Vodafone entices the young and mobile with cheap Lollipops
It seems like yesterday that I was getting excited about the Orange San Francisco delivering Gingerbread Android for less than £100. But these days, we expect so much more from PAYG phones, as well represented by the Vodafone Smart Prime 6.
This is a Vodafone locked handset that you can buy for less than £80, which has a feature set that a couple of years ago would have made it a premium device.
These include NFC, 4G LTE, a 5" 720p display, 8GB of storage (5GB usable), an 8MP camera with LED flash and a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 quadcore Qualcomm processor, and it even runs the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop.
The only real hindrance in that spec is the amount of internal memory, and that can be augmented up to 64GB with a micro-SD card. The slot for this, along with the SIM card slot, is hidden behind a thin plastic back.
You can’t replace the battery regrettably, but in terms of construction quality, this phone seems like something I’d expect to pay £150 or possibly even more for.
The review phone came with Android Lollipop 5.0.2, where Google itself is on 5.1.1 on its Nexus devices by comparison. That said, this is one of the least problematic Lollipop builds I’ve seen, and the phone works smoothly with the wide selection of apps and games I tried.
The Smart Prime 6 therefore ends up as one of those products that I find faults in that aren’t substantial, but which might annoy those who unrealistically expect a phone that costs this small amount to be completely perfect.
My first minor gripe is the side buttons along the righthand edge, with the sound rocker at the top and the power button below. This appears to be exactly the opposite arrangement to most phones, so be prepared to adjust.
The screen isn't bad and it’s reasonably bright, but it just comes over as a tiny bit soft for whatever reason. Once you’ve seen the latest Samsung or HTC displays, it’s impossible to erase those expectations, but what Vodafone used is fine, really.
If I have a genuine complaint, it’s all the Vodafone apps that are pre-loaded on, the majority of which I’d ditch immediately. What’s really annoying about these is that they’re not controlled through the Play store, so removing them requires knowledge of the Apps section of Settings.
This might seem churlish of me, as Vodafone is almost certainly subsidising this device, but customers will be paying for its service and most of what is loaded in addition to Google’s standard set won’t see much use.
Forgetting branding excesses, this is a decent phone with better than average battery life and a big enough screen to watch TV on at a pinch. The camera isn’t anything special when there isn’t good natural light, but it was better than I was realistically expecting.
The only real question here is the commitment to Vodafone’s phone service. For existing customers that’s not an issue, but others will need to balance that against what they use now, even if the Smart Prime 6 offers exceptional value for money. Mark Pickavance
A very useable Lollipop phone for Vodafone PAYG use.