Category: Mobile News

Gemini from Planet computers to get Sailfish 3.0 soon

I recently reviewed the Gemini from Plant Computers and I was on the whole quite impressed with the way it worked. Apart from a few issues with the build (primarily down to the pre-production status of my review device), I was left happy and enthused about the product. …

Moto G6 family to hit the UK

Well, that’s a surprise. Lenovorola, under the Moto brand, is going to release all three versions of their newly-announced G6 Family. In case you missed it, Motorola announced two new series of handsets, in their affordable G range, and the value E range. The G range is now …

Essential Phone is now available to order for the UK

Well, it was only a matter of time wasn’t it? Sure, it’s felt like an age since the phone was first released, but now the Essential Phone PH01 is available to buy for us in the UK. The Essential phone got a lot of media attention as it was …

Ways parents can protect their children on Instagram

We’ve covered the various dangers of social media. Sure, it can be fun, but it can also be addictive and sometimes a little dangerous. No amount of web filtering or content matching is going to stop people approaching you online or chucking abuse your way. Instagram is one …

Huawei Porsche Design Mate RS – now available for preorder.

If the standard Huawei P20 Pro is not enough of a stunning visual design with the mind-meltingly good camera then you can now pre-order its premium brother. This come’s in the form of the Porsche Design Mate RS, it has just gone up as available for pre-order with our friends over at Clove …

EU tech benefits that Britain has ditched

Last year, after a lot of waiting and a lot of discussion, we finally got proper roaming across the bulk of Europe. It doesn’t cost you any extra, and many Brits are only just realising what a good thing it actually is. Fly to Germany, Spain, Cyprus and …

Huawei P20 Launch. Watch the live stream!

We are going to be live in Paris at the unveiling event for the new Huawei P20 series of phones shortly. As I type I’m actually under the English channel! We will be tweeting all the news on the @Coolsmartphone Twitter account too. However, if you want to …

Huawei up the hype for their new phone

Huawei is about to host the event where they are going to unveil their next generation of devices – the P20 family. It looks like they have decided to promote these with two campaigns. The first consists of them driving large trucks around the various major cities in …

Samsung Galaxy S8 still outselling the S9

According to Business Korea, despite heavily advertising its latest flagship sales of the Galaxy S9 in its home market, Samsung has failed to reach the expected levels as the previous Galaxy flagship the S8, which is currently outselling is successor. Samsung states that consumers don’t believe there is enough …

Wileyfox thrown a lifeline

Back in the start of February, British phone manufacturer Wileyfox stated that the company was entering into administration, and possibly sounding the death knell for this much-loved and well received mid-range manufacturer. But today March 19th, another British firm (STK) has agreed on a licensing deal with the Wileyfox …

#MWC18 – Meet the biggest smartphone in the world.

On Monday we stumbled upon these really tiny phones that plugged straight into your ear. They were one step away from plugging directly into your brain, and were the size of a regular Bluetooth hands-free device. Now we’ve found the complete opposite – a simply massive smartphone. This …

#MWC18 – Essential Phone. Hands on

I decided to take a bit of a wander down to the Essential Booth today to go and find out about their phone. Also, the burning question that I wanted to ask. Just when will we will see them in the UK? Unfortunately, I was unable to get an answer …

#MWC18 Sony release their new Xperia XZ2 range

Sony kicked things off for MWC2018 proper this morning with the release of the new Xperia line up. Welcome then, the Xperia XZ2 and Xperia XZ2 Compact. The two devices have new design elements thanks to move of the fingerprint reader. This is now on the back, much …

#MWC18 Gemini PDA from Planet Computers

I have talked about the Gemini PDA on the site before and I am a huge fan of what they are doing. Today I had the chance to get hands-on with a full production unit of it in its Android version. The device has been made of the …

#MWC2018 Samsung Unpacked – Our live coverage

This is one of the bigger events before MWC 2018 kicks off proper – Samsung Unpacked. We are expecting to see the Galaxy S9 and S9+ properly revealed to the world. Leigh is at the event and will be live blogging his thoughts, opinions and reactions here. If …

Still just using your debit card to pay? Make the switch!

One thing that can annoy me is when things are presumed. As an example, some people assume that all channels delivered via a satellite dish have to be paid for. They don’t, and you can plug a satellite receiver in and get a whole stack of additional channels …

More Galaxy S9 and S9+ details

Samsung is now gearing up to launch the 2018 versions of its flagship Galaxy series, the S9 and the S9+. They have an unpacked event scheduled for the 25th February, which is just prior to this years Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona. Both handsets will be powered by …

CES 2018: Planet Computers makes the Gemini PDA official!

CES 2018 is just about to kick off in Las Vegas. The widely-regarded prequel to CES itself is an event called CES Unveiled. This is where a lot of companies will show off their latest wares and releases in a much quieter setting, and without a lot of …

Honor 7X – Thoughts and Unboxing

Yesterday I was allowed to leave the confines of Coolsmartphone Towers and escape into the depths of London for a few hours. During my brief sojourn into the real world, I was able to attend a small gathering of phone enthusiasts and bloggers (okay it wasn’t that small, there …

Honor have got something to unveil…

Today we have travelled down to London Town to secure what it is that Honor are going to unveil to allow us to “Max our view”. We know that there will be at least the confirmation of price in the Honor 7x that was invited a few weeks …

Got Bitcoins? What do you do with them?

If you’re lucky enough, or perhaps geeky enough, to have some Bitcoins kicking around, you have a number of options for spending them. Most people though, will be holding on to them to see if they rise in value. The value of Bitcoins has risen in the last …

Anyone remember Psion?

If you’re a long time reader of the site and a long time user of mobile tech, you may remember the Psion series of PDA’s. These were in many ways the forebear of Nokia’s Symbian communicator devices. What made them special was that they used mini thumb style …

A fifth of UK drivers admit to using their mobiles behind the wheel

Every now and then we get an email from a company which includes research relating to mobile phones. The company involved will want to get their name mentioned (in this case it’s Protect Your Bubble) so that they can have some free advertising. This is another one of …

Huawei set the launch date for the Mate 10 Pro

Hauwai has now released the launch date for the Mate 10 Pro, and it is coming very soon. We have been lucky enough to get our hands on with the Mate 10 Pro from Huawei, and the good news is that if you to want to get one …

OPPO Launches the F5, complete with Expert Selfie AI

Chinese phone manufacturer OPPO has unveiled the Oppo F5. This new device is turning mobile photography on its head, with a 16 MP shooter on the rear and a 20 MP shooter on the front. The F5 features what the company are calling “groundbreaking A.I. Beauty Recognition technology”. Yes, a technology apparently designed to personalise …

Mobile networks overcharging loyal customers

It’s fairly obvious to many. You go and buy a new mobile phone. It’s on a two year contract. You probably pay about £38 per month for it. As you near the end of the two years, you’re itching to upgrade to the latest handset. Unless you’re with …

A look at the Porsche Design Huawei Mate 10 Pro

In addition to the main event yesterday, we also saw two more phones being launched by Huawei. One of these is the Porsche Design version. This is the continuation of what Huawei did last year with the Mate 9. I was able to get a very brief hands-on …

Huawei Mate 10 Pro Launch

Huawei has always had two mainstream phone lineups, the P series and the Mate Series. We have seen the P series for this year and we were pretty impressed by the offering. The Mate series traditionally launches later in the year and tends to be aimed at the …

EE sticks a mast in the sky to cover biking event

Yesterday things weren’t going so well for EE. They had problems routing calls to other networks all day and it seemed to be causing quite a bit of grief for their customers. They can, however, boast about their coverage. They’re aiming for 95% 4G coverage by 2020, and …

MadeByGoogle event is streaming now.

If you want to get the latest info on what Google have in store for us then you can now tune into their live stream below. We will be keeping our eyes peeled to see what they have instore and we will report back to you once we …

Three – Free in-store sign language for customers.

UK mobile provider Three have launched an innovative service to for deaf customers thanks to a partnership with Sign Solutions. The company will now be able to provide sign language to deaf and hard of hearing customers to who seek in-store support. This is something that is initially …

Vodafone release iPhone X contract prices

Update – We’re starting to see prices from other networks too. Head here to see the iPhone X deals. In the early hours of this morning here at Coolsmartphone towers, we had a piece of paper pushed under the portcullis door. It had some very interesting information from …

Google in talks to buy HTC

If you have been a smartphone user over the past few years there’s a good chance you have used a device made by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC. For many years the company made many devices under different brand names. Remember XDA, MDA, SPV? Even HP branded devices were made …

Grab a Bargain! Chromecast and O2 deals!

We do love a good deal at Coolsmartphone Towers and sometimes they come around like buses. First up comes through the money saving platform, Quidco. Save £15 per month with O2’s latest sim only deal which is 15GB for £20 per month, reduced from £35. You have to make …

First Snapdragon 845 chips bagged by Samsung

At the beginning of this year, Samsung managed to broker a deal with Qualcomm to reserve the first batch of the Snapdragon 835 chips for their latest flagship device – the Galaxy S8. This gave the Korean mobile giant the jump on other OEMs for releasing devices with …

Nokia 8 official!

The time has come. Nokia have returned the to flagship party! At least, this is what we are being told. We’ve got details from all the material released during the press event, held yesterday. The more obvious question is, why should we care that Nokia are back in …

OnePlus 3/3T: No updates after Android O

Those of you that are regular readers of this site know I am a OnePlus fanboy. I have had every device the company has produced; my favourite still is my ceramic OnePlus X. (despite there not being any support for this device, i,e, no more OS updates). My …

Exploring the evolution of mobile phones

It’s fair to say that I’m now of a “certain age” and I can quite easily amaze people by detailing a long-forgotten time “before mobile phones”. At school in the 80’s and 90’s, you simply wouldn’t see a phone, and it was only at college that clever new …

Out TV viewing is changing

Got a Sky or Virgin TV contract? Let me ask you a serious question. If you’re not into sports, are you really using it fully? Enough to warrant the monthly cost? Statistics announced today by Ofcom show that 90% of people still watch live TV every week. Some …

Amazon Anytime messaging app rumours

I don’t know if you agree with me on this one, but do we need yet another messaging app? Well if the rumours are correct, the retail giant Amazon believes that we do. The company has reportedly been sending customers surveys relating to a new messaging service called “Anytime”. …