Three to block adverts on your mobile? “No way” says EU

Just to bring you up to speed on this one, Three wanted to block the adverts that keep most websites alive. It’s a tricky subject and one which has various conflicting arguments. Mobile networks, when they first came to be, handled mobile calls. It was the most important …

TP-Link Neffos line expanded with the X1 and X1 Max

Mention TP-Link and you might think of networking kit link the AC1900 WiFi range extender we took a look at recently. They sell network switches, routers, mobile hotspots and – although you may not know it – smartphones too. They’ve now announced an extension to their Neffos series …

Pixel Phone!!

No it’s not a phone from the Minecraft community!! During our recent podcast we mentioned that Google are looking to put a stop to the Nexus line. Instead they’ll be launching a Google-branded phone from this Autumn… or this fall if you are stateside. Well, fresh news is …

Samsung Galaxy Note7 – Sales stopped, free replacements ahead

You’ll have seen it on all the big news websites today and you’ll have read it first on Coolsmartphone yesterday. As we mentioned, stores are no longer selling the Galaxy Note7 following safety concerns and multiple reports of exploding or hot and melting handsets. Today Samsung has pushed …

More on the Huawei nova and nova plus

Yesterday you hopefully saw our coverage of the Huawei launch at IFA. There’s two phones – the Huawei nova above and Huawei nova plus, below.. Huawei continues to impress us here at Coolsmartphone and these new nova handsets look rather lovely in their aluminum unibody design. The nova, …

Moto G Play now available on Vodafone

The Motorola Moto G4 Play is a handset you can buy right now on the Motorola website. £129.98 gets you a 5″ 720p HD screen (1280×720), Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with 16GB of on-board storage and a microSD card slot. Whilst the 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 quad-core CPU and …

Galaxy Note 7 shipments halted. Handsets pulled from sale

Following reports of exploding handsets, Samsung has taken the decision to delay shipments of their newest handset for “quality assurance inspections”. Fingers are being pointed at the battery, with phones reportedly catching fire during or after charging. However, Samsung are obviously going to be doing further investigation into …

Sony at IFA – Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact announced

Sony. Remember them? Perhaps I’m being too harsh, but they don’t seem to be grabbing enough of the limelight in terms of phones. Today at IFA they’ve announced a couple of news phones, including the first flagship of their X series – the Xperia XZ. First, though, let’s …

HTC One A9s announced at IFA – A tweaked, lower priced A9.

We liked the HTC One A9 and gave it a glowing review. However, one thing I did point out at the time was the cost of the thing. My closing comments were… HTC are back. Just a shame about the price for the spec we’re getting in Europe …

IFA Berlin 2016 – ZTE Press Conference

ZTE. Definitely not last in the smartphone race despite that alphabetical challenge. The IFA 2016 ZTE Press Conference is happening, so let’s get down to the happenings. Adam Zeng, CEO of ZTE Mobile Devices tells us that ZTE is globally the sixth biggest shipper of smartphones, and the …

iPhone 7 Cases begin to appear. No 3.5mm audio port in sight

People call me an Android fanboy, but the launch of yet another iPhone is always going up be a big ticket event. The launch is taking place at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on Wednesday, September 7, at 10AM local time, which is 6PM BST. …

T505 LED Headlamp – Review

Strap yourself in people, because we’re going to be reviewing a headlamp. Nope, not a headlight on your car – but one that you strap to your head for seeing in the dark. This is a pretty big one – it has a 8cm diameter on the lamp …

IFA Berlin 2016 – Huawei Press Conference #DefyExpectations

Huawei. How would we not want to wait in a queue to cover the latest announcements from Huawei? I’m at the Berlin Velodrom ready to cover the #DefyExpectations event. Reading into the imagery promoting the event, it is safe to assume the phone is made of kryptonite and …

iClever BoostSound BTS-04 Wireless Speaker – Review

I always start reviews like this by saying, “There’s lots of Bluetooth speakers to choose from”. You’ll find them in electronics shops and supermarkets and it’s very hard to know which ones are good. Here, we’ve got another one from iClever. This will set you back (at the …

Yet more smartphone security warnings

The smartphones of today have come a long, long way from the “bricks” of the 1980s and are capable of doing far more than anyone could have imagined when mobiles were first introduced. You’ll know that already of course. I bumped into someone fairly recently who wanted us …

IFA Berlin 2016 – Lenovo Press Conference

Coolsmartphone.com, represented by the Chief Pixel Density Enthusiast, is at the Lenovo Press Conference for you. You may be gutted Matteo is not on the Podcast, but it is all to bring you the latest from Berlin. Lenovo start by speaking of hardware testing and then Moto Mods. …

IFA Berlin 2016 – Samsung Gear S3 Event

Samsung. Samsung Gear: the range of wearables which enhance your digital lifestyle. An event in Berlin with an animated round watchface with the “Talk About 3” slogan under it. Whatever could they be about to announce? The glowstick pass bracelet is cool, the venue is spectacular and the …

ASUS ZenWatch 3 – Round Android Wear

After Acer, it’s ASUS’s turn to announce stuff (old and new) at IFA here in Berlin. The ZenWatch 3 is probably the most interesting thing so far. As reported by Android Central, the ASUS ZenWatch 3 is the new Android Wear smartwatch from ASUS. With a round screen, …