Phones

While top of the range SmartPhones are in the middle hundreds there are a few ‘more basic’ offerings often with older operating systems that are available for say £50. So what can you expect to get for well under one hundred pounds?

The Philips 27-inch 272B7QPTKEB professional monitor with its quad HD resolution incorporates a pop-up web cam and is targeted at meeting the needs of business both in terms of performance and space.

There are two companies I think of who design specifically for the hard of hearing. In fact this is often the older person who not only has hearing difficulties but also sight problems, so it’s not only a phone to let you know someone’s calling but one so you can hear what they are saying.

Not a name I had heard of until shortly after the launch of the Huawei P9 when I found out this was a sister company, so when I received an invite to a breakfast briefing I accepted, I am not keen on rush hour travel at my age and when the venue is nowhere near a tube station even less and worse still it was held on a day when your umbrella was as much use to keep you dry as a colander.

This is the latest SmartPhone offering from Vodafone, as its their own brand you pay a little less but still get all the functionality that a recent Android SmartPhone has to offer, it looks Smart but you save just a little on the cost of it against a similar device from some manufacturers.

The Doro 6520 is the latest clamshell “easy” phone with added features aimed at the needs of the elderly and frail. It offers greater security to them and peace of mind to their relatives.

The latest handset to come my way from Doro belongs to the feature phone category

A 5 inch SmartPhone from Archos called 50 Power, it looks like many other phones but your secret is that it is sold SIM free and costs somewhat less than a lot of equivalent phones; it can be either a single SIM or dual SIM phone.

It seems a shame that virtually no phones come with a protective case as standard. Here are two offerings the first for the excellent Huawei P9 and second for either the iPhone 6 or 6S, the first called Tudia and the second Defense.

It was a rainy day in London as I made my way to find out more about the latest Honor handset.

The P9 is an excellent camera and phone, look back and you will find two reviews of it on this site, however launched at the same time – but not immediately available - is the P9 Plus which was stated to cost £100 more so what exactly does the extra get you.

Adding to its own brand range of handsets, Vodafone has released the Smart platinum 7 smartphone.

A PAYG offering from Vodafone, this 5inch screen offering seems almost small by some recent items that have passed over my desk but it means it fits easily in a pocket and can be held easily in the palm of your hand for ease of use.

Adding to its range of budget smartphone offerings, Vodafone has released its Smart Ultra 7 model.

These are a pair of quality in ear earbuds. The only lead is the small flat one connecting the two buds, a short distance from the left earbud is the in lead box that charges the buds and also moves through your tracks etc. on whatever device you connect them to.

With dimensions of 143 x 69 x 7.7 mm (H x W x D) and weighing 152g, the Xperia X is Sony’s latest entry into the rather overcrowded smartphone market sector.

This is definitely a case of company action negating a review.

Larger Sainsbury’s stores have their mobile phone shops and this more basic level product is one offering available from them. However when you look at it you see something chunky that would be ideal from the older person to have.

Aimed at the budget sector of the mobile market, and currently it is available for around £74, the Archos 70b Helium has been released under the banner of “Entertainment your way”.

This is an Android phone so everything should be the same as every other phone? However LG have never been one to conform, I remember their white phone of many years ago. Here there are no buttons on the phones sides.

Early last summer I attended a Google launch I have already told you about Chromecast and Chromecast Audio. Here is a Chrome phone running Android Marshmallow (Android 6) – also launched at that event - from Nexus part of Google but made by Huawei and this one is from Vodafone, follow that, good.

Designed by Huawei, the P9 smartphone comes with a couple of “Firsts” that might appeal to purchasers.

Having recently divested itself of some of its product line up, Sony can now put more effort into offerings such as its Smartphone catalogue.

This is a large 5.5inch screen Android phone that comes with Dual SIM it has 8GB of memory and a Quad Core Processor so as it also has a 13MP camera with LED flash it may well tick all the boxes for a lot of people.

I attended the launch in a packed venue that if you were at the back or standing you needed binoculars to see the stage. It lasted close to two hours and the first 45 minutes was solely on the phones cameras ability it is produced in conjunction with Leica.

Freecom’s Tablet Mini SSD offers 128 or 256GB of external storage that can supplement the capacity of an OTG-enabled tablet or smartphone or back it up.

The LG G4 is a smartphone that comes in a variety of skins. There are models with grey, white, gold and coloured leather back covers. My review unit, supplied by Vodafone, came with a metallic grey back cover.

No doubt you have probably heard on good authority that there is no such thing as a free lunch. This is because there will be a time when a payment of sorts will be required. However not everybody would agree with the no free-lunch sentiment. Definitely failing into the category of believing that a free lunch is possible is the team at FreedomPop.

While I have seen Windows Phones in the past the new Lumia 950 is the first for a while. In theory, as a Windows desktop user of various versions from 3.1 to 10, this should make me feel right at home after those initial problems we all face with a new phone.

This is an Android 5.1.1 Phone that is thin and light but very smart in looks. Most recent phones have Quad Core Processors this is no exception, most recent phones have 4G again so does this, so what is unique perhaps it’s what is called Fusion Storage.