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20 October 2014 ~ 0 Comments

Top 5 iPhone 6 accessories

So it’s been a few weeks since the release of the new iPhone 6 and its larger sibling, the iPhone 6 Plus. No matter what you think of Apple’s latest offering, there’s no denying that it’s massively popular and one of the best phones on the market.

Whether you’re delighted that it’s finally got a useful version of NFC or terrified that you’re going to end up with a warped smartphone, one thing all users of the new iPhone are after is the latest and greatest accessories for the most recent model.

With 20 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus handsets out on the market already in less than a month, there’s clearly a huge demand. And especially with the various issues about bending and hair-pulling, it’s clear there are some great oppurtunities. Even if you think it’s perfect as it is, there are some cool toys and additions that make it an even better phone.

So without further ado, here’s our roundup of the coolest, most useful and generally most awesome accessories specially designed for the new iPhones.

Rheme One Easytouch In Car Holder

Only £6.99

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Rheme One Easytouch In Car Holder

First up, something cheap but super useful. With a new phone, you need some way to mount it in your car especially now the iPhone 6 is a great music player and GPS device.

The Rheme One Easytouch In Car Holder may only be £6.99 but it works perfectly with a strong windscreen suction cup. It will also do fully adjustable with 360 degree rotation and quick portrait and landscape views.

Best of all it fits perfectly with both the iPhone 6 Plus and the iPhone 6. This is a simple good product which is easy to use: just push it home against a button on the holder and it grips the phone. Sturdy, sticks brilliantly and convenient. You can rely on this to hold your new phone.

 

Snugg iPhone 6 Plus Leather Flip Case

Was £39.98 Now only £19.99

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Snugg iPhone 6 Plus Leather Flip Case

Whether you’re worried about scuffing your new iPhone or scared it will bend in your pocket, the Snugg iPhone 6 Plus Leather Flip Case is the perfect solution. It made out of high quality materials to keep your device safe and has a easy flip cover to ensure the screen remains pristine and unscrached.

In addition to this, it also features credit card slots and a secure hidden pocket. We especially like the built-in stand which offers multiple viewing angles and the the fact it has a magnetic strap to keep your iPhone 6 Plus securely seated.

The stitching is high quality and the material inside seems soft. Snugg is a quality brand for a quality handset and with a lifetime guarantee you’ve got nothing to worry about. It also looks great!

 

PINPO Extendable Waterproof Selfie Monopod

Only £15.47

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PINPO Extendable Waterproof Selfie Monopod

The PINPO Extendable Waterproof Selfie Monopod might be a bit of a mouthful but it’s also one of the coolest accessories that works with the new iPhones.

This funky handheld monopod makes selfies easier than ever. Its super convenient remote shutter controller is compatible with the latest iPhones and the easily-adjustable design allows you to rotate the viewing angle to capture the perfect shot.

Does exactly what it’s meant to and really makes taking selfies all that more enjoyable. A must-have for photography fanatics.

 

Anker Astro Mini 3200mAh Ultra-Compact Portable Power Pack

Was £39.99 Now only £13.99

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Anker Astro Mini 3200mAh Ultra-Compact Portable Power Pack

The battery looks great – it’s really tiny, about the size of a lipstick so it fits easily in any pocket or handbag. It’s the perfect solution to add more than a full charge or 9 hours of additional talk time to your iPhone 6.

The external chargers is stylish, comes with a small bag. The charger leverages PowerIQ™ technology to maximize the charge and current for recharging. It’s constructed using Grade A cells and premium microchips to ensure the highest quality.

This little gadget has saved our bacon already on a few occasions. It will do one nearly full charge or two smaller ones and at this price is a no-brainer.

 

iKross WaterProof Bicycle Mount

Only £21.99

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iKross WaterProof Bicycle Mount

The iKross WaterProof Bicycle Mount comes with with a water proof pouch that will weather seal your iPhone 6 so you don’t need to worry about rain, snow, dust or mud. It features a fully adjustable ball head joint with 360 degree rotation and locking system for customized portrait and landscape view. In our opinion it’s the best way to mount your iPhone whilst on your bike.

Simply put, the protection it offers is excellent. We really can’t think of a more robust way of secure your expensive phone. It’s really clear that that this case has had a lot of thought put into it. The phone fits snugly and the unit mounts nicely on the bicycle handlebars. It looks great and surely could take any drop or hit. Not bad for the price.

19 October 2014 ~ 0 Comments

Our Lenovo A850 review is live

lenovo a850

We’ve already given the detailed review treatment to the Lenovo A789 and the Lenovo A820 and they both got great scores in our tests. But now it’s time to look at their stunning 5.5″ A850.

It looks to be a great phone on paper with its MT6582M chipset sporting a quad-core 1.3Ghz CPU backed by 1GB of RAM. It’s benchmarks are strong and it also has a front-facing camera as well as a hi-res 5 megapixel back shooter.

Combined with aGPS, 3G connectivity and the all-important dual SIM this is a phone to be reckoned with. But how does it fare in real-world use and what score would it get in our battery of tests. Check out the video below or click through for the in-depth Lenovo A850 review.

16 October 2014 ~ 0 Comments

Android Lollipop and Nexus 6 unveiled

nexus 6

Google have officially revealed that the name for the new version of Android 5.0 will be “lollipop”. Previously codenamed Android “L”, the latest release continues the alphabetical naming scheme and Google have comfirmed that the coding is completely finished unlike previously-seen developer previews.

Android Lollipop replaces the current version of Android which is KitKat 4.4. It’s hard to believe but it’s now a year old having been originally released back in October 2013. There isn’t too much to get excited about with the main new features being a built-in battery saver mode and multiple accounts/profiles for guests. It also will feature Google’s new “material design” as well as the ability to unlock your device securely over Bluetooth.

Here at MNC, we’re looking forward to trying the finished version out. Google have announced that it will be rolled out onto their Nexus devices over coming weeks. We also can’t wait to see what independent developers do with Android 5.0 and hope to see it being featured in some custom ROMs as soon as possible.

Speaking on the Nexus devices, Google also confirmed the details of their new Nexus 9 Android tablet as well as the massive Nexus 6 phablet that had been codenamed “Shamu”. Both will be out for preorder shortly.

The official price for the Nexus 6 in the UK hasn’t been released yet. But it will cost $649 for the 32GB version or $699 for the 64GB version in the US. We predict the initial cost to be around £525 for the smaller version and over £550 for the 64GB model.

Like its predecessor, the Nexus 5, Google’s new flagship phone is made by Motorola. In fact, it looks very similar to their Moto X handset, only bigger and better.

Most of the tech industry’s predictions about the specs have turned out to be correct. But the performance of this is going to be gargantuan. It comes with a Snapdragon 805 SOC offering a quad-core 2.7 GHz Krait 450 processor. Its lightning-fast speed will be supplemented by the Adreno 420 GPU and 3GB of RAM.

One thing you can be sure of is that the Nexus 6 is going be huge with a massive 6″ quad HD display (5.96″ to be precise) dominating the front of the phone. This is running at a resolution of 1440 x 2560 and offers a stunning 493 ppi.

iphone 6 plus nexus 6 size comparison

Many people have suggested that the Nexus 6 is far too big for a phone. But we produced the following scale mock-up to compares its size to the new iPhone 6 Plus. You can see that although the 6 Plus only has a 5.5″ display, it’s only negligibly smaller than the Nexus 6 and should feel roughly the same in the hand.

In fact, they are almost identically sized with the iPhone 5 Plus coming in with a height of 158.1mm compared to the Nexus 6’s 159.26mm. The new Google phone is only 10.06mm thick (we’d prefer thicker with a better battery) and weighs about the same as the iPhone at 184g.

The main reason it fits so much more into a similar-size package isn’t because the iPhone has a thicker bezel. In fact, the main reason why the iPhone suffers a much smaller screen is mainly because Apple haven’t moved onto contextual on-screen buttons yet and since the gimmicky Touch ID home key takes up so much space. However, despite being comparable in size, there’s no denying the Nexus 6 is huge by any standard and many will not find this acceptable instead choosing to stick with the older Nexus 5.

We’re super excited about 13 megapixel camera which now comes with a f/2.0 aperture lens. Although you won’t get the sort of creamy paper-thin depth of field you can expect with a larger sensor, it’s going to look great and importantly perform better in low light conditions and at higher video framerates (especially coupled with OIS). Of course the built in panorama and HDR software is getting better all the time and it also has a dual led ring flash. Best of all it can record amazing 4K video at full 30fps but the front-facing camera is only 2 megapixels.

Other features include dual speakers and finally, finally, a half-decent-sized battery and quicker charging. Google claim the 3220mAh cell will last up to 250 hours standby or 10 hours of mobile data/video playback with a talk time of about a day. Sadly there’s still no expandable memory slot – Google, you make us sad 🙁

What do you think about these new announcements? What features are you most looking forward to in Android Lollipop? And is the Nexus 6 too big for you or do you prefer a smaller handset (which)? Let us know in the comments below.