Phones

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.

Maybe suitable as a phone for a younger child because every action is monitored, once older although it has good intensions I doubt the child will allow their parent or guardian to know their exact whereabouts all the time.

This new phone from the company that are making Samsung and Apple look over their shoulders does not have the eye watering price of some of the recent offerings in fact this is available on PAYG 1 from Vodafone for only £229.

Do devices control your life or not? Are you sure?

Manufacturers tend to use the word “Lite” as a means of launching a second version of a product that has reduced features. But what does this mean in the case of the Honor 9 Lite.

Motorola used to send regular phones to be reviewed and then they became part of Lenovo who have a different reviews team, so it’s been a while since one has crossed my desk and this only because it is one of a range promoted by Vodafone.

No sooner had I completed my review of the Honor 7X smartphone than Huawei announced the released of its Honor View 10 model. It was not too long before a unit was winging its way to me for the purpose of reviewing the product.

Most people will have either an iOS, Android or even a Windows Phone, their used to be another option called BlackBerry and now there is again, now surfacing from the dead with Android, so you have what looks like a BlackBerry offering but running Android.

Honor have the same parent company as Huawei in fact their UK PR is in the same building in London. So a lot of the latest technology can be found in both these brands. Here I am looking at the Honor View 10 one of their recent releases.

Another in the range of reviews of the latest mobile phones courtesy of Vodafone whose network coverage is -in my tests anyway - superior to that offered by other mobile phone companies. Huawei are the new kids on the block making others sit up and work harder to catch up.

Joining the ranks of new handsets to grab your attention is the latest Honor offering.

While the Windows phone seems for many manufacturers to be not the path to take with iOS and Android the winners left to slug it out between themselves in business we are told there is still a sector that needs/requires Windows phones.

Not exactly a new phone but a chance to purchase this ‘mid-range’ phone at a lower price by simply accepting a static ad as your lock screen, so you get a new phone of a design only launched a few months ago at a price of around 60% of what you would pay without the ad lock screen.

Looking for a way to save money on your next smartphone purchase then Wileyfox might have a solution.

If the multifunction aspect of modern smartphones is not enough for you then Lenovo offers a modular approach.

The recent worldwide launch of two new smartphones held in London by Huawei brand Honor was held with the slogan “For the Brave”. One, the Honor View 10 was described as “challenging the smartphone market with AI” will be available early next year while the other the Honor 7X is available now.

Wileyfox is now offering an appreciable discount on the price of smartphones in return for users accepting lockscreen advertising with its Add-X service. This is the latest move in a cut-throat marketplace where vendors are looking for innovative ways of attracting price-sensitive buyers and generating revenue.

This ‘+’ of the Samsung S8 is seriously big and for the first time I have been able to move all my Apps etc. from one phone to another seamlessly. If you are someone whose life revolves round a phone why not have that extra screen size that you get here.

This is from a Polish company bringing a range of SmartPhones to various parts of Europe including the UK. The first thing I noticed is that it is not light and the volume levels need to be adjusted as they as set rather high by default, ideal for those with hearing loss.

Designed for the young at heart (at whatever age), the Honor 9 is the latest smartphone in the range to join the Huawei family of products. With this particular model, Huawei has attempted to combine aspects of quality, appearance and a price point that should appeal to its designated market sector.

A sub £80 SmartPhone is not how I normally start but if price is the most important thing then what better way. However if the phone offers the majority of things other more expensive unit do then surely it’s a good place to start.

I think we all know Samsung took a big hit with last year’s offering The S7 although when I got to see one when all the initial problems were sorted it seemed a nice phone. Here is this year’s offering that you will have to have been away from all advertising to have missed news of it so what does it do and perhaps most of all is it worth all the hype?