Category: Hardware Reviews

Sony Xperia XZ1 – Review

The Introduction Sony have had a mixed reaction to their phones. The design has changed very little since the launch of the Xperia Z, and even with a high megapixel numbers in their camera, some people have had varied results. In comes the Xperia XZ1, which takes the best …

YouTube Friday – Honor 7X Review

Iron Bru, Scotland, Matteo Doni. They all go together brilliantly, so we decided to add an Honor 7X into the mix too. We’ve already had a full hands-on with the device in November and it then appeared in December. However, the price has gone down a bit now …

Huawei P smart – Video overview

Right, sit down people. I need to talk to you. How many of you have a Samsung Galaxy? How many of you have a Galaxy S8? Well, if you break the screen on that, you’re facing a bill of over £240. Sometimes more. If you have the Galaxy …

The Huawei P smart – Review

I’m going to soak up a lot of this piece with a comparison. I know you’ve come here for the Huawei P smart review but it would be remiss of me if I didn’t mention the brother from another mother. In the past couple of weeks I’ve used …

Nokia 8 – Review

The Introduction Nokia. They’re a brand well known in the mobile industry. Who could forget the 3310? So popular that it came back to life years later here in the UK. Some of you may remember that I came from my own Nokia dedicated site called World of Nokia …

DJI Mavic Air unboxing video and first impressions

DJI Mavic Air – intro In his first article and video for Coolsmartdrone.com Coolsmartphone.com, Lukasz unboxes the latest drone from DJI, the Mavic Air, comparing it with other drones, and shares his first impressions and some footage from the beautiful Scottish coast. Let’s get to the headlines first: …

EE Hawk – Review

The Introduction I’ve said it many times in the past. These days you don’t need to spend a fortune to get some great hardware specs, and this is even more true when it comes to some network-branded devices. The EE Hawk is the networks’ latest branded handset, and …

Honor 9 Lite – Video review

This morning I had a bit of a rant about this phone, and I’ll tell you why. I’ve been in this business since 2002. For years I’ve reviewed the “top-end” phones and a smattering of “budget Android handsets”. The latter, and let’s not beat about the bush, are …

EBox T8 V TV box – Review

Right, I’ve first got to apologise to the nice people at Entertainment Box. They sent me this clever Android TV box a good, long while ago and it’s taken me far, far, far too long to actually review the thing. The simple fact is that I’ve used myself. …

BlackBerry Motion – Review

The Introduction BlackBerry have always been a brand with a dedicated base of followers around the world. When that brand made the switch from its own BB OS and moved to Android, it opened up a whole new world of apps and services. The Motion is not an …

Unboxing the Honor View 10

A few weeks ago I was down in good old London town where I bore witness to the latest Honor flagship. Today I have received a pre-production unit for review here at Coolsmartphone Towers. The phone is now available for preorder from the Honor website and, if it is …

Asus Zenfone 4 – Review

Although you might not see this particular handset in network stores, you can buy it from Amazon for £449.99, from Tesco or Carphone Warehouse. Video Overview Want the quick look? Here’s our video tour… It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S630 octa-core processor (2.2GHz + 1.8GHz) and there’s …

Unihertz Jelly Pro – Review

It’s difficult to find a position for this one. The makers of the Jelly Pro admit that it’s perhaps not ideal as a primary phone. Setting up can be a little tricky, especially when you’re entering your email address and trying to accurately input your password on the …

Razer Phone – Is this the ultimate gaming device?

We’ve seen many attempts to make a gaming phone. There was Nokia with the ill-fated N-Gage (it used GameBoy-like cartridges) and the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. Unfortunately, these never caught the imagination of the public as they were seen as a bit gimmicky. So it was interesting to see …

A week abroad with the Note 8

Usually, when I go on holiday I like to reach out to contacts I have made over the years to loan a recent device to road test. This year, Three kindly stepped up and loaned me a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 for me to use. You may remember …

The Razer Phone has arrived. Here is our unboxing

We have had something very special arrive at Coolsmartphone Towers today. At least, it’s something that I have been looking forward to for a few weeks. Today we’ve got one of the boldest new phones to come out this year (IMHO). Yes, it’s the Razer Phone! You’re obviously …

Huawei Mate 10 Pro – Review

These days there are so many different smartphones out there it is hard to find things to distinguish them from each other. I genuinely struggle sometimes in finding what makes one phone better than another. That being said, there are things out there that can help to lift one phone above …

Motorola Z2 Play – Review

Vodafone kindly invited me to go play some mini golf, eat some food and meet up with some great people from the tech scene…..Oh and to show off the Motorola Z2 Play of course! Those of you who have been following the site for a while might remember …

Eachine E52 WiFi Foldable Quadcopter – Review

They call it a quadcopter. I’m gonna call it a drone. This drone, though, has considerably less “faff” about it than most drones, and it’s less than £40, which really isn’t bad at all. When it arrives, you’ll notice that the remote control is far bigger than the …

nCube. Simple and effective

The nCube is a compact, light, blue and simple design for making the management of your smart home simpler in a very crowded smart-home space. The tidy little box quietly sits on your network either through WiFi or directly into your router within your home. It connects all the …

Thinkware F800 Dash Cam – Review

Back in August last year (oh how time flies) I reviewed the amazing Thinkware F770 Dashcam. Since then I’ve been contacted and asked to review the latest iteration – the Thinkware F800 Pro. Good Points: This is a feature-packed device (see main body of the review) 140 degree …

NTONPOWER Charging station and organiser – Review

Having lots of gadgets is seemingly the norm nowadays. Likewise, we’re seeing more and more solutions for charging them. Most of you will probably have one charger per device, which is great until you start getting a second phone, a tablet or you’ve got other members of your …

AmpliFi – The unboxing

Well, I don’t normally get excited about wireless extension system, but there was something cool and futuristic about AmpliFi that certainly caught our interest at Coolsmartphone Towers. We covered the unit’s release not so long ago, and now we have one to review. The box was huge and …

iPad Pro 10.5” – Review

So the time has come for me to share my opinion of the iPad Pro 10.5”. I have been using the device for nearly two weeks now and, I have to say, I am happy bar a few minor niggles here and there. Before I dive onto the …

Somfy Security Camera – Review

I have been recently sent through the Somfy indoor security camera for review. Good Points: Design. Ease of Setup. Picture Quality. Ability to digital pan and zoom Built-in in alarm. (Very loud alarm) Motion alerts. Ability to talk back to the camera. Key fob arm/disarm. Door and window …

Vaux – Amazon Echo Dot Powered Speaker – Review

Like many households here in the UK, or in fact all over the world now, we have an Amazon Echo… hey it’s the future, it’s… like talking to your house …and it answers back. Our Echo sits in our kitchen and now has replaced our radio, our kitchen …

RCA/Venturer Mercury 7L tablet – review

Following on from my Venturer Saturn Pro 10 review, I’m now moving on to review the latest budget tablet from RCA/Ventruer the Mercury 7L. As it is currently priced at £49.99, the Mercury 7L is a direct competitor to the Amazon Fire tablet (which I take with me …

HTC U11 – Review

There’s a lot said about the HTC U11. Some have called it a “return to form” or perhaps the greatest HTC handset for many years. Me? Well, I don’t totally agree, but I do need to explain why. I’m already impressed by the existing HTC U Play and …

Doro 6050 – Review

I find myself doing something that I’ve not done for a long, long time. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a flip phone. The last time I reviewed a flip phone might have been the Motorola MPx200. That was a smartphone and, given that it was launched 2003, a …

Samsung Galaxy S8 – Review

Samsung definitely needed to do something big with the S8 and the larger-screened S8+. They’ve not had the best time of it recently, and there’s been widespread coverage of the infamous exploding battery issue. The S8 needed to be good, and indeed, it is. The popularity of the …

DROCON Blue Bugs 3 Drone – Review

Yes, I’m being sent drones to review now. What I know about drones can be written on the back of a stamp. I’ve had a play with some cheaper ones in the past and, usually, they take off and then crash. The end. My flying skills aren’t the …

Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus – Review

OK, first things you need to know. This, the Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus, is £189 on the Wileyfox website or (as I type) £164.99 on Amazon. SIM free in both places of course. It has a 5″ 1280×720 screen at 296 PPI with 2.5d Corning Gorilla Glass 3. …

LG G6 – Review

I’ve gone through some phases with my smartphones. I switched over to Android with the HTC Hero. It was then a succession of HTC handsets before I switched to a Samsung Galaxy device, but since then I’ve been firmly glued to an LG device. The LG G3 was …

ProBox 2 Air PLUS Android TV Box – Review

Last year I carried out a review of a new Android TV streaming box called the Probox 2 Air. You can view it here, which in summary, I was truly impressed with. Well, I’ve been asked if I wanted to review the latest version of this streaming box – …

Moto Z Play – Review. “Hello Moto!”

Remember recently when I reviewed the Lenovo P2? I received some excellent feedback and it’s definitely a fantastic phone for an amazing price. However, there is another range of phones from the same company. Lenovo also have the Motorola brand is their cupboard, and for the past few …

Google Home – Review

Something is happening in your home. We’re already totally lost without the internet inside the house, and we fully expect the same connectivity out of the home too. Trouble is, we’re all turning into phone zombies. We’re staring down at our screens and there’s lots of dangerous driving …

It’s a red one

Author’s Note: I apologise for the lateness of this article, since the product under discussion was released several weeks ago. To blame is my unfortunate visual impairment. I happen to be colour blind. If you’re wondering what this is all about, head to the product page for the …

Alcatel POP 4 6″ – Review

I’ll be brutally honest. I mean brutal. I wasn’t expecting much from this. If you go out and try and buy one then you might struggle a little. The 5″ version is available on Carphone Warehouse and at Tesco for less than £100. This, though, is the 6″ …

Venturer PrimePro 12 TS 2-in-1 notebook – Review

A short time ago I carried out a review of the EliteWin S 11KT mini 2-in-1 notebook. It was also created by Venturer, and you can view the full review here. Now the company have sent me through the their latest device, the PrimePro 12TS Good Points:  Good …