Category: Android
OK, quick version. The next version of Android is going to be called Marshmallow. More voice interaction is coming, meaning that we’ll be chatting to our phones more and additional third-party apps will be able to use Google voice commands. Your apps should be able to ask you …
I’m not a massive fan of this time of year. The nights here in the UK are getting longer and the days are getting shorter, so I usually like to book a winter break – even if it’s a quick weekend away. Whether it’s a skiing holiday, a …
Right, headline figures for you. This is a phone with a 5″ Full HD display, 8 megapixel rear camera, 2 megapixel selfie shooter, dual SIM and Android 5.1. Inside it runs a Qualcomm® Snapdragon 801 (Quad-Core 2.26 GHz) with 2GB RAM and there’s 32 GB of storage. GPS, …
Well isn’t this a beautiful looking thing? Everytime I show this to somebody there is an audible “wow”. You could perhaps put the slowest, cheapest CPU and memory in here and people would still be amazed by looks alone. I have the gold version here from giffgaff and, …
It’s no secret that Blackberry’s hardware and build quality are second to none, but as of late the manufacturer has lost its “mojo” and sales continue to falter. This has been blamed on Blackberry’s own OS (Now at Blackberry OS 10.3.2), recent devices like the Blackberry Passport won …
The time has come to have a good hard look at the second outing from this underdog from the Far East. While I’m aware that these are very limited in supply and trying to get hold of one of these phones is very tricky, we at CSP Towers were …
Today China’s official certification database — TENAA, passed a previously unannounced HTC branded handset from HTC. It’s believed to be the HTC One M9e, a scaled-down model of the standard M9. M9e Specs Aluminium unibody. 5-inch Full HD display as per the M9. 2.2GHz octa-core Helio X10 processor. …
One phone I have been keen to see, and that I missed seeing at IFA this year, is the Axon Elite from ZTE. This phone has been doing very well in the US market and it is now available in the UK via their eBay store. It’s just …
This Android powered Blackberry seems to have been teetering on the edge of existence for a while now. First someone caught wind that it was in the works. They spoke of a Blackberry built, Android powered QWERTY slider. It certainly sparked my interest. Then there were small video …
The eagerly anticipated refinement to the Nexus 5, the (very likely-called) 5X was prematurely listed before being swiftly pulled from the Amazon India website. Naturally, someone managed to grab all the details and there is a Reddit article floating around with the full run down of this devices …
OnePlus have announced that they are to roll out an update to Oxygen OS, updating it to 2.1. If you have the OnePlus 2, which I have to say is an amazing device, you’re in luck. This update is to add improvements to the camera app, adding a manual mode …
Looking for a phone that looks suspiciously like several others (but you can’t quite put your finger on which one). Check out the UMI Hammer S, a “rugged” smartphone which really doesn’t look rugged at all. It’s now shipping and only costs $159.99, which is just over £104. …
We love Jackleo for a number of reasons. Firstly, they sometimes don’t spell their company name correctly. Secondly, they send us pictures of people marching and thirdly, they send us press releases which are absolutely bonkers. Today they want to tell us about the JACKLEO TANK JL552, which …
Taking a selfie. It’s a term that seems to have taken the world by surprise and, whether you’re at the beach, in the pub or at a restaurant, you’ll see people grouping together to take that all-important selfie shot. What’s great about this, of course, is that you’ve …
James reviewed the handset in May but I wanted to add my own throughts because, at the end of the day, this is a phone which costs less than £350 SIM free. You can get it for less than that on Amazon and you can pay buttons per …
No 4G on this one, but you do get a 5.5″ screen, 32GB of on-board storage, 2GB RAM and an octa-core MediaTek 2 GHz CPU running the show. It runs Android 4.2 but, for $118.49 (which is around £76.22), we’re prepared to forgive the slightly older OS. Available …
Last years Nexus 6 was the first Nexus handset to have a maximum storage capacity of 64 GB. Before that, the maximum storage space that Google offered in a Nexus device was a measly 32 GB. As apps grow in size, (I remember when I though that 12 …
It looks like the wait is over. Google have sent out invites for their ‘Google Event’ on September 29th, at 9 a.m. PT (Pacific Time – that’s 5 p.m for us folks in Blighty and CSP Towers). We are expected to finally get a good look at the …
Welcome to The Coolsmartphone Podcast episode 153. In this episode John looks at the recent Apple Launch event including: WatchOS 2 The iPad Pro The Apple Pencil The New ‘Wiiesk’ Apple TV The iPhone 6s The iPhone 6s Plus A new way to buy your iPhone John also …
Oh, now we know there’s no love lost between the Android and iPhone fans. Chalk and cheese doesn’t even come close. So, to stick an Android app onto Google Play which is designed to get Android users over to iOS? That’s a dangerous move, even if it is …
We’ve got to be really quick with this one as the invite won’t last long, but we’ve got a OnePlus 2 invite to give away. All you have to do is click this to send us a Tweet. It basically has to say .. I’d like to win …
Smartphones. Everyone has one. There’s top-end premium ones, there’s mid-range and cheaper ones. However, for the elder generation and those just wanting something simply to operate, a company called Doro are doing quite well. Their new Liberto 825, shown here, is particularly clever because it’s a smartphone which …
This one was a bit of a shock to see, especially given their marketing campaign. The latest news out of camp Sony is that they are advising not to use the phone underwater. This is a phone which is billed as waterproof in the specs WWWWHHHHaaaa…. ?! The …
Amazon has had mixed fortunes with its ventures into the tech world. Its Kindles have sold like hot cakes, its Fire phone has bombed, while its tablet range has fared quite well. A story in the Wall Street Journal in the US suggests that Amazon is due to release …
I walked past a bus stop today and, for a moment, I though it was a mirror. After a good, long while I figured out that it was actually Daniel Craig as James Bond. The 007 franchise has always had a bit of in-your-face Sony product placement, and …
I’ll try not to poke fun at the press releases we get from (caps lock) JACKLEO. I think we did enough of that yesterday and, even though it’s Friday, I’m going to try not to be childish. No, really I will. JACKLEO have announced their new handset, and …
What’s that? I shouldn’t be writing articles after just two hours sleep? Pah. What’s the absolute worse that could happen here. I don’t need no sleep to write proper. We were at the Honor 7 launch just a few short days ago and, we have to say, it …
A few days ago I had an email from JACKLEO. However, it was late and I couldn’t quite figure out why all the links in the email sent me off to DOOGEE. I also couldn’t understand why they’d chosen to introduce the company to us with this picture… …
Asus were at IFA, and they asked me to head over and see them to see what they had on their booth this year. I had high hopes that I would see the long awaited Asus Zenfone Zoom alongside some other products. I was not expecting to see …
Think HTC and you’ll invariably think of the HTC One handsets. They’re beautiful. They’re well-built and they’re feature-rich. However, they’re also pretty expensive, so what about those who want a taste of HTC but don’t quite have the cash? The Desire 626 is a device I’ve had as …
With Apple now allowing ad-blocking technology into Safari browsers on iPhone and iPad, Adblock have announced their return to Android, with their ad-free browsing system now allowed back onto Google Play. The system kills revenue, even for websites displaying well-behaved advertisements such as ours, and means that content …
Acer didn’t just have phones to release at the their event during IFA, they also unveiled the Predator Gaming Tablet… This is a very unique proposition. It is a tablet that has been designed primarily for gaming. It runs Android 5.1 on an Intel Atom X7 and is …
Despite efforts to reshape and refocus, HTC has today fallen from the bottom of the TWSE 50 Index, which lists Taiwan’s 50 largest firms. The fact that this has happened could further damage the HTC share price, which has taken a beating recently following a big drop in …
Acer had lots to talk about at IFA, so I decided to pay them a visit and get some hands on time with their new products. Now, traditionally we tend not to see that many Acer phones in the UK – with the exception of their M220 that …
I have been lucky enough to have been given a brand new Mate S for review so, as is the norm, here is the unboxing. The unit I have been given is the 32GB standard version, not the premium version (apparently I am not special enough). 😉 So let’s …
Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Oppo (which a number of our team members have had devices from), has today announced that they are now taking pre-orders for their latest flagship device: the Oppo R7. Specs of the Oppo R7 are: 6-inch, 1080p AMOLED display. Qualcomm MSM8939 Snapdragon 615 chipset. 32GB internal …
You’ve seen our Xperia Z5 hands-on and now, understandably, you might be wanting to get either the new Sony Xperia Z5 and Sony Xperia Z5 Compact yourself. Well, good news my friends, good news. Those lovely people at Three, who are definitely going to send all the team …
It’s time for another one of my “around £100” phones. This time it’s the XIAOMI RedMi Note 2, which is available in a 16GB version for $168.85 (around £111.35) or a 32GB version for $205.85, which is about £135.75. Available in either black or white this is a …
To people like me, this could be a tough sell. It’s a smartphone which has cloud storage – around 100GB – to keep your files on. No more running out of space on your handset, at least in theory. Yes, there is actually storage on-board, some 32GB of …
Remember those two affordable handsets we talked about last week? The Swift and the Storm? The manufacturer, WileyFox, today announced a release date for the smaller of the two, the Swift. On the 22nd of September you’ll be able to buy the Swift directly from the WileyFox store …
