Articles by Hayato Huseman

Different people have different priorities.

Your phone can say a lot about you and your personality. The features that matter the most to you largely determine what phones you should consider when looking to upgrade; the Pixel 4 takes amazing photos, for example, but it’s off the table if you need all-day battery life.

We asked around the Android Central staff to see what each of our writers look for in a phone, and what phones should be on your radar based on your needs.

Alex Dobie Camera

Lousy battery life? Pick up a power bank. Slow connection? It’s not hard to wait a couple of extra seconds for your stuff to load. Bad camera? Well, you’re SOL.

There’s no substitute for a capable, high-quality camera array in your smartphone. A bad photo is bad forever, after all. A modern flagship phone should offer at least three options — covering wide, ultrawide, and telephoto photography — along with a dedicated computational night mode for lower-light snaps. For me, having all the…

The OnePlus 8 Pro has a pretty incredible display, touting industry-leading color accuracy, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a sharp 1440p resolution. Still, there’s always room to improve, and OnePlus includes an MEMC chip in the phone that allows you to enable Motion Graphics Smoothing for even better-looking video content. But what exactly is Motion Graphics Smoothing, and what does it do?

Products used in this guide

Display of speed: OnePlus 8 Pro ($900 at OnePlus)
More affordable: OnePlus 8 ($700 at OnePlus)

What is Motion Graphics Smoothing?

Motion Graphics Smoothing, otherwise known as MEMC or Motion Estimation, Motion Compensation, is a feature commonly found in many TVs, and is often referred to as the “soap opera effect.” It analyzes individual frames in a video, and uses that information to interpolate new frames by filling in the gaps and “upscaling” the video, not to a higher resolution, but a higher frame rate.

Motion smoothing is often used to make 24FPS or 30FPS foota…

TCL is entering the mobile space with two very solid offerings.

In the U.S., TCL is mostly known for its wide range of both affordable and high-end TVs (and for being the manufacturing partner behind BlackBerry’s phones of the last few years). But in 2020, the company is looking to establish itself as a direct contender in the mobile space as well, with three fresh new phones on the way.

Perhaps the most intriguing of the bunch is the TCL 10 5G, which aims to bring 5G connectivity to a more accessible price point — but that phone won’t be released until later this year. In the meantime, I’ve had a week with both the budget-friendly TCL 10L and the higher-end TCL 10 Pro, and while they aren’t perfect, they’re an excellent starting point for TCL’s mobile brand identity.

On the cusp

TCL 10 Pro

Bottom line: The TCL 10 Pro combi…

Smart lighting isn’t just limited to turning your bulbs on and off from your phone or changing their colors. With the right smart bulbs, you can even soup up your gaming rig with lights that follow the rhythm and beats of your games, turning your entire room into a living visualizer.

Bulbs for your lamps

Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance

Staff pick

If you don’t already have an elaborate smart lighting rig, why not start simple with a couple of bulbs? The Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance kit comes with two bulbs that connect directly to Wi-Fi, no hub needed. Philips Hue partners with gaming brands like Razer so that your lights can match the changing colors of your Chroma-powered peripherals.

$90 at Amazon $90 at Best Buy

Ambient glow

Philips Hue Light Strip

Just like the light bulbs, Philips Hue’s LightStrip Plus can connect with Razer Chroma devices like Razer’s RGB gaming mice and keyboards and match their colors to give a unique ambience to your room. You can st…

More versatile cameras versus more balanced colors

There are few features more important in a modern smartphone than the cameras, particularly when you’re spending somewhere in the ballpark of $1000 on your phone. The Galaxy S20+ is one of the top-ranking phones of early 2020, with excellent cameras and hardware, but its steep starting price of $1200 puts it out of reach for some consumers.

The LG V60 by comparison feels like a deal at “only” $900, and offers many of the same features — plus some bonuses like LG’s excellent Quad DAC and a Dual Screen attachment. The cameras are comparable as well, with a similarly large main sensor and matching ultra-wide and time-of-flight sensors, though interestingly LG ditched the telephoto sensor this year.

We took both phones out and shot a variety of photos to see how each camera compares in different scenarios.

Daylight photos

Galaxy S20+ (left) / LG V60 (right) — click to view larger.

Broad daylight is rarely an …

They’re also adding a family mode with fun video effects and masks.

What you need to know

Group calls will be coming to Duo on the web in the coming weeks, initially as a Chrome preview.
A new family mode lets you draw and apply video filters in Duo calls.
Those same filters and effects are coming to regular Duo calls as well.

Google rolled out web support for one-on-one calls through its Duo video calling service last year, but today it announced that group calls on the web will finally be rolling out in the coming weeks.

Starting as a preview on Chrome, group calls on the web will be introduced alongside a redesigned Duo layout that allows you to see more people at once on your screen. In addition, anyone with a Google account will be able to join Duo group calls simply by using a link.

Google is also adding a new family mode to Duo, which lets you draw on the screen for others in the call to see, or apply video effects and masks. You can access family mode from the ove…

One of OnePlus devices’ more unique traits is the alert slider resting above the power button. This slider lets you instantly switch between Silent, Vibration, and Ring sound profiles to change how your phone handles notifications without ever needing to look at your screen. It’s incredibly convenient, and OxygenOS gives you a few options to customize just how those sound profiles work.

How to customize the alert slider

The alert slider lets you change your sound profile on OnePlus devices quicker than on just about any other phone. While the iPhone has had a similar feature since its inception in the form of the ring/silent switch, that only lets you switch between two profiles, with no option to put your phone on a vibration-free silent mode. The OnePlus 8’s alert slider works great out of the box, but you can adjust some of its settings with just a few simple steps.

Open the Settings app.
Tap Buttons & gestures.
Tap Alert slider.
Under Alert Slider Settings, tap any of the…

VoLTE isn’t particularly new, but it’s a luxury feature nonetheless. Otherwise known as voice-over-LTE, this tech allows you to use your data connnection to make dramatically clearer, crisper-sounding voice calls instead of the garbled mess we’re all used to. Just about every manufacturer and carrier supports VoLTE these days, and OnePlus is no exception — here’s how to enable it.

Products used in this guide

Latest and greatest: OnePlus 8 Pro ($900 at OnePlus)
Affordable excellence: OnePlus 7T ($500 at OnePlus)

How to enable VoLTE

Enabling VoLTE on a OnePlus phone is as simple as jumping into the Settings app and hitting a switch. Nearly every OnePlus phone is compatible with VoLTE (especially if your phone was released in the last couple of years), but your carrier might also play a part in whether or not you’ll be able to use it. The vast majority of carriers support VoLTE, but you should check with your particular carrier if the following steps don’t work for you.

Open t…

The OnePlus 8 is a fantastic phone with great hardware and the company’s beloved OxygenOS software atop Android 10. Like many other high-end phones released this year, it features support for the budding 5G network, which sounds great at first glance — but most markets still don’t have a 5G network to connect to. In the meantime your OnePlus 8 will be draining its battery searching for a network that isn’t there. Luckily, you can tell it to stop looking.

Products used in this guide

5G powerhouse: OnePlus 8 ($700 at OnePlus)
LTE only: OnePlus 7T ($500 at OnePlus)

How to disable 5G

While 5G theoretically allows you to hit incredible gigabit speeds and download huge movies and games in a matter of seconds (in ideal situations), it takes a considerable toll on your phone’s battery life. That may well be worth it in exchange for those speeds, but if your area doesn’t have 5G, you’re draining power without gaining any benefits. Disabling 5G connectivity only takes a few steps in t…