Category: Reviews

STM Scout 2 bag – Review

I’ve got too many laptops and tablets lying around at home at the moment and I’ve been on the lookout for a bag that’ll allow me to safely store 3 or 4 devices plus cables accessories. I’ve often looked at STM bags in the past, so when I …

My time with the Nokia Lumia 1520

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 …

Nokia Lumia 2520 – Review

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 …

Nillkin Fresh LG G2 flip case – Review

To get the best from a flip case on the LG G2 you need one with a window in. The Nillkin Fresh series of cases aims to emulate the genuine LG case at a fraction of the cost. The reason I say that you need a window in …

Mophie Juice Pack Helium review

I for one use my phone a lot, Believe me, unlimited call plans were a bad idea. Battery life, needless to say, is an issue. However, there is a solution. A sexy one too. Well, I think it is anyway. Ever since the days of the 3GS, Mophie …

Kensington EVAP Rescue Pouch review

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 …

The Basic Big Friendly Phone Review

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 …

Acer C720 Chromebook review

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 …

Oppo N1 CyanogenMod Edition – Review

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 …

Android App Review – Focus photo sharing

Don’t you just hate it when you hand your phone to a friend to have a look at a picture you’ve taken and they then start looking through the rest of your shots? Well there’s an app for that now. Focus photo sharing deals with this exact problem. …

Motorola Moto G – Review

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 …

Acer Chromebook C720 unboxing

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 …

Tech 21 iPad Mini Screen Protector & Rear Case Review

Some time ago I reviewed the Lifeproof case for my iPad mini, which was a fully armoured case which offered  unprecedented levels of protection, and provided the much needed piece of mind while it was being used by my little boy, but with the drawback that considerable bulk was …

Oppo N1 CyanogenMod Edition – initial impressions

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 …

Nokia Lumia 1520 Review

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 …

My time with the iPhone 5S

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 …

Android App Review – Skiplock

If you’re using today’s super powerful smartphones like me, you are now carrying everything in your pocket, your bank details, your social networks and normally some irreplaceable photo’s of loved ones. So your phone should have some kind of password/PIN/pattern/facelock protection to stop unwanted eyes to getting to the …

Samsung Galaxy Express 2 Review

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 …

Review – My iStory

If you’ve read my review of the HTC One or HTC One mini then you’ll know how much I love the “video montage” feature. It bundles together photos you’ve taken into a fun movie that will help you remember all those little moments from your day. If you’ve …

LG G Pad 8.3 – Review

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 …

Android app review – ScreenshotCleaner

ScreenshotCleaner is a handy little app for bloggers and developers alike. As a blogger I take a lot of screenshots on my phone which, obviously, always have the status bar on. This isn’t really a problem, but often it has notifications and icons that are irrelevant and messy, …

Jolla phone – Initial Impressions

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 …

Nokia Lumia 1520 unboxing

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 …

ZTE Blade V review

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 …

Spigen SGP Neo Hybrid Nexus 5 Case Review

Google’s flagship handset has been with us for a while now and some quality Nexus 5 accessories made by third party manufacturers are beginning to filter through. One such accessory hoping to be added to the must have list is the Spigen SGP Neo Hybrid case and thanks …

Lenovo Ideatab S6000 10″ Tablet review

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 …

Otone Varsa Review

Looking for a soundbar? This is one, but there’s a secret surprise too. It’s the Otone Varsa and it packs two 10W speakers producing (duh – obviously) 20W. It’ll sit under your TV or PC and has audio fed in from a 3.5mm audio plug. Sitting as a …

Christmas Gift Guide 2013: HexStyli 6-in-1 Stylus

Getting Secret Santa, stocking fillers and table presents for geeks technology lovers can sometimes be a difficult task, but the HexStyli 6-in-1 stylus could be six answers all in one (cue Kinder Surprise jingle – other chocolate eggs are available). The HexStyli 6-in-1 is not only a bit …

Android App Review – Smart IR Remote

Having an infra red blaster on my phone has recently become something that I can really appreciate. The app offerings from HTC, LG and Samsung are a bit basic or they get bogged down with TV listings and the like. What I wanted was something I could fiddle …

Samsung Galaxy Gear – Review

The Samsung Galaxy Gear. Gimic or useful? Well… Thanks to the guys at Mobicity we’ve got one to have a play with along with a Note III but I’m not gonna cover that, I will say its cool though. Priced at £229.99 in a good variety of colours …

Sumo Sway Review

Sitting on my backside is something I do a lot in this job. Although I am doing a great deal more writing on my phone whilst walking around, it’s still a lot of laptop-action that drives a large portion of my writing. So, I need a comfortable place …

Otterbox Pursuit Series 20 & 40 waterproof dry box – Review

Keeping your gadgets dry is a rather difficult task and it’s a task that many of you out there might never have to do. Some people work in rough or difficult environments, some people spend a lot of their working day getting soaked to the skin and some …

Lenovo Ideatab S5000 review

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 …

HTC Desire 500 Review

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 …

Cat iPhone 5/5S Case review

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 …

Cuebox 3D Pool Game Review

As if playing pool in two dimensions isn’t hard enough, there is now 3D Pool. This is definitely a game that will test your mental acuity and give that redundant geometry knowledge a workout. As you can imagine from the title, the game is based around a regular …

Nokia Coloud Boom headphones – Review

Yellow is the new white ok, in my world it is anyway. So imagine what I thought when I saw the new Nokia Coloud range of Lumia colour matching headphones, I was excited as there are three different headphones to choose from. In the end I went for …

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S Charger – Review

Wireless charging is becoming something I look for in a new device, mainly down to ease of use. I’m lazy basically, just plonking down a phone onto a charging pad is easy, plugging a cable in is comparatively complicated and time consuming (if you add up all of …

TouchAbility Waterproof Cases – Reviewed

We’ve already reviewed their gloves and now we’ve got the TouchAbility waterproof cases. These will let you protect your phone from the elements while you tweet live from the pool. The first is a soft-plastic “bag case” which costs £7.99 and I’ve got to point something out.. ..you’ve …