Author: James Pearce

Hannspree CT23H0B Android All In One – Review

The lines between devices are becoming blurred these days, what with phones getting bigger, tablets getting smaller, laptops trying to be tablets, desktop PCs trying to still be relevant and Android and Windows 8 both trying their hardest to work well on all of those devices. I have …

Motorola announce the new Moto X

The Motorola Moto X and Moto G put Motorola back on the map last year, they showed the world that you didn’t need to have the latest and greatest specs or a huge great screen as both of them had screens under 5″. So when rumours starting appearing …

Google Chrome for Android gets a material update

The Material design guidelines are slowly being applied to Android apps, with Google randomly update their apps one at a time. The latest app to get the new modern layered flat look is the Chrome Browser. Once I’d updated there isn’t a huge amount that has been modified, …

Podcast 108 – if only you had one of those waterproof phones!

Welcome to the latest episode of the Coolsmartphone Podcast, this week I was joined by Dan, Johanna and John. This weeks topics revolved around our special guest Johanna Whitaker and her travels around the world, the new Sony Z3 range, the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, the absurd Galaxy …

Huawei announce the Ascend G7

Huawei make some great looking devices and this afternoon in Berlin at IFA Huawei announced a new giant phablet plus the budget 5.5″ LTE equipped Ascend G6. The pictures certainly make it look good. Spec wise it’s as follows: Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 quad-core 1.2 GHz processor. Internal …

Podcast 108 – Listen in live

  Welcome to the Coolsmartphone Podcast, episode 108. This is the live feed post, just click play on the Mixlr plugin below at about half seven tonight. Joining me this week are Dan, Garry, John and Johanna. Coolsmartphone is on Mixlr

Sony announce the Xperia E3

In amongst all of the excitement yesterday afternoon about the Sony Xperia Z3, Z3 Compact and Z3 Compact tablet, there was also another device announced, the Xperia E3. A smallish device that will apparently allow you to experience a flagship experience without the price tag. Spec wise the …

Acer announce the Liquid Z500

Acer have announced a few new devices over at IFA in Berlin. The most interesting to us here at Coolsmartphone is the Liquid Z500. Which so far all they’ve actually said is it has a 5″ HD display and an 8MP F2.0 camera. They have published a load …

The Sony Xperia Z3 leaks out hours before the event

Sony are expected to announce a new range of devices today, over in Berlin at IFA. The Sony Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact are both expected and both also highly anticipated. As you’d expect images of both have now appeared. The leaked images of the Z3 show a …

LG G3 Otterbox Symmetry Case – Review

Owning a flagship device is tough sometimes, the constant anguish over potentially smashing your phone into dozens of pieces is a daily problem for me and as such I always try and buy the most rugged and tough case I can find for my lovely phone. With my …

The Sony Xperia Z3 Compact leaks out before announcement

sony are holding an event tomorrow, where we expect a bevy of new devices to be announced. One of which being the Xperia Z3 Compact, which as you’d expect has leaked out, in a variety of colours. And boy what a looker it is. It seems that we …

Solar Technology Freeloader Solar Charger – Review

There are many constants within life, one being that the sun will rise every single day, providing us with warmth and energy. The other most important constant in life is that your phone will probably need charging at some point in every single day of your life. Solar …

Podcast 107 – a keyboard on a 2 inch screen

Welcome to the latest episode of the Coolsmartphone Podcast. Joining me this week were John and Leigh. This weeks topics were loosely based around me resisting buying something foreign on eBay, Leigh throwing all of his mobiles in the pool on holiday, John eagerly awaiting the Apple event …

Acer announce availability of the Liquid Jade and Leap

Acer announced their new budget phone and wearable earlier on in the year, in June at Computex and they are going to be showing them off in September at IFA and you’ll be able to buy them from the end of September. Spec wise the phone is mid …

Samsung announce the 3G equipped Gear S smartwatch

Wearables are a hot topic at the moment and Samsung are approaching them with their usual approach, i.e a new device every few months. The new Samsung Gear S delivers an up-to-date smart wearable experience with 3G connectivity and wearable optimized features to meet the evolving needs of …

HTC announce the 64 bit Desire 510

The budget phone market is a fiercely fought market these days, with companies like Motorola, Nokia, LG, ZTE, Huawei, Samsung and of course HTC battling it out. As Peter Chou says: Owning the latest and greatest technology shouldn’t be reserved for those with the highest budgets. The latest …

LG announce the G3 Stylus

A few weeks ago LG published a promo video for the LG G3 Beat and at the very end of the video they used a graphic showing all of the G3 variants, the funny thing was that one of the phones on display didn’t exist, the G3 Stylus. …

Blugri release Circuits for Windows Phone

Blugri Software are one of my favourite developers for Windows Phone, they make simple yet fun games for Windows Phone. They have quite a decent catalogue of puzzle games that can certainly keep you busy for many hours. The latest, Circuits is a pipe connecting kind of thing, …

Oppo preview unified storage for the Find 7a

When I reviewed the Oppo Find 7a I was rather cross that they had split the internal memory in a kind of “it’s 2012 that’s how things are done” way. It basically left the device crippled, with only about 3GB of internal memory left for apps. It wasn’t …

Oppo announce the Neo 5

Oppo are famed for their reasonably priced phones with decent specs and features. They’re also famed for being a bit slow at updating anything and also making ludicrous decisions that will inhibit their customers enjoyment of their products. But hey they’ve gone and announced a new phone. The …

The Sony Xperia Z2 is getting an OTA update

The Sony Xperia Z2 is a great device, for various reasons it is my daily go to device, a mix of size, power and functionality keep pulling me back. If you fancy reading the review it’s here. This morning upon turning my SIM free model on it announced …

Podcast 106 – it now comes with Windows on it?

Welcome to another episode of the Coolsmartphone Podcast, joining me this week was Dan. This weeks topics revolved around the newly announced HTC One M8 with Windows, the Lumia 530, all of the Motorola rumours, EE doing 4G roaming, Dan patiently waiting for the Galaxy Note 4, paid …

GiffGaff to change goodybag prices soon

We recently covered the news that GiffGaff were asking their members how they wanted a new and improved goodybag to work. Have a read here if you’re interested. Basically they need to change how the unlimited data package works as apparently some users are using far too much …

EE announce 4G roaming for 13 new countries

Roaming data is something that’s ever so slightly annoying. If you want to stay connected whilst on holiday it’s more than likely going to cost you a few quid. EE have today announced that customers can roam at 4G speeds in 13 new countries. The new countries are …

LG announce two new L Series phones

LG have always had a lower spec and cheaper range of devices, which up to now had groovy names like LG LII 2, LG have announced the L Fino and L Bello. Much better names. The are basically a 4.5″ low spec phone and a 5″ not quite …

HTC announce the One M8 with Windows

Yes Windows Phone fans the day has arrived, the day that a new viable alternative to a Nokia arrived on the scene and it’s made by HTC. In a move that has been leaked and discussed at length they’ve basically took the HTC One M8 and installed Windows …

The Sony M2 Aqua will be exclusive to Vodafone on launch

Earlier on today we posted details about the newly announced Sony Xperia M2 Aqua. Shortly after this Vodafone tweeted that it would be exclusive to them. So if you fancy one you may have to go to Vodafone or just wait a while. Source – Vodafone

Microsoft announce availability of the Nokia Lumia 530

The Nokia Lumia 530 will be the lowest spec and cheapest Windows Phone 8.1 available and it’s going to be available soon. For some reason I’m a little bit excited. Spec wise it is predictably basic. – Processor type: Quad-core 1.2GHz. – Processor name: Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 200. – …

HTC announce the Butterfly 2

HTC have a wide range of devices available worldwide, not all of them are available to us here in the UK. Which is a shame as the HTC Butterfly that they released last year was a bit of a looker. This year they’ve gone and announced its successor …

Info about the Motorola Moto S starts to appear

Rumours about Motorola and their next line of devices are all over the Internet at the moment, we’ve heard about the Moto X+1, the Moto G2 and also the potential Nexus device codenamed Shamu. Well a photo of the screen protector Motorola devices ship with has appeared online …

More images of the upcoming HTC Windows Phone appear online

A few questions for you all this morning. Do you know what the HTC One M8 looks like? Do you know what Windows Phone 8.1 looks like? Can you imagine what the two combined look like? No well you in for treat now, as some high resolution images …

Podcast 105 — so that’s the premium version then is it?

Welcome to another episode of the Coolsmartphone Podcast. Joining me this was John. This weeks topics were about John and his use of a Google Chromecast on iOS, my various comparison articles this week, the new Samsung Galaxy Alpha, EE charging you to queue jump, the iPhone 6 …

OnePlus Oppo LG and Sony flagship comparison

In the mobile industry the word “flagship” is banded around a lot, it refers to any manufacturers current top end device. With every company out there having one it’s often hard to decide which one you want for yourself. I’m lucky enough to have a few of them …

Samsung announce the “premium” Galaxy Alpha

A premium version of the Samsung Galaxy S5 has been rumoured for ages now, with images getting leaked and leaked and leaked over the last few weeks too. Samsung have decided that now is the time to finally announce it, no big event and certainly no tap dancing. …

Hannspree unveil their latest Android all in one offering

Hannspree have been making monitors, televisions and Android tablets for years now, so it makes sense to combine some of those products and make an Android all in one device. This latest one is a 23″ touchscreen running Android along with a whole host of other connectivity options. …

Google+ for Android now allows you to cast to Chromecast

What more could you ask for, a stream of random people you don’t know posts scrolling across your TV? Well now you can do just that, the latest update to Google+ allows you to connect the app to any of your Chromecasts, apparently it only let’s your look …

Which watch should I wear today?

These days I find myself in a daily predicament, not only do I have to work out which phone to take with me to work I also now have to choose which watch I wear as well and by watch I mean Smartwatch. I’ve been a smartwatch user …

Buzz Bee by Blugri is now available for Windows Phone

Blugri Software have been making some of the better games for Windows Phone for quite a while now. The latest has just been published on the Windows Phone Store. It’s called Buzz Bee, your role is to be the bee. You basically fly the bee around dodging obstacles. …

Nokia Lumia 930 – Review

The Nokia Lumia 930 is possibly one of the last phones to be released under the Nokia banner, with future devices coming under the Microsoft banner. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that the Lumia 930 is the highest spec’d phone they’ve ever released. But is it …