Posts From Jack Jennings

Jack Jennings
37 posts

Born and raised in Windsor and now living in London, Jack is a British technology enthusiast who also loves language and writing. He's also heavily into composing, producing and playing music, being a member of a progressive post hardcore band, destined for anonymity. After purchasing an HTC Desire in 2010, his affection for Android has steadily grown, leading to an unhealthy addiction to the platform and a thinner wallet. Constantly tinkering, his phone is probably in recovery mode, right now...

Honor 7 XDA Review: Polished Hardware, Unfinished Software

Honor 7 XDA Review: Polished Hardware, Unfinished Software

October 31, 2015
Honor, for those who are unfamiliar with the brand, is essentially the European face of the Chinese giant Huawei, although it has begun selling its handsets outside this area too. Designed as a subsidiary company that operates separately from its larger brother, its task is to try to conquer western markets with well-built phones at attractive prices. We've managed to get...
An Affordable ELE Watch Could Change the Android Wear Market

An Affordable ELE Watch Could Change the Android Wear Market

October 12, 2015
Unfortunately at this point, smartwatches are a premium product. Their general demographic is limited to enthusiasts, developers, and those with disposable income, and the reasons behind this currently are their limited uses combined with their price-tag But all that could change, now that their initial path to the market has been carved. Earlier today, online retailer...
Let’s Talk About the HTC One A9

Let’s Talk About the HTC One A9

September 28, 2015
It's no secret that HTC need a win at the moment. Their last few flagships have been met with tepid approval, where their class-leading design and solid software has been habitually let down by a few key points. We've discussed HTC's success and strategy in previous articles, but it remains clear that the One m9...
Gimmicks Galore: What Was Tried and Failed

Gimmicks Galore: What Was Tried and Failed

September 23, 2015
It's a fact now that most smartphones across the world run on the same operating system; there are over a thousand different companies that design phones and release them, with software that's all based upon Android. In this vast sea of similar devices, the most popular way of trying to make waves is to differentiate by...
Where Do Successful Manufacturers Still Go Wrong?

Where Do Successful Manufacturers Still Go Wrong?

September 17, 2015
If there's an area you think an OEM consistently does badly in, now's the time to share... Even our favorite phones have issues; little bugbears that grow in annoyance as time goes by, problems that we hope will be fixed via a software update or hardware refresh in the next edition. But what happens when the manufacturer fails to...
What Can Different Manufacturers Learn From Each Other?

What Can Different Manufacturers Learn From Each Other?

September 14, 2015
If you could pick one area where your phone's creator performs well in and have others take notice, which would it be? Hundreds of smartphones are released every year, of varying size, expense and quality, but only very few manage to gain appeal across a wide audience, and even the most successful handsets have flaws. Some of...
3 Days with the Huawei Mate S

3 Days with the Huawei Mate S

September 9, 2015
At IFA in Berlin amidst much ado, Huawei finally announced their latest oversized flagship, the Mate S and this reviewer was lucky enough to be loaned the new device throughout a short testing period. However, due to the brevity of that period a full analytical review was out of the question, so instead I took the opportunity...
Hands On with the Huawei Watch

Hands On with the Huawei Watch

September 2, 2015
This week we're in Berlin ready for IFA, and today we managed to spend some time with Huawei. As Android Wear devices are becoming more common, and due to the fact that the OS itself doesn't change between watches, our hands-on day with the new Huawei Watch goes a fair distance in providing an overall impression of this...
Android One Extends Its Reach To Africa with $87 Infinix Hot 2

Android One Extends Its Reach To Africa with $87 Infinix Hot 2

August 18, 2015
The Hot 2 will be available within physical stores in Nigeria, and in online stores in Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, and Morocco, which should go at least some way to mollifying those that complained about Android One's initial limitation to internet marketplaces when it was launched in India in September last year. The new smartphone comes in two...
Android One: Is It Now or Never?

Android One: Is It Now or Never?

August 13, 2015
So, considering that Google arguably delivered on all of those points, why hasn't Android One become the shining example of success it was hoped to be? The Backstory However, it wasn't long after this momentous release that we began to see a number of articles claiming that demand for these smartphones just wasn't there. MediaTek, who manufactured the SOCs for...
ZUK Z1 Announced with USB 3.1 and 4100mAh Battery

ZUK Z1 Announced with USB 3.1 and 4100mAh Battery

August 11, 2015
ZUK are a relatively new sub-brand of Lenovo, who had previously enjoyed press through multiple rumors about their impending release of a CyanogenOS smartphone called the Z1. This has turned out to be off the mark; the company announced the very same handset today, although it's running a custom implementation of Android 5.1 called 'ZUI'. We'll be...
Huawei’s Rapid Rise to Third Place in the Smartphone Race

Huawei’s Rapid Rise to Third Place in the Smartphone Race

July 30, 2015
Huawei has quickly grown to become one of the world's biggest telecommunications companies since its inception in 1987, owning huge swathes of network infrastructure across different countries. It looks as if its smartphone sales are really beginning to take hold too - results this year have been great for the Chinese manufacturer, with an increase in global smartphone sales of 39%...