Solidly built, expandable memory, decent camera, 4G, low price, decent battery life
Underpowered processor, low on-board memory
The companion piece to Vodafone's Tab Prime 6, the Vodafone Smart Prime 6 is an ultra-cheap budget smartphone with 4G and Lollipop, and if there's not a lot else to recommend it, that's still pretty good going for the price.
Design and screen
The Smart Prime 6 is a basic looking but not unattractive handset with a rear panel made of thin, slightly textured plastic and gently curving edges that help it feel comfortable in the hand, despite its relatively large size. The screen is a healthy 5 inches, but the phone is bigger still, with a thick bezel at the top and bottom, making it feel rather larger than other devices with similar sized screens -- and at a sliver under 9mm thick it's not particularly slimline.
The screen's standard HD resolution manages a pixel count of 1,280x720, which boils down to 294ppi. That's not bad at all for this price, and if it doesn't have the levels of eye-popping sharpness we've come to expect from the better handsets, it's still perfectly fine for viewing web pages, communicating and playing more basic games.
Software and processor
It's great to see that Smart Prime 6 is running Android 5.0 Lollipop, which means you'll get all the benefits of this version of Google's operating system. Vodafone's added its own apps of course, which are unnecessary for the most part and take up space on the phone that you would probably prefer to fill with your own app choices. 'Discover' tries to sell you special offers, 'My Web' gives you a Vodafone homepage and 'Update's gives you access to more Vodafone apps. Mostly, though, Vodafone's allowed Google to do its thing without getting in the way -- and that's to be applauded, since Lollipop is the slickest version of Android yet, and it doesn't really need any additional, manufacturer-added "enhancements".
The quad-core processor is clocked at 1.2GHz and backed by 1GB RAM. That's not bad for a budget device but it struggles to run everything smoothly and often feels a bit sluggish in general use -- which can get irritating very quickly. Our AnTuTu benchmark test gave it a score of 21,051, which puts it very much at the lower end of the current crop of quad-core devices.
Camera
The 8-megapixel camera on the back comes with a basic LED flash and autofocus, plus a few extras like Panorama and HDR. Picture quality can be variable, but as long as you're careful with your light (the auto light meter can be slow to react) you can get some decent snaps out of it.
The 2-megapixel selfie snapper on the front is only just above bog standard, and pays absolutely no regard to the recent trend for better front-facing shooters. Still, it is capable of capturing a discernible self portrait and at least won't add hideous picture quality to your list of embarrassing selfie crimes.
Storage and battery
There's a measly 8GB of memory on board, but you can add up to 64GB via microSD card (you'll probably need it). Battery life seemed pretty good though, and we easily got a good day and a half of use out of it before recharging.
Conclusion
The Vodafone Smart Prime 6 seems like a better-value bargain than its tablet cousin, the Tab Prime 6. The screen is sharper, the camera's better and it feels like it can withstand a few knocks. Sure, it's a bit on the slow side and the Vodafone-specific apps are mostly pointless, but it has the latest Android and 4G for a very reasonable price.
Processor: Quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A53
Operating system: Android 5.0 Lollipop
Memory: 8GB
Display: 5in IPS LCD (1280x720 pixels)
Camera: 8 megapixel rear camera; 2 megapixel front camera
Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1
Ports: Micro USB, microSD card slot, 3.5mm headphone jack
Battery: Li-ion
Size: 142x72x9mm
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
