Only costs £50, decent build
Slow processor, camera just 2 megapixels, low res screen, unexceptional battery life
Now that almost everyone has a smartphone, the race is on to see who can do them better for less, and there's a lot of activity at the budget end of the market to deliver the most features for a bargain basement price.
Vodafone's recent spurt of budget phones includes the Vodafone Smart Mini, on sale now from the Vodafone shop for £50.
Design
It feels suitably cheap and plasticky, but certainly not brittle or fragile -- you get the feeling it can handle a bit of wear and tear.
The screen measures 3.5 inches -- just about big enough to be able to handle key smartphone capabilities like web browsing and game playing without straining your eyes. It's far from the sharpest display though, with a resolution of just 320x480 pixels, which equates to 165ppi and it's not the most sensitive either, regularly requiring multiple presses to make your presence felt.
Still, it's better than the 240x320 resolution you get on the LG Optimus L3's 3.2in screen, which typically costs about £40 more.
It's running the older Android 4.1 Jelly Bean software, much as you'd expect at this price, and it's overlaid with Vodafone's own UI, which distinguishes it as Vodafone, but doesn't necessarily enhance the user experience.
Photography
The 2-megapixel camera is about as basic as they come on a smartphone. It will suffice for Facebook profiles and there are a few extra features like Panorama, Smile Shot and Face Beauty to raise it slightly above the ultra-basic. Incidentally, Facebook and Twitter come preinstalled, in case you can't be bothered to look for them on the Play store, but there's no forward-facing camera for video calls with Skype and the like. There's 4GB of memory on board to hold your pics and tunes, though you can add up to another 32GB via microSD card.
Android, software and processor A pin-sharp display may not matter to everyone, and non-photographers may care naught for the megapixels on their snapper. But just about everyone will have a problem with a smartphone's performance, and this is where the Vodafone Mini's budget roots really show. The single-core 1GHz processor is backed by 512MB RAM, and shifting between apps requires patience as they take a few seconds to load. Every. Time. Web pages can keep you hanging for longer than is comfortable while they get it together and don't even think about playing HD games.
Still, our AnTutu benchmark test delivered a score of 6,589 -- not much in comparison to the big boys, but ahead of rivals like Samsung's Galaxy Fame and Young. Those two offer a similar engine, and a similar display, though the Fame comes with a better 5-megapixel camera, for around £100 more, and the Young's 3-megapixel camera will set you back another £40. On that basis, the Vodafone Smart Mini is pretty good value for money.
Sometimes budget handsets can be redeemed by their battery life, which can last longer since it has less power-hungry features to deal with. Sadly, that's not really the case here -- expect a day's worth of heavy use but not much more.
Conclusion
The Vodafone Smart Mini delivers some pretty good smartphone features at an excellent price. As a first phone for early teens or a spare device to take on holiday it will do most things you need it to, just so long as you're not in a hurry thanks to its underpowered processor.
Software: Google Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
Processor: Single core 1GHz
Memory slot: Yes
Display: 3.5in LCD, 320x480 pixels
Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
Ports: microUSB, 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera: 2 megapixels
Video playback: MP4, H.263, H.264
Audio playback: MP3, WMA, eAAC+
Radio: Yes
Battery: Lithium Ion
Size: 115x62x12mm
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
