Android phone deals

Android phones in depth

Android phones are the acme of smartphones. With hundreds of thousands of great apps and games to choose from, easy to use and customise touchscreens and beautiful designs, they’re everything you could ever want from a mobile.

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Key features of Android phones

Apps

Applications, or apps, are the raison d’etre of Android phones, with owners able to choose from hundreds of thousands of titles to download from the Google Play online software store.

The range of apps takes in everything from the jaw-dropping Google Goggles augmented reality app to practical business tools to help you work even while you're on the move. And there are thousands of games for fun and entertainment too. Best of all, however, is that many of the apps on offer for Android phones are absolutely free.

Another great thing about apps is that they effectively allow you to change what your mobile is capable of whenever you like. Select an Android phone and you never need be bored of your handset ever again.

Android software updates

At regular intervals Google issues new software updates for Android smartphones. These often add new features and make older handsets run smoother and faster than ever. Android updates are also there to iron out any faults that there may have been with earlier versions.

Most of these updates are rolled out automatically as an ‘over-the-air’ download. So you can equip your handset with all the latest Android functionality without having to lift a finger.

Google apps pre-installed

To get you started, all Android phones come with Google's best applications and services built-in. This means you’ll get the great YouTube app that brings a whole web’s worth of video entertainment straight to your handset as well as Gmail – Google’s brilliant email client.

Also installed out of the box is Google Maps, which combines with Android phones’ GPS functionality to transform them into fantastic satellite navigation devices. Plus there’s Google Docs for creating and sharing your work online and accessing your documents remotely.

Finally, the Google app is fully integrated with other apps. This means it’s supremely easy to find the content or functions that you’re after.

Touchscreens

Why use a fiddly keypads and complicated menus when you can access all your phone’s features with an intuitive and beautiful touchscreen user interface? These are standard across all Android phones, making them supremely easy to use, even if you're a first-time smartphone user.

Customisation

Android smartphones allow you to set up your handset your way. With the aid of widgets and shortcuts, you can easily access the functions of all your most used applications and functions right on the homescreen.

Some Android phones even offer a range of different homescreens, so you can switch between them depending on what kind of features you think you’ll need for a particular situation, be it checking the weather forecast, or catching up with social network updates from all your friends.

Expandable memory

Need more storage space for apps, music and videos? No problem. Most Android smartphones offer microSD card support. Simply add one of these and you can boost your handset’s capacity by up to 32GB.

Standard smartphone functions

Naturally, as you’d expect from such modern mobiles, Android phones are also equipped with high-end cameras, web browsers with 3G and 4G support for a super fast mobile internet experience and built-in media players to keep you entertained. They’re also ideal for social networking on the go, not to mention emailing and messaging as well.

What exactly is an Android phone?

The term Android phones refers to cutting-edge mobiles that use the Android operating system (OS). Developed by Google, this brilliant software platform keeps Android phones running smoothly and efficiently at all times, while offering a superb user experience to people from all walks of life.

Who makes Android phones?

Android is an open platform, meaning it is free for all manufacturers to use. Its massive popularity has seen it embraced by Sony, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, LG, Huawei, Acer, Asus and Dell.

Here we’ll look at three largest adopters and explain the unique user interfaces they use.

HTC Android phones

HTC is one of the leading Android manufacturers and has produce some of the biggest, best-loved handsets such as the HTC Hero, HTC Desire and gorgeously designed HTC Legend.

All HTC Android smartphones come with its unique HTC Sense interface slathered on top of the vanilla edition of Android. One of the features this offers is called Blink Feed. This seamlessly aggregates your social communication including Facebook, Twitter and more, plus news and other important information into a single stream of updates. As a result, you’ll find it incredibly simple to follow activities from your friends as well as trending stories all from one screen.

HTC Sense also tweaks the browser and email client with new functions and offers a handy ‘Leap’ thumbnail view for quick and easy access to all seven home screens.

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Samsung Android phones

Samsung’s Android mobiles are those in its highly rated Galaxy range. Similar to HTC phones, Samsung’s Android handsets also include a custom user interface, called TouchWiz. This allows you to drag and drop widgets onto the home screen of touch-enabled phones, so it’s fantastically easy to arrange the layout of your handset.

The latest version of TouchWiz is called Nature UX, which features in the absolute best Samsung Galaxy handsets. Along with tremendous scope for personalisation, Nature UX features a deluge of intuitive, gesture and motion based features such as Smart Stay, an intelligent screen-wake mode that keeps the screen on as long as you're looking at it - say, during a movie, and Smart Scroll that lets you scroll web pages by simply tilting the device up and down.

Flagship Galaxy smartphones are home to some of the best technology in market, including the blazing fast processors, high-definition displays and superb cameras.

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Sony Xperia Android phones

Japanese giant Sony is not just famous for its great home electronics range, it's also a maker of brilliant Android mobiles.

Sony's flagship Xperia smartphones are some of the best Android handsets out there. They are typically fitted with stunning high-definition displays, as well as Sony's Mobile Bravia Engine video processors to offer a superb multimedia experience on the go.

They also feature brilliant cameras for photography in almost any condition and come with plenty of storage space for all your photos, videos and applications.

The latest Sony Xperia handsets are also PlayStation Certified, meaning they can play classic PlayStation One titles. Better yet, they are preloaded with a host of Sony's best applications and services, including Walkman, PlayNow and Music and Video Unlimited for a complete Sony experience you won't find anywhere else.

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Motorola Android phones

Motorola is one of the earliest Android smartphone makers and it is also owned by Google, the creator of Android.

Motorola Android mobiles’ equivalent of HTC Sense and TouchWiz is called MotoBlur. This brings all your conversations, friends, and favourite stuff into your smartphone. You can also manage widgets from their homescreen to customise your mobile any way you like.

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Which networks offer the best Android phone deals?

Android phones are on offer across all major UK networks on both pay as you go and pay monthly price plans, with usage allowances and price points to suit all types of consumers.

As ever, the key to finding the right deal and right phone for your needs is studying your usage habits.

If you ike streaming and downloading multimedia a lot for instance, it’s a good idea to pick a plan with a generous mobile data allowance. If you want the latest features, it's best to choose a newer, more powerful Android smartphone.

The question of which company makes the best Android phones is largely a matter of opinion. In truth we think you can expect a great smartphone experience whichever Android phone you choose.

However, it’s also fair to say that the huge sales of Samsung's Galaxy Android smartphones is a very reliable indicator of their quality and demand. And the same goes for reviews of the HTC One family and Sony's Xperia range, which are easily some of the best Android smartphones around.

The history of Android mobile phones

Android was first unveiled by Google in November 2007, but did not begin to break through to the mainstream until the launch of the T-Mobile G1 in late 2009. This went on to sell one million units and firmly establish the platform among the mass market.

The same year saw Google introduce its first-ever branded Android phone in the shape of the Google Nexus One, made by HTC. However, the lion share of Android smartphones continue to come from some of the platform's most enthusiastic adopters, such as Samsung, HTC and Sony.

The first update for the operating system had the working title Cupcake, but was dubbed Android 1.5 when it officially launched in April 2009. Among the new features that the new version of Android brought to the handsets was the ability to upload videos to YouTube, new animations between screens and new widgets.

Since then a number of upgrades have arrived, each one adding something new to Android phones and helping to keep them among the most sought mobiles after around.

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