Category: Android
First it was Vodafone-supplied G3’s, now it looks like unlocked handsets are also receiving the update to Lollipop. We’ve received a number of emails and tweets to say that handsets have updated, but handsets from other networks don’t appear to have the new version just yet unfortunately. As …
We gotta hand it to them Mountain View folk, and the way both the ecosystem and the apps keep evolving. Google Maps never used to be my go-to application for turn-by-turn directions (telmap M8 was my personal favourite), but the way they have been iterating has been phenomenal. …
Stuffed with three, yes three, 8 Megapixel cameras, Huawei today unveiled its latest smartphone under the new Honor branding. Following on from the reasonably priced Honor 6, meet the new imaginatively named Honor 6 Plus. The new device’s unique selling point is it’s three 8 megapixel cameras. There’s two in …
SimCity is one of those classic iconic games that has help to shape the video game industry through its many incarnations. There have been mobile versions of SimCity released previously although they have never quite managed to recapture the magic of the big screen original. This may be …
At the train station today I noticed a stack of people just staring at their phones. I was one of them, and if I’m honest I’ve become a phone zombie too. However, despite how mainstream mobile phones have become in society, many people don’t use them to their …
HTC have been around for many years now. They’ve produced some really top end devices such as the HTC Sensation, HTC One X and even back to the HTC Desire which at the time was a specification powerhouse. The problem seems to be so many people still walk …
Remember my review of the Rocomo GT-I9500? well, I’ve been on the hunt for cheap Android kit again and this time the 5″ Elephone P6000 has caught my eye. It’s on presale at the moment but will cost you just $169.99, which works out at around £108.60. This …
Large screen devices have a lot to answer for these days, they force me to wear trousers with large pockets, they force me to carry a man bag whilst I’m out and about and most of all they force my thumbs to stretch way beyond what they were …
Samsung recently announced the new Galaxy Note 4 smartphone which we all expected to see and had a rough idea what was coming. What we were not expecting though was the introduction of another Note handset, this time the Note Edge. AFter our up-close look we were then told …
Google has confirmed that the Nexus 5 production has stopped, and… once they are gone, they’re gone, so we’d suggest people get them while they can. It was only yesterday that Google removed the listing of the the Red and White variants of the Nexus 5 from Google Play. The …
OK, it’s that time of year already. Your bank account looks like a wasteland, there’s pine needles everywhere and that roll of sticky tape has mysteriously disappeared just when you need it. What apps do you need to ensure things go smoothly? Well, the Google Santa Tracker is …
Buying yourself a present this Christmas is going to be a bit of a theme here at Coolsmartphone I think 🙂 The OnePlus One handset, which we handled here, has a 2.5GHz quad-core CPU, Android 4.4 (Cyanogen), Adreno 330 GPI and either 16GB or 64GB of storage. Best …
Think for one minute about the current networks we have to choose from in the UK? Name me two. I’d guess most of you went with EE and Three, not only are they the most popular but they also offer a great product. Be it almost totally unlimited …
If you’ve already grabbed the WinZip app for Android then you’ll hopefully have noticed a cheeky little addition lately. If not, grab it now and you’ll now find that the app lets you encrypt, squish and share files directly to Dropbox. It basically means that you have one …
It’s here. The latest generation of the Nexus lineup, the Nexus 6. We have finally managed to get hold of one of these unobtainable devices by buying our own review unit. The device we have here is the 32GB model in blue. There has been much said about …
Today Google revealed the latest update to their own messaging app, Hangouts. The update sees the addition of 16 sticker packs, new video filters for calls, the ability to add contacts with their phone number, smart location suggestions and a “last seen” timestamp that shows you when your contact …
For a while one of the unique selling points behind Nokia Windows Phone devices was the HERE Maps suite. It offered a truly offline mapping solution for free. It was one of the reason I always took a Windows Phone on holiday. Now the HERE maps team have …
Recently I moved to using my Nexus 5 as my daily driver again (just to use the pure Lollipop Android experience).. Thing is, with it being a 16GB version, space is at a premium, as it is with a number of handsets that haven’t got microSD slots. I …
We don’t know a great deal about Karbonn Mobile just yet, but they are pushing out some relatively cheap Android kit via Amazon. Their Karbonn A5S is SIM free and available in black or white. It has a 5 megapixel rear camera, 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, 4GB ROM, 512MB …
If you are an app developer you’re probably familiar with Eclipse and the Android SDK. Back in 2013 Google announced Android Studio which was to be a more integrated and smarter way to build apps. It’s been available to use as a 0.1 Alpha version since May 2013 …
We’ve got a Nexus 6 into the testbed here at Coolsmartphone and whilst the review is ongoing we thought we would let you have a sneak peak. Well, it is the season of giving and all that jazz. 🙂 The game we have chosen is the old classic …
Specs really aren’t what you should be buying this particular device for. I mean yes, it has a 4.5″″ screen (940×560) and runs Android 4.4.2 plus there’s an 8 megapixel shooter. It has the usual WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0 and there’s space for a microSD card. This, though, …
Many months ago I took the plunge, I did what many phone enthusiasts do, I pre ordered a phone from a company with a history of buggy software, dodgy memory setup and questionable update policies. Yes I’m talking about Oppo and my Find 7a. So here I am …
One of the great frustrations in the mobile world is seeing a new handset released, only to find that it is either unavailable in the UK or available in limited supplies via an invite-only scheme. Oppo, the Chinese manufacturer, is a perfect example of this. It’s Find 7 …
It looks like Google are pushing out a point release to the latest version of their operating system Android 5 Lollipop, up to 5.0.1. Google has also released the factory images for the Nexus 7 (2013, Wi-Fi), Nexus 9 and the Nexus 10. Google has not provided any …
My kitchen ceiling is falling in because the bath is leaking. It’s a mess I can tell you and I’m well narked off because it’s about the fourth thing to go wrong this week. But no, I’m not leaving you my friends. I’m hear to tell you about …
If you’re an Aldi shopper then, from Thursday next week, you might well spot a rather cheap Medion 10.1″ tablet. It’s powered by a quad-core Atom CPU and has 32GB of on-board storage. Other specs include a 5 megapixel (rear) and 2 megapixel (front) camera, GPS, WiFi and …
We’ve been all over this phone since an early model appeared in Barcelona. Short version, this is a phone with an always-on rear display. The idea is pretty clever – you use the low-power rear panel for reading text and interacting with your Twitter, your texts, web pages …
Hello there, welcome to the “listen in live” page for our podcast. Joining me this week should be Garry, topics this week will be about the Nexus 6 almost being available, our thoughts on the Yotaphone 2, the HT Desire 816 and HTC One M8 GPE combo I’m …
Fancy yourself a Nexus 6 dear reader? It seems to be popping up all over the place. Made by Motorola it runs Android Lollipop, has a 2.7GHz Snapdragon 805 quad-core CPU (with an Adreno 420 GPU) 3GB RAM, 13 megapixel rear camera, 2 megapixel front, 6″ 1440×2560 AMOLED …
In an unusually speedy move for Samsung, it has been reported that they’ve started rolling out the Android 5.0 Lollipop update for the G900F variant of the Galaxy S5 in Poland. Although not confirmed by Samsung itself, the rumour has been released by the folks over at Sam-mobile. …
The latest wearable to come out of the Sony machine has now launched in O2 stores up and down the country. The price is £129.99, however if you get it with a new Android phone then it will cost you just £99.99. The Smartband Talk is the evolution …
It’s a few weeks before Christmas, which means I’ve got precisely 15 million emails in my inbox from various people wanting me to pimp things. Send me BEER people. I need BEER. My message doesn’t seem to be getting through, but either way this little gadget looks pretty …
Earlier we posted news on the new Yotaphone 2. It’s just been formally unveiled and we can clarify the price – a whacking £555. You can buy it from yotaphone.com and there’s going to be a pop-up store just off Brick Lane in Shoreditch tonight at 6.30PM. Inside …
During Mobile World Congress in Barcelona we saw a totally new type of handset. Up front, the usual bright and vivid screen we see on most handsets. On the back though, what you can mistake to be a cover design is actually a fully interactive e-ink screen. We …
The FES (Fashion Entertainments) watch was a crowd-funding project on Makuake, a Japanese crowd-funding site, that ran in September this tear. The project shows a watch made almost entirely of e-ink, the same technology used in Kindle screens and Pebble smartwatches. The difference here is that it’s not …
You’ll have probably noticed the Acer content this past weekend. We were lucky enough to get a hands on with a number of their devices and you’ll no doubt have read our overview of the Liquid Jade and the fitness band, the Liquid Leap. Whilst in Edinburgh I …
There’s a wide variety of handsets around but , as you’ll no doubt know yourself, they all have a very similar design – one big screen up front, a couple of cameras and that’s about your lot. Yes, I’m generalising a little, but my first impressions from the …
Acer have sent us to Edinburgh and have loaned us a number of devices – the Acer Liquid Leap (a fitness band), the Acer Liquid Jade (a shockingly slender smartphone), the Iconia Tab 8 and the device I’m using to type this out – the Aspire Switch 10. …
OK, I’ll be quick with this one as Aran is going to update you on all the Vodafone Black Friday / weekend deals in a moment, but you can bag yourself the rather nice LG G2 (which we lovingly reviewed here) for a mere £150. That’s not an …
