Category: Handsets (General)

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

New tougher mobile laws live today for drivers

Whether you’re a new driver or a more experienced one, it’s really worth paying attention to this. From today, if you’re caught using your mobile phone at the wheel in the UK, you’ll get 6 points on your licence and a £200 fine. New drivers who have passed …

The Nokia 3310. Will we see Snake heading to Spain?

Want a proper old-school phone? Back in the day, when the internet was in its infancy and phones weren’t touch screen, the Nokia 3310 was quite advanced. For a start, let me tell you, it had no external antenna. A lot of phones at the time had a …

More data and mins From Giffgaff 

If you are an avid reader of our site, you’ll know that us here at Coolsmartphone Towers love a good bargain. And whenever we find one, we like to pass it on. Well, check out low-cost carrier GiffGaff, which runs on the O2 network. Customers purchase bundles which …

Three help to reconnect the disconnected

UK network Three has launched a new scheme called ‘Reconnected’ which aims to get smartphones into the hands of everyone, especially those out there who do not have one and want to improve their daily lives. The scheme targets disadvantaged people, with free donated phones provided to the …

Using your phone whilst driving? Points and fines to double

Despite it being law for a number of years, people are still continuing to use their phone whilst driving. The RAC has released some rather worrying statistics from a recently commissioned survey. There’s been an increase in drivers owning up to using a handheld mobile phone – from …

Netflix now allows content to be saved to SD Card.

Remember some time ago we brought you the news that finally, Netflix was allowing customers to download some of their content and store it to the device?  The good news is that the latest update to the media streaming app allows content to be stored on the SD …

The Coolsmartphone Mobile Video Studio

OK. Slightly off-topic today, but the regular readers will no doubt be aware that I film a lot of our product reviews in my car. As an example, my SanDisk iXpand overview or this FM transmitter review. I was even doing this some 10 years ago in glorious …

Cyanogen OS finishes at year’s end.

A short time ago we reported that Cyanogen as a company would be shedding considerable staff. They were also closing buildings with some of the team moving to a single location. The new CEO, Lior Tal, announced the company would cutting ties with co-founder Steve Kondik too. Now Cyanogen …

Tablet shipments slide as the smartphone continues to rein supreme

When I first started writing about smartphones, I never dreamt that they would change our lives in quite the manner that they have. Yes, the smartphone. It’s now become the device of choice. Smartwatches aren’t proving to be as popular as thought, PC’s and laptops are appearing in …

How to be an idiot

Another day and yet another driver being a complete melon with a smartphone. This time it’s a full lesson on what not to do at the wheel. Holding a phone, filming yourself, speeding at around 116mph and switching between the front and back camera for added effect. Not …

OnePlus 3T now available in the UK and Europe 

OnePlus today opened up orders of the updated OnePlus 3 – the OnePlus 3T. It’s now available unlocked in the UK and across Europe. Priced at £399 for 64GB and £439 for new larger storage option at 128GB, it’s also available in the new “Gunmetal” colour. No news on the …

New Snapdragon chipsets announced   

At the last 4G/5G summit hosted in Hong Kong, Mobile chip giant Qualcomm unveiled its latest mid-range chipsets, the Snapdragon 400 and Snapdragon 600 ranges. The Snapdragon 427 replaces the current budget Snapdragon 425, and improvements for the Snapdragon 427 chipset include the inclusion of Qualcomm’s X9 LTE …

Is it time for the big players to move aside?

Whether you want to communicate via social media channels or check out spread betting with IG, you can do so with the latest smartphone devices. These days, everyone seems to have a portable gadget glued to their hands, with the iPhone being one of the most popular models …

“So what Android phone do I buy?” – A conundrum

My friends and family know me as a tech enthusiast who is forever buying new devices and perusing the technology press. This has meant that I often I get asked questions on what devices people should buy. This is because (at least in my social circle) most people …

Moto M released, bringing bling to a premium low-tier thing

Earlier on this year, I recommended the Moto G 4th gen to someone. They were on a budget and they’d been using what I think was the original Moto G (the Moto G OG, if you will) quite happily for a very long time. Alas, no memory card …

Samsung Galaxy S7 nibbling nougat near you

Or, without that annoying alliteration about, Samsung seems to have finished testing Android 7 – AKA Nougat – and is starting to roll out a beta testing program for those folks with a Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. It’s not important that the rollout for Samsung is something …

Blackberry to make one more physical keyboard device

It’s no real surprise that when to comes to mobile devices with physical keyboards, Blackberry were the industry leaders. But despite this the company slowly declined, beginning with the company ending the use their own Operating System, and then not even producing devices, but using rebranded TCL devices (well hello, …

WhatsApp Messenger to incorporate two-factor authentication

Surprisingly, up to now, Whatsapp Messenger – which is probably one of the biggest messaging services in the world, hasn’t supported two-factor authentication. Well, that was until now. People that are using the latest beta version of Whatsapp are starting to see the option to turn on this …

Samsung grab a patent for a flip phone … sort of 

Earlier this year the interwebs was full of rumours that Samsung was planning to ship smartphones and tablets with a bendable OLED screen. In fact in June this year Lenovo displayed a prototype of its own bendable phone. Well a recent leaked patent application from the Korean Intellectual …

OnePlus 3T to be released next week

Cast your mind back dear reader, many moons ago when HTC furst released the “One” series of devices. Well just a few months after release, the company released a higher spec updated version of the same device. It well and truly upset the customers that had forked out …

Nomu S10 – Review

Here at Coolsmartphone we are approached by device manufacturers from all over the world. I must admit that it is the unheard-of devices from the far-east that intrigue me the most, so I jumped at the chance to review the unknown brand Nomu and their S10 device. ‘Who …

Android Auto now becoming a standalone app 

I’m a firm believer that drivers should have limited, if no access to mobile phones whilst driving. Having just returned from a family holiday in Florida, I saw many drivers using their phone and even texting whilst driving. It just shows how distracted drivers can be whilst fiddling …

Huawei Mate 9 Unboxing

The time has come to unbox Huawei’s latest and greatest phablet – the Mate 9. If you have read the launch article then you will know what to expect, but for those of you who didn’t then here are the highlights. Kirin 960 chipset, the world’s highest performing …

Huawei Mate 9 arrives

I’m sitting in Munich right now having just finished at the Huawei Press event. We saw the bigwigs at Huawei talk about their latest release, the brand new Huawei Mate 9. There’s been lots of speculation about the specs and looks of this particular phone. Some people have even suggested that it …

Huawei November event – Liveblog

Hello! We are here in Munich to cover the events of Huawei’s unveiling LIVE. We expect to see the Huawei Mate 9 in at least one variant with the possibility of a Pro version appear as well. Also expect to see Lecia on stage and a lot of …

Video mix give the Nexus 6 Pixel Tricks

Old is good too This is a bit of weird and wonderful I think, involving the Nexus 6. Someone remixed the recent Nexus Pixel ad to show off their love for Google’s now-defunct Nexus line. Someone called Superior Sandbox created a wonderful combination of the last time Google …

AirPods and going beyond the iPhone

For the first time in a while, the Apple event gave us a genuine surprise. We knew something was coming, and roughly knew that it was going to be called AirPods, but the rest was up in the air. What Apple announced was (not the best looking but…) …

​Offline viewing for Netflix may be coming soon

If you have a look at today’s modern media suppliers – the likes of Amazon’s Prime Video, Sky Go, BBC iPlayer and the all 4 app all offer the ability to download programs and watch them later offline.  When quizzed earlier this year, one of the biggest online …

OnePlus tease Android 7 Nougat for the OnePlus 3

If you are a regular reader of this site, you will know that I’m a real OnePlus fanboy. I’ve owned every device that the company have released, and upon seeing the price of the new Google Pixel phones I’ll definitely be staying in the OnePlus stable. To be …

Doodling on messages coming to WhatsApp

Oh, you wish there was just one true cross-platform messaging app, don’t you? Oh hang on there is, and it’s called SMS. SMS has been truly cross-platfrom and also operating-sysem neutral for the past, I don’t know, 30 years. Yet no one seems to have grown the service, apart …

Xperia XZ unboxing

We have managed to do it – we finally have an unboxing before a phone is due for release. This took us a fair few hours of persuasion and persistence from me upon the bigwigs at Sony to allow us to have this device, the Sony Xperia XZ. …

iPhone 7 explodes in transit

Following on the recent news of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 batteries catching fire, it appears that one of Apple’s latest flagships suffered the same fate. This time, it was the time for the iPhone 7, which exploded whilst being delivered to its new owner, according to the Reddit user who …