Tag: android

Moto X Play is now available via Motomaker

Didn’t take the plunge on the Moto G (3rd Gen)? Then your patience may well have paid off as the Moto X Play just became available on the MotoMaker service on Motorola’s website. What is really surprising is the price that this device will cost. The 16GB version …

Project Ara delayed.

Back in 2013 Google revealed it’s plans for a modular smartphone Project Ara. We spoke a lot about the project on our fantastic podcast and universally loved the idea. Imagine you’re happy with most of the aspects of your current smartphone apart from the camera. Well no problem, …

The name’s Mallow. Marshmallow. Android M finally named.

Whoop, there it is! No longer do we have to call the next version of Android, the M build, or version, or Android M. Android Marshmallow has officially been announced to the world. It even has a fancy boot animation that’s you’ll be able to see for yourself …

Samsung announce Galaxy S6+ Edge

Samsung have today announced the brand new 5.7″ Galaxy S6 edge+. The handset with 4GB RAM, wireless charging and internal storage of either 32 or 64gb will be available to pre order from 18th August and available to buy from 4th September in the UK. The specs are …

OnePlus Two goes on sale… you still can’t buy one though!!!

The day has come. The OnePlus Two has now gone on sale on the OnePlus website. However if you don’t have an invite, and it is unlikely that you will, you still can’t buy one. I have been following the development of the Oneplus Two and the build …

LG Wine Smart marks the return of the flip smartphone

Back in the day, when this site was still in nappies, we were looking at “proper” smartphones. They had numeric keypads on the front and tiny low-res screens up front. Cameras? Oh, they were a dream son. Some even had the audacity to be “flip” phones, which were …

Remix Mini breaks $1million mark

Some good news for those of you who backed the Remix Mini. It has now achieved more than $1million and as a result two cool things have happened. The early bird $40 tier for the 2gb ram 16GB storage version has been reopened. In addition to that anyone …

Motorola Triple Product Launch

Earlier this week we covered the Motorola Triple Product Launch in London with a live-blog and have discussed what was launched in a post and this week’s Coolsmartphone Podcast. Lets look at the three products Motorola launched in a bit more detail. Moto X Style Motorola’s new flagship. …

Over a million waiting for a Oneplus Two invite

The Oneplus One launched last year amid a blaze of PR blunders.  Accusations of sexism, strange competitions and phone smashing were rife as Oneplus created a storm of publicity. So far however their “flagship killer” is creating a little bit of a fuss. Once again Oneplus are using …

Samsung want you to hide the lump in your trousers

Quite a weighty press release awaits you below, but I’ll do my best to distill it into a partially interesting news post. Basically the Samsung boys have been beavering away on a new image sensor for mobile phones. What this will basically do is deliver beautiful and sexy …

XIAOMI Redmi2 pro – Quad-core and 2GB RAM for less than £85

Sadly, I’ll need to be sending back the Meizu M1 Note that I’ve borrowed to review. The fact that it’s so cheap and so good has already got me back onto the internet looking for bargains, and I’ve stumbled across the XIAOMI Redmi2 pro for just $129.99, which …

Meizu M1 Note – Review

So this has surprised me in a way. When it first arrived the box itself didn’t exactly scream “premium”. I mean, there’s nothing really wrong with the box per se, but I’ve got used to some of the recent review phones turning up in carefully sculpted containers that …

Introducing the Cat S40 rugged smartphone

Want a rough, tough phone that’ll do all that clever smartphone stuff? A phone that won’t break merely by you looking at it, but will still let you keep up with your mates and their flashy smartphones? Cat have a new smartphone on the way. It’ll sell for …

OnePlus 2 now official

Late last night in China there was a phone announcement. 3AM to be exact. Luckily we had pizza and an internet connection, so here’s what you may have missed from the wee small hours… The OnePlus 2 (notice the number, instead of a word?) is upon us and so …

WhatsApp wangs welly of updates your way

Not content with just updating their app once, WhatsApp has decided to slam in eight – yep, you heard right – eight updates in the last couple of days since 21st July. Most of which should have started winging their way to your handsets by now. If you …

Hey Cortana, you’ve got a leaky APK

If you’re an Android user and want to play around with the Windows assistant that is Cortana, you can now download the leaked APK and sideload it here. The voice assistant, which you’ve probably seen on adverts, may or may not be better than Google Now / Siri …

Remix Mini launches on Kickstarter UPADATE

This is the one Kickstarter that in my humble opinion you cannot afford to miss. Do you fancy a PC for $20 with $20 for  shipping(£25.60 on todays exchange rate)? Interest piqued well I though it might be. There are of course some caveats to this. Numerou Uno …

Sony Mobile CEO & The Turnaround

In a recent interview with Arabian Business the Sony Mobile CEO Hiroki Totoki dropped a number of headline-worthy quoteable statements. In the interview, Hiroki Totoki discusses the challenges Sony Mobile faces in the global smartphone industry, particularly the competition from budget brands and the internal restructuring. One of …

Geeksphone – Bye, thanks for the paella

Although you might not guess it from their website, Geeksphone is to stop making and designing smartphones. A press release, which is tucked away in the forums, states .. After having developed six smartphones in less than six years, the company has reached the end of a cycle. …

Matteo Doni: Mockodile & Pixel Density Enthusiasm

I’m Matteo Doni and this is my first post on Coolsmartphone.com. By day I am a Test Engineer at Skyscanner, the travel website. I’m a geek at heart, with passion for Linux, Android, FOSS and tech in general. Two main takeaways about me: I enjoy shopping for mockodile …

Xperia Z4 Tablet – Unboxing

Another year has gone by and another Sony Tablet has arrived on our desk at Coolsmartphone towers. Today I have the real pleasure of unboxing the new Xperia Z4 Tablet. We first saw this stunning device at MWC, which we covered live. It was here that we were …

Get a personal coach in your pocket

Cross-training? Out for a run? What you need is a bit of encouragement. Something that’ll make you break out into a sweat. You need to get worn out, and quick. You need to go harder and faster. You need to build your stamina. So how’s about…. Yes, the …

A touchless smartwatch… it’s happening

Deus Ex Technology have had a good week. They launched their project on Kickstarter on the 18th and within 6 days they have achieved their goal of $100k. Awesome. But why should I care? If you own a smartwatch then this will be very interesting. They have made …

XiaoMi mi4i drops in price

Another week, another handset from Gearbest, and this time it’s the XiaoMi mi4i, which I’ve been having a nose at because they’ve dropped the price from $485.62 (£308.23) to $237.67 (£150.85). It supports dual SIM and is powered by Android 5.0. Specs include a 5″ 1920×1080 pixel screen, …

LG G4 – Review

Most phones look the same. Big screen? Check. One button up front maybe? Check. Manufacturers struggle to achieve differentiation. LG have tried to stand out from the crowd by keeping the screen large and reducing the bezel, which means a better one-handed experience. It also means that the …

Amazon drop Fire Phone to £99

Right now over on Amazon.co.uk the company is selling off its Fire Phone device which is still exclusive to O2 here in the UK. Since its launch the branded device has failed to capture mainstream attention and has been a little bit of a flop, with a high …

Remix Ultra Tablet – Review

I have now had this tablet for a few weeks now and I was holding back on the review until a few software updates had been delivered. Since I did the unboxing video back in April it has been a very busy time for the Remix as it …

Huawei announce the T1 10″ tablet

How about a tablet with a 10″ IPS screen, Qualcomm quad-core 1.2GHz CPU and 4G connectivity for just £22.50 on a pay monthly deal with a £22.99 up-front cost? O2 will soon be selling the new Huawei T1 10″ tablet in white. It’s powered by Android 4.4 KitKat, …

Google acknowledge battery drain in Wear 5.1

Last month Google began its rollout of the latest update to Android Wear – version 5.1. This update enabled features like Wi-Fi support, new gestures, hand drawn emojis and more. However, the update also came with a major unwanted feature – severe battery drain. It is present for …

Cortana for Android (beta) coming in July.

Microsoft has revealed that a beta version of Cortana, their digital assistant (none of which I can get to work right), will be available for Android users sometime in July – as a Beta. This means that the Cortana version for Android won’t have all of the features of …

LG G4 Photo special – Teaser

Anyone who follows me on social media (I’m @mobilemandan on Twitter) will know that I love my phone photography. I am by no means a pro at it, and I’m still learning the different settings from ISO to shutter speed. However, with smartphone camera technology getting better all …

Google Opinion app delivers (a little bit) of free Google Play credit

Surprisingly, Google doesn’t quite know everything about you. Not yet anyway. Sure, your phone will be telling Google where you work, where you live, what you look like and perhaps those several cheeky trips to McDonald’s, but there’s probably a bit more detail they can get if, let’s …

WowWee Reveal MiPosaur and REV robots with apps

This is just plain cool and for that reason and no other (well I kinda want to play with one) I am going to post something about it. Anyway moving on. WowWee have just announced that they are going to be making and selling some “next robotic innovations”. …

Acer Liquid Jade Z Review

This thing is incredibly light and remind me obviously of the previous Acer Liquid Jade from some time back. It also kinda reminds me of the older iPod in the design, plus the fact that it’s painfully thin. The phone itself comes in at 110 grams. First impressions …

Xperia Z3+ announced

Today Sony announced an edition to its Xperia Z3 range, imaginatively titled the  Xperia Z3+ The newly announced device is both slimmer (6.9mm) and lighter (144g) than the Xperia Z3, and is available in four colour options to meet your individual taste and style. Choose from classic black, white or …

Octa-core for less than £100

Here in Merry olde England it’s a Bank Holiday weekend. This, by law, means that everyone must either… a) Buy lots of items for the garden (perhaps even a barbeque even though it’s not warm enough). b) Go to the pub “for a quick half”, only to emerge …