Vodafone Smart Tab 2 review

The Vodafone Smart Tab 2 sits squarely in the middle range. It performs well enough to keep you entertained but it doesn't perform well enough to challenge the more accomplished tablets in a similar size and price range – namely the Kindle Fire HD, Nexus 7 or even the Asus Fonepad.

We liked

Its 3G capability is useful, it's nice not having to worry about downloading everything you need for your journey before you leave your house. Many other tablets in the £150- £200 market won't come with 3G, so this is a welcome addition.

The front and rear facing cameras is a nice touch too. Other, better, mid-level tablets, like the Nexus 7, don't include rear facing cameras.

The SD card slot is another feature that is lacking from some of the bigger names, but the Smart Tab gives you this a takes away a reliance on the cloud. With the abysmal onboard memory, the SD card slot is a necessity.

Finally we liked the sound, both with and without headphones, which is decent. Without headphones is surprisingly good and you won't notice any distortion or tinny noise, but plugging in a pair of high-end headphones will multiply any multimedia experience by 10.

We disliked

The Smart Tab 2 is not light on its feet. At 400g it is far too heavy to hold in your hand for an extended period of time and you'll start to pay more attention to how much your forearm is aching, more than whatever you're doing on the tablet.

The screen resolution simply isn't good enough either. The 1024 x 600 resolution doesn't cut the mustard and its washed out colours make watching films and TV shows less entertaining, especially the more CGI-heavy blockbusters.

There's also the issue of lag, performance isn't the Smart Tab 2's strong point and it suffers when you're multitasking with heavy duty apps.

Verdict

The Smart Tab 2 will do pretty much everything you'd expect an Android tablet to do, and in a way this is to its credit. There aren't any glaring software issues – but it does a reasonable job.

You'll be able to listen to your music, watch films (with some issues when streaming) and read your books – but it won't be the most exciting experience.

The Smart Tab 2 is worth purchasing if you can get it out of contract, second hand, and for less than £100 - but we've been informed by Vodafone that it's no longer selling the tablet for an upfront cost offline.

Over the course of the 24 month contract you'll spend £696 on this tablet, which it most definitely isn't worth – if you're happy to spend that kind of money pick up an iPad mini or a 3G enabled Nexus 7.