作者彙整: Andrew Martonik

Competition makes for better products, and the Android ecosystem is more competitive than ever. If you want a new Android phone at any price range, we’ve done the research to separate the great from the good, and the good from the bad. This list will help you make your next purchase easier.

Best Overall — Samsung Galaxy S10+

No matter your smartphone needs, the Galaxy S10+ is a great starting point — if not the best pick without any other consideration. Think of just about any spec or feature you want from a smartphone, and the Galaxy S10+ will have you covered. And it does so in a complete package of great hardware and a beautiful display.

Think of any spec or feature you want in a smartphone, and the GS10+ has it.

Samsung takes everything that people crave in a high-end smartphone and packages it all up into a single device: the Galaxy S10+. It matches or beats the competition in hardware, with every little spec and feature you could ask for, and ties it up in… 閱讀全文 →

Samsung has a wide-ranging set of wearables that can be tough to narrow down. We’re here to help you pick the right one for your needs..

Galaxy Watch 42mm

Fits most wrists

$250 at Amazon

Pros

Fits a wide range of wrist sizes comfortably
Comes in both black and rose gold colors

Cons

Battery life isn’t great, especially with an always-on watch face

Samsung managed to get every possible smartwatch feature into a relatively compact package with the 42mm Galaxy Watch. It does everything the larger version does, including optional LTE, but comes up short on battery life if you push it hard.

Galaxy Watch 46mm

Battery champ

$270 at Amazon

Pros

True multi-day battery life no matter what
A little more display to look at

Cons

Only comes in one color
Too large for many wrists

The 46mm Galaxy Watch is very much a successor to the Gear S3 Frontier in that it can do everything you want, for multiple days, without charging. The massive battery and same basic specs as the … 閱讀全文 →

Best answer: The Galaxy S9 and S9+ are still fine phones, and hold their own in many ways even in late 2019 thanks to their solid specs, great screens, and updated software that matches the Galaxy S10. However, their current going prices limit their appeal, considering there are great modern phones in the same price range now.

Starting to feel old: Samsung Galaxy S9 ($540 at Amazon)
A solid choice: Samsung Galaxy S9+ ($575 at Amazon)

Should you buy a Galaxy S9 in late 2019?

Every time we see a new flagship Samsung phone, it’s enticing, new and exciting. It’s also expensive. The Galaxy S10 range starts with the Galaxy S10e at $850, and goes up beyond $1000. That’s just too much for many people, and it’s a logical conclusion if you’re looking for a Samsung phone to just move back a generation to the Galaxy S9 and S9+.

The Galaxy S9 series offers substantial savings with the same core experience as the S10.

Since being released in March 2018, discounts have brought the Galaxy… 閱讀全文 →

Don’t look down on a year-old Pixel; there’s a lot of value to be found here.

If you’re feeling like the Pixel 4 (in particular) and Pixel 4 XL just aren’t worth the money considering their battery shortcomings, but still want that Pixel camera and software experience, you have another choice: buy a Pixel 3 or 3 XL during the Black Friday sale season.

You may forgive the Pixel 3 and 3 XL’s shortcomings at these prices.

I won’t blame anyone for thinking the Pixel 4 and 4 XL are too expensive; that’s kind of been par for the course for Pixel phones given their corner-cutting in specs and odd shortcomings in some areas that are very important to people. Yes the new Pixels are getting their own Black Friday discounts, with $200 off either model, but that still puts them at $600 and $700, respectively. A good deal, but some people just won’t pay that much no matter what.

Update: The Pixel 3a is currently on sale for $100 off, dropping the price to just $299. At this price, it’s ve… 閱讀全文 →

Let’s do this whole time change thing again.

Twice a year the clocks change (for most of us). We “spring forward” an hour and then “fall back” the hour later in the year, and depending on where we live that happens on a different day. It’s all sort of convoluted. And this inevitably leads to folks wondering what they have to do to their Android phone so things work right after the switch. If this sounds like you, we’ve got good news:

You don’t have to do anything.

This is the best thing you’ll never have to do for your phone!

Unless you went into your phone’s settings and switched away from the automatic network time (in which case you already know what to do), you won’t have to do a thing. Your Android will check the network for the correct date and time and switch itself on it’s own overnight, changing the system time so that things like calendars and alarms will still be right. The same thing applies when other parts of the world move an hour forward or back on their sched… 閱讀全文 →

We’ve seen this type of feature before, and it’s been a mixed bag at best.

Google’s new strategy of pre-announcing parts of the Pixel 4 ahead of its launch is fantastic, because it gives us an opportunity to analyze individual pieces of the phone well before we actually get our hands on it. In this case, your hands won’t be on it per se: Google says the Pixel 4 will have advanced face unlock and a Soli sensor for touchless air gestures.

Touchless gesture control has been on our minds for years as some sort of lustworthy feature.

Touchless hand gestures are nothing new. We’ve seen them implemented as early as 2014 with the Moto X, and there are other examples that have used some combination of motion sensors, IR sensors and cameras to detect hand movements. Most people look back fondly to the Moto X, but I have a more recent example that doesn’t fill me with confidence: I used the LG G8.

A core LG G8 feature is “Air Motion,” a set of touchless air controls enabled by advanced … 閱讀全文 →

Whether you’re planning an international trip or you just prefer not to be financially tied to your carrier, it’s never a bad idea to buy your next phone unlocked. Amazon has a huge selection of unlocked phones to choose from, including the ever-popular Galaxy S10+, and the options span across all different price ranges.

The best

Samsung Galaxy S10+

Staff pick

The Galaxy S10+ is one of the most versatile and powerful phones on the market. You get top-end specs across the board, plus all of the hardware features you expect: an excellent display, waterproofing, wireless charging, an SD card slot, a headphone jack, and more. The cameras are consistent and capable, and the software will do anything you want adfter a little configuration.

$995 at Amazon

Best under $800

Samsung Galaxy S10e

Not everyone wants a huge phone, nor can they afford the price usually associated with it. That’s where the Galaxy S10e comes in: it’s essentially identical to the Galaxy S10, but comes in at… 閱讀全文 →

Dish Network, Charter and Altice rumored to buy the assets.

What you need to know

T-Mobile and Sprint close to agreeing to divest Boost Mobile and some spectrum.
Dish Network, Charter and Altice rumored to buy the assets to create new fourth carrier.
Deal between DOJ, carriers and asset buyer could be made as early as next week.
T-Mobile and Sprint are edging ever-closer to merger approval by working with the Department of Justice to divest assets that would create a new fourth wireless carrier. Building on information from a previous report, the New York Times says the carriers are in discussions with Dish Network, Charter and Altice to acquire Boost Mobile (currently a Sprint MVNO) and some of Sprint’s valuable wireless spectrum.

This may make the DOJ happy, but would it actually accomplish anything?

The critical part of this deal structure is that Sprint would actually be giving up spectrum holdings, not simply the Boost Mobile brand that runs on Sprint’s existing network…. 閱讀全文 →

Broad wording opens door to future actions of just about any kind.

Amidst the ongoing scuffles between the U.S. and foreign countries over networking and infrastructure security, President Trump has declared a “national emergency” with an executive order to address what’s deemed to be a serious threat facing the country. The order’s claim is that the “communications technology and services” being used in the U.S. are unnecessarily vulnerable — and even being actively exploited — due to “foreign adversaries” being involved in the network operations.

The order aims to start fixing this problem by authorizing the commerce secretary to block transactions involving communications technology built by companies that are deemed to be controlled by foreign adversaries that put the U.S. at an “unacceptable” risk or pose any sort of threat of espionage or destruction of critical infrastructure. The wording of the order is particularly broad, as is often the case, to give the gover… 閱讀全文 →

The hype is already rolling for Google’s next phones.

With the Android Q beta program well under way, we’re starting to get a little information trickling in on the forthcoming Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL phones that will launch running the new software.

As is so often the case with these sorts of things, the codenames were revealed through the process of communicating about addressing development issues with the software on Google’s phones. Developers working on Android’s SELinux policy refer to two never-before-seen Google devices codenamed “Coral” and “Needlefish” right alongside the Pixel, Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 series of phones.

The names themselves aren’t particularly important, but they unlock the ability to track their progress.

The codenames fit the history of Google devices using nautical names, and when then cross-referenced to the latest version of the Google app, well they’re clearly linked to two new phone models: Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. The only wrench thrown in this w… 閱讀全文 →