Category: Android

Nokia 2.2 arrives. A smartphone for the less techy.

We can’t find a way to buy it just yet, but the Nokia website now has the Nokia 2.2 online and is set to cost just €99. The headline features of this one are the AI helpers and the sheer fact that it’s cheap. It’s not quite as …

Google Maps – Now with a speedometer

I’m probably going to open up a whole can of worms here, but your car speedometer, some of the time, isn’t right. For the most part, it only needs to be accurate to within plus or minus 5 mph at 50 mph. Here in the UK the law …

Saving and earning money with your smartphone

I’ve got a savings account. The other day I took a look at it and was pretty shocked at just how much money wasn’t there. The problem? Here in the UK our interest rates are really low. That’s great if you’re getting a loan or a mortgage, but …

Mario Kart – Android gameplay

Mario Kart has been a hugely popular and addictive game in our house. It’s available on the Nintendo Switch, but we’ve played it on the Wii U and the original Wii back in the day too. For everyone else though, it’s not readily available. You can’t get it …

Nokia 1 Plus – Overview and video

A smartphone that costs just £69.99? There’s got to be some shortcomings, right? Well yes. Of course. You’re not going to get a Ferrari when you’re paying Ford Fiesta money, but the Nokia 1 Plus is a great first step for those who are just starting out in …

Xiaomi Announce the Mi Smart Band 4 coming to Europe

In continuation of my current obsession with all things wearable, I have just seen that Xiaomi has announced their latest Band product in the form of the Mi Smart Band 4. This is a departure from the previous designs in that it now has a full-colour AMOLED display. …

Alexa will now make calls for you

If you’ve got yourself an Amazon Echo and you’re a Vodafone customer, this is definitely for you. Customers can now make or receive hands-free calls through Amazon Echo with your existing mobile plan. All you need to do is link your mobile number to your Alexa account. This …

Google teases the Pixel 4

Whilst the Pixel 3 is still fairly new, Google appear to have released information about the Pixel 4 already. The official Google account just added this tweet with an image of the phone.. Well, since there seems to be some interest, here you go! Wait 'til you see …

Played Fortnite recently?

If you haven’t, you probably know someone who has. The game has not only exploded across gaming platforms, but it’s remained “sticky”, with players coming back again and again to play. On your smartphone though, you may be playing a very similar game – PUBG Mobile. This has …

Honor 20 Incoming. Great specs, great price.

A 6.26″ all-view screen with a 2340 x 1080 pixel resolution at 412PPI. A 48 megapixel rear camera and a 16 megapixel wide-angle shooter. A 2 megapixel depth-assist camera, a 2 megaxpixel macro camera and a 32 megapixel selfie shooter. AI camera capabilities, Virtual 9.1 Surround Sound, NFC, …

TicWatch Pro reduced for Fathers Day

So you may have seen the TicWatch Pro unboxing that I posted a few days ago, and thought that might be a good present for your dad – or maybe you just fancied one yourself. Well, the good news is that if you fall into either of these …

Trump Trade Termination continues to bite Huawei

The President of the USA, who thinks that the moon is part of Mars and wants a “Brexit wall” in Ireland, has put the boot into Huawei. The American businessman, just a few weeks after meeting Apple CEO Tim Cook, put Huawei on a list of “foreign adversaries” …

Mobvoi TicWatch S2 – Review

Here at Coolsmartphone Towers, we do still like our wearables. It has been a rocky road for them though since their inception a few years back. They were expensive, and people didn’t really know what they were for. I have used a few different ones over the years …

More Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Leaks Emerge.

Yet more leaked images have emerged of the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy Note 10, and these latest renders have come from Steve Hemmerstoffer and 91Mobiles. Looking like a change in direction for Samsung’s Galaxy Note lineup, the upcoming flagship ditches the horizontal camera setup found on previous devices …

Uno USB Type-C magnetic cable review.

The Sydney-based consumer electronics brand ASAP technologies has sent me through the Uno USB type-C magnetic cable for review. This cable is currently on Kickstarter, and has apparently already reached and surpassed its funding goal with days still to go. The beauty of this cable is its interchangeable …

OnePlus 7 now available to order

Don’t get confused, this isn’t the 7 Pro (that’s the one on the right), so you won’t be getting the flip camera or Warp Charge. The screen is a bit lower resolution and the battery is slightly lower capacity, but it’s £499 for the 6GB model. That’s definitely …

TicWatch Pro – Unboxing

I have been testing the TicWatch S2 for the past few days whilst I have been away on holiday and I have been mightily impressed with it in general. There has however been one thing that has been slightly annoying me and that was the battery life of …

“No gun, no smoke, only speculation”, says Huawei

The continuing Trump Trade Termination is having a big impact on Huawei globally. Google won’t be able to provide an operating system, ARM won’t licence chip designs and several internal US-sourced components will stop arriving. Huawei have today filed a motion for summary judgment to challenge the decision …

Asus ZenFone 6 – Battery update

This was never meant to be a battery test. What happened, if I’m honest, is that I forgot to charge the ZenFone 6 one night. This meant that I had to go into uncharted territory. A second day on battery. So that happened, and the 5000mAh battery simply …

Huawei – Possible reprieve in Trump Trade Termination

US businessman and part-time President, Donald Trump, is now indicating that Huawei isn’t as “dangerous” as he makes out. He’s told reporters that Huawei could be part of a future Chinese trade deal. In his stage logic, he’d be quite happy to include the “very dangerous” telecoms company …

Huawei woes. Now Panasonic leave Huawei high and dry

The American businessman, Donald Trump, has single-handedly delivered a hammer-blow to the Huawei and Honor operation. We’ve already covered the recent problems, which include EE not ranging Huawei 5G phones and ARM stopping HiSilicon using their chip technology, but now things – if it were possible – have …

Honor 20 Pro – Hands on

So, the launch has happened and it’s now time to get up close and personal with the Honor 20 Pro. Now, before we get into this fully, I would like to thank Ricky West from TechTalk. He has provided us with the close-up shots of the device. I …

Honor 20 Pro announced

Today we have had the pleasure of being in London again. This time Honor have announced their very handset. This phone is actually part of a new collection of phones called the “Honor 20 Series”. Within the series, there will be a Pro version, a Standard version and …

Honor 20 Series live stream

We are on the ground at the Honor 20 Series launch event and will be doing our best to update you as we on our Twitter account. However, as is the case at the major event’s reception is normally patchy at best. If you want to follow along …

Huawei berate new US restrictions

The repercussions of the US-China trade war hit Huawei straight in the face yesterday, with Google complying with a Trump Executive Order to stop working with the company. This means that the delivery of new software to Huawei and Honor would stop on handsets to be launched, and …

Google drop-kicks Huawei.

The smartphone landscape is cut-throat. HTC? Gone. Sony? Motorola? LG? Struggling. But Huawei have enjoyed a massive rise to fame. They were already huge in China, but they’re now huge in various places around the world and, here in the UK their phones are selling like hot cakes. …

Asus ZenFone 6 – Gallery special

You’ll have no doubt noticed on my unboxing video that I jammed some things into the inner workings of the flip camera system and generally moved it around to see how strong it was. You can move it manually and it will stick in the place you left …

ZenFone 6 – Unboxing and example photos from the camera

Eager YouTube followers may have seen my late-night unboxing last night. However, I’ve now added a far better version so that you can see what this phone is all about. Before that though, if you want one, you need to head to the Asus online store. This one …

Huawei goes 5G. Welcome in, the Mate 20 X

A mobile phone company called Huawei announced a phone late last night. You might not have heard about them because they’re hardly ever in the news 🙂 Thing is, this is a 5G phone, and it’s a first for the company. The Huawei Mate 20 X 5G is …

Asus ZenFone 6 – All you need to know

Here in the evening sunshine, Asus conducted quite possibly the most relaxed press launch I have ever had the privilege of attending. A large part of the announcement was put aside to detail the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 CPU. A lot was said about it, but I can distil …

Asus ZenFone 6 Launch – Live and direct

Word on the street here in Valencia is that Asus are cranking things up a notch with their smartphone attack. Their flagship ZenFone 6 is due to land very shortly, but we already know that it’ll be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 CPU because, well, it says …

Atmosphere Weather – A whole new way to plan your day

When you check the weather it’s usually via a daily update or a top-down representation of your area with clouds, sun and rain symbols etc. This, though, is very different. Atmosphere Weather definitely takes a different and very refreshing approach to forecasting. The main screen has a clock-like …

OnePlus hire Iron Man

OK, story time. Get comfortable.. Once there was a company called HTC. They started off making phones and strange things called “PDA’s”, but nobody knew who they were because the networks would put their logos on the devices instead. Then, some years later, HTC got big. Really big. …

The OnePlus 7 – All you need to know

Arriving after the OnePlus 7 Pro, this is the little brother – the OnePlus 7. It’ll be cheaper at £499 for the 6GB RAM and 128GB storage model storage, or £549 for the 8GB / 256GB version. The differences? Well, there’s none of that pop-up camera cleverness and …

OnePlus 7 Pro – Shots from the camera

We got sent some example photos which were taken on this new OnePlus 7 Pro, but we wanted to take some snaps on the new handset and see just how good they are for ourselves. The thing is, we’re not in a beautiful meadow or standing on a …

OnePlus 7 Pro – Photo special!

We’ve written up an in-depth article about the specs on this, but let’s have a closer look at the phone itself shall we? The short version is that this, the 7 Pro, will be available for £649 next week. That’ll get you 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. You …

The OnePlus 7 Pro – That pop-up camera in action

Fantastic specs, great screen, super-fast charging, epic rear camera setup, gorgeous design… Wait, it’s got a pop-up camera? That, in my head, is what most people are thinking when they saw the new OnePlus 7 Pro today. We’re going to give you a look at it in action …

The OnePlus 7 Pro – Everything you need to know

Today was a definite step up for OnePlus. A big launch here in London for the company, and we can now bring you all the details on this hot new smartphone. First of all, we should just point out that there’ll be three of these. First, the OnePlus …

OnePlus 7 Pro – Live launch coverage. Watch here!

Hello London, we’re currently in the Media Area at Printworks, London. They’ve promised us a big announcement, and I can tell you one thing – this is a whole lot bigger than the OnePlus 6T launch we attended last year. Much bigger. We’ve already brought you loads of …