Mobile Network Comparison

Earlier this year Google and Asus released the revolutionary Nexus 7. With a small price range and powerful capabilities, purchasing the tablet was a no brainer for Android users, and a big incentive for iPad users to switch over to Android. With the release of the well-priced device, we’ve seen many third party accessories to accompany it, but what stands out from the crowd, and why?

Navitech Brown Leather Case

£9.99

The Navitech case looks like an old fashioned notebook, with a brown leather design consistent all across the case. Although it’s not genuine leather, the case looks smart, and feels comfortable to hold. Surprisingly the elastic strips do a good job at keeping the Nexus firmly in place, and because the product is made entirely of fabric, it adds little weight to the device, and keeps the width down. However, the fabric strips are somewhat invading of space, especially the top right one, which gets in the way of both the power and volume buttons.

The Navitech case feels durable and, for its price, you’ll get a satisfactory life out of the product. The case also has pockets on the side, which can be accessed when opened up, but it’s up to you if you feel comfortable putting any objects in here that could potentially damage the screen. Another thing to note is that this case cannot be transformed into a stand, so it’s a little lacking in functionality.

Durability
Design
Connection
Portability
Price

MOFRED Luxury Multi-Function Case

Was £24.99 Now £7.79

Although MOFRED’s case does not include a keyboard, the case is of a decent quality and is on sale at an affordable price. The Nexus 7 fits perfectly in the MOFRED case, and the snug fit, along with the strong build does make it feel luxury as the name aims to suggests.

The case has been cut and fit perfectly to line up with all the buttons and slots on the Nexus 7, and it’s not difficult to use the tablet whilst in the case. The case can be flipped over and used as a stand, and can be positioned at two different angles.

The MOFRED case comes with a stylus and a screen protector as well, which makes the product as a very worthy bargain. You can also choose the colour if you’re interested in matching the style of your tablet.

Durability
Design
Connection
Portability
Price

IVSO Slim

Was £24.99 Now £9.99

The IVSO Slim is one of the best keyboard cases available, the overall case design has been well implemented, using faux leather as the main material, held together with a neat line of stitching. The keyboard connects to the Nexus via an included micro USB connector. This removes the potential connectivity problems and battery drain from using Bluetooth and makes it a handy option for prolonged periods of use. The clips and elastic straps provided cling tightly to the Nexus tablet and hold it in place. The case then stands firmly at a comfortable height and angle, and can be closed tightly with a magnetic clasp.

Having said that, calling the case “slim” is perhaps a little misleading, as although the keyboard feels small and manageable, the case as a whole adds a lot of bulk to the tablet. The keyboard is attached firmly to the case and, without a Bluetooth option, portability options are a little low. It must be said that the keyboard itself is excellent quality and works really well.

Durability
Design
Connection
Portability
Price

Zagg Keys Flex

£54.99

The Zagg Keys Flex is something a little more pricy. Like the IVSO Slim, it comes with a keyboard which is probably the best one we’ve seen. For the price it’s unusual to find that it does not include a separate protective case for the Tablet, but it does fold up on itself with the tablet to provide a comfortable and sturdy carry case. The keyboard itself is surprisingly light for its size and connects via Bluetooth to the Nexus in seconds without any latency issues. As well as the full QWERTY keys available, there are also Android specific keys to mimic on screen controls, and they work just as expected. If you’re looking for a quick and high functional typing experience over portability, the Zagg is definitely to be considered. The keys work extremely well and mimic many high build keyboards available for PC and Mac, whilst maintaining a light, manageable weight. The battery life is superb and can charge through a USB connection keeping it available for use whilst charging.

Although the price is a little on the high side, Zagg Keys shines with a premium finish, ready to be used comfortably at home.

Durability
Design
Connection
Portability
Price

Poetic Keybook

Was £69.95 Now £19.95

This is a super-cool looking case. The Nexus 7 slips into the Poetic Keybook without any hassle and can be placed safely in the pocket of the case holder. The flap that keeps the case shut can then be flipped out and used as a stand to keep the Nexus tablet from falling over, which seems to hold up well whilst using the Nexus’ touch screen.

Aa for the keyboard, the tablet’s screen is easy to view when in the case and with the keyboard, the case feels very much like using a laptop. The keyboard itself is attached to the case using four magnets and can be removed, making the case and keyboard both easily portable. However, the keys are not of the best quality; they will sometimes stick, making unwanted keys print more times than needed, but other than that occasional occurrence, the keyboard works tremendously well alongside both the Nexus and the case, using a strong Bluetooth connection to work with the tablet.

The case is made from faux leather, and the stitching on the case has been neatly done,and it feels like a lot of care has gone into the design. Although the case may not hold as long as more durable equipment, the Poetic Keyboard does its job sparingly in its life time, which is at least three years according to Poetic, and just to prove it, the case comes with a free 3-year warranty. This product is also at a huge 70% off right now, so if you’re planning to get the Poetic Keyboard, now would be a good time.

Durability
Design
Connection
Portability
Price

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Amazing news! We now offer Giffgaff nano-SIMs completely free.

After hearing that Giffgaff wouldn’t be offering official nano-SIMs (for the new iPhone 5) for some months, we decided to take matters in our own hands so everyone can use Giffgaff if they want to. We did our research about the new 4FF SIM card standard and worked out a way to produce our own nano-SIMs using specialist cutting and trimming equipment.

Having extensively tested our nano-SIMs with the iPhone 5, we started sending them out to eager Giffgaffers last weekend with great success. Now we’ve even set up an automated order form that allows you to order as many nano-SIMs as you need as well as additional micro-SIMs and regular-sized SIM cards for other phones. All SIMs are professionally produced and are guaranteed to work perfectly. Best of all, not only do you get the amazing offers and rates from Giffgaff, you also get £5 free credit with every SIM ordered through us and we are offering them completely free. You can request your own pre-cut Giffgaff nano-SIM card right now.

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After all their denials and our varied suppositions about the wisdom of a rebrand, it’s turned out that the rumours are true. Everything Everywhere is intent on driving home the advance it is enjoying from having a huge head start on the forth-generation (4G) mobile broadband roll-out in the UK. It’s going to rebrand itself in Orange and T-Mobile stores as EE to emphasise its position as the only 4G carrier in the country.

For those of you who haven’t been following this too closely, Everything Everywhere is the parent company of the super-network formed by the merger of Orange and T-Mobile. When the two networks joined together and merger their mobile infrastructure, they had lots of spare capacity to route their mobile communications. Each mobile network has to buy the rights to certain bands of frequency in the electromagnetic spectrum so hat the different carriers’ radio signals don’t overlap. When they joined, they ended up with lots spare and, earlier this year, Ofcom approved their request to use this spectrum to carry 4G signals.

All the other mobile networks have been waiting for some time for Ofcom to allow them to bring out 4G services. There’s been a much-delayed spectrum auction of spectrum that is necessary to carry the signals. Because there’s been such a fuss kicked up about the exact details of the 4G spectrum auction, it’s been delayed until late 2013. This meant that, despite the fact that other developed West European nations are already running 4G services, no UK network could offer 4G connectivity before the auction. That was, until Ofcom let Everything Everywhere use their existing 1.8 Mhz spectrum.

So now, Everything Everywhere are the only company with the spectrum available to begin operating 4G services until next year’s auction. There was much speculation that they would take advantage of this huge boon by scrapping the crappy Everything Everywhere brand (which most people don’t even know about) and launching a high-profile new 4G-only brand. And, even though they tried to pretend this wasn’t the case, that’s exactly what has happened. On 12th September, they held a massive media event in London announcing the “new” network called EE.

The press conference was located in the Science Museum in South Kensington and had some high-profile guests including bumbling buffoon Boris Johnson. It was announced that all 700 Orange and T-Mobile shops will be rebranded with EE logos. It will be emphasising the speed of 4G which can go up to five times faster than the current 3G services and will also offer high-speed wired broadband. It is hoped that the 4G service will be available in many cities and will be usable for all of EE’s 27 million customers soon. As the service is rolled out across the country, the population coverage in 2013 is said to be about 70% with that number rising to 98% by 2014.

The new EE-branded stores will be available for customers of the EE 4G network as well as Orange and T-Mobile customers confirming it as the UK’s biggest network. Even the network report on people’s handsets will start saying “EE” too. The parent company’s official name will still be Everything Everywhere, however, with Orange, T-Mobile and EE being subsidiaries.

Which handsets can get 4G on EE?

Unsurprisingly, only the latest handsets can use the 4g service. The launch devices include Samsung Galaxy SIII LTE, Nokia Lumia 920, Nokia Lumia 820, HTC One XL and Huawei Ascend P1 LTE. Of course, the iPhone 5 will run on EE’s 4G LTE network too. Mobile internet dongles and hotspots will also be able to use 4G internet starting with the Huawei E589 Mobile WiFi and the Huawei E392 Mobile Broadband stick.

Where will 4G be available?

EE have already started turning on and testing their 4G network in four major cities – London, Cardiff, Bristol and Birmingham. By Xmas this year, they hope to have a total of 16 areas set up and connected. The other cities to get 4G coverage by then will be Edinburgh, Belfast, Derby, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Southampton. Presumably, other big cities such as Leicester, Coventry, Bradford, Stoke, Wolverhampton, Nottingham, Plymouth, Southampton, Brighton and Hove will follow soon afterwards.

As the service is still launching, there is no official EE coverage checker yet but you can use the Orange coverage checker and the T-Mobile coverage checker for now.

Will EE be available on PAYG?

No – EE is set to be a contract-only network. You won’t be able to get access to 4G without paying contract prices. Of course, Orange and T-Mobile will still offer PAYG options.

Can I keep my phone number if I want to move to EE?

Of course. It will still be really simple to bring your mobile number with you if you want to change network.

How fast is the 4G LTE mobile connection?

4G is technically able to provide speeds of up to 100 Mbps. This is faster than almost all home broadband currently available and it should go without saying that it blows away current mobile internet performance. Of course, it probably won’t start off quite this fast and the speeds you get will depend upon how many other people are using it at the same time. However, the possibilities are pretty exciting and the potential for HD video streaming of films and TV and high-bandwidth multiplayer games makes 4G a proposition to watch. The speeds that will initially be offered should be at least 20 Mbps+ and will hopefully rise fairly rapidly.

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