Edward Swift - Hands on: Vodafone Smart Prime

In a lot of my tech reviews over the last few years, we’ve been looking at premium products. But every so often a little gem comes my way that isn’t going to be top of the range, nor is it trying to be. It’s the devices that are designed to be affordable and easy to use - not too powerful but not lacking in features.

The latest one to cross my desk is the Vodafone Smart Prime, and it packs a lot of punch for under $150. The battery is outstanding, boasting a whopping 18 hours of talk time while running a powerful 1.2GHz Quad core processor. Sure, it’s not going to be able to all the things of a top-flight phone will do but it can take photos, use plenty of apps and will work well.

It’s also a 4G phone, so while you’re paying significantly less for the handset you don’t have to sacrifice internet speeds to save some dosh. And it runs on the latest version of Android – Lollipop 5.0 – so there’s no risk of thinking that your technology is out of date because it’s cheap.

The camera takes decent photos with its 8MP camera which is perfect if you’re taking the odd photo of family and friends while out and about. I wouldn’t consider it the best smartphone camera in the world, but it does a pretty good job and the photos look good on its 5-inch touchscreen – not too big and not so small that you’re having to squint at the screen.

A photo taken on the Vodafone Smart Prime

If you’re a bit nervous about having a smartphone or your kids have tried to show you how it works and make it look extremely complicated, then you don’t need to worry any more. There’s a tutorial installed which will run you through everything from how to make a call to how to install an app. It will even teach you about swiping and shortcut keys, which makes it the perfect entry-level smartphone.

A screenshot of the tutorial

There are only two minor downsides I can see with this phone – as it’s not a phone from a major brand, the range of cases will be small. However if you break it, then it’s not going to set you back $1000 to get a replacement phone. In fact it will probably be  cheaper to buy a new phone instead of getting it repaired. The other potential problem is that at this price, I wouldn’t be surprised if Vodafone starts running out of stock!

It’s a fantastic little device and perfect if you’re looking at buying your first smartphone. I wouldn’t say it’s cheap – it’s just great value for money.