Category: Reviews
I think I have a fetish for cases, either that or I have just never managed to find the right one. I’m always swapping and changing. Now this is my next victim, the Tech21 Patriot Case. This is a rugged case for my iPhone 6 Plus. Tech21 assure me …
Today is the day people. The day where I can hopefully get rid of my need for a Windows PC forevermore (well at least out with work anyway). I have been lucky enough to get hold of a Remix Ultra tablet from Jide Technologies. These are the guys …
There are times in life when you want to actually hear things the way they were intended. Be it a piece of music that brings back memories of a momentous event or you want to immerse yourself in a horror film or really loose yourself in a game. …
Missed our “week with” articles? Here they all are… Day one – The criticisms Day two – The audio Day three – Up close Day four – The camera Day five – Making it your own Dan has also written up an extensive HTC One M9 review but …
To truly succeed in the budget phone market you have tick many boxes, you have to look good, you have to perform well, you have to have some features from phones two or three times the price and most importantly you have to be cheap. Companies like Microsoft …
If you want to keep your Samsung Galaxy S5 in good condition, this Viva Window cover is worth a look. We’ve been using it on a Galaxy S5 and it sits over the battery cover – not replacing it as some do. This adds a small amount of …
Mobile World Congress is where most flagship devices get announced every year, and 2015 was no different. This year HTC arrived with an upgrade to their popular M8 phone which hopefully filled in the few missing pieces to make this the best phone they ever made. First of all a …
This is a small and very portable Bluetooth speaker which will fit fairly easily into your pocket and very easily into the likes of a handbag or small bag. First up, the design makes it look like one large black paracetamol caplet but (in the case of this …
A wise man once said: A beautiful Smartphone creates beautiful things Personally I feel that applies to a lot of the smartphone market in 2015, with the likes of the Galaxy S6 Edge, the HTC One M9 and of course the iPhone 6 they are all beautiful devices …
Ian is our go-to guy for the Bluetooth speakers, but recently I’ve had a few to play with and one of them is the ECOXGEAR ECOROX Rugged Bluetooth Speaker. The ruggedness of the speaker appealed to me, and I like to have things protected. The first thing you …
A lot was said about the quality of the new 20 megapixel rear shooter. There’s a raft of options including the ability to adjust the ISO, EV and white balance settings. Not only that, but if you dive into the camera settings further there’s a stack of capture …
Archos are the one of the Android stalwarts, they’ve been making tablets for years now and now their product range includes a healthy selection of phones too. All different shapes, sizes and colours are available. The Platinum range offers a large screen, quad core experience at a budget …
HTC tell me that their new model has a “dual-tone” design. It’s not immediately obvious when you put it next to the M8, and you can see just that in our MWC gallery, but there is a subtle difference in the edging and the colouring. Yet again we …
I’ve been banging on about this in tweets and posts for some time now, but the BoomSound system on the HTC One M9 is something that I appreciate. Despite the proliferation of Bluetooth speakers and headsets you’ll still find me listening to tunes via the external speaker on …
Taking a pair of headphones out with me running is quite an undertaking, controlling my music whilst I’m out running is also fiddly. The fit is usually not quite right, the volume not quite right, the cables flap around and catch on stuff, the Bluetooth connection to my …
Battery life on a phone is something we all wish we had more of, whether it be for more gaming time or for more camera shots whilst on holiday. For a while now many companies have made portable charger packs which charge your phone via USB and then …
This, my friends, is a Jaguar XF. It’s a great car. Below is the facelifted Jaguar XF. It looks roughly the same, but the headlight assembly alone means that you can tell the difference between new and old. It’s not a massive change, but the older design was …
The quality of camera phones is generally very good, especially on high end models. However, with a few exceptions, significant changes in magnification normally requires software-based image manipulation when on a smartphone. There are a few options available for altering lenses on phones, and one that impressed me …
The fitness wearable market is quite a varied one. With many manufacturers creating all different shapes and sizes of wrist bands or watches. A few weeks ago Hannspree announced the Sport Watch which seemed to have the ideal combination of features. They’ve sent me one which I’ve been …
Update #1: Added GoodTask, Gneo, Zippy on 07/04/15 First published on 08/11/14 Unlike most app reviews, this one is going to encapsulate several task managers for iPhone. Instead of reviewing every single one under the sun, I will pick apps that I feel are worthy of being on anyone’s …
Home automation is something that is only really limited by your imagination, possibly what accessories you can buy and possibly also by how much money you have. You get the idea though…. One of the more intriguing things I saw at MWC was the Piper NV, it is …
Getting Office documents working on your mobile device can be a hit and miss affair. Sometimes you’ll find an app that opens certain documents but won’t let you edit them. Sometimes you can edit some document types but not others, and you can find that the document will …
Alcatel have a wide range of devices and keeping up with exactly where each model sits in the range is at times a struggle, when I visited their stand at MWC it took me five minutes to gather myself and work out what was what. Alcatel have sent …
This is not an April Fool Those of you who were following our MWC coverage will already be familiar with Valedo. for those of you who wern’t following our exploits at MWC here is a recap1, Valedo is a wearable that will help you improve your back health …
Doro have found themselves a niche, they have really really thought of everything that a phone should do in that particular niche. A few weeks ago I was introduced to the new Liberto 820 Mini and when I got back from MWC there was one waiting for me …
Usually, headphones are a difficult item to review and at the end of the day, you the reader have to take my word for it. We’ve had the KitSound Clash Bluetooth Headphones in for review recently and we’ll start the review off with my good and bad points. …
Once upon a time our gadgets weren’t particularly complicated or vibrant and their batteries used to last for what seemed to be a life time from a single charge. Then tech got smart, connected and colourful and battery management became important, shortly followed by battery anxiety. It’s happened …
Whilst at MWC I met the guys from Speck, we had a chat about cases, as you’d expect. They asked me what phone I had and what case I used, I pulled out my Note 4 in an Otterbox Defender case and they actually recoiled in horror. We …
It has been a while since I have done a review of a new phone so when Acer asked me to test the new Jade S I figured I would give it a shot. I had done a small article when the prices were announced a while back …
I have been a fan of Otterbox cases for many years now; it is one of my first purchases when I get a new device. Because I know I’ll be getting a well designed, well made and hard wearing case. I’ve had a Note 4 for a good …
A package arrived the other day and in it there was a very shiny box with an Acer Logo on it. Why don’t you join me while I unbox this little shiny box? What we have here is a pretty neat phone that is coming in a suitably …
It won’t be long till all the main manufacturers go along the sealed battery route. I have no problem with this provided they innovated in battery technology, rather than the most megapixels in the camera or the most pixels per inch in the screen. The way forward, however, …
Since I typed my original post about this device it’s now dropped in price. At around £40 and supported by lots of supposed “5 star reviews” it seemed appealing, so I thought it was worth a dabble. Fancy a cheap smartwatch? Let’s see what it’s really like. First …
Music plays such a varied role in our lives, it can be fun, it can be serious, it evokes emotion, we listen to it alone and we listen to it to be sociable and often the environment we are dictates how we consume our media. Of course and …
Look at a network-branded tablet and you’ll sometimes find yourself in a strange world of rebranded Chinese kit. Is it good? Is it bad? It’s really hard to tell. However, for £125 on Pay As You Go or £21 per month for 3GB of 4G data per month, …
£70 doesn’t buy you much in the technology market, right? Normally a £70 tablet wouldn’t provide a great user experience but recently a new development has hit the market in a wave of cheap Windows 8 tablets, including the Connect 7″ Tablet from Tesco, but how does the device …
Here at CoolSmartPhone Towers I seem to be becoming the resident Bluetooth speaker reviewer, which isn’t a bad thing, as I can compare the qualities of the speakers against each other, as I’m not listening to each one in isolation. The latest speaker to come through is …
Some time ago, our very own Leigh carried out a review of the Lugulake Bluetooth speaker, which he was thoroughly impressed with, and you can catch up with the review here. Well the company have contacted CoolSmartPhone towers, asking us if we would like to look at the new improved version …
We have reviewed several powerbanks over the last few weeks and months (here, here and here for 3), now it’s my turn. The PowerpackXL medium is a 4000mAh portable battery pack in a very nice finish, with a 5V 1A output. The powerbank has a shiny black finish …
Robocat is known for making some amazing apps. Haze, Thermodo, and Televised to name a few. And Breaking, available for iOS and Mac, doesn’t fail to disappoint. The premise behind Breaking is simple: See news important to you with only a swipe. Any websites you want can be searched for …
