Category: Hardware Reviews
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. …
Speck have been manufacturing cases for iOS devices for many years and have earned themselves a reputation as somewhat of a veteran in the market. Not a company to rest on its laurels they are constantly refining old designs whilst simultaneously releasing new ones. Read on for my …
So, whilst I can’t review any Galaxy SIII accessories yet, I can at least review some Galaxy SII accessories instead. This is called the Samsung Galaxy S2 Sound Station Sound Horn, but I’m just going to call it the “Sound Horn” because it’s a lot better for my …
We get a number of accessories to review here at Coolsmartphone. This one has taken a while to arrive, but it’s simple and effective. It won’t take a great deal to describe and there’s not a great deal of complexity about it, but that’s always a good thing …
I’ve been on the lookout for a bag to cart about my gadgets when going places. I needed something that wasn’t obviously a laptop bag (for fear of being mugged) but something that offered just as much protection. The STM Scout is the bag I chose to try …
Not so long back we announced that Gemini had become a new name in the Android tablet world. Aimed squarely at the entry level market, the Gemini JoyTAB range aims to bring the full Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich experience to a price point that has, until recently, …
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 …
Panasonic, long missing from the smartphone arena, have finally made the decision to enter the European market. Their first foray is the Eluga dL1 and thanks to the kind people of Expansys we’ve gold hold of one to review. The Panasonic Eluga is a fantastic looking device. Have …
My history of mobile speakers has been a bit tangled. Tangled with wires that is. I have used and subsequently got rid of no end of pc speakers, odd little speakers that were like a concertina and most recently I have been running long audio cables through to my …
I used to really loathe having to use a phone case. In the olden days I would never use one, I would drop my phone on a daily basis (approximate) and by the end of my contract my phone would be covered in cracks, scratches, sellotape and holes. …
So what is this? Well, it’s pretty simple really. At one end there’s a standard USB connector. In the middle, a retractable seat belt-style mechanism and at the other end – magic. OK, it’s not magic. I fibbed a little. First, there’s a miniUSB connector. That plugs into …
Here we have a new entry into the market of audio accessories for mobiles and tablets. It comes in the form of a small cylinder about half the size of a drinks can, but with enough power to blow your socks off. So what is this almighty cylinder …
It seems odd to write a review for a solar powered product, based on the biblical amounts of rain we’ve had recently, but I’ve had this unit for a week or two and we did manage to have a little bit of sunshine during that time! The Eton …
The Olloclip falls into a category I’ve never reviewed or even used before. It’s a 3 function lense that clips over the camera on an iPhone 4/4S and adds three new functions, Wide Angle, Fish Eye and Macro. Read on for my thoughts and some sample pictures. The …
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 …
I was preparing to go on holiday the other week. As always I end up with a big pile of phone chargers, camera chargers, mp3 player chargers, my wifes proprietary cables for her antiquated phone and sometimes even the charger for one of my tablets. It always soon becomes a …
Modern smartphones are a wonder of technology at times. They have Cameras, GPS, Artificial Intelligence but the one thing that lets them down is that battery technology hasn’t improved at the same rate. This results in poor battery life, especially when using the aforementioned features. The Incipio …
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 …
One of my favourite iOS features is Airplay. The ability to send Audio and/or video wirelessly to a device such as an Apple TV or something like a Gear4 Airzone Series 1 speaker dock is pretty useful and handily I have been using the latter for the last …
It’s here, it’s really here! I was so excited to see the ‘missed delivery’ card from the postman, knowing what was in the packet. I had been anxiously waiting for the delivery from Clove since I first read about the new version of the SmartWatch, hoping Sony had improved …
As beautiful as modern technology can be at times there are situations where you want to ensure the protection of your pride and joy. You’re left with a choice, you can either invest in a rugged device, like the JCB Pro Smart we previewed or you can get …
If your day job involves a lot of outdoor work then you might not carry a smartphone. They need charging quite a bit, they’re fairly delicate instruments and can be fiddly to use with big, dirty, working hands. JCB have moved from just sticking covers on other handsets …
If you’re anything like me, sometimes you want somewhere to put your iPad when it doesn’t need to be in your hand. I’m always concerned if I lay it down somewhere that the back will get scratched or it’ll get knocked over. Both of those problems are solved …
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 …
The HTC One series was announced at Mobile World Congress in February and with so much to see I really didn’t get much time at all with the One X. Add to that all the rushing around and not being 100%, I came away from Barcelona not really …
So, we reviewed The Oona recently and filmed a hands-on video. However, we pretty much ruined the original video so I set about re-filming it today. The result is below but I wanted to see just how versatile this stand actually is. The Oona is a pretty unique …
Another stand for you now but this one is a bit different. It’s not just one stand, it’s many, many stands all in one. A multi-purpose stand that you can construct and adapt to your needs. Their Oona website has just one video to show it in action …
The Sony Xperia S is quite an important smartphone in Sony’s lineup following recent break-up with Ericsson. We have already covered Xperia S here at Coolsmartphone in a review by Dan a couple of weeks ago, but we have also decided to take another more detailed look at …
Stands. They’re always a touchy subject here at Coolsmartphone. There’s usually a couple of things you have to put up with when you’re looking for one. For a start there’s a selection of stands and base units which you may have to carefully select to suit your specific …
This diddy little gadget is called the Tivizen Digital TV receiver. It’s surprisingly small, about the size of a credit card and the thickness of a normal smartphone. Put simply, this just grabs TV signals and then pumps them out over a WiFi hotspot that it creates. You …
Just in case you did not know, recently Sony Ericsson decided to part ways with Sony buying up the Ericsson part of the business. This means all future phones will be Sony branded and this Xperia S is the first of this new batch of android powered smartphones. …
So, you know how it is. Charging your phone can be a pain. You’ve probably got more than one charger, and there’s bound to be tangled cables everywhere. This is the IDAPT i4 Universal Charger. It’s called the i4 because you can charge 4 devices at once. It …
I am a fan of big screen phones. There I admit it, so why I may here you ask do I have HTC‘s latest offering in the Rhyme sitting in front of me for review. Well the reason couldn’t be simpler, if you are a regular reader of …
The lovely people at Clove loaned us a Huawei S7 Slim recently so we’ve had a good week or two to test it. The IDEOS S7 Slim, to give it the full name, is available in a WiFi-only and WiFi / 3G combo version. Just like it’s name, …
I have been using the Tab 7.7 now for about 3 weeks and thought it may be time to do a follow on from my initial observations. As those of you who read the previous article are aware I have had my reservations about a few of the …
The Explorer is a fairly diddy device. It feels almost square in the hand and is a petite 102.8mm (about 4.05″) by 57.2mm (2.25″). The screen is 3.2″ but the resolution is only 320×480. I say “only” because I’m a techy geek at heart. To be honest that …
First of all thanks to the guys from Mugen for sending us this battery to review. It came all the way from Hong Kong I was amazed. My experience of spare batteries for phones has basically been buying a replacement when the original started to misbehave. Within a few …
So, we’ve got a tablet here that you’ll probably not see on any other tech website. It’s the LeapPad! This doesn’t run Android or any other OS we’d normally cover here but, back in July 2011 the LeapPad started something new. Does your child play with your smartphone …
I have had the Asus Transformer Prime for a few weeks now. I’ve bought some accessories for it, I’ve plugged in my xbox controller to it, I’ve downloaded a load of tablet specific apps and I think now is an ideal time to review the thing. The Prime …
