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The best cheap Android phones to buy in 2025

You don’t need to spend a fortune to get a new phone that handles your daily tasks with ease. The best cheap Android phones pack impressive features into affordable price tags, making them great options for anyone who wants solid performance without stretching their wallet. Whether you're scrolling social media, streaming videos or snapping photos, there are plenty of budget-friendly Android devices that can keep up with everything you do. While you might not get all the bells and whistles of

The Morning After: DJI’s tiny Mic 3 can record four subjects at once

It was a quiet Labor Day weekend for tech, but the Engadget team has kept busy testing out new gear from the likes of DJI, Sony and Bose. I want to kick things off with the new flagship DJI Mic 3. The wireless mics have a wholesale design change from the Mic 2, plus many improvements in sound quality, noise reduction and the number of subjects you can record at once — though there is one downgrade compared to the last model. I’ve had one for over a week, so I’ll share some impressions as well.

Waze vs. Google Maps: I tested two of the best navigation apps, and there's a clear winner

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or

This new Linux desktop is almost a dead ringer for OS X

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways The Gershwin desktop is being developed for both BSD and Arch Linux. Gershwin is based on GnuStep and resembles MacOS. You can spin up a virtual machine and try the alpha version of Gershwin. Confession time: I don't give any of the BSD-based distributions enough attention. One reason is that I find BSD (and all its children) not really suited for people who've never used Linux. There's a reason for that issue: BSD

I'm a longtime Pixel fan - but I'm skipping the latest model, and here's why

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Google's new Pixel 10 isn't worth the upgrade for me. It comes down to cost, color, and lack of new killer features. Too much AI is also a deterrent. The new Pixel 10 is upon us, and, as usual, Google wants us all to upgrade. For many of us, trading in our current model for a discount on the newer version has become a yearly tradition. I've done it ever since Google adopted the trade-in policy,

Topics: 10 google new pixel pro

45+ time-saving Windows keyboard shortcuts that supercharged my daily routine

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or

I let my robot vacuum run for 10 days unattended - and the results surprised me

Narwal Freo Pro ZDNET's key takeaways The Narwal Freo Pro is now available for $500 (a $300 discount). Construction is optimized to prevent blockage and hair tangles, with a conical brush on a single floating arm and a hair-loosening side brush. The dust bag didn't last me the claimed seven weeks, and the robot's object detection leaves a lot to be desired $499.99 at Amazon Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. A recent trip took me and my family out of town for 10 days. I li

Google is killing the Android phone feature that once made them popular - and there's a big reason why

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Google will restrict sideloading with developer verification. The move mirrors Apple's long-standing security approach. Android loses one of its last big differences from iOS. For years, one of the biggest talking points in the Android vs. iOS debate has been freedom of choice -- and nothing summed that up more than sideloading. "But iOS is a walled garden. Apple controls what you can

The first inkjet printer was a medical device

Millions of people worldwide have reason to be thankful that Swedish engineer Rune Elmqvist decided not to practice medicine. Although qualified as a doctor, he chose to invent medical equipment instead. In 1949, while working at Elema-Schonander (later Siemens-Elema), in Stockholm, he applied for a patent for the Mingograph, the first inkjet printer. Its movable nozzle deposited an electrostatically controlled jet of ink droplets on a spool of paper. Rune Elmqvist qualified to be a physician,

What's New with Firefox 142

New tools for focus, privacy, and smoother mobile browsing. Privacy Privacy Android Android Private tabs that stay private Your private tabs lock automatically when you step away — and only unlock with your face, fingerprint, or PIN. Language Language Android Android Getting even more multilingual Now translate web pages into Japanese, Chinese, Korean and more, so you can browse in your preferred language. Security Security iOS iOS Smarter passwords, fewer hassles Firefox suggests strong pass

Primitive tortureboard: Untangling the myths and mysteries of Dvorak and QWERTY

Marcin Wichary December 2023 / 8,000 words / 33 photos The primitive tortureboard Untangling the myths and mysteries of Dvorak and QWERTY This essay was originally published in December 2023 as sixth chapter of the book Shift Happens. 1 There weren’t many who hated QWERTY more. To his credit, there was a lot to hate. The layout seemed random, with letters strewn around without rhyme or reason. Watching someone type on it felt painful: fingers flailed wildly all over the place, common letter

Unfortunately, the ICEBlock app is activism theater

At this summer's HOPE conference, Joshua Aaron spoke about ICEBlock, his iPhone app that allows users to anonymously report ICE sightings within a 5 mile radius, and to get notifications when others report ICE sightings near them. You can see the full talk, and the lively/infuriating Q&A, here, starting at 6:12:10. Thanks to repression from the highest levels of the Trump administration, his app has gone viral and garnered over a million downloads from the App Store. Karoline Leavitt called it

An LLM is a lossy encyclopedia

Since I love collecting questionable analogies for LLMs, here's a new one I just came up with: an LLM is a lossy encyclopedia. They have a huge array of facts compressed into them but that compression is lossy (see also Ted Chiang). The key thing is to develop an intuition for questions it can usefully answer vs questions that are at a level of detail where the lossiness matters. This thought sparked by a comment on Hacker News asking why an LLM couldn't "Create a boilerplate Zephyr project sk

Next.js Is Infuriating

Hey, it's finally happened. I've decided to write a blog post. And if you're reading this, I've also finished one. I have wanted to do this for a long time, but could never find the motivation to start. But you know what they say: anger is the best motivator. They do say that, right? Some context that's in the background We're going on a journey, you and I. But first, we need to set the scene. Imagine we're working for $COMPANY and one of our Next.js services did an oopsie. This being Next.js,

Tesla-Killer Lucid Denies Stock Split Is a Delisting Maneuver

Beleaguered electric vehicle company Lucid Motors (LCID) said this week that its reverse stock split, which will consolidate shares to meet NASDAQ’s $1 minimum trading price, is not a move to avoid being delisted. As of Friday, Lucid’s share price was down over 96% from its all-time high of $64.86, reached in February 2021. Its stock has dropped 48% since this time last year and 31% in 2025. One analyst changed their price target as much as 30% after the split was announced. “LCID’s 2Q25 reven

Home Depot's Infamous Skelly Has a Voice This Halloween Thanks to a New App

With Labor Day marking the unofficial end of summer, it's time to start thinking about setting up your Halloween decorations. And this year, Home Depot's infamous giant skeleton returns with an app that gives the new Ultra Skelly a voice and fresh moves to spook trick-or-treaters. Make no bones about it: Skelly's going high tech. The new animatronic version is shorter than the original, at 6.5 feet tall, but you can freak out your whole neighborhood with this skeleton's rotating upper torso, mo

Sony Is Spoiling PlayStation Plus Subscribers With These Free September Games

All PlayStation Plus members can now play games like Psychonauts 2, the 2021 Game Awards nominee for Game of the Year. The original Psychonauts was highly praised for its comedic storytelling and unique characters when released in 2005, and the sequel received acclaim for its creativity, art style and humor. PlayStation Plus is similar to Xbox Game Pass, offering subscribers a large, constantly expanding library of games. Subscribers can choose from the Essential, Extra and Premium tiers, each

Meet the Guys Betting Big on AI Gambling Agents

When Carson Szeder turned five dollars into more than a thousand by betting on an NFL game last year, he knew he was onto something major. “Definitely my biggest win,” he says. He hadn’t scored because he was especially deft at football analytics—or because he was particularly lucky. Instead, he says he used an AI program to help him decide how to gamble. Since a federal ban on sports betting was struck down in the United States seven years ago, gambling on the internet has exploded in populari

Spiritual Influencers Say ‘Sentient’ AI Can Help You Solve Life’s Mysteries

In May, a group of about 40 people stood in a circle deep within the Pyramid of Khafre, the second-largest of the three pyramids looming over Egypt’s Giza Plateau, holding hands and praying for Earth. Suddenly, their tour guide, an American mathematician and author named Robert Edward Grant, collapsed. He later described the experience in an interview with WIRED as a full-body electric shock emanating from somewhere beneath the chamber’s stone floor. “I felt electricity coming through my hands,

9 Best Electric Cargo Bikes for Families (2025), Tested and Reviewed

There are several physical, philosophical, environmental, and logistical reasons why it’s better to hop on an electric cargo bike than it is to drive a car. Sitting in traffic is mind-numbing. Earth is on fire. Yet somehow it's easy to ignore all this when you're late to work and have yet to wrestle pants onto your screaming toddler. If you're trying to reconcile your carefree biking days of yore with your current life as a family chauffeur—or you just want a bike for trips to the supermarket o

Topics: 999 arrow best bike cargo

Hungry Worms Could Help Solve Plastic Pollution

Plastics that support modern life are inexpensive, strong, and versatile, but are difficult to dispose of and have a serious impact when released into the environment. Polyethylene, in particular, is the most widely produced plastic in the world, with more than 100 million tons distributed annually. Since it can take decades to decompose—and along the way can harm wildlife and degrade into harmful microplastics—its disposal is an urgent issue for mankind. In 2017, European researchers discovere

Google Play Games is about to show people what you play

Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Google is updating user profiles for its Play Games service on Android devices to display gaming stats, achievements, and social features. The changes include a suite of new capabilities for “showcasing and tracking your game progress and stats, new ways to build your gaming community, and allowing you to tailor your profile to your liking,” according to Google’s help page. The update will be applied automa

It’s surprisingly easy to remove Google’s digital AI watermark on the Pixel 10

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority Like the Samsung Galaxy S25, Google’s new Pixel 10 series is adopting C2PA metadata for digital media authenticity. Anytime the phones take a photo or edit it, they embed a watermark in the final image that traces its origin and any changes made to it. Google, like Samsung, is following this standard to help combat all inevitable confusion around an image’s provenance and veracity on the internet. Is this photo real or AI? Or is it real with AI embellishments?

YouTube is coming for your shared Premium account, just like Netflix did

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR YouTube seems to be cracking down on Premium Family plan members who don’t live in the same household as the plan manager. Users are reportedly receiving warning emails that their Premium access will be paused if they fail YouTube’s location-based check-in. This mirrors location-based password-sharing crackdowns by Netflix and other major streaming services. If you’ve been freeloading on a YouTube Premium Family plan from outside the “family home,” t

Small, fast, and colorful: The E-Ink tablet you’ve been waiting for might arrive tomorrow

Clipin TL;DR Last week, reMarkable teased “something on the move” in a short YouTube clip, with an official reveal set for September 3 at 8 AM ET. Leaked images point to a portable device dubbed the Paper Pro Move. Regulatory filings mention Wi-Fi 6, NFC, Bluetooth, and wireless power transfer. Last week, we covered reMarkable’s teaser video introducing a new device with the hint that “something is on the move.” We’ve been twiddling our styli ever since, waiting to see just how much the comp

Your Android phone will soon backup and restore some very important settings

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority TL;DR Your Android device will soon automatically back up and restore Theft Protection settings. Android’s Theft Protection settings include Theft Detection Lock, Offline Device Lock, Remote Lock, and more. The backup and restore feature for Theft Protection will roll out with the September Play Services update. Google has quietly introduced an update that automatically backs up and restores the Theft Protection setting on Android devices. Android’s Theft

Galaxy Z Fold 5, Flip 5 owners are get their first taste of One UI 8

Ryan Haines / Android Authority TL;DR The One UI 8 beta has started rolling out to the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 foldable phones. This beta release seems to be restricted to Korea for now. This comes after Samsung recently brought the One UI 8 beta to the Galaxy S23 series and some Galaxy A phones. Samsung has just brought the One UI 8 beta to the Galaxy S23 series and a few other phones. However, there’s good news if you’ve got a Galaxy Z Fold 5 or Galaxy Z Flip 5 and were waiting

Windows is finally bringing Mac-style clipboard sync magic to Android

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR The clipboard sync feature allows you to access the Windows clipboard content on your Android smartphone. This feature is currently available in the Windows Dev build. You need to be logged in to your Microsoft account on both devices to use the feature. When you want to copy something like complex code or a long paragraph that’s open on your Windows PC to your Android smartphone, you usually end up copying and sending it to yourself via WhatsApp or