Tag: hands-on

Hands on with Acer Liquid Z4

A few days ago Acer announced two new smartphones just before Mobile World Congress. The Liquid Z4 was a low to mid range phone for those people who like using the internet and social media on the go. We just went to the Acer event before the official …

Upgrade with The Saturdays at Phones4U today

Here in London you can upgrade with a difference. Vanessa, Rochelle and Una from the music group ‘The Saturdays’ will be in the flagship Phones 4u store on Oxford street today giving media interviews. Later they’ll even be selling some phones to lucky customers including the new iPhone …

Almost a week with the HTC One mini. Send me your questions!

Looking to get yourself the HTC One mini? Well, we’ve already got some up-close shots, but today a man in a van dropped off the handset so that we can have a bit of time with it. If you’re a long-time reader then you’ll probably remember something we’ve …

HTC One mini announced

HTC have today announced the smaller version of the HTC One, the HTC One mini. Packing a lot of the same design language seen in the One, the mini does have a few changes to mention which we will go through now. First of all the screen is …

Huawei Ascend P6 hands on at London launch event

Beauty is worth waiting for, according to Huawei who announced their new Ascend P6 Android phone yesterday in London. I was there to represent Coolsmartphone, which meant that I got to have a play! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, is a more common term.  I …

MWC – NEC Medias W hands on. You want this. You want this now.

Remember last year? Remember NEC at Mobile World Congress 2012 ? They were showing off some rather swish handsets, but unfortunately they were all firmly behind glass and sadly not fully functional. The NEC Medias W really interested me however I couldn’t see a great deal of it …

MWC – Huawei Ascend Mate hands on

Looks like large phones are in fashion for a lot of people these days with the Samsung Note 2 being a big seller here in the UK and of course around the world. We have seen a few slightly larger phones here at MWC but none bigger than …

MWC – LG Optimus Vu II hands on

Here at MWC we see lots of different designs from the various different manufactures, but touch screen input is all over the place.  One device which has a slight twist on this is the LG Optimus Vu II which instead of the traditional widescreen format has opted for …

MWC – Nokia Lumia 620 hands on

As well as the Nokia 720 and 520, Nokia had their existing smartphones on sale including the 820, 920 and the 620 which is the more recent of the devices from that group. Considering the stand was packed (and still is hours later) we got some more time …

MWC – Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 Demo

The Samsung stand this year is huge. I really mean it. HUGE. I’m sure it almost has it’s own postcode and takes up around a quarter of one of the halls. The picture above doesn’t really do it justice – I couldn’t fit it in the shot if …

HTC One – Up close

The HTC One press launch wasn’t the only place for people to see and feel the HTC One handset. The Phones 4u store in Oxford Street is letting people have a play with this hot new Android handset and they’ve sent us some advertising bits which I won’t …

HTC One – Video Demo and my thoughts

Here it is then, the HTC One. This huge event at the German Gymnasium in London wasn’t just a phone launch or the confirmation that the leaked M7 was indeed the HTC One. This was showing what mobile companies must do now, because all phones are getting similar …

EE post Z10 hands on

EE have been quick off the mark getting a video uploaded to their YouTube channel regarding the recent BB10 launch, showing the new BlackBerry Z10 in all its glory. It also means that EE will have the new device on their 4G network sometime in the near future. …

Hands on with Windows Phone 8 devices

Currently at the London event for Windows Phone 8 launch and we have managed to get hands on with the phones that are supporting this latest version of the operating system.  These are the Nokia Lumia 920 and 820.  The Samsung Ativ S and the HTC 8X and …

Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini Hands-On

So, we asked Samsung if we could have a few minutes with the SIII Mini. Just a few precious minutes. They laughed at us. They made us cry. They pulled our hair. Meanwhile, another website called All About Samsung has got hold of it… but hey, they put …

Sony Xperia T Unboxing – The Bond phone

The time has come for one of the first UK unboxings of the new Xperia T. As you may or may not know I am a Sony Mobile Ambassador in my other life (when not working or writing on here). This gives me several perks, one of which …

Motorola RAZRi promo videos

We’ve seen the live blog and the specs for the RAZRi and now we’ve got some promo videos. They’re basically the RAZR M videos with a new name but here you go anyway. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyWeVtXPCII http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC6X9azWHuw

Hands-on with the new iPhone 5?

In the US there’s a chat show called Jimmy Kimmel Live. Following the iPhone 5 launch, they took to the streets to show people the new iPhone 5 and get their opinion. Trouble is, the iPhone 5 isn’t available just yet, and what the people actually handled was …

Samsung posts official hands on video for the Galaxy Note 10.1

Unlike the cartoon hands on version from the other day. Here a nice chap from Samsung runs through the various new features in the Galaxy Note 10.1. I am a little on the fence with this at the moment. I think it’s a little over priced. Especially with …

Vodafone Mobile Wi-Fi R205 Review

So, what exactly is a Mi-Fi? It sounds a bit complicated but in reality it’s not that hard to grasp. It’s a small (and in this case, rather pebble-like) unit with a SIM card inside. The sticker on the front of the box sums it up best – …

Nexus 7: first impressions

You know what they say about third time lucky. Having made and then cancelled orders with Google and Currys, I decided to try my luck with Ebuyer yesterday afternoon as they were advertising the Nexus 7 as in stock and ready for delivery today. Roughly 16 hours later …

Up-close and personal with the Nexus 7

So, we’ve seen the launch, the stock pictures and the press releases. Now we’ve got the thing in our hands, so we figured you’d like to see what the new Google tablet actually looked like in the flesh. No computer-generated mock-ups here. We’ve got stacks of shots taken …

A week with … the Samsung Galaxy SIII – Day 7

We’ve spent a week with the hot new Samsung Galaxy SIII thanks to the guys at UR-Mobile.com. Today we’re taking you through the interface itself. There’s a lot of personalisation and different ways to view apps.. plus… HEY! It’s filmed in the car !

A week with … the Samsung Galaxy SIII – Day 6

One other feature we’ve not covered in the SIII just yet is “Pop-up video”. It’s perhaps a “nice to have” rather than an essential feature, but it’s still worth taking a look at. Here’s me loading a video and then watching it anywhere within the OS. It can …

A week with … the Samsung Galaxy SIII – Day 5

It’s Friday! Yay! Well, if you’ve been watching our “Week with..” you’ll have noticed that there’s one feature we’ve not covered yet. S-Voice, the voice-recognition system built into the Samsung Galaxy SIII. Many have compared it to the Siri function on the iPhone 4S. Here, I do my …

Samsung Galaxy SIII – Hands-on demo

It was extremely busy at the launch last night, so we hung around until the free drinks ran out and got a quieter and more relaxed demo of the new Galaxy SIII. In the video below you’ll hopefully get some idea of what the handset can do. Here …

Samsung Galaxy SIII – Photo special

You definitely get the sense that the S3 isn’t just about specs. There’s more to it than that – there’s an intelligence, a feeling that you have a little “pal” in your pocket that’ll try and help you out when it can. Specs include that gorgeous 4.8″ HD …

HTC One V Overview

Look what’s just arrived here in Coolsmartphone HQ. It’s the HTC One V, complete with chin. We couldn’t wait to show you this, so I packed it into the car and went for a drive in the country. You might have seen the results of my one-handed camera …

HTC One S Review

The HTC One S is the slimmer, ever-so-slightly-less-powerful brother of the HTC One X. It’s got a 4.3″ screen with 960×540 pixel screen. I say “slightly less powerful” but heck, a dual-core 1.5GHz CPU is still ruddy good. Powered by Android 4.0 with HTC Sense 4.0, it uses …

Hands on with the new iPad

So the new iPad is now out in the wild and in the hands of those either quick enough to order online or stand in line for hours on end.I’ve been having a play with one since yesterday and wanted to share my initial impressions. Packaging  The packaging …

MWC – Xperia S – Up close

The Xperia S has the largest screen in the NXT range at 4.3″ (720×1280) and is seen here running Android 2.3, although ICS will be along shortly via an upgrade. It’s got a powerful 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, NFC and a 12 megapixel camera around the back plus another …

MWC – Orange Santa-Clara – Up close

The Santa Clara is, it turns out, just a codename at the moment. So perhaps, just perhaps, it might appear as the Orange London we thought it would? Powered by a rather rapid Intel Atom Z2460 1.6GHz CPU, this has 16GB of memory, HD voice, NFC, 1080p HDMI …

MWC – Panasonic Eluga Power – Up close

The Panasonic ELUGA Power has just been announced (press release below) so it definitely warrants some hands-on time. It’s waterproof and has a Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core 1.5GHz CPU. In the hand it selt very well build and thin too (9.6mm), despite the large 128×720 HD 5″ screen, which …

MWC – Lumia 900 Hands On Photos

The Lumia 900 is not a handset which was announced at Mobile World Congress this year, it was announced at CES in Las Vegas back in January as a AT&T LTE exclusive device for their new network. What Nokia have done though is replace the LTE radio with …

MWC – Lumia 610 Hands On Photos

Although announced at MWC on Monday, today was my first real chance to spend time with the Nokia Lumia 610 which is their new low end Windows Phone. With lower specs will come a lower price and on testing Nokia found 95% of the apps worked on a …

Xperia S Hands-on photos and first unboxing

The Xperia S went on sale here in Barcelona today and in true Dan style I had to go and buy one for myself in white!. So in what might well be the FIRST unboxing of a retail Xperia S device we bring you the brand new just …

MWC – ZTE Era Up close

The sheer amount of handsets over on the ZTE stand is almost mind-boggling. We managed to hunt down their new ZTE Era for a bit of hands-on time. Unfortunately the battery was flat, but we consoled ourselves with some serious up-close action (OK, I need some sleep now). …

MWC – LG Optimus 3D Max – Up close

We thought initially that Android 4.0 would be arriving as part of an update, but LG have this running Ice Cream Sandwich on the stand and they tell me it’ll hit the shops with ICS too. The Max features a 1.2GHz CPU with “tri-dual technology” (dual core, channel …

MWC – Motorola MOTOLUXE – Up close

This is our first bit of quality time with the Motorola MOTOLUXE. It went on sale just last week and, with all the talk of dual-core and quad-core CPU’s here in Barcelona, we weren’t really expecting a huge amount from the 800MHz CPU on this device. However.. It’s …

MWC – Hands on with the Galaxy Note 10.1

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 only got announced literally minutes ago, so we thought it best to go and get a hands-on with the device. The lovely Samsung lady gave us a great demo of the device, which has a WXGA (1280×800) PLS TFT screen, dual-core 1.4GHz CPU, …