Category: Reviews
HTC tell me that their new model has a “dual-tone” design. It’s not immediately obvious when you put it next to the M8, and you can see just that in our MWC gallery, but there is a subtle difference in the edging and the colouring. Yet again we …
I’ve been banging on about this in tweets and posts for some time now, but the BoomSound system on the HTC One M9 is something that I appreciate. Despite the proliferation of Bluetooth speakers and headsets you’ll still find me listening to tunes via the external speaker on …
Taking a pair of headphones out with me running is quite an undertaking, controlling my music whilst I’m out running is also fiddly. The fit is usually not quite right, the volume not quite right, the cables flap around and catch on stuff, the Bluetooth connection to my …
Battery life on a phone is something we all wish we had more of, whether it be for more gaming time or for more camera shots whilst on holiday. For a while now many companies have made portable charger packs which charge your phone via USB and then …
This, my friends, is a Jaguar XF. It’s a great car. Below is the facelifted Jaguar XF. It looks roughly the same, but the headlight assembly alone means that you can tell the difference between new and old. It’s not a massive change, but the older design was …
The quality of camera phones is generally very good, especially on high end models. However, with a few exceptions, significant changes in magnification normally requires software-based image manipulation when on a smartphone. There are a few options available for altering lenses on phones, and one that impressed me …
The fitness wearable market is quite a varied one. With many manufacturers creating all different shapes and sizes of wrist bands or watches. A few weeks ago Hannspree announced the Sport Watch which seemed to have the ideal combination of features. They’ve sent me one which I’ve been …
Update #1: Added GoodTask, Gneo, Zippy on 07/04/15 First published on 08/11/14 Unlike most app reviews, this one is going to encapsulate several task managers for iPhone. Instead of reviewing every single one under the sun, I will pick apps that I feel are worthy of being on anyone’s …
Home automation is something that is only really limited by your imagination, possibly what accessories you can buy and possibly also by how much money you have. You get the idea though…. One of the more intriguing things I saw at MWC was the Piper NV, it is …
Getting Office documents working on your mobile device can be a hit and miss affair. Sometimes you’ll find an app that opens certain documents but won’t let you edit them. Sometimes you can edit some document types but not others, and you can find that the document will …
Alcatel have a wide range of devices and keeping up with exactly where each model sits in the range is at times a struggle, when I visited their stand at MWC it took me five minutes to gather myself and work out what was what. Alcatel have sent …
This is not an April Fool Those of you who were following our MWC coverage will already be familiar with Valedo. for those of you who wern’t following our exploits at MWC here is a recap1, Valedo is a wearable that will help you improve your back health …
Doro have found themselves a niche, they have really really thought of everything that a phone should do in that particular niche. A few weeks ago I was introduced to the new Liberto 820 Mini and when I got back from MWC there was one waiting for me …
Usually, headphones are a difficult item to review and at the end of the day, you the reader have to take my word for it. We’ve had the KitSound Clash Bluetooth Headphones in for review recently and we’ll start the review off with my good and bad points. …
Once upon a time our gadgets weren’t particularly complicated or vibrant and their batteries used to last for what seemed to be a life time from a single charge. Then tech got smart, connected and colourful and battery management became important, shortly followed by battery anxiety. It’s happened …
Whilst at MWC I met the guys from Speck, we had a chat about cases, as you’d expect. They asked me what phone I had and what case I used, I pulled out my Note 4 in an Otterbox Defender case and they actually recoiled in horror. We …
It has been a while since I have done a review of a new phone so when Acer asked me to test the new Jade S I figured I would give it a shot. I had done a small article when the prices were announced a while back …
I have been a fan of Otterbox cases for many years now; it is one of my first purchases when I get a new device. Because I know I’ll be getting a well designed, well made and hard wearing case. I’ve had a Note 4 for a good …
A package arrived the other day and in it there was a very shiny box with an Acer Logo on it. Why don’t you join me while I unbox this little shiny box? What we have here is a pretty neat phone that is coming in a suitably …
It won’t be long till all the main manufacturers go along the sealed battery route. I have no problem with this provided they innovated in battery technology, rather than the most megapixels in the camera or the most pixels per inch in the screen. The way forward, however, …
Since I typed my original post about this device it’s now dropped in price. At around £40 and supported by lots of supposed “5 star reviews” it seemed appealing, so I thought it was worth a dabble. Fancy a cheap smartwatch? Let’s see what it’s really like. First …
Music plays such a varied role in our lives, it can be fun, it can be serious, it evokes emotion, we listen to it alone and we listen to it to be sociable and often the environment we are dictates how we consume our media. Of course and …
Look at a network-branded tablet and you’ll sometimes find yourself in a strange world of rebranded Chinese kit. Is it good? Is it bad? It’s really hard to tell. However, for £125 on Pay As You Go or £21 per month for 3GB of 4G data per month, …
£70 doesn’t buy you much in the technology market, right? Normally a £70 tablet wouldn’t provide a great user experience but recently a new development has hit the market in a wave of cheap Windows 8 tablets, including the Connect 7″ Tablet from Tesco, but how does the device …
Here at CoolSmartPhone Towers I seem to be becoming the resident Bluetooth speaker reviewer, which isn’t a bad thing, as I can compare the qualities of the speakers against each other, as I’m not listening to each one in isolation. The latest speaker to come through is …
Some time ago, our very own Leigh carried out a review of the Lugulake Bluetooth speaker, which he was thoroughly impressed with, and you can catch up with the review here. Well the company have contacted CoolSmartPhone towers, asking us if we would like to look at the new improved version …
We have reviewed several powerbanks over the last few weeks and months (here, here and here for 3), now it’s my turn. The PowerpackXL medium is a 4000mAh portable battery pack in a very nice finish, with a 5V 1A output. The powerbank has a shiny black finish …
Robocat is known for making some amazing apps. Haze, Thermodo, and Televised to name a few. And Breaking, available for iOS and Mac, doesn’t fail to disappoint. The premise behind Breaking is simple: See news important to you with only a swipe. Any websites you want can be searched for …
My phones get some abuse. Especially when the kids get hold of them. At the moment I have an iPhone 6 Plus the additional size and weight compared to previous models gives it a little more crunch when it hits the floor. I needed a case capable of …
Following on from their announcement of the New Huawei Ascend G7 4G (which I covered here), I was lucky enough to get sent a device for review. Device Specs. 5.5 inch HD IPS display, 720p resolution. Measuring in at 7.6 mm thick. 1.2 GHz quad core processor capable of …
Karbonn are another of those companies you might not have heard of, they are an Indian firm that have been making phones for about five years now. They have recently been named as hardware partners for Google and the Android One project and also Microsoft with Windows Phone. …
Picture the scene. You’re about to go abroad. You’ve got your passport, you’ve booked the hotel and the flight. What about your phone? Unless you’re lucky enough to be using a network like Three and going to one of the countries in their Feel At Home plan, you’ll …
We must be doing something right. I don’t know quite what it is, but we must be doing it right. No longer are we just reviewing smartphones, we’re now reviewing eye drops. Yes, eye drops. Stay with me, because you’re looking at the problem right now. Screens. We …
Holy hell. I think something just happened in the trouser department. These are Bluetooth speakers like I’ve never seen or heard before. I mean sure, you know deep down that the wood enclosing these speakers is 100% MDF, but it looks lovely and these speakers would sit beautifully …
Today was a big day for Pebble. Just in case you have been living under a rock and dont know who Pebble are, they made the first truly usable Smartwatch that could work on both iOS and Android. That one was also funded through a Kickstarter project and …
Acer Aspire Switch 11 Intel Atom Quad-core 1.33GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, microSD reader, 32GB flash memory and 500GB drive in the keyboard “base” section. Windows 8.1 (32 bit), 11.6″ Active Matrix LCD IPS LED back-lit multi-touch / touchscreen at 1366×768. WiFi IEEE 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, 8550mAh battery. I’ve …
Some of you may have heard of Xiaomi, they are the third largest phone company on the planet. The problem is that they are huge in China and India, Europe not so big. You may also have come across Xiaomi with the Miui software, which started life as …
For those who have been living under a rock for the last decade or so, I just need to bring you some breaking news. Smartphone and tablet batteries really aren’t as good as we’d like them to be. Right, now on with the show. This is yet another …
I’ve had the pleasure of playing a pre-release of Alto’s Adventure for a while now. It’s a truly immersive, gorgeous, addicting app. Sure, there are countless endless runners to hit the App Store; Tiny Wings and Badlands to name a few personal favourites. But you cannot find either on my phone. …
Usually here at Coolsmartphone we’ll do a full in-depth review of a phone. It’ll include specs, video, pictures and all the geeky information you need to form your decision. We’ll start this review with a bit of that. This Sony Xperia M2 Aqua has a 1.2 GHz quad-core …
