Android_Advisor_Issue_39_2017

LATEST SMARTPHONES, TABLETS & WEARABLES 

ANDROID 

39 

ISSUE 

ADVISOR 

FROM IDG 

I/O 2017: 

Google’s most exciting 

event ever 

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ANDROID O 

BETA: GET IT 

NOW 

ANDROID’S AI FUTURE

ANDROID ADVISOR 

Contents 

4 

news 

4 Google launches Android O beta 

7 Google reveals why apps aren’t on Chromebooks 

10 Android founder’s Essential phone here 

13 Control IKEA’s smart bulbs with Assistant 

15 Google moves Android into the car with Volvo 

18 Legend of Zelda may be coming to Android 

reVIews 

19 Xiaomi Mi 6 

35 HTC U Ultra 

49 UMIDIGI C Note 

58 Ulefone Armor 

19 

2 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 39


Contents 

69 

14 

Features 

Google I/O 2017 69 

Google preparing Android for an AI future 81 

Google Lens: Six things we can’t wait to try out 85 

81 

How to 

Get Android O on a Nexus or Pixel phone 90 

Make selfie stickers in Google Allo 94 

Use parental controls in Android 98 

Keep updated with all the latest Android 

Advisor news, by following us on Facebook 

ISSUE 39 • ANDROID ADVISOR 3


news 

Google launches 

android o beta 

Tech giant’s latest operating system includes Google Play Protect 

and helpful interface tweaks, writes Brad CHaCos 

Android O has been available as a Developer’s 

Preview for a while now, but at the Google IO 

conference, Google took the wraps off some 

new features designed to make the next-gen version 

of Android more accessible, secure, and long-lasting. 

Let’s start with ‘Fluid Experiences’, or aesthetic 

design tweaks to the operating system. Android O 

actually adds some handy new features on this end, 

such as a ‘picture-in-picture’ mode that minimizes an 



news 

open app to a small window in the corner if you need 

to multitask. Who says you can’t multitask on phones? 

Another addition, ‘notification dots’, steals the look 

of iOS’s notification bubbles on home screen apps, 

but makes it more useful. A dot plopped on a home 

screen app means you have a notification from it; 

long-pressing the app’s icon will pop the notification 

details up right there, over the icon. 

Other Fluid Experiences take the hassle out of 

everyday tasks. An opt-in autofill function taps 

into Chrome’s password saving feature to help 

you easily log into standalone apps, while a smart 

text selection feature uses on-device machine 

learning to automatically select the entire name or 

address you’re trying to select. Even better? Those 

smart selections come accompanied with relevant 

contextual actions, such as the option to call a 

selected phone number, or open an address in Maps. 

Vitals 

Google is also focusing on your device’s core health 

in Android O, via security enhancements and tweaks 

to the core OS. Most noticeably, all Android O devices 

that come with Google Play preinstalled will also ship 

with a new app called Google Play Protect. Think of 

it as a security hub for your phone, scanning your 

apps for malware and generally making sure your 

device stays secure. None of it is new, per se, but 

it was handled in the background before. Google 

Play Protect makes it obvious. 

Operating system optimizations also help Android 

O devices boot twice as fast as their predecessors, 



news 

Google says, and apps load much faster as well. The 

firm is also baking ‘wise limits’ into Android O to tame 

apps that want to run wild in the background – saving 

your precious battery life. 

Android Go 

Finally, Android O marks the debut of an initiative 

dubbed Android Go. This is designed to run better 

on phones with limited hardware, in regions with 

limited internet connectivity. It features streamlined 

versions of Android and Google’s core apps, along 

with a self-contained version of the Play Store, and 

enables Google’s Data Saver feature by default. Look 

for it on phones with less than 1GB of memory. 

Curious? While Google didn’t reveal Android 

O’s launch date – or what the ‘O’ stands for – 

the company has released a beta version of the 

Developer’s Preview. 



news 

Google reveals why apps 

aren’t on Chromebooks 

The problem with Android apps? The windows. Ian Paul reports 

Every time we open a Chromebook and see 

that an update is available, we get a twinge of 

excitement. Is this the moment that my Asus 

Chromebook will finally get Android apps? So far, the 

answer has been no, and it doesn’t look like that will 

change anytime soon. Google didn’t have much to say 

about the state of Android on Chrome OS during its 

annual Google I/O conference. But the firm did run a 

dedicated I/O session aimed at teaching developers 

how to target their apps for Chromebooks and 

larger screen devices. 



news 

The big takeaway from the session is that Google 

is grappling with the same issues we’ve been hearing 

about for months. At the opening, Google showed 

some of its own apps, including Google Maps and 

Hangouts, that aren’t yet tuned for large screen 

devices. The big issues that Android apps need to 

deal with during the migration to Chromebooks are 

support for wider screens; including a landscape 

mode in addition to portrait; allowing for adjusting 

an app’s window size; and tweaking input approaches 

to suit a laptop with a keyboard and mouse. 

The issues aren’t just affecting Chromebooks 

either. Google said these optimizations can improve 

the experience on Android-based laptops, as well as 

newer Android phones that have a desktop mode like 

Samsung’s Galaxy S8. Even if an app is lacking some 

of these tweaks, they can still work well. The widerscreen 

issue, for example, makes some apps look odd. 

The image above is of Google Maps’ explore feature. 

All the content is in the middle of a screen, while 

the menu is stretched out across the entire display. 

Similarly, not having a landscape mode just means that 

an app feels cramped on a laptop, but it’s still usable. 

The bigger issue is window resizing. Some older 

apps become unstable when you try to resize them on 

a laptop, because they weren’t meant to do anything 

but display on a phone or tablet. To confront the 

window-resizing issue, Google’s baked several tools in 

its newest Chrome OS window manager. The system 

scans apps to see which ‘era’ of Android they were 

built for. If the app is not density-aware, for example, 

the app will always display in a maximized window. 



news 

Google Maps running 

on a Chromebook 

Pre-Android N apps, meanwhile, will switch 

between a full-screen view and a fixed window size. 

For Android N and later, most apps are freely resizable, 

thanks to the windowing features built into Android 

7.1. That said, some apps may not use the resizable 

feature, in which case they would fill the screen. 

The impact on you at home Unfortunately, this 

still doesn’t answer the question of when all those 

older Chromebooks slated for Android support will 

get it. Currently there are just six Chrome OS devices 

that support Android apps in the stable channel. Two 

are in beta, and more than 80 are ‘planned’ to get 

Android apps in the future, according to Google’s 

Chromium site. Hopefully, this will all be sorted out by 

the autumn, but at this point there’s really no point in 

predicting when the great Android app revolution will 

happen on Chrome OS. 



news 

android founder’s 

essential phone here 

Andy Rubin’s handset offers a 360-degree camera and a nearly 

bezel-less screen, reveals MICHael sIMon 

After months of Twitter teases and hype, Android 

founder Andy Rubin has finally unveiled his 

latest project to the world. And as expected, the 

vaunted Essential Phone is yet another Android phone. 

But it’s also much more than that. While the specs 

bear out a real-deal flagship competitor, 

it’s clear that Rubin’s Essential 

Phone is part of a new 

ecosystem designed 

to offer an alternative 

to Google’s Android, 

with a focus on design, 

performance, and versatility. 

Andy Rubin is the 

godfather of Android, so any 

move he makes is important. 

However, while the Essential 

Phone certainly looks great 

in renders, it remains to 

be seen whether it can 

compete against Samsung, 

LG, and even Google 

itself in the increasingly 

competitive phone market. 



news 

Bare Essential 

The handset is slated to work with a 360-degree 

camera accessory, as well as an external digital 

assistant similar to Google Home, but at the core of 

everything is the phone. Like other mid-2017 premium 

handsets, it features a Snapdragon 835 chip, 4GB of 

RAM, a 3,040mAh battery, and a 128GB hard drive. 

The design is ultra minimal, with a nearly bezelless 

screen reminiscent of the asymmetrical Mi Mix. 

The 5.7in display stretches all the way to the top of 

the device, leaving a small chin at the bottom that 

should help with orientation. 

Essential Phone 

Aside from an odd cutout in the screen for an 8Mp 

front camera, there is nary an identifiable marking 

to be found on either the front or rear of the device. 

The glass and ceramic panels sandwich a piece of 

titanium rather than aluminium. Essential says this 

will hold up better to drops. 

Rubin is also eschewing a company name or 

symbol. While there’s plenty of room on the rear to 

plaster Essential’s double-circle logo, Rubin is making 

a statement with the phone’s unadorned glass: 

“Just because we played a part in making it doesn’t 

mean you should be forced to advertise that fact to 

everyone in your life. Now you know why we don’t 

have any logos on the phone.” 

Future-proof 

Above the space where a logo should be is a 

fingerprint sensor and “the world’s thinnest dual 



news 

camera system built for a phone.” You get a pair of 

13Mp cameras, with one capturing in colour and 

the other in monochrome to “capture up to 200 

percent more light than traditional 

phone cameras.” 

Next to the cameras you’ll find 

something that you won’t find on any 

other phone: a pair of small magnetic 

pins for modular attachments that 

will purportedly keep your phone 

“cord-free, future-proof, and 

always up to date.” At launch, the 

only accessory available will be a 

360-degree camera, though other 

mods are surely in the works. 

While the Essential Phone was 

designed to limit the amount of 

adaptors you need to keep around, 

there is one extra you’ll need: a 

headphone jack dongle. The Essential 

phone relies on USB-C and Bluetooth 

for audio, though a dongle will be supplied in the box. 

The Essential Phone is available for preorder for the 

limited-time price of $699 (£TBC). 



Control IKea’s smart 

bulbs with assistant 

Broad AI support coming this summer, finds MICHael sIMon 

news 

We’ve been hearing a lot about how Google 

Home and Amazon Echo can control our 

smart appliances and devices, but for many of 

us, they’re still out of reach. Spending a couple hundred 

pounds on smart light isn’t an impulse buy, especially if 

we’re just buying them to try out voice control. 

But now there’s a much cheaper alternative for 

smart home newbies. Thanks to IKEA, just about 

anyone can install smart lighting in their homes and 

manage them with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, 



news 

and Siri. The Swedish furniture company announced 

in a press release that you will soon be able to 

control its affordable line of smart lights with the 

smart speakers and assistants you already have. 

IKEA’s bulbs offer a no-frills approach to smart 

lighting. Unlike Philips Hue (£49 from tinyurl.com/ 

y753y6tc) or LIFX(£47 from tinyurl.com/yaauL3f6) 

bulbs, the Trådfri bulbs are only available in white 

light, but with a starter pack that costs £69 from 

tinyurl.com/yc4q7p3z and add-on LEDs that won’t 

break your budget. IKEA might not be the first name 

we think of when its comes to wireless tech, but 

they’ve been in the lighting business for years, and it’s 

easy to see it expanding into other smart home areas. 

The Trådfri bulbs are available now and start 

at just £15 from tinyurl.com/y8yLrLa7. A variety 

of bulbs and kits are offered for sale, including 

panels, doors for IKEA’s cabinets and furniture, 

and dimmers. To get up and running you’ll need 

to plug the £25 Trådfri gateway/bridge (£25 from 

tinyurl.com/yctm6mu6) into your router. 

Until the AI integration is offered later this 

summer, IKEA offers its own proprietary app through 

the Android and iOS app stores, or you can use a 

physical remote control. 

We talk a lot about the internet of things and how 

smart devices are the next big thing, but high price 

tags are preventing mass adoption. Most of the objects 

that connect to our speakers are way more expensive 

than the devices themselves, so IKEA’s solution is a 

welcome addition. It might not be the thing that brings 

smart lighting mainstream, but it’s a good start. 



Google moves android 

into the car with Volvo 

New system will let you control everything from car’s air 

conditioning to its windows. MICHael sIMon reports 

news 

Android Auto may not get as much attention as 

Waymo, Google’s more exciting and mysterious 

self-driving car technology, but it’s chugging 

along. While no cool new features were unveiled at 

I/O – we’re still waiting for the Waze integration we 

were promised at last year’s event – Google’s clearly 

been busy putting Android Auto directly into cars. 

Right before I/O, Google announced a partnership 

with Volvo and Audi to integrate Android Auto right 

into the navigation system, no phone required. We got 



news 

to see the Volvo V90’s Android-powered navigation 

system in action, and it’s a big upgrade from the 

relatively small screens we use now. 

The vertical-mounted giant display was similar 

to the Tesla’s (though not quite as big). As soon as 

you turn the car on, it comes to life with four tabs to 

select from: Google Maps, the most recently used 

app, Phone, and Studio. At the bottom of the screen 

is a set of climate controls that let you adjust the 

temperature or turn on the heated sets, but you don’t 

have to touch the screen to operate them. Just say, 

“OK, Google, turn up the air conditioning,” and your 

car will start to get cooler. 

Google Maps doesn’t require a phone to operate, 

but if you bring one along, all of your searches and 

trips will be synced. You’ll also be able to make calls 

through your phone (iPhones too, of course). There’s 

no dedicated messaging interface, though you will be 

able to see and reply to notifications from your phone. 

Available apps mirror those that work with 

Android Auto (which means there aren’t too many 

available yet), but popular services such as Spotify 

and Pandora are represented. When you’re listening 

to music, you’ll be able to adjust the sound using the 

Studio tab, which gives you a standard set of speaker 

controls, including a fader, and bass and treble. 

Swipe right and you’ll see options for things like 

the backup camera, the car’s fuel-saving ECO driving 

mode, and cruise control. There’s a button on the 

steering wheel to bring up Assistant (or you can say 

“OK, Google”). Because the screen is resistive and not 

capacitive, it’ll work when you’re wearing gloves, too. 



news 

The Volvo V90’s 

display lets you 

control things 

such as the air 

conditioning with 

maps and music 

We asked about updates. While they technically can 

be delivered over the air (OTA), the engineer we spoke 

to said they were still figuring out the how to push 

them out without disrupting the experience. 

Our biggest takeaway from my demo was just how 

much Android Auto has matured. It’s hard to see when 

we’re running it in our cars now, but Google has given 

its in-car OS an overhaul that should motivate other 

car makers to climb onboard. It’s more elegant than 

nearly every other navigation system we’ve used, and 

having Google Maps built-in is a major selling point. 

Just like regular navigation systems, car makers can 

opt to allow for Apple’s CarPlay to be overlaid. That 

would be tricky with the Volvo V90’s vertical screen, 

while the Audi uses a more standard landscape display 

that would faithfully adhere to Apple’s interface. 

The built-in Android Auto looks so good, it’s hard to 

imagine anyone opting to replace it, even if you’re 

fully invested in the Apple ecosystem. 



news 

legend of Zelda may 

be coming to android 

Another Nintendo classic coming to phones, writes Ian Paul 

Nintendo is charging ahead with its plans for 

mobile by bringing yet another iconic gaming 

series to smartphones. The gaming company is 

reportedly working on a The Legend of Zelda title for 

Android and iOS, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

There’s no word on when the game would roll 

out, but probably in the latter part of 2017. Pricing is 

also unknown. It may be similar to Super Mario Run, 

which offers the game as a free download with a 

few complimentary levels. Anything more than that, 

however, and you’ll have to pay £9.99. 



ReVIews news 

Xiaomi Mi 6 

£381 inc Vat from fave.co/2sCQnua 

Wow. That’s what comes to mind when you 

consider Xiaomi’s new flagship Android 

phone for 2017. The Mi 6 is around half the 

price of more familiar flagships such as the Galaxy S8, 

LG G6, Sony Xperia XZ Premium and HTC U11, but it’s 

just as fast, just as beautiful, and just as much a musthave 

for anyone serious about their smartphone tech. 

A clear contender for snatching the crown for 

best Chinese phone, the successor to the Mi 5 and 

Mi 5s takes on design aspects from the Mi Note 2, 



ReVIew 

adds a dual-camera and forward-facing features 

such as USB-C audio, and tops it all off with faster 

performance than anything we’ve seen yet. 

While Samsung is still debating whether to add a 

dual-camera or under-glass fingerprint scanner to its 

Galaxy line, Xiaomi’s already done it. And though it 

might lack the Quad-HD Infinity Display and curvedglass 

edges, the Xiaomi has a great screen and is a 

much more comfortable size to hold in one hand. 

Buy the Xiaomi Mi 6 in the UK 

The one drawback of the Xiaomi Mi 6 is that, unlike 

those aforementioned rivals, it’s not available to buy 

directly from Xiaomi in the UK, nor from any of our 

major mobile operators. That means you’ll have to 

import it from China, and pay for the whole thing 

up front (though you can save some money with a 

SIM-only deal). 

The up side of that is you’ll pay nothing like as 

much for the Xiaomi Mi 6 SIM-free as you would a 

flagship from the likes of Samsung, HTC, Sony and 



ReVIew 

LG. You won’t get much change from £700 for those 

phones, but with the Mi 6 you could almost buy two. 

It’s incredible to believe Xiaomi is able to offer such a 

great deal at what is in essence a mid-range price. 

Our photo black Xiaomi Mi 6 is the ‘International’ 

edition with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. There’s 

also a version with 128GB storage (neither support 

expansion via microSD, though few people would 

find themselves low on space at this capacity) and a 

ceramic model with the same 18K gold detailing as 

seen on the revolutionary Mi Mix. 

It was sent to us to review by GearBest, which is 

one of many Chinese companies offering to import 

tech to the UK and elsewhere. Pricing is just £381.91 

for 64GB and £429.65 for 128GB, though you’ll need 

to also factor into your budget import duty. This is 

usually calculated at 20 percent of the value printed 

on the shipping paperwork, plus an admin fee of 

around £11. 

We’ve reviewed many a Xiaomi phone sent to us 

by GearBest, and we’ve never experienced any issues. 

But we acknowledge that for some customers things 

can sometimes go wrong, and when they do you 

need to remember your rights are different when 

purchasing goods from outside the UK. 

Something else to consider is that different 

cellular frequencies are used in different countries 

across the globe, and these Chinese models may not 

necessarily work in your country of residence. In the 

UK what we typically see with Xiaomi phones is that 

they don’t support the 800MHz/Band 20 frequency 

which is relied on by O2, Giffgaff, Sky Mobile and 



ReVIew 

others for 4G connectivity. These customers will not 

receive anything faster than 3G connectivity without 

connecting to Wi-Fi, while customers of networks that 

support other 4G bands but also use 800MHz may find 

4G coverage patchier than they have done previously. 

Another thing that can make Xiaomi phones a 

poor fit for UK customers is their lack of Google apps. 

This is not true of all Xiaomi devices, and wherever 

possible you should look to buy a ‘Global’ edition of a 

Xiaomi phone which will include access to the Google 

Play store and Google services out of the box. Some 

‘International’ models also come with Google Play 

preinstalled, or allow you to install Google Services 

via the Mi App store. 

Sadly, the International version of the Mi 6 we 

have here does not come preinstalled with Google 

apps, and there’s no obvious way to add them. We’ve 

read that this may have something to do with MIUI 

8.0, a custom version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow 

that is preinstalled on the Mi 6, and if it is then 

there’s hope there will soon be a fix. 

Of course we’ve found a workaround, but it is one 

that won’t appeal to less techy users. Something to 

keep in mind before you rush ahead and buy what 

looks to be the best-priced flagship of the year. 

Add Google Services to Xiaomi Mi 6 

Full credit for this workaround goes to Jaasir, a 

Diamond Member of the MIUI community forums. 

• Download the necessary files (RAR; Extracted), then 

extract them to your PC or laptop’s desktop. 



ReVIew 

• Connect the Mi 6 via a USB-C cable and open an 

Explorer window to view its contents (if you’re on 

a Mac use the Android File Transfer tool). 

• Browse to Internal storage, MIUI, Backup, AllBackup 

(create that folder if it doesn’t already exist) and 

drop the file here to copy its contents to the phone. 

• On the Mi 6 open the Settings menu and go to 

Additional settings, Backup & reset, Local backups, 

then tap on the file you just added. 

• Tap Restore. 

• When the process has finished, restart the phone, 

then launch the Google Play store icon on the 

home screen. You should be prompted to enter 

your Google account details. 

Design 

It’s very rare (although not unknown – remember 

the LG G5 and the Google Pixel XL) for a company’s 



ReVIew 

flagship to look anything short of amazing. And so it is 

with the mirror-finish Xiaomi Mi 6, though this phone 

appeals for more than its basic good looks. 

The Mi 6 is fitted with a 5.15in screen, features 

very slim screen bezels, and is just 7.5mm thick with 

almost slippery smooth, rounded edges at the rear 

that make it feel ever so comfortable in the hand. 

As manufacturers look to differentiate themselves 

on screen size and quality, with flagships that get 

larger with every new release, Xiaomi is sticking to its 

ground. This is a relatively compact phone that will 

be ideal for those customers who think the market is 

beginning to outgrow them. 

We still have yet to see a Quad-HD Xiaomi phone 

– this Mi 6 has a full-HD panel with a 1920x1080- 

pixel resolution and a density of 428ppi – but Xiaomi 

is not alone. It’s funny that the company it is most 



ReVIew 

often accused of copying, and one that is perhaps the 

biggest and best-known in the western world, also has 

no Quad-HD smartphone in its line-up. (Hint: Xiaomi 

is also known as China’s Apple.) 

We have to say we’re inclined to agree with Apple’s 

claims that you don’t need Quad-HD: though you 

absolutely can tell the difference between full- and 

Quad-HD, so don’t believe all that ‘Retina’ BS, the Mi 6 

is perfectly clear at this resolution. This is not a screen 

you’d find yourself complaining about. 

With increasing screen resolutions also comes 

increasing demands placed on the battery, of course, 

and this is a standout area for the Mi 6, fitted as it is 

with a 3,350mAh cell that supports Quick Charge 

(but not wireless charging) and may even keep 

going two days. So the full-HD screen is a trade-off 

we’re more than happy to make – especially when 

that display is as bright (1- to 600 nits) and vibrant 

as this one, with great contrast, realistic colours and 

excellent viewing angles. 

Xiaomi claims the Mi 6 has four-sided glass, which 

isn’t as amazing – or confusing – as it sounds. Really it 

means it is curved on the corners as well as the edges, 

and only slightly – we’re not talking curved in the 

same sense as we are with the Galaxy S8. 

The Mi 6’s design isn’t a huge departure from the 

Xiaomi Mi 5s before it, which means you still get the 

under-glass fingerprint scanner on the home screen 

that sort of looks like the button fell off (we’re not 

overly keen on it), but it has returned to the glass rear 

of the Mi 5 that was upgraded to aluminium for the 

5s. You still get a tough steel frame, and to be honest 



ReVIew 

we much prefer the Galaxy-esque glass look even 

if it may be more vulnerable to accidental damage 

and oh so many fingerprints. 

Our photo black review sample looks very much 

like a smaller version of the Mi Note 2, but with the 

camera - sorry, cameras - found flush to the frame 

in the top left corner. This is not the first Xiaomi to 

feature a dual-camera (the Redmi Pro also had one), 

but it is the first dual-camera Xiaomi flagship. We’ll 

talk more about its photography credentials later on. 

The Mi 6 is said to be splashproof, which is 

something we’ve not seen before from Xiaomi. As 

such it features a sealed SIM tray and lined ports. 

You’ll find USB-C on the bottom, as before, and 

the volume rocker in line with the SIM tray on the 

opposite side of the device. This sits just above the 

power button, while there’s an IR blaster (which is 

becoming increasingly rare) at the top. 

But something is missing here: the 3.5mm 

headphone jack. Xiaomi is the latest phone maker 

to drop the headphone jack in favour of USB-C 

audio. Apple did the same thing with its iPhone 7 and 

iPhone 7 Plus last September, which caused a lot of 

complaints from users, although in the end everyone 

just got on with it. That’s probably because Apple 

supplied a headphone adaptor in the box, which 

is what Xiaomi has also done here. Alternatively, 

you can buy yourself a pair of wireless or USB-C 

headphones, or rely on the phone’s built-in audio – 

which isn’t bad, thanks to a pair of stereo speakers. 

The Mi 6 is available in black, silver or blue, plus 

there’s a ceramic version. 



ReVIew 

Performance 

Well, what can we say about the Mi 6’s performance: 

it’s breathtaking. The Xiaomi features this year’s 

class-leading processor – the octa-core Qualcomm 

Snapdragon 835 – but while its rivals pair this chip 

with 4GB of DDR4 RAM Xiaomi specifies 6GB. It’s likely 

to get some competition soon from the upcoming 

OnePlus 5, which is also rumoured to feature this 

setup, but for now this powerhouse is unmatched in 

the smartphone world. 

And that is proven by its extraordinary performance 

in our benchmarks, as we will reveal below. 

The Snapdragon 835 is a 10nm chip built in 

partnership between Samsung and Qualcomm, which 

meant no phone manufacturer was allowed to use 

it until the Galaxy S8 had been unveiled. Thus the 

LG G6, which would normally be a rival for the latest 



ReVIew 

Xiaomi, was forced to use last year’s Snapdragon 821 

(as seen in the 5s). Its benchmarking performance is 

therefore much lower. 

Samsung doesn’t actually use the Snapdragon 835 

in the UK – here you get the Exynos 8895 – but the 

Xiaomi still beat its performance in our benchmarks. 

The Snapdragon 835 is a 10nm chip, which improves 

on Qualcomm’s previous 14nm chips with increases 

of up to 30 percent in efficiency, 27 percent in 

performance and 40 percent in power consumption. 

It runs at a clock speed of up to 2.45GHz with a 

big.LITTLE architecture, which means four of the 

eight cores run at a lower 1.8GHz for efficiency. 

We ran the Mi 6 through our usual benchmarks and 

found some outstanding results. In Geekbench 4 it 

recorded 6472 points multi-core (1940 single-core), 

and it notched up a huge 170,709 points in AnTuTu. 

In graphics benchmark GFXBench the Xiaomi 

proved itself absolutely capable of all kinds of gaming 

and media playback, with a very high 59fps in T-Rex, 

52fps in Manhattan, 39fps in Manhattan 3.1 and 25fps 

in Car Chase. It’s worth pointing out that we run the 

on-screen tests since they are more closely related to 

real-world usage, though other phone reviewers often 

quote the offscreen results that are typically higher. 

We also ran the JetStream JavaScript test, and the 

Mi 6’s 70 result is as good as it gets in the Android 

world. Only iPhones have scored higher in our tests. 

Connectivity 

We touched on the fact that this Xiaomi phone does 

not support 800MHz (Band 20) 4G LTE in the UK, but 



ReVIew 

that 2,100- and 2,600MHz 4G are covered, and that 

those customers affected will still be able to receive 

3G. However, something we left out was that the Mi 

6 actually accepts two SIMs, operating in a dual-SIM 

dual-standby fashion. 

If you need to balance work and play and don’t 

want to carry around two phones, or if you’re going 

abroad and want to use a local SIM for data, this is a 

useful – and very popular outside the UK – setup. The 

Mi 6 accepts two Nano-SIMs. In common with other 

Xiaomi phones one of these SIM slots can alternatively 

be used to add a microSD card up to 128GB in 

capacity, though with internal storage options of 64- 

and 128GB you may find you don’t need one. 

The Xiaomi supports Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, GLONASS, 

NFC, dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and even an IR blaster, 

which are becoming increasingly rare but people still 

like them for their ability to turn your phone into a 



ReVIew 

Auto mode 

remote control. Bizarrely, this was taken off the Xiaomi 

Mi 5s, making it even more apparent that this is an 

update to the Xiaomi Mi 5 rather than the Mi 5s. 

Something that is missing, though, is the 

headphone jack, which has been swapped out for 

a USB-C port in order to allow space for a highercapacity 

battery. This may be a deciding factor for 

you if you’re keen on audio. 

The fingerprint scanner is exactly the same setup as 

we saw in the Xiaomi Mi 5s, which is to say very good 

- although we’re not personally keen on the way the 

front of the device looks. The recessed area in which 

you place your finger just looks odd, and we yearn for 



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HDR mode 

the physical response pressing an actual button would 

offer. But it is the future, increasingly so, and it actually 

works incredibly well – fast and accurate. 

Cameras 

The Xiaomi Mi 5s was fitted with the Sony IMX378, a 

12Mp camera also used by the Google Pixel and one 

that offers very good image quality. It’s improved 

things further for the Xiaomi Mi 6, now fitted with two 

12Mp cameras – one with a wide-angle f/1.8 lens and 

the other a f/2.6 telephoto lens. Key specs include 

a 10x digital zoom, 2x optical zoom, four-axis OIS 

and PDAF. It can also shoot 4K video, offers various 



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shooting modes including manual, beautify, Tilt-shift 

and group shot, plus real-time filters. After the photo 

is taken there are also some decent editing tools. 

We were impressed with the quality of our test 

images, which were very well exposed and offered 

very realistic colours. Detail was softer than we were 

expecting, however. The front camera has also been 

upgraded from 4- to 8Mp, which is plenty clear 

enough for video chat and selfies. 

Software 

The Xiaomi Mi 6 runs MIUI 8.2, which is a custom 

version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow (the latest version 

of Android is Nougat, and Android O is expected 

within the next few months). The main differences 

you’ll notice are the lack of an app tray – everything 

is laid out on the home screen in an iPhone-esque 

fashion – and you’ll find some changes in the Settings 

menu. Fortunately there’s a search option at the top 

that makes it easier to find what you’re looking for. 

Oh and, of course, the lack of Google Play. Which 

is a real issue for UK users (if you intend to use the Mi 

6 only for calls and texts you don’t need a Mi 6). Until a 

Global model is offered with Google Play preinstalled 

we wouldn’t recommend the Mi 6 to UK users who 

don’t know what they’re doing. Although we managed 

to get Google Play and various apps installed as we 

have outlined earlier in this review, we did still run into 

the odd issue, including a Gmail error message that 

said it was having trouble with Google Play Services. 

You can, of course, use Xiaomi’s own apps for 

such things as email – you don’t have to use Google 



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services at all. But if you’re already using them on your 

current phone, it makes no sense to switch now. 

MIUI 8 has some cool features of its own, including 

Dual apps, which in essence lets you run two instances 

of one app, and in a similar vein you can also et up a 

second space on the phone – it’s almost like having 

two phones. There’s a Child mode, too. 

You can individually lock any app on the phone, 

should you rather not lock the phone itself or you 

want a second layer of security, and you can tweak 

various things such as the theme and which side of 

the home button your back and multi-tasking options 

sit. You can make use of a Quick ball, which places 

on screen a shortcut to options such as screenshot 

and lock, although in common with the one-handed 

mode (which shrinks the size of the screen to a more 



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manageable area) it is more useful for the larger 

models in Xiaomi’s line-up. 

Verdict 

This really is an amazing phone, and only the Chinese 

software puts us off recommending it for a UK 

audience. It is crazy fast, crazy beautiful and crazy 

priced. If you know your way around Android go and 

get one, and you won’t be disappointed. Marie Brewis 

Specifications 

• 5.15in full-HD (1920x1080, 428ppi) four-sided curved 

glass 

• MIUI 8.2 (Android 6.0) 

• 2.45GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 octa-core chip 

• 653MHz Adreno 540 GPU 

• 6GB LPDDR4 RAM 

• 64/128GB storage (no microSD support) 

• Under-glass fingerprint scanner 

• USB-C audio (no headphone jack) 

• Dual-SIM dual-standby 

• 4G FDD-LTE B1/B3/B5/B7/B8 

• 2x2 MU-MIMO dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi 

• Bluetooth 5.0 

• GPS, GLONASS 

• USB-C 

• 12Mp dual-camera, 2x optical zoom, 4-axis OIS, 

PDAF, f/1.8 and f/2.6 aperture 

• 8Mp front camera 

• 3,350mAh non-removable battery, Quick Charge 

• 145.1x70.4x7.5mm 

• 168g 



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HtC u ultra 

£649 inc Vat from fave.co/2s3s1gq 

Okay, we know – we are meant to review every 

smartphone in isolation, without relentlessly 

comparing it to others in order to assess it. 

But by summer 2017 we have already had great things 

to say about the Samsung Galaxy S8, the Huawei 

P10 and the LG G6. The HTC U Ultra was announced 

before any of these phones, back in January at a 

press conference. HTC has adopted the ‘U’ branding 

because that’s who it says this phone is for – you. It 

believes it has designed a highly personal device. 



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It’s definitely different enough to stand out, and 

we truly wanted to love this phone. In everyday use it 

does make a half decent argument for itself, but given 

its obvious flaws, it’s impossible for me to say outright 

that you should buy it. It simply isn’t good enough. 

Design 

HTC considers itself ‘the master of metal’ but the 

design mantra of the U series phones is ‘Liquid 

Surface’, achieved with glass. Liquid surface doesn’t 

really mean anything, but refers to the attractive depth 

effect the glass takes on, as opposed to Samsung’s 

method of placing colour sheets under a piece of 

glass that gives a flatter, 2D effect. 

Before you even turn it on, it’s a beautiful device. 

With this break from metal phones, HTC has at 

least made the U Ultra to the highest build quality 

standards. But it’s just too big. Absolutely huge, in 

fact. Now, we’re sure that many people out there 

still prefer the presence of a bit of bezel. Bezelfree 

devices may be the latest trend, but they are 

debatably harder to hold (the Xiaomi Mi Mix in 

particular is all screen and hard to grip without 

registering erroneous touches on the display). 

The U Ultra has a big old bezel at the chin, and 

what appears like a bigger one at the forehead. The 

chin houses a responsive fingerprint sensor and 

capacitive Android navigation buttons that look 

oddly too small for the design. 

It appears HTC has copied this set up from 

the HTC 10, but because the U Ultra is so much 

bigger, there’s tons of unused space and the design 



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looks wrong, almost like a manufacturing error, 

as there’s no good reason why there should be so 

much unused space. This is not good on a highend 

phone, and we frequently missed the back and 

recent apps buttons because they are tiny and don’t 

stay backlit (though you can change this in settings 

to the detriment of battery life). 

Once you turn it on, you see that the large 

bezel at the top houses a secondary display that is 

operated separately to the 5.7in main display (with 

more bezel to spare, by the way). 

The U Ultra’s size means that it is undoubtedly 

a two-handed device. Even scrolling through 

Twitter with one hand on the train is perilous 

such is the unwieldy nature of the phone. 

Maybe it’s our nostalgia for the brand, but 

despite these niggles it’s still nice to see HTC do 



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something different and the U Ultra is certainly that. 

While HTC’s phones have typically been variations 

of grey with a sleek brushed finish, the U Ultra is 

altogether more striking. 

Whether it’s striking in good way will depend on 

your personal taste. There are four colours to choose 

from, the Sapphire Blue and Brilliant Black options are 

best and the latter has a slightly green tint. However, 

the pearlescent Ice White and Cosmetic Pink colours 

are more garish but perhaps that’s what you’re after. 

Our white review sample did grow on us though, 

with a slight pink glint in the right light. 

The curved glass makes for a comfortable fit in 

the hand and although the material may be strong 

and harder to scratch, it has various downsides. 

The lack of friction makes the device slippery, it’s 

a fingerprint magnet and, we suspect, prone to 

shattering if you drop it. 

A clear case is included in the box to help with 

some of these issues but of course makes the 

phone even bigger and heavier. 

Everything else is in check, with USB-C and a 

speaker on the bottom, SIM tray with two slots 

(though one gives the option for microSD up to 

256GB) on the top, a textured power button and 

volume rocker on the right edge and nothing on the 

left edge. The power button is nicely textured but 

after this reviewer dropped the phone once, it lost its 

tactile click and is now mushy. 

Painfully, there is no headphone jack on the U 

Ultra so HTC is following in the footsteps of Apple and 

Motorola on this front. It’s a straight up crime that a 



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The HTC U Ultra is a 

magnet for fingerprints 

USB-C to headphone jack dongle is not included in 

the box, and has meant we were immediately put off 

listing to music or podcasts on the phone. 

You do get a pair of USonic headphones that utilize 

the reversible port though, but there aren’t the best. 

More on that further into this review. 

The U Ultra retains HTC’s BoomSound stereo 

speakers but like the flagship 10, only one faces 

forward. There are four microphones on the handset 

too for the capture of better audio in videos. 

Overall the design is bold, different but frustrating 

after extended use. I use a lot of phones and the initial 

good impressions of the U Ultra are suddenly dulled 

when you hold a better designed phone (in one hand) 

and realise the U Ultra is a step backwards from the 

marvellous HTC 10. 

ISSUE 39 • ANDROID ADVISOR 39


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Display 

In 2017 as we see bezels shrink and screens get taller, 

the HTC U Ultra has gone full traditional phablet – it’s 

a big old device at 162.4x79.8x8mm, housing a 5.7in 

Super LCD display with a 2560x1440 resolution and 

513ppi. The screen produces colours excellently, and 

we have no complaints when viewing video, web 

browsing or playing games. 

Then there’s also a small, thin strip screen at the 

top of the device like we saw on the LG V10 and V20. 

It’s two inches with a resolution of 1040x60. 

We can’t say that this is a feature we ever hankered 

after, and in fact now that we have it on the U Ultra, 

it’s kind of annoying. Not because it makes an already 

large phone even bigger, but because it also isn’t very 

useful. You can scroll through customisable panels 

for weather (the best one), app shortcuts, reminder, 

calendar, favourite contacts and music controls. 



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The weather auto updates with forecasts, which 

is cool, and the reminder panel is good for ‘get milk’ 

and other temporary mind jogs. But the app shortcuts 

are redundant when you can hit home and tap the 

app anyway, and the whole display is only on when 

the main screen is. 

With both screens off, raise to wake shows the 

time, date, notification icons, battery and weather 

on the secondary display. You can then scroll 

through all the normal modes, with an additional 

quick toggle menu for access to Wi-Fi, flashlight, 

Bluetooth and more. Bafflingly this handy option 

is only available when the phone is locked. 

A secondary screen is not high on the list of 

consumers’ must-have features on a phone, and 

the way it has been hurriedly implemented on the 

U Ultra is disappointing. Okay, you can read the first 

line of a notification when you’re in another app 

without obstructing what you’re seeing, but it means 

an already huge phone has to be bigger, and doesn’t 

improve the user experience. It complicates it. 

Performance 

Aside from the screens, the phone runs on the 

Snapdragon 821 processor also found in the OnePlus 

3T and LG G6, paired with 4GB RAM. There’s definitely 

enough power under the hood for most people, 

and the 821 is a proven chip despite the 835 now 

debuting on the Galaxy S8. 

4GB RAM is still all you really need on a phone too 

short of doing literally every computing task on it at 

once, and the U Ultra stood up to solid performance 



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in multitasking. App load times are good, as is 

switching between apps. 

Units ship with a generous 64GB storage, but that 

is becoming standard for flagship Android devices 

today. A limited edition 128GB version with Sapphire 

glass is available in Taiwan. 

In terms of pure power, the U Ultra is a high-end 

device, if not the most powerful. But with constant use 

it feels limited and overblown at the same time, which 

makes for a frustrating experience. The hardware and 

software are inextricably linked, but not in a good way. 

It is also a weighty device at 170g, not helped by its 

stretched dimensions. 

There’s also everything else you’d expect; NFC, 

Bluetooth 4.2, 11ac Wi-Fi and fast charging with Quick 

Charge 3.0. But there’s no wireless charging despite 

the move to glass (metal phones prohibit it), and no 

waterproofing whatsoever. These things won’t matter 

to everyone, but many competing Android phones 

now have both as standard, and at £649 the U Ultra 

really should have one or both. 

There’s also no headphone jack, and the sad fact of 

the matter is HTC can’t get away with this. Apple can. 

It’s not fair, but it’s true. 

Even though we’d prefer a headphone port on the 

iPhone 7, at least Apple shipped an adapter with every 

phone. In the UK, you don’t get an adapter with the 

HTC U Ultra and the UK HTC site doesn’t stock it, so 

you have to use the bundled headset. 

That’s fine if you like black HTC in-ear headphones, 

but we struggle with comfort of in-ears. So with no 

other option besides Bluetooth headphones, we 



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immediately considered the U Ultra a no-go for audio. 

This is bad for HTC – we won’t be the only one who 

will grimly persevere with the included headphones. 

They are too bass heavy and there’s not a whole lot 

else to say other than to repeat my frustration. 

Camera 

The camera is a 12Mp sensor with OIS while the front 

facing camera is 16Mp. The latter can use UltraSelfie 

with UltraPixel tech (lot of ultra going on here), a 

mode that is four times more sensitive to light than 

the normal mode. Get ready to photo that face. 

Photos come up well but can look a tad washed 

out or too dark – the lighting conditions generally 

have to be spot on or the sensor struggles. 



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It wasn’t this dark when 

we took this photo 

The rear-facing snapper can also take in 2160p 

video at 30fps. The camera app is a little tricky to use 

and feels a bit toy like, but once you’ve found the 

settings menu then it can produce very good, if not 

class leading, images. The camera bump is also huge 

on an already thick phone. Surely HTC could have 

made it flush? 

Battery 

And then there’s the battery – it’s 3,000mAh, which 

simply isn’t enough for a phone with two displays. 

This phone is physically massive, and it’s simply not 

a big enough cell to keep it going. The U Ultra came 

off charge most mornings at 8am and was hitting 



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20 percent before 6pm while we were testing all its 

features. Screen on time is frustratingly low, meaning 

the U Ultra is nowhere near being a power user’s 

phone, when the two displays and large dimensions 

mean this is the main thing it should be. 

HTC hasn’t commented on why the battery 

is so small, but considering it says it left out the 

headphone jack to easier design a curved back, 

it reeks of a company trying to be different with 

design to stand out, yet try to appeal to an iPhone 

audience by copying Apple’s most annoying design 

decision of recent times. Go figure. 

Overall, the U Ultra’s unwieldy design could 

be forgiven if it was a two-day powerhouse with 

waterproofing and a headphone jack. The fact that 

it’s not is bitterly disappointing. 

Software 

The phone’s UI is still HTC’s Sense, which is quite close 

to stock Android. HTC has moved even closer to stock 

Android since the 10, and our U Ultra review unit ran 

7.0 Nougat. Rather than replicating every Google app 

with an HTC equivalent, the U Ultra pushes you to use 

Google’s Photos, Gmail, Calendar and everything else. 

Sense has become very discreet, save for the HTC 

Sense Companion you will find on the U Ultra. HTC 

calls it AI, but it isn’t AI – it’s a set of reminder and 

tutorial functions that pop up from time to time to 

help you out. Sometimes it’s simply to say that the 

phone is checking performance for you and will let 

you know if an app is using too much power, or to 

let you know about traffic in your area. 



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These prompts feel untargeted, and despite 

the fact it’s meant to learn your habits, we found it 

next to useless. We know Android tends to prompt 

you to manage power efficiency and such, but 

we’d rather this phone just did it for me rather than 

telling me it’s possible. The phone also doesn’t 

yet have Google Assistant, so you’re left with the 

inferior Google Now function and an invasive and 

unhelpful Companion. We used neither. 

The USonic headphones work with the software 

to enhance your listening experience on the phone, 

but we felt like the technology wasn’t up to much. 

It apparently analyses your inner ear and adjusts the 

audio output to suit (in our experience by cranking 

up the bass far too loud). 

It’s not adaptable, so won’t adapt to your 

surroundings unless you manually go through the 



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procedure again. Some may find it beneficial, but we 

feel it’s one more thing HTC didn’t automate that 

delivers a less than satisfactory user experience. 

Despite this, Nougat runs fast and responsive, and 

the notification shade is one of the best we’ve used 

for quick replies and actions. In fact, the efficient 

software is one of the best things about this phone. 

On the HTC 10, the hardware amplified its quality 

but paired with the U Ultra’s hardware it makes 

the software feel unremarkable and clunky. The 

default settings display text and icons very large, 

which adds to the unrefined overall feeling we 

have about the device as a whole. 

Verdict 

HTC has confused us with this phone. The HTC 10 

fixed the problems of the One M9 but the U Ultra 

is a Frankenstein device. When a phone gives a 

better impression powered off than on, you know 

you’re in trouble. It’s not a bad phone full stop, but 

it does a lot to an unacceptably middling standard. 

It feels cobbled together despite the 

liquidity of its beautiful design and makes too 

many compromises with its massive body, no 

headphone jack or waterproofing, a small battery, 

and gimmicky use of the secondary display. 

In a year of excellent high-end smartphones, 

it’s impossible to recommend the U Ultra above 

the Galaxy S8, LG G6 or OnePlus 3T to name but 

a few. The HTC U 11 is just around the corner, 

but we are worried that HTC may soon find itself 

powering off for good. Henry Burrell 



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• 5.7in Quad HD LCD screen (2560x1440) 

• 2in second screen (1040x160) 

• Android 7.0 Nougat 

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor 

• 4GB RAM 

• 64GB (up to 256GB via microSD) 

• 12Mp UltraPixel rear camera with phase-detection 

and laser auto focus, OIS and dual-tone flash 

• 16Mp front camera with selfie panorama 

• Dual-band 11ac Wi-Fi 

• NFC 


• GPS 

• Fingerprint scanner 

• USB Type-C 

• BoomSound Audio 

• Non-removable 3,000mAh battery 

• Nano-SIM 

• 162x80x8mm 

• 170g 



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uMIdIGI C note 

£106 inc Vat from fave.co/2s3phzs 

UMIDIGI has turned out some great-looking 

phones of late, and despite its budget price 

tag the C Note is no different. 

Available from GearBest in grey or gold at the 

low price of £106, the UMIDIGI C Note is a metal 

unibody phone with a 5.5in full-HD screen and 

some mid-range specs. It supports all three UK 4G 

bands – and on both of its twin SIM slots. 

Before you jump in and buy the C Note, remember 

to factor in import duty to the purchase price. This is 



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calculated at 20 percent of the value on the shipping 

paperwork, plus an admin fee of around £11. 

Design 

The C Note has the same premium design as the 

flagship UMIDIGI Z Pro, with an aluminium alloy 

body and a large, bright full-HD screen. It’s 0.1mm 

thicker than its brother, but otherwise has identical 

dimensions, and is 3g lighter at 172g. 

Slim screen bezels and gently rounded edges at 

the rear make the C Note feel great in the hand. The 

screen features the same 2.5D curved glass, too, 

which makes everything feel seamless as you run 

your finger across its surface. 

This handset is very well made for a budget phone, 

with no gaps, creaking or flex. The metal should prove 

reasonably tough against accidental drops, while 

Dragontrail glass protects the screen. 

This panel is the same as that found on the Z Pro, 

a full-HD Sharp IGZO display that is sharp, bright and 

offers decent contrast and viewing angles. You can 

adjust the colour temperature and turn on Adaptive 

brightness in the settings, too. 

The rear camera protrudes only very slightly at the 

rear, but fitted with the supplied clear protective gel 

case you wouldn’t know any different. Unlike on the 

Pro you get just the one 13Mp camera here, with a 

5Mp selfie camera at the front. 

You’ll see two grilles at the bottom of the handset, 

which sit either side of a Micro-USB port – one of the 

few obvious signs that this smartphone has a cheaper 

price tag. There is actually just the one speaker inside, 



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with a mic concealed below the other grille. The 

3.5mm headphone jack is found at the top. 

A pin-operated SIM tray is found at the top of 

the phone’s left edge, and this is a hybrid tray that 

can accept either two Nano-SIMs or one Nano-SIM 

and a microSD card up to 256GB in capacity. The 

built-in 32GB of storage is already very generous 

at this price point. 

We’re not overly keen on the Home button, 

which you tap rather than press – it just doesn’t 

feel very natural, though we’re sure you’d become 

familiar with it reasonably quickly. Either side of this 

are multitasking and back buttons, though with no 

labels it takes a little getting used to. 

Built into this home button is a touch-style 

fingerprint scanner, which worked very well and 

very quickly in our tests. It’s a shame that the phone 

has no NFC support, since this would have enabled 

mobile payments on the C Note. 



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Performance 

So the budget price of this phone is not at all evident 

from the outside, but inside there is some decidedly 

low- to mid-range hardware. Real-world performance 

is still pretty decent, especially preinstalled with the 

latest Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box, but you’re 

not going to get anything close to that achieved by 

the UMIDIGI Z Pro here. 

In gaming framerates the difference in power is 

most noticeable, but benchmark results are lower 

across the board. To give you an idea of what we’re 

talking about here, the UMIDIGI C Note is a much 

closer rival to the Ulefone Gemini – it’s nothing to 

write home about, and UK budget phones such as 

the Moto G5 perform better. 

But speed isn’t everything to everyone, and the 

1.5GHz MediaTek MT6373T quad-core chip (based on 



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the Cortex-A53) and ARM Mali-T720 MP2 GPU are up 

to the job of daily tasks. UMIDIGI also specifies 3GB 

of RAM, which will help improve multitasking. 

We ran our usual benchmarks and recorded a 

low single-point score of 672 in Geekbench 4, and 

a still pretty low 1872 points multi-core. AnTuTu also 

clocked the C Note at 39,691 points. 

Gaming performance was lower, with just 11fps 

recorded in GFXBench T-Rex (the best phones achieve 

60fps here), 4fps in Manhattan and 3fps in Manhattan 

3.1. This isn’t a phone you’d choose for playing games, 

though it is capable of casual titles if you keep down 

the detail settings. Its JetStream JavaScript score of 

20.7 is about average for a budget phone but, again, 

on the low side. 

Battery life is very good from the 3,800mAh cell – 

you should get two days’ use with moderate use. (And 

you can always use a power bank if you need more.) 

Connectivity 

The only real thing missing from this phone in terms 

of connectivity support is NFC, as we mentioned 

earlier. This will be frustrating if you want to make 

mobile payments, but it shouldn’t be too much of 

an annoyance otherwise. 

There’s 802.11n Wi-Fi support, as well as GPS, 

GLONASS and Bluetooth 4.1. More interestingly, this 

is a dual-SIM phone that can support 4G on either 

card (not all dual-SIM phones do). It operates in 

dual-standby mode. 

Both are Nano-SIM slots and support all three UK 

4G bands (if you’re buying elsewhere then check 



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Auto mode 

out our advice on how to tell whether a phone is 

supported by your network), but annoyingly you must 

choose between either dual-SIM or microSD – you 

can’t have both. 

Cameras 

The C Note is fitted with a 13Mp Samsung S5K3L8 

rear camera with phase-detect autofocus and a 

dual-LED flash at the back, and a 5Mp selfie camera 

at the front. At first glance the camera app is rather 

basic, with just Normal, HDR and Panorama modes 

and no real-time filters to speak of, but there’s also 

a Professional Camera mode which UMIDIGI claims 



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HDR mode 

can help you to take DSLR-quality images. This gives 

you loads of control over your images, with sliders for 

everything from saturation and brightness to ISO and 

white balance. To be honest, the quality of the camera 

isn’t that good, but for the money it isn’t bad. Even in 

Auto mode we saw natural colours and a reasonable 

amount of detail, though blurred edges are visible. 

With HDR mode switched on things look much better, 

but there is a lot of image sharpening in evidence. 

The main camera is capable of video recording at 

1080p but by default is set at 720p. You can turn on 

electronic image stabilization in the Video settings (or 

rather Vedio settings). 



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The selfie camera isn’t up to much, with a very soft 

image. You can make use of a beauty mode, turn on 

anti-shake and control such things as white balance 

and scene mode. 

Software 

It’s refreshing to see a budget phone supplied with the 

latest version of Android (7.0 Nougat) out of the box. 

This is a vanilla version of the OS, with no deviations 

from standard Android – it should feel instantly 

familiar. Nova Launcher is preinstalled, but there’s 

nothing else in the way of preinstalled bloatware. 

You can double-click to wake the screen, change 

the colour of the notification LED for incoming calls, 

and rearrange the order of the touch buttons below 

the screen. 



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Verdict 

The UMIDIGI C Note is a very well-designed budget 

smartphone with a premium design. Performance is 

lacking, but capable, and the camera can produce 

decent results in good lighting. A good budget buy. 

Marie Brewis 


• 5.5in full-HD (1920x1080) IGZO Sharp 2.5D display, 

Dragontrail glass protection 

• Android 7.0 Nougat 

• 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6373T quad-core Cortex-A53 

64-bit processor 

• ARM Mali-T720 MP2 GPU 

• 3GB RAM 

• 32GB storage (up to 256GB via microSD) 

• 4G LTE on dual Nano-SIMs (dual-standby), supports 

all three UK bands 

• 802.1a/b/g/n Wi-Fi 


• GPS 

• GLONASS 

• OTG 

• 3.5mm headphone jack 

• Micro-USB 

• 13Mp Samsung S5K3L8 PDAF rear camera with dual- 

LED flash, Professional Camera mode 

• 5Mp selfie camera 

• Front TouchID fingerprint scanner 

• 3,800mAh battery (two-day life) 

• 154.7x76.6x8.3mm 

• 172g 



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ulefone armor 

£122 inc Vat from tinyurl.com/yd2t27qg 

We all try to look after our smartphones and 

protect them from damage, but for some 

users doing so is almost impossible. If your 

job involves manual labour or you’re into extreme 

sports, your phone is more vulnerable to the elements 

than most. For these type of users a rugged phone 

such as this Ulefone Armor will make a great purchase. 

Available from GearBest at the attractive price 

of £122, the Armor is IP68-certified waterproof, 

dustproof, shockproof and can withstand 



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temperatures from -40°C to 80°C. With a Gorilla 

Glass 3 coating the screen is also scratchproof. 

Ulefone claims it has an extra strong signal thanks 

to a large antenna and that plastic casing, which 

combined with built-in GPS and a compass will be 

useful in the great outdoors. Battery life is also good 

from the 3500mAh lithium-polymer cell, and there’s 

a dedicated SOS button should you get lost. 

In other respects this isn’t the most exciting 

smartphone, but with reasonable performance it 

will get the job done. 

If you decide to go ahead and buy the Ulefone 

Armor from GearBest you should be prepared to 

factor import duty into the overall cost. This is 

calculated at 20 percent of whatever value is on the 

shipping paperwork, plus an admin fee of around £11. 

Design 

The design of the Armor is perhaps the most 

interesting thing about it. With a blend of TPU and 

polycarbonate plastic and rubber, nothing is getting in 

or out of this case - water, dust or otherwise. 

Ulefone claims it uses waterproof gum to attach 

this case to the phone, and waterproof film to cover 

any inevitable gaps. The touchscreen has also been 

optimised to work effectively with wet fingers, and 

worked well in our tests. The Armor has an IP68 rating, 

which means it can withstand up to 1.2m of water for 

up to 30 minutes, but in Ulefone’s own testing it was 

able to withstand up to 1.5m of water in that time. 

The rugged case adds some thickness to the 

smartphone, which measures 12.5mm at its thickest 



ReVIew 

point. Thankfully, though, the smaller-than-most 4.7in 

screen keeps down the overall size of the handset. It’s 

still reasonably weighty at 195g, but reassuringly so. 

This screen is sadly only an HD panel, with a 

resolution of 1280x720 pixels. It’s been a while 

since we tested anything with a lower than full-HD 

resolution, even in the budget market, but because 

the screen is ‘small’ everything still looks sharp. It has 

a pixel density of 313ppi, which is only just short of 

the iPhone’s 326ppi. 

You might find the screen a little dull for outdoor 

use in the brightest conditions, and contrast is also 

lacking, but on the whole it is a good performer with 

realistic colours and good clarity. 

The Ulefone Armor has an interesting design, and 

is instantly recognisable as a rugged phone. Available 



in black or orange and black, it’s a bit like Marmite: 

you’ll love it or you’ll hate it. 

On the orange and black model an orange plastic 

trim runs the circumference of the screen, which itself 

has pretty large bezels. Though this is often something 

you find in cheap phones, here it is purposely created 

to protect the screen from damage. 

The orange colour scheme is more obvious at the 

rear, which comprises six vertical panels with a rough, 

textured surface that helps you grip it with wet or cold 

hands. The second panel down features two screws, 

which you remove in order to prise off the panel and 

access the dual Micro-SIM slots and microSD port. 

Screws also hold in place the other rear panels, but 

these require a different type of screwdriver to the one 

supplied in the box for getting to the SIM slots. We 

don’t think Ulefone wants you to remove these. 

At the top of the rear is a 13Mp camera with a 

waterproof housing and a single LED flash, and to 

the right of this a mono speaker. The Armor wasn’t 

built for audio quality, and not only will it fire sound 

into your palm or on to a table or flat surface, but 

the results are rather tinny. 

At the bottom of the Ulefone is a large silver, 

grooved piece, which we think is part of the antenna. 

As we mentioned previously, Ulefone claims 

excellent signal strength for the Armor. 

Because the casing is rather thick, also in the 

box you’ll find an extender cable for the 3.5mm 

headphone jack, and a Micro-USB charging cable 

with a slightly longer prong than most (you might 

find using third-party USB cables tricky). 

ReVIew 



ReVIew 

Both these ports are hidden behind a rubber flap 

– we would prefer to see waterproofing on the ports 

themselves, as is the case with the Galaxy S8 and 

iPhone 7, but this phone costs nowhere near as much 

so we can hardly complain. 

It’s a shame not to see USB-C here but, again, this 

is a budget phone, and the processor doesn’t support 

any form of quick charging in any case. Ulefone 

supplies a 5W charger but it’s a two-prong adaptor, 

so we recommend using your previous handset’s USB 

charger or buying a third-party model. 

Below the screen are three physical buttons for 

home, back and multi-tasking. These are waterproof 

and coated in rubber, and like the other buttons on 

the phone require extra pressure to operate. Bizarrely, 

above the back button is an on-screen back button, 



but with no label. Had we not noticed it mentioned 

in the Quick Start Guide we would have thought the 

phone was playing up. 

The Armor also features something that’s becoming 

increasingly rare these days: a dedicated camera 

button. It’s located at the bottom of the phone’s right 

edge, as you’d expect, but serves only as a shutter 

button: it won’t launch the camera from standby. 

Just up from this is an SOS button. If you’re going 

to be going out and getting yourself lost then you may 

see the need for this. Provided you have configured 

it beforehand, pressing this button will automatically 

call and send a text message to a specified contact 

informing them of your GPS co-ordinates and the 

fact you need help. 

The SOS button works only with the first SIM, and 

we didn’t like its position where we’d usually expect to 

find the power button. However, it does usefully serve 

to wake the screen when inadvertently pressed. 

Separate volume buttons are found on the 

phone’s left edge, while the power button is up top. 

One issue we have with the Ulefone Armor is its 

lack of notification LEDs, which means you’ve no 

way of knowing you have a missed call, text, email or 

other without picking it up and waking the screen. 

Performance 

Battery life from the Armor should be good, which is 

important if you’re away from civilisation and unable 

to fast-charge the battery. Ulefone quotes a full day’s 

heavy usage, or two days with lighter use. It says it will 

endure 300 hours on standby, or six hours of constant 

ReVIew 



ReVIew 

talk time. (And you can always use a power bank if 

you need more.) 

In other respects performance is nothing to shout 

about, but the Armor is capable of most tasks. It’s 

only a little slower than the Helio P10-powered Nomu 

S30 in general processing speed tests, for example, 

but a little faster in graphics tests which is likely due 

to the lower-resolution screen. 

The Ulefone Armor runs a 1.3GHz MediaTek 

MTK6753 octa-core 64-bit processor with the 

integrated ARM Mali-T720 GPU. This is paired with 

3GB of RAM and a generous 32GB of storage, plus you 

can add a further 64GB through microSD. 

The Armor failed to run our JetStream JavaScript 

test, but we successfully ran our processing and 



ReVIew 

graphics performance benchmarks. In Geekbench 

4 we recorded 603 points in the single-core 

component and 2571 multi-core. AnTuTu 6 clocked 

the Armor at 37,404, and in GFXBench it recorded 

on-screen framerates of 20fps in T-Rex, 9fps in 

Manhattan and 7fps in Manhattan 3.1. 

Connectivity 

Fingerprint scanners are pretty standard even in 

budget Chinese phones, but you won’t find one in the 

Ulefone Armor. That’s really all you’re missing, though, 

because the phone supports dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, 

GPS, GLONASS, Bluetooth 4.0, OTG and NFC. The 

latter could be useful for mobile payments and cut 

down the amount of gear you have to take out and 

about with you, but only provided a fingerprint is not 

required for authentication. 

As we touched upon earlier, the Armor is a dual- 

SIM dual-standby phone, and allows you to insert two 

Micro-SIM cards for two different networks. This can 

be useful for managing separate SIMs for home and 

work, or local and abroad. Only one can be specified 

for data usage, but both numbers can make and 

receive calls and texts. 

A bonus: you’re not forced to choose between 

microSD and dual-SIM functionality as you are with 

phones that feature hybrid SIM slots. 

If you’ll be using the Armor in the UK, it’s good 

to know that all three of the UK’s 4G LTE frequency 

bands are covered, meaning you should get the 

strongest signal your mobile network can offer 

wherever you may be. 



ReVIew 

Auto mode 

Cameras 

We weren’t expecting miracles from the Ulefone’s 

13Mp, five-piece-lens camera with single-LED flash 

– this phone simply isn’t designed to be a premium 

camera phone. As such the camera app is very basic, 

and changing any of the options (such as selecting 

HDR) will slow things down. 

Viewing images at full-size noise is noticeable, 

though a fair amount of detail is captured and 

colours are reasonably natural. The Armor is certainly 

up to the task of snapshotting your latest excursion 

or whatever job you’re working on, provided you’re 

not trying to take those shots in the dark. 

The Ulefone Armor also has a 5Mp selfie camera, 

which is fine for video chat and Snapchat. 

Our review sample showed a glitch where all 

the icons in the camera app would twitch after we 



ReVIew 

HDR mode 

switched between the main and selfie cameras. It was 

still usable, but off-putting, and a restart seemed to fix 

whatever had gone wrong. 

Software 

The Armor runs a fairly standard version of Android 6 

Marshmallow, which was succeeded in late 2016 with 

Nougat. We don’t know if or when the Ulefone will 

be updated. You’ll find an entry for the SOS button in 

the settings menu, and Ulefone has applied its own 

theme to the UI which changes the look and feel of 

the shortcuts on the home screen, but aside from 

this everything should be as you’d expect. 

Verdict 

A capable rugged phone at a very good price, the 

Ulefone might not be the fastest handset out there 



ReVIew 

or have the best screen but for many people it prove 

ideal. Marie Brewis 


• 4.7in HD (1280x720, 313ppi) LTPS display, Gorilla 

Glass 3 

• Android 6.0 Marshmallow 

• 1.3GHz MediaTek MTK6753 octa-core 64-bit 

processor 

• ARM Mali-T720 GPU 

• 3GB RAM 

• 32GB storage 

• MicroSD support up to 64GB 

• Rugged design: waterproof, shockproof, dust-proof, 

scratch-resistant, temperature -40°C to 80°C 

• Dual-SIM dual-standby (2x Micro, SOS function 

works only with SIM 1) 

• 4G FDD-LTE 800/1,700/1,800/2,100/2,600MHz 

• Dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi 


• GPS, GLONASS 

• OTG 

• NFC 

• 13Mp, 5P rear camera with single-LED flash 

• 5Mp, 5P front camera 

• SOS button 

• Dedicated camera button 

• 3.5mm headphone jack (with extender) 

• 3500mAh lithium-polymer battery 

• 148.9x75.8x12.5mm 

• 195g 



FeAtURe 

Google I/o 2017 

Brad CHaCos reveals everything announced at the event, from 

new Android O features to standalone Daydream VR headsets 

Big data on the big stage 

Leading up to its annual I/O developer conference, 

Google announced so many new products and 

features that it was hard to imagine anything would be 

left. But it left some rounds in the chamber, revealing 

goodies ranging from an updated Google Assistant 

to helpful feature updates for hardware like Home 

and Chromecast to a new vision computing platform 

that imbues Google apps with the ability to see, 

understand, and translate the world around you. 



FeAtURe 

Android O 

Even though Android O isn’t new, Google revealed 

some fresh new features for its upcoming operating 

system revamp. Highlights include a picture-inpicture 

mode for app multitasking; ‘notification dots’ 

that show when a home screen app has associated 

notifications, summoned with a long-press; and 

tweaks designed to make everyday tasks like 

copy-pasting much more fluid and seamless. 

Android O is also getting operating system 

optimizations that drastically reduce boot and app 

load times, as well as a new Google Play Protect 

app that’s your hub for keeping your phone safe and 

secure. Even better? You can try all this stuff right 

now with the Android O beta program. 



FeAtURe 

Standalone Daydream headsets 

Google’s Daydream VR platform has largely felt 

neglected since its launch at the last I/O, but it 

received a fresh injection of energy this year. While 

the initial Daydream devices required a compatible 

Android phone for its smarts and screen, standalone 

versions are now on the way, including devices 

created by Lenovo and HTC – the creator of the 

Vive headset for PCs. 

The original version’s still around, though. In fact, 

Samsung’s Galaxy S8 phones will be receiving a 

software update to become Daydream compatible 

later this summer. 



FeAtURe 

Google Lens 

Google announced Google Lens. Point your phone’s 

camera at an object, invoke Lens via the Assistant 

or Photos app, and Google’s computing brains in 

the cloud will study the image to let you know what 

you’re looking at. In an on-stage demonstration, Lens 

identified a flower correctly. 

It offers some nifty extras, too. You can take a 

picture of your router’s ID label to automatically 

connect your phone to its Wi-Fi network, and looking 

at a restaurant or other businesses will surface ratings 

and contextual information – including tickets to 

events – about it from Google’s services. You can 

also use Google Lens on foreign language text to 

have Google Translate automatically kick in. 

Look for Lens to eventually expand to other 

Google apps over time. 



FeAtURe 

Google Assistant 

Beyond the Lens integration, Assistant levelled up in 

several other ways. The conversational digital, well, 

assistant is now available on iPhone, and Google 

rolled out an Assistant SDK to allow hardware makers 

to bake the service directly into their devices. The 

company’s working with vendors, including Sony, 

Panasonic, LG, and Bang & Olufsen, to add Assistant 

in a wide range of hardware this Christmas. 

Google is also making it easier to converse with 

Assistant. Not only is it picking up support for several 

popular languages, it’s adding the ability to type in 

queries – no more barking into your phone in public 

like a madman. 



FeAtURe 

Google Home 

Google Home is picking up some nice new features 

of its own – the highlight being hands-free calling 

capabilities. It will call businesses and your Google 

Contacts on command, and you don’t need any extra 

apps or even a phone line for it to work. You can opt 

to allow the call to show your mobile number on the 

receiving end, or it’ll use a number flagged as private. 

The smart speaker will also offer ‘proactive 

assistance’, or the ability to notify you of timely and 

important notifications. The lights will flare to life 

when you have a notification, prompting you to ask 

Home “What’s up?” Amazon’s Echo rolled out similar 

functionality. Google Home is adding Bluetooth 

compatibility too, the ability to push content 

to Google apps on your phone and support for 

Spotify’s free, ad-based streaming music tier. 



FeAtURe 

Google Home


FeAtURe 

Google Photos 

Google is updating Photos to make it easier for you 

to share your pictures with pals. A new selective 

sharing function – lurking in a new Sharing tab in-app 

– will automatically suggest photos for you to share 

with your pals, creating its recommendations based 

on where you were, who you were with, and your 

frequent image-sharing contacts. Once you share 

some pictures with a pal, they’re get a notification that 

opens the Photos app on their phone, where they’ll 

find a prompt to share photos of their own in return if 

they were at the same event. 

Photo is also adding shared libraries, which lets you 

synchronize your albums with others. And it’s one of 

the flagship apps for Google Lens, which can be used 

to identify items and objects in your snapshots and will 

offer actionable action prompts. 



FeAtURe 

Photo Books 

The company’s new Photo Books service taps into 

Photos to intelligently and automatically create 

physical photo albums in Shutterfly-like fashion. Once 

you start an album, you can select a range of photos 

to include in it, and the Photos service will pick out 

the best images and even lay them out for you, using 

Google’s machine learning smarts. (You’ll also be 

able to tweak things if you want, of course.) 

Photo Books is live, with Android and iOS apps out 

now. According to a screenshot flashed on screen 

during the IO keynote, soft cover albums will start 

at $9.99 (£TBC), with hardcover albums starting at 

$19.99 (£TBC). 



FeAtURe 

Gmail Smart Replies 

Smart Replies, which presents you with three 

machine-generated short responses to quickly reply 

to incoming messages, is leaving the confines of 

Google’s Inbox app and hitting the big stage. It’s 

coming to Gmail’s Android and iOS apps soon, though 

only the English versions at first. Spanish Gmail apps 

will gain the feature in the coming weeks, with other 

languages to follow. 



FeAtURe 

YouTube 

YouTube is getting the ability to play 360-degree 

videos on TV sets, using a remote to navigate the 

scene. To bolster the launch, the service is also 

rolling out live 360-degree videos if you truly want 

to live in the moment. The service is still trying to 

beat Twitch at live streams, too. At Google I/O, the 

company revealed a new Super Chat APIs – ‘Super 

Chat’ being YouTube’s term for donations – that allows 

your digital pounds to do things in the creator’s real 

world studio, such as shutting off lights or enabling a 

drone. Sounds complicated. 



FeAtURe 

Next-gen TPU hardware 

A bit of ultra-nerdy news came when Google 

announced a second-generation version of the 

specialized ‘tensor processing unit’ hardware first 

announced at 2016’s I/O. Businesses will be able to tap 

into their power via the Google Cloud Platform, too. 



FeAtURe 

Google preparing 

android for an aI future 

TensorFlow is going on a diet to optimize for smartphones and 

other lightweight devices. BlaIr Hanley FranK reports 

The future of Android will be a lot smarter, thanks 

to new programming tools that Google unveiled 

recently. The company announced TensorFlow 

Lite, a version of its machine learning framework that’s 

designed to run on smartphones and other mobile 

devices, during the keynote address at its Google I/O 

developer conference. 



FeAtURe 

“TensorFlow Lite will leverage a new neural 

network API to tap into silicon-specific accelerators, 

and over time we expect to see [digital signal 

processing chips] specifically designed for neural 

network inference and training,” said Dave Burke, 

Google’s vice president of engineering for Android. 

“We think these new capabilities will help power a 

next generation of on-device speech processing, 

visual search, augmented reality, and more.” 

The Lite framework will be made a part of the 

open source TensorFlow project soon, and the 

neural network API will come to the next major 

release of Android later this year. 

The framework has serious implications for what 

Google sees as the future of mobile hardware. 

AI-focused chips could make it possible for 

smartphones to handle more advanced machine 

learning computations without consuming as much 



FeAtURe 

power. With more applications using machine learning 

to provide intelligent experiences, making that sort of 

work more easily possible on device is key. 

Right now, building advanced machine learning 

into applications – especially when it comes 

to training models – requires an amount of 

computational power that typically requires beefy 

hardware, a lot of time and a lot of power. That’s not 

really practical for consumer smartphone applications, 

which means they often offload that processing to 

massive data centre by sending images, text and other 

data in need of processing over the internet. 

Processing that data in the cloud comes with 

several downsides, according to Patrick Moorhead, 

principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy: users 

must be willing to transfer their data to a company’s 

servers, and they have to be in an environment with 

rich enough connectivity to make sure the operation 

is low-latency. 

There’s already one mobile processor with a 

machine learning-specific DSP on the market today. 

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 system-on-a-chip 

sports the Hexagon DSP that supports TensorFlow. 

DSPs are also used for providing functionality like 

recognizing the “OK, Google” wake phrase for the 

Google Assistant, according to Moorhead. 

Users should expect to see more machine learning 

acceleration chips in the future, Moorhead said. 

“Ever since Moore’s Law slowed down, it’s been a 

heterogeneous computing model,” he said. “We’re 

using different kinds of processors to do different 

types of things, whether it’s a DSP, whether it’s a 



FeAtURe 

[field-programmable gate array], or whether it’s a 

CPU. It’s almost like we’re using the right golf club 

for the right hole.” 

Google is already investing in ML-specific hardware 

with its line of Tensor Processing Unit chips, which 

are designed to accelerate both the training of 

new machine learning algorithms as well as data 

processing using existing models. The company 

recently announced the second version of that 

hardware, which is designed to accelerate machine 

learning training and inference. 

The company is also not the only one with a 

smartphone-focused machine learning framework. 

Facebook showed off a mobile-oriented ML 

framework called Caffe2Go last year, which is used 

to power applications like the company’s live style 

transfer feature. 

Tensor Processing Unit 



FeAtURe 

Translation 

Google lens: six things 

we can’t wait to try out 

Google’s I/O was heavy on AI and machine learning, and the best 

intersection of the two is Google Lens, writes MICHael sIMon 

Google Lens looks fresh and exciting, though 

we’ve seen hints of this technology before. 

Google Goggles might not have been 

mentioned during the I/O keynote, but its spirit 

was most certainly present at I/O. Released seven 

years ago when AI and AR were still in their infancy, 

Goggles was an app that let you identify places, scan 

barcodes, and search for prices by snapping a photo 

of the thing you were looking at. 



FeAtURe 

Restaurants 

Google Lens, which was announced during the 

very first minutes of I/O, is essentially a supercharged 

version of Google Goggles. Built into Assistant and 

Photos, the new machine learning AI promises to 

decode the world around us by using Google’s AR and 

neural networks to scan images and pull out relevant 

bits of data. Here are the six things we’re most excited 

to try out. 

Translation 

Google Translate is already one of our go-to tools 

when trying to read text in a different language, but 

Google Lens takes it out of the Translate app and 

puts it right into Photos. To translate something, you 

need only snap a picture of it and call on Google 

Lens’ smarts. This approach makes using Translate’s 

technology even simpler, and we’ll be much more 

likely to remember to use it in a pinch. 



FeAtURe 

Learning 

Restaurants 

It’s not hard to find interesting spots when visiting a 

new city, but with Google Lens, discovering hidden 

gems in our own town becomes a lot easier. Just 

point your camera at a place you’re interested in, and 

Google Lens will scan it. Then, in real time as you look 

through the viewfinder, you’ll be able to see what it 

is, what it sells, and what people think about it. The 

process is far simpler than getting the name, typing it 

into Google, and scanning through the results. 

Learning 

This area is where you can see just how much Google 

Lens has improved on Google Goggles. Google Lens 

lets you snap a picture of just about anything, and 

then it will tell you everything you need to know about 

it – during the keynote, Sundar Pichai demonstrated 

this feature by identifying a common lily. We’ll need to 



FeAtURe 

Routers 

try it ourselves to confirm its accuracy, but our phones 

could possibly become the greatest encyclopedia 

ever, teaching us about arts, architecture, and nature 

without requiring a dive into a search hole. 

Routers 

We’ve all been in the situation where we’re at a friend’s 

house and we need to connect to their router, except 

they don’t know the password. So we need to crawl 

under a desk, flip over the router to find the label, type 

each character, and, 10 minutes later, finally connect. 

Google Lens does all that work for you. You’ll only 

need to snap a picture of the password label on the 

router and it will automatically connect. 

Entertainment 

Buying tickets to shows and movies on our phones 

is already pretty effortless, but Google Lens wants to 



FeAtURe 

Entertainment 

make it a complete breeze. If you walk down a street 

and see a marquee that shows a band that’s playing, 

Google Lens will spring to life as soon as you snap 

a picture. You can listen to sample songs, add the 

date to your calendar, and, of course, buy tickets. 

Presumably, it will work just as well with movies and 

other events – we can’t wait to take a photo of a 

movie poster and then see show times and trailers. 

Shopping 

The keynote didn’t mention anything specific about 

buying stuff using Google Lens, but we can’t help but 

wonder about its potential as a shopping assistant. 

We’ve already seen something similar with Bixby 

on the Galaxy S8, but outside of books, it’s not very 

helpful. If Google can perfect the system so it brings 

up shopping results for anything we scan, it could be 

the killer use case for Google Lens. 



How to 

How to: Get android o on 

a nexus or Pixel phone 

HOW TO 

If you want to check out Android O’s newest features before they 

are officially released to the public, MICHael sIMon shows how 

Google is constantly at work perfecting the 

latest version of Android, but you might not 

know that you can help test it out. Before 

any new version is released, whether it’s a full new 

major ‘sweet treat’ version (such as the new Android 

O beta) or a simple maintenance release, you can sign 

up to test it weeks or months before it’s available for 

public download. All you need is a Google account 

and the right phone. 



How to 

And Google makes it easy to sign up, as long as 

you have one of the newer ‘pure Android’ handsets. 

Currently, the list is pretty short, but if you own a 

Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, or one of the Pixel phones, 

you’re all set. (Additionally, you can install the beta 

on the short-lived Nexus Player set-top box, and 

the Pixel C tablet.) 

Those phones should be good for the rest of this 

year, as Google has vowed that Nexus level devices 

will “receive major updates for at least two years.” For 

example, the 2014 Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 only recently 

dropped off the list, so last year’s Huawei and LG 

Nexus devices should be good at least through the 

remainder of 2017. 

If you have the right hardware, head over 

to Google’s Android Beta Program website (tinyurl. 

com/hhjhq94). You’ll need to log in with your Google 

account, and once you do, you’ll be taken to a page 

that explains what the program is all about. The usual 

beta disclaimers apply, and Google warns that the 

updates “may contain errors and defects that can 

affect normal functioning of your device.” So before 

you enrol you’re phone, it’s a good idea to back up 

your data first, just in case. 

In the middle of the page, you’ll see a list of your 

eligible devices, with an Enrol button next to it. Tap 

it and you’ll see be taken to a disclaimer screen. 

Check the agree box, select Join beta, and in a 

couple seconds you’ll be in. 

If a new beta isn’t available, it will be business as 

usual on your phone. Security updates will be installed 

as normal, as well as any official releases, and you 



How to 

won’t know anything has changed. Once a beta does 

land, you’ll get a notification about it just like you 

normally would (although it will indicate that it’s a beta 

update), or you can check in the usual place: Scroll 

down to the About phone tab in Settings, and select 

System updates. It will install over-the-air normally, 

with a restart, and whenever a new one releases, you’ll 

go through the same process. And when the version 

you’re testing releases publicly, you’ll be able to 

install that version on your phone, too. 

If you’ve flashed your device and just want to 

install the files yourself without registering for the 

program, you can grab them from Google Developers 

site (tinyurl.com/am8Ln3s). Just scroll down to the 

Latest section, find the version you’re looking for, 

and follow the link to get to the Public Beta Images 

page. Then, locate your device and download the 

If there is a beta to install, it will 

show up when you select the 

Check for Update button 



How to 

appropriate file. (The Android O beta downloads 

are available from tinyurl.com/pj3sovs.) 

With betas, Google is looking for feedback, so 

if you spot something that needs fixing, you can 

contact Google directly by heading to the Settings 

app, tapping About, and then Send feedback about 

this device. Additionally, Google hosts an Android Beta 

Program Google+ community (tinyurl.com/y9zsen2y), 

where you can share feedback with other users. 

Finally, if you’re having serious problems with a 

particular beta, you can always downgrade to the 

most recent stable version. Simply select Unenroll 

device on the same Android Beta Program page 

where you registered your device, and Google will 

deliver the latest general release to your phone. 

However, as Google warns, it “will wipe all data on 

the device,” so once again, you’ll want to back up 

your data before downgrading. 

If a particular beta is giving you fits, you can easily 

unenrol from the program and downgrade to a 

stable release. But back up your data first 



How to 

How to: Make selfie 

stickers in Google allo 

HOW TO 

The latest Android update lets you create stickers in your likeness 

and send them to your friends, writes MICHael sIMon 

Allo hasn’t been the runaway success that 

Google thought it would be, but that hasn’t 

stopped it from adding a stream of upgrades 

and new features. But with the latest new addition, 

some people might want to give it a second look. 

With the new update rolling out to the Play Store, 

Google is introducing a long-rumoured feature called 



How to 

selfie stickers. If you haven’t yet tried out Allo, stickers 

are central to its appeal, as Google looks to bring an 

Apple Messages-style whimsy to Android, adorning 

your conversations with everything from Star Wars to 

exercising avocados. 

But selfie stickers add even more personality. 

Google is using neural networks here “to analyse 

the pixels of an image and algorithmically determine 

attribute values by looking at pixel values to measure 

colour, shape, or texture.” Translation: They actually 

look like you. To find the feature, start a new message 

with someone who has the Allo app installed and tap 

the emoji button in the message field. Swipe left to 

scroll past the default stickers and tap the overflow 

(three dots) menu. On the next screen, tap the smiling 

sticker icon at the far right of the selection window to 

bring up your sticker gallery. 

At the top of the list should be a new option to 

turn a selfie into stickers. If you’re not seeing it, you 

can side-load the APK (from tinyurl.com/y9r3ydkm), 

but unlike other installs, I also had to clear the cache 

(Settings > Apps > Allo > Storage > Clear Cache) and 

quit the app. If you’re still not seeing it, you can force 

stop (Settings > Apps > Allo) see if that works. 

When you tap the selfie sticker option, you’ll see a 

Create button. Tap that and you’ll enter a Snapchatstyle 

selfie screen that lets you snap a photo (you can’t 

use a prior selfie for your sticker). There are a pair of 

eyeglasses in the middle of the screen, so you’ll want 

to align your eyes with them. 

Once you like what you see, tap the camera 

button and Google’s engine will begin to work its 



How to 

magic. The whole process takes about five seconds, 

and you’ll see a fun set of disguises to pass the time. 

Then you’ll be taken to a new screen with your 

selfie-inspired stickers. 

From there, you can either save them to your 

gallery or customize your face for better accuracy. 

One thing to watch out for – if you’re wearing a hat in 

your selfie, the neural network will think you’re bald, 

so you’ll need to add hair in the customization panel 

(a turban and hijab are also options). But otherwise, 

the results are pretty spot-on. It even picked up my 

hazel eye colour through my glasses. 

In all, 24 stickers will be created featuring your 

mug in a variety of situations, including your face on 



How to 

a slice of pizza, as a zombie, if you were an abstract 

art painting, and sleeping. They’re just as easy to 

use as they are to make, with the new sticker pack 

appearing at the top of the list when you go to use 

one. Just select the one that fits your mood and it 

will automatically send to your recipient. You can 

also long-press on one of the stickers to share it with 

Android Messages, Google Voice, or just about any 

other app that accepts images. 

The new update to Allo is rolling out to the Play 

Store, but you can also side-load the Google-signed 

APK from APKMirror. You may need to follow the 

instructions above to get the selfie sticker option to 

appear, however. 



How to 

How to: use parental 

controls in android 

HOW TO 

JIM MartIn looks at how to keep your children safe online 

Kids are increasingly tech-savvy these days, and 

even a toddler will manage to use your Android 

phone or tablet in ways you didn’t know were 

possible. Apart from running up a heavy bill in app and 

game purchases, this means your children may also be 

at risk from online predators and adult content. 

But you don’t have to live in fear. We’re going to 

show you how to set up sensible parental controls 



How to 

and create user profiles for kids that you can use in 

Android 5.0 or later (and in 4.3 onward on tablets). 

Set up a child’s account on Android 

We’re using Android (7.1 Nougat) on a OnePlus 3T, but 

since the interface varies on just about every Android 

phone don’t expect yours to look identical. The 

process, though, is broadly the same - you may just 

have to hunt around for the Users entry in your phone 

or tablet’s settings. 

First, drag down from the top of the screen, then 

drag down further if a settings cog icon doesn’t 

appear. Tap on the icon to open the Settings app. 

Scroll down until you see Users. If your phone has 

a Settings app split into sections, you might have to 

search other tabs to find the Users menu. 

In Users, you’ll see your own account, or the main 

account of the owner of the phone. There will be an 

‘Add user’ option, so tap on this. 

Accept the message by tapping ‘OK’ then tap on 

‘SET UP NOW’ 

The device will log you out and ask you to sign 

into the new user’s account. As that’s for a child in this 

case, you’ll continue to make the settings. 

Tap Continue, as in the image above left, then you’ll 

be asked if you want to sign into an Android account. 

If you want to prevent your kids from downloading 

apps, games, music, videos and TV shows through 

Google Play, just tap on Skip Setup. You will still be 

able to download apps via your own user account. 

You’ll also have the option to set up their email 

account, or tap Not now if you don’t want to. 



How to 

Restrict content in Play Store 

Assuming you do want to give your child access to 

the Google Play Store within their account, either sign 

in with your own Google account when prompted 

during the setup, or use their account if they have one. 

Then, launch the Play Store app (this is in their 

user account on the phone or tablet still) and tap the 

‘hamburger’ – the three horizontal lines at the top 

left. Scroll down and tap Settings, then scroll until 

you see Parental controls. Tap it, and you’ll have to 

create a PIN code. Enter this twice. 

Now the setting will be turned on and you can 

then tap each category to set how restrictive you 

want to be for each. For apps and games, the 

numbers relate to ages, so tap PEGI 7 is the child is 

between four and seven. Be sure to tap SAVE at the 

bottom of each screen. 



How to 

Below the Parental controls master switch is 

shown a summary of which restriction is set for 

each type of content (see above). 

If you want to prevent kids from buying content 

freely, you can set a PIN that only you know which 

will be asked for when they try to download anything 

that costs money. To do this, go back to the main 

Play Store settings menu and tap on ‘Require 

authentication for purchases’. 

The Play Store isn’t the only place to download 

apps and games, so it’s important to make sure 

other sources are blocked. To do this, go back to 

the device’s home screen, and drag down from the 

top of the screen again to get to the cog icon – tap 

it to open the Settings app. 

Find the Security section (called Security & 

fingerprint on our phone), tap it and then check to 



How to 

make sure the Unknown sources switch is turned off 

(which it probably will be). 

Make YouTube safe 

Kids love watching YouTube videos, and now there’s 

a YouTube Kids app you can download for free in the 

Play Store. Do this while logged into their account on 

the phone or tablet. 

Launch the app and it will explain that no algorithm 

is a 100 percent guarantee that everything in the app 

is totally safe for them and that you can easily flag 

an inappropriate video so the team can review and 

remove it. You can then set the restriction level to 

Preschool, School age or All kids. 

Finally, you have the option to turn search on or 

off. With it off, they will have to use the menus in the 

app to discover videos, but in our experience this is 



How to 

too limiting and it’s better to have search on – at least 

for kids five and older. 

It’s important not to use these parental control 

features as an excuse for not supervising your child’s 

use of the phone or tablet. It’s best to keep an eye 

on what they’re watching and listening to, as well as 

setting ground rules on what’s allowed and what isn’t, 

plus how much screen time they can have each day. 

There are lots of apps which can automatically 

disable certain apps – or even the entire device, such 

as Screenlimit (tinyurl.com/yacz4hcm).

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