Xiaomi becomes the third largest smartphone manufacturer

After a decade in operation, Xiaomi (who are behind those “Mi” phones you’ve probably seen) is now number three globally. The latest Canalys reportshows that the company has shipped a massive 47.1 million devices globally, hitting a 45% growth in the previous quarter. Here in Europe, Xiaomi has …

Honor Kicks of the pre “Black Friday” sales

It’s that time of year again where we start to see pre-“Black Friday” deals pop up. This year Honor is going big and they are starting things early. They are dropping prices on a load of their kit, from phones to wearables. It’s not just all their old …

The 5G Enabled eSIM is Technology of the Future

Back in the day, circa 1979, when the Cellular Era began transforming the way we connected, nobody could have imagined we would one day think up something as innovative as a 5G eSIM. When the first SIM card emerged in 1991 the world was dazzled by the possibilities …

Huawei kick off their Golden Weekend

This one starts on Friday but hey, they didn’t tell me that I couldn’t mention it early. You’ve heard of “Black Friday”, but Huawei have instead gone for “Golden Weekend” and so, from tomorrow, you can back some discounts on their stuff. First, the Huawei P40 Pro+ 5G …

RoWrite2 – A cool smart notepad you didn’t know you needed

This looks pretty cool and, coming from the people that brought use the Flexpai smartphone, it should be. This is basically a writing pad. Sheets of paper, a pen, a nicely presented folder. Everything you expect. However, whatever you jot down will instantly get digitally scanned and stored. …

Then, along came XDA with a smartphone!

A smartphone with a full 66-key QWERTY keyboard? You don’t see that much now! This is a phone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, dual SIM connectivity, a 12 megapixel primary camera, an 8 megapixel selfie and… did I mention the slide-out QWERTY keyboard?! I think I’ve been …

6 Things to look for before hiring an app developer

When you’re building an app, you might have all kinds of ideas, wire frames and a lot of expectations on what you want your app to do. However, some of the biggest steps with your app build is hiring the right developer and budgeting appropriately. To help calculate …

The OnePlus Nord N Series. Come, get some.

Hands up if you fancy a OnePlus smartphone for just £179. Yeah, I can see you out there. These boys are all over the smartphone landscape right now. Have a look at our OnePlus coverage and you’ll see just how busy they’ve been. Two additional phones have now …

No more locked smartphones!

Those with longer memories may remember this being quite a problem, but now we’re seeing more and more networks selling phones which are unlocked out of the box. Wait. What’s a locked phone anyways? Well, back in the day – and as a way to keep you tied …

SMARTY – On test

Just a few days ago I ran out of data. Stuck in hospital, and with only a relatively slow WiFi connection, I’d basically nailed all my allowance and was a bit “stuck”. Luckily though, a lot of phones now have dual SIM trays, so – even if you …

Milo – On-the-go comms

I very rarely do articles about Kickstarter projects, but – as a cyclist – this one looked like a good idea. It’s basically a tiny little communicator which allows group chats when you’re riding, surfing, running, walking, rowing or whatever else. No push-to-talk, no faffing. No need for …

Realme 7 and Realme 7 Pro now on sale in the UK

The realme 7 (£179) and realme 7 pro (£279) are now available to buy on the realme website. The realme 7 is available in blue or white and has a 90Hz 6.5″ Full HD+ screen (2400 x 1080) at 405ppi. It also gets a quick capacious 5000mAh battery …

SanDisk Ultra 200GB microSD Deal

We’re always tracking microSD deals here at Coolsmartphone. Today it’s a 200GB one on Amazon and it costs just £21.99. For that you’re getting up to 100 MB/s transfer speeds, A1 performance and it’s SanDisk quality, so you know it’s good. As always with these things, do check …

Google Play downloads hit 28.3bn during lockdown

It’s always hard to get an exact figure for app and game downloads, but 2020 has definitely got researchers looking into those install counts. Millions across the world are spending more time indoors, online and on their smartphone amid the coronavirus lockdown. It’s meant, according to most research …

Huawei Mate40 Series Launch – Watch live

The Huawei Mate40 Series will be announced in minutes – they’ll be big and powerful and will succeed the Huawei Mate30 range. You can watch the launch live here. Join us!

65W Charging? Xiaomi ups the ante with 80W wireless charging!

The OnePlus 8T has got some proper speedy charging. Our OnePlus 8T review looked at the new charger and the “flat to full” time of just 39 minutes. However, Xiaomi want to go one better, and there’s no cables required either. Their next generation 80W “Mi Wireless Charging …

The mobile phones of the 1970’s

The year is 1976 and, on BBC Kids TV show “Blue Peter”, they’re about to show something amazing. A phone with no cable that you could even take outside. There are absolutely no trailing cables of any kind; it’s not connected to anything at all because it’s got …

The iPhone 12 is out. Let’s get a cheap iPhone 11!

If you’re looking for an iPhone 11, the O2 “Like New” site is well worth a nose. They’re offering the 64GB iPhone 11 in a range of colours (black, green, purple, white, yellow etc) and you can bag one for £470. To get that price, you’ll need to …