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UE MEGABLAST: The perfect summer speaker? (Review)

Matt Adams
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The weather is starting to heat up and that means more time spent outdoors. If you’re anything like me, a party isn’t a party with the proper tunes accompanying the people, food, and drinks. I’m constantly looking for the best speaker to take along with me to keep the party going. In the past, we’ve taken a look at other speakers like the ECOXGEAR Eco Slate, Leeron Sport Bluetooth Speaker, and the Braven BRV-XXL in search of the perfect speaker. While those are all great speakers and tick plenty of boxes, I think I’ve found my new favorite speaker, the Ultimate Ears (UE) MEGABLAST.

Design

UE’s lineup of speakers, including the Blast, Boom, and MEGABOOM have been around for a few years. UE decided to stick with an aesthetic that works instead of changing things up. That being said, if you’ve seen one UE speaker, you’re likely to recognize the others at this point. The rounded shape with a raised platform for the volume keys is familiar to us and looks pretty good.

The MEGABLAST comes in several color combinations, including Graphite, Blue Steel, Merlot, and Blizzard. Our review unit, the Blizzard variety, looks fantastic with its stunning white plastic and darker grill. The grill looks (and feels) like a black and white mesh that gives the speaker a little bit of visual flair without being too flashy. But, if you want flashy, you may want to check out the Blue Steel or Merlot colors because they’re definitely head turners.

When I say that the top, base, and volume bar you may get it in your head that this is somehow a cheap design, but you’d be mistaken. The speaker is strong and sturdy and the hefty plastic is built to last for years. Its soft to the touch and wipes off easily when it gets dirty.

The bottom of the speaker has a detachable area that holds a carabiner hook. That’s a really nice feature, so why would you want to remove it? Well, UE also sells a dock that you can pick up and keep your speaker charging even while it’s playing. To use the dock, you remove a section of the base and replace it with a new one that comes with the charger. This allows it to continue charging while still pumping out the tunes. Sure, the MEGABLAST claims a 16-hour battery life, but why use the battery if you don’t have to?

The charging base is a great option, but it’s also another $40. And it doesn’t add a ton of functionality. Sure, you can sit your speaker in the dock and charge it up, but you still have access to the microUSB charging port to charge it up. In our review of the UE Blast, Josh calls the charging dock and luxury and I couldn’t agree more. If you have the extra $40, it’s a cool accessory but it’s certainly not required.

Function

I was surprised to learn that the UE MEGABLAST had a ton of tricks up its sleeve. We expect to connect our speaker to our phones through Bluetooth or NFC and play music from there, but you can do more with the MEGABLAST. The speaker also has WiFi connectivity that allows it to play music from other sources.

Not only that, but UE included a smart assistant in the MEGABLAST. And not just any generic assistant, but Amazon’s Alexa and all of the awesome functionality that comes along with her. The addition of Alexa takes this from a “dumb” Bluetooth speaker to one of the best sounding smart speakers on the market.

Even though you wouldn’t look at the MEGABLAST and put it in the same category as an Amazon Echo, it can do all of the same things. It can control your smart home appliances, remind you how to spell onomatopoeia, or check the weather for tomorrow. So, all of the other speakers out there can play music too, which means the MEGABLAST can as well, right?

UE Blast Wireless Speaker

Sure, but there’s a drawback. The MEGABLAST is limited to playing music through Amazon services. Those include services like iHeartRadio, SiriusXM Radio, Pandora, TuneIn, and Amazon Music Unlimited. You actually get a three month Amazon Music Unlimited subscription when you purchase the BLAST or MEGABLAST, but after that, you’re on your own. A recent update brought support for Spotify too but there are hoops to jump through to enable it and it just doesn’t feel… intuitive. If reviewing electronics has taught me anything its that if you make people jump through a bunch of hoops, they’re just going to forget it and not buy your product in the first place.

As a lover of all things Google Assistant and Google Play Music (Spotify too!), I do feel a bit limited here. Amazon Music Unlimited is a fine service, but it’s definitely not something I’m going to pay for after the free trial. I’m left feeling that there’s a big missed opportunity here to let users choose which music service they want to play their music through. Sure, I get that this is a partnership between UE and Amazon, but we don’t like walled gardens and this definitely feels like one.

Now, don’t get us wrong, you can play anything you want through this speaker when you connect your phone to it through Bluetooth and that’s all well and good. But, we’d have loved to see a nice competitor to the high-end Google Home Max here and we’re just not getting that because of the integration of Alexa instead of Google Assistant.

So, how do you enable all of this? You first need to go grab the Ultimate Ears app from the Google Play store. The app will actually guide you through the setup and pairing process once you get the speaker. It asks you to sign into your Amazon account for Alexa access and gives a pretty decent tutorial on what you can do with the speaker. Even if I don’t love Alexa, I do love that you can yell at the speaker to turn down the volume, switch tracks, or play a different playlist. Nothing sucks more than getting out of the pool to mess with a speaker on a hot day.

Sound

Okay, let’s start with a big bold statement here: The UE MEGABLAST is one of the best sounding speakers we’ve ever reviewed. We’ve reviewed huge speakers that shake windows and little speakers that you carrying around on the outside of your backpack. But nothing has wowed me personally like the MEGABLAST. It isn’t the loudest speaker (although it is damn loud), but the audio quality it’s able to put out is simply fantastic.

If you love bass, you’re going to love the MEGABLAST. I suppose with a name like MEGABLAST, it has to thump with the best of them, and it certainly does. I was very impressed at the bass response when listening to some of my favorite EDM songs like Antihero by Noisestrom, I Remember by Tristam, and Here With You Now by Grabbitz.

Mids and highs are overshadowed a bit by the lows, but I still enjoyed them just the same. I was surprised and pleased with how powerful pop vocals sounded through the speaker, especially when it was in an outdoor setting. Clear audio and excellent volume combine to make a great speaker for your next outdoor event.

Conclusion

If you have $249 in your pocket and you’re looking for a fantastic speaker, it’s easy to recommend the MEGABLAST. Again, this is one of, if not the, best sounding speakers I’ve ever heard. While you can find other speakers that put out great sound or louder speakers, I believe the MEGABLAST is a great combination of quality and max volume.

The smart features are really the killer. Sure, they’re limited in what you can do, but I feel like that’s the case with pretty much every smart speaker on the market at the moment. If you’re comfortable using Alexa’s voice interface and supported service, this is a no-brainer. Even if you’re not, it’s nice to be able to turn down the volume, stop playback, or skip to the next track with just your voice. Sure, we’d love the option of Google Assistant here, but you can’t always get what you want.

For my money, the UE MEGABLAST is one of the most compelling options on the market right now and among the best of the premium Bluetooth speaker segment. It gets our recommendation.

UE MEGABLAST purchase links: Ultimate Ears | Amazon | Best Buy | Target

LG G7 ThinQ gets extended warranty, but you’ll have to register to get it

Alexandra Arici
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Most smartphones sold in the US come with 1-year warranty. But not all of them. For example, LG launched the “Second Year Promise” program in the US last year, which grants an additional year of warranty.

And the brand new LG G7 ThinQ, which just went up for pre-order, is also part of this initiative. Which means customers who purchase LG’s new flagship will be able to get a second year of free warranty coverage.

LG flagships in the US come with a 2-year warranty

But you need to keep one thing in mind. The extended warranty is not added automatically. You will have to register for it on LG’s official website. You have 90 days after you’ve made the purchase to do so. Also, only phones that were bought from authorized US carriers and retailers are eligible.

LG’s “Second Year Promise” program is also available for older LG flagships including the G6, G6+, V30, V30+ and V30S ThinQ.

But the most recent, the G7 ThinQ just went up for pre-order at major carriers across the US including Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint. The phone is expected to start shipping out on June 1.

LG took the wraps off its latest Android flagship earlier this month. The latest premium offering by the South Korean company boasts a bevvy of features including a customizable notch, Boombox speaker and AI integration.

LG has also thrown in a number of flagship features into the mix including a Snapdragon 845 processor, IP68 water-and-dust resistance and facial recognition.

This year, LG added a dedicated button that activates the Google Assistant with one tap and Google Lens with two taps. The physical key has been positioned under the volume control keys.

LG will offer two variants of the phone, one with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, which is already available for pre-order. A second G7+ ThinQ version with 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage will go on sale at a later date.

ASUS Zenfone 5Q is up for pre-order in the US

Alexandra Arici
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Back at MWC 2018, ASUS unveiled the Zenfone 5 series, which included two models with a notch and a standard one.

Well months after announcing the new devices, ASUS is finally offering one of them in the US. It’s the notch-less model, the Zenfone 5Q that is now up for pre-order on Amazon.

The ASUS Zenfone 5Q is a product targeting selfie-lovers or people who are passionate about taking pictures using their smartphone. For these purposes, the phone includes a dual 16-megapixel + 120-degree wide-angle camera on the back. On the front, there’s a 20-megapixel + 120-degree wide-angle setup which should allow you to snap some pretty great selfies.

ASUS Zenfone 5Q is the quite affordable

The handset is made of aluminium and glass and boasts a 6-inch display with 1080 x 2160 pixel resolution. It’s pretty well equipped internally, as well. It features a Snapdragon 630 processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage.

The Zenfone 5Q is kept alive by a 3,300 mAh battery and runs Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box.

At least at first glance, the ASUS Zenfone 5Q seems like a pretty good deal. It’s currently available for pre-order on Amazon for $299. Shipments will start going out on July 31.

The phone is offered unlocked, but unfortunately, it’s only compatible with GSM/LTE carriers like T-Mobile and AT&T. So if you’re a Verizon customer will have to look somewhere else.

The Zenfone 5Q also ships with a US warranty.

While ASUS’ website shows three color options for the 5Q including Midnight Black, Rouge Red and Moonlight White, only the first is available on Amazon.

What about the other two Zenfone 5 models you might be wondering? Well the top-of-the-line, the Zenfone 5Z is expected to land on the market in June, a long time after it was originally announced. ASUS’ flagship will boast a $499 price tag, so it will be a direct competitor to the OnePlus 6.

Weekend Recommender: Libratone, Juiced, Awair Glow, and more

AndroidGuys
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Can you believe it’s almost June? Memorial Day weekend is here and a lot of you are likely heading off to the pool or a barbecue. If not today, perhaps on Monday. Relax, enjoy your time with friends and family!

As we tend to do around here, we’ve gathered up some items we’d like to share with you. What you’ll find below is a collection of products, apps, and other stuff that the staff has curated which we feel merit your attention. Take a look through this short list and you might find your next favorite thing!

It’s Father’s Day and graduation season so pay attention!

Libratone Track+

We love these wireless earphones because they’re extremely lightweight and drape nicely around the neck. You hardly know you’re wearing them as the material flexes and moves with you. It makes sense as when we looked them up we learned they were the among the lightest and most compact Wireless In-Ear active noise cancelling earphones on the market.

Sweat and splash-proof, these are the kind of earphones you want to wear to the gym. But, they’re professional looking too, so feel free to take ’em to work or on your commute.

Available in black and white options, the Track+ feature an 8-hour battery and automatically go to sleep when not in use. The noise cancellation is incredible, and users have the ability to choose from four levels. Turn it up all the way when mowing the yard, leave at the bottom if you want to be more acutely aware of your surroundings.

We found these to be balanced very well; there’s no draping or leaning to one side around your neck. Additionally, the controls are dead simple to learn and feel out blindly. Oh, and we love being able to see the percentage of life left in them on our phone. Find these for about $200 at Libratone and Amazon.

Juiced 2.0

Having a portable battery pack is awesome, especially when it’s compact and lightweight. The problem we run into, though, is when we’re out and about and other people (our spouse or children) want to use it. Granted, a lot of these have multiple ports, but then you’re dealing with multiple cables, too.

Juiced is an interesting solution to that sort of problem. Essentially, you’re looking at what’s being billed as “the world’s first wireless group charging station”. In practice, it’s a dock that houses three batteries with built-in microUSB plugs. Each battery is 1,530mAh worth of juice.

Rather than lugging around a 4,500mAh unit, this option lets you bite off what you might need. There are stickers with small suction cups for each battery so you can stick and remove as you need. So, if you’re looking at an extended evening, grab one. Got a longer, busier weekend ahead, grab all three; they’re small enough to toss in a pocket or purse.

The package comes with tips that you can add on for USB C or iPhone, but you only get one of each. We might like to have seen a full 3-pack of USB C, but we understand it’s not that much of a standard yet. On a cooler note, you can also use the adapter to directly charge your phone off of the dock.

We also appreciate that a family can each grab their own little charger to take with them. Simply stick to the back of your phone temporarily and pull the cord out when you need to charge up. Learn more about the Juiced 2.0 at its Kickstarter page

Awair Glow

Ever wonder why you don’t sleep as well as you’d like? Maybe you blame it on allergies and pollen. What if it was simply a case of too much humidity? Or, worse, if it was related to chemicals in the air?

The Awair Glow is a great solution that monitors the quality of air, plus more. Paired with an app, it checks for the temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, and chemicals. Moreover, it presents the data in an easy-to-understand manner.

With a standard wall outlet on the front, it’s designed for your “dumb” appliances. Should the temp get too warm for you, it can automatically trigger the fan plugged in. Or, when the need arises, it can kick on the air purifier.

Compatible with both Google Home and Alexa, you can also use voice to control things. So, you can lie in bed and use Google Home to turn on the air conditioner you bought a few years ago. Or a lamp. Or a portable heater. Or a humidifier. Or a dehumidifier.

Set a schedule to run each day if that’s your preference, or have it work based on motion detection. There’s quite a bit this guy can do, including acting as a night light. Grabs yours for $99 at Awair’s website today.

Cocoon Earbud Charging Case

Chances are you already have a favorite pair of wireless earbuds. And, further, they probably have a microUSB port in them for charging. Rather than throwing them in a pocket or bag, why not put your earphones into something more protective?

The Cocoon, from IFROGZ, is a small, portable shell designed specifically to tote your wireless earbuds around. What’s more, there’s a built-in 580mAh battery so you can charge up while on the go.

The soft touch shell comes in two color combinations: Dark Grey/Red and Light Grey/Blue. There’s a nice split in the design with the one color acting more of an accent.

Turn this one around and you’ll see a light indicator so you can tell how much power is left in the charger. To make things even more convenient, you’ll get a super short USB/microUSB cord that plugs directly into your headphones. Take the cord out and reverse it to charge the Cocoon up from a laptop. Find these for approximately $30 at the IFROGZ website.

Sengled Element Smart Light System

This combo box features a pair of Sengled Element bulbs and a hub to connect with your WiFi network. Futuristic looking to be sure, these aren’t your daddy’s lights. Heck, they’re not your old lights.

Set up on your 2.4GHz network, install the app, and you’re good to go. Once ready, you’ve got full control over the lights, including the ability to dim or adjust the color temperature. While not full color adjustment, it does allow for balancing the white and yellow of lighting to suit your needs or mood.

Set the timer up and you can have your house automatically light up when you wake, and turn off when it’s time for bed. We liked having it dim at lunch time so we had a visual cue that prompted us to take a break.

And, because it’s smart like that, you can connect your light system to Google Home/Assistant or Amazon Alexa. The next time you’re cooking up a romantic dinner, tell your lights to dim as you bring the plates to the table. Get started on your smart home for about $60 through Sengled’s website. Before you know it you’ll be adding more lights and colors to the home.

Verizon announces open warranty enrollment and new TravelPass countries for the summer

AndroidGuys
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With the summer approaching, Verizon wants to make sure it gives its customer many travel benefits. The benefits come in the form of warranty and protection as well as travel perks. For that Verizon has announced open enrollment for its Total Mobile Protection and additional countries for its TravelPass program.

Verizon’s Total Mobile Protection plan is Verizon’s carrier warranty that helps with cracked screens or lost and stolen devices. For a cracked screen, the warranty can fix your device in as fast as the same day and for as much as $29. The warranty can replace a lost or stolen device as soon as next day as well, even if you’re traveling internationally. Be aware that open enrollment is only lasting until May 31st, so you have about a week to sign up.

Speaking of traveling, Verizon has added 16 Caribbean countries to its TravelPass program. If you’re unfamiliar with TravelPass, it allows you unlimited calling to the US and the included country for its prepaid plans. Each day of TravelPass is only $10, with some selected countries only $5. The new countries consist of Jamaica, Aruba, Barbados, and more. To learn more about other included countries in the TravelPass program, visit THIS LINK.

Be sure to check with Verizon before you go on your Summer travel. They may have even more deals and plans ready for you.

Total Mobile Protection Info Link

SuperTooth TW1 Review: mid-range sound and price, complete with all its flaws

Donovan Jeska
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When it comes to truly wireless earphones, there’s really only a few different tiers. There are the budget models, which routinely run under $75 and generally have poor performance, the mid-range, which is about $100, and the premiums, which can run from $150 up to $250. The premium tier is where you’d expect to find earphones that include unique features, like audio transparency, companion apps and the like. The mid-range tier generally offers a similar hardware experience without the software support to enhance it. It’s in this mid-range tier that the SuperTooth TW1 falls.

Build & Design

There are only so many form factors for Bluetooth earphones. And while that can be a bit boring, it also gives us a great barometer for the difference between good design and bad design. When something works, it stands apart from the crowd in a special way. When something really doesn’t work, it stands out in a pretty crummy way.

Build

On the whole, I wish the Supertooth TW1 felt a bit more premium. It’s extremely lightweight, which is great, but that comes at the cost of feeling a little cheap. The two-piece mold has a clear seam, and the feel of the plastic leaves something to be desired.

Internally, the TW1 is pretty standard affair for as truly wireless headset. It comes with Bluetooth 4.2, and outputs your standard array of 20-20,000Hz. Each earphone holds an 80mAh battery, and the charging case (while I’ll talk about later) contains a 640mAh battery for a total of 14 hours of playtime.

Design

While the aesthetic design of the TW1 is nondescript – it’s highly unlikely anyone but an enthusiast will identify them at a glance – it has a few design quirks that set it apart from other earphones of its ilk.

Unlike many wireless earphones, which rely on outer ear hooks or shaped design to secure them in your ears, Supertooth has taken a slightly different approach with three sets of inner ear hooks. The tabs are silicon, which makes them very pliable and easy to insert. However, that softness also makes them a bit less secure than I’d like to see. The method of switching these tabs out, though is rather clever. Each one is held in place by an expanded, hard plastic tab that holds it in place, and all that’s needed to remove it is to stretch the silicon over the tab. It’s just as easy to secure in place.

Performance

In terms of sound quality, the Supertooth TW1 is pretty standard affair for a mid-range Bluetooth headset. It’s got solid clarity and depth of sound, but inadequate bass – as is typical of its tier. Bluetooth 4.2 means that you’ll get solid connectivity, but far from the bleeding edge. Unfortunately, Bluetooth 5 has been out for more than a year now and manufacturers are still churning out 4-series Bluetooth accessories.

The microphone on the TW1 is adequate but nothing spectacular and includes the now-characteristic distant quality on the other end of a call.

Charging Case

The TW1’s charging case is pretty uninspired. The texture of the case is okay, but it’s made of such thin plastic that it feels like a toy. It’s got a big, gross hinge that dominates the back of the case, with just a button to release the lid. There are two LEDs on the case; one for each earphone. It’s not as handy as you’d expect, really only displaying when you first insert the earphones into the case. The earphones are not the smallest around, and as such the charging case ends up being bulky and not particularly pocket-friendly.

Despite the design flaws, though the case is rather functional. The TW1 fits snugly inside the case, and it closes securely without concern of it opening accidentally. As mentioned above, it contains a 640mAh battery, good enough for 4 full recharges of the TW1 – 14 hours of play time. Unfortunately, as per the industry’s usual at the moment, the charging case still rocks the venerable MicroUSB rather than the modern Type-C USB.

Value

I’ll be frank – the price of the of the Supertooth TW1 is less than ideal. When compared to headsets with a companion app, such as the Jabra Elite 65t and Yevo 1, which can be tuned via software update, it’s tough to go back to an out-of-the-box, as-is experience.

Now, that’s not meant to be a criticism of the Supertooth TW1 specifically – more, a recognition of the plight of the mid-range Bluetooth headset. When compared to the price of a low-end headset and the high performance of a high-end one, mid-range Bluetooth earphones kind of flounder in middle. The TW1 retails for 99.95€ ($119.99) which makes it neither particularly expensive nor a thrifty purchase.

Obtaining a TW1, though is a bit tricky at the moment if you’re in the U.S. Currently it’s only available on Amazon in the German store, though that likely ships to most European countries. If you’re stateside, you’re a little out of luck for now.

Buy the Supertooth TW1 on Amazon.de

BLU debuts the inexpensive X Link smartwatch

Alexandra Arici
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BLU is an American company mostly known for its affordable smartphones. Well, they recently expanded their portfolio of devices to include a budget smartwatch.

It’s called the BLU X Link and although it’s a new product, Amazon currently has it on sale for 40%. So you’ll be able to grab it for only $60 (down from $99.99).

But at this price, you shouldn’t get your hopes up. The wearable is extremely basic running a stripped down OS with a few pre-installed apps, but no app store. To make it clear, this is not a Wear OS device. Far from it.

So what can the BLU X Link do?

Well, the smartwatch does offer simple functions such as notification sync, step and sleep tracking. Interestingly for such a cheap watch, it does include a heart rate sensor. It also has a 1.1-inch IPS display and is IP54 rated (water and dust resistance). Bluetooth connectivity is on board, too.

What’s more, the watch has a SIM card slot. The bad news is that it can only connect to a 2G network (850/900/1800/1900MHz). Given that carriers like AT&T have already killed 2G service, the feature seems pretty pointless.

The BLU X Link isn’t too much of a looker either. It’s big and pretty chunky, but if you’re new to the whole smartwatch thing, BLU’s device might offer a decent, uncomplicated wearable experience.

The watch is compatible with Android and iOS smartphones, where users can also install the BLU fitness app to view their fitness stats.

Interested parties can pre-order it from Amazon right now, but shipments will be going out starting June 6.

If you’re looking for something more advanced, you might want to wait for Mobvoi’s recently announced TicWatch Pro. Unlike the BLU X Link, this is indeed a Wear OS smartwatch, one that takes advantage of two displays in order to conserve power. The product is expected to launch this summer for under $300.

Essential has cancelled the next PH-1 and could be put up for sale

Andrew Myrick
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I’m a rather surprising move, it’s it reported that Essential is considering a sale. This isn’t another discount on the PH-1, but instead, of the company itself.

A report from Bloomberg states that the company is “now actively shopping itself to potential suitors”. Additionally, Essential has halted development on the successor to the semi-popular PH-1.

Essential surprised everyone last year, when Andy Rubin teased an upcoming device. The initial teaser showed off a bezel-less smartphone being held in a hand.

After the rumor mill began ramping up, Essential unveiled the PH-1. The handset was met with mixed reviews due its price point and subpar camera quality.

On the specs front, the device was running with the big dogs such as Samsung and HTC. Powered by the Snapdragon 835 chipset and 4GB of RAM, there was hope that a new player had arrived.

READ MORE: Essential Phone Review

During the initial introduction, Essential also showed off an array of upcoming products. These included the likes of a new smart speaker, and many different accessories for its first flagship handset.

Over the last few months, the company has largely remained quiet. The only exception of this has been its weekly AMA on Reddit and an introduction of some new colors.

There was a lot of hope that Essential would follow up the PH-1 with a PH-2 of sorts. The device would sport a similar body to the original, along with flagship specs and a much better camera system.

It seems all of that hope is for naught, now that this report has surfaced. In fact, Rubin recently tweeted the following:

https://twitter.com/arubin/status/999772765405171712

Sure, it’s all fine and dandy to cancel work on an existing product. We saw LG do something similar with the G7 ThinQ before announcing the V30 ThinQ at MWC 2018.

What makes this so curious are the numbers. Just last year the company was valued at a figure between $900 million and $1 billion.

The company has also spent $100 million on product development. This is quite the figure when you consider that Essential was considered a startup.

As for the deal itself, there is said to be “one possible suitor”. It’s expected that the entire company, including employees and patents, would also be included in the sale.

In a world dominated by Samsung, it was nice to see a fresh face. Now we will have to wait and see what happens to Essential and if another start up ends up taking its place.

Bloomberg reached out for comment, but none was given at the time of this writing.

South Park: Phone Destroyer review – a raunchy card game based on the super popular show

Alexandra Arici
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These days almost every popular franchise has a mobile app or two. And South Park, the low-fi animated series about a group of prepubescent misfits living in Colorado, is no different.

The raunchy cartoon series has been recently turned into a mobile game. Called South Park: Phone Destroyer, this is a card-based strategy game set in the South Park universe, complete with tons of inappropriate content.

It’s a freemium game, which means you’ll be able to continually play the game, although you’ll encounter a fair share of pay-to-win opportunities and skill/pay walls.

How to get started

Download the app from the Google Play Store. It’s free to get and install on your device. Launch the game and start playing.

Impressions

The South Park kids have gathered to play Cowboys and Indians. You are the New Kid, who has been recruited by Cartman to join the forces against Stan’s unbeatable team. And as the New Kid you quickly learn the drill.

You start off by playing some solo campaign stages that are classic card-based strategy. Basically you’ll have to battle your way to the end of the stage to see what type of boss Stan summons. And defeat other characters in the process.

Ok, so everyone is dressed up in costumes (which range from Cowboys and Indians to Wizards, Aliens, and Pirates) and fight each other. The team chats with each other via texts.

The battles are mostly automatic. You have a deck of cards you use to summon characters onto the battlefield. There’s also an energy bar and as you automatically regenerate energy, you get to pull out cards onto the playground. The main goal is to defeat the boss each level, but if the New Kid dies first, you will have to start over.

The cards come in five categories: tank, ranged, fighter, assassin, and spell. Obviously, they come with their own customary strengths and weaknesses.

South Park fans will certainly appreciate all the familiar faces and voices, as well as the brand of dark humor that kept the TV show going for as long as it did.

Phone Destroyer is also peppered with PvP (player-versus-player). This mode works pretty similarly although this time you’re on a timer. So you could end up losing by having less health than your opponent when the time runs out.

With year completed mission or PvP battle, you get to open three lockers and uncover some loot like in-game dollars, gold coins or cards needed to upgrade my characters. As you accumulate things like in-game dollars you can spend them to purchase more upgrades or to open my lockers and get the loot you need.

As I mentioned above, Phone Destroyer does feature some additional themes beyond Cowboys and Indians. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of playing through solo stages and PvP to unlock them. And I mean a lot!

Then you’ll need to go back through the solo stages on a harder difficulty or play even more PvP matches, if you want to upgrade your cards or to progress at all. As you make headway, you’ll find the PvP maestro Don King Buttons, might not let you go any further unless you complete the required amount of PvP matches. Being forced into these PvP matches quickly become quite irritating.

I get it, it really pays to have the most powerful cards, so I understand why the game encourages grinding, but playing the same missions and PvP battles becomes extremely dull after a while.  It actually made me abandon the game for a few days, but I eventually returned with renewed strength (of mind).

The game also ends up eating a lot of your time. It’s not a game you pick up when you have a few minutes to spare and leave at any time. No, you’ll have to come back to it over and over again. That is if you want to unlock certain themes or advanced to more advanced stages.

Another thing that becomes apparent after spending some time with the game: tactical prowess doesn’t seem to matter that much. Most of the time, scattering as many units as you can on the battlefield tends to have the desired effect. No artifices needed.

To be frank, for the most part, I was only half-playing battles. Meaning I was paying attention occasionally while making sure I was dropping my best cards when things got nasty. You can change the course of the characters who advance in a similar pattern.

What about this New Kid character? Well, you get to customize him or her by changing their appearance (skin color, hair) and outfit (headgear and clothes). Unfortunately, although your character levels up, it has no actual bearing on gameplay. You get no additional development that affects the overall story.

Conclusion

Phone Destroyer is a challenging game which draws you in and gets you excited quite fast. However, it doesn’t do such a great job at converting this initial enthusiasm into addiction. It’s heavily focused on grinding, so if you don’t like doing pretty much the same thing over and over again to get upgrades, you will get disheartened fast. Additionally, I wish there was some added complexity to the overall story, which often feels flat.

YouTube Music, Google Home, and Google Lens (Episode 7)

Matt Adams
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0

Welcome to In Brief, our periodic podcast which aims to provide you with all of the important things happening in the world of Android.

In this episode, we discuss how YouTube Music will incorporate some of our favorite features from Google Play Music, how Google is winning the smart speaker race, and some features announced at Google I/O that are rolling out now.

Topics

It’s our goal to keep these podcasts short but there’s a reason we call it “The 15-minute podcast that’s never 15 minutes”. We hope you enjoy the show!

Other news worth knowing

  • Huawei is dropping its bootloader unlock program. The company had previously given users an official way to unlock their bootloaders which allowed them to flash custom ROMs. Now, Huawei is alerting owners that the service will no longer be available for devices made after 5/25/18 and devices made before that date will only have 60 days to use the service or lose the opportunity forever. Huawei reached out with the following comment:
    • “In order to deliver the best user experience and prevent users from experiencing possible issues that could arise from ROM flashing, including system failure, stuttering, worsened battery performance, and risk of data being compromised, Huawei will cease providing bootloader unlock codes for devices launched after May 25, 2018. For devices launched prior to the aforementioned date, the termination of the bootloader code application service will come into effect 60 days after today’s announcement. Moving forward, Huawei remains committed to providing quality services and experiences to its customers. Thank you for your continued support.”
  • Pornhub has launched VPNHub, its own VPN service. The service is available for free via Android, iOS, MacOS, and Windows. The free version serves up ads, while a premium version gets rid of the ads and promises faster speeds. The premium service will cost between $12 and $14 a month.
  • A recent update to Opera for Android brings about the introduction of themes. Users can now browse in style with the ability to tweak the color theme and join the dark side, or the light — or just go with the standard Opera red. Look for the new themes in Settings.

Heads up!

We’re currently beta testing this podcast and doing it in the real world. We’ll iterate and improve and be on track with the formal numbering convention in no time!

Subscribe to the AndroidGuys Audio Experience!

You can download or subscribe to the podcasts wherever you normally find your favorite shows. For your convenience, you can also click the links below.

Google Play Music | Simplecast | iTunes | Spotify* | Stitcher | Pocket Casts

For questions, concerns, or general feedback about the podcast feel free to contact us at podcast [at] androidguys.com.

*Coming Soon

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