Phones

Adding to the list of available smartphones, Xiaomi offers its Mi family of devices.

With a good looking appearance, this next handset does have some faults.

To me anyway this is a totally new Chinese phone company, I first heard of them a few weeks ago when I received an invite at short notice to their new UK store at Westfield shopping centre, which due to conflicts I could not make, however I was sent their latest phone the Mi 8 Lite. Looking at their website sees they are far more than just a phone company as they are big – like the world’s fourth largest - in Internet, Connected Homes and Software.

Early in 2018 One Plus 6 had a worldwide launch for their flagship new phone in the Olympic Park in Stratford, here a phone from OnePlus 6 with an added ‘T’ that has a lot of the features but at around half the price.

With its new UK store and plenty of new products, Xiaomi has been busy of late.

A smartphone costing under £60 is the subject of this next review.

A trip to London’s Excel saw the world launch along with about 2000 others from around the planet of the latest flagship phone from Huawei, the Mate20 Pro. Apart from being that bit faster, larger screen and better featured this offered new features including AI effects as well as having no less than three Leica cameras in a square section on its rear.

As well as offering its customers a full range of popular handsets for their communication needs, Vodafone has also developed its own range of handsets.

When it comes to Huawei handsets, you can never really complain that you are spoilt for choice.

The HTC U12 Life is a smartphone with a 6 inch 18:9 screen and dual camera that sits in the middle ground between the premium products and the real budget phones.

With a choice of colour schemes, this next smartphone has excellent photographic options.

Recently, on a visit to Vodafone’s Newbury base I was introduced to a new initiative from the company.

Doro have been selling their phones in the UK for many years, not only do they do home phones but they also are the premier manufacturer for those with disabilities be that sight or hearing, now they have moved into SmartPhones that look normal but can still offer help but you no longer have a phone that looks like it’s for someone who has a disability.

The Alcatel 5 is a mid-range smartphone with a 5.7 inch 18:9 display that has a reasonable range of features and ticks most of the boxes and so will be an attractive proposition for those on a budget.

While modern SmartPhones can take excellent images and videos one thing that a decent DSLR camera often has is a good optical zoom, here is a kit that can give your SmartPhone the ability to get great zoom for your images.

HTC has just announced, at a “media pre-briefing” its latest super-budget phone. Scheduled to be available late September / early October this 6 inch 18:9 FHD+ (1080 x 2160) phone will have a retail price of £299 which places it firmly on the middle ground between the premium products and the real budget phones.

The Alcatel 3V 5099D is a 4G LTE smartphone with a 6 inch screen which is competitively priced and offers a range of features comparable to those of the premium brands.

Maxcom are quite a new phone company to arrive in the UK, they have been in Europe for some years. While this is not exclusively an older persons phone it would certainly be useful to allow someone to keep their independence and as it has an emergency call button on the back providing the phone is within reach, then help should come when needed.

The Huawei development team has obviously been hard at work of late as can be seen by the release of the company’s Honor 7S model.

This is somewhat of a surprise to me, having recently told you about the London worldwide launch of the Honor 10 to be offered the chance to review the Honor 7A was not exactly what I was expecting still here are my thoughts. Looking online sees that it was launched in April 2018.

As I mentioned in an earlier review, Maxcom initial attack on the UK mobile phone market is made up of models from the Polish company's Classic and Comfort ranges of handsets. This review is based on the MM831 model from the company's Comfort range that is being aimed at the elderly or infirmed user.

There is a new kid in town. Well perhaps “kid” is not the appropriate expression as the new arrival is Maxcom, a company with over 15 years of experience in the design and manufacture of telecommunication products and is one of the leading mobile handset brands in Poland.

Maxcom Comfort MM831 is a simple to use 3G flip-phone aimed at meeting the needs of the elderly and vulnerable as it incorporates an easy way to call a relative when required.

To be precise this is a Micro SD Card but it does come with an SD card holder so it could be used as an SD should you so wish. Being old my mind boggles at the size (capacity) of these tiny items. I well remember the first consumer hard drives they were heavy took a full size 5.25 inch drive bay and the capacity was 10MB.

The answer is not seven, but it is a phone that is getting a lot of attention and the launch held recently took me to the Copper Box Arena in Queen Elizabeth Park near Stratford, a new Overground Station was almost complete and when finished will surely make this a venue of choice for people wanting to hold a worldwide launch, this was a venue I had never visited although the park itself got a couple of visits just before the 2012 Olympics.

Those of us of a more mature persuasion remember the first mobile phones, they did one job making and receiving calls, they were huge and you probably got various strains from carrying them around. Now for those who want a simple phone that does far more and weights very little the phone I am looking at here could be the answer.

This is second Watch from Huawei that I have tried the first was just over a year ago in March 2017. So how has this developed and devolved over the last year, it certainly linked with my phone almost instantly and means my phone can remain in my pocket when in areas that I would rather not remove it while out and about.

Having recently reviewed the Huawei P20 I immediately noticed so many of the same features on the Honor 10 which as both brands are in the same ownership is perhaps not that surprising however the Honor 10 is made powdered glass to make it shiny and move its back in the light and it shimmers like satin.

The latest offering from Huawei a company that around two years ago was not heard of outside China, now they have Samsung and Apple worried with their technology and quality at a lower price than their competitors high end offerings.

Let’s make no great claims for this phone it’s cheap and while it looks good perhaps it should be regarded as a spare or emergency phone, it’s slow to react and load and perhaps the best thing about it is the Vodafone service which is good.