Yeelight Bedside Lamp Review: A Pretty Nice Wireless LED Lamp For A Pretty Reasonable Price

Connected "smart" lighting is far from a new concept, but in late-2012, Philips released the first Hue lightbulb which became the blueprint for a new category in an old market. It was no longer enough for lights to turn on at a scheduled time or with a clunky wireless remote, they had to become smarter, more efficient, more flexible, and we wanted to control them with our smartphones. But a product of this type lends itself to variations, special features, and stylistic choices beyond those of the original innovation.

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Yeelight Bedside Lamp Review: A Pretty Nice Wireless LED Lamp For A Pretty Reasonable Price was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Cody Toombs via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

[Review + Deal Alert] Aukey's Lineup Of QC 3.0 Chargers Is Ready For The Next Generation Of Smartphones

Since the time I began writing for Android Police last spring I have written dozens of deal alerts. Many of these articles have featured mobile accessories from brands I had not previously heard of, let alone tried for myself. While reviews on Amazon are a nice tool to help determine if a product is any good, there is no substitute for a recommendation from a source you trust. With that in mind, today I'm starting a new series of articles with reviews of mobile accessories from the manufacturers that we often feature in Deal Alerts at Android Police.

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[Review + Deal Alert] Aukey's Lineup Of QC 3.0 Chargers Is Ready For The Next Generation Of Smartphones was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Jeff Beck via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

Nextbit Robin Review: A Surprisingly Solid Crowdfunded Smartphone, But Not Without Its Flaws

We're used to crowdfunded smartphones being delayed into obsolescence by poor planning and over-promising. Coming from that sort of pedigree, the Nextbit Robin is already a success because it actually exists. This phone hit Kickstarter last year and raked in over $1.3 million. The promised delivery was January, and now it's out there just a little late. So, good on Nextbit for releasing a phone, but is it worth buying? Let's find out.

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Nextbit Robin Review: A Surprisingly Solid Crowdfunded Smartphone, But Not Without Its Flaws was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Ryan Whitwam via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

ASUS ZenFone Zoom Review: 3x Optical Zoom On A Phone That Would Still Be Good Without It

It wasn’t long ago that ASUS, while beloved by many on the desktop computing scene, was hardly a player when it came to smartphones. Some early Android tablet adopters will remember their Transformer books, but the ZenFone line is relatively new and has been the most serious attempt by ASUS to break into phones. It would be easy to overstate the popularity of the ZenFone, especially in western markets, but there’s no doubt that lovers of Android now have ASUS on their radar.

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ASUS ZenFone Zoom Review: 3x Optical Zoom On A Phone That Would Still Be Good Without It was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Jacob Long via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

Blu Vivo 5 Quick Review: $500 Worth Of Phone For $199

Back at CES, Blu announced two phones: the Vivo XL and Vivo 5. While we've already taken a look at the former, the latter is the one we've really been waiting for. I've had it in-hand for about a week now, and there's honestly a lot to talk about with this handset. From the specs to the design, this definitely offers more than a $200 handset should, though there are definitely some quirks with the software.

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Blu Vivo 5 Quick Review: $500 Worth Of Phone For $199 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Cameron Summerson via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

Moto 360 Sport Quick Review: Good On Paper, Hard To Recommend In Practice

Motorola launched the second-generation Moto 360 last fall and fixed many of the issues with the original watch, but at the same time it teased the Moto 360 Sport. It took months for it to come out, and even then there was little promotion surrounding it. I don't think you can deny that it's a less elegant device than the standard Moto 360, which comes with the same $299 starting price, but there are a few distinct, sporty features that might tempt you.

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Moto 360 Sport Quick Review: Good On Paper, Hard To Recommend In Practice was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Ryan Whitwam via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

Acer Predator 8 Gaming Tablet Review: It's Everything That Nobody Wants In A Tablet

My first desktop PC was an Acer many years ago. If I recall correctly, it ran Windows 95, AOL was my ISP, and it was the coolest thing on the planet to me at the time. It was like the Wild West—the rules hadn't yet been established, so the internet was just a huge playground for…whatever. I could get into a nostalgic post about all the stupid stuff I used to do on that computer when I first got the 'net, but that's another story for another day.

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Acer Predator 8 Gaming Tablet Review: It's Everything That Nobody Wants In A Tablet was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Cameron Summerson via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

Blu Vivo XL Quick Review: Breaking The Boundaries Of What A $99 Phone Should Be

AT CES earlier this month, Blu announced two new phones: the Vivo 5 and Vivo XL. Today, we're taking a closer look at lower-end of the two, the Vivo XL, which is the first one to hit the market. This one isn't a dramatic difference from some of the other more recent stuff we've seen from Blu — like the Life One X, for example — but it does continue the company tradition of offering a lot of phone for the money.

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Blu Vivo XL Quick Review: Breaking The Boundaries Of What A $99 Phone Should Be was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Cameron Summerson via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

ASUS Chromebit CS10 Review: Testing The Chrome OS Waters Has Never Been Easier (Or More Affordable)

Let me get this out of the way right out of the gate: I love Chrome OS. I wanted to love it back when I reviewed the original Chromebook Pixel some years ago, but it just wasn’t where it needed to be for me. Fastforward a bunch of months, and Google made a ton of useful and thoughtful changes that made Chrome OS a legit desktop contender (for me at least).

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ASUS Chromebit CS10 Review: Testing The Chrome OS Waters Has Never Been Easier (Or More Affordable) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Cameron Summerson via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

Honor 5X Review: The Sum Of $199 Of Parts, For Better Or Worse

The Huawei Honor 5X is a paradox for Android enthusiasts right out of the box. It costs just $199. But it runs Android 5.1. It has a surprisingly decent camera. But it doesn't support band 12 LTE on T-Mobile. The 1080p IPS display is very bright and may well be class-leading at this price point. But the Honor 5X doesn't have NFC. Its fingerprint reader pretty much lets it stand alone in the market for sub-$200 devices.

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Honor 5X Review: The Sum Of $199 Of Parts, For Better Or Worse was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by David Ruddock via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

Hands-On With Jide Remix 2.0 For PCs: A Promising Start For Android On The Desktop

Despite Google's late attempts to compartmentalize its mobile operating system, the open source nature of Android remains one of its biggest strengths. Without it we wouldn't have marvelous projects like CM13 on (relatively) ancient Barnes & Noble hardware, or various Android-powered console emulators, or a hundred million $60 Walgreens tablets crowding Craigslist. (OK, that last one isn't marvelous, but you get my point.) And we wouldn't have Jide's Remix OS, an attempt to create a desktop-style operating system on the bones of Android.

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Hands-On With Jide Remix 2.0 For PCs: A Promising Start For Android On The Desktop was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Michael Crider via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

Pixel C Review: A Great Tablet With The Wrong Operating System

I've long been an advocate for the usefulness of Android tablets, but even I've been questioning my own words over the past year or so. After switching to a Chromebook Flip as my main laptop and tablet, I rarely even use my Android tablets for anything more than reading in bed or playing a quick game.

But deep down I guess I'm a dreamer—I keep hoping Google will step up and make Android tablets not only relevant for more than the "I want a cheap tablet" market, but for power users.

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Pixel C Review: A Great Tablet With The Wrong Operating System was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Cameron Summerson via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

Amazon Fire TV Stick (2015) Lightning Review: Still Probably The Best Streaming Stick Money Can Buy

It's been about a year since Amazon released the first Fire TV Stick (give or take a couple of months), which was probably the best streaming stick at the time—arguably better than both Chromecast and Roku Streaming Stick. Naturally, the company didn't want to wait too long before updating both the Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, though I'm not sure that I'd call what the FTV Stick got an actual "upgrade." Really, it's the same stick as last year, but now there's an option to bundle it with the voice remote for just $10 more than the normal price of $40 (making it $50).

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Amazon Fire TV Stick (2015) Lightning Review: Still Probably The Best Streaming Stick Money Can Buy was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Cameron Summerson via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

[Hands-On] Camera MX Now Takes iOS-Like "Live Photos" On Android

Introduced with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, Live Photos was a new iOS feature that created a more dynamic photo experience. Instead of being limited to the single shot that users see when they press the shutter button, the camera would capture several shots around that moment, allowing you to move a few seconds or milliseconds and choose a better timed picture. Another benefit was the creation of a small stop-motion or gif-like animation of the different photos, to capture the breadth of the moment instead of fixing one frame in time.

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[Hands-On] Camera MX Now Takes iOS-Like "Live Photos" On Android was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Rita El Khoury via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium Review: Living Life In (Sort Of) 4K

Fossil Q Founder Review: Good Watch, Mediocre Smart Watch

Until now, all the Android Wear watches you could buy were made by technology firms moonlighting as watchmakers, but now there's the Fossil Q Founder. This is the first widely available Android Wear smart watch designed by a company that makes regular watches. In some ways it looks more like a real watch than any of the others, but there are also some design concessions that remind you Fossil is new to the whole wearables thing.

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Fossil Q Founder Review: Good Watch, Mediocre Smart Watch was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Ryan Whitwam via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

[Hands On] Popular Lip-Sync Music Video App, Triller, Comes To Google Play - It's Actually Incredibly Fun To Play With

Triller. That's a silly sounding name and a really dumb idea for an app.

Those were my first thoughts when I saw this app pop up on the Android Police to-do list. Triller is the kind of app I assumed would appeal only to narcissistic, college-attending, plaid-wearing, Hipsters born after the year 1995. The fact that it launched as an iOS exclusive back in July, and this promo video didn't help that perception.

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[Hands On] Popular Lip-Sync Music Video App, Triller, Comes To Google Play - It's Actually Incredibly Fun To Play With was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Jeff Beck via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

Jide Remix Mini Android Desktop PC Review: Interesting Software Let Down By Bargain-Bin Hardware

Android is many things. A mobile operating system, a tool for smart watches and set-top boxes, any much more. But one of the things it most certainly is not is a desktop OS... at least in its current form. That said, it's also the world's biggest piece of open-source software, so when Jide decided to make what it calls "the world's first true Android PC," they were more than free to do so.

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Jide Remix Mini Android Desktop PC Review: Interesting Software Let Down By Bargain-Bin Hardware was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Michael Crider via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

Blue Lola Headphones Review: A Cheaper, Lighter, Simpler Version Of The Mo-Fi With The Same Lovable Sound

The Blue Mo-Fis were one of the more controversial headphones of 2014, owing to a built-in, battery-powered amplifier that Blue - a company traditionally in the microphone business - alleged made them superior for mobile device listening. I reviewed them and found Blue's claim to be accurate - especially when it came to Android smartphones, which generally offer lower-power built-in amplifiers than comparable iOS devices. But many headphone nuts were unconvinced, and begged Blue to release a cheaper, amp-less version of the Mo-Fis.

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Blue Lola Headphones Review: A Cheaper, Lighter, Simpler Version Of The Mo-Fi With The Same Lovable Sound was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by David Ruddock via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews

Blu Life One X (2015) Quick Review: The Perfect Balance Between Price And Performance

 

Back in January of 2014, Blu released what I then called my "favorite Blu phone to date"—the Life One X. At the time, it was a solid budget phone, but affordable smartphones have come so far since then. The last year or so has been great for the budget phone scene, and we've watched devices get more and more powerful while prices kept dropping.

Today, Blu announced the new version of the Life One X, and guess what?

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Blu Life One X (2015) Quick Review: The Perfect Balance Between Price And Performance was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

by Cameron Summerson via Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets » Reviews