Name: Smart 4 Mini
Brand: Vodafone

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Key features

The key feature of the Vodafone Smart 4 Mini is clearly the price. Everything about the phone, from its specifications to its design have been engineered around keeping the cost down.

As such, screen quality, speed and storage space aren't particularly impressive. Although, conversely, the battery life is excellent.

Part of the focus in price includes Vodafone's Freedom Freebee extras that can be bought in addition to a PAYG SIM card and give you boosted connectivity for 30 days.

So, for example, spend £10 on a Freebee and you'll get 150 minutes, unlimited texts and 250MB of data for 30 days.

If you're buying your first one, then Vodafone will give you unlimited UK data for the 30 day period. Choosing one of these options in conjunction with the Smart 4 Mini – right before leaving on holiday for example – offers good value for money.

There's also no getting away from the fact this is a Vodafone handset as the company has loaded plenty of its own software onto the device.

Vodafone Discover is a news and sports feed application featuring content from the Vodafone blog while the "My Vodafone" app lets you check your usage and manage your services.

A low price naturally means a lack of certain features and chief among that is a front-facing camera. If you count selfies as a big part of your smartphone usage then this isn't the handset for you.

The rear-facing 3.2MP camera is adequate at best, but similarly, there's no flash.

Likewise, Vodafone has left out NFC and 4G in order to keep the price down, however you will find Bluetooth and GPS here.

Considering this is a £50 handset, I don't feel too aggrieved at the lack of these features.

Even the fact it runs a slightly older version of Google's OS - Android 4.2 Jelly Bean - isn't a huge issue considering the cost. That said, the recently launched Moto E comes with KitKat out fo the box.

The small amount of storage could prove an issue, given that games and large apps from the Google Play store will take up a lot of space. Thankfully, if you invest in a decent MicroSD card, this problem can be kept at bay.