Category: Android Phone Reviews

OnePlus 7T Review – Part 3

It’s fair to say that I got a little distracted doing this review. It’s now three parts long (part one is here and part two is here), but I started writing this a month ago now. The truth? It’s become my daily driver. This is a stand-out phone, …

OnePlus 7T Review – Part 2

In our first part of this review the weather was pretty terrible, so I unboxed the OnePlus 7T in the car. During that video I mentioned the camera, so today it’s a deeper look into this. It’s quite a clever setup actually. The main camera that you’ll be …

OnePlus 7T Review – Part 1

I liked this particular phone the minute I saw it at the launch. Sure, there’s a “Pro” model, but I was more impressed with the design of this one. I’m not saying that the other one is bad, because it isn’t – this one was just my preference. …

The OnePlus 7 Pro. Go get yourself one of these.

OK, it’s quickly turning into OnePlus day here at Coolsmartphone. Today we’re going to take another deep-dive into the OnePlus 7 Pro. It’s a phone which has taken up residence at the Coolsmartphone office and yes – we actually got told off by the OnePlus PR people for …

Honor 20 Pro – Review

So you’ve decided that you want to get a top-end smartphone, but you don’t have a spare £800 down the back of the sofa. Well, the good news is that you do have a lot of options these days. You have the likes of OnePlus and Xioami, alongside …

Huawei P30 Lite – Review

Put the word “Lite” into the name of your next smartphone and, well, it doesn’t help with your expectations. It’s like when you’re buying a car. If it’s a Vauxhall Corsa “Life” or a base model Kia Rio, you’re not going to get all the kit and toys …

Honor 20 Pro – First Impressions

Now, normally this is where I would be talking about the unboxing of a new phone and would introduce you to video where I do just that. However, in the case of this phone, I’ll be doing something more. The reason is quite simple. It has been done …

Nokia 1 Plus – Review

We did a really detailed overview a few months back so I’ll just bring you up to speed here. First of all, this is cheap. You can get it right now on Vodafone for a mere £59 when you get it with the £10 Big Value Bundle. Nokia …

Honor 20 – Review

I find myself asking the question sometimes. Why do I spend so much money on expensive flagships? Maybe something a bit cheaper would suffice? When I try to answer this question there is one company that always springs forward as the optimum candidate. That company, if you haven’t …

Honor 20 – Unboxing and mini-review

About a month ago, on a day as similarly hot as it is today, I was down in London attending the launch and announcement of the Honor 20 series. Whilst I was there I was mostly focused on the biggest brother in the lineup – the Honor 20 …

Asus ZenFone 6 – Review

In this review I’m speaking to a select few. You’re special, because if you want this phone you’ll probably not find it at your local mobile phone store. As I type, you’ll need to pre-order and the Asus website is your best bet. They’re offering the 128GB storage …

Asus ZenFone 6 – Battery update

This was never meant to be a battery test. What happened, if I’m honest, is that I forgot to charge the ZenFone 6 one night. This meant that I had to go into uncharted territory. A second day on battery. So that happened, and the 5000mAh battery simply …

Sony Xperia 10 Review

Oh my days. We’ve got a Sony phone in the office. This is new. Sony seem to have a problem that none of us can really pinpoint. Think about your next smartphone purchase and you’ll probably think Samsung or Huawei. You may even think about Xiaomi, Honor or …

Asus ZenFone 6 – Gallery special

You’ll have no doubt noticed on my unboxing video that I jammed some things into the inner workings of the flip camera system and generally moved it around to see how strong it was. You can move it manually and it will stick in the place you left …

ZenFone 6 – Unboxing and example photos from the camera

Eager YouTube followers may have seen my late-night unboxing last night. However, I’ve now added a far better version so that you can see what this phone is all about. Before that though, if you want one, you need to head to the Asus online store. This one …

Asus ZenFone 6 – All you need to know

Here in the evening sunshine, Asus conducted quite possibly the most relaxed press launch I have ever had the privilege of attending. A large part of the announcement was put aside to detail the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 CPU. A lot was said about it, but I can distil …

Unboxing the Huawei P30 Pro

Normally when we get a phone to review, one of the first things that we do is an unboxing. However, with the P30 Pro we decided to mix things up a bit. Dan was able to use the phone for a short period of time before he departed …

OnePlus 6T – Review

  Review device specs Price: £529 Mirror Black 8GB RAM 128 GB Storage Snapdragon 845 chipset 16 and 20-megapixel dual cameras Android 9 pie running oxygen OS 9.0.11 December 2018 security patch Good Points: Lightening fast Great battery life Oxygen OS close to stock Android Gorgeous screen Specs …

Huawei P Smart 2019 – Review

I have been using the Huawei P Smart 2019 for a few days now, and itis time for me to put pen to paper and give my opinions of the device. The first thing I want to get out of the way is that this phone shares a …

Honor View20 – Review

I’ll be honest, Huawei and Honor seem to be cranking up the handset launches to a rate where I’m losing track slightly. Honor, let’s not forget, is a sub-brand of Huawei. You get the same quality, the same Huawei processor and the same user interface, albeit with a …

Palm – My thoughts on the mini-smartphone

This diddy smartphone is on Vodafone and you can get one here for £31 per month. In the USA this has been sold as a “companion phone” which I can sort of understand. See, I’m a little confused. It’s like Brexit in a way. There’s really no middle …

Huawei P Smart 2019 – Unboxing

To kick things off for 2019, I have got a new phone from Huawei which went on sale with Vodafone (other networks are available) this morning. The thing that makes this phone all sorts of brilliant is that this is a perfect “New year, New you”-phone. It is …

Galaxy Note 9 – Review

Specs: Review Price: £899 6.4-inch Super AMOLED HDR display Snapdragon 845/Exynos 9810 12-megapixel variable aperture main camera, 12-megapixel secondary 2x zoom camera 6GB/8GB RAM 128GB/512GB storage 4000 mAh battery Android 8.1 S Pen w/ Bluetooth Good Points: Absolutely gorgeous screen Fantastic battery life Build quality Loads of features …

Palm – A hands on overview

Getting hold of one of these, right now, today, in the UK… is… tricky. But we have one, and it’s in my car, so you know what that means. CAR VIDEO! The Palm Smartphone is available right here on Vodafone. As we mentioned just this morning it’s available …

Pixel 3 – Review

I thought that I would always need a large screen phone, but this has changed my mind. Good Points: Great haptic feedback (really does feel like buttons are being pressed) Amazing camera Feels great in the hand Excellent front-facing dual stereo speakers Gorgeous screen Just runs so well …

A week with the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro – Day 3. The interface.

Morning all. So, I had a lovely intro to this third day with the Mi 8 Pro. You can see our story so far here. This morning though, I woke up to find that the Mi 8 Pro had received an update, and the GUI looked remarkably different. …

A week with the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro – Day 2. The camera.

This morning I woke up. It was a bright, sunny day and the birds were gently tweeting their morning chorus. It made me feel lucky to be alive. I couldn’t wake to spring out of bed and greet the day with big, open arms. Ah well, no. Not …

A week with the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro – Day 1. A tour

I went a bit crazy about the Mi 8 Pro during the launch. Was it the free wine they were giving out? Was it the fact that it was 3 o’clock in the afternoon and I was drinking on an empty stomach? Well, perhaps some of that, but …

Honor Play – Review

What is it with all the mobile phone manufacturers thinking that we need a gaming smartphone these days? I am not the biggest gamer in the world I occasionally like a game of Angry Birds as much as the next person but I can’t see myself settling in …

Honor 8X Review

I’ve had this phone for a while now, and I’ve released day-by-day video updates which will form the main part of this review. So, in the place of what you’d normally expect to find here, I’d first like to discuss the state of the smartphone landscape right now …

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review

Introduction The Mate 20 Pro has to be the highest-spec phone I have used to date, with its new Kirin 980 7nm processor, 6GB RAM, a huge Quad HD display, massive battery…and the triple camera on the back. The Mate 20 Pro really does scream top end specs. …

A week with the Honor 8X. Day 4 – The GUI

I had a think about this bit. I figured I could put a huge stack of images in and maybe write a load of text about how it all works… or, I could just do a video. It’s what the kids are doing now isn’t it eh? Perhaps …

A week with the Honor 8X. Day 3 – Strava and battery life!

I’ve performed a couple of tests today with the Honor 8X. The first is to check Strava. It’s an app I use a lot to track my exercise and, as you might know, I’ve had some issues with it working properly on Honor / Huawei kit. From what …

A week with the Honor 8X – Day 2. The camera.

Today I’ve been taking photos. I left the AI mode on for a lot of the images you’re about to see and, as it’s a dark and windy Autumnal day, there wasn’t a great deal of light to help. That AI system will magically take a look down …

BlackBerry KEY2 LE – Review

Introduction Even now, when touch-screen devices are considered the standard, there are solid arguments for having a traditional hardware keyboard. It’ll work with two thumbs and fans are sometimes known as ‘Crackberry’ addicts. With BlackBerry being such an iconic brand for their QWERTY smartphone designs, it is no …

A week with the Honor 8X – Day 1. A tour.

Only 5 days ago Honor revealed the 8X. We’ve already given you all the details about it but what’s it like to actually use on a daily basis? Well, to get that sort of information, I’d need one in my pocket every day. I’d need to be using …

Sony Xperia XZ3 – Review

Introduction It only felt like 5 minutes ago I was pressing the publish button on my XZ2 review for CoolSmartPhone, and now we already have its replacement on sale here in the UK, complete with hefty price tag. So the question I asked myself is, why did Sony …

A new phone from Nuu Mobile, the G3 -Review

You may not have heard about Nuu Mobile at all. It’s probably because most people will never have seen anything from them in the UK. I have to say that I was also in this camp as well until I found them at MWC earlier this year. Leigh …