Tag: review

HTC One – Hands on

Leigh is at the HTC event in London right now getting his hands on with the brand new HTC One device which was announced today in both London and New York. We have already covered the official announcement as well as news on which networks will be stocking …

Logic 3 Ferrari Cavallino T350 headphones – Review

Over the ear headphones have seemingly become popular again. Not a day goes past without me seeing some kid in a tracksuit and a huge pair of white headphones costing hundreds sat on top of his head. I haven’t really bought into either the over ear headphone market …

BlackBerry Z10 – Initial Impressions

The BlackBerry is one of those phenomena that have totally passed me by. I have never used one, touched one or even within about 4’ of one. So when the whole world erupted with excitement a few weeks ago with the arrival of BB10 and the new flagship …

Nokia Lumia 620 – Review

For some reason whenever I get a “budget” or “entry level” phone I always expect great things. Somewhere along the line my brain just can’t compute that something that costs about £200 isn’t always going to be astounding. I think it is the various amazing budget devices that we’ve seen in …

Nexus 10 – Review

Introduction OK so this device has been out for a while.. but with limited availability we’ve struggled to get hold of a review unit.. well now we have one! You all know about the ridiculously high resolution screen, but how does the rest of  the device perform? What’s the overall experience like, …

HTC Butterfly – Review

I am an avid user of iPhones and I have been for the last 4 years and I’m currently getting bored of iOS, yes, bored. I have been wondering what to get next and the opportunity to review one of HTC’s top end devices arose, so I jumped …

Samsung Ativ S Review

By the sheer number of handsets sold Samsung are the world leader in mobile devices.  The Galaxy range of devices have become a massive hit and from the excellent Note II to the Galaxy SIII, their range of Android devices have taken the world by storm. It comes …

Nokia Lumia 620 – Initial Impressions

Nokia seem to want to cover all sectors of the mobile market. From the lowly Asha range right through to the top end Lumia 920. The Nokia Lumia 620 sits somewhere smack in the middle. At first I thought the Lumia 620 was going to be a drastically …

Movpower Portable Charger – Review

So on Tuesday we added a post about the Movpower 5200 Portable Charger. I decided to get one. There’s another version available but this baby has a capacity of 5200mAh. That’s quite a bit. The Samsung Galaxy Note has a 2500mAh battery, which is hefty enough, so this …

Android App Review – Podkicker Pro

For years people have sat around listening to others chat about a varied range of topics on the radio.  The invention of the podcast changed the way that many listen to such conversations  and gave us the ability to hear said recordings where and whenever we want. Of …

Review – Speaktoit goes Premium – Extra features added

So, we’ve asked you why Siri isn’t missed on Android but there are still some very clever alternatives. We’ve covered one in particular – Speaktoit – a while back now, but they’ve recently had a pretty major overhaul. First up, there’s a new “teach” facility. You tell your …

Seagate GoFlex Satellite – Review

About two “Gadget Show Live” events ago I was approached by a man carrying a iPad with a HD film playing on it. Nothing new there I thought, but as I was walking away, he showed me a small portable hard drive which he had in his pocket. …

RHA MA450i Earphones Review

This is the third in the RHA series that we here at Coolsmartphone have reviewed following on from the MA350’s and the CA-200 headphones. Both the 350’s and the CA200’s were impressive with the RHA-MA350’s being particularly good. So, how do the current top of the range MA450i’s …

Samsung Galaxy S III Mini – Review

We finally managed to land a Samsung Galaxy S III Mini in the palm of our hands. Thanks to the guys at Mobicity for the opportunity. Good points Good size Good battery life Good screen Bad Points 5 MegaPixel Camera OS can be laggy The Galaxy S III …

Huawei Ascend G330 – Review

Huawei are quickly becoming a major force in the mobile world and their latest budget offering, the Ascend G330, has a lot of pressure on it to continue the impressive trend of affordable handsets that punch above their weight. The Ascend G330 is the replacement for the Ascend …

XYFI Personal Hotspot – Review

I know what most of you guys are thinking. “Why do I need a MiFi?” or perhaps even, “What is a MiFi?” Put simply, it’s a gadget you stick your SIM card in. It’ll connect to the internet through the mobile network and then beam out a WiFi …

Spigen SGP LeatherGrip for iPhone 5 – Review

  I like a nice leather case. They have a tendency look both classy and smart, much like myself. The Spigen SGP LeatherGrip falls into this category nicely. It’s a snap on the back style case with a soft touch lining for protection. The leather is genuine and …

Archos Gamepad – Review

The Gamepad is a unique device, it is like nothing I have ever used before. In the past my mobile gaming had been done on a Nexus 7 or a Galaxy Note, so using real buttons was going to be something new for me. with the Gamepad I …

Lightwedge Verso Artist Series Case Review

Last week you’ll remember we announced the winners of our Kindle Fire Accessories give-away. To make sure you guys with the older Kindles aren’t left out MobileFun sent me a case for my Kindle Keyboard to show to you guys. Press play, sit back and enjoy the video. I’ve had this for …

Spigen SGP Slim Armor for iPhone 5 – Review

The trouble with phone cases are that its long been disputed which is better for protection. Hard cases, or softer silicon/TPU cases. The solution may be hybrid cases which is where the Slim Armor for the iPhone 5 comes in. The Slim Armor is a 2 part case …

Spigen Glas.tr for iPhone 5 – Review

Yes, I am reviewing a screen protector but I am going to start with the conclusion for a change. This is the best screen protector I have ever used. Rather than being your typical piece of flimsy plastic film, the Glas.tr is an actual piece of incredibly tough …

Samsung Chromebook (Series 3) – Initial Impressions

We don’t normally cover Chromebooks here but with the lines between desktops, tablet and mobile OS’s becoming ever blurred its getting tougher to not to. For the last few days I have been using the £230’’ Samsung Chromebook. I’ve decided so that I can get a full view …

Huawei Ascend G330 – initial impressions

The popular budget Huawei Ascend G300 has now been replaced with the G330, and I have one for a fortnight to see how it fairs. Huawei are dragging their reputation from cheap ‘n’ cheerful to serious contender in impressive style, not least because the G300 was such good …

Samsung ATIV Tab – Review

Samsung ATIV Tab, a Windows RT based tablet, is this to be an Apple or Google competitor? My personal opinion, no. Purely because I believe that a full blown version of Windows needs to be on a desktop machine, not a tablet. Anyway… Good Points Well Built Excellent …

Tech21 Impact Snap with Cover for iPad Mini – Review

Tech21 are somewhat famous in the case industry both for their cases and for their appearance on Dragons Den showing off their D3O technology. This case has that very tech included as you can see in the picture, its the orange stuff. Essentially what d30 technology does is …

Coolsmartphone 2012 Awards

It’s been another fantastic year in the smartphone world, with new devices seemingly appearing on a monthly basis. Sales wise, its been dominated by the usual suspects  (Samsung & Apple), but they’ve been far from the only show in town. After much heated debate (filling in a Google …

Nokia Lumia 920 and the tale of déjà vu

Exactly a year ago, thanks to the lovely team at Nokia Connects I’ve had an opportunity to review the Nokia Lumia 800 – the first Nokia-designed smartphone running the Windows Phone operating system. Putting all ramblings whether Nokia’s sudden strategy switch was right or not, the Lumia 800 …

iPad mini – Review

It's hard to ignore the iPad juggernaut. Apple launched their version of the tablet computer back in 2010 and since then it's gone from strength to strength in almost every way. Others have joined the market since but have never really managed to replicate Apples success. A couple …

Archos Gamepad – Initial Impressions

The Archos Gamepad was mentioned earlier on in the year and to tell you the truth I never thought it would ever appear. Archos were true to their word and actually got the product to market, without their trademark delays. So mine arrived a few days ago I …

Nokia Lumia 920 – Review

I’ve been a follower of Nokia for years now. At one time I actually ran my very own Nokia dedicated website and attended many launches. Their hardware was top quality and phones like the N95 were market-leading in terms of specifications and features. Slowly they began to find …

Vodafone Smart Tab 2 review

Tablets have come a long way since they first appeared. No-one can argue that the iPad has played a massive part and every other manufacturer is now trying to play catchup. With competition comes innovation and that has helped to bring screen sizes down. The 10″ tablets are …

HTC 8S – Review

The HTC 8S was a phone I wanted to be good, REALLY REALLY good. I wanted it to be the phone that showed those LG Nexus 4 toting people that you didn’t need a huge great quad core CPU or 2GB of RAM to have a damn good …

Nexus 7 tablet dock unboxed

Anyone out there who owns a Nexus 7 tablet (and let’s face it there will be LOADS of you considering the great price you can get one at) and wishes if only had a desk dock to use with it then your mobile life would be complete, we …

Nexus 4 FlexiShield Skin – Review

While I do love my Nexus 4, I did spend a fair amount of time in my review, and on the podcast, discussing its design flaws. Although the glass back might look and feel great, it certainly doesn’t help with durability or handling. It’s an accident waiting to happen, both …

LG Nexus 4 official bumper case – Review

Ahh, the Nexus 4, the latest and greatest phone you can’t get hold of. If you are lucky enough to get one, you will soon realise you need protection for it. I prefer bumper cases to full cases, as they don’t add too much bulk to the original …

LG Nexus 4 – Review

There’s no point beating around the bush; the Nexus 4 is awesome. I absolutely love it. It’s the best Android phone I’ve ever used and, £ for £, most likely the best phone you can(‘t) buy.  There are still a few flaws, and I’ll get to them, but …

Acer Iconia A510 – Review

I’ve had the Iconia A510 a few weeks now and I’ve used it pretty extensively. Mainly because I took it on holiday with me at the end of November. Now it’s time to bring you the full review. Nut first the good and bad points of the device. …

Android 4.2 – Review (updated)

A mere four months after the release of Android 4.1, we now have 4.2. It’s still called Jellybean, but despite the lack of a name change there are still some nice additions, more so than the last time we had two versions of Android with the same name …

Dodocase Hardcover for iPad Mini – Review

After much searching for a case that I liked through the usual UK accessories channels I found that I could not find anything that suited me. So I extended my search to include imports and I found Dodocase from Sunny San Francisco. Now I had seen some of …

The 4G tryout

As a big promoter of data use on mobile phones, I’ve already pushed the boundaries. Over a year ago I did the AYCE Challenge on Three and used 44GB in two weeks (no really, here’s my bill). The end result? No extra charge for data use – even …