Vodafone Smart review

Are personalised backplates enough to make this low-cost Android smartphone stand out?

Smart
TechRadar's definitive Vodafone Smart review

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Battery life

Even the battery life of the Vodafone Smart disappoints. The 1200mAh battery ought, in theory, to keep the handset going for the better part of a day, considering that it has a fairly small screen to run.

However, our experience suggests otherwise. We got from early morning to mid-afternoon on days with a bit of email, a bit of web browsing, some video streaming and general messaging, and the battery was less than half full. Even light users will could need to charge mid-day.

There's no charge light on the chassis, but if the power is on you can see the current charge percentage on the lock screen.

Vodafone smart battery charge

Connectivity

We've already noted that the smartphone basics are sorted, with HDSPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS all present and correct. As with other Android 2.2 handsets, you can use the Vodafone Smart as a portable Wi-Fi hotspot for other devices, too, although this absolutely decimates the battery.

Obvioulsy there's nothing useful like a DLNA streaming client on board, and we didn't really expect one, as streaming media to your TV isn't going to be a priority to the users Vodafone is targeting with this phone.

Getting files on and off the phone is relatively easy, as connecting the Smart up to your computer with the USB cable will activate the disk mode on the phone - from there you can browse the files and drag and drop new stuff across with ease.

It's not a super-fast experience, but will easily do the job for a few music tracks here and there, plus it's an easy way to nab your photos should you be able to work out which folder they're hidden in.