ZTE Axon 7 Review - Easy on The Eyes Smartphone

You have to admire ZTE's effort. Its Axon 7 is the best looking and most powerful phone the Chinese company has made to date. Its super speedy processor performs just as fast as the flagship devices of Samsung, LG and Google -- a testament to how far the company has come since last year's Axon Pro.



The phone also has plenty of storage space. The more widely available variant, which I reviewed, has 64GB built-in, 4GB of RAM and up to 128GB of expandable storage if you have a high-capacity microSD card. There's also a variant for Asia, with 128GB of built-in storage and 6GB of RAM.

Plus, at $400 or £275 unlocked (that's approximately AU$500), the Axon 7 is inexpensive compared to more popular marquee handsets that can run up to $700, £500, AU$800 or more.

But the phone market is ruthlessly competitive -- and companies are offering better features for less money every day. Case in point: the OnePlus 3. Though that device doesn't have expandable storage or booming audio speakers like the Axon 7, it's faster, has a longer-lasting battery and has the exact same $400 price. (Though in the UK, the OnePlus 3 is a little more expensive than the ZTE at £329.) Unless you have your heart set on a high-end phone, your first choice should be the OnePlus 3.

Design: Easy on the eyes

Solidly built, with an unbroken metal unibody chassis, the Axon 7 is ZTE's best-looking phone ever. Its 5.5-inch display has a sharp 2,560x1,440-pixel resolution and the screen is bright enough (when cranked up) to easily see details in the sunlight.

Given its luxe looks though, I was surprised at how heavy it felt. Tipping the scales at 6.17 ounces (175 grams), it weighs more than its competitors (see chart below). It was still comfortable to hold and maneuver, however.

The left edge houses slots for two SIM cards, which is useful if you travel a lot or have two phone numbers. Similar to the LG G5, it has a fingerprint reader on the back, which you can use to unlock the phone and buy stuff with Android Pay. The sensor works quickly, and I didn't notice any lag between pressing the reader and the screen unlocking. If you don't want to use your fingerprint, you can also use your voice: say a preprogrammed phrase and unlock the phone that way.

ZTE emphasizes the Axon 7's audio expertise. In addition to the two speakers on the front, it's decked out with Dolby Atmos audio technology and an advanced chipset that lets the device both play and record crisp, high-fidelity audio. When I played a few music tracks and movie clips, it was indeed loud and clear, with lots of depth. It didn't come off as "crunchy" as phones with small, narrow audio grilles usually do.

Software: Voice controls and an optional app drawer

The Axon 7 runs Google's Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow software. This newest version of the mobile operating system includes a more advanced digital assistant called Now on Tap, security updates, support for Android Pay and more. It also has very few third-party apps (or annoying bloatware) preloaded.

The phone has a few voice and gesture controls -- you can unlock the phone, play music and activate the camera shutter just by speaking to it. In comparison, the OnePlus has gesture controls too, which mainly entail drawing single letters to launch specific apps, but no voice commands like the Axon 7.

The Axon 7 can also switch from ZTE's own MiFavor 4.0 user interface to another launcher labeled "stock" Android. By "stock," I mean it's really not the pure Android UI. In fact, both settings look pretty much the same (same layout, same app icons and so on). The main difference is that the pseudo-stock version has an app drawer, which keeps all your apps together in a grid, whereas MiFavor does not. I prefer to have the app drawer since it prevents my home screen from getting too cluttered.

How to Repair an Android Phone from Water Damage

Your Phone is likely one of the most important devices you carry with you, and dropping it in water (or any other liquid) can be panic-inducing. Luckily, not all hope is lost if your Phone takes a swim. If you’re quick you have a good chance of saving your phone, as they’re built to be slightly resistant to water. If you get a little water damage, you may be able to work around it, or even repair it yourself.

Part 1 - Salvaging a Wet Phone

1. Remove your phone from the water immediately. The longer your phone stays submerged, the more chance it has of shorting out. Quick reflexes can mean the difference between a working phone and a dead one.

2. Power down the phone. If your phone was on, you'll want to turn it off as quickly as possible. If you can get your iPhone off in time, your chance of failure plummets.

- Press and hold the power button and then slide the power slider to turn off your iPhone.

- If the screen if off but you're not sure if the phone is on, tap the Power button to see if the screen turns on. If it does, proceed to power the phone off. If it doesn't, leave it off.

3. Remove any case that is on the iPhone. If your iPhone has a case, it may be holding in moisture. Remove the iPhone from the case immediately.

4. Take out the SIM card tray. Use a SIM removal tool or an unbent paperclip to pop the SIM tray out. Completely remove the tray so that water can escape.

5. Use a dry, absorbent cloth to wipe down the phone. Get all of the excess moisture off with an absorbent cloth. Make sure to get the moisture out of the charging port, the volume keys, the headphone jack and any other crevices.

6. Use a cotton swap to get excess moisture out of the ports. If you have access to a cotton swap, use it to absorb any excess water from the headphone jack or the charging port.

7. Fill a zip-lock bag with rice or silica gel. A bag full of silica gel packs will work best, but most people won't have that handy. Fill a zip-lock bag with rice, which will be used to absorb any moisture trapped inside the iPhone.

8. Submerge the iPhone in the bag of rice. Make sure that it is completely surrounded by the rice.

9. Seal the bag with the iPhone inside. The bag should be completely sealed so that no air can get in or out. Leave a little extra air inside the bag when sealing it.

10. Wait at least 36 hours. The longer you can wait, the more successful your drying process will be. If you can wait longer than 36 hours, 48 hours may be even more effective.

11. Check for the water damage indicator. Each iPhone has a small indicator that tells repair technicians that the phone has received water damage. The indicator is a piece of plastic that turns red when it comes in contact with too much water. You can check this indicator yourself to see if your phone may be damaged. Use a flashlight to help you see inside the port. This indicator usually means that you likely won't qualify for free repair.
- iPhone 5 and 6 - Look for a red indicator in the SIM tray port.
- iPhone 4S - Look for a red indicator in the charging port or in the headphone jack.Part 2

Performing Advanced Repairs.

1. Consider these advanced repair if you suffered significant liquid damage. If you spilled a sugary liquid on your iPhone, or the phone was submerged for a long time, you may need to perform advanced repairs on it. You can try performing these repairs yourself, but this should only be attempted if you have another backup phone just in case you damage it further.

2. Power down the iPhone. If the iPhone isn’t turned off yet, make sure it is turned off completely.

3. Remove the SIM card. Take the SIM card tray and the SIM card out before you begin taking apart the iPhone.

4. Remove the screws from the bottom of the iPhone. You’ll need a pentalobe (5-prong) screwdriver to remove the screws. The screws can be found to the left and right of the charging port.

5. Use a suction cup to remove the front cover. A strong suction cup is one of the easier ways to remove the front part of the iPhone body, This will prevent scratches when trying to pry the halves apart.

- Place a suction cup on the front, and hold the back of the case with your other hand.

- Once the suction cup is applied, pull it apart from the back half.

6. Use a Phillips screwdriver to remove the battery. Set the battery off to the side for now.

7. Remove the cable connectors. There are several cable connectors that will need to be removed before you can access the logic board. Some of these will be pried off while others may require a Phillips screwdriver.

8. Remove the logic board from the plastic case. Once you’ve completely detached the logic board, you can remove it from the plastic housing.

9. Submerge the logic board in 97% isopropyl alcohol. Let it soak until any visible residue has become loose.

10. Use a soft brush to scrub away visible residue. Make sure to clean all contacts and connectors. Scrub the chips on the logic board. Repeat the cleaning process if necessary.

11. Allow the logic board to air dry completely before reassembling. Make sure the logic board is completely dry. If it is still damp, you may cause more damage when you try to turn it on.

12. Wipe down the LCD with the isopropyl alcohol. Wiping down the LCD screen can remove any liquid residue. Avoid submerging the screen, as this can cause permanent damage to the display.

13. Wait for your components to dry. Isopropyl alcohol will take a little while to completely dry, so leave all of your components out for at least four hours before reassembling the iPhone.

14. Reassemble your iPhone. Put your iPhone back together by replacing all of the connectors and reinserting the screws in the reverse order that you took them out in.

15. Power on your iPhone. If you’re sure that the iPhone is dry, you can try powering it on. If you performed a thorough cleaning and the parts weren’t too corroded, the phone may work again.

Part 3Working Around Water Damage.

1. Use the on-screen Home button if your Home button stops working. A common symptom of water damage is a non-working Home button. You can use the Accessibility settings on the iPhone to enable an on-screen Home button to work around this:. . Open the Settings app on your iPhone.

- Tap "General" and then "Accessibility.". . Tap "AssistiveTouch" and then toggle it on.

- Tap the new button on your device's display and then tap "Home" to return to the Home screen.

2. Use a USB dock or Bluetooth headphones to play sound if your sound isn’t working. If water damage has caused your audio out jack to malfunction, you may need to use an alternative audio output device instead of traditional headphones.

- Connect a USB dock that is compatible with your iPhone to the charging port at the bottom of your iPhone. It should be detected automatically.

- You can use Bluetooth headphones or speakers to listen to audio from your iPhone. See Pair a Bluetooth Device with an iPhone for instructions.

3. Keep your iPhone charged if your power button stops working. If your power button stops working, you’ll powering your iPhone on and off becomes very difficult. You’ll need to keep it charged and turned on to keep using it.

- If your iPhone runs out of battery and shuts off, it will turn on again when you plug it into power.

4. Check if you qualify for warranty service. Standard AppleCare does not always cover water damage, but you may be able to get your phone serviced if it is new enough or you get a nice representative.

Xiaomi's Redmi Pro wants to make you a master photographer

Xiaomi is saying "yes" to dual cameras. The Chinese phonemaker's Redmi Pro uses two camera lenses on its back to take shots with Bokeh effect, that artful look that leaves some of the image in focus and beautifully blurs the rest. It's a feature seen in Huawei's P9, and also in 2014's HTC One M8.

What's interesting here is that the lenses aren't the same. You have a 13-megapixel Sony sensor and a 5-megapixel Samsung sensor. The Redmi Pro combines image data from both cameras to let you adjust the depth of field you get, so you have a chance to play around with the amount of blur. The effect works best when shooting portraits and closeups, setups where you want the focus on what's in front of you.

Xiaomi did not say if the dual-camera setup had other features, such as telephoto zoom or better lowlight shots, which we've seen on camera modules from Israeli startup Corephotonics.

To activate the camera's bokeh effect, just tap on the small button located just above the onscreen shutter. From there, you can select the aperture you want, say f2.8, and the Redmi Pro will automatically adjust the amount of background blur. You can also select the focal point after you take the shot.

I'm quite a fan of the Redmi line, and the Redmi Pro is just icing on the cake, thanks to its solid metal unibody build and flagship-like design. It's easily capable of matching flagship smartphones in design and hardware, though I'm not sure how well the Helio X25 processor will hold up compared to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820. We'll hopefully have a review unit soon to try out.

True to its name, the Pro steps up the hardware specs compared with the other Redmi phones. It has a metal body, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of onboard storage and MediaTek's Helio X25 ten-core processor. There's 4G LTE support for two SIM cards, but you could also use one SIM card and insert a micro-SIM card. There's a fingerprint sensor too, located below the 5.5-inch full-HD OLED display.

A basic version of the Pro will sport 3GB RAM and 32GB of onboard storage and will use the Helio X20 processor instead.



The phone is set to launch on 6 August and will sell for the ridiculously low price of 1,499 yuan (this converts to around $225, £170 and AU$300), although the highest end version goes for 1,999 yuan (about $300, £230 or AU$400). Interestingly, it will also be sold offline in stores as well as Xiaomi's usual online model. While it's only China for now, expect to see the company launch the phone in markets like India, Hong Kong and Singapore shortly after.

How to Check for Updates on Your Android Phone

Android is consistently getting upgraded by Google, and those updates are taken by the phone manufacturers and carriers, tweaked, and then sent on to their respective devices. Not every phone gets the new updates when they come out, but if your phone is newer, chances are any updates that get released will eventually make their way to your device.

Using The System Update Tool

1. Open the Settings menu on your device. You can open this through the Settings app on your Home Screen or in your App Drawer, or by pressing your device's Menu button and selecting Settings.

It is recommended that you connect your phone to a wireless network when updating, as update files can be quite large and put a big dent in your mobile data.

2. Scroll down to "About...". It may say "About phone" or "About device". This is usually located at the bottom of your Settings menu. Tap it to open it.

3. Tap the "Update..." option. It may be labeled "Software update" or "System updates". This is typically located at the top of the "About phone" menu.

If you don't have a "System updates" option, your phone does not support updating over the air. You will need to visit the support page for your phone and download any updates directly from the manufacturer. This is only an issue for older Android phones.

4. Scan for new updates. Tap "Updates" or "Check for system updates" Your phone will then scan to see if there are updates available.

Just because a new version of Android is out doesn't mean it will be available for your phone. It is up to the manufacturer and the carrier to make the update available for your device, and there is a good chance that the update will never be available, especially if your device is older.
If you really want to update to a newer version of Android and your device isn't allowing it, you may be able to root your phone and install a custom ROM.

5. Tap "Download" to begin downloading an available update. Make sure that you are connected to a wireless network, as these updates can be quite large.

6. Tap "Install" or "Install now" to begin the installation after the download is complete. If you accidentally closed out of the download confirmation, you can start the installation by returning the the Update tool in the About Phone section.

Oppo R9 Plus Review - Big Screen, Big Power, Big Battery

It seems that these days one of the worst insults you can deliver to a phone is that it looks like an iPhone. My colleague Aloysius Low called out the smaller size Oppo R9 for this, as did Daniel Van Boom on the Meizu Pro 6.

The Oppo R9 Plus keeps the Apple-esque trend going, but unlike my colleagues I actually think the phone looks great, even if the rose-gold shade isn't my favourite.



The R9 Plus has a 6-inch screen, compared to the 5.5-inch of the R9. The bigger screen has the same 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution, which means a slight reduction in pixels-per-inch from the R9 (367 vs 401), but you're not going to notice. The rear camera has been upped from 13-megapixels to 16-megapixels but, again, that's not going to change your world. (The front camera is the same 16-megapixels as the R9 -- it's a selfie-lover's dream.)

What you will notice is the big in both battery and processing power that the R9 Plus offers over the R9. The Plus has the Snapdragon 652 CPU. It's a 1.8GHz octa-core chip, but what matters is that it has a big uptick in both general performance and graphics processing power over the basic R9 model. In fact, in our benchmark testing, it was up there with the Sony Xperia X and the Huawei Mate 8.

Battery life is the other big bonus. With a 4,120mAh battery, I was expecting something good, but the R9 Plus exceeded my expectations with a test result of 17 hours and 30 minutes. That makes it one of the best batteries we've seen this year.

More importantly, all this is coming at just AU$100 more than the R9 -- AU$699. That's around $530 or £395, although we're still waiting for official pricing and availability outside of the Asia-Pacific region.

It may be an iPhone clone, but the Oppo R9 Plus packs enough power in to make it a worthwhile option for a mid-range Android phone. And unless you're absolutely against using a 6-inch screen, it's a better option than the R9 given its small additional cost.

How to Get Emoji on Android

Emoji are a form of visual communication that expands and evolves the basic "smiley" emoticons. Getting emoji on Android devices used to be tricky, but there are several ways to add emoji to just about any device.

First you will need to determine your Android version:

1. Open your device's Settings menu.
2. Scroll down and tap "About device/phone".
3. Find the "Android version" entry.

How to Get Emoji on Android

1. Open any app that starts your keyboard. As long as you are using a Samsung device using Android 4.4 (KitKat) or later, your device will have full emoji support built-in to the default keyboard.

- If your device is running an earlier version of Android, click here.
- Click here for instructions on finding out what version of Android you are running.

2. Press and hold the Microphone or Gear button. This will be located to the left of the space bar.

3. Tap the Smiley-face button that appears in the menu. This will load the emoji keyboard.
Image titled Get Emoji on Android Step 16

4. Select your emoji. You can change categories by tapping the buttons at the bottom of the keyboard when you are in emoji mode.

5. Tap the "ABC" button to return to your regular keyboard.

Meizu's new MX6 offers an iPhone-inspired design for Android fans

Chinese smartphone Meizu maker may not be well-known outside of its homeland, but the company has got its fans in China, thanks to its iPhone-inspired designs for its products. And on first glance, it's obvious the Meizu MX6, launched earlier this week in Beijing, shares striking similarities with Apple's iPhone.



That said, the Meizu phone does have its own differences. For one, the rear 12-megapixel camera is located in the middle, which makes it less likely your finger will accidentally block your shot compared with the iPhone. Another thing going for it is that unlike other Android phones, the MX6 doesn't have the usual back and recent apps button.

Instead, the home button, which also serves as a fingerprint scanner, also acts as the back button with a simple touch of the button. You might be confused what I mean about that -- instead of pressing down on the button like you do the iPhone, you just need to touch the button once. It takes a while to get, but once you do, it's actually quite easy to navigate the Meizu Flyme OS, which is a customized version of Android 6.0.

I do like the design of Flyme. Meizu has put in plenty of effort to make the UI design stand out compared to other Chinese Android skins and it shows. Each icon gets its own good-looking flat look. The end result is a UI that matches the iPhone-ish looks and could be something Apple wouldn't mind having in its own phones.

Overall, the build and quality of the MX6 impresses, and I think the phone has what it takes to do well. And with 3.2 million preregistrations for the phone before it even goes on sale, it looks like plenty of Chinese fans think the same thing, too. The phone will go on sale in China on July 30 for 1,999 yuan (which converts to around $300, £225 or AU$400) and will be available globally through third-party online vendors soon.