5 Android Apps That We Can’t Live Without

5 Android Apps That We Can’t Live Without

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Five Android apps that go into every smartphone that we review

Here in Unbox HQ we go through a lot of Android phones for review. One of our pre-review rituals is to download essential apps that we use on a daily basis which either helps us evaluate Android devices, manage our time and help us do our work. We’ve compiled five of the Android apps that we always install in our new Android phones once we get them out of the box and we start reviewing them.

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1. AnTuTu Benchmark

Of course, where would we be without AnTuTu’s benchmarking software. While there’s a ton of other benchmarking apps out in the market today, AnTuTu has always been our favorite because it’s easy to use and is the most common benchmarking software out there today. It makes comparing performance of Android smartphones with each other easy, and while there’s no substitute for real-life performance, AnTuTu’s synthetic scores is usually a good indicator of just how far a smartphone can go performance-wise. AnTuTu is available for free.

Airdroid

2. Airdroid

Airdroid is a free Android management tool that allows you to control your device from the comfort of your desktop. We spend a lot of time in front of our PC writing, editing photos and doing research, and sometimes we’re just too lazy to get up and physically check our phone for messages. Airdroid allows you monitor your Android device from the comfort of your desktop, where you can check messages, manage apps, see your contacts, etc. It basically turns your Android device into a web monitor of sorts. Heck, you can even use Airdroid to see what your phone is seeing using its camera. It’s an awesome little tool that allows you to keep an eye on your phone without having to physically touch it. It’s free to download and use, though free users have a data cap of up to 100MB a month. It’s $1.99 (Php 89) a month, or you can pay the yearly fee of $19.99 (Php 894).

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3. SwiftKey

While there are many, many Android keyboards out there, we always keep coming back to Swiftkey. The Swiftkey replacement keyboard for Android is simply one of the best Android keyboards out there, and is capable of predictive text the likes you wouldn’t believe. Their Swiftkey Flow gesture technology is one of the easiest and most accurate out there, and it actually learns from you and gives you relevant suggestions for words that you would actually use. And yes, before you ask, the prediction technology works with Tagalog words as well. Once we evaluate the stock keyboard of a particular device, in goes Swiftkey. Swiftkey is free to try (for a limited time) and retails for Php 219.

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4. Waze

If you drive to work, you need to have Waze installed in your phone, period. Waze is a social navigation app that takes traffic information from other users and puts it in your phone. It’s saved our butts countless times while driving (and riding in taxis) by alerting us which routes to take and which to avoid. While it does sometimes stumble in giving us directions (it once sent us directly through Espana and not the faster sidestreet P. Florentino) it’s still an invaluable tool for people who always seem to get lost in the jungles of Manila (i.e. us). Waze is available for free.

Dead_Trigger

5. Dead Trigger 2

What would an app list be without a game? Aside from being a staple game that we use for gauging a smartphone’s real life performance, Dead Trigger is a great game in its own right. While it has in-app purchases, you can still go through the game (albeit it’s a little more challenging) without spending a sigle centavo. It also scales to the hardware that you’re running, turning off effects and the like to conform to the limits of the hardware on your smartphone. It’s also a ton fun – blasting the crap out of zombies usually is. Dead Trigger 2 is free with in-app purchases.

That’s our Android app list. How about you guys? What other Android apps would you recommend? Sound off in the comments below.

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