Category: Hardware Reviews
Remember that story about Goldilocks and the three bears? The little tike broke into their house, gobbled up some porridge, tried out some chairs and then went and had a kip on all the beds. The naughty little sausage. But what’s “just right” for you eh? The big …
Introduction OK so this device has been out for a while.. but with limited availability we’ve struggled to get hold of a review unit.. well now we have one! You all know about the ridiculously high resolution screen, but how does the rest of the device perform? What’s the overall experience like, …
I am an avid user of iPhones and I have been for the last 4 years and I’m currently getting bored of iOS, yes, bored. I have been wondering what to get next and the opportunity to review one of HTC’s top end devices arose, so I jumped …
By the sheer number of handsets sold Samsung are the world leader in mobile devices. The Galaxy range of devices have become a massive hit and from the excellent Note II to the Galaxy SIII, their range of Android devices have taken the world by storm. It comes …
I’m quite a fan of large phones, I’ve owned both of the Galaxy Notes and before that I owned a Dell Streak. With each and every one I always found myself balancing the phone on a narrow edge or just shoving it my rucksack to carry it around. For …
Do you know that feeling when you just have to have something? Well during my time with the Nexus 7 I have experienced it three times. First of all when the damn thing came out. The thought of a Nexus branded tablet was too much for me and …
Nokia seem to want to cover all sectors of the mobile market. From the lowly Asha range right through to the top end Lumia 920. The Nokia Lumia 620 sits somewhere smack in the middle. At first I thought the Lumia 620 was going to be a drastically …
So on Tuesday we added a post about the Movpower 5200 Portable Charger. I decided to get one. There’s another version available but this baby has a capacity of 5200mAh. That’s quite a bit. The Samsung Galaxy Note has a 2500mAh battery, which is hefty enough, so this …
Picture the scene, you’re on a long car journey with one or two kids they’re sitting in the back, asking “Are we there yet?” You’re not. You’re no-where near. You’ve not even got off your drive yet and they’re already bored or fighting each other. How do you …
Cameras are a part of our lives these days. Be it taking photos of your lunch and posting it to Instagram, taking photos of your ugly children and posting them to Facebook or even taking photos for a living. I take a lot of photos every day, normally …
About two “Gadget Show Live” events ago I was approached by a man carrying a iPad with a HD film playing on it. Nothing new there I thought, but as I was walking away, he showed me a small portable hard drive which he had in his pocket. …
There is always one late comer to every party. In this case, Samsung announced the Windows Phone 8 touting Ativ S back in August of 2012 but didn’t actually manage to release it until December, almost a whole month after the Nokia Lumia 920. Still as the saying …
Regular listeners (and now viewers) of our podcast will know that I recently moved from a Galaxy Note 2 back to the iPhone 5. I won’t go into the reasons why here, as it’s worth a good article on it’s own. On the whole, I’m happy with that …
This is the third in the RHA series that we here at Coolsmartphone have reviewed following on from the MA350’s and the CA-200 headphones. Both the 350’s and the CA200’s were impressive with the RHA-MA350’s being particularly good. So, how do the current top of the range MA450i’s …
We finally managed to land a Samsung Galaxy S III Mini in the palm of our hands. Thanks to the guys at Mobicity for the opportunity. Good points Good size Good battery life Good screen Bad Points 5 MegaPixel Camera OS can be laggy The Galaxy S III …
Huawei are quickly becoming a major force in the mobile world and their latest budget offering, the Ascend G330, has a lot of pressure on it to continue the impressive trend of affordable handsets that punch above their weight. The Ascend G330 is the replacement for the Ascend …
I know what most of you guys are thinking. “Why do I need a MiFi?” or perhaps even, “What is a MiFi?” Put simply, it’s a gadget you stick your SIM card in. It’ll connect to the internet through the mobile network and then beam out a WiFi …
The Gamepad is a unique device, it is like nothing I have ever used before. In the past my mobile gaming had been done on a Nexus 7 or a Galaxy Note, so using real buttons was going to be something new for me. with the Gamepad I …
Last week you’ll remember we announced the winners of our Kindle Fire Accessories give-away. To make sure you guys with the older Kindles aren’t left out MobileFun sent me a case for my Kindle Keyboard to show to you guys. Press play, sit back and enjoy the video. I’ve had this for …
The trouble with phone cases are that its long been disputed which is better for protection. Hard cases, or softer silicon/TPU cases. The solution may be hybrid cases which is where the Slim Armor for the iPhone 5 comes in. The Slim Armor is a 2 part case …
Today we’re having a look at a gun. Now, before you call the police, this is a toy gun. I’ve actually got one of these for my 9-year-old nephew and he loved it, so I figured it was worth a review. We all know that kids love iPhones, …
Just in case you’re wondering why we’re running an article on Samsung Galaxy Note accessories, then you need to remember that the original generation Samsung Galaxy Note may have been replaced, but the trusty old behemoth is still selling by the oversized bucket load on some of the …
We’ve already seen the Pong iPhone 4 / 4S case and recently had a nose around the iPad case too. A case, you might think, doesn’t take a great deal of explanation or reviewing. However, the people at Pong are quite clever. All of their cases, including this …
The popular budget Huawei Ascend G300 has now been replaced with the G330, and I have one for a fortnight to see how it fairs. Huawei are dragging their reputation from cheap ‘n’ cheerful to serious contender in impressive style, not least because the G300 was such good …
Samsung ATIV Tab, a Windows RT based tablet, is this to be an Apple or Google competitor? My personal opinion, no. Purely because I believe that a full blown version of Windows needs to be on a desktop machine, not a tablet. Anyway… Good Points Well Built Excellent …
Tech21 are somewhat famous in the case industry both for their cases and for their appearance on Dragons Den showing off their D3O technology. This case has that very tech included as you can see in the picture, its the orange stuff. Essentially what d30 technology does is …
Do you have a bad mobile signal in the one place you want to use it most? It’s a more common problem than you may think. Whilst networks do their utmost to provide the best service they can, it’s hard for them to legislate for people with basement …
What can you get for £80 these days? The surprising answer is an Android Ice Cream Sandwich tablet with Play store compatibility from a British brand. Sub £100 tablets are nothing new, but on the whole they’re poorly built, slow and sold under a name nobody’s has ever …
Exactly a year ago, thanks to the lovely team at Nokia Connects I’ve had an opportunity to review the Nokia Lumia 800 – the first Nokia-designed smartphone running the Windows Phone operating system. Putting all ramblings whether Nokia’s sudden strategy switch was right or not, the Lumia 800 …
It's hard to ignore the iPad juggernaut. Apple launched their version of the tablet computer back in 2010 and since then it's gone from strength to strength in almost every way. Others have joined the market since but have never really managed to replicate Apples success. A couple …
Recently, I’ve found myself needing to replace my ageing bluetooth headphones. The pads are wearing out, and Sony don’t make them any more. Whilst there have been quite a few pairs of headphones that have caught my eye recently, my requirements dictated that I wanted something with Excellent …
The Archos Gamepad was mentioned earlier on in the year and to tell you the truth I never thought it would ever appear. Archos were true to their word and actually got the product to market, without their trademark delays. So mine arrived a few days ago I …
I’ve been a follower of Nokia for years now. At one time I actually ran my very own Nokia dedicated website and attended many launches. Their hardware was top quality and phones like the N95 were market-leading in terms of specifications and features. Slowly they began to find …
Tablets have come a long way since they first appeared. No-one can argue that the iPad has played a massive part and every other manufacturer is now trying to play catchup. With competition comes innovation and that has helped to bring screen sizes down. The 10″ tablets are …
The Nokia Lumia 920 has been heralded as the ultimate Windows Phone 8 device. When it was announced I was excited the range of colours and accessories. It captivated my imagination and made my wallet area hurt with anticipation of the upcoming cost. When it came to it, …
The HTC 8S was a phone I wanted to be good, REALLY REALLY good. I wanted it to be the phone that showed those LG Nexus 4 toting people that you didn’t need a huge great quad core CPU or 2GB of RAM to have a damn good …
Ahh, the Nexus 4, the latest and greatest phone you can’t get hold of. If you are lucky enough to get one, you will soon realise you need protection for it. I prefer bumper cases to full cases, as they don’t add too much bulk to the original …
Windows Phone has had it’s rebirth with a whole host of new features and most importantly a whole host of new devices. All those weeks ago when Microsoft, HTC, Nokia and Samsung were all showing off their new devices the one that stood out to me was the …
I’ve had the Iconia A510 a few weeks now and I’ve used it pretty extensively. Mainly because I took it on holiday with me at the end of November. Now it’s time to bring you the full review. Nut first the good and bad points of the device. …
Today a nice delivery man came to my work and presented me with an Android powered 7-inch wi-fi tablet in a smart looking box. Was it a Nexus 7? No. Was it a Kindle Fire? No. Did it cost over £150? No. Was I impressed? Yes! He had …
