Android phones, apps and tablets

Sold now I'm afraid, sorry

I'll take a cheap mini posted if userrandomnumber doesn't have it.

Galaxy S9 worth it with the current £100 cashback from Samsung if I want a very good camera? Pretty sick of my wife having to take all the shots on her iPhone and sending them on to me because my camera is garbage. Or should I scrape together a bigger sum after Christmas and buy a refurbished Pixel 2 and carry on on SIM-only, or pay a few extra quid a month and get a P20 Pro? Never actually had a contract phone before; are there generally much better deals post-Christmas from resellers I should wait for?

I have an S9+ and my wife has an S9. Hands down the best phones we have ever had. Premium throughout. I was worried about non stock Android but Samsung have largely done a good job with their mods.

Camera is excellent. Battery life and general performance is the best I've experienced. Feels like a premium device compared to Pixel 3 and other rivals. Glass back is great in the hand but I wouldn't want to drop it.

Bixby is a disaster though. You can disable it fairly easy so that's not a big deal.

Don't get a p20 pro

Yeah I don't love Samsung's skin but it's not horrible and I can put a new launcher on etc if I really hate it. I also like that lots of third party people make cases for it because I always use a case.

Because it's a bad phone or because of the recent Huawei arrest/news?

It's not all the reviews say it is and definitely not in the camera department. If you want a good camera then get a pixel 2

What is the issue with that phone? Was considering for my daughter who wants an android phone with good camera.

It has a great sensor but shit lenses and OTT post production that you can't turn off. You can turn off all the AI crap, but for eg, in low light it will boost the exposure way too high, to daylight levels, but obviously there's not enough light for that so it will then smoothen the noise which makes it look like you've used some shit filter or "beautifying" function.

Here's some examples, two are of me and my son, note the complete lack of detail in his face, the other is in a bar, at midnight. Look how bright the pic is, it looks like it's after closing time and they've turned the lights on, when actually the lighting level was how you would expect a bar to be at midnight. You can work around these if you take the time to learn the nuances and understand what the software is doing, but for someone who wants to just point and shoot great pics, it's overhyped and shit.

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Many thanks for the comprehensive reply.

Yeah, they look really strange. I guess this is good for "popping" gram photos but not ideal for people who want things to look vaguely like they do in real life.

That's off the list, then.

Obviously you've already taken it off the list, but to add, what you see on the screen at time of capture, is not what the end product looks like. So there's this added complexity of taking a pic, going to see what it looks like, working out what's wrong, then going back, making some changes to try and predict what the post processing will do.

If you're trying to snap something in the moment, you're going to fail most of the time.

I'm sure the answer to this is "no", but would another camera app solve the OTT post-processing issues?

Partially.

I am using the Google Camera app but it's not the full fledged Pixel camera app with NightSight etc. It's also not 100% reliable as there's no official port of the app and it sometimes crashes.

My latest 5x went into bootloop hell last night, it's now in the freezer so I can try and get it working one last time and grab some data off it... I've been looking at replacements and found a 64GB Pixel 3 for AU$58 (<£30) per month, should I?

I did it, also got the stand as a free gift... I like it so far, not that different to the 5x except maybe it's a bit smaller, which isn't a bad thing tbh... I bought a Google case, not convinced this will protect the screen if it falls on it... Kinda like the fabric thing... Glass protector or not? Thoughts?

Fuck it, ordered a Ringke case and screen protectors... In total cost $20 less than the Google case...

Got a free car and suddenly splurging all the cash!

I'm skint! That's why I had to go with a contract, spent $100 I couldn't afford on phone protection... It's leased, so I've gotta take care of it... New one on me...

On my Oneplus 5t, it automatically downloads all media I get sent on Whatsapp, despite unticking the usual ticks as I did to stop this on my old iPhone. Anyone know how I can stop this happening please? Can't stop Whatsapp accessing the gallery because then I can't send media. Cheers :)

Review & comparison of 20 Pro (with new imaging software) & Pixel3.

http://allaboutwindowsphone.com/features/item/23313_Lumia_950_XLMate_20_ProPixel_3.php

This is the shit that annoys me with phone camera reviews.

So you don't have to scroll through the article I'll c&p the bit I'm talking about.

OK, let's go all-in on zoom, with a radio tower on a local ambulance station and some delicious detail against a bright-ish sky. Here's the overall scene:

And here are 1:1 crops from the Mate 20 Pro, Pixel 3 XL, and Lumia 950 XL, in that order (click the device names to download the original JPGs for your own analysis):

A clear win for the Mate 20 Pro here, unsurprisingly. The hybrid 5x zoom (3x optical, 2x digital from the main lens) produces stunning results and there are almost no artefacts. The Pixel 3 XL's multi-exposure Super-Res-Zoom system does very well considering the single 12MP sensor, but is clearly a few notches behind, and then the Lumia 950 XL's shot brings up the rear - zoom has never been the 950's string suit! A clear hierarchy when it comes to zoom then.

This guy reckons this is a clear win for the Mate 20 Pro.

Sure, if I wanted my photos to look like some hybrid between a Marvel graphic novel and a still from A Scanner Darkly, then it's fucking brilliant.

Actually it's CGI stylised bullshit that makes me retch. It's like nobody who actually likes photography works at phone companies, and the people working on and reviewing mobile camera tech are the same people.

Yup, isn't that just shit loads of smart blur?

I have the P20 pro and am very happy with the camera.

It can be a little too smart for its own good, but you can tell it to stop.

I'm no camera expert but have been impressed with the pictures it takes.

Also find the zoom function extremely useful, on site taking pictures of small labels at high level.. they are clear enough to read small text