October 2005. I’m on my early morning walk before my college classes. I had read about a short novel competition at school the day before, and I was yearning to write something again. But I had no time. The days when I could sit worry-free in front of my notebook and craft cool stories and poems for hours were long gone. My life was becoming hectic. But a writer is always a writer — as evidenced by the fact that I’m writing this now. I looked down at the Nokia 3250 Xpress Music in my hand and wondered: Could I type a short novel on a T9 keyboard while walking? Challenge accepted.

One week later, my 13-A4-page novel was submitted to the competition (spoiler: I did not win), and a dramatic shift had occurred in the way I thought about writing. Digital allthethings! No more pens, papers, notebooks, and paraphernalia I couldn’t carry with me everywhere. The smartphone that was already in my pocket was all I needed to get creative anywhere.

We’ll probably look back at 2023 as the year that the foldable phone market burst wide open — at least in the US. It’s the year that Google and OnePlus finally challenged the Galaxy Z Fold 5, while Motorola took the Galaxy Z Flip 5 to task. I’ve been fortunate to spend time with all of the US-based launches in the last year, finding features I love and flaws that still need work. Through it all, there’s one foldable that I keep coming back to for its sheer fun factor, and that’s the Motorola Razr Plus.

King of the cover screen

You’ve got a lot of choices when it comes to smart home security these days — there are brands like Eufy, Wyze, Ecobee, Philips Hue, and of course Google Nest. But if you want a complete system including cameras, sensors, doorbells, and alarm panels, the behemoths in the industry are Arlo and Ring — at least in the United States. Which of those should you build your security around, if either?

Arlo vs Ring: At a glance

Arlo vs Ring: Product lineups

Both companies offer such large hardware lineups that we can’t cover each product in-depth. Instead we’ll try summarize their catalogs, giving you a sense of what you can expect when you go shopping. Whichever brand you choose, there’s a strong emphasis on bundles — you can usually get a significant discount if you buy an entire system at once instead of piece-by-piece.

The ASUS Zenfone 10 stands out as one of the most compact flagship-level phones on the market, and there’s a lot to like about the series. Of course, nothing is perfect. Although its successor is likely still far from release, it’s fun to speculate about what ASUS could do differently. With that in mind, here is my wishlist for the ASUS Zenfone 11.

A new design

Say what you will about the haphazard state of USB-C, you’ll still be hard-pressed to deny that it has simplified charging massively. That said, USB-C’s growing presence hasn’t stopped brands from shipping devices with underpowered or bulky power bricks. So until quite recently, I carried around multiple adapters even though all of my devices used USB-C. Thankfully, all of that changed when I stumbled upon GaN chargers — palm-sized adapters that deliver blisteringly fast charging speeds. It’s been less than a year since I made the switch, but I’m already convinced that it’s the best $35 anyone can spend.

USB-C charging is a mess but GaN fixes it

My job is a lot of fun. I get to travel around the world, meet with various tech companies, and get early looks at their newest products. While this is terrific, a significant challenge is ensuring everything I need to do my job fits into my backpack. This has resulted in much trial and error as I hunt for devices that meet an exhaustive number of criteria.

A laptop-ready power bank is one of the must-have devices for my line of work. This has always been one of the trickiest things to buy. Historically, power banks capable of charging a laptop have been enormous, heavy, slow, hot, and expensive. Thankfully, that’s been changing.

I’ve written once or twice (or a hundred times) about how I’m not really a smartwatch guy. I don’t like having to charge one more device each day, and I can’t be bothered to type out a text message from the confines of my wrist. Give me a reliable GPS watch or tracker, on the other hand, with weeks of battery life and accurate tracking to keep up with my weekly running mileage, and I’ll be happy for a long, long time. Now, I think I’ve found my perfect match — a watch that checks all the boxes and then makes up more boxes so that it can check them too. Simply put, the Garmin Epix Pro 2 has ruined all other GPS watches for me.

Built for adventure

Opinion post by

C. Scott Brown

Last week was a whirlwind for Nothing. In the span of five days, the company announced, launched, and subsequently removed access to a chat app called Nothing Chats. This app — built in collaboration with a company called Sunbird — promised to bring iMessage support to the Nothing Phone 2.

As soon as Nothing announced the app’s launch, many press outlets (including Android Authority) called out the obvious and scary security risks present with the app. We also pointed out that the tech behind Sunbird isn’t long for this world. Undeterred, Nothing pushed out multiple statements defending Sunbird’s pedigree before finally launching it. Less than 36 hours later, the app was partially disabled because — surprise, surprise — it’s a security and privacy nightmare.

Shortly after moving into our home on Oahu, my partner and I installed what felt like a lot of security cameras. Our house boasts an excessive number of exterior doors, plus a whole lot of windows, and I watched too many scary movies as a kid. We also wanted the ability to keep an eye on the place when venturing off-island. What we didn’t anticipate was how much entertainment we’d get from unexpected camera footage. Our Google Nest Cam with Floodlight, in particular, has provided reassurance, amusement, and helpful lighting.

When shopping for a smart home camera system, there are always a number of considerations. Personally, because I’ve chosen to relocate to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, extended travel is most practical when visiting family and friends on the mainland. This also makes a wired camera more convenient, as a rechargeable battery adds one more thing to remember before heading out the door. Above all, I shied away from anything too large or eye-catching because I didn’t want my brand-new neighbors to think I was a) paranoid or b) guarding the sorcerer’s stone in here. Finally, I needed an easy app experience so that checking on my home wouldn’t become a headache.

Self-hosting is an increasingly popular alternative for those looking to escape the convoluted (and expensive) content-streaming landscape and return to a more traditional personal ownership approach to their media collection. Once you’ve bought your fancy new Network Attached Storage (NAS) and filled it with your favorite movies, the next step is to figure out what software to run on it.

There are at least two solid options for serving up your media collection; it’s a choice of Jellyfin vs Plex. Plex is the big name in town, but installing it didn’t cross my mind after recently rebuilding my DIY NAS. I’ve never been keen on Plex’s increasing insistence on serving up third-party content, and the all too real risk of compromised user data (as the recent data leak showed) doesn’t gel with the true self-hosted ethos. I’m not alone in looking for a solid Plex alternative.

Opinion post by

Ryan Haines

The OnePlus Open is probably my favorite foldable phone right now. It gets so many things right thanks, in part, to OPPO’s head start with the Find N series — but it’s not perfect. In fact, it has one flaw that’s so silly it stands out like a sore thumb against the rest of the well-polished package. Let’s talk about stylus support on the OnePlus Open or, rather, the lack thereof.

OnePlus Styl – Oh no

One perk of reviewing wearables is garnering insight into all the top brands available. That also means the ability to help friends and family choose the best smartwatch or fitness tracker to toss into their own carts. Historically, Garmin has been my go-to brand for athletes and big fitness enthusiasts. Apple’s watches I’ve primarily recommended to those who want an extension of their phones on their wrist. In the last few years, though, Apple has been moving in on Garmin’s territory and I see myself recommending the Apple Watch more and more instead of Garmin. Here’s why.

Both Apple and Garmin are after users’ hearts

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is a great phone that improves on its predecessor in several ways, though the most stand-out improvement was the introduction of the large Flex Window. Nothing is perfect, though. There are certainly some things I’d like to see Samsung do differently with the Galaxy Z Flip 6.

The Z Flip 5 has only been on the market for about three months now and has at least nine months before another model, but it’s still fun to think about what its successor might bring us in 2024. Here is my wishlist for the Galaxy Z Flip 6.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrtp6iDP6O8

I’m not a tinfoil conspiracy theorist by any means, but smartphone data privacy has been on my mind for quite some time. You can never be sure enough when it comes to data security and privacy, and there’s no better single source of information on anyone’s online (and to an extent, offline) life than their smartphone.

Google’s Pixel phones have stood out for their camera prowess since the very beginning. Fast-forward to 2023 and the Pixel 8 phones still offer a fantastic camera experience.

Not every Pixel camera feature is a winner, though; some are simply better than others. With that in mind, we thought it would be a good idea to rank Google’s Pixel camera features from worst to best.

Earlier this week, Nothing announced it would bring iMessage support to the Nothing Phone 2. Nothing and a company called Sunbird partnered up to enable a hacky workaround to iMessage’s exclusivity on the iPhone. Now, that app — known as Nothing Chats — is available to Phone 2 owners.

If all you want to know is whether or not Nothing Chats brings blue bubbles to Android, the answer is “yes.” However, it’s far more complicated than that because Chats only works in specific ways and, as such, is not even close to a complete replication of the iMessage experience.

When I buy a piece of tech, I like knowing that it’ll get updated with more features over time. It’s not always a guarantee, but it’s one of those awesome perks of today’s tech scene. There’s a difference though between small updates that change one or two things, and major changes that completely revamp your experience of a product. And I think the Pixel Buds Pro fall on the second part of that scale.

Since they were released in July 2022, the Pixel Buds Pro have received several big updates and new features. Some, like the custom equalizer, should’ve been there from the start, while others like the hearing wellness dashboard, are nice extras. All the others are so good and so cool that they’ve elevated the Pixel Buds Pro from my secondary pair of wireless earbuds to an absolute must-have in my pocket or backpack at all times.

Opinion post by

Ryan Haines

In case you haven’t heard, RCS is finally coming to iMessage in 2024. Maybe Apple finally #GotTheMessage, or perhaps it’s trying to avoid another court case in Europe, but either way, RCS is coming.

At first glance, the new standard is an exciting change that will make messaging between Android and iOS easier. However, this is only one step in bridging the gap between the two platforms. It’ll fix a few of the basics, but it doesn’t open the door to iMessage any wider. RCS will solve everything but also almost nothing.

Opinion post by

Dhruv Bhutani

Blue bubble envy? Getting iMessage on Android has always been a popular point of discussion amongst iPhone users looking to switch to Android. However, Nothing brought it to the forefront earlier this week when it announced plans to offer a chat app that lets you masquerade as an iPhone user.

This latest publicity stunt from the House of Nothing follows news that US teens’ interest in Android phones is at an all-time low. A Piper Sandler report claims that 87% of American teenagers are using iPhones — a number that should be setting off deafening sirens all across Mountain View. The report comes at a time when the iPhone already commands 58% of the North American smartphone market. In short, Android’s future in America is looking grim.

On my desk right now, there are three completely different tablets: A Google Pixel Tablet, an iPad Air 4, and a Kindle Scribe.

For a couple of years, the iPad Air was my go-to tablet around my home — and sometimes outside of it. I used it to browse the web and news on a screen larger than my phone’s, plan trips, read comics, watch videos, and do some light work. Then I propped it next to my iMac and transformed it into a secondary display of sorts, thanks to the absolute ease of Apple’s Universal Control. Now, I only use it with the latter; that is if I remember to charge it. Instead, I gravitated toward the Pixel Tablet for my personal use, though that shift took me by surprise.

Opinion post by

C. Scott Brown

When Google bought YouTube in 2006, the young site was unprofitable. It was already a cultural phenomenon, with viral videos consumed millions of times daily, but it didn’t make any money. It wasn’t until 2009 that Google first profited from its $1.65 billion investment in the video-sharing site. Google achieved this through one singular revenue stream: advertisements.

Since 2009, Google has continued to mostly depend on ad revenue to keep YouTube afloat. The introduction of YouTube Premium — a paid subscription that provides ad-free YouTube and YouTube Music — bolsters revenue a bit but is still a drop in the bucket compared to what Google makes from ads, which was over $29 billion in 2022 alone.

OPPO is starting to roll out Color OS 14 based on Android 14. The update comes with the October security patch and should now be available on the Find N2 Flip in select regions, with other OPPO phones on a beta rollout timeline that stretches all the way till April 24.

Opinion post by

Robert Triggs

There’s been plenty of criticism leveled at the closer relationship between OPPO and OnePlus in recent years (I’ve had plenty of my own thoughts too). However, the OnePlus Open, with hardware built essentially by OPPO, has revealed a potentially exciting future for the co-brands. In fact, OnePlus cribbing from OPPO’s hardware, effectively becoming the OPPO of the West (or US) as it were, is just what it needs to do to stand out once again. Trust me, this isn’t a bad take.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned in 2023 about “OP-Plus,” it’s that OPPO knows how to build brilliant hardware. The second-generation Find N3 Flip clamshell is superbly made, as was its predecessor. We’ve had nothing but good things to say about the hardware aspects of the OnePlus Open (aka the OPPO Find N3). In fact, our review described it as “the best hardware we’ve seen from OnePlus since its true flagship killer days.” That’s a double-edged statement when you think about who built the phone.

Opinion post by

Hadlee Simons

Google One storage is the default cloud storage service on Android phones globally, and it makes for a pretty seamless backup experience. The service also means quick-fire access to all your data across loads of devices — convenience at its finest.

There’s one complaint I have about Google One, though. And that’s the fact that Google hasn’t upgraded the base storage in years.

Opinion post by

Dhruv Bhutani

Tim Cook getting up on stage and claiming that Apple’s made the best iPhone ever is almost tradition at this point. Which if you think about it, is a pretty dumb statement to make. You wouldn’t expect any smartphone maker to make a phone worse than their previous one, would you? Every year, Apple adds some cool features on its own then takes a sprinkling of long-standing Android features, rebrands them as revolutionary, and ships them to its users.

The iPhone 15-series sticks to the script of matching Android photography features, but remains far ahead on a single front — video.

This year’s iPhone 15 series launch was no different. Pixel-binning, lossless zoom, even a periscope-style zoom lens, all the features we’ve taken for granted on Android made a showing. But for all its Android inspiration, one aspect of the iPhone remains leaps and bounds ahead of the curve, truly “the best.” And it only got better this year. Video.

For all of the smarts that Google’s Pixel line-up offers, there’s a drawback us privileged EU and US folks don’t often talk about: availability. Whether it’s countries where you can buy the Pixel 8 and those where you can’t, markets where Google disables 5G and forces you down to 4G, or locations where some of Google’s smartest Pixel-only features aren’t available, there’s always a limitation somewhere.

And while it makes sense to restrict some features to Google’s officially-supported markets on paper, there’s always the question of travel. What if you’re a Pixel user and you did the unthinkable act of crossing country borders with your phone? Do you dare expect it to work the same way it does in your home territory, or will features get disabled left and right?

Samsung’s One UI has come a long way over the years and has quickly become one of the most popular Android skins. The new One UI 6 update based on Android 14 continues to refine Samsung’s formula, though it’s expected to focus more on polish and refinement than introducing major new features. In our experience, there’s plenty to like about this iteration of Samsung’s software. Here’s everything we know about the One UI 6 release date, features, and compatibility.

One UI 6: At a glance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlmS_MSU1tw

It might be hard to believe, but until October of this year, there were only two official Google Stores — both in New York City. Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, CA, had a Google-owned shop that sold various Google products, but nothing like the official Google Store in Manhattan, for example. In early October 2023, though, Google finally opened an actual store on its home turf. What’s more, this third Google Store is part of a larger complex known as the Google Visitor Experience.

Google’s Pixel series hasn’t always convinced us in terms of battery life and charging times, but we’re cautiously optimistic that things have changed for the better with the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. We’ve tested the battery life and charging performance of the two latest Pixel phones, and both have made solid progress toward being some of the best phones for battery life. Here’s everything you need to know.

Pixel 8 series battery and charging specs

Pixel 8 series battery life: What to expect?

Opinion post by

Rita El Khoury

Colors are beautiful. I love a pop of color, be it in my life, my furniture, my clothes, and yes, even my Android phones. I choose a colored phone and case when I can, I often pick colorful wallpapers, and I stick with the default icons instead of applying Google’s Material You unicolored icons (because I just want to find the app I’m looking for in the least amount of time). So you can imagine that the Nothing Phone 2’s black-and-white monochrome theme goes against every single one of those preferences.

And to be fair, I was convinced that it wasn’t up my alley at all. In every product picture and hands-on video I saw, I disliked the dot-matrix font, the 60s-throwback theme, and the lack of color. I thought it looked dull and boring. Well, that is until I got a Nothing Phone 2 in my hand and, well, I realized I had judged it too harshly. I was wrong.

Opinion post by

C. Scott Brown

If you’ve been reading Android Authority over the past few years, you may have seen some articles I’ve written about the original Fitbit Sense. In a word, I love the Sense. I’ve published thousands of words here talking about it since it first launched in 2020. Even with the sequel landing in 2022 and countless other amazing smartwatches launching, the Sense has been on my wrist all day, every day, for three years straight. That is, until now.

I got a Google Pixel Watch 2 for free with my Pixel 8 Pro and decided to give it a shot. Although I’ve had to change some habits, the Pixel Watch 2 is finally an adequate replacement for my years-old Fitbit. It’s nice to have something fresh!

Carriers in the United States have a reputation for price gouging, excessive fees, and other practices that are less than savory. While some of this reputation is exaggerated, there are indeed several common conventions and procedures in the US that most international operators wouldn’t get away with. Let’s explore some of these independent US carrier practices that are less common outside of North America.

Be aware that most of these points are specific to the United States, but are also likely to apply to Canada. Our neighbor to the north tends to have a similar carrier dynamic, though its prices are actually a little higher!

One of the new features introduced with the Google Pixel 8 Pro is a manual camera mode that lets you control (almost) all aspects of your photos. Pixel phones are usually foolproof cameras so there’s very little need to use that manual mode, but since I’ve recently discovered a new passion for photography, I really wanted to see what these new controls are capable of, especially shutter speed.

Controlling shutter speed wasn’t possible with the default camera app before and it’s the one variable I’ve always wanted to tinker with. So can you snap better pictures on your Pixel by taking the time to set up the shutter speed exactly how you want? The short answer is yes, sometimes. The long answer is more nuanced.

The Surface Pro 9 is now almost a year old, meaning a successor could be just around the corner. Microsoft makes one of the best productivity tablets on the market, so I’m pretty excited to see what’s next for the Pro series. Here’s what I want to see from the Microsoft Surface Pro 10.

A design refresh

Microsoft hasn’t made many major changes to its Surface Pro hardware since the 8th generation model in 2021. I’d love to see a bigger design change to celebrate the Pro’s 10th anniversary with a big bang, but every leak so far points to a more modest refresh in terms of design.

After plenty of beta releases, Samsung has finally begun rolling out One UI 6 to the stable branch, starting with the Galaxy S23 series. One UI 6 is an iterative update that builds upon the vast changelog of previous One UI features. But is it a good update? Are there enough meaningful changes in One UI 6 to keep fans happy? And perhaps most importantly, should you update to One UI 6 on your Galaxy smartphone? I’ve been using One UI 6 for the past few weeks on my Galaxy S23 Ultra, and I can answer these questions for you.

One UI 6 brings plenty of visual changes if you look around

Credit: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority

For the longest time, it seemed that the best smartphone games would waver between ad-ridden mobile titles, indie ports, or perhaps vintage classics, and a cloud-streaming future. But, Apple’s announcement that it was bringing AAA titles like Resident Evil Village and the next Assassin’s Creed to the iPhone 15 Pro and M1-powered iPads had me cautiously optimistic. The realist in me expected the games to be watered-down mobile ports in the same vein as Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition — not a bad game, but far from a console-class title. Well, now I’ve had the chance to try one on my iPhone 15 Pro Max and… boy, was I wrong.

Resident Evil Village is now available for both the iPhone 15 Pro and for iPads powered by Apple’s M1 and M2 chipsets. Having played through the demo version of the title twice, I can confirm that Apple’s claims were legit. In fact, Resident Evil Village on the iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max is quite literally the full-blown console and PC version of the title, and it’s glorious.

After years of development, Qualcomm’s first custom CPU architecture for laptops is here — the Snapdragon X Elite. The high-end laptop market is more competitive and varied than the mobile space, especially now that Apple has custom M1 and M2 silicon based on the Arm architecture, so Qualcomm has a job to do to stand out.

We grabbed some benchmarks at the Snapdragon Tech Summit to see how the X Elite compares. A few points of order before we get into the numbers, though. Qualcomm heavily managed the session — we could see the results running but weren’t allowed to run additional apps. Unfortunately, Qualcomm’s choice of tests (such as PCMark 10, Cinebench R24, and 3DMark’s Wildlife Extreme) aren’t widely used in the industry, making detailed comparisons a little complicated. But we’ve dug up the best results we can until we get our hands on the first laptop powered by an X Elite.

Opinion post by

Kaitlyn Cimino

Google’s second-generation smartwatch tracks sleep, counts beats and monitors my sleep stages. It even calculates my real-time running pace so I can then calculate how much longer I’ll be huffing and puffing until the end of my 4-mile loop. It also fires off emails, stores payment cards, houses a voice assistant, and plays music through my Bluetooth headphones. In short, it’s an impressive little piece of wristwear. But one of the most powerful things the Pixel Watch 2 can do is help keep me safe, and the best way for it to do so is with an LTE model instead of the Wi-Fi version.

When launching the Pixel Watch 2, Google announced the addition of Safety Check. The feature allows users to set a check-in timer when heading into certain scenarios, such as before starting a solo run. When the timer expires, Safety Checks prompts users to confirm that they are, in fact, safe. Failure to do so automatically triggers the watch to share its location with specified emergency contacts.

Opinion post by

Ryan Haines

If you’re eyeing up a foldable phone, there’s a good chance you want to run two apps at a time. Maybe you even want to add a third to achieve peak productivity. The only problem is that most foldables default to cramming extra apps into smaller and smaller windows, making them tougher to use correctly. OnePlus is the exception. It must have been listening when a teacher said to think outside the box because it did just that and came up with the best solution for multitasking on a foldable phone with the OnePlus Open.

2+1 > 3

Open. Close. Open. Close. The Google Pixel Fold is the world’s most expensive fidget toy in my hands. But I can’t help myself; it’s just addictive.

Two weeks ago, the Android Authority team’s Pixel Fold made it to me. My first impressions were both better and worse than I expected. Based on the images I’d seen, I expected the Fold to feel cheaper, but the matte back and the all-around metal actually feel quite premium. But coming from the Pixel 7 Pro and the even more refined Pixel 8 Pro, the Fold looked and felt very clunky. Especially the inner display’s bezels.

Credit: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority

Opinion post by

Dhruv Bhutani

Apple’s announcement earlier this year that it was foraying into the journaling app ecosystem was not entirely surprising; mental health and wellness are increasingly central to the company’s software decisions. The introduction of Mindfulness capture in Watch OS 10 and iOS 17 is just one way Apple hopes you’ll begin logging your mental wellbeing. Coupled with all the health data, it is possible to draw a correlation between, say, an elevated heart rate and mental stress levels. However, as someone who has struggled with anxiety and depression most of my life, I can confirm that capturing your current state of mind is only one part of the equation.

Journaling is an immensely personal activity that can help you relive moments or destress. Digital journaling makes it a lot more accessible.

Journaling is an immensely personal act that lets you pour out your exact mental state — positive or negative, onto paper. It’s no replacement for a therapist, but daily journaling is a highly effective way to relieve mental burden. While I’ve maintained a physical journal most of my teenage life, I switched to digital journaling a decade back when I picked up the Journey app for my Android phone. I’m also well aware of the extremely popular Day One journaling app.

Opinion post by

C. Scott Brown

On October 3, 2023, Samsung announced the Galaxy S23 FE. All its press materials said the phone costs $599 for the 128GB model. However, when the phone actually went up for sale at Samsung.com, the unlocked model didn’t cost $599 — it cost $629, a $30 increase. This was unusual, so we contacted Samsung about the discrepancy.

In its response, the company pointed out that you can still get the phone from its online store for the $599 price — if you buy a carrier version over the unlocked model. It also told us that Amazon, Best Buy, and other retail partners still sell the unlocked model for $599. The only exception here is buying the unlocked model directly from Samsung. However, the company did not explain why it made this change.

Apple and Google are two brands that pride themself on best-in-class camera phones. They’ve built reputations on it and continue to play to this strength with the latest iPhone 15 Pro and Pixel 8 Pro. This begs the question: if you have $999 to spend on your next smartphone upgrade, what should an avid photographer buy?

Pixel 8 Pro vs iPhone 15 Pro camera specs

Before the pictures, a quick recap of what the Pixel 8 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro offer in their rear camera arrays. Both pack a high-resolution primary sensor, an ultrawide lens to fit more in, and a telephoto camera for longer-range snaps. It’s a tried and tested formula that offers plenty of versatility across shooting situations. However, peer into the specifics and there are some key differences worth highlighting.

Update October 27, 2023: Qualcomm informs us that the reference device has 16GB RAM, not 24GB as listed on the spec sheet. We have clarified this in the text.

Qualcomm’s next-gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor is now official and on its way to powering, no doubt, some of the best Android smartphones of 2024. While we wait, we grabbed one of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 reference phones and ran our usual suite of performance benchmarks to see how the chip stacks up.

It’s been 15 years since Google introduced the Android Market (now Google Play Store) on the T-Mobile G1 or HTC Dream. And 15 years since the mobile app ecosystem’s landscape was changed forever and grew from a few billion dollars to more than a six-trillion-dollar economy.

Few apps or services have had as much of an impact on our modern lives as the Android Market. Only the Apple App Store, which launched a couple of months earlier in 2008, can lay claim to a similar impact. So join me as I reminisce about what it was like before app stores were a “thing” on our phones and delve into how Google and Apple convinced the entire digital world of the “there’s an app for that” mantra.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 series of chipsets powers most high-end Android phones on the market. The company has now peeled the curtain back on its latest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

Between the revised CPU, tweaked GPU, AI enhancements, and new camera tricks, there’s no shortage of improvements and new additions here.

Opinion post by

Ryan Haines

Whether we like it or not, Apple has cornered the market on smartphone facial recognition. Face ID, despite its bulky, notched (or island-based) hardware, sets the gold standard for security with its locked-down infrared setup. The best that most Android competitors now do, by contrast, is offering a less secure version to unlock your phone with the selfie camera, but it usually isn’t secure enough for mobile payments. Now, the Pixel 8 Pro has a way to rewrite the story with a little help from its Tensor G3 and some advanced machine learning, and it feels like the best of both worlds.

Google has offered Face Unlock for a few years on its Pixel flagships, though it’s had varying levels of security. It packed a secure, infrared setup into the Pixel 4 before dialing things back by the time the Pixel 7 rolled around. Now, security is back on the rise. The most important piece of the Pixel 8 Pro’s face unlock puzzle is that it’s secure. (Although we’ve already seen it being fooled by a user’s sibling, we haven’t seen many reports to confirm that issue.) Not just secure enough to unlock your phone but secure enough to make mobile payments and access banking apps. It’s even secure enough that if your phone is already unlocked and you go to make a purchase, you won’t have to re-unlock like you did with the Pixel 7 series.

Opinion post by

Hadlee Simons

Xiaomi put rumors to rest by confirming that it won’t be launching MIUI 15 as its next software update, but rather a new Android skin called HyperOS. The new name suggests a more comprehensive upgrade compared to Xiaomi’s previous software skins.

We’ve already seen some leaked screenshots of HyperOS, but nothing is certain yet. So for now, we have a wishlist of things Xiaomi should fix with HyperOS.

Opinion post by

Rita El Khoury

In our Pixel Watch 2 review, my colleague Kaitlyn Cimino pointed out how confusing the watch’s setup was even for her — a seasoned wearables reviewer who’s been doing nothing but testing smartwatches for a living for the past couple of years. Tech YouTuber DMS had similar experiences. I think their argument needs to be explored further than a quick comment in a long review.

See, I had the opposite experience with my own Pixel Watch 2 setup. I didn’t need many resets like Kaitlyn did, I never had to place the watch on my wrist and on the charger simultaneously like DMS did, and linking my Google and Fitbit accounts was seamless. But it is exactly because things were seamless that I am disappointed. I did everything right, everything worked as it should, and yet out of the box, several of the features that Google was bragging about were nowhere to be found.

Opinion post by

Rita El Khoury

Over the last few years, team Android Authority has been endlessly debating the hardware versus software question when it comes to phone cameras and photography.

Some of us ascribe to Xiaomi, vivo, Sony, and HUAWEI’s ways of doing things. These companies keep upping their cameras’ game by throwing excellent hardware at the problem. Larger sensors, bigger and brighter and more pixels, two telephoto sensors instead of one, dedicated macro lenses, collaborations with Leica and ZEISS, and more — there’s a new hardware solution to any photography problem you come across.

Opinion post by

C. Scott Brown

Earlier this month, Nothing took the wraps off a new sub-brand called CMF by Nothing. In contrast to the mainline brand, CMF exists as a “volume” division. Its entire purpose is to house inexpensive products that the company can sell a lot of in a short period of time. This distinguishes it from the “halo” portfolio of Nothing-branded phones and earbuds, which are more expensive and niche.

Interestingly, OnePlus started a similar strategy with its own Nord portfolio a while ago. Products under the Nord brand are less expensive than standard OnePlus gear and are laser-focused towards emerging markets. Even more interesting than this, though, is that Carl Pei himself (co-founder of OnePlus and now founder of Nothing) was integral in launching the first OnePlus Nord smartphone. You might remember his significant involvement with this sub-brand’s creation in a series of documentary shorts.

Generative AI has exploded in the last 18 months as various super-powered AI services were launched to create text, images, music, or even serve as an all-encompassing assistant.

Smartphone manufacturers and mobile chipmakers have embraced this trend too, utilizing new hardware to quickly adapt to this new trend. Google’s new Pixel 8 series is already leading the way, and with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor right around the corner, we’re anticipating some even bigger strides in the coming year. Let’s dive into what to expect.

Opinion post by

Rita El Khoury

I take thousands and thousands of photos on my phone every year. It started with Nokia’s excellent cameras back in the mid-2000s and for the past six years, I’ve had Pixel phones as my daily drivers. So, you can imagine that I’ve become accustomed to the Pixel camera app. I love its simplicity, and I’m mostly enjoying its updated interface — save for that annoying selfie camera button switch — but I wasn’t expecting Google to ruin another aspect of its Camera app on the Pixel 8 series specifically.

When I started shooting those 180+ photos with the Pixel 8 Pro, I immediately noticed that the sliders were gone. You know, the ones you use to adjust brightness, shadows, and white balance. Weird, I thought. I went into Settings to enable them, because that’s where those sliders can be toggled on and off, but they weren’t there. Huh?

Opinion post by

Dhruv Bhutani

Once the underdog champion, it’s been years since OnePlus has delivered a stand-out hit. The transition under OPPO wasn’t too smooth, and OnePlus has struggled to regain the trust of its fans despite its posturing as the poster child of the value-Android-flagship movement. But something’s changed. Earlier this year, OnePlus announced it was getting into a new segment and taking on some of the best foldable phones. For a brand that has often failed to push out fully baked software on its flagships at launch, a foldable is a whole new beast to tackle, and we’ve understandably been skeptical of the company’s ability to achieve that.

The OnePlus Open isn't just the best OnePlus in years, it's also perhaps the best foldable on the market.

Well, it’s here, and the mad lads at OnePlus have done it. I’ve been using the OnePlus Open for the last few weeks, and this is hands down not just the best OnePlus phone in years but arguably one of the most polished foldables made so far.

We’ve all had our eye on Fitbit for some time now, and not in a hopeful way. The brand’s latest moves, along with those of its parent company (hey, Google), have me coming to terms with a disappointing reality: Fitbit’s top smartwatch line is on its way out. Now that we have the Pixel Watch 2 and Fitbit Charge 6, there’s arguably no space left for the Sense series.

The Pixel Watch line ushered in a new player, and ushered one out

When Google first acquired Fitbit in 2021, I dreamed of Wear OS on my favorite Fitbit smartwatches. Specifically, I hoped for an integrated platform with the best of both worlds. Then the Pixel Watch arrived, and I quickly realized where the company’s loyalties lie. The Pixel Watch got all the bells and whistles from Fitbit’s ecosystem, while Fitbit’s watch lines got…worse.

Opinion post by

Rita El Khoury

Rare are the third-party Android applications that I’ve been using for more than five years. Even rarer are the ones that have stuck with me for eight. But Backdrops Wallpapers lives among that rare breed of apps that have been just as perfect for me the day they were announced as they are now. I have to admit, though, that I cheated on Backdrops last week with Android 14’s cool new AI wallpapers, and I almost, nearly, just about, went over to the dark side. But I caught myself before it was too late and came back to Backdrops.

The allure of Google’s AI-generated wallpapers

Credit: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority

The Google Pixel smartphone series is no stranger to odd software and hardware additions. The double-sized notch and the short-lived Soli sensor stand out as some of Google’s more out-there experiments. But despite the company’s path towards more refined and purposeful hardware over the last few generations, it wouldn’t be Google if it didn’t give it another shot. And so here we are with the Google Pixel 8 Pro‘s unexpected temperature sensor.

For what it’s worth, Google hasn’t really justified the sensor’s addition beyond a brief keynote mention suggesting the various things you can take a reading of. The running theory is that the sensor was conceived during the COVID era when the ability to take a quick temperature reading would’ve been helpful. But the temperature sensor isn’t FDA-approved yet and as such, isn’t capable of measuring human body temperatures.

We haven’t had many complaints about Google’s recent Pixel smartphones, but one consistent pain the rump has been catatonic charging speeds. One hundred agonizing minutes to fill the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro certainly takes the shine off last year’s models. Thankfully, Google has remedied the situation for the new Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. At least somewhat.

Using Google’s official 30W charger, we clocked the Pixel 8 from empty to full in 77 minutes and the 8 Pro to full in 79 minutes, versus 100 and 101 minutes last generation respectively. That’s still snail-paced compared to the fastest in the industry, but shaving over 20 minutes off the charge time still deserves a pat on the back. Importantly, the Pixel 8, in particular, hits the key 50% and 75% milestones a few minutes faster, so you’re back on your feet when you need it most. See for yourself below.

Although I love activating noise cancelation on my true wireless buds to isolate my music, I often end up having to disable it or take the buds out of my ears to talk to people. It’s a decidedly first-world issue, but I’ve been annoyed enough by this, especially on my Pixel Buds Pro where my unruly curly hair makes touch controls quite inconvenient. Pushing the hair aside and then tapping and holding to turn off noise cancelation or switch into transparency mode isn’t seamless, and it always becomes a conversation disruptor.

But the Pixel Buds Pro got an update a couple of days ago that fixes this. Dubbed “Conversation Detection,” the new feature automatically pauses media playback and turns on transparency mode when you talk. Then it resumes playback and switches back to your previous noise cancelation or transparency setting when you’re done talking. Sounds good on paper, right? But how well does it work?

Opinion post by

Calvin Wankhede

After months of speculation, Samsung finally announced the Galaxy S23 FE last week. The announcement coincided perfectly with the Pixel 8 series’ launch, almost as if Samsung set out to steal Google’s thunder. It’s not hard to see why, at least on paper. Like the base Pixel 8, Samsung’s Fan Edition smartphone offers near-flagship grade specs at an affordable price tag. In fact, the S23 FE is even more attractive as it retails for $100 less than both its predecessor and the Pixel 8. But the devil’s in the details and as a long-term owner of the Galaxy S21 FE, I just don’t see the S23 FE as a viable upgrade path compared to the Pixel 8. Let me explain.

When Samsung launched its mainline Galaxy S23 series earlier this year, I wrote about my excitement for the then-rumored S23 Fan Edition. I appreciated what my last-gen S21 FE offered at the time, but lamented its middling performance, so-so battery life, and dated camera hardware. If Samsung had only fixed each of those problems while leaving the overall package largely unchanged, I’d have lined up to buy an S23 FE.

Update: October 12, 2023 (9:20 AM ET): We’ve updated this article after Samsung confirmed the existence of the Exynos 2400. We’ve also added some official CPU, GPU, and AI details.

Original article: After a long history in the custom mobile processor game, Samsung somewhat unexpectedly dropped its Exynos chipset from the Galaxy S23 series, opting to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip exclusively — a “Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy” to be precise. While unconfirmed, troubled development and dubious performance were the likely culprits behind Samsung’s decision.

I’ve been wearing the first Google Pixel Watch for a year now so, as you can imagine, I was pretty excited to hear all about the new Pixel Watch 2. Google didn’t implement all the changes that I had wished for: The new watch is still the same size, has the same bezels, and still only claims 24 hours of battery life. But what it lacks in flashier improvements it makes up for in several small but important refinements.

I’ve had the Pixel Watch 2 for about a week now so I can answer the most pressing questions about it. Our full review is still under processing, ha, so you’ll have to wait a bit longer to know if this is one of the best smartwatches yet or not.

Google’s next-gen flagship smartphones — the Google Pixel 8 series — are here, and powering the two models is a new semi-custom processor called Tensor G3. As the name suggests, this is Google’s third-generation smartphone chip, and expectations are high that it will provide notable upgrades on last year’s Tensor G2.

However, the company didn’t spend much time discussing the Tensor G3 during the launch. So, let’s get into what’s new with Google’s Pixel 8 processor and see how it performs compared to the competition.

Opinion post by

Ryan Haines

Historically, there hasn’t been much to separate Google’s Pro-level Pixels from the standard models. Yes, the Pro-level phones have had bigger displays, dedicated zoom cameras, and extra RAM and storage, but the overarching experience of using a Pixel phone was the same.

Google’s Pixel 8 Pro finally changes all that, with a mix of extra hardware and now exclusive software features to make its top-tier flagship worthy of the Pro moniker and help to justify its $300 price gap over the standard Pixel 8. I’ve had my hands on both Pixel 8 phones for a week now, and below I’ll be running through all the major differences I’ve found between Google’s eighth-gen Pixels.

Over the past few months, Google has announced a slew of new features for Android 14. One of them took center stage at Google I/O in May. Davey Burke, the vice president of engineering at Android, gave a live demo of a new tool that allows for generative AI wallpapers.

Essentially, this new tool is like any other generative image tool you’ve used in the past. However, Google strategically limits it to creating images that fit the proper dimensions for an Android wallpaper and are optimized for that use case.

With the Pixel 8 Pro hitting the market today, one of the questions we’re all asking ourselves is whether or not Google’s latest flagship has brought an improved camera performance. To answer that, we put up the Pixel 8 Pro against the Pixel 7 Pro in a series of camera shots to see if Google’s claim of more light sensitivity across all lenses holds true. The result is surprisingly impressive in some situations, a bit more mitigated in others.

Let’s jump straight to the Pixel 8 Pro vs 7 Pro camera comparison, but keep in mind that this is a quick side-by-side shootout; our more extensive camera comparison will be published later when we’ve had time to pit the Pixel 8 Pro against the best camera phones from Samsung and Apple.

For the past few days that I’ve had the Google Pixel 8 Pro in my hands, I’ve been touring around Paris, taking photos of anything and everything I can see. I loved the Pixel 7 Pro’s and 6 Pro’s cameras — I’ve shot over 3000 photos with each one — so my expectations were pretty high for the 8 Pro, even though Google didn’t change much, on paper, this year.

So how did the Pixel 8 Pro perform? And is it one of the best camera phones on the market now? Feast your eyes on all the samples below, taken straight out of the phone with no edits or filters whatsoever, and be the judge. Keep in mind, though, that all of these are compressed and don’t show the 8 Pro’s Ultra HDR photos properly. You can find the full-resolution samples at this Google Drive link.

In February 2023, Google officially announced the first developer preview of Android 14. Months later, on October 4, 2023, the company launched the stable version. That might be all well and good, but which phones will get Android 14? When can I update to Android 14? We’ve got some answers for you below!

This article will see continuous updates as the release cycle of the 2023 Android version continues. As such, we highly recommend bookmarking this article and coming back occasionally to check if there have been any updates for your phone!

The iPhone 15 series is out and plenty of users reported heating issues with the new Pro handsets. This problem was verified in our own testing, which revealed that the Pro devices run considerably hotter than prominent Android rivals. Thankfully, Apple rolled out an update to fix the overheating problem.

This wouldn’t be the first time Apple tripped up with the iPhone though. Here are four of the most notable iPhone fails over the years.

Opinion post by

Robert Triggs

“Flagship killer” feels like a bit of a throwback these days, but the allure of a powerhouse handset without the premium price tag remains as appealing as ever. If you’re in the market for an affordable flagship phone, the new Google Pixel 8 and Samsung Galaxy S23 FE will undoubtedly be at the top of your shortlist.

Priced at $599 and $699, the two phones shave hundreds off the cost of entry compared to the premium Galaxy or iPhone series, yet they barely compromise the essential specifications. Both phones come equipped with great displays, solid camera setups, wireless charging, IP68 ratings, fast networking, and big batteries; essentially everything you’d want from a top-notch smartphone experience. That said, the phones trade down some aspects, such as older Gorilla Glass 5 protection and marginally weaker camera setups, to keep prices affordable compared to the top-end models. But those are certainly trade-offs we can live with.

Opinion post by

Robert Triggs

There’s a lot to dive into with the new Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, but I’m sure everyone’s immediate attention is drawn to the new price tag. For the first time since 2021, Google has raised its smartphone prices, risking a fair bit of the goodwill it’s earned over the past two years of brilliant smartphones.

Starting at $699 for the Pixel 8 and $999 for the Pro, both models are $100 dearer than their predecessors. Price hikes are steeper elsewhere; the UK sees a £150 increase, and €200 is the toll in Europe. However, these changes appear to be down to currency rates rather than outright gouging. Still, there’s no getting around the fact that higher prices are always hard to swallow and will undoubtedly give consumers pause for thought before hitting the buy button.

Opinion post by

Ryan Haines

The iPhone doesn’t compete on a level playing field. As the only option for iOS users, it’s guaranteed a level of popularity for anyone worried about showing up as a blue bubble to their friends. Those features — ones like FaceTime and iMessage — are what keep an iPhone in people’s pockets because the spec sheet sure isn’t doing it. The iPhone 15, for instance, is loaded with outdated, underwhelming specs that no comparable Android phone could ever get away with.

For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to split the iPhone 15’s specs into two categories: ones that feel like the iPhone 14 Pro’s leftovers and ones that are just plain bad. Let’s look at what $799 (or more) gets you.

Google announced the Pixel 8 series this week, and one of the more perplexing additions is a temperature sensor or thermometer. It’s not the first phone with a thermometer, but it certainly makes for an unusual feature.

That got us wondering whether this was the most gimmicky feature we’ve ever seen on Pixel phones. So we decided to rank every Pixel gimmick from best to worst (obviously starting with the best).

Fresh out of the box, the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max were a little too hot to handle. After an awkward period of silence, Apple issued the iOS 17.0.3 update this week that “addresses an issue that may cause iPhone to run warmer than expected.” Sounds promising.

Not one to just take Apple’s word for it, I applied the update and reran the iPhone 15 Pro through the same tests as before. Here’s what I found.

I’m pretty sure your jaw dropped when the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro‘s official prices were revealed earlier today, even more so if you live outside the USA. The US pricing for both Pixels has jumped up by $100, putting it closer to its tougher Galaxy and iPhone competition. But the sticker shock is even more important outside the US, where prices have been bumped up by up to €200 or £150. So what gives?

I took my calculator, made a spreadsheet, and tried to make sense of those mad numbers. My original thought was to prove that the rest of the world was being stiffed with the new Pixel pricing — a €200 or £150 jump doesn’t seem as fair as a $100 increase — but I ended up finding a logical explanation for all of it.

On October 4, 2023, Google released the stable version of Android 14. Its own Pixel phones will be the first to receive the update, followed by eligible smartphones from other Android OEMs. Pixel owners can install the new software on their handsets now using our Android 14 installation guide. Those with phones from other brands will need to wait for OEM-specific Android 14 releases. Let’s take a look at what’s new in Android 14 and run through all the best Android 14 features worth knowing so far.

Android 14: Name and release date

Google has been rolling out an update to its Pixel camera app with a revamped interface centered around usability. The change, which we initially thought was a Pixel 8 exclusive, is available on older units too, including my Pixel 7 Pro. And since I love taking photos with my phone, I’ve had to use this new app UI for about a week now. The verdict? I love everything about it, except for one very annoying change.

This new camera app is much easier to use

The Pixel camera app has been part of the Pixel’s exclusive feature list for a while now. And while the existing interface served its purpose when the app’s capabilities were limited (photo, video, portrait, night mode), it has certainly become more cumbersome with the addition of extra features like the various video modes, long exposure, and action pan photos. The Pixel 8 series is supposed to add even more unique camera options, so a revamp was due.

Opinion post by

Andrew Grush

Historically, Android hasn’t had a stellar reputation regarding software updates. Thankfully, this situation has improved quite a bit over the last five years or so. In 2023, it is relatively common for Android flagships to receive at least a few years of OS updates and security patches, and even many budget phones receive at least one OS upgrade. Of course, not all manufacturers are equal in their commitment to software updates.

Google and Samsung have been two of the main leaders in software support in the Android world. Still, neither has ever come close to Apple’s support prowess — until now. Google just announced a major change to its update policy that is extremely impressive, to say the least. The competition is certainly heating up, but who has the best software update policy in the mobile world? The answer isn’t so cut and dry.

For over a decade, the Raspberry Pi has reigned supreme as everyone’s favorite single-board computer. The Pi is best known for its credit card-sized form factor, affordable price tag, and low power consumption. And now, four years after the last major update, the Raspberry Pi 5 has finally landed. The new Pi features upgraded hardware nearly across the board as well as some smaller quality of life improvements.

However, the Raspberry Pi 5 also represents one of the most controversial launches in the series’ history, with some loyal users even denouncing it in favor of other computers. So in this article, let’s take a closer look at the Raspberry Pi 5, its key upgrades, and whether it’s worth buying or upgrading to.