Android phone deals

Android phones in depth

Android phones are the acme of smartphones. With tens of thousands of great apps and games to choose from, beautiful and easy to use 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 tens of thousands of titles to download from the Android Market online software store.

The range of apps takes in everything from the jaw-dropping Google Goggles augmented reality app to practical business orientated titles. And there are hundreds of games for fun motion-controlled gaming 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 software updates for Android phones. These often add new features and make older handsets run more smoothly than ever. Android updates are also there to iron out any faults that there may have been with earlier versions.

To get an update, you don’t need to do anything and won’t even have to go online or register for it. That’s because they are carried out automatically ‘over-the-air’, equipping your handset with all the latest Android functionality without you having to lift a finger.

Google apps pre-installed

To get you started, all Android phones come with Google applications 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 service.

Also pre-installed is GoogleMaps, which combines with Android phones’ GPS functionality to enable them to double as fantastic satellite navigation devices. Plus there’s GoogleDocs for creating and sharing your work online and accessing your work 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 traditional keypad and complicated menus when you can access all your phone’s features with an intuitive touchscreen user interface? These are standard across all Android phones, making them supremely easy to use.

Customisation

Android phones allow you to set up your handset your way. This is thanks to a widget based system that lets you position all your most used applications and functions on your homescreen, while hiding those that you make little use of.

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 on a particular day.

Expandable memory

Need more storage space for apps, music and videos? No problem. All 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 support for a super fast mobile internet experience and media players to keep you entertained. They’re also ideal for social networking on the go.

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 piece of software keeps Android phones running smoothly and efficiently at all times.

Who makes Android phones?

Android is an open platform, meaning it is free for all manufacturers to use. The massive popularity of the operating system has seen it embraced by Sony Ericsson, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Dell and LG.

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

HTC Android phones

HTC has led the way with Android mobiles and has been rewarded with massive-selling handsets such as the HTC Hero, HTC Desire and gorgeously designed HTC Legend.

All HTC Android smartphones come with its unique HTC Sense interface pre-installed on top of Android. This great innovation seamlessly aggregates your social communication including Facebook, Twitter and Flickr into a single flow of updates. As a result, you’ll find it supremely simple to follow your friends’ activities and view the images and links they share.

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

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Samsung Android phones

Samsung’s Android mobiles are those in its highly rated Galaxy range. Rather like the HTC phones, Samsung’s Android handsets differ from many others through the inclusion of a custom user interface, called TouchWiz.

TouchWiz 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. It also makes what were already great phones even greater.

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Motorola Android phones

The Motorola Milestone, aka Droid, is one of the biggest-selling Android phones ever. They’re since carried on that success with the brilliant Motorola TX720 and the Droid X.

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 text a lot for instance, it’s a good idea to pick a plan with a generous SMS allowance. And the same goes for phone models. If you’re a heavy emailer, you might want to go for an Android phone with a physical QWERTY keyad.

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 HTC’s Android models is a very reliable indicator of their quality. And the same goes for reviews of the Galaxy range, which have dubbed certain handsets among the best Android mobiles ever.

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 phone in the shape of the Android powered Google Nexus One. However, it has since decided to leave handsets to third parties and will instead continue to develop the platform for use by some of its most enthusiastic adopters, such as HTC and Sony Ericsson.

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 after around.

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