Vodafone has released the Smart prime 6, a 5in 4G handset that costs only £79 for pay-as-you-go customers. The device continues the current trend of mobile operators releasing no-brand, low-budget smartphones that are locked to their networks.
The Smart prime 6 has a 5in IPS screen, which Vodafone's site boasts is a "HD display to rival market-leading smartphones". Vodafone might be over-egging that somewhat, given that the screen only has a 1,280 x 720 (or 720p) resolution, whilst the iPhone 6 has a 1,334 x 750 display and the Samsung Galaxy S5 is Full HD (1,920 x 1,080).
It's not the only spec on which it falls short of the market leaders. The prime 6 has just 8GB of internal memory, although the microSD slot allows users to supplement that meagre allocation by another 64GB. It's powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 processor, and includes an 8-megapixel rear camera.
The device supports 802.11bgn Wi-Fi, as well as 4G and Bluetooth 4. It runs on the latest version of Android (5.0 Lollipop), although it appears this a customised version of the OS, and not stock Android.
The prime 6 isn't much chubbier than the Galaxy S5, measuring 142 x 72 x 9mm, compared to the 142 x 73 x 8mm dimensions of Samsung's flagship. It's only 10g heavier, too, at 155g.
Vodafone doesn't state the size of the battery inside its handset, however, merely claiming 3G standby time of 915 hours and talktime of 18 hours. Given that 4G radios and large screens can hammer smartphone battery life, we would be pleasantly surprised if the prime 6 made it to the end of the day without a top-up at the mains.
The Smart prime 6 is available in either grey or silver and is on sale now from the Vodafone website, although delivery times are quoted at 1-2 weeks.
