The best phones of 2025: Expert tested and reviewed

I've used dozens of smartphones in the past year alone, learning the ins and outs -- the tips and tricks -- to make the most out of my handset. Here are my three biggest pointers on taking care of your smartphone right now: Speeding up your smartphone Something I always do when setting up a new Android phone is dialing up animation and transition speeds. You can do this by turning on Developer Options, a backend catalog of system settings meant for developers to access, but rules were meant to be broken, right? To turn on Developer Options, go into your About Phone page in the settings and look for the Build Number. Tap on that seven times and you should see a pop-up indicating that Developer Options has been turned on. Now, the activated tab will appear in the main settings list. From within, scroll down until you find Windows, Transition, and Animator duration scale. Tap into each and switch from 1x (default) to .5x to double the speed of your phone's animations. Optimizing your ... Read full article.