Category: Hardware Reviews
The tablet market is as competitive as the phone market, with many manufacturers releasing devices in all different shapes, sizes and colours. Tesco are on their second device now, the original Hudl was a small seven inch tablet that seemed to be designed for kids or people who …
Oooh it is thinner and ….. um … lighter. That is what most people who pick up the new Z3 will say. Beyond that there are few visible cues to the fact that they are holding a newer phone. For the phone aficionados (like us) we will pick …
The original Motorola Moto G was a great phone, it redefined a genre, it showed people that a reasonably cheap device could offer performance and an experience similar to phones costing way more than it did. Not only did the Moto G offer a whole load of …
Well the event is done and now it’s time to review how the event went and how once again mobile tech helped me during the event. As those of you who read my previous article will know I was planning on covering the event for the site by …
I have been sent a new tablet through for review, this being The Gigaset Tablet 8 QV830 ( black version ). Never heard of Gigaset ? well neither had I prior to hearing from them regarding this review. Gigaset is a German company that is one of the …
Sony have carved themselves out a niche in the world of modern day smartphones. A niche for great looking, powerful, waterproof and damn good fun to own smartphones. The latest generation having only just been unveiled at IFA in Berlin a few weeks ago, when I saw the …
Well, I have to say, I didn’t think I’d gel with this thing to begin with. I’ve not worn a watch for a good many years and when I saw the rubber strap I presumed that this wouldn’t be my thing. The Misfit Shine is a fitness and …
Today we’re due to see the arrival of the iPhone 6. Apple are in the best position possible really. Whatever they produce. Whatever they announce, it’ll sell. It’ll sell incredibly well, and then some. Before I get the almost inevitable criticism, I should point out that I’m usually …
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 …
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 …
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 …
This is a phone which really does look the part. The last time I had an imported copy like this, the screen was low resolution and spongy. The build quality was pretty terrible and the OS was slow. This, though, is really rather good. First impressions are…well, impressive. …
A watch fundamentally is foolproof, you look at it wanting answers and it duly obliges, although for many years this has been a rather simple transaction. i.e what is the time? It is 5am. Simple. This idea hasn’t been played about with for a long time. With a …
I have been lucky enough to borrow Lumia 635 to use for a few weeks to see how it fares up as one of the cheapest 4G phones around. I ditched my current and only 2-day-old LG G3 to spend a few days with the Lumia 635 …
I have been a big fan of Google Glass for a while, pretty much ever since I saw the demo at Google I/O back in 2012. At the time it was tested jumping out of a plane whilst streaming via Hangouts. Now, whilst that is not something everyone …
Made by a company called “Yulong” (no, we’ve never heard of them either), this is the rather cheap (£75 on Pay As You Go) Vodafone Smart 4. Inside there’s a dual core 1.2GHz CPU and just 512MB RAM. It has a pretty decent amount of on board storage …
The Motorola Moto G will go down in history as a genre redefining phone. It was designed to be as fluid and functional as a flagship device and yet cost a portion of one. I’ve owned mine since about last November and absolutely loved it, the review is …
You might be confused already. A phone with two numbers in the title – one written as a word, one as a digit? It’s basically the shrunken-down version of the HTC One M8 which I spent a week with very recently, but of course you’re going to going …
Think of the smartphone in your pocket. It’s more powerful than your home PC was a few years ago and from this pocket-sized device you can access the entirety of knowledge known to man… Or look at cat pictures. However, all this functionality requires power and battery power …
LG have come on leaps and bounds over the last few years and in my eyes 2013 was their year. They device after device that captured people’s hearts, souls and wallets. The Nexus 4, Nexus 5, G2 and of course the G Pad 8.3 which were all great …
This is a special one for me, because – apart from using Windows Phone in a few example videos over the years, I’ve been a really big Android and iPhone user. Put it this way, Windows Phone has a big hill to climb with me. It’s going to …
I’m going to write this while it’s all fresh in my head, and I’ll tell you why. This site was built off the back of a Microsoft Smartphone 2002 device called the Orange SPV. I, for years, was obsessed with Smartphone and Pocket PC devices from Microsoft. However, …
This handset has a lot of the features I’ve seen on the HTC One M8. I mean sure, if you fire up the camera you won’t have the Zoe camera option, or the Pan 360 setting, or that rather clever “Dual capture” options, but you still get those …
I’ve used the HTC One M8 for a week now. It’s been my primary phone, so it’s had to put up with my daily abuse. As a heavy smartphone user, that’s no small ask. First up, I’m an existing Android owner, so out of the box I …
Samsung are known for pumping out device after device from their design factory, and one that was rather unique but caught a lot of attention was the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. The handset packed an S4 mini and a Samsung camera into a single device and we reviewed …
In this day and age now and again you have to take a punt on something, just in case you’ve found something special. That’s exactly what I did with the Oppo Find 7a. But is it a dud? No its not, you’ll have to read on to find …
Windows RT is an interesting creature, some wonder why it exists, some love it for its limited nature and some like me now and again get a device running Windows RT and just try to get on with life using the tools provided. The Surface 2 4G price (£539 …
Over the years I’ve not really had much time for Sony, I’ve had a play with most of their devices and I’ve never really been that impressed. Yes the build quality and design on the Z, Z1 and the Z1 Compact is rather splendid, but something always ruined …
I recently received the Acer Z5 budget smartphone through for review, and despite there being a dual-SIM variant, this is the single SIM version. After unboxing my first impressions were… “Hang on, someone has put a Nexus 5 in here by mistake!” Good Points Good feel in the …
Whoway? Who are they? The answer of this question is really a simple one. Huawei are the people who have been, and continue to, make the equipment that powers our mobile networks. It’s the kit that keeps us all talking to each other, but it’s mostly hidden in cabinets. They’ve …
EE as a brand have been around for 2 years now. They hit the headlines after launching 4G services nearly a full year ahead of the competition. Both Orange and T-Mobile brands have had quite a few devices made for them by manufacturers already, but with 4G being …
I now have 3 very good smartphones with awesome cameras in my possession, so it would make sense for me to do a “camera face off”. We are going to compare the Nokia Lumia 1020 and Xperia Z1 against the new-comer – the Huawei P7. The test is …
The Galaxy S range has become a bit of a Marmite thing. Many many people love the Galaxy S range, with the S3, the S4 and now the S5. But contrary to there are many people who really do hate them. Often on Twitter I’ll mention something to …
I have now had the Huawei Ascend P7 in my hands for a little under 12 hours and in that time I have had a play with the device properly. This includes that new “Panoramic Selfie” feature. All in all I think it is a very nice handset. …
Oppo are slowly getting a name for themselves in the Western world, here at Coolsmartphone we’ve bought and reviewed several of their recent flagships. This time round with the Find 7a it was down to me to dig into my pockets and order one. As I’ve only had …
The new Sony Xperia Z2 was announced back in January at CES and after a few delays it has finally arrived with pre-orders being sent out over the last week and available in stores from tomorrow. I’ve been lucky enough to get hold of one, a smartband …
Nokia are slowly and surely releasing devices of all shapes, sizes and to suit all different budgets. Want a smallish high spec phone? Yep they’ve got one. Small budget phone? Yep they’ve got one. Big super high spec phone? Yep they’ve got one. Somewhere in between these? Yep. …
Firstly I would like to offer up an apology for the time I this taken for me to get this review up. I just wanted to make sure that I had enough time to test the tablet to its fullest. So without further ado, the review.. Hardware/Design Those …
The Developer’s Preview version of Windows Phone 8.1 has, by all accounts, been downloaded millions of times around the world. Clearly people are not prepared to wait months for the final release and are happy to put up with a beta version. The same might be said …
HTC are a company known for making high end smartphones such as the Desire, Sensation and Legend. Their premier device of 2013 – the One – has now been uprated and the new version is known as the M8. The company announced two new devices at MWC in …