Category: Accessory Reviews
Yes, bike lights. Welcome to the never-ending list of stuff that we’re reviewing here on Coolsmartphone. I’m hoping that we’ll have some sports cars in next. These are LED lights. Back when I was a kid I’d have a huge battery in each of my bike lights and …
There are some products, much like a well known paint manufacturer, that simply do ‘what it says on the tin’. This charging station is one such device. It has no bells or whistles, no flashing lights or additional bumpf, it simply charges multiple devices! It comes in a …
Christmas might be a long distant memory already but there’s still time to treat yourself to some shiny new tech products! This is the second Aukey wireless speaker I’ve reviewed. Unlike the first model, which I rather liked, this speaker has a more rugged look. Like most Aukey products …
Over the last few days I’ve been faffing about with the voice-controlled Amazon Echo Dot. It’s got an invisible lady inside called “Alexa” which will do your bidding. The device itself is a magical disc-shaped unit which will wake up and then answer your questions. It’ll also play …
Having a security camera on your house can be a good and bad thing. Sure, you can keep an eye on things, but it’s also a sign that you want to keep something protected, and thieves might target your house because it’s got cameras hanging off it. So …
Some time ago I decided to cancel my current satellite TV subscription. To be honest I thought the monthly fee was extortionate and decided to go along the “cable cutters route”. I found that I could get nearly all, if not all of the content I wished to …
Back in the “old days” we used to have photos on film. We then sent them off to get processed and we’d get them back on nice paper and we’d put them into albums. Now, we have smartphones and we have our photos stored either in a “cloud” …
If you want to live in an Apple world now you have to embrace the dongle life, there is just no avoiding it. Ridding the iPhone 7 of a headphone jack is either seen as user hostile or a move that took courage. Unfortunately the new MacBook Pro …
Let’s break this down shall we? Imagine taking a fairly powerful Android phone, removing the screen and replacing the navigation system with an Xbox-style controller, then outputting the video to your TV. That’s basically what you have here. Inside is a quad core CPU, 1GB RAM, 16GB of …
Every one of us at Coolsmartphone love our gadgets, but we all also have the same issues and problems with putting it in a case. My nice shiny new iPhone 7 has been crying out for a new case to make sure it doesn’t hurtle towards the floor …
Traveling with bulky power adaptors and chargers is a complete nightmare. Each company wants to use it’s own connection, Micro USB, Mini USB, Lighting Adaptor etc etc. The only thing that seems to follow any form is the fact they all require a USB plug. In the UK …
About 14 years ago I started reviewing phones. Now I’m reviewing Christmas tree decorations and, if I’m honest, I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. Either way, it’s the time to get festive. If you’ve just been up to the loft and grabbed your decorations …
I often find it hard to review cases – most people have their own preferences, whether they’re flip cases (either sideways or up/down), shell cases, rubber cases, no cases etc. Most cases tend to do what you expect of them, and often the cheaper they are the poorer …
Small storage options for phones have been around for so long they are almost ignored by the tech community. Apple especially has been guilty of making the entry level price point as cheap as possible just for a great ‘from’ price. Capacity restraints are a very real for …
Keeping your devices charges whilst away from home is a continued nightmare. After dragging around a bulking power adapter, you struggle to find a power outlet. This is where a brand new Kickstarter campaign steps in. https://ksr-video.imgix.net/projects/2682888/video-723673-h264_high.mp4 Aircharge is looking to secure £20,000 with backers providing over …
Minecraft is a very popular game. I’m sure a lot of you have played it and you may even have a child or two who’s addicted to it. So how do you get them away from the screens? Well, you could try this creative gift from www.boxheadcraft.co.uk. It’s …
I have been trying wireless headphones from all price ranges and wanted to see if our review of the Syllable D900 was up to scratch - so took a second look.
Doing a review of a solar charging system at this time of year isn’t perhaps my wisest decision, especially not here in the UK on a cold and wet November day. It’s going to be dark by 4PM, but I’ve got a solar charging device from Archeer. This …
OK. Are you ready to have your mind blown? To be honest I was going to put “This will blow your mind – charge your iPhone and your Android phone with one cable” in the title, but it sounded a little too click-baity. Whether your main handset is …
Phone cases are something that are a fact of life. We don’t really want to hide the fantastic style and shape of our shiny expensive phone, but we have to. This FLAVR case adds a bit of a twist, and they’re really only useful for the next few …
Cases always cause me an issue. The manufacturers spend hundreds of hours designing the phone so it looks its best. They shave millimetres and dropping grammes to make it as sleek and pleasing to hold as possible. However, every handset seems to make a bid for freedom at …
Good news people! We got sent a brand new Tesla to road test. We’ll be bringing you a full 30 minute video of the resulting…. … oh wait no. We got another cable. Don’t worry though, this is a strong, industrial-grade cable and it’s called the Armour Charge. …
Every one of us at Coolsmartphone love our gadgets, but we all also have the same issues and problems with putting it in a case. My nice shiny new iPhone 7 Plus has been crying out for a new case to make sure it doesn’t hurtle towards the …
This is a big battery that you charge from your iPhone or iPad charger. It has two USB 3A output ports and it’s got a 12000mAh capacity. If I’m honest, that’s about all you need to know. Portable chargers aren’t something you can write about a great deal, …
If you write for a site like this, expect a lot of email. Going through the email from this morning I can see that the majority of it is from accessories manufacturers who are eager to let me know about their products. Bluetooth FM transmitters, car chargers, fast …
Let’s be honest, the trouble with protective cases is that they make your shiny iPhone look bloody ugly as flip. Your iPhone looks gorgeous without a case, but no-one will see that because it’s hidden behind a stack of rubber and plastic when you try and keep it …
Virtual Assistants are something that major phone vendors have been pushing for a while. Whether it may be Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana or the new Google Assistant on the new Pixel phones. Now Sony has gotten into the act with their new Xperia Ear. According to the Sony blurb, this …
I’m going to completely give away the whole upshot of this review in the first paragraph for you now. Sure, you can always skip along to the bottom of the most reviews, but I’m going to serve it up on a platter right here in paragraph one. OK. …
Bluetooth headphones are now all of a sudden a big deal. The world has awoken and realised that they don’t have to plug their ear buds into a headphone jack to listen to their tunes. All because Apple decides to get rid of it?! Once the reserved for …
If you’re after some “proper” over-ear headphones with noise cancelling tech, these could be on your shopping list. First though, perhaps the biggest plus point for me is the price – just £18.89 on Amazon as I type, which is really rather good. The headphones have the usual …
Three have had mobile broadband available for a long time now, and with each device upgrade comes more enhanced connectivity options with quicker speeds and more flexibility. On visiting the official Three site you’ll find USB Dongles, Tablets, MiFi and more recently RoadFi – a MiFi plugged into …
Just recently we took a look at the SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive. It’s effectively a USB stick for your iPhone and iPad that’ll also plug into your computer so that you can back stuff up. It was £39.99 for the 32GB version. This one is a lot cheaper, …
Agh!! You’re running back to your car and your phone is running low on battery. It happened today and my car has now become a recharge centre. However, if you go and buy a car charger thing from the local market it’ll probably be a cheaply-made thing that …
I confess from the outset that I’m a bit of an audio nerd. I like music to sound good and don’t flinch at spending a few hundred pounds on headphones or other bits of kit. I should also confess from the outset that I don’t like wireless headphones …
Over the last few weeks, I have been in the fortunate position to play host to some very cool charging tech from Anker. Anker is a company that has been providing power solutions to the mobile warrior for quite some time now, and they have some truly awesome kit …
There’s usually an unwritten rule about these posts. You have to bulk them out a bit. I’m not going to go crazy, but if I’m honest I could describe these cables in a couple of sentences. These are the new Apple iPhone Lightning charger cables from aLLreLi – …
KooPower have been in touch again and, following on from the wireless doorbell we reviewed, we now have 12 metres of LED fairy lights. Now, I’ve had these in the back garden for quite a while as I honestly thought that they wouldn’t work. Why? Well, solar powered …
Back in January, Leigh reviewed devolo’s dLAN 1200+ WiFi ac Powerline adapter and now I got the chance to review the 550 starter pack. The dLAN 500 WiFi is an upgrade of devolo’s current mid-high range offering, the dLAN 500 WiFi. While continuing to offer Powerline transmission speeds of …
Your iPhone can connect to the iCloud to backup, but what if you want to backup your photos yourself? What if you want to put files ont your own personal USB stick? Or you want to quickly transfer them? Well, heres the SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive – and …
When I read the press release for this Kickstarter campaign for udoq it was hard to get excited about a docking station. However, I was impressed (from the video at least) of the build quality and it didn’t look like just another Chinese plastic stand. The docking station is designed …