Vodafone Smart Prime 7

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                             HOW ARE YOU?

NOW I TALK ABOUT (Vodafone Smart Prime 7)

KEY FEATURES

• 5-inch, 720p display
• Quad-core processor
• 1GB RAM
• Android 6.0.1
• 8MP/5MP cameras
• Locked to Vodafone
• 2,540mAh battery
• Manufacturer: Vodafone
• Review Price: £75.00

WHAT IS THE VODAFONE SMART PRIME 7?

If there’s anyone capable of making a phone that can punch above its weight, it’s the mobile networks. They have the ability to subsidise the cost of the device by making sure you use their network, alongside the features that go with it.

EE has done this successfully in the past with its impressive Harrier line of phones, and Vodafone dished out some good handsets last year with both the Smart Prime 6 and Smart Ultra 6.

Now Vodafone returns with the Smart Prime 7. It offers up a 5-inch 720p display, quad-core processor, removable storage and a pretty clean build of Android Marshmallow all for £75.

VODAFONE SMART PRIME 7 – DESIGN AND BUILD

The Vodafone Smart Prime 7 feels like a phone that costs £75. When you consider that budget phones from the likes of Honor and Motorola are starting to take design and build seriously, it’s disappointing to see the Smart Prime 7 is dull and unambitious.

It’s a plastic slab of a phone, with a clean front and a flimsy removable back. That back has a slight woven pattern that feels like it should be textured, but it’s not. It lacks grip and bends easily when removed.

On the sides there’s a volume and power switch, both of which continue that flimsy feeling. They have a slight texture, so they can be easily felt in your pocket, but they lack a satisfying click.

The sides themselves are plastic, even though from a distance they do resemble metal. I thought we’d got past that stage of phone design where we tried to make plastic look like metal, but it seems not.

It’s not all bad, though – at 7.9mm it’s a thin phone and one that easily fits into a pocket. It’s light too, and while there's a rather large bezel surrounding the 5-inch display it still feels compact. It’s about the same size as the Moto G3, and slightly larger than the iPhone 6S, but I can use it in one hand without too much trouble.

Below the display is a set of three capacitive keys, each of which light up momentarily when you touch them.

VODAFONE SMART PRIME 7 – DISPLAY

At 5-inches, the Vodafone Smart Prime 7's display is on the small side for a modern Android phone, and for the price it's quite impressive.

It’s a 720p LCD panel and I would say that 5 inches is just about the limit with a display of this resolution. Pixels are visible if you get in close, colours are a tad muted and it just feels a bit washed out.

Viewing angles, though, are surprisingly good. Tilting the phone to either side doesn’t completely ruin the image and it doesn’t have a pinkish tinge, something I found a little off-putting on the HTC 10.

Brightness isn’t an issue either, I normally have it on about 50-60% and it’s perfectly readable in the majority of conditions.

My main issues with the screen comes with its responsiveness, or lack thereof. There have been multiple occasions when the screen hasn’t done anything when I've touched it, and I’ve had to try multiple times for it to respond. I also feel it requires a much more specific touch – when trying to hit a link for example – and on numerous occasions I've tapped on the wrong thing by accident.

VODAFONE SMART PRIME 7 – PERFORMANCE

With budget phones, the main creator of problems is the performance. To keep the price down, lower-specced processors are used and that tends to cause issues. The Vodafone Smart Prime 7 sort of falls into this pit too, but it’s still a perfectly usable phone.

Inside you’ve got a low-end quad-core Snapdragon 210 CPU paired with 1GB of RAM, whih for 2016 that isn’t all that much. Especially when devices such as the Moto G4are offering 2GB of RAM, a 1080p display and a very capable Snapdragon 617 CPU. I know it costs more (£169), but it’s well worth the extra cash.

Those low-end specs create a slow and plodding user experience. Apps judder slightly before they open, swiping through web pages is blocky and once you’ve got a few apps open things quickly get even worse. It’s far from unusable, though. It's fine for sending a few emails, messages and phone calls, but don’t expect to be gaming or running intensive apps.

It’s perfectly acceptable for the price, but it doesn’t push beyond it. It’s predictable, rather than trying to do something extra.

Benchmarking seems completely redundant on a device that costs £75, but if you want the scores on the doors, here you go. In Geekbench 3 it scores 331 on the single-core test and 1,070 on the multi-core version. That’s a little better than the other Snapdragon 210 device I've tested before, and that phone (the HTC Desire 530) is much more expensive.

There’s 8GB internal storage, but it seems that only 4GB of that is actually usable. Vodafone tells me the user should have 5GB, but it only shows me 3.99GB. Not sure what the issue is here, but it’s still a pitiful amount of storage. You’ll need an SD card here, no doubt.

Another thing to note is that the Vodafone Smart Prime 7 is, you guessed it, locked to Vodafone. A Three user? Or O2? Don’t even think about it. Call quality and 4G signal was great, with calls coming across crisp and clear.

VODAFONE SMART PRIME 7 – SOFTWARE

Vodafone, you get a huge thumbs-up from me on your software approach. The Smart Prime 7 comes running the latest version of Android, Marshmallow 6.0.1, which is still a rarity for a budget phone or tablet. EE’s latest tablet, the Jay, is still stuck on Android Lollipop.

I also commend Vodafone for sticking to a fairly stock Android look. And even when it has added something extra – more shortcuts on the lockscreen, for example – it’s actually made vanilla Android better rather than worse.

Everything from the notifications to the app grid to the Settings app are all exactly the same as you’d find on a Nexus or Moto device. There are no ugly skins here, just Android as Google intended.

It’s not all rosy, though. As this is a carrier-locked device, you’ll find a huge amount of bloatware pre-installed and don’t even think about trying to delete it. There’s a My Vodafone app for keeping an eye on your bills, which is fine, and a completely new dialler and messaging app. To be honest, these two aren’t that bad. They’re ugly, yes – all red and gaudy – but you can see all your messages online and that’s really handy.

The other apps are less useful. One lets you buy accessories (snore, but at least you can uninstall this) another gives you ridiculously boring tips and one is called Vodafone Start. I’m not even sure what that one does; it just seems to infinitely load and do nothing.

VODAFONE SMART PRIME 7 – CAMERA

There isn’t really much to get excited about with the camera on the Vodafone Smart Prime 7, but if you’re looking to snap a picture of the kids to pop on Facebook or capture your receipts for collecting up expenses then it’ll get the job done.

 Even though this was taken in bright conditions, it looks a little dark

On the back you’ve got an 8MP sensor, paired with an LED flash. I’ll have to give credit to Vodafone, or whoever built the app, because the camera app is surprisingly feature packed. There are filters to play with, a multi-exposure mode and it’ll scan QR codes. There’s even a manual mode which is actually quite feature rich. I don’t really think it helps make the pictures look any better, though.

 Colours lack vibrancy and detail is missed

Regular daytime shots are fine. Colours are slightly muted and details fall fast once you try to zoom in, but it focuses quickly and doesn’t take too long to process the shot. It gets a bit slower when you turn HDR mode on, but you will get a slightly better picture.

 Once the lights go down, pictures become blurry and overexposed

Things are a lot less agreeable with low-light pictures. Dusk shots lose most of the detail, and once there’s no light source the results are almost useless – grainy and dark.

 And with even less light, pictures are close to unusable

Around the front there’s a 5MP sensor, which is more impressive than the rear camera. It clearly outshines its point with good skin reproduction and a wide enough lens.

VODAFONE SMART PRIME 7 – BATTERY LIFE

Considering it’s running a fairly power-efficient CPU, doesn’t have a huge number of pixels to push, and has a nicely sized 2,540mAh battery, it’s not really a surprise the Vodafone Smart Prime 7 can easily make it through the day without issue.

This might also be down in some part to its inability to play graphically intensive games, so I wouldn’t be able to eat through 20% on the tube home playing Asphalt 8.

It also benefits from the Doze features introduced in Android Marshmallow, improving standby times massively. Leaving it overnight, it only drops a couple of percent.

Streaming an hour of Netflix, with brightness set to 60%, eats through 10-12%, while 30 minutes of fairly light gaming will take you down 6-8%. It seems a real winner with music streaming from Spotify and Play Music too, only dropping 3% after an hour of listening.

Charging is done via Micro USB, no new-fangled USB-C tech here, and there’s no wireless charging or fast charging either. Neither of which is really a surprise at this price. It’ll take about 2 hours to fully charge the phone, which while not in same time-frame as flagships like the Galaxy S7 or HTC 10, is perfectly acceptable. As a comparison, it’ll take about the same amount of time to charge as an iPhone 6S.

SHOULD YOU BUY THE VODAFONE SMART PRIME 7?

If you want a phone for £75, you’re on (or willing to switch to) Vodafone, and you simply cannot spend more, the Smart Prime 7 is a great choice. It’s a seriously affordable, clean Android device that isn’t ugly and can get the job done.

Yes, it’s pretty slow at times and the camera shots are probably best used only on social media, but really it’s £75 – what do you expect?

But I’d still recommend you save up a little more and plump for a Moto G. Last year’s version is available for around £120 from Amazon and it’s so much better than the Smart Prime 7.

VERDICT

The biggest selling point is the price, and while the rest of the phone ticks a lot of boxes it doesn’t set a new bar for budget phones.

READ ALSO :- IPHONE 7

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