These are the Best Photo Editor Apps for Android: Snapseed, PicsArt, Lightroom, and more!

Clicking photos is something we all do on a regular basis using our smartphones. Every smartphone processes images differently and produces photos that may not appeal to everyone. For example, some phones may capture photos with higher saturation levels, while some may capture warmer tones compared to what the scene actually looked like. This is where editing the photos you make comes in handy. Regardless of whether you have the best flagship smartphone or an affordable phone, editing photos to the way you like them is important. Especially if you plan on posting your photos on social media platforms, as it’s vital to give them a good look in order to make them attractive. To do so, you’ll need a good photo editor and we’re here to help you with just that. Here are some of the best photo editor apps for Android to help you make your photos look the way you want them to.

The Best Photo Editor Apps for Android:

• Snapseed
• PicsArt
• Adobe Lightroom
• Adobe Photoshop Express
• VSCO
• Polish Photo Editor Pro
• Canva
• Fotor
• Pixlr

The Play Store is flooded with multiple photo editor apps, but not all of them are good or offer sufficient features and options to achieve a good edit. So we have zeroed in on the best apps that you can find to edit your photos, and ones that offer a good set of features and multiple editing options in the same app, like creating a collage, making graphic templates for YouTube thumbnails or Instagram stories, etc. Each app has its own set of use-cases and advantages so you can pick the one best suited to your needs or you can even download multiple apps based on your requirements.

Snapseed

While Snapseed is not the most feature-rich photo editor app, it’s simple to use and is quite straightforward. It’s developed by Google and offers a user-friendly UI. You just have to choose the image you want to edit and you can see a host of different options to tinker around with.

If you want a simple edit with filters, you can do that, or you can even use some tools that are really handy like the Healing tool to remove unwanted elements from an image or even Head Pose to change the look of someone’s head in a portrait shot. It’s free to use, doesn’t have any ads, and is a great photo editor app for beginners.

Snapseed (Free, Google Play) →

PicsArt

PicsArt is one of the most popular photo editor apps on Android and for good reason. It has probably every single tool you would need for basic and advanced photo editing, from different crop tools to background removal and even the ability to add text and multiple image layers just like more advanced programs like Photoshop. You can even create collages and banners for your social media using PicsArt.

The basic version is free but contains a good number of ads which may be annoying. You can get rid of them and unlock some advanced features by purchasing a PicsArt Gold membership plan.

PicsArt Photo Editor: Pic, Video & Collage Maker (Free⁺, Google Play) →

Adobe Lightroom

Adobe is known for its suite of photo and video editing apps for Windows and Mac and Lightroom is essentially one of those apps that’s very well-renowned among professional photo editors and so has been made available on Android as well.

Like the name would suggest, Lightroom is a photo editor for Android that lets you play around with light and colors in a photo. You can meddle around with the exposure levels, highlight, shadows, and mainly color tones in an image. If you want to color grade your photos, Lightroom is a great place to start with. You can also get Lightroom presets from all over the internet that can change the color scheme of your photos if you don’t want to edit them manually.

The basic version is free but if you want more features, you’ll have to subscribe to Adobe’s Creative Cloud platform.

Adobe Lightroom - Photo Editor & Pro Camera (Free⁺, Google Play) →

Adobe Photoshop Express

Just like Lightroom, Photoshop is also a part of Adobe’s suite of apps and is one of the most popular, if not the most popular, photo editor apps on Windows and Mac. If you’re wondering what’s different between Lightroom and Photoshop Express, Lightroom as stated earlier is more for color grading and tweaking the elements in a photo, like contrast and saturation. Whereas Photoshop deals with adding or removing extra elements in the photo, like additional image layers, stickers, or changing perspectives and adding text. You can first use Lightroom to tweak the colors in a photo and then import it into Photoshop to add extra elements if you want to.

Just like Lightroom, the basic version is free but you’ll have to subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud to unlock advanced features.

Adobe Photoshop Express：Photo Editor Collage Maker (Free⁺, Google Play) →

VSCO

VSCO is essentially like a social media app but just for photos. It’s a little like Pinterest in the sense that users can post their photographs for other VSCO users to take a look at and appreciate. Apart from being a platform to share your images, VSCO has an in-built photo editor that works great for basic edits in terms of lighting and colors, just like Lightroom. You can modify the brightness, contrast, saturation, and hue levels of an image along with sharpening it or adding some grain.

Most tools are accessible free of charge on VSCO while some features like HSL tuning require you to become a member. VSCO is a good photo editor to have especially for its in-built filters.

VSCO: Photo & Video Editor with Slo-mo Effect (Free⁺, Google Play) →

Photo Editor Pro

Photo Editor Pro is a photo editor app for Android developed by InShot which is popular for its video editing app. If you’re looking for a photo editor that’s a Swiss Army knife of sorts, in the sense that it has almost every feature you would need to edit a photo, then this app is for you, even though it has a fairly generic branding and name.

From basic edits like filters and crops to adding neon effects and multiple overlays, this app can do it all. It even has a beautification feature that removes blemishes from photos. It can also be used to create collages.

While the app is full of features, it does have some annoying ads that you’ll see from time to time and you’ll have to purchase the Pro version to get rid of them.

Photo Editor Pro (Free⁺, Google Play) →

Canva

If you’re a graphic designer or you use templates to make cover photos for social media or anything of that sort, chances are you’ve heard of Canva. It’s a popular website that can be used to edit photos and is also available as an app on Android.

Canva offers a lot of templates for multiples use-cases like Instagram posts, stories, YouTube thumbnails, posters, flyers, invitation cards, etc., and is very handy to create an attractive image using the existing templates. You can also choose to create your own image completely from scratch if you want to be more creative. If you want to design or edit photos for specific templates and purposes, look no further.

Canva: Graphic Design, Video Collage, Logo Maker (Free⁺, Google Play) →

Fotor

Fotor is very similar to PicsArt in terms of the features you get. Along with basic editing, you can add effects and blur out certain parts of an image or even shift focus to a smaller region. You can also add text, stickers, and frames to your images.

There’s one interesting feature in Fotor called Recipe which is like a preset you can create. You can create multiple recipes so that whenever you want to apply the same kind of edit to different images, you can just select from one of the recipes and it’ll apply all of those edits to that image. This can be really handy if you have multiple images to edit. Fotor can also help you make collages and design posters.

Fotor Photo Editor - Design Maker & Photo Collage (Free⁺, Google Play) →

Pixlr

Pixlr offers a very no-frills experience in the sense you don’t have to log in or register before you can start editing your photos. The UI is simplistic and looks beautiful with a new scenic background every time you open the app.

The options are straightforward – you can edit an image, create a collage, or choose to edit based on a pre-existing template. In terms of features, you get everything you would expect from a photo editing app and nothing is hidden behind a paywall. There’s a premium version but that’s only to get rid of ads. This is a nice photo editor app for Android that would get the job done for most people looking to edit their photos.

Pixlr – Free Photo Editor (Free⁺, Google Play) →

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These are some of the best photo editor apps for Android that can help you improve the look of your photos before you share them with your friends or upload them onto social media platforms. You can even use these apps to create thumbnails for YouTube videos or create posters for your projects or exhibitions. In fact, we often use apps like Canva and PicsArt to create featured images for articles on XDA, so there’s another use-case right there.

We personally recommend having a few of these apps installed on your phone to help you with editing photos in different scenarios. Snapseed, Lightroom, and Pixlr are some good options that have you covered across all requirements.

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What are the best places to buy mechanical keyboards: Amazon, Microcenter, and more

With the chipset crisis still looming around, PC gamers continue to hunt left, right, and center for PC parts at reasonable prices. The good news is, unlike core hardware like CPU and GPU, PC peripherals have not been affected and are available rather easily at the right price. You can buy mechanical keyboards at various places but before you do that, some thorough research needs to be in place. First of all, decide whether you want a wired or wireless keyboard. Next, make sure you choose the right size depending on the space on your desk or wherever you are planning to use the keyboard. Next, the utmost important question is which type of switch do you need?

If you don’t have any knowledge about mechanical keyboards, we have an extensive beginners guide that should definitely help you with any questions or doubts you may have. Let’s now move on to some of the best places to buy mechanical keyboards.

Amazon, Best Buy, and others

The most obvious places to check for mechanical keyboards are the popular online shopping portals. Amazon and Best Buy have a solid range of mechanical keyboards ranging from different brands at different price points. You can also have a look at B&H Photo, Walmart, Staples, and Target. It goes without saying, but it’s best to double-check the features and the model number before you hit that purchase button.

Then there are dedicated online portals that specialize in PC parts, including hardware and peripherals. Microcenter and Newegg are the best and most reliable places to get PC components. Microcenter also has physical stores in the US you can visit after verifying the keyboard you’re looking for on their website.

Mechanical keyboards at Microcenter. Image: GeekHack

Keyboard manufacturers

Probably the most reliable way to get hold of a mechanical keyboard is to head over to the manufacturer’s website. Most of them have their own stores on their official website where you can directly buy the particular model you’re looking for. Here’s an extensive list of all the popular keyboard manufacturers that we managed to get from Reddit:

• Adesso
• Azio
• Cherry Corp
• Cooler Master
• Corsair
• Cortron
• Das Keyboard
• DataHand
• Datalux
• Deck
• Dsi Keyboards
• Ducky
• Filco/Diatec
• Gigabyte
• Glorious PC Gaming Race
• iOne
• KBTalking USA
• Keyboardio
• KeyKool
• Kinesis
• Logitech
• Matias
• Max
• Personal Media Corporation
• PFU/HHKB
• Qpad
• Rapoo
• Razer
• Roccat
• Rosewill
• SIIG
• Steelseries
• ThermalTake eSports
• Topre/Realforce
• Trulyergonomic
• Unicomp
• WASD Keyboards

Independent keyboard vendors and artists

Additionally, we stumbled upon a list of independent vendors and resellers that sell keyboards and keyboard-related accessories. Some of these vendors offer custom keyboard accessories and parts that can definitely breathe new life into your existing mechanical keyboard.

• Kinetic Labs
• Space Cables
• Omnitype
• Apiary Keyboards
• Novelkeys
• DROP
• Elboard Keyboard Supply
• Mechanical Keyboards
• The Key Dot Company
• Originative Co
• Asceny Gear
• Cannon Keys
• Ungodly.design
• Teal Technik
• Prime Keyboards
• Little Keyboards
• Keycult
• Ringerkeys
• Clawsome Boards
• Divinikey
• Prevail Key Co
• Bolsa Supply
• LastPadawan
• Vala Supply
• Keeb.io
• 415Keys
• Typr.tools
• 3dKeebs
• American Haptics
• Thockeys
• 1upkeyboards
• Dangkeebs
• Flashquark
• 1UP Keyboards
• All Caps

If you haven’t decided on which one to get, make sure to check out our list of the best mechanical keyboards to buy in 2021. We also have a quick guide on how to clean and maintain your mechanical keyboard.

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Google Chat makes it easier to search your messages

It’s about to get a whole lot easier to search through your messages in Google Chat, thanks to the introduction of new “Search Chips.” In Gmail, the feature added clickable search suggestions for G Suite users, making search filters a whole lot easier to use. A couple of months after the initial release, Google rolled out Search Chips in Gmail for consumers. After it was leaked to be in development towards the end of 2020, Search Chips are finally rolling out for Google Chat users.

Search Chips allow you to quickly edit down your search with interactive filters suggested on screen. You can choose to search messages by sender, chat, attachments, date, and more. Results now also include the contents of messages, making it easier to sift through results to find the one specific thing you’re looking for. Filters are shown below the search bar and can be interacted with by simply tapping them.

These features are available now on Android and will be available on iOS and the web version by the end of July 2021. It is available to all Google Workspace users and personal accounts. Google says that this is an “extended rollout” and may take longer than 15 days to reach all users.

It’s worth noting that Google recently started rolling out the unified Gmail interface with Meet, Chat, and Rooms tabs for all users. Since all of your mails, chats, and video calls will now show up in the same place, the new Search Chips feature for Google Chat will go a long way in helping you find messages in the cluttered interface. You can learn more about the unified Gmail interface and how to enable it by following this link.

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Facebook wants to take on Clubhouse and Spotify with its new mobile app features

It’s no secret that Facebook loves to copy features of rival social media platforms that are fast gaining steam. So it was no surprise when Facebook declared in April that it was working on new audio features, including Clubhouse-style chat rooms. At the time, these features weren’t available to the public at large. That changes today as the company has started rolling out these features to users.

In a blog post on Monday, Facebook announced that it’s starting to roll out Live Audio Rooms and podcast features in the US. In the first phase, Facebook will allow select Facebook Groups and public figures on iOS to host Live Audio Rooms. Hosts can invite their friends, followers, and verified public figures to be a speaker.

Live Audio Rooms will also have the ability to raise money for a nonprofit or fundraiser. Listeners can show their support or appreciation to the host by sending Stars, a virtual currency of Facebook. This will, in turn, bumps these listeners to the front row, so they’re clearly visible to hosts. For now, the ability to create chat rooms is exclusive to iOS.

Live Audio Rooms will appear prominently in Facebook News Feed, and users can also sign up to receive alerts when a Live Audio Room goes live. Similar to Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces, users can enable live captions, “raise a hand” to request to be a speaker, and send reactions.

Facebook has partnered up with several prominent public figures and creators such as TOKiMOSTA, Russell Wilson, Kehlani, Reggie Watts, and more to kick off the rollout of Live Audio Rooms.

Alongside chat rooms, Facebook has also started rolling out podcasts, allowing Facebook users to listen to podcasts right from within the Facebook app. Podcasts will appear on News Feed and will also be accessible from creators’ Facebook Pages. Users will also have the ability to react, comment, bookmark, and share podcasts.

Like Spotify and other podcast services, you can listen to podcasts via a mini player or full-screen player. Podcasts will be streamed via RSS feeds, and podcasters can link their show’s RSS feed to Facebook to automatically generate News Feed posts for future episodes.

 

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Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold makes its way to India at almost twice the price

At the CES trade show in January last year, Lenovo showcased the world’s first laptop with a foldable display — the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold. The device featured a unique design, with a 13.3-inch foldable pOLED display, a leather folio case with a kickstand, and a wireless keyboard accessory that instantly turned the device from a tablet to a laptop. The ThinkPad X1 Fold went on sale in the US in September last year at a starting price of $2,499. Now, it has finally landed in the Indian market, but at almost twice the price.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Hands-On: Foldable PCs are the Future

If you missed our previous coverage of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold, here’s a quick refresher. The foldable laptop features a 13.3-inch pOLED display with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, a peak brightness of 300 nits, and 95% DCI-P3 coverage. It packs an Intel Core i5-L16G7 processor, 8GB of LPDDR4X 4267 MHz RAM, up to a terabyte of M.2 PCIe-NVMe storage, and a 50Wh battery with 65W fast charging support. For connectivity, it features two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports, an optional nano-SIM slot, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.1.

As mentioned earlier, the ThinkPad X1 Fold features a unique design with a lightweight carbon fiber and magnesium alloy chassis covered in black leather. It’s a bit hefty, measuring half an inch thick (unfolded) and weighing slightly less than 1kg. However, as Ben states in his hands-on review, it’s completely serviceable as a tablet when you get used to the weight. If you don’t want to use it as a tablet, you can fold it in half, and it automatically switches to laptop mode. You can use it as a traditional laptop with the on-screen keyboard or the Bluetooth keyboard that Lenovo sells separately.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is available for purchase on Lenovo’s website at a starting price of ₹3,29,000 (~$4,428), almost twice as much as its price in the US. At this price point, I don’t think Lenovo will sell many units in India. But it may appeal to some buyers who have deep pockets and a thirst to stay on the bleeding edge.

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YouTube may soon let you play entire videos right on the home page

The YouTube app currently shows previews of videos when you’re browsing through them on the home page. The previews play automatically as you scroll through the home page, giving you a glimpse of the video before you even tap on it. However, the autoplay previews don’t play with sound, and the app doesn’t give you an option to turn on captions. But YouTube has now started testing a new change that will let you play entire videos on the app’s home page, complete with sound, an option to turn on subtitles, and even a progress bar.

The change has already started showing up for some YouTube users, and it adds two new buttons and a progress bar on videos on the home page. The new buttons appear in the top right corner of the video, allowing you to quickly turn on audio and captions on the home page, while the progress bar at the bottom lets you easily scrub through the video.

Android 12, Pixel 4A. You can play entire YouTube video from home screen without actually clicking on it. YouTube has also added an option to toggle CC and scroll through progress player (can see image preview now) @MattNavarra @wongmjane @alex193a @liahaberman @digitaliworld pic.twitter.com/JY8ehkcSUp

— Samarth (@iamstake) June 22, 2021

As you can see in the attached tweet, the mute/unmute and captions buttons are persistent. So you won’t have to enable/disable them for each video on the home screen. This will let you easily browse through the videos without turning them on or off for each video. It’s also worth noting that the mute/unmute button doesn’t work as intended in the clip, suggesting that the feature is still in its early stages of development.

At the moment, Google seems to be testing the change with a small number of YouTube users. We couldn’t replicate it on any of our devices, which leads us to believe that it isn’t tied to the Android version or a specific device. We’ll update this post as soon as the change starts rolling out to more users.

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Xiaomi unveils Mi 11 Lite and Mi Watch Revolve Active in India

Xiaomi on Tuesday unveiled the Mi 11 Lite and Mi Watch Revolve Active for the Indian market. The Mi 11 Lite is a watered-down version of the flagship Mi 11. It launched in Europe back in March in 4G and 5G versions. However, Xiaomi is only bringing the 4G model to India. On the other hand, the Mi Watch Revolve Active is an upgraded version of the last year’s Mi Watch Revolve.

Mi 11 Lite: Specifications

Specification	Mi 11 Lite
Dimensions and Weight	160.53mm x 75.72mm x 6.99mm 157g
Display	6.55-inch AMOLED Full HD+ 90Hz screen refresh rate 240Hz touch sampling rate 10-bit color depth HDR10 DCI-P3 wide color gamut (coverage unspecified)
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G: 2x ARM Cortex-A76 cores @ 2.3GHz 6x ARM Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8GHz 8nm Adreno 618 GPU
RAM and Storage	6GB/8GB RAM 128GB UFS 2.2 flash storage MicroSD card support
Battery & Charging	4,250 mAh battery 33W fast charger (inside the box)
Rear Camera	Primary: 64MP f/1.79 primary Secondary: 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide Tertiary: 5MP telemacro f/2.4
Front Camera	16MP f/2.4
Ports	USB Type-C port No 3.5mm headphone jack
Connectivity	4G LTE Bluetooth 5.1 Type-C port WiFi 802.11.b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz)
Security	Side-mounted fingerprint reader
Software	Android 11 with MIUI 12

The Mi 11 Lite is a breath of fresh air from the usual Xiaomi phones, which are always laser-focused on winning the spec sheet race. Instead, the new phone focuses on delivering a thoughtful design and premium build quality.

Xiaomi says the Mi 11 Lite is the slimmest and lightest smartphone of 2021 — the phone is just 6.81mm thick and weighs 157g. It also has a near-flat camera module, with the camera bump protruding just 1.77mm from the back.

On the front, the Mi 11 Lite flaunts a 6.55-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with a 90Hz screen refresh rate, 10-bit color depth, 240Hz touch sampling rate, and HDR10 certification. In addition, the panel is protected by Gorilla Glass 5 and has a peak brightness of 800nits.

Under the hood, the phone is powered by a Snapdragon 732G, paired with 6GB/8GB RAM and 128GB UFS 2.2 expandable storage. Over on the back, you get a triple camera setup headlined by a 64MP primary shooter and flanked by an 8MP ultra-wide and 5MP macro shooters.

There’s a 4,250mAh battery that charges via a 33W fast charger.

Elsewhere, you get dual stereo speakers, Bluetooth 5.1, a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, Wi-Fi 5, and Android 11 with MIUI 12 on top. Unfortunately, the phone skips out on the 3.5mm jack which is quite bold considering the target audience, but for what’s it worth, Xiaomi includes a Type-C to 3.5mm headphone adapter inside the box.

Mi Watch Revolve Active

The Mi Watch Revolve Active is basically a rebranded version of the European Mi Watch that launched last year. The watch comes equipped with a 1.39-inch color AMOLED display with 454 x 454 screen resolution. It offers 117 sports modes and over 110 watch faces. In terms of sensors, you get an optical heart-rate sensor, SpO2 blood oxygen sensor, an ambient light sensor, air pressure sensor, and gyroscope. The watch also has a built-in 12nm GPS chip and supports GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BDS navigation systems.

Other highlights of the Mi Watch Revolve Active include 5ATM water resistance, 14-day battery life, automatic workout detection, stress monitoring, VO2 MAX, and Alexa support.

Pricing & Availability

The Mi 11 Lite will go on sale in India starting June 28 at a starting price of ₹21,999 for the base model. Meanwhile, the top model with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage is priced at ₹23,999. Those who pre-order the device can avail flat ₹1500 discount. The phone will be available from Flipkart, Mi.com, and select offline retailers.

The Mi Watch Revolve Active will go on sale from Amazon India and Mi.com starting June 25 at an early bird price of ₹8,999. Once the offer ends, it will retail at ₹9,999.

On top of Xiaomi’s early bird offers, HDFC credit and debit card owners can avail additional ₹1000 discount on the Mi 11 Lite and ₹750 on the smartwatch.

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