Author: James Pearce

Archos 80b Helium 4G – Review

Using a tablet whilst out and about may seem like an alien idea to some, but for many including 4G in a tablet makes it the ideal companion to take on the train, bus or even to the local cafe. Historically tablets have been Wi-Fi only with the …

Podcast 145 – it is time for a change

Welcome to the Coolsmartphone Podcast episode 144, joining me this week were Dan, Ian and John. This weeks topics revolved around Dan about to go on his travels with the LG G4, the Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Phone, the Amazon Fire Phone, the rumoured new Motorola Moto G and …

Touchjet Pond Projector – Review

A projector running Android, surely that is the perfect device for use in the boardroom or the meeting rooms across the globe. When I heard about the Touchjet Pond I was rather intrigued, a projector that turns the surface you’re projecting onto into a large touchscreen, just seemed …

Podcast 144 – every night this week on the beach

Welcome to the Coolsmartphone Podcast episode 144, joining me this week were Dan, Garry and Ian. This weeks topics revolved around Dan and the LG G4, Garry and the BQ Aquarius E4.5 Ubuntu Phone, me and my new Pebble Time, the rumoured successor to the Nokia Lumia 1020, …

Podcast 143 – what is the point of a 4K phone?

Welcome to the latest episode of the Coolsmartphone Podcast, joining me this week was John. This weeks topics revolved around Google Photos, the EE 4G Action Camera, the Three price hikes and that purple guy, what on earth is the point of a 4K phone, the Apple WWDC conference, …

Honor 6+ – Review

Honor decided to step up their game with the 6+, in a world of fancy curved glass or metal devices they had to release a really good looking device and at a decent price point too. Quite how a relatively new brand make a mark on the mobile …

Podcast 142 – Is there 4G on the top of Everest?

Welcome to the latest episode of the Coolsmartphone Podcast, joining me this week were Gavin and John. Gavin Fabiani Laymond was our special guest this week, Gavin is from gavinsgadgets.com and his phone addiction made him seem like an ideal guest to have on. This weeks topics revolved around Gavin and …

BlackBerry Passport – Review

The idea that a keyboard makes you more productive has been an underlying ethos for BlackBerry devices for a while now. The thought being that you spend most of the day bashing buttons on a laptop or desktop keyboard so why not do it on your phone. Previous …

What on earth are Google going to call the next Nexus?

Naming conventions are a great thing. Sony have the right idea, they have a few product ranges differentiated by a letter, ie E, M or Z. Then add a number on the end, ie M4, Z2 or E4 and that’s you sorted for the next 99 years along …

Archos Oxygen 101 – Review

The modern day tablet is used for a whole lot of things, be it multimedia, playing games, browsing the web, catching up on emails, writing blog posts, online shopping or just good old social media. Picking the right tablet for you and your needs however is a difficult …

Podcast 141 – Honor for the brave!

Welcome to the latest episode of the Coolsmartphone Podcast, joining me this week were Matteo and Wilkin, both of whom are our special guests this week. Matteo is that guy from SkyScanner who comes on our podcast semi regularly and Wilkin Lee is the UK Sales and Marketing …

LG announce the G4 Stylus and G4c

The LG G4 has barely arrived on our shores and already LG have announced the sibling devices, the G4 Stylus and the G4c, which are a slightly bigger lower spec version with a stylus and a smaller lower spec version with a “Compact” designation. Spec wise they are …

Archos Weather Station – Review

The weather is quite varied these days, you may have noticed! Keeping on top of what the weather is doing is achievable through a variety of methods, be it looking out of the window, actually going outside, using a forecast app or using the Archos Weather Station (other …

Alcatel Onetouch Pop 2 4.5 4G – Review

The budget phone market is big business these days, with everyone competing to be the “go to” budget device, one big seller these days is 4G and getting 4G on a device at under £100 is a good thing. I’ve been using the Pop 2 for a few weeks …

Microsoft Hyperlapse actually looks quite good

You’ve probably seen sped up videos online, where the original video is played back at 10X the speed. So the video of a man skiing down a mountain look really smooth and arty. But when you’ve tried to do it yourself they just look rubbish. Well amazingly Microsoft …

Podcast 140 – a week of vicious rumours

Welcome to the latest episode of the Coolsmartphone Podcast, joining me this week were Dan, Ian and Purav. Purav Desai was our special guest this week, Purav is from Teckcomesfirst and he’s often at the same events we attend and he seemed like an ideal guest to have on. This …

LG G4 to support Qualcomm Quick Charge

Despite what LG told us at the launch event, the LG G4 has appeared on the list of compatible Quick Charge devices. Qualcomm Quick Charge is that thing that allows certain devices running either the Snapdragon 810, 808, 805, 801 or 400 to charge up incredibly quickly. Quite what …

BlackBerry Passport – Initial Hands On

Over the years I’ve played about with a variety of phones running fledging mobile OS’s. Be it Windows Phone, BlackBerry OS, Firefox OS or even Ubuntu Phone. For the last week or so I’ve been using the BlackBerry Passport and I’m loving it. The BlackBerry Passport is a …

Podcast 139 – Retro gaming ftw

Welcome to the latest episode of the Coolsmartphone Podcast, joining me this week were John and Tom. Tom Randall was our special guest this week, Tom is from Retro Empire UK which is an Android based gaming website, I’ve met Tom a few times and have always been enthused …

Huawei P8 – Review

The Huawei P8 is one of those phones that look good, damn good to be precise. Some may say it looks a bit like an iPhone, or an Xperia Z3 or an HTC One, but there is no arguing in that it looks good, damn good. We were …

Archos roll out Fusion Storage to supported devices

A few months ago at MWC, Archos announced something rather cool. Fusion Storage basically merged the internal memory of a device with a Micro SD card giving you potential for a device with 64GB of memory for not a lot of money. In their words this reads as: …

BlackBerry Classic in white is now available

Last year BlackBerry went back to their roots. Updating and modernising a classic, the BlackBerry Classic took the best bits of the Bold 9900 and mixed it with their modern OS. Well now it’s available in white, for all those discerning die hard BlackBerry users who just have …

Honor 6+ – Initial Impressions

The Honor brand seems to have appeared almost from nowhere, Honor started off as the budget sister company of Huawei, with a few low cost devices under its belt, now they’ve released what one could call a budget flagship. One could also say that with the Honor 6+ …

Podcast 138 – Leigh and the leather back

Welcome to the latest episode of the Coolsmartphone Podcast, joining me this week was Leigh. This weeks topics revolved around Leigh and his trip to London to see the LG G4, me and my Moto G 4G and Huawei P8, Leigh and the Honor 4X and some other …

Motorola Moto G 4G 2015 – Review

Motorola have their three ranges, each have their place in the world and each arguably succeed in their purpose. The Moto G is their budget midrange device, more expensive and with more features than the Moto E and less features than the Moto X. Motorola however do update …

Podcast 137 – he actually went to try on “that” watch

Welcome to the latest episode of the Coolsmartphone Podcast, joining me this week were Dan, Garry and John. This weeks topics revolved around the Sony Xperia Z4, the Jide Remix Ultra Tablet, Dan and the Apple Watch Edition, John and his Windows 8 tablet, me and the Huawei P8, …

Sennheiser Momentum Headphones – Review

There are times in life when you want to actually hear things the way they were intended. Be it a piece of music that brings back memories of a momentous event or you want to immerse yourself in a horror film or really loose yourself in a game. …

Honor Holly – Review

To truly succeed in the budget phone market you have tick many boxes, you have to look good, you have to perform well, you have to have some features from phones two or three times the price and most importantly you have to be cheap. Companies like Microsoft …

Huawei P8 – Initial Impressions

A wise man once said: A beautiful Smartphone creates beautiful things Personally I feel that applies to a lot of the smartphone market in 2015, with the likes of the Galaxy S6 Edge, the HTC One M9 and of course the iPhone 6 they are all beautiful devices …

Podcast 136 – A little bit sleep deprived

Welcome to the latest episode of the Coolsmartphone Podcast, joining me this week were Dan and Garry. This weeks topics revolved around my trip to London for the Huawei P8 / P8 Max event, the eagerly awaited LG G4, Garry and the Microsoft Band, Dan being intrigued by the …

Podcast 136 – Listen in live

Hello there, welcome to the “listen in live” page for our podcast. Joining me this week should be Dan and Garry. This weeks topics should be about the leaks of the weird looking LG G4, the Huawei event we attended yesterday afternoon where the P8 and the humongous …

Huawei P8 – Ask us some questions

Yesterday we picked up the new Huawei P8 at the launch event. We’ll obviously be bringing you our full review in a few weeks time, but in the meantime I’ll be making a hands on video this weekend showing off the hardware and software features. But there is …

Hands on with the Huawei P8 and P8 Max

This  afternoon was one of those fun afternoons, you know the sort where you get to fondle a new thing. This time round it was the Huawei P8 and the P8 Max, one is an iterative update on the models from previous years, albeit an absolutely gorgeous looking …

Huawei announce the P8 and P8 Max

Over the years Huawei have been making a steady stream of well specified, great looking and well priced devices. Earning them a place near the top of the pile of phone manufacturers. Today we’ve been in London at the launch of their latest devices, the P8 and P8 …

Huawei London event – Live Blog

This afternoon we’ve been invited to London by Huawei to see their latest and greatest flagship device be unveiled. We’re going to live blog the event for you, tune in to this very post at about 3pm to see what they’ve got on show.

Archos Platinum 52 – Review

Archos are the one of the Android stalwarts, they’ve been making tablets for years now and now their product range includes a healthy selection of phones too. All different shapes, sizes and colours are available. The Platinum range offers a large screen, quad core experience at a budget …

Arctic P324BT Bluetooth headphones – Review

Taking a pair of headphones out with me running is quite an undertaking, controlling my music whilst I’m out running is also fiddly. The fit is usually not quite right, the volume not quite right, the cables flap around and catch on stuff, the Bluetooth connection to my …

Podcast 135 – You must have ridiculously small hands

Welcome to the latest episode of the Coolsmartphone Podcast, joining me this week were John and Julie. Julie Wills was our special guest, if you want to see more from her in the future the best place to catch her is on Google+ here is her profile. This …

Podcast 135 – Listen in live

Hello there, welcome to the “listen in live” page for our podcast. Joining me this week should be John and Julie. Julie is our special guest this week. This weeks topics should be about John and his trip to Gadget Show Live, me really trying hard to get on with …

Hannspree SportWatch fitness tracker – Review

The fitness wearable market is quite a varied one. With many manufacturers creating all different shapes and sizes of wrist bands or watches. A few weeks ago Hannspree announced the Sport Watch which seemed to have the ideal combination of features. They’ve sent me one which I’ve been …