Category: Reviews

Dell Chromebook 11 2 in 1 – First impressions

Today I received a new toy to play with in the form of the “Dell Chromebook 11 3189 2 in 1”. Apart from having a ridiculously long name, this Chromebook has some other very cool features onboard. Now as far as Chromebooks go, this is pretty much what …

Honor View20 – Review

I’ll be honest, Huawei and Honor seem to be cranking up the handset launches to a rate where I’m losing track slightly. Honor, let’s not forget, is a sub-brand of Huawei. You get the same quality, the same Huawei processor and the same user interface, albeit with a …

Palm – My thoughts on the mini-smartphone

This diddy smartphone is on Vodafone and you can get one here for £31 per month. In the USA this has been sold as a “companion phone” which I can sort of understand. See, I’m a little confused. It’s like Brexit in a way. There’s really no middle …

Huawei P Smart 2019 – Unboxing

To kick things off for 2019, I have got a new phone from Huawei which went on sale with Vodafone (other networks are available) this morning. The thing that makes this phone all sorts of brilliant is that this is a perfect “New year, New you”-phone. It is …

Galaxy Note 9 – Review

Specs: Review Price: £899 6.4-inch Super AMOLED HDR display Snapdragon 845/Exynos 9810 12-megapixel variable aperture main camera, 12-megapixel secondary 2x zoom camera 6GB/8GB RAM 128GB/512GB storage 4000 mAh battery Android 8.1 S Pen w/ Bluetooth Good Points: Absolutely gorgeous screen Fantastic battery life Build quality Loads of features …

Anker Soundcore Life 2 Headphones – Review

I am quite fortunate to have a couple of pairs of Bluetooth headphones in my collection and use them in different scenarios. However recently I have been finding that one of the sets that I have are uncomfortable when I am wearing them for long periods of time. …

Your phone is filthy, Let PhoneSoap clean it – Review

We all use our phones as fundamental tools in our day to day lives, and most of us will clean them from time to time. However, cleaning the visible dirt is only half the battle as there is also the microbial “dirt” that is always present on our phones. …

Ezviz – C6T Pan & Tilt Smart Home Security Camera – Review

As our homes become more and more ‘connected’ and ‘smart’, so the number of devices we can connect to for smart homes increase. I recently got sent through the Ezviz Pan & Tilt security camera through for review. ‘Who are Ezviz?’, I hear you ask. They are a …

KitSound District Bluetooth headphones with wireless charging – review

Wireless: it’s everywhere and becoming part of, if not the norm in everyday life, a perfect example being wireless headphones. Whenever you hear the word wireless, more often than not it adds to your battery management requirements and means an increase in the number of wires required on …

New Mujjo Touchscreen Gloves – Review

Paying €49.90 or $49.90 for a pair of touchscreen gloves might seem a bit much, but believe me – I’ve tried touchscreen gloves in the past. Yes, you can get cheaper gloves out there, but you’ll be walking around in a minefield of gloves which either make your …

Reviewing a whole bunch of Anker chargers

I am on the constant search for power in the form of transferring electrons from one device to another. This has now got the point where I am actually running my car on electrons (that is for another day!). I am also now following a new mantra for my …

Palm – A hands on overview

Getting hold of one of these, right now, today, in the UK… is… tricky. But we have one, and it’s in my car, so you know what that means. CAR VIDEO! The Palm Smartphone is available right here on Vodafone. As we mentioned just this morning it’s available …

Pixel 3 – Review

I thought that I would always need a large screen phone, but this has changed my mind. Good Points: Great haptic feedback (really does feel like buttons are being pressed) Amazing camera Feels great in the hand Excellent front-facing dual stereo speakers Gorgeous screen Just runs so well …

A week with the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro – Day 3. The interface.

Morning all. So, I had a lovely intro to this third day with the Mi 8 Pro. You can see our story so far here. This morning though, I woke up to find that the Mi 8 Pro had received an update, and the GUI looked remarkably different. …

A week with the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro – Day 2. The camera.

This morning I woke up. It was a bright, sunny day and the birds were gently tweeting their morning chorus. It made me feel lucky to be alive. I couldn’t wake to spring out of bed and greet the day with big, open arms. Ah well, no. Not …

A week with the Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro – Day 1. A tour

I went a bit crazy about the Mi 8 Pro during the launch. Was it the free wine they were giving out? Was it the fact that it was 3 o’clock in the afternoon and I was drinking on an empty stomach? Well, perhaps some of that, but …

KitSound District True Wireless Earbuds – A Review

Wires – hate them!! I use headphones a lot, generally to isolate my environment and help me focus – but when I’ve finished they get thrown in my bag, semi-attached to a phone buddy (I still think they are ace but I don’t have a headphone socket anymore) and …

How clean is your phone?

The answer that despite our best efforts is going to be not very. In fact research has suggested that the average persons phone is dirty that a toilet seat! Add this to the fact that a lot of us will now use our phones when we are doing …

3Doodler Create+ 3D Pen Set – Review

I got this for review a while back and, well, I’ve got to admit that my son has been using this quite a bit and I totally forgot to review the thing. It’s a really cool gadget for Christmas and actually doesn’t involve a screen or any messing …

Tribit X-Boom / StormBox Speaker – Review

Small Bluetooth speaker. Situation normal then. As I always start these reviews, the Bluetooth speakers tend to slot into to different categories. First, there’s the diddy small speakers, like this one, that don’t have a great deal of bass and tend to be OK for the odd bit …

HP X2, 2 in 1 Chromebook – Review

A number of writers here at Coolsmartphone Towers predominantly use a Chromebook as our main devices. I have been using an Asus Chromebook flip since its release a number of years ago, and it still runs as fast today as it did the day I bought it. This …

KitSound BoomCube Bluetooth Speaker – A Review

Most of us like listening and sharing our music, however there was a time when small pocket-sized speakers provided half-hearted, tiny, and rather poor audio. But that was a long time ago and technology moves on, so perhaps things have improved. Enter then the KitSound BoomCube, a device …

Alienware thin and light gaming laptop – The M15

Yesterday I was invited down to a boxing gym in central London to see a new laptop from Alienware that is punching well above its featherweight level. The Alienware M15 Laptop is a brand new thin and light gaming laptop that will serve well as both a powerful …

Xiaomi Band 3 – First impressions

So we had an overview of the Mi 8, the Mi 8 Pro, the Redmi 6A and the Band 3 yesterday, but today I wanted to give you a closer look at the fitness band. This will be given out for free when you buy a Xiaomi handset …

Honor Play – Review

What is it with all the mobile phone manufacturers thinking that we need a gaming smartphone these days? I am not the biggest gamer in the world I occasionally like a game of Angry Birds as much as the next person but I can’t see myself settling in …

Diggro DI10 Smart Sports Watch – Review

OK, so first impressions then, and this thing is big. I’m not overly sure why. I mean, in the past I’ve seen some budget-priced smart watches from China and they’re usually chunky, but here we have a sports watch which doesn’t need charging ever day, it doesn’t have …

Mate 20 Pro – Cases Review

Getting a new smartphone to enjoy is a big thing for many people. This is, after all, the device you plan to use every day for the next 2 years. It will be a big part of your life, from calls to taking those beautiful photos. Just as …

Honor 8X Review

I’ve had this phone for a while now, and I’ve released day-by-day video updates which will form the main part of this review. So, in the place of what you’d normally expect to find here, I’d first like to discuss the state of the smartphone landscape right now …

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Review

Introduction The Mate 20 Pro has to be the highest-spec phone I have used to date, with its new Kirin 980 7nm processor, 6GB RAM, a huge Quad HD display, massive battery…and the triple camera on the back. The Mate 20 Pro really does scream top end specs. …

A week with the Honor 8X. Day 4 – The GUI

I had a think about this bit. I figured I could put a huge stack of images in and maybe write a load of text about how it all works… or, I could just do a video. It’s what the kids are doing now isn’t it eh? Perhaps …

SpyTrack Nano – Review

I’m not really a fan of naming these things with words like “spy” in the title. To be honest it takes away from the cool and less creepy things that you can do with the device. This is a very clever GPS tracker. Small, simple to use and …

A week with the Honor 8X. Day 3 – Strava and battery life!

I’ve performed a couple of tests today with the Honor 8X. The first is to check Strava. It’s an app I use a lot to track my exercise and, as you might know, I’ve had some issues with it working properly on Honor / Huawei kit. From what …

Roav Viva by Anker – Review

The Roav Viva from Anker is a Bluetooth enabled smart speaker charger that would charge for car accessories such as mobile phone or tablet whilst you are out and about but it will also allow you to utilise the power of Amazon Alexa for search. The actual unit …

A week with the Honor 8X – Day 2. The camera.

Today I’ve been taking photos. I left the AI mode on for a lot of the images you’re about to see and, as it’s a dark and windy Autumnal day, there wasn’t a great deal of light to help. That AI system will magically take a look down …

BlackBerry KEY2 LE – Review

Introduction Even now, when touch-screen devices are considered the standard, there are solid arguments for having a traditional hardware keyboard. It’ll work with two thumbs and fans are sometimes known as ‘Crackberry’ addicts. With BlackBerry being such an iconic brand for their QWERTY smartphone designs, it is no …

A week with the Honor 8X – Day 1. A tour.

Only 5 days ago Honor revealed the 8X. We’ve already given you all the details about it but what’s it like to actually use on a daily basis? Well, to get that sort of information, I’d need one in my pocket every day. I’d need to be using …

Sony Xperia XZ3 – Review

Introduction It only felt like 5 minutes ago I was pressing the publish button on my XZ2 review for CoolSmartPhone, and now we already have its replacement on sale here in the UK, complete with hefty price tag. So the question I asked myself is, why did Sony …