Vodafone Smart

Editor's Review of the Smart

The Vodafone Smart, also known as the Vodafone 858, is the latest budget Android phone to come from the UK network.

Like last year's Vodafone 845, the Huawei-made smart phone is extremely lightweight, weighing in at a teeny 104g. It's certainly not a bad looking smartphone either, touting a glossy black frontage and the back-cover of your choice. However, we're not so keen on the bulging 'chin' placed on the bottom of the handset, although it does keep the phone nice and balanced in your hand.

Within its customisable casing, you'll find a reasonable 2.8-inch (320 x 240) capacitive touchscreen, which although placed upon a bargain-priced handset, proved extremely responsive and surprisingly bright. Saying that, the mere 2.8-inches of screen makes texting difficult and and firing off emails awkward, but given the handset's cheap-and-cheerful price-tag, we shouldn't really complain.

The Vodafone Smart comes running an unskinned version of Android 2.2 (Froyo), which means although it doesn't come equipped full of any unneccessary clutter, it still offers-up all the usual Google goodies. Despite packing a measly 528MHz Qualcomm processor, we didn't notice lag when switching between homescreens, and firing up apps was fairly quick, too. However, the screen's lowly 240 x 420 pixel resolution means certain applications are difficult to use, but it can still run the vast majority of apps.

Although we noticed no issues when firing up apps, the processor means surfing the web can be a painful experience. It may come equipped with 3G and WiFi connectivity, but pages seemed to take a long time to load. Panning through pages can be awkward too, given the handset's 2.8-inch touchscreen.

On the media-front, you'll find a 2 megapixel camera (sans flash) on the rear of the handset. It'll come to no surprise that pictures are lacking in detail and fairly grainy, although it managed to cope surprisingly well in lesser-lit surroundings. It's also capable of shooting video at a poor 352 x 288 resolution, but that doesn't mean it's awful at doing so. Footage was reasonably smooth and by all means Facebook-worthy, although it's audio recording function isn't quite so impressive.

Like the majority of Android smartphones, the Smart's memory can be expanded, and the phone supports cards up to 32GB. A 2GB card is also included, which is enough to store your favourite bunch of albums.

Considering the handset's super-cheap price-tag, it's easy to forgive the the Smart's low-res screen and poor web experience. However, when compared to the similarly priced Orange San Francisco with its 3.5-inch touchscreen and excellent media features - we'd definitely recommend going for the latter.