Category: Hardware Reviews
The Lenovo Yoga Tablet 8 has something that isn’t very abundant in the Android tablet world: innovation. OK, the design may look like an Apple Mac keyboard, but it makes for an interesting, and often pleasant, user experience. Good Design Build quality Some of the Lenovo software MicroSD …
Late last year in Abu Dhabi Nokia announced a range of new devices including the rather large 6″ Lumia 1320 and Lumia 1520, when I first saw them I thought “wow, they look amazing, I need them asap”. After a few months of reading early reviews and seeing …
The rumours surrounding a Nokia tablet have been floating around the web for a while now, the big questions for me were always how big will it be and what operating system will it run. Well late last year those questions were answered and now we have the …
I’ll be honest, Kensington sent me this a long while ago and it sat in a drawer for far too long. I’d forgotten about it until this last weekend, when “something” happened. The EVAP Rescue Pouch is a step up from the “bag of rice” solution should your …
We’ve all got very modern and well-equipped smartphones. They can take pictures, locate you from space, navigate you home and let you browse the internet. With a smartphone you can achieve a great deal, but you’ve still got a fairly short battery life and, for some, it can …
Chromebooks. Are they a good alternative to your day to day laptop? That is the question we are going to try and answer over the course of this review. I have been using one now for the past few days courtesy of Acer who lent me the device …
It’s unfeasibly big, it’s got a rotating camera, a rear touch panel, and it runs a custom ROM out of the box, but is the Oppo N1 CM Edition innovative or just a giant freak? I put my credit card where my mouth is to find out. So …
Budget Android phone. Those three words for many years have basically meant that somewhere in the phone there will be a compromise. A compromise that was so badly thought out you’d think it was made by a child or a large rock. Over the years many many many …
Here is a little something different. A thin and light laptop on Coolsmartphone. What’s going on? Am I reading the correct site do I need an eye test? Whoa there before you run off to Optical Express, relax because even though this is a laptop it share a …
You want an initial impression of the Oppo N1 CM Edition? It’s massive! Seriously, that’s the first impression everyone has of it. Let’s get over that for now, because size isn’t everything. No really, it isn’t. An impressive package In fact, the initial impression I got of the …
Lets start with a short story. Nokia was circling the drain at the beginning of 2011 and the good ship Symbian was struggling to stay afloat. The anchors of the hefty N8 and E7 were pulling it down into a whirlpool of dispair. The liferaft of the the …
Over the years I’ve made an attempt to try and use most of the current flagship devices, be it to see what might work for me or to remain informed about the other OS’s when I decide to criticise. Now and again during my constant phone swapping an …
The Samsung Galaxy Express 2 fills a size gap between the Galaxy S4 and the Galaxy S4 mini, but its price is the lowest of the three. Is it an awkward, overgrown child, or a serious smartphone worthy of consideration? I’ve spent a fortnight with one to find …
Android tablets are a mixed bag and as much as I love my Nexus 7 it always does seem like a massive phone and my Asus Transformer Prime tablet always seems too big. I’ve wanted to try out an 8″ tablet for a while now and the price …
The Jolla phone is finally here! Despite an attempt to deliver to my home literally the day I moved out and missing me then being re-delivered to work when I had that day off I finally got hold of the new smartphone that the Finnish nation are tentatively …
The day has come when Nokia will stand up and be recognised as a force to be reckoned with. This stance comes in the form of the stunning Lumia 1520. This large (there is no hiding it really) phone is the one that has been designed to bring …
The budget end of the smartphone world is always a tad scary. This, the ZTE Blade V, has a 5 megapixel camera with flash, 4GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot and a quad-core 1.2GHz CPU. That’s a good start. Not only that, but if you’re a …
Here’s a challenge for you. Name one, just one, 10” Android powered tablet that is worth the time and effort, let alone the money, of investing in. Take 10 minutes for a think and a quick internet search and come back when you have drawn the same blank …
Why haven’t Lenovo cracked the tablet market? After all, we all know that Lenovo make great laptops, so they know about portable computing. We also know that the likes of Acer and HP haven’t had much success either, so perhaps it’s not surprising. The Lenovo IdeaTab S5000 is …
It’s got many of the HTC One features, but it’s much cheaper. Currently you can pick one up unlocked for less than £200, so does the HTC Desire 500 perform? Specs Weight – 123g Dimensions – 131.8 x 66.9 x 9.9mm Display – 4.3″ WVGA CPU – Quad-core …
As I rule I usually buy just cheap cases for my iPhones. Although I’ve never broken one, I see more iPhones with dents and broken screens than any other phone. I don’t really like these cases, but they serve to keep the back scratch free, but let’s face …
Traditional Satellite navigation systems were once upon a time a must have for anyone that regularly undertook long journeys to far away places. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epSURT21hxs With the launch of Google maps, Apple maps and the vast array of other mapping solutions available for mobile phones the demand for Sat-Navs …
I’m old enough to come from a different world. A world before mobile phones. When they did appear, phones like this one were expensive and bulky. Children never had mobile phones. A mobile phone was used by successful professionals in the city. Bankers and traders used to lug …
So these days it seems that every man and their dog is making an Android slate. Now although this is a very good place to be as it give the consumer a multitude of options, it is also a potential minefield for the 1st time buyer. This buyer …
Introduction I have been a fan of the iPhone ever since the iPhone 3G, but find that after around 12 to 18 months of using a phone I get very bored. The issue with iOS is that it looks and feels the same no matter which device you’re …
When reviewing the Nexus 5, I’m extremely conscious of getting caught up in the excitement phase that accompanies receiving a new phone. After looking back at last year’s review, I actually feel that my assessment was mostly fair. But still, the passing of time has allowed that device’s …
Just how bad is the LG skin? Is it worse than TouchWiz? How is that button on the back? That’s what people say to me when the see I’ve got the LG G2. The LG G2 is one of the most unique devices of recent times and as …
It’s kinda hard to start with this one. This is a classic 1960’s-style phone. If you’re old enough you may remember seeing one of these on a special table at home. A few decades ago people would rent these from the telephone company. I know, it seems strange …
Let’s face it, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is the new flagship for Samsung. No longer does the Galaxy S range sit at the top of the pile. With the original Note it was very similar to the S2, with only the screen size and the design being …
This is a review of the ThL W8S. You can read my initial impressions post here. I purchased the phone from Pandawill, a China based exporter and it cost $295 (which converted to £185.67 on the day). It is now listed at $279 with only one battery and …
The Huawei Ascend P2 was a device we first spotted back in Barcelona some months ago and, finally, it’s here. Inside there’s some pretty decent specs. Decent? No, that’s not the right word. Very good. Firstly you have that 4.7″ 720×1280 pixel screen. Resolution is great – the …
Over the next few weeks you’ll be seeing more from our “Gift Guide” series. We’ll be covering the best accessories, gadgets and smartphones to stuff into the stocking this festive season. First, gloves. Gloves are great. They’re obviously practical at this time of year. Winter is on the …
The last few weeks have been interesting, I’ve been using the GOCLEVER FONE 570Q phablet as one of my main devices and it’s about time for the main review. My initial impressions are here if you’re interested. The GOCLEVER is one of those devices that look identical to …
HTC have been making pretty good hardware for a while now and their latest range of ‘One’ handsets have been some of the most impressive phones of the year so far. However, large phones are becoming more popular now. We’ve already seen the Samsung Galaxy Note range and …
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is an amazing camera, that in the right hands can take some truly stunning photos and it can easily replace your point and shoot. But at what cost? Does Windows Phone support the Lumia 1020 enough? From the day I first saw the leak …
The LG G2 has a tough market to compete in, the high end Android arena has a lot of big players in it currently. We have HTC, Samsung and Google all with devices around about 5″ so the G2 will draw lots of comparisons. I’ve only had the …
It would seem that they are all jumping on the bandwagon. It started with Amazon and the Kindle Fire who had the place to themselves until Tesco came along with their Hudl and it was announced yesterday that Argos are to start selling their own version of an …
What can be said about the Nexus devices that hasn’t already been said? What once stood for a developer orientated device is now a high street brand that you can pick up in your local branch of PC World. Which isn’t a bad thing, it means more people …
As mentioned in this weeks podcast, 2013 has very much been LG’s year. With the relative success of the Nexus 4, the rumoured Nexus 5 and the release of the much vaunted LG G2 what was a bit part player in the Android ecosystem has become a big …
With a lot of people now taking more and more photos on their mobile phones, a decent camera has become something we all look to have. Until now, the megapixel race hit a wall around the 13 megapixel mark. To be honest this resolution is really good for …
