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Dell XPS 15 (Infinity 9550)

When Dell launched their dramatically redesigned XPS 13 in January 2015, the laptop-loving world went crazy (in a good way). It was smaller and lighter than other 13.3" laptops on the market yet it made no concessions to build quality, performance and materials. Of course, we couldn't wait for Dell to remake the XPS 15 in the new XPS 13's image, and now it's finally here. The Dell XPS 15 9550 has Dell's Infinity display-- there's nearly no display bezel, the glass reaches to the very edges. That makes the XPS 15 and XPS 13 look futuristic and clean. Since this is a conventional laptop that doesn't flip, separate or twist, there's no need for larger bezels to act as grab points as with a tablet. Dell claims this is the smallest 15" laptop in the world, and it's the size of a 14" model. That's even more impressive since the XPS 15 is as ever a powerhouse portable in the mobile workstation category--it has a quad core i7 CPU, dedicated NVIDIA GTX 960M graphics, two RAM slots and a 15.6" display. Machines with that much power are generally chunky, though there are a few thin and lights that compete with the XPS 15 like the 15" Retina MacBook Pro, Asus ZenBook Pro UX501 and even the 15" MSI Ghost Pro and HP Omen 15 gaming laptops.



The late 2015 XPS 15 starts at $999, and the configurations most folks would want start around $1,200 to $1,700. The most expensive upgrade is the $400 4K gloss touch screen with 100% Adobe RGB coverage and 95% of NTSC. That can bring a high end XPS 15 up to the $2,000 mark. Fortunately, the 1080p matte non-touch display is no slouch, and those on a tight budget will by no means be suffering with it. That said, graphic designers, photographers and video editors will want that lush 4K high gamut panel that offers much wider color coverage than the outgoing XPS 15's 4K display.

Design and Ergonomics

Take the XPS 13 and a grow it a bit, and you literally have the XPS 15. The designs are that close. The lid is aluminum and the chassis is milled from a single piece of aluminum alloy (this is called unibody design). The aluminum bottom panel is removable after you unscrew several Torx T5 screws and two Phillips head screws under the service tag door. The keyboard deck is covered in Dell's signature carbon fiber for grip and softness. It's a sweet looking notebook, even if it lacks the flowing lines of the HP Spectre x360 or the MacBook Pro. All surfaces are extremely rigid and the XPS 15 Infinity feels robust and durable.



The XPS 15 Infinity is a surprisingly cool and quiet machine. And yes, Dell's coil whine is gone. Thin and compact laptops with this much horsepower inside are usually hot and noisy under modest to moderate load. Our quad core i7 model with 16 gigs of RAM, a 1TB Samsung 951 SSD and NVIDIA switchable graphics is silent when using MS Office, browsing the web and streaming video when unplugged. Like many Ultrabooks and slim laptops, the fan comes on when plugged into AC since charging generates heat and the laptop will run in higher performance mode. It's still a fairly soft whir that you'll only notice in a quiet room. When exporting 1080p long videos (like our YouTube video reviews) or playing Fallout 4, the fan is quite audible but not room-blasting loud. The bottom gets warm but not burning hot. When the laptop is stressed with heavy loads, the dual fan system manages heat well and the XPS 15 didn't exceed 103F at the hottest points on the bottom.

Ports and the (Future) Joys of USB-C and Thunderbolt 3

The 4.4 lb. laptop is one of the lightest 15" laptops on the market and it's slim with a taper toward the front. Port selection isn't fantastic: two USB 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, 3.5mm audio, a lock slot, HDMI 1.4 and a single USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 port. A lot rides on that USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 port, and it's a bit ahead of its time since USB-C adapter cables are still hard to come by and even Dell's Thunderbolt dock and small USB-C dock (HDMI, VGA and Ethernet) aren't yet available (the Thunderbolt dock is due in early 2016). I really wish Dell had included their usual mini DisplayPort rather than HDMI 1.4, or that they'd at least used HDMI 2.0. This machine is aimed at professionals who likely use high resolution external displays, including Dell's own lovely 4K monitors. The HDMI port can drive a 4K display, but at 30Hz rather than 60Hz. I tried a few USB-C to HDMI adapters, but apparently none supported HDMI 2.0, so I was again stuck with 30Hz. That slow refresh rate makes the mouse cursor look like it's stuttering across the screen (modest exaggeration) and movies look less smooth when not shown at their intended 60Hz. Fortunately, a few companies like Monoprice sell USB-C to DisplayPort adapters that will drive a 4K monitor at 60Hz (we tested it and it worked fine). If you have a 2K monitor, there's nothing to worry about since the HDMI port on the XPS 15 can drive a 2560 x 1440 monitor at 60Hz.



Ethernet? Not here. You'll need a USB to Ethernet, USB-C to Ethernet adapter or Dell's upcoming dock. As a consolation, these adapters are easier to find if you visit the Mac section of your local or online store since the 12" MacBook requires the same adapters.

The stereo speakers are incredibly loud but they sound distorted and buzzy at the default Dell EQ settings. Unless you've bought the laptop from a Microsoft Store and gotten the Signature Edition minus all Dell software, you'll have a Dell Audio control panel. Use it immediately to change the MaxxAudio Pro speaker enhancement setting to Music rather than the default MaxxSense. That will get rid of the over amplification of bass and treble that leads to distortion and compression. The audio software isn't all bad--when it's turned off the speakers sound anemic and timid. It's just a matter of getting the settings right.

There's no Windows Hello Infrared camera here for facial recognition login, nor is there a fingerprint scanner.

Keyboard and Trackpad

The XPS 15's keyboard feels much like the XPS 13's. It's nicely damped, has white backlighting that contrasts nicely with the black keys and key travel is short. 1.6mm is standard key travel for (not skinny) laptops. The Microsoft Surface Book has 1.5mm travel and the Surface Pro 4 Type Cover has 1.4mm. The XPS 15 9550 has 1.3mm. As you might guess, if you're coming from a desktop keyboard, ThinkPad or older and thicker Dell laptop, it will take time to adjust to the short key travel. At first I double-pressed letters by accident on occasion and had to lighten my touch to avoid punishing my fingers. After an hour, I was on good terms with the XPS 15's keyboard. That cushioned key feel really does help, and unless you're one of those typists who literally bangs on the keys, you can come to enjoy the XPS' typing experience. That said, I wouldn't have minded if Dell made the laptop a millimeter or two thicker to improve key travel.



Some folks reported problems with the spacebar being slightly tilted with the top (display side) being higher than the bottom (closer to the trackpad). Ours was indeed slightly skewed and at first tapping near the bottom of the spacebar felt mushy compared to the top and it didn't always register a press. After literally banging out 5,000 words, the spacebar seems to have seated better and I haven't missed typing spaces. It does still feel a little soft along the bottom edge when pressing down.



The large glass trackpad is devilishly good. The surface texture feels just right--not too slick or sticky and the buttons hidden beneath the trackpad feel balanced in their force requirements. The new Skylake generation high end laptops and convertibles from Microsoft and Dell have improved so much that they rival the Mac's excellent trackpads. Cursor movement is precise and predictable and two-finger gestures work well. The laptop uses Microsoft's software and drivers, so customization is minimal. I noticed that some settings in Windows 10's modern settings did nothing, but the control panel mouse settings did effect change. Note that Windows updates and Dell updates improve trackpad performance, so be sure to do all available updates before passing judgment on the trackpad.



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Dell XPS 15 Video Review




Dell XPS 15 vs. Microsoft Surface Book Comparison




Display - Wide Gamut 4K Goodness, Mostly

Dell offers the XPS 15 with a matte, non-touch 1920 x 1080 full HD display with near 100% sRGB color gamut and a 4K 3840 x 2160 glossy touch screen with 100% Adobe RGB gamut (Adobe RGB is a wider color standard, and laptops with 100% Adobe RGB are still rare). In fact, our Datacolor Spyder colorimeter measured 95% NTSC coverage (that's what TVs use and we've never seen a laptop measure this high for NTSC). The 4K display with wide color gamut adds $400 to the price tag, and I can understand if you forego it in the interest of saving money. The 1080p display is pleasing and that's a respectable resolution. Better yet, it is matte for less glare. Some folks don't want a touch screen, or feel it's a requirement only in 2-in-1s and tablets. But for those who can afford the 4K display or for those who work in graphics, video production or print production, the money is well spent. Images and videos are sharp and require less zooming when editing. Colors are simply incredibly vivid--it reminds me of Super AMOLED phone displays vs. LCDs. Contrast is good, though not as impressive as Microsoft's Surface Book, and brightness is high at 350 nits. In fact, the Sharp IGZO panels looks much brighter than they really are thanks to a very high white point. Cool whites look whiter and brighter to the human eye, and the 8500 degree Kelvin white point is so bright that I rarely raise brightness above 50% on the 4K panel. In comparison, the 414 nit Surface Book is even brighter according to the colorimeter, but I run it at 70% brightness much of the time (I like bright displays).



That high white point could be a bit off-putting for graphics and video pros. Though the included (unless you get the Microsoft Signature Edition from a Microsoft Store that's stripped of all Dell software) Dell PremierColor program does a good job of offering several built-in color calibrations including sRGB, Adobe RGB and Cinema DCI-P3 and color temperature settings, yet the display's white point is still high. This seems to be inherent to Sharp IGZO panels over the generations, and though it's still possible to get a good color calibration for color accuracy, the panel simply looks a little different than others on the market using IPS, TN or PLS. I also find it a little harsher on the eyes--those whites are searing. On a positive note, most folks have never seen colors this alive and rich! The display has good sharpness and text is very clear using 200% scaling (which I recommend over the factory default 250%). You can run it at native resolution with no scaling, but icons and text are really small.

If you've read our other Skylake laptop and convertible reviews, you know that Intel has driver bugs that cause display driver crash messages and some strange transient color shifts in programs like the Microsoft Edge web browser. There's nothing wrong with your XPS. Download updates as available; Intel and Microsoft are working through the issues.

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Performance and Horsepower

The XPS 15 is Dell's highest performance mainstream laptop, with the Dell Precision line serving mobile workstation needs for CAD types. It has the same fast quad core Intel CPUs you'll find in serious gaming laptops, the 15" Retina MacBook Pro, Dell Precision, Asus ZenBook Pro and the HP ZBook 15. In fact, it has the latest 6th generation Skylake CPUs, while the Mac and Asus are still running on 4th generation CPUs. Skylake brings improved battery life and integrated graphics performance on the order of 10%. All but the $999 entry level XPS 15 have quad core CPUs, and these are 45 watt Intel HQ CPUs. The base XPS 15 almost doesn't make sense since it takes away most of the features XPS 15 buyers are looking for. It has no dedicated graphics, a dual core Core i3-6100H CPU and an HDD rather than SSD. But for those who want a big screen XPS at an affordable price, it's certainly a viable option. I wish Apple would follow suit--if you want a 15" MacBook, the price of admission starts at $2,000.
The $1,200 XPS 15 nets you a quad core i5-6300HQ CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 2GB DDR5 graphics, 8 gigs of RAM and a 1 TB HDD with 32 gig caching drive. That's a respectably powerful machine that will be significantly faster than a dual core Ultrabook with a U series 15 watt CPU and integrated graphics. If you spend $1,400 you'll upgrade to a 256 gig SSD. These configurations have the smaller 56 Whr battery. The $1,700 model has a larger 86 Whr battery, Intel Core i7-6700HQ CPU and a 512 gig SSD; it's the sweet spot in the lineup. Note that if you want the 2.5" drive bay for a second HDD or SSD, you'll have to order a machine with the smaller 56 Whr battery (the big battery doesn't allow space for the 2.5" drive bay). All have Dell-branded dual band WiFi 802.11ac (Broadcom) and Bluetooth 4.1. The models we listed have a 1080p matte non-touch display--add $400 for 4K.


All except the $999 model have NVIDIA 960M switchable dedicated graphics, there are no other graphic card options. The GTX 960M is at the lower end of NVIDIA's high end GTX GPU lineup (960M, 970M and 980M). The 970M and 980M are usually only found in high end gaming laptops, and the more heat and power-friendly 960M is the typical high end option for mainstream slim and light laptops in the performance category. It's sufficient to make most games very playable and enjoyable at 1080p and 45 to 60 fps.
The machine comes with 8 or 16 gigs of DDR4 2133 MHz RAM in two SODIMM RAM slots. You could take it up to 32 gigs using Intelligent Memory's 16 gig RAM modules. The RAM slots, M.2 SSD slot, battery and wireless card are readily accessible when you remove the bottom cover, as is the 2.5" drive bay if the XPS has the smaller battery. The SSDs use the faster PCIe interface and our 1 TB SSD is a Samsung PM951 NVMe drive that benchmarks well. The SSD benchmarks are better than the Surface Book's, though still lower than the latest generation MacBook Pro SSDs (Windows NVMe drivers aren't mature).
So what does all this mean? If you get the quad core i5 or i7 model, you'll have one of the faster laptops on the market and it competes well with quad core gaming laptops like the HP Omen 15, lower end MSI Ghost (higher end Ghost Pro models have faster NVIDIA 970M graphics) and even Dell's own Precision line. The NVIDIA GPU is optimized for gaming and photo/video production, while the NVIDIA Quadro graphics in the Precision are optimized for professional CAD work. The XPS 15 Infinity can play current demanding games at 1080p resolution and medium or high settings--it's significantly ahead of Surface Book with its NVIDIA 940M equivalent graphics. It's the perfect laptop for those who work professionally in Adobe Premiere Pro and it rips through huge 20 layer big print graphics in Photoshop. It will be one of the quicker options if you crunch numbers in huge Excel spreadsheets, and software compile times are quick. It's seriously overkill if you only use MS Office, run Photoshop for home photos and web graphics, surf the web and stream YouTube and Netflix.


Thermal throttling hasn't been an issue on our powerful Core i7 model with 16 gigs of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. Happily, Dell's issues with XPS throttling are well in the past, and the dual fan design keeps the CPU and GPU pumping despite the slim and compact design that leaves less room for heat sinks and cooling. When running Unigine Heaven and Fallout 4, the 960M reached 75C with no throttling. That's hotter than a GPU in a 17" gaming laptop but well below the thermal max. The CPU cores hit 70C in stress tests and ran at a cool 35C when doing simple tasks like word processing and streaming short 1080p video clips. When playing Civ V (a real time strategy game that uses the CPU heavily) the cores ran at a not terribly not 50C. Nice.
Benchmarks:

PCMark 8 Home accel: 3091 (uses integrated graphics)
Geekbench 3: 3632 / 13,473
wPrime: 12 seconds
Unigine Heaven 4 (1920 x 1080, high, no tessellation) : fps: 42.7, score 1076.  Max GPU temp: 82C
3DMark 11:   P5538, X1813
3DMark Cloud Gate: 16,566
3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited: 117,918
3DMark Fire Strike 3968
Cinebench R15: 46.25 fps OpenGL, 677 CPU score




Battery Life

We have the larger 84 Whr battery in our review unit and haven't had the opportunity to evaluate the 56 Whr model. Dell makes some extravagant runtime claims for the XPS 15 Infinity--17 hours. Really? I don't think so. Even if you had one with the lowly Core i3, a 1080p display, SSD and the big battery I can't see how that would be possible. Our 4K display and Core i7 are at the power hungry end of the spectrum, and we've averaged 6.5 hours of use for productivity and video streaming. Long sessions in Premiere Pro, gaming and compiling code will shorten runtimes. In our tests we ran brightness at 40% (which is quite bright!) and had WiFi on and active. That's a respectable runtime for a 4K quad core laptop, but it certainly falls short of the record-holding 15" Retina MacBook Pro that manages 9 hours. Of course, we haven't seen a Windows laptop with these internals that comes close to the Mac's runtimes, and the Asus ZenBook Pro fared much worse at 4 hours, as did the HP Omen 15.

Dell ships the laptop with their unique looking rounded rectangle charger. The 130 watt charger's cord isn't as long as some traditional laptop chargers, though it's not as short as Microsoft's Surface chargers

LG v10


Gimmick or great? The LG V10 is a little of both. Clearly LG is throwing features at their new flagship phablet to see what (if anything) succeeds, much as Samsung's done in the past with their Android phones and tablets. The big screen LG has a secondary front display--a narrow strip at the top that provides shortcuts, status and can act as a control area for apps like the camera. Speaking of the camera, this phone has two front facing cameras; one ultra-wide angle and the other with a more normal view. See--gimmicks. That said, I actually appreciate the two front cameras since phones with a single ultra-wide camera (for group shots and to capture background context) are lovely, but when you simply want to video chat or take a simple photo of just you, that super-wide lens' distortion of facial features is unwelcome.

On to the normal stuff! The LG V10 runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop (sorry, not 6.0 Marshmallow that's shipping on a few recent phones) on the high end (but not top dog) Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 6-core CPU. It has 4 gigs of RAM and 64 gigs of storage, putting it in the high end category, and there's a microSD card slot compatible with cards up to 2TB according to LG. The phone has a 5.7" Quantum IPS+ display (LG's marketing name for their better phone displays) and it runs at QHD 2560 x 1440, which equals 515 PPI-- even Superman won't see individual pixels. The display has good contrast, good blacks (not AMOLED deep, but good) and strong color saturation for IPS. Brightness is good but not stellar and off-angle viewing results in noticeable drops in brightness, which is typical of LG's recent phones. The color balance is cool (toward the blue), which is common in phones and laptops.


As you might guess, it's a large and heavy phone that's as big as the iPhone 6s Plus and the Nexus 6. It weighs 6.77 ounces and as we've come to expect of LG, it has a removable battery. Two things we love about LG: the microSD card slot and removable battery so you can swap in a spare on the road.
Design and Ergonomics
This is a typical LG design with the curved back that's thicker at the middle and power/volume controls mounted on the back. LG went with a durable, rubbery back that's not what we'd call attractive, though if you like the ruggedized look, you might find it cool looking. The back is impact absorbing and grippy, so it wins points for practicality, and it's available in black, white and opal blue (color availability varies by carrier). The sides are metal and the phone doesn't feel cheap, even if it isn't all metal and glass like some competitors.
We've never minded LG's rear-mounted power and volume controls, but this time the power button is also the fingerprint scanner, and that's problematic. When it's on the front, you can see if you're placing your finger in the proper spot, but on the rear, it's hard to tell. The power button, as per usual on LG phones, sits between the volume up and down buttons, and the difference isn't tactile enough to tell if your finger is centered. As a result, we didn't have the greatest results with fingerprint unlocking. Note that unlike the fingerprint scanner on the Nexus 5X and iPhone 6s, you must press and click the power button to turn on the phone--simply resting your finger on the scanner won't let you both power up and unlock the phone.
Calling and Data
Thanks to standardized chipsets, carrier oversight and government regulations, data speeds and call volume are uniform among mainstream brand phones. Call quality can vary, though rarely hugely, and that said, the LG V10 units we tested on AT&T and T-Mobile had excellent voice quality. Incoming and outgoing voice was rich, full and very clear. Speakerphone audio is passable, and typical of smartphones, isn't rich with bass or dynamic range. The speaker is located on the phone's bottom edge.
Performance and Software
The LG V10 has Qualcomm's upper tier CPU, and it's the lower among the two current Snapdragon 800 series CPUs. The Snapdragon 808 is a capable hexa-core 1.8 GHz CPU that generates less heat than the top 810, and in theory requires less battery power. It's coupled with Adreno 418 graphics, a GPU that's powerful enough to handle demanding games nicely. The phone has 4 gigs of RAM, and that's the most you'll see in a current high end phone. It has 64 gigs of storage and you can store photos, videos and other files on an SD card. Benchmarks show a bit of improvement over the LG G4 running on the same CPU, and experientially, the phone feels fast and responsive despite the very heavy skin LG places over Android.
Oh, that LG UI. If you're accustomed to it, or Samsung's TouchWiz UI, to which it bears a sometimes striking resemblance, then you'll be fine with the LG V10. If you're coming from a Nexus, HTC or Motorola Android phone, then the heavy-handed UI and endless custom settings might seem a bit much. We'd love to see LG tone down their UI customizations, but after a few years of complaining, we're assuming LG isn't listening. That heavy customization makes it hard for LG to be nimble with major OS updates, and the phone ships with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop rather than 6.0 Marshmallow that released this fall. Will it get the update to 6.0? It's very likely, but there's no timetable yet. Happily, LG's UI doesn't slow down the phone, it always feels peppy.

Benchmarks



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LG V10 Video Review




3 Cameras, 1 Phone
So how many cameras do you need? We've seen Intel and HTC experiment with dual rear cameras for depth effects, but this is the first time we've seem two independent front cameras. Both are 5MP and one is typical field of view for a front camera while the other is ultra-wide for those times you want to capture what's behind you or a group of friends. If you hate how your features are distorted by very wide angle lenses, then you'll appreciate having the choice between the standard and wide view lens. If you're not prone to capturing group selfies, then you could just look for a phone with a standard front camera lens (only a handful have particularly wide lenses).


LG did great things with the rear camera on the LG G4, and it's still one of the best camera phones on the market. They promise even better results with the V10, and they're telling the truth. While neither can even approach what a dSLR can offer in terms of detail, depth of field and image detail, the LG V10 manages to take shots that look as good as a decent quality point and shoot camera. That's impressive given the tiny lens on the back. Images look very natural and three dimensional compared to the usual flat looking camera phone shots. Colors and tonal gradations are likewise very natural and nuanced with actual detail rather than interpolated JPEG data. Exposure is pleasing and color balance is neutral and accurate. Photos are a little cooler (more toward the blue) compared to Samsung and the iPhone. As to whether you prefer warm tones (great for people shots) or cool tones (good for landscapes) is up to you.

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The 16MP camera has a fast f/1.8 lens and on manual mode you can adjust everything except aperture. Shutter speed, ISO, EV and more are at your command if you're an advanced shooter. The auto mode worked well for us in a variety of settings including bright outdoors, mixed sun and shade and indoor shots. The camera captures a good deal of color in dark interior shots, which is a refreshing change from the near monochromatic images some phones deliver in bad lighting. The camera has OIS (optical image stabilization) and digital stabilization, and it can shoot very good 4K video, 1080p video @ 60 fps, slow motion video and time lapse. Is it better than the LG G4? Yes, photos are more pleasing and natural, while video is even sharper and less artifacted. Is it so much better that it's worth upgrading from your LG G4? Probably not, especially given the G4's low price tag these days vs. the high price of the V10.


Battery Life
The LG V10 and Snapdragon 808 chipset support Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0, and a quick charger is included in the box. It can charge a nearly depleted 3,000 mAh battery in an hour. The 3,000 mAh battery is removable-- just pull off the back cover and you can swap in a spare. LG sells spare batteries and battery charging docks, and they're bundling them with the phone in a mail-in offer for December 2015 in the US (the bundle includes a 64 gig microSD card).

Given the large display and fairly powerful chipset, the LG V10 has acceptable but not stellar battery life. With light to moderate real world use that includes web, email, social networking and streaming a few YouTube videos, it lasted from 8am to 10pm (4.5 hours actual screen on time). If you're a heavy user, you'll want a spare battery or you can make use of quick charging midday to quickly charge the battery.



Conclusion

The LG V10 is a neat phone. That's a simplistic statement, but it captures the heart of the V10; it has lots of gimmicks (some of which you may actually find useful), a big screen and a great camera. It's fun and it's a lot of screen with which to enjoy content. It doesn't bring anything to the smartphone market that's a breathtaking advancement, and the screen isn't that much bigger than the incumbent LG G4. It's also larger and considerably more expensive than the G4, and the $699 ($249 with contract) price pits it against some very strong phones like the Galaxy S6 and Note family and the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. That said, the camera is really excellent, and though it's a close race with the LG G4 and the Samsung Galaxy S6/Note 5 family, it comes out on top.

Install Custom ROMs on Android devices (universal guide)

How to Install Custom ROMs on Android devices (universal guide)

First of all, on your computer you need to download the proper update file.
Optional: download the Google apps package if it is not included on the firmware file.
Save the files on desktop; don’t unzip them.
Then, connect your handset with the computer.
Establish the connecting by using the USB cord.
Copy-paste or drag and drop the downloaded files from desktop to your phone’s (tablet’s) SD card.
Disconnect the devices by unplugging the USB cable.
Turn off your smartphone / tablet and wait a few seconds.
Then reboot your gadget into recovery mode.
Next, navigate through the recovery mode menu and select “wipe data factory reset”, “wipe cache partition” and “wipe dalvick cache”.
The system will now be wiped out, so that’s why the backup has been recommended before.
Up next, return to recovery main menu: select “+++go back+++”.
And choose “install zip from SD card” and “choose zip from SD card”.
Pick the update file and flash the same.
Optional: repeat this operation for applying the Google Apps package.
When the installation process ends, from recovery select “+++go back+++” and “reboot system now”.
You are done.

how to recover deleted msg and contacts

How to recover deleted text messages on your Android phone
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Authored by: Romeo maher

If you've accidentally deleted all your SMS messages – or even just a single, important message – you need to act fast. Lost messages are recoverable, but only until the portion of memory on which they were saved is over-written by an app update, file download or similar. So grab your phone and your computer and learn how to recover deleted text messages on Android.
How to recover lost data on Android
How to recover deleted photos on Android

Tools to recover deleted text messages
There are several different PC and Mac-based tools available. They essentially all do the same thing: scan your Android's memory, then identify and recover your deleted messages. Some cost money, some are free and some do more than others.


Stay calm and do what you need to do quickly. / © ANDROIDPIT
Whichever tool you choose, they'll all walk you through the process, which is usually only four steps long: connect, scan, preview, recover (the same process works for other data besides text messages). Some programs worth trying out include:

Wondershare Dr. Fone for Android (for Mac or PC)
Coolmuster Android SMS+Contacts Recovery (for Mac or PC)

Wondershare has a free trial that lets you recover deleted text messages. / © ANDROIDPIT
How to recover lost text messages on Android
I'm using Wondershare to demonstrate the procedure, but most programs have the same – or at least similar – steps.

1. Enable Developer options on your Android phone. To do this, go to Settings > About phone and tap Build number until you see the notification that Developer options has been enabled.

2. Go to Developer options > USB debugging and check the box (or flip the switch, depending on your version of Android).


First you need to enable USB Debugging. / © ANDROIDPIT
3. Download and install the free Wondershare trial (or another recovery tool of your choice) and connect your Android phone to your computer.


Connect your phone to your PC with USB Debugging enabled. / © Wondershare
4. Follow the prompts in the recovery program to identify your device and scan or analyze your Android's memory.

5. Once the process is complete you can browse and preview both the deleted and undeleted data on your Android device. As long as the particular part of memory on which your data was originally stored has not been saved over, you can still retrieve it. This is why it's important to act quickly if you've accidentally deleted an SMS.


You can filter the data you want to recover: in this case, text messages. / © ANDROIDPIT
6. Next, open the Messages folder in the left-hand pane, select the messages you wish to recover and click Recover at the bottom right to put them back on your device or save them to your computer.

Note: if you want to complete this process without a PC, you will need root access on your device and, more than likely, a paid recovery app. Feel free to do it that way if you like, but it's easier (and free) to just use a computer.


The same tools can be used to recover photos, WhatsApp messages, music and more. / © ANDROIDPIT
How to never lose a text message again
Maybe you've learned your lesson, maybe you haven't. If you want to avoid the panic of losing your messages and using a PC to recover them, the best thing to do is to back up your SMS messages regularly. The good news is, doing so only takes five minutes.

I use a free app called SMS Backup & Restore. It's straightforward, looks nice and works perfectly: all you need for this type of operation. Check out the screenshots below for the walkthrough.

SMS Backup & Restore

1. Once you've downloaded and installed SMS Backup & Restore, open the app and tap Backup.

2. Next, choose what exactly you want to create a backup of, then – crucially – tap Local backup and upload if you want to send your backup to Google Drive, Dropbox or an email address.

3. Make your selection from the list that appears and then tap OK.


SMS Backup & Restore is clean and simple to use. / © ANDROIDPIT


Hit Backup, make your selections and tap
4. To restore your backed-up SMS messages, tap Restore on the app's home screen, then, on the Restore Backup page, you can just tap the backup name in the list to restore it (if it's stored locally).

5. If your backup is stored in the cloud, tap the overflow menu (three dots) at the top right, then Load from and select whichever cloud service it's stored on.



You can back your messages up to cloud storage, then restore them. / © ANDROIDPIT
6. There are plenty of extra options in SMS Backup & Restore, including scheduled backups and password protection. You can find these by tapping the overflow menu icon at the top right of the app's home screen, then hit Preferences.



Take advantage of the opportunity to schedule backups and more. / © ANDROIDPIT
How to back up everything on Android
How to transfer everything from iPhone to Android
Have you ever lost your text messages by accident? Did you manage to recover them? Share your tips and experiences in the comments.

GOOGLE Nexus 5X

What's Hot: Attractive, solidly built yet light. Great camera hardware, responsive, clean Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Works on most carriers.

What's Not: Camera app sporadically slow. No microSD card slot. USB-C port is a bit ahead of its time.



Reviewed October 26, 2015 by Lisa Gade, Editor in Chief (twitter: @lisagade)


This is for those of you who lamented that Google went with a phablet for their 2014 Nexus phone, and a really big one at that. The Nexus 6 was a massive phone and an expensive one too, but with the Nexus 5X, built by LG, they've returned to a more pocket friendly smartphone, in both senses of the phrase. The price starts at a reasonable $379 and the 5.2" Nexus 5X is one of the more compact Android phones currently on the market. That doesn't mean it's iPhone 6s petite, nor is it as small as the Samsung Galaxy S6, but it is a bit smaller than the LG G4 and significantly smaller than the more expensive 5.7" Nexus 6P that launched at the same time as the 5X. Midrange and better than midrange (but not quite flagship) unlocked non-contract phones have been the rage this year with the Moto X Pure, the OnePlus Two and the Asus ZenFone 2 fighting for your dollars. The Nexus 5X has a certain charm though, not only because it runs pure Android and will get OS updates first, but because it does both CDMA and GSM and thus will work on the big four US carriers (that's right--Verizon and Sprint as well as T-Mobile and AT&T). Of course it will also work on smaller and regional carriers and overseas.

Specs and Basic Facts

The more affordable of the 2015 Nexus phones is no slouch: it has a full HD 1920 x 1080 IPS display, a very capable 12.3MP rear camera (the same as found on the Nexus 6P), a front 5MP camera, dual band WiFi 801.11ac with MIMO, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, GPS with GLONASS and a 2,700 mAh battery. It's slim and light and it has more 4G LTE bands than you can list in one breath. The smartphone has 2 gigs of RAM and it's available with 16 gigs of storage for $379 and 32 gigs of storage for $429. Google still despises removable storage so there's no microSD card slot. The nano SIM card slot lives on the side (you'll use the included poke tool to eject the card carrier) and the battery is sealed inside. It's available in "carbon" black, white and "ice" mint green. The casing is polycarbonate and the display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3. Not bad at all for a phone at this price with no carrier commitment required. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I personally find the phone to be good looking with pleasing curves and an interesting camera hump.



The phone's power button and volume rocker are on the right side, and the 3.5mm audio jack and USB-C port (USB 3.1) are on the bottom. The USB-C port is perhaps a bit too forward thinking, or at least it feels that way because Google chose to ship the phone with just a USB-C to USB-C cable, when few laptops or desktops have that port. You'll have to buy a USB-C to USB-A standard port connector if you wish to transfer files and media between your computer and phone. The Nexus 6P includes that adapter, perhaps because its price tag is higher. The charger uses USB-C, so the included cable of course works with it.
Android 6.0 Marshmallow

The Nexus 5X and 6P are the first devices to ship with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It brings OS-based support for fingerprint scanners (companies like Samsung had to roll their own fingerprint software and security features). The 5X has a fingerprint scanner on the back, and it works extremely well. Marshmallow also has Android Doze, where the OS manages running applications more aggressively when the phone is sleeping. This improves standby times, and you shouldn't see your phone's charge drop 10% or more overnight, as it might have in the bad old days before Doze. There's a context sensitive Google Now function where you can get results that are (supposedly) related to whatever you're looking at on screen, be it a web page or something else (press and hold the home button to activate the feature). This was hit and miss in our tests, but I'm sure Google will improve it--after all, they excel at search and the AI behind it. Lastly, app permissions are easier to understand and more granular. Instead of being greeted by a list of arcane permissions when you choose to install an app, you'll be notified when an app actually tries to first make use of that permission (say when Instagram wants to access your camera so you can... you know... share photos on that service).



Horsepower and Performance

The Nexus 5X runs on the same CPU and graphics processor as the LG G4. That's not bad considering the G4's flagship status a few months back. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 is a 6 core, 64 bit CPU clocked at 1.8 GHz with Adreno 418 graphics. No, it's not as fast as the toastier Snapdragon 810 or Samsung's Exynos used in the Galaxy S6, but it's still in Qualcomm's top tier and is plenty fast enough to keep the phone moving along smoothly. The clean Android build makes the phone even more responsive since it doesn't have to handle heavy custom UI overlays. The Nexus 5X benchmarks a little bit slower than the LG G4, and we can only assume that Google didn't put maximal effort in optimizing it for benchmarks as did LG with their G4. The 5X does have 2 gigs of RAM vs. 3 gigs for the G4, but that shouldn't make a difference in benchmark tests.

As noted, the phone is available with 16 or 32 gigs of storage, and our 16 gig model had 10.67 gigs available out of the box. There is no microSD card slot, so you won't be able to expand storage using a card. We're still investigating whether it supports USB host (we're cobbling together adapter cables since there are currently no USB-C host adapters on the market).