Category: Android

Honor 8 Pro Announced

Honor have just announced their new flagship device: the Honor 8 Pro. The Honor 8 Pro has a sleek all-metal body design with rounded edges, a dual-camera setup that doesn’t protrude and a selection of colours to choose from which includes Midnight Black, Navy Blue and Platinum Gold. …

The Huawei P10 – First impressions and camera special

This comes on loan from EE, where it’s available for £40.99 per month with 5GB of monthly data and unlimited texts and calls. Although I’ve perhaps not totally unleashed everything it can do – I’m properly impressed so far. Out of the box, it was the build quality …

Productivity and mobility. The QWERTY-powered Gemini

I’ll be honest, I’ve been experiencing a bit of a lethargic phase recently. There’s been a degree of apathy in the last few weeks as the never-ending wave of phones from Mobile World Congress has almost deadened my mood. Why? Well, as much as I understand the reasons, …

Internet use now higher on Android than Windows

We are used to hearing news that more people are accessing the web on a mobile device rather than a desktop. However, a new and somewhat significant milestone has been passed, this being that Android’s internet use has overtaken Windows PC’s. According to StatCounter the Android platform represented 37.93% …

Huawei P10 goes live on Vodafone

Morning all, hope you are well. So, it’s all about the Samsung Galaxy S8 at the moment isn’t it? Well no, let’s not forget that the Huawei P10 is now available too.  Vodafone have just made it live with and they still have their “Data Extravaganza” on, so …

Bixby – The new Samsung AI companion

Digital assistants are a thing. Think Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, or (for a few windows die-hards) Cortana. Samsung also had a such a feature, the universally terrible S Voice. It seems Samsung is having another bite of that cherry. One of the announcements on Wednesdays Samsung Galaxy event …

Pacman on Google Maps

What is this? I recently read that our Ian posted an article about a Google Maps update now including the ability to share your location, so of course I went to try it. It’s something I’ve used in WhatsApp before, and in Google Latitude back when that was …

Huawei – Saatchi Gallery “From Selfie to Self-Expression”

This week a photography and art exhibition opened at Saatchi Gallery in London. Coolsmartphone was lucky enough to get early access and to spend some time there before the doors opened to the public. “From Selfie To Self-Expression” is an event partnership between Saatchi Gallery and Huawei, and …

Where to get your Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+

The Samsung Galaxy S8 has been leaking all over the internet in the last few weeks but, finally, we now know all about it. There’s two handsets – the £689 S8 with a 5.8″ screen and the £779 S8+ with a 6.2″ display. Both of them have the …

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S+ … Everything you need to know

In London it was cold. In New York it was cold too. However, despite our efforts Samsung wouldn’t let us attend the launch events. We have instead seen the very strange “live in London” TV advert featuring some extremely eager people watching the “unboxing”. So, what’s the big …

Coolsmartphone Podcast 200 In My Right Pocket…

We’re back and in a bit more of a timely fashion compared to the last Coolsmartphone Podcast recorded Live on YouTube. Coolsmartphone Podcast 200 In My Right Pocket is now available to download via your client of choice or to listen to here on Coolsmartphone.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWkRPZeDZSI This week …

Get a free speaker with your new Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+

There’s just over an hour to go until we see the actual, real, official shots of the new Samsung Galaxy S8. However, up and down the land there’s marketing material rolling out and, thanks to some lovely leakers, we can tell you a few things based on the …

A few hours to wait for the Galaxy S8

Well, today is the day. It happens at some point every year. Not that day, the other one – the announcement of the next Samsung Galaxy S, probably named as the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. Notice that all indications are that the Edge moniker has been dropped? …

In praise of older devices

I am a mobile technology geek. Along with my Huawei P9 and my Lumia 640 phones, I carry round a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 tablet and an iPad 3. I don’t have specific use cases for each of these devices, but just like to have a range of …

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 to return as a refurbished device.

According to a statement released by Samsung Mobile, some of the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 devices will be sold as refurbished devices. Samsung also has plans to salvage each other components such as cameras and semiconductors. In addition, they intend on extracting the metal parts from the remaining …

New Amplicomms M9500 elderly-friendly smartphone announced

We’ve previously seen Doro delivering easy-to-use-yet-clever smartphones for the elderly. I like them because it’s not just a matter of big buttons and a big screen – it’s the remote access that friendly and family can have to the phone. Now a company called amplicomms are getting in …

BatON app review- view battery level of attached bluetooth headset

Have you ever picked up your Bluetooth headphones, then pocketed a pair of wired headphones in case they run out of juice when you’re out? Do you carry a spare pair of backup earphones as you’ve no real idea of the battery level of your Bluetooth earphones? BatON …

Yes, more Galaxy S8 leaks

If the rumor mill is to be believed, and take it from me it’s in full swing, the reveal of the latest Samsung flagship the Galaxy S8 is less than a week away. And to be honest, it’s pretty hard not to have seen a leak of the …

Introducing the Oppo F3 Plus, with more groufie.

OK, that might not be an official word as of yet, but if Oppo’s new F3 Plus takes off, it might just well be. Now wide-angle lenses aren’t a new thing. We’ve seen the likes LG and others do it before, but they’re usually for the rear camera. …

SMS integration to be removed from Google Hangouts.

According to an email being sent out by Google, Hangouts SMS integration will stop working after May 22, 2017. The company will presumably roll out an update on the day that will disable the SMS integration functionality on the app. Google will start showing an in-app notification to …

Google Maps to add two new interesting features.

Right back in 2008 I got my hands on my first Android device, the fantastic T-Mobile G1. One application stood out above all the rest – Google Maps. Back then it was just a very simple mapping tool giving users a fairly simple view of the world. Google …

You fanboy you

Google defines a fanboy as ‘a male fan, especially one who is obsessive about comics, music, film, or science fiction’. To most of us, however, a fanboy is a passionate, perhaps an irrational, but most definitely a misguided fan of a rival mobile phone operating system (could be …

The Cubot X17. A smartphone for around £100. Decent?

Well, how do I start this one exactly? Quite some time ago, the people at Cubot sent me a phone to review. It was the Cubot X17. Now you may not have heard of them, but they do a range of smartphones but this particular one is over …

Yes, yet more Samsung Galaxy S8 leakage

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is quickly becoming the most leaked phone in history. As Mobile World Congress was drawing to a close, an official image leaked out and we’ve since had specs leaking out too. We’re expecting a Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, and @evleaks has revealed …

Sony Xperia L1 Announced

Our coverage at Barcelona brought a raft of mobile phones, but no – Sony have another one for us. Available in black, white or pink, it’s the Xperia L1. This has 2GB of RAM and runs on a MediaTek Quad-core 64-bit CPU running at 1.45GHz. There’s also 16GB …

Vodafone Huawei P10 pre-orders now live too

OK, you know the deal by now. It looks like Huawei has hit the ground running with the P10 as it’s also available to pre-order with Vodafone. Again, we can’t see any of those funky lush colours mentioned at the launch event but, if you head to Vodafone …

Three starting Huawei P10 and P10 Plus pre-orders from Thursday

Yesterday we told you about EE offering up the P10 and P10 Lite. Today it’s the turn of Three, who’ve informed us that their pre-orders will begin on March 23rd – this coming Thursday. They’ll be ranging the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus, with the P10 priced up …

EE offering pre-orders on the Huawei P10 lite and P10

As we mentioned during the launch, EE are to carry the new Huawei P10 and the P10 lite. If you’ve drooled over the photos and you’re itching to get yourself one, EE now have a pre-order page available on ee.co.uk/p10. WiFi Calling and 4G Calling will be offered …

Lenovo P2 – Review

Lenovo may not be the biggest player out there, but they are at least trying to make a difference in an area others struggle, and that is battery life. Let me say this straight away. The Lenovo P2 has a beast of a battery, cramming in a massive 5100 …

The future is Perspex

Two devices have recently launched aimed at the sizeable retro, or nostalgia markets. One is the Nokia 3310, a kind of glossed-up redesign of a classic dumb phone, snakes and all, which was so popular and ubiquitous back in its day that even people who didn’t own one …

Blow away the Monday blues with a couple of great deals!

It’s the start of the week. Your boss is still being a tool and you’re wondering where the heck the weekend went. Wasn’t it Friday just a few minutes ago? It was. Don’t worry though, because I see blossom on the trees here in the UK. Sure, our …

Rich Communication Services: why we should care about RCS.

Most phone users have used the Short Message Service at one time or another. Nowadays, we just call it texting people. Then came the promise of MMS (Multi Media Messaging), or picture messaging. That never really took off in the same way as texting people, since the costs …

LG G6 – First Look

At MWC 2017 Coolsmartpone was given early access to a First Look LG G6. LG’s new flagship is quite a looker, so here is a bit of an in-depth hands on with one of the most anticipated flagships of 2017. We should make it clear at this point: …

Shining a light on Blackberry Aurora

The Blackberry Aurora Effect Hot off the heels of the Blackberry KEYone finally being announced this year at MWC 17, news of another Blackberry handset has broken: the Blackberry Aurora. As with most things to do with the once-great smartphone giant, the handset is interesting. Or, rather, the …

More Galaxy S8 info leaked – specs galore.

We’re approaching the rumoured Samsung Galaxy S8 flagship announcement, so here we go with some more Galaxy S8 info for the faithful and eager. This is currently believed to be March 29th with a date for pre-orders on the 10th of April. As usual, the internet is now …

MWC – Wiko Mobile and the WIM

Direct from Marseille, meet Wiko! They tell me that they’re targeting, “The Wiko Generation”. Smart people who are “not fooled” and appreciated value for money smartphones which are suitable to them. They’re the “Power Generation” who “choose their path freely”. They have, let me tell you, a lot …

MWC – The Sony Xperia XA1 and XA1 Ultra. Up close.

You may have missed it, but the Xperia XZ Premium wasn’t the only Sony phone to be announced in Barcelona this year. The Xperia XA1 and XA1 Ultra are for selfie lovers and a “super mid-range” phones. The XA1 has a 5″ screen (720 x 1280 pixel) and …

MWC – THAT new BlackBerry. Hands-on with the KEYone

This was tucked away around the back of the Alcatel stand but there was no shortage in interest. It’s a bit of a heavy thing at 180g and we’ve already posted a BlackBerry KEYone gallery after it leaked all over the place last Saturday morning. This one is …