Author: Leigh Geary
Each year I tend to sign off for a couple of days over Christmas to unwind. This year, for all of us, has been one to remember – and perhaps not for the right reasons. Things started off quite well at Coolsmartphone HQ. We’d put the final touches …
We’ve recently taken a look at the Realme 7 5G and have been mightily impressed with the build, camera and overall performance considering the price-tag. It’s a very good phone, and packs speedy 5G connectivity too.. Today Realme have been named 2020 China’s “50 Most Innovative Companies”. It’s …
I’ll be honest, I’ve not reviewed this one but, for just 75p with free shipping, you can’t go too far wrong (well, unless your phone explodes whilst charging, perhaps). Normally £4.83, this special price is for the first 400 items, so you have to be a bit rapid. …
A Farewell 2020 sale? Well, that sounds like something we can all be part of after this year. The Samsung Sale is now on and, if you’re quick, you can already earn cashback on a range of their kit. However, now there’s even more of a deal, because …
Taking a photo on your phone seems like a relatively simple thing now. Indeed, it’s got this way because phone manufacturers have added a whole heap of artificial intelligence into your smartphone to do the “heavy lifting” for you. As an example, taking an up-close photo will have …
I do like to be hustled some times. Today it’s an email from Barry, who wants us to take a look at his phonetag gadget. The UK inventor has managed to combine a secure ring holder with a portrait and landscape phone stand. It’s got a drink-can-style tag-shaped …
It’s sale season already and, while we’re still shopping for Christmas, it’s a chance to get a deal. Vodafone have a Big Winter Sale on, and it covers their Home Broadband, mobile contracts, SIM-only and Pay As You Go deals. They’ve got the Moto G 5G at £30 …
The people at iD Mobile (using the Three masts) have some deals on right now if you’re hunting for a SIM-only plan. First of all we’d like to point you to this article about switching networks and the differences between them. It can be a little confusing, so …
As we stumble towards a very different Christmas Day, the crazed online-shopping might be slowing – but it won’t be for long. Already there’s emails flooding into our inbox about the January and Boxing Day sales, with EE among the first. They’ve unveiled some early-bird January sales offers, …
I’ll be honest, the lovely people at BingoFit Smartwatches sent me through a review unit of this BingoFit smartwatch some months ago but the entire cancer diagnosis has meant that the review has been delayed somewhat. It’s selling, right now, for just £22.31. Yes, a smartwatch, with app …
I do have to kick myself at times. Sitting in this hospital, I’ve got a gloriously fast 5G connection on Vodafone and unlimited data to enjoy. The speeds massively outclass the WiFi in here and it’s all just so straightforward and worry-free. Back in the late ’90s, phones …
Got yourself an Alexa speaker? Getting an Echo or Echo Dot for Christmas? Well, good news. You can now listen to the Coolsmartphone Podcast or any other podcast through Spotify on your shiny Echo device. Just link Spotify in the Alexa app and you’re away. Once enabled, you …
This is the post where we’ll no doubt get comments saying, “It’s cheaper somewhere else”, but hey – we try. For a mere £14.49, with free delivery and free returns, this is a 128GB SanDisk microSD card. Ideal for your empty slot. It’ll boost it up good. It’s …
No, I’ve not heard of them either, but they’re a new MVNO sitting on the EE network and seem to have a fairly straightforward set of plans. To The Moon Mobile have a rather interesting proposition for you. First up, all their bundles come with unlimited UK calls …
Forgive me for stepping back into the world of “personal blog” for a moment but many of you may remember my cancer diagnosis. The short version is that, in the space of a week, I went from feeling fine to being told that I was about to die. …
Want to see the OnePlus 8T? Sure, no problem – just read our OnePlus 8T Review. It’s got up-close photos and everything you need to know. However, there’s also a OnePlus 8T Concept phone which we can reveal today. The nice guys at OnePlus have given us some …
A few weeks ago even more Starlink satellites were launched. It’s part of an internet connectivity solution provided by the Elon Must SpaceX company. Even though space-delivered internet has been done before, the reduced height of the satellites means a faster and better experience. A recent batch of …
Online shopping has positively exploded in recent months. The imposed lockdowns have forced even the tech-newbies to try out online shopping. It’s resulted in a 74.7% growth in online retail sales and has, according to some, killed the High Street’s revival stone dead. According to the November retail …
There’s EE 4G now available on more than 322,000 miles of roads in Great Britain. It’s thanks to 160 new EE 4G sites built this year and a general expansion in the coverage. EE have also extended coverage of UK national parks, with more than two thirds of …
Well, I spotted this one late last night and had to give my eyes a good old rub. We’ll go through the specs in a minute, but this is crazy cheap. The guys at Gearbest are selling it for £45.30 and the “interesting” people from Wish.com are selling …
Christmas Day tends to be a time when we all make lots of calls, and we’ll no doubt be making even more this year as the coronavirus restrictions keep us apart more than ever. Data and text usage will also be on the rise, so it’s good to …
The smart televisions I’ve owned in the past have bugged me for a number of reasons. Firstly, and especially in the first “early” versions, you’d find the whole experience a little slow. Secondly, the apps were a little clunky and thirdly, they wouldn’t update very often. A modern …
Coming complete with a Gimbal Camera System and a customised sensor to reduce exposure time, the Vivo X51 5G really impressed us with the impressive speed and precision of snaps and the crazy zoom capabilities. Now Vivo have announced that they’ll be pushing the camera tech even further …
An existing Three and EE 5G mast in Charlcombe Lane, Bath, looks like it might not be upgraded to 5G after 343 residents complained about the development. Their concerns appear to surround the apparent belief that 5G is somehow dangerous. This despite the fact that it uses frequencies …
Those “grabber” machines that you’ve probably seen at the motorway service stations and local arcades? Usually you don’t win that often, but that’s generally because the games are altered so that the grabber only grips firmly every now and then. For most of the time, it’ll just loosely …
Huawei are big. We’ve covered their size and capacity when we headed to their Chinese HQ. Inside of Huawei you’ll find other companies selling a lot more than just smartphone kit, and you’ll perhaps see some of the additional kit in Huawei stores too. LEBOOO is one of …
If you’re looking for lots of data on a SIM-only deal, these SMARTY offers will deliver just that. You can, for example, get unlimited and unrestricted data for £20 per month and they’ll give you £15 account credit with our special link. It’s a 1 month rolling plan, …
Whether you’ve got a broadband or a mobile package, the guys at Virgin Media are dishing up access to a Google One for three months for free. This gives you 100GB cloud storage, access to Google experts and extra benefits. After your three months is up, you only …
Some of you may remember my love for the ChromeReady Operating System. After working with Windows Server and Windows Desktop machines for some 20+ years, I like to come home to a laptop which I can just open and use quickly without worrying about viruses, updates and intrusive …
Honestly. Where do I start with this? I’ll start typing and see how far we go. It’s from the boys at Realme. I’ve got the Realme 7 5G on test right now and, let me tell you, it’s impressed me quite a bit considering the £279 price-tag. Anyhoo, …
There’s a whole page of these deals available but, as part of the e2save Christmas Super Saver deals, there’s also some great offers on handsets like the latest flagship Google Pixel 5. You can grab that on Vodaone for £30 per month after you’ve claimed the cashback. That’s …
Packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 and a 6.39″ HD+ (720 x 1560, 19.5:9) screen, this is the new Nokia 5.4 from HMD Global. It comes with a rather cool rear camera arrangement (48 megapixel main, 2 megapixel depth, 5 megapixel ultrawide and 2 megapixel macro) plus a 16 …
In partnership with Japanese design studio, nendo, today OPPO have displayed some conceptual smartphone designs. There’s quite a few to look through, but we were most interested in their “slide-phone”. It’s a handset that can be folded to the size of a credit card, giving you an expandable …
Some three years ago I took a tour to the far-reaches of the Mobile World Congress. Back in Hall 8 we stumbled across something called “graphene” and didn’t really know a great deal about it. Now, though, we have a high-quality portable charger with a graphene composite battery …
I have no way of linking this video to smartphones in any way. I just stumbled across it on YouTube and, although I know there’s some clever editing, a whole load of production and safety checks, it’s just so damned cool that I had to include it here. …
Selling right now on Amazon for £169, these are the OPPO Enco X True Wireless Noise Cancelling Earphones. Available in black or white, they have an “up to” 25 hour battery life and they’re IP54 dust and water resistant. They’ve been created with a company called Dynaudio but …
I really do like the Honor and Huawei watches. I’m wearing the Honor MagicWatch 2 that I reviewed earlier this year. Love the thing. I paid over £129 for it. However, the Huawei Watch GT is essentially the same thing and, boy is it cheap right now. What …
With Huawei going through quite a bit of bother globally (their 5G kit is being ripped out in a number of countries due to security concerns and their newer phones are struggling to sell due to the lack of Google Apps), you’d perhaps think that opening a store …
From now until Christmas, giffgaff have 50 different refurbished phones on offer at reduced prices. An iPhone 7 32GB can be purchased for £129, an iPhone 8 6GB is £219 and an iPhone X 64GB is £339. Prices alter depending on the condition of the handset, (Good, Very …
Available on the Syncwire website for £11.99, this is the Syncwire iPhone USB Car Charger. As you’ll no doubt have noticed, this also has a second output so that you can plug in an additional device. Perhaps a dashcam, an additional phone, a Bluetooth speaker or tablet. Here’s …
