Category: Android Phone Reviews
I’ve often listened with interest as our own James Pearce waxes lyrical on the Coolsmartphone Podcast about the wonders of having a handset with a large screen. James has often sung the praises of his own Galaxy Note brushing aside all ridicule. Personally I had my doubts, I …
The other day ZTE and Virgin Mobile announced the new white version of the Kis. Their hugely popular “record breaking” Kis is an entry level 3.5″ device and we’ve had it for a couple of days and here is our initial impressions. Starting off with good and bad …
I’ve been using the Acer S500 Cloud Mobile as my main phone for a few weeks now and it’s time to bring you the full review. My initial conclusion was that the Cloud Mobile was a great phone that seemed like it was going to be let down …
One of the surprise hits of late in the mobile handset arena was the Samsung Galaxy Note. It sold by the bucketload and even now the waxing lyrical hasn’t stopped. It was therefore no shock when Samsung announced the Galaxy Note II and thanks to the lovely people …
So, we took a look at the Motorola RAZR i a couple of weeks ago but I wanted to take another look. First impressions, I have to say, are rather good. I instantly thought the battery wasn’t in the phone when I took it out of the box. …
My introduction to the Android platform came through the original HTC Desire. One of my bosses walked up to me knowing my love for phones and showed me his brand spanking new piece of kit, complete with scrolling widgets and all shiny and new. My search for a …
Sony announced that the Xperia S was going on sale during Mobile World Congress back in February, however we are now in October and the S has been replaced as the flagship camera phone by the Xperia T. The Xperia T really is a powerful high end smartphone …
Acer have made a few nice looking phones recently, the other week we looked at the dual SIM equipped Liquid Gallant Duo and I was very impressed overall. So when I found out they were going to send us their flagship device the Cloud Mobile I was a little …
A few weeks ago we got hold of the Xperia Miro for review and we quickly posted up our initial impressions. The Miro is one of the entry level devices from Sony and in the same way as with the Tipo we reviewed a while back, I was …
A few weeks ago we got the dual sim Gallant Duo in for review from Acer and ever since I have been using it to try and find what’s good and what’s bad. In our initial impressions I was impressed with Acer and their handling of the dual …
Today is the day of the RAZR i launch so what better way to celebrate than with a review so you can make an informed decision. Ever since the press conference I have swapped from my Lumia 800 to the RAZRi to see just how far Motorola have …
For a while using a phone with two sim cards in has been a bit of a holy grail for me. I could use my normal sim for making calls and my Giff Gaff SIM for my data requirements. Sounds fairly straightforward but various manufacturers have tried their …
Sony currently have quite a few devices for sale, especially at the bottom end of the pile. The Miro being one of them, it is like the Tipo’s bigger brother, costing a little more and packing a slightly better spec. My initial good and bad points are as …
A few days ago Motorola announced the RAZR i, not long after that we benchmarked it to see how the Medfield CPU held up against some of the big players, and earlier today we announced the pricing for UK carriers. This is what I thought after a little …
I’ve had the Xperia Tipo for a few weeks now and I’m really quite impressed with it. We covered the basics of the Tipo with our initial impressions here and now we’ll have a more in depth look at it. Design The Tipo is in that range of …
Motorola have a clear cut divide between their high end devices (Razr, Proton, Razr Maxx, Razr HD, Razr M) and their current budget devices (Motoluxe and this the Motosmart). When Motorola first introduced the Motoluxe they were full of the fact it was a fashionable well designed piece …
The Xperia range is rather large, covering every possible budget range some of the latest Xperia phones have been in the budget range. Including the Xperia Tipo. The Sony anti naming convention Xperia Tipo. It is a tiny little thing with an almost identical spec to the Motorola …
Announced at Mobile World Congress earlier this year the unique selling point of the Samsung Galaxy Beam against all other mobile phones currently on the market is the built in projector on the top, but we’ll get to that in a minute. First let’s look at the specs. …
Yesterday we got our hands on the new budget phone from Motorola the Motosmart. It’s bascially a smaller and slightly lower Motoluxe. Normally the smaller versions of devices are abysmal, like the Xperia X8 or some of the smaller Galaxy devices. I’m hoping the Motosmart doesn’t follow the …
Those regular eagle eyed readers out there will have noted that this phone has already been reviewed by our editor in chief Leigh Geary, so instead of rehashing what he has already done, this will give you a different slant on this slim powerhouse. Hardware The phone is …
Quad core phones are the new benchmark in Android at the moment and LG have just launched the Optimus 4X HD. The specs are impressive, Android 4.0 Quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, with 4.7” 1280 x 720 Screen 8.9mm thin 8-megapixel camera, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 21Mbps HSPA, 802.11 …
The LG L7 forms part of the “L Style” range. When we saw the L3, L5 and this at Mobile World Congress. This is at the very top of that range but it’s still not one of the most powerful devices we’ve seen from LG. First impressions are …
So, if we’re looking at budget Android handsets we have to look at this – the Vodafone Smart II. It’s going on sale for just £70 and is powered by Android 2.3. Inside it’s actually an Alcatel device – the charger and battery gives it all away …
The Xperia P sits squarely in the middle of the new Sony Mobile NXT range. The Xperia S has a 4.3″ screen (720×1280), this Xperia P has a 4″ and the Xperia U gets a 3.5″. Inside this is powered by a 1GHz dual-core CPU and there’s an …
With Nokia switching most of their efforts to Windows Phone there’s very few “featurephones” coming onto the market. It’s left the door open for cheaper Android smartphones which, despite dropping a few specs here and there, still give owners access into the large range of apps and games …
One other feature we’ve not covered in the SIII just yet is “Pop-up video”. It’s perhaps a “nice to have” rather than an essential feature, but it’s still worth taking a look at. Here’s me loading a video and then watching it anywhere within the OS. It can …
There’s really no doubt about it, the S3 is a gorgeous looking thing. You can hardly stop yourself from flipping it around in your hand. It’s beautifully sculpted and really does feel like a smooth pebble in your hand. As far as specs go you’re all set. A …
It’s Friday! Yay! Well, if you’ve been watching our “Week with..” you’ll have noticed that there’s one feature we’ve not covered yet. S-Voice, the voice-recognition system built into the Samsung Galaxy SIII. Many have compared it to the Siri function on the iPhone 4S. Here, I do my …
Every day this week we’re bringing you a little bit of Samsung Galaxy SIII fun. Today it’s the turn of the camera and video. You may have seen “DLNA” mentioned quite a bit in your local branch of Currys and it can perhaps be a little confusing. Various …
We’re doing a special week with the Samsung Galaxy SIII and yesterday we noticed that the screen brightness was a bit dimmer on the SIII when compared to the SII. We’ve got to admit that this is actually due to the Battery Saving technology which is built into …
So, the Galaxy SIII. What’s your favourite colour? Well, don’t ask us. It’s not like we can just rustle up the Samsung Galaxy SIII in white and blue is it? I mean, next you’ll be wanting some up-close shots comparing both of them together. You’re kidding, right? These …
This one is a little tricky to show, but the Samsung Galaxy SIII has a feature called “SmartStay”. I actually found this to be disabled out of the box, but after turning on it uses the front-facing 1.9 megapixel camera to see if you’re looking at the screen. …
So, this week I’ve got myself a Samsung Galaxy SIII. It’s been loaned to us from UR-Mobile and we’ll be giving you a daily dose of this hot new handset. Simply check back at 9.30 AM every day for the latest video. I’ve had quite a bit of …
I went out and got a Orange San Diego yesterday so that I could be one of the first to own a Intel powered mobile phone; on attending the press event the other week I was pretty taken with the handset and had made my mind up pretty …
Recently we reported on the launch of the new Motorola RAZR Maxx, Motorola’s new flagship handset and we have very kindly been donated a review model to have a play with. At the beginning of the year Dan reviewed the first RAZR to carry the Android operating system. …
You might not know it but Huawei have been around in the mobile industry for a long long time now, If you have one of those USB dongles which were all the craze a year ago there is a good chance Huawei made it. They also made handsets …
The bottom of the range is never a good place to be. Not if we’re honest. If your budget will “only go” as far as the One V then you might think that you’re losing out. Sure, when it comes to specs this isn’t as F1-fast as the …
As promised, along with Dan’s initial HTC One X review, here’s another and more detailed look at the flagship One handset. It aims to turn around the perhaps “disrupted” image of the brand recently. Many thanks to Handtec for providing us with an additional review unit. The HTC …
The HTC One S is the slimmer, ever-so-slightly-less-powerful brother of the HTC One X. It’s got a 4.3″ screen with 960×540 pixel screen. I say “slightly less powerful” but heck, a dual-core 1.5GHz CPU is still ruddy good. Powered by Android 4.0 with HTC Sense 4.0, it uses …
Two recently released high-end smartphones from Sony and HTC, namely the Xperia S and One X are both touted as top-class camera phones. Imaging specs are pretty impressive – the Sony Xperia S sports 12-megapixel “Exmor R” sensor, while the HTC One X has 8-megapixel shooter backed by …
