Category: Reviews

iFoosball HD

I have just lost half an hour of my life completely engrossed in iFoosball HD for the iPad. The game itself is takes me back to a happy place when I had time to spare on one hand, and a pint in the other, so there’s an instant …

Samsung Sound Horn Review

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 …

AbsolutePower Dual USB Wall Charger Review

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 …

STM Scout Review

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 …

Gemini JoyTab 8″ Tablet Review [updated 02/08/12]

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, …

Huawei Ascend G300 Review

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 Eluga dL1 Review

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 …

Nokia Play 360° Speaker Review

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 …

Samsung Galaxy Nexus Otterbox Commuter Case Review

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. …

Triposo launches new travel app for iPhone

Triposo has been around for about a year now on both Android and iOS platforms. It’s a useful app to have installed on your phone when you go on holiday and offers you a lot of information about the city you are in. The main great thing about …

Review – OneCable Sync and Charge Cable

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 …

Cisor BT5 Review

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 …

Eton Soulra XL Solar Powered Speaker – Review

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 …

Olloclip Review

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 …

HTC One V Review

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 …

Skross World Travel Adaptor with Twin USB review

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 …

Incipio OffGRID Review

  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 …

HTC One X Review 2

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 …

GEAR4 Airzone Series 1 Review

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 …

Sony Smartwatch – Review

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 …

Sopcast on mobile

Further to our previous article we can confirm that the app does work on an android phone, in this case a Samsung Galaxy S2, as you can see from the attached screenshots. In tests I couldn’t get every channel to work but I’m not sure that is the …

Belkin Bump case for iPad Review

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 …

Exclusive Mini Review – The JCB Pro-Smart

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 …

Android App Review – Demolition Inc THD

The other day we mentioned that Demolition Inc THD had been released onto the Play Store and I said that I would do a little review of it for you. Well yes here it is. Demolition Inc is not like any other game I have ever played. The closest I …

Targus Click-In Case for iPad Review

The Targus Click-In is a case which, from the front, resembles Apples leather smart cover but where it differs is that it also offers protection for the back of the device for the same price. I’ve been using it for over a month, here are my thoughts. The …

WoodPad Review

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 …

HTC One S Review

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 …

Instacast for iOS review

Recently I realised I had a problem. I listen to a lot of podcasts and the built in iOS way of handling these is problematic. They are downloaded from the iTunes app and listened to in the podcast section of the Music app which is confusing from the …

Sony Xperia S vs HTC One X camera shoot-out

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 …

Rowi for Windows Phone gets a huge update and a price reduction

In the world of Windows Phone there are quite a few Twitter apps. Most of them are ill thought out, barely functional, awkward, slow, laggy and unpleasant apps. My first big challenge when I started off down the Windows Phone path was to find something that did not tick …

HTC One X Review 1

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 …

Keep Calm with this app for Windows Phone

You’ve probably seen those Keep Calm posters around. Originally used during the war to raise spirits, but now these days they appear on a huge variety of things like posters and collectables. Well this app lets you create your own posters. You can choose from a selection of …

The Oona – Lick it, stick it !

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 …

Review – The Oona

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 …

Sony Xperia S – Extended review

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 …

Review – The Standeazy

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 …

Accessory Review: ZooGue Capacitive Stylus

Here at CoolSmartPhone we love peripherals and accessories for our devices. As Leigh’s recent videos on device stands have shown, we love those that are simple but effective even more! Enter the ZooGue Stylus. This device is primarily sold for iPad devices however can be used on any …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Android app – ex Dialer and Contacts

Ice Cream Sandwich has for a while been flaunted as the pinnacle of Android development. Yes many problems with the Android OS did indeed get fixed with the release of Android 4.0. But I keep coming across new problems. I have been using a Samsung Galaxy Nexus for …

Tivizen Digital TV Receiver review

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 …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Android app – File Browser Widget

One thing I have wanted for a while is a widget that lets you browse your files. I have had to resort to opening up another app and browsing through the file structure until I find the files I want. Well luckily I came across something that lets …