or the again Chinese‐language buttons that might 

appear on the keyboard (we recommend installing 


AnTuTu 

Geekbench 3 




JetStream 

the Google keyboard rather than trying to use the 

preinstalled one). It certainly won’t be any issues 

with lag or an underpowered processor. Everything, 

and we mean everything, is accomplished in a split 

second on the Xiaomi Mi 5. 

We did notice the Mi 5 became rather warm under 

test, but this is not at all unusual for a metal‐bodied 

flagship – and it didn’t appear to affect performance. 

We’ll start with our graphics tests, since 

they’re the most impressive when compared to 

the competition. Even against phones that have 

the same Adreno 530 GPU, such as the LG G5 

(page 25), the Xiaomi scored higher. That’s most 

likely because we run the on‐screen versions of 

GFXBench T‐Rex and Manhattan, and the Xiaomi 

Mi 5 has a lower‐resolution screen than the G5. 

It scored a very high 59fps in T‐Rex and 37fps in 

Manhattan; the LG G5 recorded 53‐ and 29fps 

respectively, while the Samsung Galaxy S7 scored 

53‐ and 27fps, and the iPhone 6s (a lower screen 

resolution than the Mi 5) scored 60‐ and 52fps. 

We use Geekbench 3 and AnTuTu to measure 

general processing performance, and in these tests 

the Xiaomi Mi 5 turned in 4777 and 108,355 points 

respectively. That’s a little faster than the iPhone 

6s (which scored 4400 in Geekbench), but behind 


the LG G5 and Samsung Galaxy S7 (which scored 

6466 and 5404 in Geekbench). 

Geekbench 3 also has a battery life test. You 

won’t get more than a day’s life from the Xiaomi Mi 

5 in our experience, but we run this test for the very 

fact that your usage will likely differ and therefore 

the experience may well be different to ours. The 

results were very good, with a battery life score of 

5353 points and time of eight hours 55 minutes. 

That’s behind the Galaxy S7 (nine hours 15 minutes, 

5553 points), but ahead of the LG G5 (six hours 51 

minutes, 4111 points). 

More importantly, in our opinion, is that when 

the battery runs down the Mi 5 is insanely quick 

to charge. In common with the LG G5, it supports 

Qualcomm Quick Charge 3, which can charge 

phones up to four times faster than a traditional 

charger (and that more than makes up for its lack 

of wireless charging and removable battery in our 

book). A QC3 charger is supplied in the box, but it’s 

a two‐pin model. 

Our final test is JetStream, which looks at 

JavaScript performance in web browsing. To ensure 

a fair test we always run it in Google Chrome, which 

we first downloaded from Google Play (having 

downloaded the Play Store from the Mi App Store – 

more on that later). The Mi 5 recorded 46.9, which 

is a little way behind the Galaxy S7 (61.0) and LG G5 

(53.6), but a long way ahead of many of the cheap 

and cheerful Chinese phones we review. 

Connectivity 

We touched on the Mi 5’s connectivity options earlier 

in this review, and they really are strong. We’d like to 


see the addition of microSD support, but there are 

more generous storage versions available without 

too much of a jump in price. 

Something phone manufacturers still don’t get is 

that us Brits want Dual‐SIM phones just like the rest 

of the world. We’d like the opportunity to manage 

business‐ and personal numbers or home‐ and 

abroad plans on a single phone, too. The great 

news then is that Xiaomi’s Mi 5 is sold with Dual‐ 

SIM compatibility as standard, and both Nano‐SIM 

slots are capable of 4G (provided you’re not on O2 

or GiffGaff as there’s no support for Band 20 LTE). 

Another omission from a great many flagships 

but seen here in the Mi 5 is an IR blaster, while 

a NFC chip is also included that will let you take 

advantage of Android Pay (which is just around 

the corner for UK users). 

Other connectivity highlights include the 

fingerprint scanner, which works as well as any 

we’ve seen, dual‐band 802.11ac Wi‐Fi, Bluetooth 

4.2, GPS and GLONASS. 


The Mi 5 is fitted with a 16Mp Sony IMX298 camera, 

which is paired with a dual‐LED flash. It supports 

4K video, which is even better when you consider 

this phone has four‐axis optical image stabilisation 

– given the right conditions, it’s capable of some 

tremendous footage and stills. 

The primary camera is protected with a sapphire 

glass lens, and also boasts of DTI tech, phasedetection 

autofocus and f/2.0 aperture. Again, in 

good light it takes a fantastic shot, with vibrant 

colours and lots of detail; as the light goes down 


things go a little soft and grainy. But the Mi 5 is very 

quick to focus, and supports some useful camera 

modes (including Manual mode) and real‐time filters 

(one of which is ‘Japanese’). 

At the front of the Mi 5 is a 4Mp selfie camera with 

f/2.0 aperture and large 2µm pixels. It has that odd 

feature often found in Chinese phones that tries to 

guess your age, although we’re happy with it taking 

eight years off of ours. 

Software 

Ordinarily we wouldn’t recommend a Xiaomi phone 

to anyone not familiar with Android and confident in 

tinkering because they take a fair amount of setup 

for UK use. Google Play isn’t preinstalled, and the 

keyboard and many of the apps are in Chinese. 

Setup was much easier with the Mi 5: log into the 

Mi App Store and search for Google Play. Ignore the 

fact everything is in Chinese – just click on the top 



result to install it. It will prompt you to install Google 

Account Manager and Framework Services, and so 

on, then bring up the usual Google login screen you 

would normally see when first turning on an Android 

phone. It took around half an hour for our Google 

account to activate, but we were then able to install 

apps from Google Play as usual. We recommend 

you start with the Chrome browser and Google 

Keyboard, and remember to change the phone’s 

automatic time zone setting from Chinese. 

The first thing you’ll notice about MIUI 7, which is a 

heavily customised version of Android Marshmallow, 

is that there is no app tray – as with an iPhone, 

everything is placed on the home screen (you can 

tidy things up with folders by dragging apps on top 

of others). That includes quite a few Chinese apps 

that you won’t know what to do with: don’t worry, 

just drag their icon toward the top of the screen 

to uninstall them, then download familiar Google 

apps from Play. 

We’ve tried MIUI 7 several times before, and once 

you get used to things it’s actually a very competent 

user interface. As well as the software features 

we mentioned earlier, there’s a lot in the way of 

customisation. A huge number of themes is available 

from the dedicated Themes app on the home 

screen, and you can also tweak the notification LED 

colour, and the system font and size. If your issue 

is not with your eyesight but the size of the screen, 

you’ll appreciate the one‐handed mode that shrinks 

the screen size down to 4.5‐, 4‐ or 3.5in with a 

simple gesture. 

The pull‐down notification bar has also been 

tweaked. When you drag down from the top of the

screen you’ll first see notifications, and must swipe 

in from the right to access quick settings (making 

them marginally less ‘quick’ although you can at 

least change which toggles are shown here) and 

a shortcut to the Settings menu. 

A pinch on the home screen brings up options to 

move apps, add widgets and alter the wallpaper and 

effects (the transitions as you move between home 

screens). We also like the Child mode, which lets you 

allow access only to certain apps installed on your 

phone before handing it over to the kids. 

Verdict 

A fantastic Android flagship that comes in at an 

outrageously low price, the Xiaomi Mi 5 has the 

brawn and the beauty to match the greats. Perhaps 

not a wise choice for first time Android users, but 

those comfortable in customising the setup will 

love this excellent‐value, gorgeously designed 

smartphone. Marie Brewis 




• 5.15in full‐HD (1920x1080, 428ppi) IPS display, 

Gorilla Glass 4 

• MIUI 7 (based on Android Marshmallow) 

• 1.85GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 64‐bit 

quad‐core processor 

• Adreno 530 graphics 

• 3/4GB RAM 

• 32/64/128GB storage (no microSD) 

• Dual‐SIM dual‐standby (2x Nano‐SIM) 

• 4G LTE bands 3 and 7 

• Dual‐band 802.11ac Wi‐Fi 


• GPS and GLONASS 

• NFC 

• IR blaster 

• 16Mp Sony IMX298 camera with dual‐LED flash 

• 4Mp selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture and large 

2µm pixels 

• USB‐C 

• 3000mAh non‐removable battery with Quick 

Charge 3.0 

• 144.55x69.2x7.25mm 

• 129g

How To: Speed up an 

Android phone or tablet 

Chris Martin’s tips will help speed up your Android device 

So you really want a shiny new Android 

smartphone or tablet but can’t afford one 

and your current device is getting slow and 

annoying. Well there are numerous things you can 

do to improve the situation. 

Before we begin, every situation involving a slow 

Android device is going to be different so we’re 

going to cover a number of ways in which you can 


speed things up. You can try them all or the ones 

which apply to you. 

1. Delete unused apps 

A common cause of a slow Android smartphone 

or tablet is that you’ve filled it up with app, many 

of which you probably downloaded on a whim 

and don’t actually use. Like a PC or laptop, your 

Android device will slow down if it’s become 

bloated with applications. 

Our advice to start with is to go through all your 

installed apps and pick out ones which you don’t 

use to free up some space. Remember to uninstall 

them fully rather than just remove the icon from 

your homescreen. 

With more available space on your Android 

device, things should run smoother. 

2. Get rid of media 

The next thing to cull on your Android smartphone 

or tablet is media. In the same way that apps can 

easily take up a lot of space, music, photos and 

videos do the same – even more so if you’re 

shooting 4K video regularly or keeping your entire 

music library stored on your device. 

To speed up your Android device, trawl through 

all the media you have and get rid of anything you 

can to create more space. Perhaps videos you’ve 

transferred to your PC or photos you’ve taken 

multiple times. 

3. Remove widgets 

Widgets are a great feature of Android but they 

take more processing power to run compared to 


simply displaying an icon. If you’re using a lot across 

multiple homescreens, consider which ones you 

don’t use much or could do without. Having fewer 

will lighten the load on your Android device and 

help speed it up. 

4. Clear your RAM with an app manager 

Android will automatically kill apps if it needs 

memory which isn’t being used wisely but you can 


still have a user effect on what’s going on in the 

background. For starters, you can simply open 

recent apps and clear anything you’re not using by 

swiping it off the screen. 

Furthermore, you can go into the settings and 

see what’s using up all your memory; go to settings 

> apps > running. This may be different depending 

on your device so also look for an application 

manager or smart manager. Apps using the memory 

or cache isn’t necessarily a bad thing, things are 

done like this to avoid loading everything each time 

you open an app. However, you can often speed up 

your Android device by stopping an app or clearing 

the memory entirely. Although there are tools built 

into Android for app management, there are some 

apps which you can download from the Play store 

such as Advanced Task Killer. 

5. Reboot 

It’s the classic ‘have you tried turning it off and 

on again’ but it really does still work for most 

technology. A good old‐fashioned reboot is likely to 

help you out if things are feeling sluggish, at least 

for a while. If it only sorts out the problem briefly 

then you’ll need to take more drastic action. 

6. Factory reset 

If all else fails then we recommend trying a 

complete factory reset of your device. It’s not ideal 

but a clean slate might be just what you need if you 

really can’t figure out why your Android device is 

so slow. You’ll need to re‐download apps and the 

like and make sure you backup any data, such as 

photos, that you don’t want to be gone forever. 


How To: Keep your 

Android device secure 

Secure your Android handset with Marie Brewis’s handy tricks 

Securing your Android phone or Android 

tablet is more involved than adding a PIN 

lock (although you should certainly do that). 

Here we run through 14 ways you can keep Android 

secure, from dealing with app permissions to 

locking down apps, dealing with Android viruses 

and tracking down a stolen phone. 


1. Screen lock 

Setting up a screen lock is the simplest way to 

protect Android when your phone or tablet falls into 

the wrong hands. These days you can set a PIN 

lock, pattern lock, password lock and, if your device 

supports it, a fingerprint or eye scanner lock. It’s 

so easy to do you really have no excuse. Head to 

Settings > Security > Screen lock to get started. 

2. Lock individual apps & media 

You can add an extra layer of protection to your 

apps by locking down those you really wouldn’t 

want to get into the wrong hands with an app such 

as App Lock. Not only does this let you toggle 

on and off a PIN lock for individual apps such as 

Facebook and Gmail, but it has a secure fault for 

hiding photos and video that shouldn’t be seen 

by prying eyes. 

3. Keep the OS and apps up to date 

Android‐ and app updates don’t just bring new 

features, but also bug fixes and patches to security 

vulnerabilities. You should ensure your apps are 

set to auto‐update over Wi‐Fi in Google Play’s 

Settings > General > Auto‐update apps menu, and 

make sure you have applied any new operating 

system updates in Settings > About Phone > 

System updates. 

4. Don’t download 

apps outside Google Play 

By default your Android phone or tablet won’t let 

you sideload apps from anywhere other than the 

Google Play store, but it’s easy to get around this 


in Settings > Security > Device Administration > 

Unknown sources. Google has no control over 

apps outside its app store, so only those who really 

know what they’re doing should even think about 

sideloading, and doing so only from trusted sources. 

5. Manage app permissions 

A benefit of downloading apps only from Google 

Play is that it will tell you which permissions an 

app requires before you install it. There is often a 

good reason for apps needing access to seemingly 

unrelated facilities on your phone, such as games 

that want to view your contacts (to allow you to 

compete against your friends) and messaging apps 

that want to access your camera (to allow you to 

send picture‐ and video messages). However, if 

you can think of no reason for an app needing a 

particular permission, don’t install it. 


New in Android Marshmallow is the ability to 

manage app permissions and control what an app 

can and can’t do on your phone even after you’ve 

installed it. Should an app need a permission you 

haven’t granted, it will prompt you for permission 

before it does its thing. You’ll find App Permissions 

in Settings > Apps > App Permissions. 

6. Set up user accounts 

Since Android Lollipop we’ve been able to set up 

multiple user accounts on tablets, and more recently 

on phones. If you are going to be sharing your 

device with another family member, a colleague or 

a friend, you can give them access to only the parts 

of your Android that you are willing to let them see. 

Set up user accounts in Settings > Users > Add User. 

7. Be careful what information you share 

We’ve often complained that people are sharing 

too much information on social media, such as 

publicising the fact they are going abroad for 

a week on Facebook and leaving their home 

vulnerable to burglars (don’t do that), but with 

Android you may find you’re sharing too much 

information with yourself. 

Android uses the Chrome browser, which 

you may well also be using on your laptop or 

desktop PC. The ability to sync your bookmarks, 

passwords and more through a Google account 

(which is also tied and automatically logged into 

your email‐ and other Google accounts) is an 

awesome timesaver, but it could become an issue 

should you lose your phone or tablet or it gets into 

the wrong hands. All your logins, passwords and 


sensitive data within your emails will be available 

to whoever finds your Android device and knows 

where to look for that stuff. 

You can control what data (particularly 

passwords) is stored by Chrome by launching 

the browser, tapping on the three‐dot icon at the 

top right of the window, and choosing Settings > 

Basics > Save passwords. Also open the Settings 

menu in Chrome, tap on your account, then 

choose what data is synched. 

Don’t forget Chrome’s Incognito mode, which 

allows you to browse the web in privacy and 

won’t track you. Open a new Incognito tab from 

Chrome’s Settings menu. 

8. Set up remote tracking and wiping 

Android Device Manager is an excellent tool for 

tracking down and, if necessary, wiping a lost or 


stolen Android phone or tablet. It’s a free app for 

your phone or tablet from Google Play, but can also 

be accessed on any web browser in which you are 

signed into a Google account. 

9. Consider device insurance 

Following on from the last tip, should your phone 

or tablet go walkies you don’t want to find yourself 

out of pocket. Given that some devices can cost 

over £600, it’s worth considering device insurance 

if losing your phone is something you tend to be 

rather good at. Insurance2Go offers smartphone 

insurance from £5.99 per month. 

10. Back up Android 

It’s not just the fact that our data might get into the 

wrong hands when our device is lost or stolen that it 

worrying ‐ it’s also the fact it will no longer be in our 

hands. Backing up Android is essential, and in doing 

so you can tie everything to your Google account 

rather than a piece of hardware that could break at 

any point. Backing up Android also means things 

such as your photos and videos are accessible 

through any web browser signed into your Google 

account, and that next time you buy a new phone 

you won’t have to manually download and install all 

your favourite apps. 

11. Dealing with 

Android viruses and malware 

Android viruses are few and far between, and 

you’re more likely to find yourself in trouble by 

clicking on a dodgy link in Gmail or a text message 

and giving away too much personal information than 


you are to download a dodgy app. But it is possible. 

Some people like to install an antivirus app such as 

Lookout, Avast or AVG Free, but we’re not yet at the 

point where that is strictly necessary and usually all 

you need do to avoid Android viruses is to stick to 

downloading apps only from Google Play. 

12. Use secure Wi-Fi 

Smartphones and tablets are mobile devices, which 

means we are as likely to use them in a cafe or 

pub as we are our own homes. Provided free Wi‐Fi 

is available, of course. Just don’t fall into the trap 

of jumping on to an unsecured wireless network 

just so you can take advantage of a free internet 

connection when out and about – whoever is 

providing that ‘free’ internet connection may be 

taking a great deal more from you in return. 


13. Encrypt Android 

Those wanting to secure their Android device will 

more than likely have spotted the encryption option 

in Settings > Security > Encryption. This scrambles 

all the data on the phone – apps, media and more – 

until you put in the decryption password, which you 

will need to do every time you turn it on. Encrypting 

and decrypting your data takes time, and for the 

majority of people it’s an unnecessary step that will 

simply slow things down. However, if your device 

contains extra‐secure information, it’s a possibility 

you might like to consider. 

14. Use a secure messaging app 

Where do your text messages go once they’ve 

left your phone, and can others snoop on them? 

That all depends on the service you are using. 

As of the beginning of April, popular instant 

messaging service WhatsApp now offers end‐to‐end 

encryption. Another secure messaging app often 

cited is Signal Private Messenger, which allows you 

to chat freely with your friends without its server 

being able to access your communication or data. 


How To: Get free 

Wi-Fi anywhere 

Martyn Casserly will help you get online wherever you roam 

In a perfect world we’d all have smartphones 

that came with free, ultrafast 10G internet 

connections boasting unlimited data plans. 

Actually that scenario could create some kind of 

nightmarish future where people never look up from 

their devices, so maybe life isn’t so bad after all, 

especially when it’s quite possible to use free Wi‐Fi 

when you’re out and about. 

Here are some easy ways to keep in touch with 

friends, view pictures on Instagram, or stream your 

Spotify playlist – all for free. 



Coffee shops 

It’s an obvious place to start as these days you can’t 

move in branches of Costa or Starbucks for people 

working on their laptops or browsing the internet 

on their phones. This is because coffee shops are 

one of the easiest places to get free Wi‐Fi. For the 

larger chains this usually comes via setting up a 

free account with services such as The Cloud, 02 

Wi‐Fi, or whatever flavour of provider is on offer. 

You’ll have a limited number of devices that can 

connect at any one time (usually between three 

and five) but these can be swapped out as and 

when you need them. 

Independent coffee shops also offer free 

connections, but this is more normally on their

own private Wi‐Fi, so you’ll need to ask at the 

counter for the ID and password. Some might 

point out that this isn’t free, as you have to buy 

a coffee. But of course the drink costs the same 

whether you have an internet connection or not, 

and now you have coffee. 

Libraries 

Although libraries are facing tough times at the 

moment, the government recently announced a plan 

aiming to have free Wi‐Fi available in all UK libraries 

by March 2016. As we’ve now passed this date, 

there’s a good chance that popping into your local 

home of books will result in a gratis connection. 

Museums and galleries 

Over the past few years many of the major 

museums and art galleries around the UK have 

been installing free Wi‐Fi for visitors. London’s V&A, 

Science Museum and National Gallery all now offer 

the service, which they often pair with special online 

content to complement the exhibits. Look for 

other venues around the country, and top up your 

culture level while Tweeting about the experience. 

BT Wi-Fi 

If you’re a BT broadband customer, like many 

people in the UK, then you already have access to 

the wide range of BT Wi‐Fi hotspots. Download the 

BT Wi‐Fi app for your iOS, Android, Windows Phone, 

or Blackberry device, enter your account details, 

then you’ll instantly have unlimited access to over 

five million hotspots in the UK, and a further nine 

million around the world. 


02 Wi-Fi 

Another main player in the 

mobile space is 02, which 

offers free connection to its 

network of Wi‐Fi hotspots. All 

you need to do is download 

the 02 Wi‐Fi app from your 

platform’s app store, set up 

the free account, and you’ll 

be able to take advantage of 

connections available in places 

such as McDonalds, Subway and Costa. 

Steal it 

What’s that I hear you cry? You’d never stoop 

to such vile behaviour. Of course not, your 

reputation is beyond reproach. But for those 

who find themselves in a tight spot and see an 

unlocked network appear on their smartphone’s 

list of options…. stop. This is one of the easiest 

way to have your data stolen, identity cloned, and 

generally not have a good time. 

Hackers often set up fake networks that look 

innocent, and even emulate ones you would 

expect to find in a venue, all in the hope of getting 

you to connect. From that point on everything your 

device communicates to the server is going into 

the hacker’s pocket. 

For this reason it’s never a good idea to access 

your bank details on a public network, send 

sensitive information, or exchange the kind of 

selfie images that unwise teenagers seem to find 

so agreeable. If you don’t know the network keep 

well away. 


Don’t miss a single copy of PCAdvisor by subscribing digitally 

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Best 

smartphones 

1 2 3 4 5 

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge Samsung Galaxy S7 LG G5 Samsung Galaxy S6 Google Nexus 6P 

Price £639 inc VAT £569 inc VAT £529 inc VAT £349 inc VAT £449 inc VAT 

Website Samsung.com/uk Samsung.com/uk LG.com/uk Samsung.com/uk Google.co.uk 

Build rating 

Features rating 

Performance rating 

Value rating 

Overall rating 

OS (out of box) Android 6.0 Marshmallow Android 6.0 Marshmallow Android 6.0 Marshmallow Android 5.0 Lollipop Android 6.0 Marshmallow 

Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 2.1GHz Exynos 7420 Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 

RAM 4GB 4GB 4GB 3GB 3GB 

Storage 32GB 32GB 32GB 32/64GB 32/64/128GB 

MicroSD support 

Graphics Adreno 530 Adreno 530 Adreno 530 Mali-T760 GPU Adreno 430 

Screen size 5.4in 5.1in 5.3in 5.1in 5.7in 

Screen resolution 2560x1440 2560x1440 2560x1440 2560x1440 2560x1440 

Pixel density 534ppi 577ppi 554ppi 577ppi 518ppi 

Screen technology IPS IPS IPS Super AMOLED AMOLED 

Front camera 5Mp 5Mp 8Mp 5Mp 8Mp 

Rear camera 16Mp, LED flash 12Mp, LED flash 8/16Mp, LED flash 16Mp, LED flash 12.3Mp, LED flash 

Video recording 4K 4K 4K 4K 4K 

Cellular connectivity 4G 4G 4G 4G 4G 

SIM type Nano-SIM Nano-SIM Nano-SIM Nano-SIM Nano-SIM 

Dual-SIM as standard 

Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 

Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.2 Bluetooth 4.2 Bluetooth 4.2 Bluetooth 4.1 Bluetooth 4.2 

GPS GPS, Glonass A-GPS, Glonass A-GPS GPS, Glonass A-GPS, Glonass 

NFC 

USB OTG 

Extra features Fingerprint scanner Fingerprint scanner Fingerprint scanner 

Heart-rate sensor, 

fingerprint scanner 


Geekbench 3.0 (multi) 6469 6466 5404 4438 3939 

SunSpider Not tested Not tested Not tested 1048ms 636ms 

GFXBench: T-Rex 53fps 53fps 53fps 30fps 34fps 

GFXBench: Manhattan 27fps 27fps 29fps 14fps 14fps 

Battery 3600mAh, non-removable 3000mAh, non-removable 2800mAh, removable 2550mAh, non-removable 3450mAh, non-removable 

Dimensions 151x73x7.8mm 142x70x7.9mm 149x74x7.7mm 143.4x70.5x6.8mm 159.3x77.8x7.3mm 

Weight 157g 152g 159g 138g 178g 

Warranty 1 year 1 year 1 year 1 year 1 year 

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budget 

smartphones 

1 2 3 4 5 

Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 Motorola Moto E 4G 2015 Vodafone Smart Prime 6 Cubot P12 Wileyfox Swift 


Website Vodafone.co.uk Motorola.co.uk Vodafone.co.uk Cubot.net Wileyfox.com 

Build rating 



Value rating 


OS (out of box) Android 5.0.2 Lollipop Android 5.0 Lollipop Android 5.0.2 Lollipop Android 5.1 Lollipop Cyanogen OS 

Processor 2.5GHz Snapdragon 615 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6580 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 


Storage 16GB 8GB 8GB 16GB 16GB 

MicroSD support Up to 128GB Up to 32GB Up to 64GB Up to 32GB Up to 32GB 

Graphics Adreno 405 Adreno 306 Adreno 306 Mali 400mp Adreno 306 

Screen size 5.5in 4.5in 5in 5in 5in 



Screen technology IPS IPS IPS IPS IPS 

Front camera 5Mp 0.3Mp 2Mp 5Mp 5Mp 

Rear camera 13Mp 5Mp 8Mp 8Mp, LED flash 13Mp, LED flash 

Video recording 1080p 720p 1080p 1080p 1080p 

Cellular connectivity 4G* 4G 4G* 3G 4G 

SIM type Nano-SIM Micro-SIM Micro-SIM Micro-SIM Micro-SIM 


Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n 802.11b/g/n 802.11b/g/n 802.11b/g/n 802.11b/g/n 

Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.0 Bluetooth 4.0 Bluetooth 4.0 Bluetooth 4.0 

GPS GPS, A-GPS GPS, A-GPS, Glonass A-GPS GPS, A-GPS A-GPS 

NFC 

USB OTG 

Extra features 

FM radio 

Double-twist launches 

camera, lockscreen alerts 

FM radio Gesture controls 3D G-Sensor 

Geekbench 3.0 (single) 649 464 464 Not tested Not tested 


SunSpider 1545ms 1301ms 1301ms 1726ms 1760ms 

GFXBench: T-Rex 14fps 13fps 9.4fps 13fps 10fps 

GFXBench: Manhattan 5.7fps 6fps 3.8fps 6fps 4fps 

Battery 3000mAh, non-removable 2390mAh, non-removable Not specified 2200mmAh, removable 2500mAh, removable 

Dimensions 154x77x9mm 66.8x5.2-12.3x129.9mm 141.65x71.89x9mm 141x71x9.4mm 141x71x9.4mm 

Weight 159g 145g 155g 71.5x8.1x143.9mm 135g 


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phablets 

1 2 3 4 5 

Google Nexus 6P Samsung Galaxy Note5 Apple iPhone 6s Plus Samsung Galaxy Note 4 LG G4 


Website Google.co.uk Samsung.com/uk Apple.com/uk Samsung.com/uk Lg.com/uk 

Build rating 



Value rating 


OS (out of box) Android 6.0 Marshmallow Android 5.1.1 Lollipop iOS 9 Android 4.4 KitKat Android 5.1 Lollipop 

Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 2.1GHz Exynos 7420 A9 2.7GHz Snapdragon 805 1.82GHz Snapdragon 808 


Storage 32/64/128GB 32/64GB 16/64/128GB 32GB 32GB 

MicroSD support Up to 128GB Up to 128GB 

Graphics Adreno 430 Mali-T760MP8 M9 Adreno 420 Adreno 418 




Screen technology Quad HD capacitive Super AMOLED IPS Super AMOLED IPS 

Front camera 8Mp 5Mp 5Mp 3.7Mp 8Mp 

Rear camera 12.3Mp, LED flash 16Mp, LED flash 12Mp, LED flash 16Mp, LED flash 16Mp, LED flash 

Video recording 4K 4K 4K 4K 4K 

Cellular connectivity 4G 4G 4G 4G 4G 

SIM type Nano-SIM Nano-SIM Nano-SIM Micro-SIM Micro-SIM 


Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 


GPS A-GPS, Glonass A-GPS, Glonass A-GPS, Glonass GPS, Glonass A-GPS, Glonass 

NFC 

USB OTG 

Extra features 


Heart-rate sensor, 

fingerprint scanner 


Fingerprint, UV, heart-rate 

sensors, S Pen stylus 

24bit/192kHz audio, 

rear key, IR blaster 

Geekbench 3.0 (single) Not tested 1497 2527 Not tested Not tested 

Geekbench 3.0 (multi) 3939 Not tested 4407 3272 3513 

SunSpider 636ms 718ms 210ms 1367ms 715ms 


GFXBench: Manhattan 14fps 15fps 38fps 11fps 9fps 

Battery 3450mAh, non-removable 2300mAh, non-removable Lithium-ion 3220mAh, removable 3000mAh, removable, Qi 

Dimensions 159.3x77.8x7.3mm 153.2x76.1x7.6mm 158.2x77.9x7.3mm 78.6x153.5x8.5mm 76x149x6.3-9.8mm 

Weight 178g 171g 192g 176g 155g 

Warranty 1 year 1 year 1 year 2 years 1 year 

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7- & 8in tablets 

Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8 Apple iPad mini 4 Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact Apple iPad mini 2 


Website Samsung.com/uk Apple.com/uk Samsung.com/uk Sony.co.uk Apple.com/uk 

Build rating 



Value rating 


1 2 3 4 5 

OS (out of box) Android 5.0 Lollipop iOS 9 Android 4.4 KitKat Android 4.4 KitKat iOS 9 

Processor 1.9GHz Exynos 5433 Apple A8, Apple M8 Exynos 5420, octa-core 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 Apple A7, Apple M7 


Storage 32GB/64GB 16GB/64/128GB 16GB/32GB 16GB/32GB 16GB/32GB 

MicroSD support Up to 128GB Up to 128GB Up to 128GB 

Graphics Not specified Apple A8 ARM Mali-T628 MP6 Adreno 330 Apple A7 

Screen size 8in 7.9in 8.4in 8in 7.9in 



Screen technology Super AMOLED IPS Super AMOLED IPS IPS 

Front camera 2.1Mp 1.2Mp 2.1Mp 2.2Mp 1.2Mp 

Rear camera 8Mp 8Mp 8Mp, LED flash 8.1Mp 5Mp 

Video recording QHD 1080p 1080p 1080p 7200p 

Cellular connectivity 4G version available 4G version available 4G version available 4G version available 4G version available 

Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n, dual-band 


GPS A-GPS, Glonass A-GPS, Glonass GPS, Glonass A-GPS, Glonass A-GPS, Glonass 

NFC 

USB OTG 

Fingerprint scanner 

Waterproof 

Extra features None None Stereo speakers 

PS4 Remote Play, 

stereo speakers 

None 

Geekbench 3.0 (single) Not tested 1719 Not tested Not tested Not tested 

Geekbench 3.0 (multi) 4305 3101 2765 2708 Not tested 

SunSpider Not tested Not tested 1089ms 1017ms 397ms 

GFXBench: T-Rex 26fps 52fps 14fps 28fps Not tested 

GFXBench: Manhattan 11fps 25fps 3fps 11fps Not tested 

Battery 4000mAh, non-removable, Qi 5124mAh, non-removable 4900mAh, non-removable 4500mAh, non-removable 6470mAh, non-removable 

Dimensions 198.6x134.8x5.6mm 203.2x134.8x6.1mm 126x213x6.6mm 213x124x6.4mm 200x134.7x7.5mm 

Weight 265g 304g 294g 270g 331g 


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9- & 10in 

tablets 

1 2 3 4 5 

Apple iPad Air 2 Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Apple iPad Pro (12.7in) Apple iPad Air 


Website Apple.com/uk Sony.co.uk Microsoft.com/en-gb Apple.com/uk Apple.com/uk 

Build rating 



Value rating 


OS (out of box) iOS 9 Android 5.0 Lollipop Windows 10 Pro iOS 9 iOS 9 

Processor Apple A8X, Apple M8 Snapdragon 810 Intel Core m3 Apple A9X, Apple M9 Apple A7, Apple M7 


Storage 16/64/128GB 32GB 128GB SSD 16GB/32GB 16GB/32GB 

MicroSD support Up to 128GB 

Graphics Apple A8X Adreno 430 Intel HD Graphics 515 Apple M9 Apple A7 



Pixel density 264ppi 299ppi None 264ppi 264ppi 

Screen technology IPS IPS PixelSense IPS IPS 

Front camera 1.2Mp 5.1Mp 5Mp 1.2Mp 1.2Mp 

Rear camera 8Mp 8.1Mp 8Mp 8Mp 5Mp 

Video recording 1080p 1080p Not specified 1080p 1080p 

Cellular connectivity 4G version available 4G version available 4G version available 4G version available 

Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n, dual-band 


GPS A-GPS, Glonass A-GPS, Glonass A-GPS, Glonass A-GPS, Glonass 

NFC (for Apple Pay) (for Apple Pay) 

USB OTG 

Fingerprint scanner 

Waterproof 

Extra features None None None None None 

Geekbench 3.0 (single) 1816 Not tested Not tested Not tested 1487 


SunSpider Not tested 580ms Not tested Not tested 400ms 


GFXBench: Manhattan Not tested 16fps 22fps 34fps Not tested 

Battery 7340mAh, non-removable 6000mAh, non-removable Not specified 10,307mAh, non-removable 8600mAh, non-removable 

Dimensions 240x169.5x6.1mm 254x167x6.1mm 292x201x8.45mm 305.7x220.6x6.9mm 240x169x7.5mm 

Weight 437g 393g 766g 713g 469g 

Warranty 1 year 1 year 1-year return-to-base 1 year 1 year 

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smartwatches 

1 2 3 4 5 

Huawei Watch Motorola Moto 360 2 Samsung Gear S2 LG G Watch R Fossil Q Founder 


Website Consumer.huawei.com/en Motorola.co.uk Samsung.com/uk Lg.com/uk Fossil.com/uk 


Operating system Android Wear Android Wear Tizen-based OS Android Wear Android Wear 

Compatibility Android Android, iOS Android, iOS Android Android, iOS 

Display 1.4in 400x400 AMOLED 1.37in 360x325 LCD 1.2in 360x360 AMOLED 1.3in 320x320 P-OLED 1.5in, 360x326 LCD 

Processor Snapdragon 400 Snapdragon 400 1GHz Exynos 3250 1.2GHz Snapdrgon 400 Intel Atom Z34XX 

RAM 512MB 512MB 512MB 512MB 1GB 

Storage 4GB 4GB 4GB 4GB 4GB 

Waterproof Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 

Battery 300mAh 300mAh 250mAh 410mAh 400mAh 

Dimensions 42x11.3mm 42x11.4mm 42.3x49.8x11.4mm 46.4x53.6x9.7mm 47x13mm 

Weight 40g 53.6g 47g 62g 156g 


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smartwatches 

6 7 8 9 10 

Asus ZenWatch 2 Motorola Moto 360 LG Watch Urbane Sony Smartwatch 3 Microsoft Band 2 


Website Uk.sasus.com Motorola.co.uk Lg.com/uk Sony.co.uk Microsoft.com/en-gb 


Operating system Android Wear Android Wear Android Wear Android Wear Windows 10 based 

Compatibility Android, iOS Android Android Android iOS, Android, Windows 

Display 1.63in 320x320 LCD 1.56in 290x320 LCD 1.3in 320x320 P-OLED 1.6in 320x320 LCD 32x12.8mm 320x128 AMOLED 

Processor 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 TI OMAP 3 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 1.2GHz ARM V7 Not specified 

RAM 512MB 512MB 512MB 512MB Not specified 

Storage 4GB 4GB 4GB 4GB Not specified 


Battery 300mAh 320mAh 410mAh 420mAh Not specified 

Dimensions 40.7x49.6x10.9mm 46x11.5mm 46x52x10.9mm 36x51x10mm Small, medium, large sizes 

Weight 50g 49g (leather band model) 67g 45g 59g (medium) 


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activity 

trackers 

1 2 3 4 5 

Fitbit Charge HR Fitbit Alta Fitbit Surge MyZone MZ-3 Microsoft Band 2 


Website Fitbit.com/uk Fitbit.com/uk Fitbit.com/uk Myzone.org Microsoft.com/en-gb 


Compatibility iOS, Android, Windows iOS, Android, Windows iOS, Android, Windows iOS, Android, Windows iOS, Android, Windows 

Display OLED OLED Touchscreen No AMOLED 

Pedometer Yes Yes Yes No Yes 

Heart-rate monitor Yes No Yes Yes Yes 

Sleep tracking Yes Yes Yes No Yes 

Alarm Yes Yes Yes No Yes 

Third-party app synching Yes Yes Yes No Yes 

Call notifications Yes Yes Yes No Yes 


Battery life 5+ days 5 days 5 days 7 months 2 days 

Weight 26g 32g 51g Not stated 159g 

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activity 

trackers 

6 7 8 9 10 

Fitbit One Moov Now Misfit Shine 2 Fitbit Blaze Xiaomi Mi Band 1S Pulse 


Website Fitbit.com/uk Welcome.moov.cc Misfit.com Fitbit.com/uk Mi.com/en 


Compatibility iOS, Android iOS, Android iOS, Android iOS, Android, Windows iOS, Android 

Display OLED No 12 colour LEDs Colour LCD No 

Pedometer Yes Yes Yes Yes No 

Heart-rate monitor No No No Yes Yes 

Sleep tracking Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 

Alarm Yes No No Yes Yes Yes 

Third-party app synching Yes No Yes Yes No 

Call notifications No No Yes Yes Yes 

Waterproof No Yes Yes Yes Yes 

Battery life 10-14 days 6 months 6 months 5 days 30 days 

Weight 8g 6g 8.5g 43g 14.5g 

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power banks 

1 2 3 4 5 

Zendure A2 (2nd gen) Xiaomi 10,000mAh RavPower Turbo+ 20100mAh Anker PowerCore+ 20100 Maximas XTRON USB-C 

Price £25 inc VAT £11 inc VAT £34 £32 $69 (£45) 

Website Zendure.com Mi.com/en Ravpower.com Anker.com Indiegogo.com 


Capacity 6700mAh 10,000mAh 20,100mAh 20,100mAh 13,400mAh 

Input 1x 7.5W Micro-USB 1x 10W Micro-USB 1x 15W USB-C, 1x QC 3.0 Micro-USB 1x 15W USB-C 1x USB, 1x USB-C 

Outputs 1x 10.5W USB 1x 10.5W USB 1x 15W USB-C, 1x QC 3.0, 1x 12W USB 2x 12W USB 1x 21W USB 

Auto-on/-off Yes Yes Yes/No Yes No 

Passthrough charging Yes Yes No No No 

Status indicator 4 LEDs 4 LEDs Yes 10 LEDs 4 LEDs 

LED flashlight No No No No No 

Carry case Yes No Yes Yes No 

Dimensions 93x48x23mm 91x60.4x22mm 172x80x20mm 184x62x24mm 77x21x93mm 

Weight 137g 207g 375g 155g 247g 

Warranty 1 year 1 year 1 year 18 months Not specified 

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desktop 

chargers 

1 2 3 4 5 

Tronsmart Titan Tronsmart U5PTA CHOEtech 6-port Charger Aukey USB Charging Station iClever USB Travel Charger 


Website Tronsmart.com Tronsmart.com Choetech.com Hisgadget.com Hisgadget.com 


Max output 90W 54W 60W 54W 50W 

Outputs: USB 1 QC 2.0 QC 3.0 QC 2.0 QC 2.0 12W USB 

USB 2 QC 2.0 12W QC 2.0 12W 12W USB 

USB 3 QC 2.0 12W 12W 12W 12W USB 

USB 4 QC 2.0 12W 12W 12W 12W USB 

USB 5 QC 2.0 12W 12W 12W 12W USB 

USB 6 N/A N/A 12W N/A 12W USB 

Colours available Black Black Black Black Black 

Dimensions 160x81x28mm 165x156x56mm 71.5x29x88.4mm 94x60x25mm 100x69x27mm 

Weight 292g 390g 158g 149g 180g 

Warranty 1 year 18 months 1 year 1 year 1 year 

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Android Advisor - Best Phone Camera 2016

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