Category: Handsets (General)

Oppo announce the N1 mini with a 5 inch screen.

Following on from the Oppo N1 with its gigantic 5.9-inch screen and a 206-degree rotating camera, today the company has unveiled a mini version of the N1 … called… errr… the mini. Now for a device named “mini”, a 5 inch screen device perhaps isn’t the first thing …

HTC M8 Ace confirmed.

After many leaks on the internet, the HTC M8 Ace has now appeared on HTC China’s website. If reveals the handset in several colours including red, blue, black and white. Making it out of reduced costs but does give the Ace a seamless look, similar to last year’s …

OwnFone announce a Braille phone

Okay so it isn’t a smartphone but I still think it is an interesting development in the phone market. The London based company OwnFone have released what it claims to be the world’s first Braille phone and what’s more the front and back are 3D printed to allow …

Xperia Z2 BookCover by Roxfit

For those of you out there who are lucky enough to have picked up a brand new Xperia Z2, well I’ve done this one just for you. Roxfit have been specialising in covers for the Xperia range for the past few years and I have tested several of …

OnePlus One cheap? It’s sold at cost.

The interwebs are constantly chattering about the new high speced device from the fledgling company OnePlus. Their OnePlus One phone is amazingly high spec for a low price and now their CEO Peter Lau has revealed how they’ve been able to bring high-end features with Nexus-like pricing. The …

Dixons and Carphone Warehouse to merge

Will Carphone Warehouse now change to a more modern name? Or will the two companies merge names? DixPhone? DixWarehouse? Well no, actually. Dixons, who own Currys and PC World, are to merge with Carphone Warehouse in a £3.8bn deal and they’ll be known as… (drum roll please..) Dixons …

Pink Galaxy S5 spotted

Not happy with your white, black, blue or gold versions of the Galaxy S5? Well if you’re living in Japan, today is your lucky day. Japanese carrier NTT Docomo has just unveiled a pink color variant of the Galaxy S5. Other changes include the NTT Docomo branding at the front and …

Moto E spotted before launch day.

Some very official looking shots Motorola’s new device the Moto E, have turned up online over the weekend ahead of it’s launch on Tuesday. The images show the new phone will look similar to the Moto G in design and be available in black and white, and renowned …

No KitKat for international version’s of the Galaxy SIII and SIII mini

A couple of days ago documentation was leaked showing Samsung’s progress in bringing Android 4.4 KitKat to their older generation devices. These documents unfortunately indicated that the official KitKat update for the International Galaxy S III GT-I9300 had been “canceled for now.” This documentation stated that the hangup …

I’m troubled by what we’ve created

Friday. I think something is happening to me. At work, during my lunch hour, I did my usual trip to the supermarket to get a sandwich. Like many, I filled the period of “dead time” by faffing about with my phone. Twitter, Facebook, the news, checking email. The …

Unboxing of the Huawei Ascend P7 and first impressions

I have now had the Huawei Ascend P7 in my hands for a little under 12 hours and in that time I have had a play with the device properly. This includes that new “Panoramic Selfie” feature. All in all I think it is a very nice handset. …

Huawei Ascend P7, all the info

So there we have it – the Huawei P7. It has now been announced to the world’s press. It’s a beautiful looking device which has a glorious feel to it thanks to it an all metal construction, very similar to its predecessor the P6. The dimensions come in …

Tesco to launch its own smartphone and the Hudl 2

Tesco’s chief executive, Philip Clarke, has today told BBC Radio 5 live that the company is going to launch its own Android smartphone by the end of the year. It’ll compete with the Samsung Galaxy S5, but it’ll be cheap too. The smartphone will come with Tesco services …

Huawei Glory 3X snapped

Looking very much like a Samsung lawsuit waiting to happen, this is the Huawei Glory 3X. Apart from the familiar looks of the Samsung Note 3, the Huawei Glory 3X will feature… 5.5 inch 1080p display 13-megapixel rear camera 5-megapixel front camera 16GB of storage 2GB of RAM …

Dangerous Drivers – Many mobile distractions found by Police

If we’re all honest with ourselves then we’ll perhaps admit to touching our phones whilst driving. Whether it be a quick press to drop a call, or even opening a text -it’s something we shouldn’t do. Just last night, as I drove home, I saw a car on …

Huawei P7 Mini to be announced at same time as P7?

If rumours are to be believed then Huawei are looking to announce not one but two phones in Paris on the 7th of May. Pictures have just appeared online of the rumoured P7 Mini along with some specs… 4.5-inch 960×540 resolution display Quad-core Snapdragon 400 SoC 1.2GHz and …

Clear-Coat UK protection review.

Screen protection. You either love it or you hate it. Unfortunately, with the current screen technology that exists, it is a necessary evil. There’s a vast array of options out there right now that’ll protect your screen but these offerings vary vastly in quality and price. Clear-Coat is …

Is the Vodafone Smart 4 Mini a bargain for £50? – Opinion

Yesterday we brought you the news that Vodafone have announced the release of their own branded Smart 4 Mini Android smartphone. It’ll set you back less than a tank of petrol at £50 on pay as you go. Wow! Before you rush out to the nearest Vodafone store, …

Samsung announces another Galaxy Ace

To carry on with their world smartphone domination plans, Samsung have announced yet another Galaxy Ace device. The Galaxy Ace Style, is aimed at the younger audience and the phone is said to have a “a fun, unique design with an enhanced camera and advanced features for superior …

Rumoured S5 Zoom Pictured

Following on from the Galaxy S4 Zoom, rumors for the next interation of the Zoom series the Galaxy S5 Zoom have been hitting the internet. We have now had a Mr Blurry Cam photo of the device, now if this is the S5 Zoom (referred to as the …

Three Rescue – New Insurance Option

“Whoops.. There it goes… Damn It”, are usually the words of some variety we use once we send our beloved piece of technology hurtling through the air at speed, before it comes into contact with the floor, grass, road or worse.. The toilet. What am I talking about? …

Tips to speed up the Chrome browser on Android

Are you a Android phones user? Do you use the Google Chrome browser on your device? I do and to be honest there is a lot of functionality but it certainly isn’t the fastest browser out there. I’ve found a couple of tips that you can use on …

O2 taking Pre-Orders for S5 and Sony Z2

Following on from Carphone Warehouse, O2 are also taking pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Sony z2 from today. The S5 will be available in either black or white from April 11th, and a little later for the other colours. The Z2 will be in store …

Galaxy S5 already on sale weeks early.

Samsung’s latest flagship device is due to go on sale on April 11 ( a date I will not forgot, not because of the launch but because its my wife’s birthday, and she doesn’t want a S5 but some handbag thing ). Now from today you can pre-order …

Microsoft Office Mobile free to Android phone users

Following today’s announcement of Office for the iPad, Microsoft also announced Office for Android completely free to use on phones. Office itself has always been free, but you needed to have a paid Office 365 subscription in order to make any use of it. As long as you …

Possible breach of security at Cerberus.

Are you a user of the Android security app/service Cerberus? I am and have reviewed the app here on the site in the past. I’m still convinced that it’s unparalleled for features that it gives. Now worryingly emails have been sent to users instructing them to change the …

The Travelcard smartphone charger

The new batch of flagship smartphones are coming out with great battery saving features, but what if you haven’t got a new fancy flagship device, what if your smartphone has a sealed in battery? Which is becoming the norm nowadays. Well either don’t stray too far away from …

Huawei to launch dual boot Android and Windows Phone in Q2

“I like the Windows Phone platform, but I couldn’t have it as my only phone”, is something I hear all the time. Unfortunately there’s a lot of merit to that statement and, even now, I agree. Huawei has heard our gripes and is doing something about them. Sort …

HTC Desire 816 confirmed for UK.

Following announcing the HTC Desire 816, the Taiwanese company has stated that it has received 450,000 pre-orders in just 72 hours. Now the mid-range device is believed to heading to the UK, with a price tag around £315 (but this has not yet been confirmed). Spec’s incude Android …

Z1 Compact coming to Big Red

One of our eagle eyed staff noticed that the Z1 Compact has now been added to the Coming Soon section of the Vodafone blog. Although they don’t have pricing up yet, it will probably be just a matter of time. Personally, it’s one of the ‘mini’ handsets that …

Screenproof screen protector review

The other day I received some long awaited Screen protectors from a small company called ScreenProof. They are a relatively new kid on the block with regard to screen protection and having used the camera protector on my Lumia 1020 I thought it would be worth trying them …

Nokia X Rooted – Google Apps installed

Well, we all knew that it was bound to happen, but just days after the announcement? That’s pretty amazing. The new Nokia X has already been rooted and the Google Apps installed, this despite having a locked bootloader. THe X has been cracked by members of the XDA …

Let’s face it, batteries are rubbish

At Mobile World Congress I’d love to see someone announce a phone battery that actually lasts more than a day. I mean, Duracell have the Powermat and we all have chargers in the car… at home.. at the office. Now we’re even seeing more of these mobile device …

Mobile World Congress – Let’s do this

For those of you who’ve heard me banging on about this “MWC” thing for days, let’s just give you a bit of background. Mobile World Congress, or MWC for short, is a rather huge event held yearly in Barcelona. New handsets are launched, services are announced, accessories are …

LG G2 mini Announced

As MWC looms ever closer, we’re getting ready for rhe official LG launch of the G2 mini and were a little surprised to see that LG have decided to out the handset today instead. LG G2 mini is set to be a smaller, mid-range version of the flagship …

There’s gold in them thar.. err.. Smartphones

Now, I’m not going to talk about those trade-in websites that’ll offer you a few quid for your mobile. I’m actually going to talk about those slightly different websites that constantly ask whether you’ve got any gold.  Me, I know the answer already. I’ve got no gold. I …

Lumia’s 930, 630/635 announced at MWC

Two weeks to go until Mobile World Congress and the rumour mill is turning at full swing, now we here at Coolsmartphone towers have heard of 3 new devices from Nokia, The first two being the Lumia 630/635 which have a slight bump in spec to the 620, …

Sure, break my heart, but don’t break my phone

If you have a crafty look at the phones people carry around town then you’re bound to see a few with broken screens. It seems that there’s a fair few of them and, quite often, once it’s broken people don’t tend to fix them. There can be a …

Oppo Find 7 to launch on 19th March

Oppo, has today announced that it will be launching its Find 7 flagship smartphone on March 19 in Beijing. This is a little disappointing as it was originally rumoured that the device was going to be released during Mobile World Congress this month. The Find 7 follows in …