Category: Android

Huawei Black Friday Deals

Christmas is an expensive time of year so, if you want to try and make things a bit cheaper, you can dive into some Black Friday deals and potentially spread the cost too. In this instance it’s on the Huawei store, and they’re offering you the ability to …

Here’s how to make money playing games on your phone

If you like to spend your free time gaming or gambling online, you aren’t alone. Video gamers spent an average of 6.5 hours per week playing with others online, and 4.5 hours with others in person, during 2016, per NewZoo. Statista reports that the online gambling industry will …

OnePlus Nord – 256GB Model now down to £419

There’s £50 off this rather excellent 256GB-version of the OnePlus Nord (in Blue Marble) at Amazon right now. That’s with 12GB RAM and, if you don’t already know about the phone, you can dive into our OnePlus Nord review to get all the details. This particular spec phone …

Top iOS/Android cross platform games

Mutiplayer game downloads are on the rise. While multiplayer once meant that you were competing with other players on a game’s leader board, many mobile games now support both real time player versus player and cooperative gaming modes. Playing multiplayer games is a great way to blow off …

Samsung A42 5G. Now available on Vodafone

Unveiled just recently, the new Samsung A42 might be named after a road in the East Midlands, but it’s also a relatively cheap 5G handset. Packing a 6.6″ HD+ sAMOLED “Infinity-U” 1080×2400 (20:9, 399 ppi) display, it also has an in-screen fingerprint sensor, 4GB RAM, 128GB of on-board …

Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro and Mi 10T Lite now selling at Vodafone

This, the new Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro (which we currently have on test – review incoming) and the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite are phones we’ve already taken a good look at (here and here). Now you can go and buy them at Vodafone. We knew they were on …

Geo-restrictions. Still here in 2020

There are, I’ll admit, probably some very long and very interesting reasons for content and geo-restrictions. A few years ago, perhaps, I could understand it. American DVD’s wouldn’t work in European DVD players and – due to price differences and release dates – you could see why. Now …

Fairphone 3+ now available on Sky Mobile

Sky Mobile runs on the O2 network and they’ve got the new Fairphone 3+ available. Prices start from £26 per month with no upfront costs. You also get a free Mini portable Bluetooth speaker worth £45. The £26 per month will get you 2GB of data with unlimited …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

OnePlus 8T. On sale from tomorrow.

Want the new OnePlus 8T? Well, you’ve read our OnePlus 8T review and had a look at the OnePlus 8T cases that are available. Why not go and get one? It’s got insanely quick Warp Charge 65 charging, a 6.55″ AMOLED (2400 x 1080 @ 402 ppi) 120 …

The Mi 10T Series and the Mi Watch – UK availability info

So, you knew all about these phones because we’ve covered them a short while ago. That’s why you read Coolsmartphone hopefully 🙂 For full details of each phone mentioned in the earlier video launch are available below… The Mi 10T The Mi 10T Pro The Mi 10T Lite …

Xiaomi Live – UK Details on the Mi 10T series

At 2PM (UK time) today we’ll be getting a mad sense of déjà vu as we watch the second Mi 10T Series launch event (remember the earlier one last month?) Today we’re expecting a lot more UK-centric detail, including pricing and availability plus extra specs. You’ll probably know …

Imagine being on lockdown 20 years ago!

Although our lives are becoming distinctly less mobile right now, our mobile phones are playing an incredibly critical part of life. Imagine, if you will, the coronavirus pandemic hitting us 20 years ago. It’s a sunny morning in the year 2000. You’ve got yourself the classic Nokia 3310 …

Lockdown success for developers

As we’ve seen in the UK, now we’re seeing it in the US too. The lockdowns, the COVID-19 restrictions, the closure of many pubs, bars, nightclubs and other social venues – it’s changed our habits. We’re now spending more time indoors and, although we’re using social media more …

Huawei P smart 2021 Arriving in the UK on Thursday

No Google services here, but the Huawei P smart 2021 will be arriving here in the UK for a mere £199 and – as we’ve mentioned before – there are ways to get your favourite apps onto Honor and Huawei phones that don’t have Google Play. This phone …

Honor Watch ES – Review

So its that time again where we put a device under the microscope to find out if it is any good. This time around it is the turn of the Honor Watch ES. I want to get one thing out of the way first though. Even though this …

Get the Google Pixel 5

The all new Pixel 5 is already out of stock on the official Google Store. It’s selling for £599, or you can pay Google £24.96 per month to buy it (0% APR for 24 months) and then whack a SIM-only card in. The phone has been getting rave …

Huawei prep for Mate 40 Series launch

Well, we know it won’t have the Google Play services. We know there’ll be no YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps or Google Play, but we’ve detailed ways around it and it’s definitely not slowing Huawei down. With rumours swirling about a possible sell-off of sub-brand Honor, Huawei are also …

5G Oppo Reno4 handsets available widely in the UK

Well, we’ve already mentioned that Virgin Mobile have the Reno4 Pro on sale, but you can now get your hands on the latest 5G Oppo handsets from EE, O2, Carphone Warehouse, Amazon and Vodafone too SIM-free, you can pick up the Reno4 Z for £329, the Reno4 for …

Oppo A53 lands in the UK. Cheap as chips.

Smashing hard into the budget category, the Oppo A53 should be available on Carphone Warehouse (in a lovely Mint Cream and Black) or, in just Black, on Amazon, AO, Very and – a little later this month – on O2, EE and Virgin Media. The handset has a …

Nokia 2.4 now available here in the UK

For a mere £99.99, this is the Nokia 2.4. The guys at HMD Global had a big James Bond tie-in with this, and this was meant to be launched alongside the film, however the movie has now been delayed a second time because of coronavirus. No matter though, …

OnePlus 8T Video Overview

If the full OnePlus 8T review and cases overview wasn’t enough for you, I’ve now got a video too! Despite my best efforts, the colour-changing nature of the outer paintwork on the phone didn’t really show through on the original pictures, so this video hopefully shows things a …

OnePlus 8T – Review

Sit this next to the OnePlus 8 Pro and you’ll notice some obvious differences. First, the screen is a nudge smaller – the 6.78″ AMOLED rounded-edge unit on the Pro (3168 x 1440 pixels @ 513 ppi and 19.8:9) has been switched for a 6.55″ AMOLED flat screen …

NHS COVID-19 App updated. Ghost message workaround issued.

A few weeks ago I received a pop-up message on the NHS COVID-19 app saying that I’d been “exposed” to COVID-19. However, if you click on the message it simply vanishes… It seemed to relate to me switching Bluetooth on and off, but for many people they were …

Samsung Galaxy A42 5G Unveiled

Available here in the UK on November 6th for a mere £349, this is the new Galaxy A42 5G. It’s got 4GB of RAM, 128GB of on-board storage (plus more via the microSD slot), a fast-charging (15W) 5,000 mAh battery and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 750 5G 2.2GHz CPU. …

Watch the OnePlus 8T Launch Live.

The OnePlus 8T then. We know it’s got a shiny rear-end, we know it has a 120Hz flat screen which has earned an A+ overall rating from DisplayMate and we know it looks like this… On Wednesday you’ll be able to watch the phone getting unveiled.. https://twitter.com/oneplus/status/1314487193977544704?s=20 To …

Honor 20e Review – This is a whole lot different

We’ve looked at a number of Honor devices lately. The Honor 9X and the Honor 9A– both very good phones considering how cheap they are. However, those phones lack the Google Services. So no Google Play. No Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail and so on. This is because the …

VPNs Come of age – Why you need to consider getting one

Gone are the days when a “VPN” used to be something that only tech-savvy people would know about and want. Now you’ll find that VPNs are advertised on TV. A “VPN” stands for “Virtual Private Network”. Sat in a cafe, connected to the free WiFi, you can never …