You probably know how much mobile data you pay for every month, but do you know how much you actually use? I suppose, in this day and age, that’s like asking if you know how many liters of water you drink every month (“No, but I know it’s a lot”).

Mobile data usage has skyrocketed in recent years due to a variety of factors (not least the advent of autoplay features in social media apps such as TikTok). Analysis from Ericsson suggests the amount of data transferred over cellular data networks has increased more than sevenfold since 2020, with the monthly average now standing at 25GB per device in both the US and Western Europe.

But while it’s true that most of us are using more mobile data than ever, these numbers don’t quite paint the full picture — they embolden mobile operators to sell oversized data plans, and, in all likelihood, you’re paying for more data than you actually need.

That 25GB figure is skewed by smartphone users who rarely, if ever, touch Wi-Fi. We all stream HD video over 5G and occasionally set up mobile hotspots for our laptops, but some people do these things near-constantly (yes, really), using upwards of 100GB per month and disproportionately affecting the monthly average.

By contrast, Ofcom’s Communications Market Report 2025 suggests the average person in the UK uses 10.6GB of data per month, while Statista puts the equivalent US figure at between 5 and 15GB, which aligns with Ofcom’s findings. All three numbers are significantly lower than the 25GB figure quoted by Ericsson, suggesting they account for those disproportionately high usage cases (there are, of course, disproportionately low usage cases to consider too).

Unlimited mobile data plans are a popular choice among users who don’t want to be charged per gigabyte or exceed a monthly limit, but as above, these plans are rarely better options — financially speaking — than the cheaper, fixed-capacity data plans they sit above.

“Mobile operators and MVNOs [Mobile Virtual Network Operators] face higher network costs as data usage increases, which is why plans with larger allowances typically cost more,” Christian Banhans, UK Managing Director at mobile operator spusu, exclusively tells TechRadar. “However, many customers only use a fraction of their monthly data, meaning they may be paying for more than they actually need.”

“The main reason customers use less data than their allowance is psychological, as they want to avoid running out, so they often choose plans with more data than they need,” Banhans continues. “Providers also face fixed costs for each plan, alongside the costs of (often unlimited) minutes and texts. In our experience, the difference in underlying costs is relatively small compared with the pricing difference between plans.”

“Larger plans often have a lower cost per gigabyte, making them appear better value even when much of the data goes unused. This is where the gap between what customers pay for and what they use tends to be greatest.”

How to check your data usage

Banhans notes that there are several ways consumers can avoid paying for more data than they need. “The first is to sync your phone’s internal data counter to the billing cycle and track how much data you need per month, or download a standalone application to do that.”

To check your data usage on your iPhone, go to Settings, Cellular (or Mobile Service), then scroll down to the Mobile Data menu. The Current Period displayed here reflects your data usage since the last time your Mobile Data Usage Statistics were reset, which will probably be some time ago. To align that figure with your specific monthly billing cycle, you’ll want to scroll down to the bottom of the page and tap Reset Statistics on the same day each month that your billing cycle resets. You can set up a recurring Reminder to help you remember to do this.

A more straightforward solution, though, is to track your data usage through your network provider's official app — which will already be aligned with your monthly billing cycle — or use a third-party data tracking app like My Data Manager and Data Remaining.

On Samsung phones, the process is simpler. If you go to Settings, Connections, then Data Usage, you’ll see your data usage displayed in a monthly format by default. To manually align the dates to your monthly billing cycle, tap Billing cycle and data warning, then Start billing cycle on.

To see your monthly data usage on Pixel phones, go to Settings, Network & internet, then SIMs. You can choose which date you’d like your data usage stats to be reset under App data usage cycle. The process is similar for most other Android phones.

How to choose the right data plan

If, using the above methods, you find that you’re paying for more data than you actually use, you’ll want to choose a data plan that better fits your needs.

I suggest choosing a data allowance that sits a gigabyte or two above your monthly average, unless the provider in question makes it easy (and affordable) to add more data to the plan as and when needed. “It’s also important to account for occasional high-usage months, as well as factors such as Wi-Fi access and travel habits, when choosing the right allowance,” Banhans adds.

Some network providers allow you to ‘rollover’ unused data so it can be used in another month, but this shouldn’t be seen as a reason to choose a data allowance that far exceeds your real-world monthly average: “While rollover data is often presented as a solution to unused data allowances, the extra data frequently goes unused and eventually expires unless a customer’s usage varies significantly from month to month.”

In some cases, unused rollover data can be converted into money off new plans or device contracts, but these savings are often laughably small compared to the money you’ll have overspent on accruing that rollover data in the first place.

So, in summary, while unlimited and large-capacity data plans are attractive options for many people, network providers rely on consumer ignorance to sell these often excessive packages. If you put in the small amount of work required to determine your actual monthly data usage — using the methods outlined in this article — you could save hundreds over the course of a year.

• AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon are working together to offer standardized satellite connectivity
• It would benefit customers not covered by cell towers, like in national parks
• Operators globally are looking to use satellite for more than emergencies, now

In a rare turn of events, three of the biggest mobile carriers in the US have announced they will be working together to tackle 'dead zones' across the country using satellites.

The joint venture, formed by AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, should help to improve connectivity in areas where traditional towers can fail, such as national parks and highways.

Satellites could also provide continuity in disaster-struck regions, where land-based infrastructure damages can cause widespread outages.

Satellite technology to eliminate dead zones

Because the joint venture's plan revolves around direct-to-device satellite tech, it would mean that regular smartphone could access signal in rural areas without consumers needing to buy specific satellite phones. While many phones now offer limited services via satellite, it's hoped that the scheme would make roaming between cellular and satellite networks more seamless.

"Having launched the first nationwide, satellite-powered direct-to-device network for text and data, we’ve seen firsthand how critical reliable connectivity can be when America needs it most," T-Mobile CEO Srini Gopalan commented.

T-Mobile already partners with SpaceX, which has been expanding its footprint across voice and data services on top of earlier emergency texting functionalities. AT&T and Verizon also have partnerships with AST SpaceMobile for their satellite services.

The announcement comes amid a broader global shift, whereby satellite networks are becoming more tightly integrated with regular 5G and 6G cell connections, instead of being a separate emergency-only tool.

As well as improving coverage and performance for customers, the joint venture also anticipates industry benefits, such as industry-wide device compatibility and an easier way for mobile network operators (MNOs) to integrate satellite connectivity for their customers.

The agreement in principle is yet to be confirmed, pending regulatory approval and confirmation of the finer details.

• BT reveals host of new offerings for businesses and consumer users across the UK
• Business users will now get free security tools as part of BT contract
• BT also selected as official telecoms partner of Euro 2028

BT has announced a host of new updates and upgrades for its customers across the UK, as well as revealing it has been chosen as the official telecommunications partner for the upcoming Euro 2028 football tournament.

Launching a new "Behind Brilliant Things" at London's Wembley Stadium, the company unveiled a host of new announcements as it looks to continue its role as a mainstay of UK connectivity.

Along with its Euro 2028 news, the company also revealed the comeback of its BT Mobile brand, new eSIM offerings, and extra security tools for business and customer accounts.

Euro 2028 and more

"As the connector of the country, BT really matters, especially when it comes to events that connect the country, unite the country and showcase the country to the rest of the world," noted Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive, BT Group.

Since the start of the decade, BT has been the single biggest investor of all FTSE companies into UK infrastructure, she added, with the group spending £25 billion to become "digital backbone" of the country in what Kirkby called "a once in a generation investment."

This puts BT on track to reach more than 90% of UK homes and businesses by the end of the decade - a major rise from the current two-thirds.

The company already connects over a million businesses across the UK, along with public sector partners, making it a crucial ally for firms around the country.

"BT really is the only UK operator with the ability, the security expertise, and the operational resilience that can deliver connectivity of this magnitude across the UK," added Jon James, CEO Business.

"BT is trusted every day to deliver the services that help the UK succeed."

In order to help maintain this success, James revealed "a significant upgrade" to the security tools BT offers business customers across the UK, who will now receive Cyber Threat Protect, a new security solution powered by CrowdStrike, free of charge.

"BT is delivering big security for small and medium businesses, at a time when cybercrime has never been more worrying," James added.

Set to be held across 9 cities and broadcast to over 2 billion fans worldwide, Kirkby noted how Euro 2028 offers BT a huge opportunity to show off the state of its network, as well as providing a lasting technology legacy to continue after the tournament.

"Only BT could be behind moments," she said, adding , "you can't always see it, but we're there...trusted to connect homes, businesses and communities, trusted to protect families, organizations and critical public services, and trusted to supercharge the UK - powering progress, so everyone can thrive in this digital age."

• Vodafone has just passed a major landmark for satellite video calls
• It's demoed a "space video call" using a standard smartphone
• The service will roll out later this year, though there's no pricing yet

Vodafone has announced that it's hit a new milestone in the race to end frustrating cellular 'dead zones' – with what it's calling the "world's first space video call" using a standard mobile phone from "an area of no coverage."

Those qualifiers are important because Starlink and T-Mobile demoed a video call made through X (formerly Twitter) using unmodified phones last year. So Vodafone's claim is specific to making video calls from areas like the remote part of Wales where its demo took place.

Still, it's certainly a significant moment and a big step on Vodafone's path towards adding satellite connectivity to its network by the end of this year in the UK and across Europe "from later in 2025 and 2026."

Rather than replacing existing networks, direct-to-mobile satellite connectivity aims to be a helpful extension that could eliminate "not spots" (or dead zones) in rural areas and also, according to Vodafone, "vast stretches of surrounding sea."

Vodafone claims that its satellite experience "mirrors the experience of existing 4G and 5G mobile networks", although the demo phone call (which you can watch in the video below) certainly showed evidence of lag and low-res footage. We may have to wait for the full roll-out to get a better idea of quality.

The service is provided by BlueBird satellites from Vodafone's partner (and SpaceX rival) AST SpaceMobile. The system is based on five satellites and Vodafone calls it "the first and only mobile broadband network in space" that works directly with standard smartphones.

Rivals systems, like T-Mobile and Starlink's, are currently limited to text messages, although video calls and mobile data are on the roadmap. With AT&T and Verizon also working with AST SpaceMobile to provide a similar service in the US, satellite calling looks ready to take off globally in 2025.

How much will it cost?

The big unknown of Vodafone's satellite connectivity and rival systems is how much they'll cost. Vodafone hasn't yet commented on pricing, only stating that it'll start rolling out the service "following further tests this Spring" (so between March and June).

The need for satellite coverage, particularly video calls, depends greatly on where you live. In the UK, Ofcom has estimated that 9% of the country "lacks good quality 4G coverage from any operator". But those who live in urban areas will also be familiar with phone network "dead zones" caused by interruptions between cell towers.

Apple's iPhones and now Android phones like the Google Pixel 9 series have received free Emergency SOS Satellite features, which can be potential lifesavers. iOS 18 also introduced the ability to text anyone via a satellite connection, plus the option of getting roadside assistance.

It's possible that those services will eventually need a subscription, but Apple hasn't started charging yet. So, the question for mobile networks like Vodafone is how many people will need full mobile broadband via satellite compared to the emergency features that are currently available for free from Apple.

Still, we're not complaining about getting more connectivity options, and competition will hopefully drive the prices of satellite-based services down in the long term.

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It’s travel season! Your flight is booked, you’ve packed your luggage—you even remembered the sunscreen. You’re ready to go, but there’s one essential thing you do not want to forget before you jet off into the sunset. A data package from Nomad eSIM is the travel must-have that ensures you stay connected to your favorite apps and people no matter where the wanderlust takes you. Nomad eSIM makes buying regional data connections easy and affordable, freeing you from costly roaming fees. 

Nomad eSIM offers local data connectivity that is ready when you are 

The fear of being disconnected in a strange place or risk racking up an extremely high mobile bill can damper the excitement of traveling. There’s always the option of tracking down and purchasing a local SIM card, but if you often travel or experience jet lag, the last thing you want to do is go on an unguided trek through airport shops. Not to mention the waste of having unusable SIM cards floating around in your luggage after you return home. Even if you do find a local SIM card, you’ve got the hassle of hoping you have a key for your phone to access the SIM card port. It's dreadfully inconvenient, but it doesn’t have to be. 

Nomad eSIM is an app you can download on your smartphone that allows you to access roaming-free local data in 170 countries, with prices starting at just $0.98/GB—lower than local SIM rates. Conveniently compatible with an array of tablets, laptops, and smartphones—including the latest from iPhone, Samsung, and Google Pixel—Nomad eSIM gives you the ability to purchase only the data you need, when and where you need it. 

A data plan from Nomad eSIM can even be used as a tether or hot spot between multiple devices. It's as easy as purchasing a data plan via the Nomad eSIM app, installing the eSIM via QR Code, and activating the plan when you are ready to start using it. Nomad believes in the power of redundancy. By providing more than 1 local network provider in every country, users always have options to connect in case coverage is bad in different locations.

Nomad eSIM provides data usage tracking tools on both the Nomad app and the Nomad website. Both platforms allow you to manage your eSIMs and check for things like data usage, how much data you have left, and how long until your plan expires. There are no hidden fees with Nomad, either. Your data plan is stopped when your devices reach the limit of available data for that plan.

Nomad eSIM is as affordable as it is convenient 

Roaming fees for data can rack up some serious charges on your phone bill. While some other data companies offer convenient roaming data packages starting at $10 a day, it can still be expensive, with spotty connectivity that just isn’t worth the cost. Nomad offers a more convenient and affordable means of staying connected that doesn’t require you to switch out your phone’s SIM card or pay an exorbitant fee for a lesser connection. Nomad data plans are 20-40% cheaper than the competition and benefit from a partnership with numerous connectivity providers globally. Nomad strives to have more than one local provider in each of the 170 countries to ensure that your connection is always as strong as possible.

Are you really travel-ready without Nomad eSIM? 

We all want to share our adventures and travel photos with friends and family via social media. Data connectivity can also be vital for finding restaurants, shopping, and things to do while in a new location. Nomad eSIM offers day packages, weekly options, and even month-long connectivity packages for data, and you can add on to your plan as you see fit. With Nomad, you can share photos and videos of your trips, make video calls with FaceTime or Facebook Messenger, or even work remotely on your own terms without incurring roaming fees or unforeseen charges. An eSIM from Nomad just may be the most important thing in your travel bag this season.

Yup, I'd sign up for T-Mobile and Starlink's new satellite-powered cell services today, if I could. It's that kind of a game-changer. But to understand why I think that we first have to look at the limitations of current satellite phones and what could make this system fundamentally different and more attractive to the average consumer.

I've watched enough war movies to start recognizing when the general or under-attack squad leader pulls out a satellite phone. It's like the communication device of last resort. In the jungle, wilderness, on a lonely desert island, or any number of cellular dead zones around the world, it's the only way to communicate with home base.

And it's completely impractical for most people not in the thick of battle or climbing Mount Everest.

Most satellite phones, like the Iridium line popularized in innumerable action movies, are expensive (often costing well over $1,000). And they can be ungainly because they need a huge external antenna, one that will make your late 1990s-era feature phone antenna look quaint. 

Generally, satellite phones do not work indoors and they may need a cable and external antenna adapter to make sure they can connect with the network of orbiting satellites.

All of this is why we didn't build our smartphone networks on a satellite system (just our GPS system) and instead opted for ground-based cell towers to cover as much area as possible. This, of course, also meant that the cell tower growth would be primarily in major metropolitan areas, leaving huge swaths of the world with dead zones, especially in some rural areas, underdeveloped nations, remote regions, and the ocean.

Knowing all this, there was always a little bit of me that wanted to at least try a satellite phone and test it by doing my own version of Tom Hanks' Cast Away. I'm not saying I'm ready to be stranded on a desert island, but maybe a jaunt into the mountains or, better yet, a cruise where connectivity is always at a premium.

Naturally, I was intrigued by the headlines about what Elon Musk's Starlink and T-Mobile might offer, especially because I knew that many people have successfully used Musk's Starlink orbiting satellite system to connect to the Internet. And I have to admit, that, after listening to the slightly over-the-top presentation, the reality sounds even better.

Beam me up

To start with, the plan, as outlined by T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert and Musk on Thursday, does away with most of the limitations of traditional satellite phones.

First of all, it's using a slice of T-Mobile's mid-band PSC spectrum (part of the 5G spectrum), which means that you don't need a satellite phone to connect, just your regular smartphone, albiet one on the T-Mobile network.

Secondly, the images of some mud-covered army grunt rolling out from cover to make sure his battle-scarred sat-phone has a clear view of the sky need not be applied to the T-Mobile Starlink plan.

Musk claimed that the connection will work "in your pocket, in your car."

Third, you probably won't even need to sign up for a special service. Sievert gleefully told the crowd (which seemed to cheer on cue), "I would expect the pricing for this service to be the Uncarrier's favorite price. The price that we've made famous, which is that we expect, on our most popular plans, for this service to be included for free."

Sievert later clarified that more affordable plans will probably pay an additional monthly fee for the ability to use the satellite service. But this being a tech alliance announcement and not a product rollout, no pricing information was forthcoming.

Still, I'm excited about the possibility of, say, an upcoming iPhone 14 Pro or even the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 I currently have running on T-Mobile being able to connect from virtually anywhere in the world - well, not exactly anywhere.

While this plan will offer you a connection for calls and texts (and maybe a photo and even the tiniest video) in places where you'd normally have no connectivity, it won't cover more than, as Sievert explained, "the lower 48 [of the United States], ...vast parts of Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and territorial waters and even vast parts of the world's oceans." T-Mobile is not a global company and while Starlink's satellites orbit the globe, T-Mobile's plan won't extend to Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, etc. without international carrier partnerships, which may or may not be in the offing.

I'm also aware that this is still just a promise.

Starlink has roughly 3,000 satellites in low-earth orbit right now but none of them are equipped to support this plan. Musk explained how they must equip Starlink second-generation satellites with giant, advanced phase-array antennas. Musk highlighted the challenges of sending a signal from your phone to a satellite 500 miles overhead and that's also traveling at 17,000 miles per hour (though he added that they had it working in the lab).

In other words, it's gonna take some time to literally get the plan off the ground and into the sky and the beta rollout won't happen until 2023.

I can't lie and say that the promise of "the end of dead zones," as Musk put it, doesn't excite me. Even in the suburbs I live with them and wonder if an orbiting satellite network as a backup might not ease some of my frustration. However, I also take Sievert and Musk's point that this is not just about consumer convenience. Hikers and people lost at sea or caught in blizzards have died because they couldn't communicate. This might help, providing their phones still have power and, I think, the sky is clear.

Looking beyond the somewhat silly pomp and circumstance of the launch event, I could not help thinking that this was important and that, yes, I wanted my cellphone to also be a satellite phone because why should any of us ever be disconnected?

If you think you might want to upgrade your smartphone before the advent of a phone satellite network, check out our list of the best smartphones of 2022.

The new OnePlus 10 Pro 5G smartphone recently went on sale in the United States and now has official certification to work on Verizon’s 5G network. Up until now, the device was exclusive to T-Mobile in the US.

Under Verizon’s 5G network, you can expect fast speeds for uploading pictures and videos, even in places with low bandwidth. It can also mean, depending on 5G coverage in your area, a more stable connection and fewer random drops in quality

However, it appears that the phone will not be able to take full advantage of Verizon’s two 5G standards. A Verizon representative told TechRadar that the smartphone does not support the mmWave spectrum, only the C-Band.

Lightning-fast speeds

According to Verizon, the C-Band is their mid-tier spectrum with speeds up to a gigabit and it’s available across a wider geographical area. The frequency can even penetrate buildings so you never lose those impressive speeds inside a building or tunnel.

The mmWave (millimeter wave) spectrum is even faster as it has frequencies between 28 and 39GHz with almost no lag. But the signal doesn’t go very far and it can’t enter buildings like lower frequencies.

Think of the C-Band as the Goldilocks standard in that it’s just right. It has fast enough speeds with a much wider range. Plus, this loss won’t really affect a lot of people as a report from 2021 by Opensignal revealed that only 0.5 percent of Verizon customers utilize mmWave.

Why mmWave isn’t supported could be because of hardware limitations. The 10 Pro runs on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset and up to 12GB of RAM. You’d expect the 10 Pro to have high-performance benchmarks, but it really doesn’t.

It’s actually slower than its predecessor, the OnePlus 9. In exchange, the 10 Pro is better optimized for AI and battery so the power needed for the mmWave was possibly throttled for other usage.

Supporting programs

Alongside the 5G certification, the OnePlus 10 Pro is also a part of Verizon’s Bring Your Own Device program. If you bought the phone from a different retailer or T-Mobile, you use this program to switch carriers. There, you select which phone plan you’d like.

And if you sign up for the unlimited plan, you’ll get a $500 gift card.

During the Google IO 2021 keynote, the search giant revealed a range of updates to its Search services, including improvements to its translation filter and the addition of professional athletes to its AR search - all in the name of learning.

Many of the new features are driven by Google's new Multitask Unified Model - or 'MUM' for short. It allows for enhancements in AI, and gives Google's artificial intelligence the ability to multitask, whereas most AI models do one task at a time.

Google is currently experimenting with MUM, but has confirmed it's already trained across 75 languages and can learn not only from text, but also other assets including images and information in languages you don't speak.

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Talk my language

One of the major updates is to the translate filter on Google's Lens camera app, which allows users to point their smartphone's camera at text written in a foreign language and get it translated on-screen.

A trio of new features here include the ability to search for relevant things in relation to the translated text from within the app itself - making it quicker and easier to understand what you're reading and find what you're looking for.

There's support for over 100 languages and the translate feature can even pull information on whatever topic you're studying from websites all over the world - no matter what language they're in, as it will translate the sites before serving the results.

The translate filter can now also read out the text, providing you with the pronunciation of words, aiding the learning and development of language skills.

Finally, you'll also be able to copy and paste translated text, allowing you to send it to others. Google's scenario example for this feature talked about those studying in a second language, with the ability to translate text into their native language and send it to family and friends who may be able to assist them with their studies.

The Google Lens update will be available globally on Android devices (via the Google app and Len app) from May, while the updates will arrive on iOS devices later in the coming months.

Athletes in your backyard

Google is expanding its AR (augmented reality) search to include well-known athletes, providing visual representation of complex sports movements from top performers from around the world.

With the AR integration you can, for example, superimpose a gymnast performing their routine seemingly in your backyard. The idea behind these AR experiences is to get people engaged with different disciplines and to help teach those with aspirations of going pro in the future.

Google already has a number of big names signed up to the service, with more expected in the future. This feature is available from May 18 in the Google app for Android and iOS devices worldwide.

Learning reliably

Google also wants to highlight reliable sources of information, and is improving its 'About this result' feature in search results. It's set to roll out the feature in English language, globally soon, with more languages and greater source information in the pipeline.

The search giant says it wants to provide users access to timely and reliable information, especially around health, politics and current events in an attempt to battle the vast amount of disinformation now on the web.

'About this result' provides information on websites surfaced by search, including a description of the site (pulled from Wikipedia) along with the date it was first indexed and details on whether the connection to the site is secure.

Websites won't be able to edit the information that appears in the 'About this result' section, but they will be able to provide feedback to Google.

Google hopes this additional layer of transparency will help inform users, although it remains to be seen what effect it will have on breaking news and factual information.

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Looking for a way you can help contribute to fighting the Covid-19 pandemic? An app from UK network Vodafone is now helping contribute to research into the coronavirus, and your phone can help out.

The Vodafone Foundation is working with doctors and researchers at Imperial College London to speed up Covid-19 research with its existing DreamLab app.

The Vodafone Foundation first launched its DreamLab app in 2015 to help researchers treat various types of cancers. Given the fact it has had years to hone the app’s features and the infrastructure behind it, redirecting the app’s efforts temporarily to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic seems like a welcome temporary switch.  

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In case you missed it the first time around, DreamLab uses the collective computing power of its user's smartphones to analyze complex data. This all happens while users are asleep, so they don’t feel the impact of the app on their phone's performance. 

The additional computing capability the app generates gives scientists access to much-needed processing clout, supporting them in identifying existing drugs and food-based molecules that may benefit Covid-19 patients and more.

The more people that download DreamLab, the higher the chances of it helping scientists taking advantage of its communal computing, specifically those in search of a coronavirus cure.

If you want to fire it up while you sleep, all you have to do is to remember to open the app on your Android or iOS smartphone every night when it’s plugged in to charge. You don't need to be on Vodafone to download it, and you can get it from anywhere in the world too.

DreamLab will automatically run in the background, and stop when you start using your phone again in the morning.

If you're connected to Wi-Fi then the background data processing will use that. Vodafone UK customers needn't worry about Wi-Fi though as the network will foot the bill for any data costs incurred while running the DreamLab app.

Imperial's research aims to identify existing drugs and food-based molecules with anti-viral properties that may benefit those with Covid-19 as part of phase one. 

Phase 2 of the DreamLabs Covid-19 research project seeks to optimize combinations of these drugs and food molecules to provide potential treatments and nutritional advice for those with Covid-19. 

Once complete, findings will be made available to the medical world to facilitate clinical trials. You can download the apps through the Apple App Store, and the Google Play Store. 

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The Samsung Galaxy S10 launches next month, and all signs point to a 5G version of the phone being there, too. But it might not come to all US carriers at first.

It's the bigger Galaxy S10 Plus we're talking about today, and it's set to get faster 5G speeds with 'maxed out' specs – if you're using Verizon, says Max Weinbach of XDA Developers.

We covered his tweets about key Galaxy S10 specs, including the RAM, storage, and camera leaks, but Weinbach also goes into a little more detail about the 5G version.

He notes Verizon won Samsung's bidding war for the 5G Galaxy S10 Plus, though he adds "not sure how long this lasts." Other carriers like AT&T surely want in too.

Exclusives are the pricey path to 5G

Carriers want 5G bragging rights, especially in the US and especially when it comes to a top-tier smartphone maker like Samsung. 

It's much a better business decision for a company like Samsung to sell its 5G phone to single carrier because it'll be expensive to make and mass produce. A phone that's more expensive than the max-out Note 9 isn't going to be the most popular.

That means the 5G Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus may be more about boasting than it is about getting 5G into the hands of everyday consumers. It's going to take some time for mass adoption.

As we learned from the forthcoming Verizon-bound Moto Z3 5G add-on, the 5G revolution is coming in 2019, making for thicker, expensive, and more power-hungry smartphones that are, so far, exclusive to Verizon.

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Update: Google Duplex has finally started rolling out, but so far only to a small number of Pixel users in select cities.

Google announced all kinds of goodies at this year’s Google IO, and one of the most interesting was Google Duplex. 

It’s an artificial intelligence agent that can make phone calls for you – and we don’t mean dialing the number. We mean it has actual conversations with real life people.

If you haven’t already seen the demo, please watch it below by skipping to 1 hour, 55 minutes on the video from Google's Keynote. We recommend you watch it as it's amazing.

Now, we know that keynote videos are the Instagram photos of the tech world: what you see is highly polished, carefully selected and often vastly different to what you can expect in reality... but Duplex could be really useful.

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What is it?

Google Duplex isn’t designed to replace humans altogether. It’s designed to carry out very specific tasks in what Google calls "closed domains". So for example you wouldn’t ask Google Duplex to call your mum, but you might ask it to book a table at a restaurant.

What can it do?

Initially Google Duplex will focus on three kinds of task: making restaurant reservations, scheduling hair appointments and finding out businesses’ holiday opening hours.

Why does it sound like a human?

Partly because Google reckons it’s the most efficient way to get the information, especially if there are variables and interruptions, and partly because if you got a phone call from the Terminator you’d probably hang up.

How does it work?

The full details are over at the Google AI Blog, but here’s the executive summary: Google Duplex enables you to get information that isn’t on the internet.

Google Duplex is the missing link between the Google Assistant and any business, because it enables the Assistant to get information that isn’t available digitally. For example, you might want to know a business’s holiday opening hours but they haven’t listed it on their website, or you might want to know if a shop has a particular item in stock and it doesn’t have online stock availability. 

So Duplex does what you’d do. It phones up and asks for the information it needs.

From a tech perspective, Google Duplex uses a recurrent neural network (RNN) built using TensorFlow Extended (TFX). There’s a really good introduction to RNNs here. What RNNs like the one powering Duplex can do is process sequential, contextual information, and that makes them well suited to machine learning, language modelling and speech recognition.

When you make a request, the Google Assistant will hand it over to Google Duplex to carry out; if it’s within Duplex’s abilities it’ll get on with it. If it isn’t, it will either tell the Assistant it can’t do it or refer the job to a human operator.

What’s so clever about it?

Duplex talks like a normal person, and that makes it a natural – and natural-sounding – extension to the OK Google functionality we already know. Let’s stick with our restaurant example. 

With Duplex, we could say “OK Google, find me a table for Friday night” and the Google app would then call restaurants on your behalf. Not only that, but it would have conversations – so if you wanted a table for around 7:30 but there wasn’t one, it could ask what times were available and decide whether those times fit your criteria. If not, the Google app would call another restaurant. Similarly if you wanted to arrange a meeting with Sarah, the Google app could call Sarah (or Sarah’s AI) to talk through the available time slots and agree which one would be best.

The key here is that this is all happening in the background. You tell Google to do something and it goes and does it, only reporting back after the task is complete.

Isn’t it creepy?

It is a bit, and it’s prompted some discussions online already: should AIs tell us that they’re AIs when they phone us up?

However, the answer from Google's perspective is seemingly yes, as the company has since confirmed that Google Duplex will identify itself at the start of a call, so while it might sound human you won't be in any doubt that you're talking to a machine.

Who’s it for?

The benefits for people with hearing difficulties are obvious, but it can also overcome language barriers: you might not know the local language, but Google Assistant does – so it can converse in a language you don’t speak. 

And it can be asynchronous, so you can make the request and then go offline while Google Duplex gets on with the job: it will report back when you’re online again. That’s useful in areas of patchy connectivity, or if you’re just really, really busy.

What’s it capable of?

That’s a very good question. Right now, our personal digital assistants are more about the digital than the assistance: you can ask them to turn up the lights or tune the radio, but they can’t book your car in for a service, make a dental appointment or any of the many other bits of tedious admin we spend so much time doing. Imagine the hours we’d save if we didn’t have to spend countless hours on the phone to change the tiniest little detail in a form, answer a simple customer service question or find out why our broadband is on the blink again.

Or, you know, it could go bad and refuse to open the pod bay doors.

2001 jokes aside, we can easily imagine Duplex-style agents tricking us into answering the kind of robocalls we currently terminate. And we can also imagine scams using this kind of technology to try and get your online banking details.

Duplex – and artificial intelligence generally – is a good example of how technology is morally neutral, neither good nor bad. As Microsoft also showed us this week there’s enormous potential to do good. 

But if it’s possible to misuse this tech, someone will find a way to do it.

When can I get Google Duplex?

Google has started rolling Duplex out to a small number of Pixel owners in "select cities." The company hasn't confirmed which cities, but it's likely to be New York, Atlanta, Phoenix, and San Francisco, as those cities are where Google Duplex was previously trialed.

Initially Google Duplex only works for restaurant reservations, but expect the other features and a wider roll out to happen eventually.

• Google Duplex could eventually make its way into call centers

We all need data. Without it our phones wouldn’t be nearly as useful. You pay for your monthly allowances, trying to make sure you have enough to get by, and then at the end of the month, all the unused data disappears as you return that allowance you’ve signed up for. You’ve probably thought there must be a better option for keeping that unused data. Well, Sky Mobile has the answer you were looking for.

You see, Sky Mobile has a great offering called Roll. Instead of taking away all the unused data every month, Roll will collect everything you didn’t get chance to use and store it inside your own personal piggybank. It’ll be safely kept there for up to three years, ready for when you need it the most.

Your piggybank is available 24/7 via the My Sky app or Sky.com, letting you see how much data you’ve stashed away. It’s also here that you can redeem the data for your personal use, so redeeming your savings is as easy as opening up a real piggybank and pouring out the contents. Roll is a way of letting yourself save up a little safety net, in case you burn through a bit too much data one month and risk being cut off.

Piggybank Rewards

Some savings can even be redeemed with Sky Piggybank Rewards, which lets you cash in your unused data in exchange for fabulous gifts - including accessories and discounts on new phones. Roll & Share also means you can use your own piggybank to share your data savings with friends and family, who are on the same Sky Mobile account, and you can use up to 5 SIMs on one account. That way they won’t risk running out of data either.

But there’s more to Sky Mobile than Roll and the piggybank. The network also offers a perk called ‘Mix’, which lets you change your allowances whenever you like each month. It’s so you can ‘Mix it up’ and make sure you have the plan that’s right for you, and that you only ever pay for what you need. It’s mainly designed to alter how much data you get, but Sky Mobile also lets you swap your standard unlimited calls and texts for a pay-as-you-use model.

Roll and Mix together

A great part of this proposition is that you can combine Roll and Mix together. So if you want to reduce your monthly bill you can ask for a smaller data allowance and redeem some of your piggybank savings to make up for it. Just make sure you have enough stored away!

Of course, if you’re happy with things the way they are, that’s all right, too. It’s all about making sure you have a contract that works best for you.

Roll is just one of many things Sky Mobile has to offer, with everything running on the same Telefónica network, which offers signal across 99 per cent of the UK. That way you’re not going to suddenly find yourself without signal, just because you left the house.

Sky Mobile has recently won a number of awards, including Best MNVO 2018 at the Mobile News Awards and Recommended Mobile Phone Provider 2018 by Which?

What you can save with Sky Mobile

Sky Mobile is also the obvious network to choose if you’re already a Sky TV customer. Sky TV customers get unlimited calls and texts each month at no extra cost, saving you £10 each month compared to non-Sky TV customers. In other words your monthly bill only has to include the cost of your data and phone. On top of that TV customers get free access to Sky Go Extra, letting you download all your favourite shows to your phone or tablet - so they’re ready to watch at your leisure.

If you like what you’ve heard so far, you can find more information, along with the network’s fantastic range of deals on the newest handsets, over on the Sky Mobile website.

Hello Sky Mobile, Hello Possible

Outages of the Three network on April 22 meant some customer’s SMS messages went to random recipients and have been read by the wrong person, but the UK network won't be contacting customers affected by the issue.

A Three spokesperson told TechRadar, “We’re aware that some customers have reported receiving misdirected texts or texts from unknown numbers. We are investigating these incidences [sic] but if any customer is concerned about this they should contact Three customer services.”

That means any customer will need to contact Three directly to know if messages went to the wrong places.

TechRadar asked Three direction what the network will be able to do for customers affected and were told: “If customers have any concerns about misdirected messages they should contact customer services who will address each situation on a case-by-case basis.”

However, customers are now complaining that the outage has caused confidential accounts to be compromised, and now the Information Commissioner's Office has confirmed to Ars Technica that it will be 'making enquiries' into the incident.

It's not clear if there will be compensation for your messages going to the wrong people, but it may happen if you use the customer service line.

TechRadar also asked for a gurantee this wouldn’t happen again on the network, but Three did not provide one.

No guarantee

It’s thought the problems came from a technical network issue rather than any other external factors, so whether Three will be able to stop this happening in the future is currently unclear. 

Customers who sent messages may not know if they reached a wrong number as Three isn't actively telling those affected, while those who received strange messages have been told by Three "to ignore all text messages that you deem incorrect."

If you think you’ve sent personal or confidential data from your Three phone and want to know if your message was received by the right person, you should contact Three’s customer services at 333 from your Three phone or 0333 338 1001 from another device.

EE customers can now get free access to BT Sport, the first proper tie-in between the two brands since BT took over the double-lettered network.

However, it's not as simple as 'Got EE? Have some football!' as there are a few caveats if you want to be checking out a spot of sport on the go – we spoke to EE to find out exactly what you'll need to qualify, and what's actually on offer here.

You'll be getting access to BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2, BT Sport Europe and ESPN – but is it really free? Will you get anything extra? And where can you actually use it?

• Behind the scenes of BT Sport's 4K Ultra HD revolution

1. It's free for six months on EE

Once you activate the deal, you'll be getting access to the four portals listed above for six months – after which you'll need to pay £5 per month to keep watching on your EE device.

BT Mobile offers the same thing for the lifetime of the contract – there were some questions about whether this was actually a limited offer, but we've spoken to BT and they've confirmed it's for as long as you take the mobile service.

If you're on EE and want some BT Sport right now, the good news is the offer is live and ready to be taken up as an option.

2. It's only for phones and tablets

Here's the bad news for anyone that's got Sky and has been holding out on paying the rather expensive fees to add in BT Sport: you're not able to watch BT's channels on the big screen as part of this deal. It's only offered on phones and tablets, and Chromecast screen sharing will be disabled too.

However, EE promises that it's able to tell if you're watching on a phone or tablet, and will optimise the stream for either screen. So the smaller, lower-res displays will get about 1.2Mbps, but the iPad Pro devices of this world, with a bunch more pixels to play with, will get streams up to 2.5Mbps to keep the sharpness up.

3. It'll use your data allowance

This won't come as much of a surprise – it would have been a massive bonus if it didn't take your bytes to watch this sport. EE told us that the rise of watching football on the go inspired the offer, with a big spike in catching some action on the go showing there's an appetite for it.

However, make sure you've got a decent bundle if you're going to be keeping up with the latest sporting shenanigans – you could be munching up to 2GB of data on a phone if you're going to watch the whole match and hoover up the half time show too.

4. Not for all on EE

While EE is touting this as a big deal for its customers, it's not great if you've chosen a pay as you go tariff.

EE has confirmed to us that this is only for customers on pay monthly plans – so if you topup whenever you fancy it, you're not going to get the BT Sport deal. Similarly, if you're a 4G Wi-Fi broadband customer, that's also excluded.

However, there is a glimmer of light: EE has confirmed it's 'looking' at a pay as you go option in the future.

5. How to activate EE's BT Sport deal

Right, you've read all that and decided you fancy the free six month trial. It's now pretty simple: you'll just need to text 'SPORT' to 150 from any EE handset.

If that's not possible (perhaps you're running an iPad) then you'll need to phone the call centre and talk to an actual human. Urgh.

Once that's done, you'll download the BT Sport app (which is available on iOS, Android and even Windows Phone) and enter the details you've been given – sport is then spurting into your eyeballs.

…. There's more to come

While the company wouldn't be drawn on precisely what, EE did confirm to us that it was exploring some other options with BT for the future – although it's hard to see what that will be precisely, given EE already gives access to BT Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots (which would have been the obvious choice).

Marc Allera, EE's CEO, confirmed as much with a recent statement: "The BT Sport offer is the first in a series of benefits we've planned for this summer which together will highlight EE as offering an unrivalled network experience for those wanting to make the best from their smartphone.""

The big question here lies with EE TV and BT Sport – to steal Bacon's parlance, it seems a no-brainer that those that have streaming service on their phone should be able to watch it on their EE tellybox too… we'll keep poking to see if that's on the way.

O2 customers could soon be browsing the web free of adverts, as the company has admitted that it is in the "well advanced" stages of testing the technology that would see ads automatically blocked network wide.

According to Business Insider, O2 executives have said that the technology is so advanced that it will even block adverts before they are even served, so they won't be downloaded to users' phones (with all of the bandwidth usage that entails).

The news comes just two days after it was reported that EE was looking into doing something similar on its network.

While it might be welcome news for O2's 25 million customers, the fact that both networks appear to be close to introducing the technology will have advertisers and publishers a little nervous.

Competition

Of course, once one network introduces it, the rest may be pressured into doing the same in order to keep up with the competition.

Like EE, O2 has said that its intentions are only to encourage "best practice" amongst advertisers - and to weed out any ads that are judged to be excessively intrusive. Business Insider quotes Robert Franks, O2's Managing Director of Digital Commerce as saying:

"We are absolutely looking at [network-level ad blocking] technology. We are holding ourselves to the highest standards with our own advertising. We are looking at these technologies to see if they can help our customers with some of the bad practices and disruptive experiences that are happening."

As with EE's experiments factoring into BT's on-going acquisition of the network, O2 is also currently in the process of being purchased by Three - so presumably we can expect to see any ad-blocking advances apply to Three too.

• Remember when Adblock Plus got annoyed that iOS9 will let users block ads?

Update: Services have no resumed as per normal for all customers and Three has apologised for the outage.

A spokesperson for Three said, "Internet services have now been restored for affected customers. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by the issue this morning."

Original story: Social media is alight right now with people complaining about Three UK and how the internet is currently down on the network.

Some people in our office are experiencing the problem too, with internet dropping out entirely or switching back to 3G rather than using 4G. However, it seems some customers are unaffected.

Three told techradar: "We apologise that some customers are experiencing problems with data services currently. Our engineers are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible."

So there's no official word on when the issue will be resolved – it's been going on for a few hours so it's clearly not something that can be fixed with the flick of a switch.

• How Apple plans to tackle out of control iPhone roaming charges

Vodafone has announced a new phone that gives you 4G internet at a low price and it even packs some quite impressive specs considering how much it costs.

The Smart Speed 6 offers a 4.5-inch display, 1GB of RAM, a MediaTek quad-core processor and only weighs 146g.

It comes packed with Android 5.1 Lollipop software, has a 5MP rear camera, a 2MP front facing camera and the best part is you get 4G connectivity if you're on a suitable data plan.

Super cheap 4G

All of this comes for £50 – quite impressive considering two years ago no phone in this range offered super fast internet connectivity.

EE still holds the title for the cheapest 4G phone in the UK with the EE Rook that costs £49 for those already with the network. You'll be able to pre-order the Smart Speed 6 on the Vodafone website soon.

• Our review of the EE Rook

Three has launched 4G Super-Voice, a network enhancement which promises its customers improved mobile coverage while indoors and in rural locations.

4G Super-Voice is actually VoLTE (Voice over LTE), and has been made possible by the implementation of the network's 800MHz spectrum. This low frequency spectrum is better at penetrating buildings and can travel greater distances - meaning it can reach into areas of the countryside currently not touched by the network.

It also means you phone won't have to fall back to the 3G network every time you're on a voice call, keeping you on the speedy 4G service at all times.

The new enhancement has already been rolled out to three quarters of London, Edinburgh, Exeter and Birmingham, and Three plans to have 65% of the nation covered by the end of the year.

Next on the 4G Super-Voice hit list are Cardiff, Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol, with the service starting to roll to these areas out now.

The catch

You won't necessarily be able to take advantage of 4G Super-Voice right away, even if you are in a coverage area. For now, only Samsung Galaxy S5 and LG G4 owners are switched on.

In fact Galaxy S5 owners should already have the update, and you may have already experienced VoLTE and not even realised it.

Three says all handsets which support VoLTE will be switched on before the end of the year, and that includes the newly announced iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, as well as last year's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

This comes off the back of both EE and Vodafone launched Wi-Fi Calling smarts this year, allowing you phone to make and receive phone calls and text messages via a Wi-Fi network.

Three technically also supports this with its InTouch app (as does O2 with the TuGo app), although implementation is no where near as seamless as its Wi-Fi Calling rivals.

Vodafone, EE and O2 have all talked about launching VoLTE services in the future, and now Three is out of the gates you can expect the others to follow suit soon.

• What is Wi-Fi calling?

Vodafone is launching a Wi-Fi Calling service for all of its UK customers meaning you'll soon be able to make and receive phone calls even when your home signal is poor.

If you're on a pay monthly Vodafone Red Bundle, and have a compatible handset, you'll get to use the service for free.

EE rolled out a similar service in the UK earlier this year and Vodafone seems to be playing catch up here with a service that works without the use of a separate app – it'll just work when you're on Wi-Fi.

No need for apps

That means you can be on the London Underground or in a basement, and as long as you have Wi-Fi signal and you'll still be able to pick up the phone.

A release date is just said to be in "the coming weeks" and it'll gradually roll out over a selection of different handsets. We've asked what handsets are coming first and when but so far there's been no word from Vodafone.

This does mean O2 and Three are both playing catch up in this field - both networks have seperate apps for calling on Wi-Fi but don't support a service that works without them - and it'll be interesting to see which can do it first.

• Everything you need to know about Wi-Fi Calling

As recently as one year ago, there wasn't a great deal to say about the budget smartphone market. Aside from hero devices such as the original Moto G, consumers who bought into lower-end handsets would find often find themselves frustrated by mediocre screens and battery life. Manufacturers operated under a maxim of frugality, and even the most bone-scraping of cuts would be made.

Fast-forward to the present, and things have changed considerably. China has awoken, and with it a highly competitive domestic smartphone market. Devices manufactured by the likes of Xiaomi, Huawei and OnePlus are now positioned to flood Western markets, and the established players are beginning to catch on.

Enter the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6, designed by Vodafone and manufactured by telecoms giant ZTE. With a 5.5-inch Full HD screen, 3000mAh battery, Snapdragon 615 processor and 13MP rear-facing camera, the device has formidable specifications. For £125 on Pay As You Go (locked to Vodafone), it presents itself as something of a game-changer, certainly to a British public only just getting used to the idea of a 720p screen at less than £150.

So can the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 really live up to the hype?

Design

The first thing that's apparent when picking up the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 is its impeccable balance. When creating a device that is intended to be both thin and long, while still remaining usable with one hand, balance becomes a considerable priority.

Its weight helps here too. Coming in at a mere 159g, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 is light without being insubstantial. It feels as though it could take a knock with some confidence, without being so brick-like as to feel clunky.

As for design however, that is another story altogether. Upon first viewing, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 doesn't make a great impression. As the rear of the device attests, it was manufactured by Chinese giant ZTE and designed by Vodafone. And yet, it leaves the distinct impression that design was not a priority, beyond weight and balance.

It's a nondescript grey slab with the look of having been designed by committee. However, it is pleasingly svelte, measuring in at 8.35mm – making it thinner than the portly Nokia Lumia 930.

It isn't as though the phone is exactly ugly, rather that it's eminently forgettable. Made from a grey matte plastic, the device has no features to distinguish it, save for a small chrome-effect Vodafone logo positioned carefully on the rear.

One odd feature that further suggests design-by-committee is the simulated rear back-plate. That is to say, around the device runs a raised line that very much resembles a seam, and yet it's impossible to remove the back. Many phones at this price point have a removable backplate, so the decision to fake it here is surprising. On the top of the device is a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The left side of the Vodafone Smart Ultra Six is free from any buttons, instead offering a removable tray for a MicroSD card to supplement the generous 16GB of internal flash memory.

Moving to the right side, you'll find the power button at the bottom, and the volume controls above this. The buttons are sensibly placed given the size of the device, which is something that could easily have gone wrong. The bottom of the phone holds only a micro-USB slot, for charging and connecting to a PC.

On the back is the 13MP rear-facing camera, along with a single bulb LED flash and a small microphone port. Moving down, there is the Vodafone logo picked out in chrome-effect plastic. At the bottom sits the single rear-firing speaker, an inconspicuous 4G logo, and device information to the bottom left.

Lastly, on the front of the device there is the call speaker, a 5MP selfie camera and, the main attraction, the 5.5 inch Full HD screen, covered with "toughened glass" (no Gorilla Glass here).

Around the rim there is a small strip of yet more chrome-effect plastic, which looks as though it will be the first part of the phone to suffer wear and tear. At the bottom are three capacitive keys, laid out in the same manner as on Android Lollipop.

Although it isn't exactly inspiring, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 must be commended for keeping things simple. It doesn't wow, but nor is it an ugly brick like so many budget devices.

Screen

Oh boy, what a display. For the price, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 has perhaps the best screen I've ever seen. If this is where the budget market is going, then we're all in for a treat.

Just a year ago, being on a budget meant accepting a resolution of 960 x 540. How things have changed: now devices such as the Microsoft Lumia 640 are at the head of a 720p charge, bringing higher resolution panels as far down the price ladder as is currently possible.

Yet, with a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 achieves a first at this price point, sidestepping its competitors with a heady PPI of 400. With such a large screen and high pixel count, video and reading on the device are a treat.

This is only emphasized by the colour accuracy of the display. Accustomed to AMOLED screens such as the Samsung Galaxy S5, I have typically been underwhelmed by LCD screens, at least in the budget section of the market where a lack of dazzle is their defining feature.

However the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 has changed my opinion, and then some. The screen is pleasant on the eyes, rendering scenes with enough vibrancy to be interesting, but without being so bright as to look cartoonish.

Being an IPS screen, good viewing angles are a given from the Smart Ultra 6. But the device even exceeded my expectations in this regard, with no drop-off in either colour or brightness, even when viewing from extreme angles.

The only slight downside to the display is the lack of Gorilla Glass. This coating is almost ubiquitous among well known phone manufacturers, and the oil-resistant coating it has helps to keep everything smooth and pleasant.

Having used devices with Gorilla Glass for quite some time, it is easy to detect its absence from the Smart Ultra 6. Scrolling through web pages often required pushing with a little more force than usual to maintain speed, which unfortunately resulted in unwanted presses quite frequently.

The device possesses an automatic brightness setting, although this isn't activated by default. Essentially, this allows the phone to detect environmental brightness and adjust its display accordingly, something that often does not come as standard in mobile devices.

The display can get impressively bright, remaining usable in all but the sunniest of conditions, again something that is unusual at this price point.

In all, this is a screen that wholeheartedly outperforms all expectations. Bright, colourful and detail-packed, this is likely one of the best panels ever available at this price point, and is a high point of the device.

Bloatware

While the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 has many admirable qualities, it also has a number of negatives. And of these, the bloatware counts as one of the most significant.

At first glance, the approach taken to the software experience on the device is refreshing. As with the hardware design, Vodafone has opted to leave things primarily as Google intended, with the Smart Ultra boasting an almost stock experience.

This is no doubt something that will leave Android purists overjoyed. Although many manufacturers try to improve on the original experience, such as with Huawei's heavily skinned P8 or the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, many find it difficult to do so. In the worst cases, complicated manufacturer skins can slow down the software experience, or even worse, confuse the user.

As such, the Vodafone should appeal to many – that is, until they try to text.

When a carrier or manufacturer produces a device, especially for the budget market, services and apps come bundled in, as a way to recoup costs. Vodafone has included quite a few, of which Message+ is the most prominent. Set as the default texting app, it has a long set-up process, and afterwards turns out to be nothing more than a generic, slow instant messenger.

It is hardly alone: Direct Access, My Web, Updates and Vodafone Start, Smart Tips and Smart Flow also make an appearance. Mostly these are quite useless. Direct Access is a link to an online Vodafone accessories store, My Web is a hotlink to the Vodafone website. Updates works to keep all Vodafone apps updated (surprisingly), while Smart Flow is an alternate, buggy, home screen. Lastly, Smart Tips is a series of small guides on how to use a smartphone for the first time, which could admittedly be useful for some.

The prevalence of carrier apps on this device is only emphasized by the general light-touch approach on the rest of the device, and as such is quite jarring.

No frills 4G

4G is the mobile internet technology of the future. Marketed by everyone from phone manufacturers to mobile carriers, it is expected to deliver an appreciable improvement in mobile internet speeds for many across the country – that is, when it arrives.

One of the main barriers of entry to 4G so far, beside a lack of availability outside the big cities, has been price. When the tech debuted in the UK, it came with a significant price point, no matter the tariff. As time has gone by, this bar has been lowered with every passing month, to the point that 4G is now accessible at almost any price point.

To date, however, the very last barrier to entry has remained stubbornly high: phone capability. When purchasing a flagship device, either on contract or SIM-free, it is expected to come with all bells and whistles, attached and working accordingly. The lack of 4G on something like the LG G3 would come as a shock, both to the press and the public.

At the budget level however, especially at the sub-£100 price point, 4G remains something of a luxury. As such, its inclusion on the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 comes as something of a surprise. And as someone used to HSDPA+, this surprise proved to be very pleasant.

In the Swindon area, using the Vodafone network, I was able to achieve and maintain download speeds of 25.77 Mbps and upload speeds of 12.40 Mbps. These are hardly the best that 4G can offer, but the difference from HSDPA+ was quite noticeable.

The inclusion of 4G helps to further set the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 apart from its competitors at this press. While other manufacturers charge extra for models with 4G (such as Motorola's Moto G 4G), that Vodafone offers it as standard is something of a coup.

Photography fun

Cameras and camera software have long been the main sphere for improvement in device design. As phones eliminate the compact camera from the market, image quality is improving with every passing model.

Again, this was something that has typically been the preserve of elite models, like the Samsung Galaxy S6, or the Nokia Lumia 1020, which respectively boast a fast aperture and a crazy megapixel count. Now, this is another battle that is moving into the budget space.

And here is a space in which Vodafone has attempted to distinguish itself from the rest of the budget pack. The Smart Ultra 6 boasts a 13MP sensor, which is quite remarkable given the price point.

Typically, although more megapixels definitely does not equal better photos, bigger numbers sell more phones simply through sounding more impressive. Last year, many devices hovering around the £100 price point had a 5MP camera, sometimes even without autofocus. Many devices in this price bracket that have debuted so far this year have gone one better, with the Moto G 2014 and the Microsoft Lumia 640 sporting an 8MP sensor with autofocus and a flash.

With 13MP to play with, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 immediately distinguishes itself from its peers, though the performance of this sensor is quite something else altogether.

Usually, at least at the moment, when selecting a budget device, the choice of processor can be a little underwhelming. With nearly every device running either a Qualcomm Snapdragon 415 or a MediaTek chip, performance is mostly the same between devices. In the present that means that most are adequate for the needs of the average user, and this is certainly the case with the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6.

In fact, the device comes with a slightly higher specification than most, running a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615, which comes a similar architecture to the 415 but is clocked at a slightly higher speed. Keeping memory operations tiding over nicely is a healthy 2GB of RAM.

On a whole, the device runs mostly without a hitch. Running Android 5.0.2 Lollipop, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 nips and zips between applications with only the occasional delay, and handles most games quite well.

Game Dev Story, as might be expected ran perfectly. Subway Surfers, a slightly more memory intensive game, ran with only slight hiccups when entering new areas, which did impede gameplay slightly when playing at higher speeds. Crossy Road also ran smoothly, though the likes of Dead Trigger 2 could struggle a little.

As for Geekbench, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 achieved a respectable single core score of 634, coming in at slightly under the Samsung Galaxy S4, which scored 658. The multiple core score was also acceptable, coming in at 2,091, higher than the Samsung Galaxy S4 and even approaching the performance of the Google Nexus 5.

Though not quite a patch on the Samsung Galaxy S6 or the iPhone 6, the score of the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 shows just how far budget devices have come. While the top has plateaued slightly, the lower end of the market continues to makes gains.

For the average user, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 ought to suffice nicely. I generally found it a pleasant surprise in day-to-day use. If you don't expect a blazing-fast gaming demon, then this will certainly do.

Battery life

On first unpacking the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6, I was greeted with the pleasant revelation that it had a fully charged battery. Everything on the device, including several battery manager apps, assured me that this was the case, and so I went about my business without a thought.

After three hours of listening to music on Spotify via wired headphones, and checking the occasional song lyric online however, and the battery continued to read 100%. Indeed, even after two days, and shutting down from a lack of power, the battery continued to claim it had full capacity. As such, gaining an accurate measure of battery life became quite difficult.

Nonetheless, I carefully tracked my usage, and it is safe to say that the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 has a good battery life, if not exactly great. Vodafone claims that it should be possible to get up to two days' use from the device, but in my experience this is only with very light use.

Starting the day at 7am, and pounding the battery throughout the day with heavy internet use, some tethering, music, a little gaming and constant messaging, the device went caput at around 7:30 pm. In more average usage, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 ought to manage around four-and-a-half hours of screen-on time, easily enough for the average user.

However, road warriors and keen gamers will want to keep a spare battery pack handy, as the device doesn't quite have the stamina to hang with the best. Moreover, lacking any version of the quick-charge technology that has become standard among more expensive devices, the Smart Ultra 6 takes several hours to charge fully.

A battery saver mode is available, restricting processor performance and background data in order to achieve a few hours of extra use.

Although not reaching quite the same battery heights as the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 or the Apple iPhone 6 Plus, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 is a competent performer and ought to meet the needs of the average user.

From a mobile communications expert such as Vodafone, it might be expected that call quality would be excellent. Instead it is merely average, and this is entirely acceptable.

Calls sometimes sound a little tinny, and callers on the other end of the line remarked that occasionally a little echo could creep into the call, but otherwise the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 is on par with its peers.

Either using 4G or HSDPA+, internet speeds were, on the whole, excellent. The device kept a strong connection almost no matter the location. As a result, browsing the web was a highly pleasant experience, especially given the extra screen space on offer.

Although the built-in Android keyboard lacks gesture typing support, it's sensibly laid out and generally quite pleasant to use, though most users will likely opt to install the far better Google Keyboard from the Play Store.

Audio quality is something that manufacturers are increasingly focusing on, even at this price point. Consumers are beginning to expect their phone to suffice as an impromptu music player that will make them the envy of their companions.

The Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 does not quite hit this note. Though the sound from the rear-firing speaker is free from distortion, this may be simply because the speaker cannot quite get loud enough to distort. Almost anything – a shower, a passing car or a light breeze – can drown out the weak beats thrown by this tiny speaker.

It isn't quite sufficient for throwing those bangin' beats, but for media consumption in a quiet room, it is about OK. There is also a surprisingly decent FM Radio app included.

GPS performance was acceptable in most situations, achieving a quick lock even in areas without a great deal of coverage.

Camera

With a 13MP rear-facing camera, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 is among the first, at least in the UK, to offer so many megapixels at such a low price point.

More megapixels is not always better however. The quality of photos often depends on sensor size, generally the bigger the better. Smaller sensors gather less light, and as such often have to work harder to produce better images, utilizing software tricks to help with things like colour and sharpness than many people use to judge photos.

The higher number of megapixels however only helps to reduce the amount of light that such a small sensor can receive, in addition to negatively affecting low-light performance, this can sometimes even affect detail capture.

As such, when I activated the camera app on the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 for the first time, my expectations were not exactly high.

The camera app itself turned out to be something of a surprise however, being both usable and customizable. Upon starting, three modes are available to the user, which can be activated by either taping or sliding, much as with the iPhone 6. "Mode" allows access to High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode, filters, smile detection image capture, interval capture and a panorama mode.

Interestingly, there is also a multi-exposure mode. This allows for the capture of several images, which are then stitched together to create various effects, similar to the process of bracketing with a more traditional camera. Unfortunately, the results of this mode vary wildly, and often leave an obvious painterly look. Using it requires either a steady hand or a tripod, and as I lacked both, I found I did not use it very often.

There are also a number of manual controls, to change things such as ISO in order to better compose shots.

On the left hand side of the app, there is a toggle to switch between the 13MP rear-facing camera and the 5MP selfie cam. There is also a timer which can be set to three, five or ten seconds, an automatic flash toggle and quick access to the settings menu, which allows for more fine-tuning of capture.

On the right, there is a toggle to activate movie capture mode (which begins capturing footage instantaneously upon selection) and a link to the gallery app at the bottom.

In good lighting, the sensor manages adequately. Fine detail isn't too smudged, colour reproduction is a little cool and noise keeps its ugly head down. Move from these conditions however, and things change for the worse. The sensor struggles to handle low-light conditions, and even in brighter settings photos can often have a smudgy look to them. Video recorded by the device is similarly flat.

The selfie camera is another story. With 5 MP and a nice wide-angle to play with, the snapper achieves pleasant results, even without having to resort to the horrors of the common Beauty modes found in many snappers these days.

Click here to see the full res image

Click here to see the full res image

Click here to see the full res image

Click here to see the full res image

Though disappointing in some key areas, I found that using the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 was mostly a pleasant experience. Even at a lower price point, it manages to outcompete most of its peers, especially in terms of performance.

We liked

The full HD, 5.5-inch panel on the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 is a true beauty. Offering excellent clarity, colour reproduction and brightness, it is the screen of a smartphone that is at least twice as expensive.

With a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chugging away inside, performance on the device is great. Navigating the UI is a seamless experience, while games mostly maintain consistent framerates, outside of the more intensive titles.

Reception on the device is fantastic: even in areas where I normally receive no reception, the Smart Ultra 6 still managed to maintain a strong connection. In areas with 4G, internet speeds were commonly very fast, even when compared to other devices, especially at the same price point.

We disliked

As the competition continues to heat up at the lower end of the market, it is no longer acceptable to pass off a grey slab as a modern smartphone. Though the design of the device is inoffensive, the Smart Ultra 6 struggles to stand out against more colourful and attractive competitors.

The rear-facing camera, though possessing some promising hardware, produces only barely adequate results. Images are often washed out, with the sensor having a very poor dynamic range, and video is also very flat with a washed-out look.

Battery life, though mostly acceptable, does not meet the claims set by Vodafone. Though many users will find this acceptable anyway, this is certainly not the battery champion it is set out to be. The excessive bloatware also makes for a poor impression.

Final Verdict

For £125 on Pay As You Go, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 could be the budget device to beat at the moment. And with a large, bright Full HD screen, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, 3000mAh battery, 13MP rear-facing camera and 5MP wide angle selfie cam, on paper this certainly appears to be the case.

However, with a bland design, poor camera performance and a battery that is only adequate, the constraints of this price point certainly make themselves heard.

In many other ways however, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 exceeds its price point, and then some. The screen is excellent, the performance is more than satisfactory, and the inclusion of a 4G radio, let alone a good one, at this point is very encouraging.

With the Smart Ultra 6, Vodafone is attempting to cast off the appearance of compromise that has dogged its smartphone efforts so far, and has mostly succeeded. The Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 is one of the most exciting devices of the year at this price point, and as such is well worth a look, especially if you're on Vodafone's network already.

First reviewed: July 2015

When first watching the new Three ad, you could be forgiven for thinking it's nothing more than a new campaign, combining a Henson Muppet with an East 17 track.

A simple tale of a fluffy monster that battles back from adversity to start a revolution. Brilliant times, right?

Wrong.

There's a secret lurking behind the whole thing. Watch it once and you'll miss it, but watch it 37 times and you'll notice that there's a lot going on you haven't realised.

Purple is meant to be on some desolate US streets at the start. It's a nod to New York, but the sign for 'Plato's Retreat 2' is an advert for a slightly dodgy club in Fort Lauderdale, which shut down in 2006.

The cars are driving on the left, yet outside Mount Montrose that's clearly a US number plate – despite the doorman being English.

OK, so Purple is short, but a dog won't randomly attack a stranger and grab his umbrella. Was he poking him, goading the dog into the attack?

And the dog seems to belong to the chap on the phone – so why isn't he turning? Is he aware… or simply a part of the scenery?

It's a little unclear, but that sounds like a Devonshire accent on the Dad, despite them clearly being on a mid-west farm.

After the hallucination, Purple suddenly dries in a second, and the rain stops. Something happened here – and it's a clear sign of what's REALLY going on.

Sure, losing your ice cream is a terrible thing to happen. But slow things down and you'll realise something – she only starts crying when Purple shows up. Is he a portent of something bigger?

Sorry for being HUMAN, but if I'm leading cheers while dressed in skin-tight Spandex and shaking my pom-poms and I hear a scream behind me, I'd turn around to see what's what. The crowd's heads would definitely turn as well.

Then Purple turns up. Nobody looks at him either.

Purple isn't helping the couple in jeopardy. If anything, he's making it worse, by not shifting his weight back and helping counter-balance the stricken auto.

In fact, why is he on the car at all, and suspiciously near the brake cable?

In what looks suspiciously like a British kitchen (that's Hartley's jam in the fridge), there's a snake. Nothing weird there, perhaps. Zoos have breakouts all the time.

But look at the back door. It's a split one. If this lady, in her nightwear, was going to open it to have a shufty outside, she'd have only opened the top section, thus giving a modicum of serpent protection.

But someone opened it all the way. And someone just flicked their way out of the fridge at the correct moment.

Look at the front. The flames are licking up from INSIDE. Doesn't seem like it started itself, does it?

Let's ignore the fact Purple has a quad bike and is ignoring the dying man – why is that sign off centre? The way it's attached hints at two struts, but only one is in shot.

In fact, there's no hint of a second one ever being there. Something seems surreal.

I know what you're thinking. Bomb man doesn't want to cut the yellow wire as it could set off the bomb.

But it's about to blow anyway, and some part of him thinks the yellow wire could lead to salvation. Why wouldn't he take a chance?

Also, there's no chance Purple would have got away in time if the bomb did blow.

So the finale is something straight out of a fantasy. Purple, despite being the architect of so much doom in the video, is leading a troupe in a hyper-energetic dance.

The bomb dude is alive. The girl has a gravity-defying ice cream. The cheerleaders are dressed in HIS colours. The whole thing seems oddly perfect, which leads us to the only explanation:

Here's the only plausible explanation: Purple is slumped in an alleyway in Somewhere-In-The-US, his mind flashing images of pain with him escaping as he battles against the grim reality his failed attempt to 'make it' has forced him to live.

It explains why the guy on the phone didn't turn around, why the cheerleaders continued, why the couple in the car didn't beg for his help. He was the main protagonist in his own warped nightmare.

I can't handle the sadness. We've got to find a way to save him. I'm going to go and watch Inception a few times to work out how.

#savepurple

Update: Vodafone has updated its cheap handset range with the new Smart Prime 7. It's good enough we've even included it in our best cheap phone round-up.

We're at a time in smartphone evolution when budget phones are actually not all that bad (see also: digital cameras and laptops) – and that means you can save yourself some money without ending up with a real clunker of a handset.

Apple and Samsung may hog the limelight, but not everyone cares what a Snapdragon is, or necessarily want to spend the money to get one. Do you want your phone to run first-person shooters smoothly or just cover the basics? There are more people in the latter camp than you might think.

Into that context comes the Vodafone Smart Prime 6, one of the new breed of 'own-brand' phones that the networks are releasing (such as the EE Harrier Mini). Available in the UK, it costs £79 with a pay-as-you-go SIM included.

That's pretty much the cheapest way to get 4G today and you get yourself a 5-inch 720 x 1280 pixel display, 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm processor and Android 5.0 Lollipop thrown into the mix, too.

If you're really tight for cash, there's a £40 derivative called the Smart First 6: with a poor camera, slower processor, smaller screen and Android KitKat, you're definitely better off paying the extra £39.

The camera is a serviceable 8-megapixel shooter and there's a 2-megapixel model on the front. 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage (expandable via memory card) round out the key specs. I'm not sure of the battery size, but we've asked Vodafone for clarification.

Design

Vodafone isn't going to win any international design awards with the Smart Prime 6, but it's well constructed and feels comfortable to hold. The back panel is nicely finished grey plastic and a metallic trim around the screen adds a small touch of class.

You'd struggle to find anything particularly interesting or innovative about the design of the phone. It's nicely rounded and curved at the corners and the build quality suggests you're going to get a good number of years' service from it.

As I've said, the paltry 8GB internal storage can be expanded via microSD card up to an extra 64GB of room, so that's not so much of an issue. You're probably going to need a card if you're at all into your music or movies.

The screen is something of a disappointment – it's not really sharp or bright enough for my liking, but it's usable. You're probably going to want to have it ramped up at maximum brightness most of the time.

It's a world away from something such as the Nexus 6 display, but then you are forking out around one-fifth of the money.

Button and port positions are all standard, with a headphone socket on top and the microUSB connector underneath. The back is removable, but the battery isn't – flipping off the case lets you get at the memory card and SIM card slots.

Key features

£79 is a steal for a 4G smartphone, and I'd say the Vodafone Smart Prime 6 is money well spent. Display aside, it takes care of all of the basics well, and Lollipop is the best Google-flavoured OS yet by some distance.

Vodafone includes its own little suite of apps on the phone: Discover (which looks like special offers and support information), MyWeb (a Vodafone-flavoured home page for your browser) and Updates (self-explanatory).

You can install additional tools from Vodafone to monitor your account and connection speeds. They're all largely underwhelming and very much optional. There's Smart Flow, too, a collection of live wallpapers.

The only real reason you're going to pick up this phone is if you want the best value for money or you've taken a shine to a Vodafone sales assistant. Does it give you all the basics you need at a rock-bottom price? Absolutely.

Lollipop is actually the real star here – the latest Android upgrade is so polished and comprehensive that you feel you're using a much better phone. Vodafone has done something strange to make the navigation buttons neon blue, but otherwise it's largely untouched, which is good.

Performance

Vodafone's promotional blog post describes the 1.2GHz CPU as "monstrous" – come on Vodafone, you're not fooling anyone – but it gets the job done most of the time.

Trying to scroll down complex websites does occasionally feel like trying to scroll through treacle and there is noticeable lag every now and again when using the phone.

I wouldn't exactly describe it as "snappy", but most apps move along at a respectable pace. That said, it feels like the bare minimum for what you'd want to run Lollipop on (probably why the aforementioned Smart First 6 goes back to KitKat).

I didn't dare install any game with serious clout for fear of breaking the review handset (not that there was enough room to install most major games on the internal storage anyway). Endless runner Subway Surfers ran fine – there was no stuttering or crashing there.

Geekbench 3 came back with a multi-core score of 1414 – compare that with the top-of-the-pile Samsung Galaxy S6 at 4846 and that says just about all you need to know performance-wise.

Battery life

I used the Smart Prime 6 in the same way I'd use my normal phone for a couple of days – that is to say, not very much – and usually ended up with around 70-75% battery left at the end of the day.

That's a bit of texting, a bit of web browsing, a couple of YouTube clips (it was lunchtime after all) and a call or two. Even if you're on your phone all the time, you should comfortably make it through a full day – if you're not, it'll last you well into the early hours and the next morning.

It would seem dim, low-resolution screens do have an advantage after all in terms of battery savings, but don't get the wrong impression – this isn't a workhorse that will last you for days.

Our regular battery test – a 90-minute HD video on full brightness – took the phone down from 100% to 90%, which is way up at the top of the charts (the Galaxy S6 went down to 84%, the Moto G dropped all the way to 74%).

With a low-powered CPU and a so-so screen, you'd expect battery life to be decent, but nevertheless it's good to know that the Vodafone Smart Prime 6 can stay juiced for a very respectable length of time.

The essentials

As a phone that sticks to the basics, the Vodafone Smart Prime 6 actually does them rather well – calls, texts and web browsing are all neatly taken care of. Of course, all of these operations look better on a QHD screen but you get what you pay for.

The stock apps for these essential functions remain largely unchanged from stock Android, though the Messenger app for SMS has been given a red coat of paint in honour of the Vodafone network.

The keyboard is very much stock Lollipop, too. As always, you can install something a little bit different if you don't like it, but it worked well for me. For some reason, Flipboard is to the left of the main home screen rather than Google Now.

In the launcher settings, you can switch between the standard home screen and a simplified version that uses larger icons and fewer options. Presumably, it's for those who are older or less tech-savvy (or both), but it's not something most people will play around with.

If all you're going to use the Smart Prime 6 for is basic phone functions, with a little bit of web surfing and social networking thrown in, then you won't come across any problems.

As well as the standard speaker for calls, there's a single one around the back too, but audio is only OK and nothing more. You can, of course, watch Netflix on this handset but it's not an audio and visual experience you'll be raving about for days afterwards.

Camera

Tie your colours to the Vodafone Smart Prime 6 mast and you know in advance you're not going to be winning any photography competitions with this handset.

An 8-megapixel snapper on an own-brand handset doesn't exactly inspire confidence, and the photos taken by the phone were by and large pretty underwhelming, with details getting blurred and noisy.

The phone struggles particularly with low light, surprise surprise, and though there is an HDR mode to try to lighten up shadows and darken highlights it's not particularly refined – you'd be better off using a desktop application to do the same job.

All that said, what are we really taking mobile photos for anyway? The Smart Prime 6 is fine for quick and dirty social media posts and can even snap a decent picture if the lighting is right.

Shutter speed is fast, the interface is clean and uncluttered (it's actually better than Google's Camera app in that respect) and it's not going to let you down very often. As with every component of this phone, you have to remember the price level we're talking about.

The full HD video clips are fine, too. As with budget phones as a whole, we've now reached a stage where any mobile is going to be at least passable in the camera department, and that's exactly what this is.

Camera samples

Click here to see the full resolution version of this image

Click here to see the full resolution version of this image

Click here to see the full resolution version of this image

Click here to see the full resolution version of this image

Click here to see the full resolution version of this image

The Vodafone Smart Prime 6 is an under-powered, ultra-cheap phone that still gives you 4G and Android Lollipop. Is the money you save worth the loss in performance and screen quality? For a lot of people, probably yes.

It certainly looks and feels like a more expensive phone than it is, and if you can put up with response times that are a little under par, then it's a great-value option that gives you a close-to-stock Android experience.

We liked

With the EE Harrier priced at £99 this is lowest price you can find for 4G and Lollipop right now, so in terms of value for money it's right at the top end of the market.

The design isn't spectacular but the build quality is good and it's a nicely finished phone – you won't feel embarrassed to take it out of your pocket.

Then there's the excellent battery life, helped by the average screen and internal specs. It's not a phone that will have you sweating about trying to find a recharging point.

Lollipop is excellent, too, and Vodafone hasn't messed around with it too much. Being right up-to-date with Android counts for a lot.

We disliked

The screen is a bit of a let-down, though it's good enough for the money you're paying. Some extra brightness and resolution would certainly be welcome.

Then there's the performance issues – even on simple tasks you're going to notice a few pauses, and that gets worse the more apps you run. A powerhorse this is not.

Finally the camera, which despite a decent interface and fast operation produces pictures that are very average. If you want great shots you'll need to carry a separate camera with you.

There are other various niggles, but there's nothing to strongly dislike about the Smart Prime 6.

Final verdict

As a tech journalist, I've played around with some of the best phones on the planet and even I'd be tempted by the Smart Prime 6 at this price. For me, the performance is just a little too sluggish to make this a must-buy, but it certainly makes you see those top-end expensive flagships in a different light, and Vodafone deserves credit for that.

It can't hold a candle to the iPhones and S6s of this world, but if you go in thinking this is the cheapest 4G phone on the market you're going to come out pleasantly surprised. The fact that Lollipop is here is a big factor, as Google has done wonders with its newest OS.

It's difficult to give the Smart Prime 6 a high score, because it's slow and the screen's uninspiring, but for those shopping around at the bottom end of the market it's well worth shortlisting.

First reviewed: April 2015

The Vodafone Smart 4 Max continues the UK network's line of affordable self-branded smartphones, offering another solid 4G-ready handset for just £125.

The key difference between the Smart 4 Max and last year's Vodafone Smart 4 Power is hinted at in the name – this is a seriously large phone that fits snugly in the phablet category, if not quite the average-sized pocket.

Where previous Smart handsets have suffered is that there have always been a range of similarly priced but superior alternatives. While I'd argue that's still the case with the Vodafone Smart 4 Max, it does have a couple of notable distinguishable factors that mark it out as unique.

I'll discuss those in more detail later in the review, but the Vodafone Smart 4 Max's key strength boils down to this: it's hard to name another 6-inch smartphone that's available for around £125 in the UK. Trust me, I tried, and I came up completely empty.

If you demand a Nexus 6 or Samsung Galaxy Note 4-sized screen for a quarter of the price, the Vodafone Smart 4 Max could well be your only choice.

Of course, that doesn't make it an automatic recommendation. Far from it. You should know from the outset that you'll be making a number of sacrifices in the name of that cheap super-sized display, and for this kind of money you might want to consider dropping an inch and picking up the Moto G.

In the strange world of budget smartphones, the terms 'no-nonsense' and 'functional' are often considered to be positive. After all, the alternative tends to be words such as 'cheap' and 'tacky'.

The best thing I can say about the Vodafone Smart 4 Max's design, then, is that it's no-nonsense and functional, and not at all cheap or tacky. There isn't so much as a whiff of faux-metal plastic (well, apart from the camera rim), and it doesn't creak or flex when you squeeze it in your hand.

This is a solid slab of a smartphone with a plainer-than-Nexus front; flat, subtly angled and slightly shiny plastic sides; and a matte plastic rear cover that feels quite nice and grippy, whilst simultaneously attracting a surprising amount of grease and dirt.

It's a heavy device at 170g (that's similar to the iPhone 6 Plus), and combined with the Smart 4 Max's chunky 164 x 83.4 x 7.9mm dimensions, you won't be slipping it into too many trouser pockets.

In fact, during a recent lengthy walk, I opted to carry the Smart 4 Max like a purse rather than put it into my usual inside jacket pocket. It felt that uncomfortable. And bear in mind that I've been lugging an LG G3 around with me of late, which isn't exactly the most petite of phones.

Still, I was impressed with how solid the Smart 4 Max is in the hand. Its volume and power keys are plastic but appreciably clicky, and both are found along the now-customary right-hand edge of the handset, just where I wanted them.

Above that you get an external microSD slot, which is well tucked away behind a tight flap with a neat access nubbin. Habitual nail-biters might struggle to access this, though, as well as the similarly designed SIM card slot on the opposite edge.

You'll need to access that microSD card slot, too, as there's a fairly standard 8GB (though that's double the Vodafone Smart 4 Power) of internal storage on offer. If you really want to pile on the MP3 files or HD videos, note that you can squeeze only a relatively meagre 32GB microSD card in here.

As mentioned in the intro, the key selling point of the Vodafone Smart 4 Max is its unique combination of size and affordable price.

At £125 on PAYG, the Smart 4 Max is £25 cheaper than our current top budget smartphone pick, the Motorola Moto G. Despite this, the Smart 4 Max comes with a significantly larger 6-inch display.

You can complain all you like about the ballooning size of smartphone displays. The fact remains, people like large-screened phones, and with more and more phone owners using their device as their primary means of web access, I can understand why.

That being said, I found the Vodafone Smart 4 Max's 6-inch display to be over the top. I have longer than average fingers, but I couldn't stretch my thumb across to the other side of the display when holding it in one hand. Needless to say, my straining digit fell far short of the top area of the screen, too.

That's my own personal preference for how large I like my phones, of course, and your mileage will no doubt vary. If you're happy to use both hands to operate your phone at pretty much all times, then this won't be an issue.

Of course, the side-effect of having such a large screen is that the pixels are more stretched out than in a 'normal'-sized phone. Sure enough, the Smart 4 Max's display isn't very sharp at all.

We're talking about a 720p resolution here, which would be perfectly adequate in a 5-inch display, and could even still be considered a high-end spec in anything smaller than that (see the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact or the Samsung Galaxy Alpha).

Here, though, everything feels a little indistinct and fuzzy, with a pixel density of just 245ppi. That's particularly noticeable when you boot up one of those web pages that are presumably meant to sing on such a big phone.

Colours and viewing angles are fine, thanks to the fact that this is an IPS display, but the maximum brightness setting feels a little miserly. You'll want to crank it right up from the off, particularly if you spend any amount of time outside.

Another key feature of the Vodafone Smart 4 Max – which again needs to be placed in the context of that price – is its 4G capability. Admittedly, being able to connect to the UK's growing LTE network is no longer a particularly big deal, even for a cheaper phone.

Still, it's a welcome feature in a £125 phablet – which, as I've discussed, is intended for web and media consumption on the go. Just what you want a 4G network for, in other words.

As mentioned in previous Vodafone Smart reviews, the very fact that this is a Vodafone handset might limit this 4G capability somewhat. While it's improving all the time, Vodafone's 4G coverage isn't as good as EE's, so if you're looking to sign up (particularly in rural areas), check the network's coverage first.

Another component that you don't often find on affordable phones is NFC. While mobile payments haven't quite taken off as we all hoped, it makes sharing contact details and pairing with devices that much easier if you or the other party have the gear to match.

While the Vodafone Smart 4 Max has a number of impressive components for the money, it isn't a very strong performer in general terms.

It runs on a fairly competent (if low-end) 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 CPU with 1GB of RAM, but I experienced noticeable stutters in general navigation, and particularly whilst updating multiple apps in the background.

Whilst trying to play the downloaded 720p video file for the standard TechRadar battery test shortly after switching the phone on from a night on charge, it stuttered repeatedly while several apps updated in the background.

This sluggish performance extended to games, where even a simple (albeit pacy) 2D platformer such as Mikey Boots couldn't maintain a fluid, consistent frame rate.

Perhaps surprisingly, 3D racer Real Racing 3 performed adequately – albeit evidently on the automatic low-detail settings.

In our GeekBench 3 tests, a multi-core score of 1145 places the Smart 4 Max in the same kind of territory as its older, smaller brother, the Vodafone Smart 4 Power. Slightly below, in fact. It's also below the score of the EE Kestrel, another smaller and seemingly less capable device from Vodafone's main UK rival.

This would appear to be a side-effect of the Smart 4 Max's 720p display, which highlights an apparent predicament. The phone's display resolution isn't sharp enough for the screen size, but it seems to be a little too sharp for the engine (CPU and RAM) that drives it.

Going back to that point about the interface, the Vodafone Smart 4 Max runs on a stock version of Android – but an out-of-date one. Android 4.4.4 KitKat has been superseded by Android 5.0 Lollipop, so it's a shame that Vodafone didn't make an effort to ship its latest phone with this.

Perhaps Google's much-documented Lollipop software gremlins (which Android 5.1 largely addresses) made such a move impossible, but given the software's stock nature, we would have hoped for a swift update from Vodafone.

It's a shame that Vodafone didn't take some steps to tweak the software for its super-sized device, however. In particular, I really missed the ability to wake the screen with a double tap – something that feels especially useful in less wieldy devices such as this.

In fact, Vodafone has been relatively (perhaps mercifully) hands-off in its treatment of the stock Android OS.

There are a couple of easily removable homescreen widgets – one pushing Vodafone service news, another offering help and tips – and a fairly benign Smart Touch function that has to be activated from the drop-down settings menu.

Smart Touch effectively places an ever-present floating control on the screen that, when held, brings up a radial menu of shortcut functions. These include media player controls, a camera shortcut, and space for some customisable favourites.

I didn't feel the need to use it too much, in truth, but perhaps that's through my own habitual Android use. At the very least, it's another possible aid to single-handed usage on this vast phone.

Battery life

The Vodafone Smart 4 Max comes with a decent-sized 3000mAh battery, which seems to be ample given the lower resolution of its 6-inch display. The similarly proportioned Nexus 6, for example, has a whopping QHD resolution, yet has only a slightly larger 3220mAh battery.

When applying the standard TechRadar battery test, which involves a 90-minute 720p video, with the screen brightness set to full, I was left with 80% battery life on average.

That's a pretty decent result, placing it just shy of such diverse devices as the ZTE Blade S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S5.

When it comes to the day-to-day business of actually using the phone, it shows impressive stamina. I was able to clear a full day (as in, 24 hours) of light usage with just half of a full charge.

While it wasn't my most intensive day of usage, it did include such power-sapping tasks as a 90-minute 720p video (the aforementioned battery test), a 35-minute phone call, and a 10-minute session of Blocky Roads.

That's pretty impressive any way you cut it, and it's clearly a result of that low-res display, combined with that large battery – not to mention that faithful old power-sipper, the Snapdragon 400 CPU.

The fact that the Vodafone Smart 4 Max runs on stock Android 4.4.4, with all of the attendant pre-loaded apps that entails, means that it's pretty strong when it comes to the smartphone essentials.

Thankfully, items such as the phone and people apps are straight-up Google efforts, with no attempt to improve, modify, or otherwise tinker with them. This means that locating contacts and making calls are clean, smooth experiences.

The dialler is much improved over previous versions, with a smart feature that suggests contacts according to the number or alphanumeric letters you start typing.

Call quality was strong during my time with the phone, and I particularly appreciated how loud the Smart 4 Max's speaker was.

One area Vodafone has messed with is messaging, and the results are predictably underwhelming.

In fairness, this is an area that Google has struggled to get to grips with over the years, with two available offerings in the shape of the slightly unwieldy Hangouts and the nice-but-optional Messenger.

Vodafone has its own established messaging service, Message+, which is placed front and centre here. It seeks to combine simple SMS messaging with the kind of group chat and media sharing options you'd typically find in something such as WhatsApp or iMessage.

It works as such, but it's an ugly and charmless app, and it doesn't appear to have been well optimised for this larger display type, with clumsily blown-up menus and nondescript typography.

On the subject of messaging, Vodafone has opted to include SwiftKey as the default keyboard of the Smart 4 Max. It's one of the strongest and best-established third-party keyboards out there.

Not only is it easy to tap or drag out messages (it has an integrated swipe-to-type system), it's also highly customisable, with different themes and alignments.

You can alter the size of the keyboard, which is particularly useful with such a large screen.

The smallest option still doesn't quite make it possible to type single-handed, but there's also an option to squish the keyboard to one side, which does.

Once again, you get two web browsers – a tedious habit of most Android phones, and one that doesn't get any more justifiable with time.

The stock Android web browser is just fine. You will ignore it in favour of the much more powerful, modern and slick Chrome. Let's move on.

Before I do, though, it's worth lingering for a moment over the Smart 4 Max's performance as a web browsing device. After all, surfing the internet is one of the main tasks that 6-inch display is intended for.

Mobile-friendly websites (such as TechRadar) load up and look just great – but then they're designed to do so on such devices. It's full-sized web pages that phablets such as this should be making light of, and in that respect the Smart 4 Max is a mixed bag.

While full desktop websites load up well and offer a nice overview on the expanded screen space, I still found myself needing to zoom in on specific areas to read smaller text comfortably.

Don't get me wrong, I could read what was there, but the low pixel density brought about by that 720p resolution meant that this was far from optimal.

Commendably for such a cheap phone, Vodafone has packed the Smart 4 Max with a 13-megapixel camera.

Now, we're all experienced enough to know that more megapixels doesn't necessarily equal better pictures. But when you're used to reviewing cheap phones that come with nasty 5-megapixel snappers, as I am, I reserve the right to build up a little hope based on such a spec.

Sure enough, the Smart 4 Max is far more capable of taking decent pictures than most entry-level smartphones I've used – though it's a little inconsistent.

Given plenty of light and ideal shooting conditions – such as those I experienced during my main shooting day – you'll be able to capture images that are suitable for more than just sharing on Facebook.

There's even a decent HDR mode that, in my experience, didn't result in freakishly hyper-real images. It lightened the shady areas, whilst keeping the detail in the deep blue skies and white buildings.

I was also impressed with the general speed of the Smart 4 Max's camera. I was able to rattle off a series of quick snaps at a rate that belied the sluggish performance found elsewhere in the phone.

However, I also found that the Smart 4 Max's autofocus system would occasionally throw a wobbly, failing completely to get the right level of focus on a succession of simple seaside landscape shots that lacked a distinct subject.

It was also incapable of focusing on the closest of a series of deliberately assembled objects when testing its indoor capabilities from around a foot away.

I experienced problems, too, when attempting to shoot a series of close-up images of some yellow flowers. The bright reflected sunlight seemed to completely throw off the camera's auto-exposure settings, resulting in comically dark images.

Shots taken inside with decent artificial lighting tend to render predictably murky results, but they're perfectly adequate at this level. Meanwhile, the flash does a reasonable job within very specific parameters. It's OK from a couple of metres away, but a waste of time at any other distance.

The camera's 1080p video capture, meanwhile, was perfectly accurate, though it struggled with dynamic range on the bright and sunny day I shot on, rendering dark and shady areas much darker and shadier than they should have been. Still, I've seen much worse for more money.

All in all, the Smart 4 Max's camera is a little too inconsistent to make it reliable for quick, impromptu snaps – which is typically the kind of shot you most want to capture on your phone.

However, it has the potential to obtain much better results than most other phone cameras at this price point.

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Generally carrier branded handsets fill me with a sense of dread, but they're improving across the board and the Vodafone Smart 4 Max is testament to that.

It's far from the perfect smartphone, but the big red network now has a range of handsets all at attractively low prices.

We liked

The Vodafone Smart 4 Max offers a lot of phone for your money in a physical sense. It's big, well built, and it has a couple of components you might not expect to see in a budget offering.

Its 13-megapixel camera is one such component, and it can capture some reasonable images in the right conditions. NFC is another welcome addition.

I also appreciate the stock Android experience, even if it is an older version of Google's mobile OS.

We disliked

There's no getting away from it, the Vodafone Smart 4 Max is a very big device. It will legitimately put a lot of people off with its unwieldy width, length and weight.

It's also disappointing how poor the general performance is, with annoyingly frequent (if slight) stutters in both general navigation and specific apps and functions.

While its 6-inch display is big and relatively clear, its 720p resolution simply feels inadequate, giving the extra screen space the feeling of being poorly optimised.

Finally, the camera, while better than many budget offerings, is inconsistent and unreliable.

Verdict

Vodafone's latest smartphone would appear to represent an improvement for the range. It's a solidly built phablet with a 13-megapixel camera and stock Android, all for just £125.

However, when you get down to the details it's found a little wanting. The screen may be big, but that extra space suffers from an inadequate resolution.

Similarly, the camera is a little too unpredictable for its own good, and the phone's general performance is disappointingly sluggish.

All in all, it's a decent budget offering, but one that ultimately feels somehow less than the sum of its parts, despite the appealing price.

First reviewed: April 2015

Vodafone has revealed its newest 4G handset, which pairs some impressive specs with a super-low price.

The new Smart Prime 6, possibly the catchiest smartphone name yet, comes with a 5-inch HD IPS display, a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 1GB of RAM.

There's 8GB of internal storage, microSD support up to 64GB plus the latest and greatest Android 5 Lollipop.

Budget bonuses

As for the camera set up it's an 8MP sensor on the back whilst there's also a 2MP front-facing selfie snapper.

The best part has to be the 4G connectivity though – you can connect into Vodafone's superfast network quickly and easily – but it all comes for only £79.

EE just released its own cheap 4G handset in the form of the Harrier Mini offering 4G connectivity at £99 but Vodafone has managed to undercut it just a few weeks later.

If you're in the market for a budget 4G handset the UK networks are offering up some interesting choices right now, you can grab the Smart Prime 6 from Vodafone's site right now.

• Here's our hands-on verdict of the EE Harrier Mini.

Unlimited minutes, texts and data, it's the holy grail of phone contracts - and usually a rather pricey one - but not if you're a TalkTalk customer.

The broadband and TV provider has launched its new All-in SIM giving its customers unlimited everything for just £12 a month, on a 30 day rolling contract.

That's a fantastic sounding offer - but there are a few caveats. First up, it's not a 4G deal, so you'll have to make do with 3G data speeds. Tethering is also not supported, so you won't be able to tie your handset to a tablet or laptop and let them feed off your phone's internet.

Plus you have to be a TalkTalk broadband or TV customer to take advantage of the deal, you can't just pick up the All-in SIM with no other attachments to the company.

Still great value

TalkTalk promises 99% UK network coverage, as it currently uses Vodafone's network to deliver services to users, so you shouldn't struggle to find signal (unless you're in a Voda black spot).

If you're not fussed about 4G speeds then TalkTalk's All-in SIM is a great deal, as long as you don't mind signing up to another one of its services if you're not already a customer.

The EE Harrier and Harrier Mini are official - the latest 4G smartphones from the mobile network promising the most affordable 4G experience with Wi-Fi calling.

The main attraction is the 5.2-inch EE Harrier which boasts a full HD resolution, 1.5GHz octa-core processor, Android Lollipop, 13MP rear camera, 2500mAh battery, Wi-Fi calling and of course CAT4 4G with average data speeds of 60Mbps.

It'll set you back £199.99 on PAYG, or you can grab it free from £21.99 per month.

If that's pushing your budget a bit, or you're put off by the large nature of the Harrier, then consider its smaller brother - the EE Harrier Mini.

Mini me

For the same price as the EE Kestrel when it launched last year, the £99.99 Harrier Mini gives you a 4.7-inch 720p display, 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 8MP rear facing camera, Wi-Fi calling and 4G data speeds.

The Harrier Mini has been dubbed the "UK's most affordable 4G smartphone with Wi-Fi calling" by EE, which isn't hard when you consider the other contenders from the network are the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, iPhone 6 and 6 Plus - and now the Harrier as well.

There's also two new mobile hotspots - the Osprey 2 and Osprey 2 Mini - providing 4G data speeds for up to 10 connected devices and the former also doubles as a 5150mAh battery pack to recharge your tech.

The Osprey 2 will set you back £69.99 on PAYG, or you can get it free on contracts from £15 per month. The Osprey 2 Mini is just £49.99 on PAYG or free from £15 per month.

• Find out how EE's first smartphone got on in our Kestrel review

Three has announced it will launch its VoLTE (voice over LTE) service this Autumn, with September currently its target month - and that's good news for its customers.

Speaking at an exclusive event in London, Three's CTO Brin Jones explain just what the launch means for its 8.5 million customers.

First and foremost is the ability for the 4G network to carry voice calls (the clue's in the name people) which reduces the chances of dropped calls and enhances audio quality with HD voice technology.

It means your compatible handset (only a handful of top phones currently support VoLTE) doesn't have to drop to the available 2G or 3G network when you make or revieve a call. That means any application currently downloading or running in the background and continue to make use of the superfast network.

Coverage up

Part of what makes VoLTE possible for Three is the rollout of its 800MHz spectrum, which will also significantly increase its indoor and rural coverage.

It predicts an additional 3.2 million homes in the UK will benefit from this extra spectrum as it continues to address signal black spots around the country.

Additional spectrum also means there will be more space for data, allowing the network to carry more of it and thus giving you, the user, a better overall experience.

Another advantage of VoLTE is the super speedy connection times when making a call - no more waiting for the phone to connect before you hear the reassuring ringing tone in your ear.

All customers will be eligible for VoLTE at no extra charge - whether you're a pay monthly, PAYG or SIM only Three user, but as we say you need to have a compatible handset and be in VoLTE coverage.

Good news, data fans - Vodafone has just upped the amount of data you can potentially get on its tariffs.

The company now offers three different types of bundles - Standard bundles, Red bundles and Red Value bundles, the latter of which ups the potential data limit on tariffs to 25GB.

Previously the most data you could get on Vodafone tariffs was 20GB, so it's a useful jump for heavy users, though for a new handset like the Samsung Galaxy S6 all that data will cost you a pricey £65 per month.

Red Value tariffs also give you access to a Vodafone entertainment pack, such as Now TV, Sky Sports Mobile TV, or Spotify and include the ability to make landline and mobile calls to the UK when abroad in most European countries at no extra cost, which is something other tariffs will charge you £3 per day to do.

If you can live without an entertainment pack then there are always the Red bundles. They give you up to 20GB of data, so you're only slightly more limited there. Or if you really don't need a lot of data Vodafone also has Standard bundles, which start at just £17 per month on 24 month tariffs.

The good news is that whichever option you pick you'll now get 4G data on all pay monthly tariffs with a handset, so you can spend less time watching the world and more time watching videos of dogs trying to catch food.

• Vodafone's even got its own handsets.

Six months after that rumour first emerged, Three has extended its existing partnership with Dixons Carphone to launch a new mobile phone network that will roll out over the next few months.

The new group formed after the merger of DSGi and Carphone Warehouse already uses Three for its mobile broadband services.

Three remains the only major mobile phone operator in UK (and possibly in Europe) to offer unlimited data across its range.

More 'co-opetition' on the horizon

The new service will bring "innovative and highly personalised connectivity options" according to the press release. But it is also likely to make Dixons Carphone existing partners slightly nervous.

Oddly enough, Carphone Warehouse doesn't sell Three but the latter has big plans, with the expected acquisition of Telefonica's O2 likely to make it a big player in a pool of three super-networks (should BT succeed in acquiring EE).

Dixons Carphone's announcement is the second in less than a week of a MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) launch. Sky also announced its plans to enter this crowded market last Thursday with a 2016 launch tabled.

The MVNO ecosystem in the UK is a vibrant one with more than 40 players in the market. Other big MVNO players include Tesco Mobile, Virgin Media, Talkmobile and GiffGaff.

According to an FT report, one of the growth areas identified is "smart home appliances" sold in its stores.

• Christmas is coming and BT hopes to get fat by gobbling up EE

It looks like Sky is putting itself forward as a possible merger or collaboration partner for the O2 mobile network.

With O2 on the market a number of potential buyers have come forward. Most recently Three UK's parent company, Hutchison Whampoa, revealed that it is in talks over buying the company for around £9 billion.

Sky has apparently been looking to offer its own mobile phone services along with its other landline phone, TV and broadband services, much like its competitors Virgin Media and TalkTalk.

However it appears unlikely that Sky would outright buy O2, and instead would be looking to collaborate with another company.

Sky previously looked at working with Vodafone, and although the collaboration has been successful - sky invited 200,000 of its UK phone and broadband customers to trial Vodafone's Mobile Virtual Network Operator service - it looks like Sky could be looking at another potential ally to take control of O2.

We've contacted Sky for comment, and we'll update if we hear more.

• Three owner eyes a bid for O2

Via ISPreview

Hong Kong-based tycoon Li Ka-shing - owner of the Three network - is planning a £9 billion bid for O2, according to reports. Talks are said to be at an early stage between Telefonica, which owns O2, and Li Ka-shing's Hutchison Whampoa, which runs the Three network.

It seems clear that Telefonica is looking to get O2 off its hands as quickly as possible - back in November there was speculation that BT and Three were both in negotiations to take over the network. O2 was originally spun off by BT in 2001.

That rumoured £9 billion would get Li Ka-shing and Hutchison Whampoa the second biggest network in the UK, currently boasting close to 24 million subscribers. EE has over 26 million in total.

Across the spectrum

Besides customer numbers, there's also a battle for a larger slice of the UK's mobile phone spectrum going on. This is another area where EE, owned by Orange and Deutsche Telekom, trumps O2.

If O2 were to combine its spectrum frequencies with Three then it would be able to get a lot closer to the amount of bandwidth owned by EE. It would also overtake its rival in terms of customer numbers (Three has around 10 million subscribers at the last count).

This isn't the first time we've heard talk of Three eying up O2 either, with a similar report surfacing back in December 2013.

We contacted Telefonica (O2's parent company) about these rumours and were given a firm "no comment" from a spokesperson. We've also asked Three for a comment and if we get a response we'll report it here. With BT now in preliminary talks to take over EE, 2015 is set to see a big shake-up in network ownership.

• Why not treat youself to a new phone? Check out our best phone deals of the week

The four major UK networks - EE, O2, Vodafone and Three - have agreed to tackle areas of the country that currently experience patchy coverage.

While these 'not spots' may enjoy coverage from one or two networks, the aim is to have them fully covered in just over two years. All four networks will increase full coverage from 69% to 85% of areas by 2017, halving the areas affected by patchy coverage if it proves successful.

Additionally, total blackout spots will be reduced by almost two thirds, according to the proposal which will see £5bn invested into the infrastructure by the networks.

Notworks

Just last month we reported that this initiative was being considered, so we're pleased that it's come into effect so quickly.

"Too many parts of the UK regularly suffer from poor mobile coverage leaving them unable to make calls or send texts," said Culture Secretary Sajid Javid in a statement.

"Government and businesses have been clear about the importance of mobile connectivity, and improved coverage, so this legally binding agreement will give the UK the world-class mobile phone coverage it needs and deserves."

Update 11/26: It has now emerged that Deutsche Telekom and Orange, joint shareholders of EE, have been in preliminary exploratory discussions with BT regarding EE. According to a press release on Orange's website, it is too early to state whether any transaction may occur.

It looks like BT might not just be eyeing up O2 as a potential purchase.

Original story follows…

BT is in talks to purchase the O2 mobile network from its Spanish parent company Telefonica in a deal valued at around £10bn.

The company confirmed reports that appeared in Spanish media stating that Telefonica would take a 20 per cent stake in BT in exchange for O2.

"We have received expressions of interest from shareholders in two UK mobile network operators, of which one is O2, about a possible transaction in which BT would acquire their UK mobile business," BT said in a statement.

Highly preliminary stage

"All discussions are at a highly preliminary stage and there can be no certainty that any transaction will occur."

The O2 network was original BT Cellnet before being spun off in 2001 and then sold to Telefonica in 2005. As a result of the announcement, BT's share price rose by four per cent.

The second mobile network BT claims to have been approached by is believed to be EE, although this hasn't been confirmed by either party.

O2 has launched two new sharing plans so customers can either spread their data allowance across multiple devices or give it to family members to use.

The new Sharer Plan will allow you to share data with up to 10 other devices providing you're on the O2 Refresh tariff. You'll need 1GB or more of data on the plan and it'll cost you an extra £6 a month. O2 is limiting this feature to monthly tariffs, so Pay & Go and Business devices aren't supported.

The amount of data being chewed through by these extra phones and tablets can be monitored through O2's My O2 app for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone. O2 will send you a text reminder when you, or your friends, have used up 80 per cent of your data allowance for the month.

Meanwhile, the Family Sharer Plan acts in the same way as similar plans from Vodafone and EE: you can take out one plan with a data allowance of between 1GB and 8GB and can then add up to nine family members.

It'll cost £6 extra to add each person to the plan and £15 if you want to include unlimited calls and texts.

• Meanwhile, TalkTalk has ditched Vodafone in favour of O2 for delivering its 4G package.

The partnership between TalkTalk and Vodafone has come to an end, with the mobile and broadband company signing a multi-year deal with O2.

TalkTalk and Vodafone had a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreement which meant that TalkTalk mobile customers were actually using Vodafone's network.

Last week TalkTalk announced that its mobile customers had increased by 40,000 in the third quarter of 2014 to a total of 348,000.

Although TalkTalk and Vodafone's partnership could be seen as a success, it appears that TalkTalk has turned to O2 to access the mobile network operator's new 4G network.

With O2 and Vodafone having a joint network sharing agreement, TalkTalk customers shouldn't see too much upheaval with the move.

• Thinking of joining TalkTalk? Read our review of the TalkTalk Huawei HG635

Research from Ofcom has thrown up some interesting results when it comes to the network speeds of the UK's major players.

EE might have the faster downloads, and the most coverage, but Three offers the fastest mobile browsing experience and the lowest latency for video calls.

The regulator tested mobile coverage and quality of service from EE, O2, Three and Vodafone in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Glasgow. Around 210,000 tests of both 3G and 4G were carried out to determine exactly what each network can offer.

Need for speed

EE and O2 both offer faster than the 15.1Mbit/s average 4G download speed with 18.4Mbit/s and 15.6Mbit/s respectively. Vodafone can boast 14.3Mbit/s while Three brings up the rear with 10.7Mbit/s.

Conversely though, Three's 4G network is able to load a web page in 0.62 seconds with EE only managing it in 0.76 seconds. Vodafone and O2 were equal on 0.82 seconds.

Given its head start on rollout, EE is able to offer the highest proportion of coverage across the country, reaching 70 per cent as of October 2014. Vodafone and O2 are again tied at 51 per cent coverage, while Three doesn't even register on the chart.

The report closes with a prediction by Ofcom that 4G will be available to 98 per cent of the UK population by 2017 at the latest. You can find the full report right here.

• 4G and LTE: Everything you need to know.

As with a growing number of handsets such as the HTC Desire 510, EE Kestrel and Motorola Moto G 4G, the Vodafone Smart 4 Power brings 4G capability with a sub £200 price tag.

On Vodafone's own online store the Smart 4 Power is being sold for £120, making it a good deal cheaper than the HTC Desire 510, which costs £149 and the Moto G 4G, which can be had for around £155.

While the Vodafone Smart 4 Power is more affordable than these rivals, it still can't compete with the EE Kestrel's incredibly low price of just £99. EE's offering is stubbornly clinging to the title of lowest cost 4G-capable smartphone.

If you're looking for both a budget smartphone and a new network carrier and the choice falls between EE and Vodafone, then that £20 difference could be enough to sway you towards EE - unless the Smart 4 Power provides good reasons for the more expensive price tag.

The first thing I noticed when I unpacked the Vodafone Smart 4 Power is that this is a big phone, with the large bezel that surrounds the 5-inch screen making it a substantial handset.

The Vodafone Smart 4 Power's dimensions are 141 x 71.4 x 9.5mm, a good deal larger than the EE Kestrel's 133 x 65 x 7.85mm frame and the HTC Desire 510's 139.9 x 69.8 x 9.99mm, though both have smaller screens, with the Kestrel coming with a 4.5-inch display, and the HTC Desire 510 sporting a 4.7-inch.

At this price, if you're keen on getting a large-screen device, you're going to have to accept a larger body as well.

The Vodafone Smart 4 Power's weight is a hefty 162g, so you'll certainly know it's in your pocket. It gives the Vodafone Smart 4 Power a robust feel that can be missing from budget smartphones.

The plastic back of the chassis sacrifices a premium feel but feels like it could withstand the odd knock and drop. However, the lack of Gorilla Glass over the display means it's unlikely to come off well from being dropped face down or rubbing up against your keys.

When holding the Vodafone Smart 4 Power in one hand, the size and weight of the handset begins to take its toll, and it's certainly not the most comfortable smartphone I've used. If you're used to one-handed typing and navigation then you're going to find yourself stretching to reach all the corners of the screen.

Even with my not inconsiderably long digits I began feeling the strain of trying to access certain areas of the screen, with the back button on the bottom of the bezel proving particularly difficult to reach.

Though you could argue that this is par for the course with large-screen smartphones, the thickness of the edges around the screen don't help.

Making life slightly easier is the location of the power button in the middle of the right-hand side of the phone, just beneath the volume controls. These are the only buttons on the body and they prove to be firm and responsive when used.

It does mean there's no dedicated camera button, so the Vodafone Smart 4 Power isn't ideal if you want a phone you can quickly whip out and take a shot with. A headphone jack is located at the top-left of the body, with a micro USB port situated at the bottom of the case.

Removing the back of the Smart 4 Power's case is easy, and once removed you get access to the sim card slot and microSD expansion slot.

Though it's not quite as easy to get to as a microSD slot built into the side of the case, the fact that the back of the case is so easy to remove means I wasn't too bothered with the placement of the microSD slot in the Smart 4 Power.

The Vodafone Smart 4 Power will accept microSD cards up to 32GB, which does a decent job of boosting storage over the rather paltry 4GB of built-in storage.

Considering the cheaper EE Kestrel comes with 8GB of onboard storage, the 4GB of storage seems pretty tight. Fresh out of the box with Android 4.4 and other apps installed, you only actually get 1.8GB, which means that expanding the Vodafone Smart 4 Power's storage space via microSD cards is less of an option and more of a necessity, especially if you want to take lots of photographs.

While 32GB of additional space should be more than enough for many people, it's worth pointing out that some similarly priced phones such as the HTC Desire 510 can handle microSD cards up to 128GB.

The Vodafone Smart 4 Power comes in black or white. Its overall look is reminiscent of the Vodafone Smart 4 Mini, though quite a bit larger. It's a no-nonsense design which doesn't stand out against other budget handsets.

While it's certainly not ugly, and comes in either white or black, it's not going to wow anyone either. Budget handsets such as the Moto G demonstrate that just because a phone might have a low price tag, that doesn't mean they have to look plain, which sadly the Vodafone Smart 4 Power does.

By far the biggest selling point of the Vodafone Smart 4 Power is its price. It's a handset designed to offer many of the modern trappings of a smartphone, including 4G connectivity and Android 4.4 KitKat, but with a more palatable price tag.

While the sim-free Smart 4 Power is going for just £120, you can get it for free on a contract that costs £18 a month. This already makes the Vodafone Smart 4 Power a very tempting choice if you're looking for a new phone on a budget, but if the features let it down, then you may still be wasting money.

Vodafone is pushing the Smart 4 Power as a smartphone that can do pretty much everything you need from a modern smartphone.

A key feature is the Vodafone Smart 4 Power's LTE connectivity, granting its users access to super-fast 4G mobile internet.

It's little surprise that Vodafone is so keen to broadcast the Smart 4 Power's 4G credentials. Not only does this show that Vodafone is serious about proving that the Smart 4 Power can be a serious alternative to more expensive smartphones, but it also encourages Vodafone's customers to use more of that lovely data that mobile networks make their money on.

The Vodafone Smart 4 Power is Cat 4 with 50Mbps maximum upload speeds, and potential 150Mbps downloads, though the real speeds you'll get with day-to-day use will vary.

Because you'll need a Vodafone contract to use the Smart 4 Power, you're going to be at the mercy of Vodafone's 4G coverage, which isn't quite up there with its main competitor, EE.

When using the EE network, I had no problems getting 4G signal in Bath. However, with a Vodafone sim card inserted into the Smart 4 Power, I was only able to get 3G reception.

A cursory look at Vodafone's map of its 4G coverage showed that Bath was indeed bereft of Vodafone's 4G coverage. While Bath is not the biggest city in the UK, our neighbour Bristol (which is far larger) was similarly without Vodafone's 4G.

In fact, while EE continues to regularly boast about its increased 4G coverage across the UK, according to Vodafone's own website, much of the country isn't covered.

This means that if you're looking to get the Vodafone Smart 4 Power due to its 4G capabilities, I would strongly suggest you first visit Vodafone's website and check to see if your area is covered before you buy.

As it currently stands for 4G coverage I would recommend going with either the EE Kestrel, or an unlocked phone such as the HTC Desire 510, which won't be tied to Vodafone's currently spotty 4G coverage.

Large display

The large 5-inch screen of the Vodafone Smart 4 Power is perhaps its most eye-catching feature, at least on paper. When in use it doesn't stand up to scrutiny, which sadly - as a display - it's going to be subjected to quite a lot.

The capacitive IPS LCD touchscreen has a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels, which when stretched over the 5-inch display, gives it a pixel density of 220 pixels per inch.

For sharper and more impressive image quality you want more pixels per inch. While I can't berate the Smart 4 Power for not managing to reach the pixel densities of much more expensive handsets (the iPhone 6, for example has a pixel density of 326ppi), it does result in phones that have the same resolution, but smaller screen size having better pixel density, and therefore better image quality.

For example the Smart 4 Power's closest rival, the EE Kestel, may have the same 540 x 960 resolution, but as it has a smaller screen (4.5 inches), the pixel density is higher at 245ppi, resulting in a sharper image.

It may be all well and good slapping a large screen on a handset, but if you don't up the resolution as well image quality is going to suffer.

Unfortunately that is all too evident with the Smart 4 Power. As soon as you turn it on you can see that the big screen and (relatively) low resolution hasn't been kind, with the standard Android app icons looking slightly blurred and unfocused when blown up to this scale.

While the resolution disappoints, the colour reproduction of the screen is more impressive, with still images generally looking pretty good. The viewing angle of the screen is pretty narrow, however, so despite the big screen you won't be looking to watch media on the Smart 4 Power with other people.

To help make the Vodafone Smart 4 Power feel like a modern and feature-packed smartphone regardless of its price, it comes with Android 4.4 (KitKat) installed as the operating system.

The Android 4.4 that comes installed on the Vodafone Smart 4 Power is the standard stock affair, though it comes with a few Vodafone-flavoured apps including Vodafone Discover. This app (and its widget that's preinstalled on the home screen), offers quick access to settings such as flight mode, along with various Vodafone services and deals.

The app itself is rather bland and uninspiring, and while you might get some use out of it, I get the feeling that the app is more use to Vodafone that it is to customers. I removed the widget from the home screen pretty quickly, and I can image most people will as well.

While other Vodafone apps don't really prove to be much use (such as Smart Flow, which is simply an animated wallpaper), you do at least get access to all the apps you'd expect for Android 4.4 through Google's Play Store.

The components inside the Vodafone Smart 4 Power does the job acceptably well powering the handset. The processor is a quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU clocked at 1.3GHz, with a Mali-400MP2 GPU and 1GB of RAM.

These average specifications are roughly what I'd expect from a handset of this price range, and is good at keeping up with most day-to-day tasks.

Though Android 4.4 has felt smoother and snappier on phones with higher specs (as well as price tags), it still feels responsive on the Vodafone Smart 4 Power, though some apps take a second or two to load, rather than appearing almost instantly.

Even the rather simple messaging app had a pause before it displayed the one solitary message I'd sent. With a more populated inbox, this pause does grow slightly.

For a solid, no frills, Android KitKat experience, the Vodafone Smart 4 Power does a fine job, though it sometimes pauses when launching apps.

On the Geekbench 3 benchmark the Vodafone Smart 4 Power managed a multi-core score of 1174, slightly below the EE Kestrel's 1190 and much lower than the HTC Desire 510's score of 1330.

Battery life

The Vodafone Smart 4 Power comes with a decently sized 3000mAh battery, a good deal larger than the HTC Desire 510's 2100mAh offering, and the EE Kestrel's 2000mAh power pack.

This meant that during my time with the Vodafone Smart 4 Power, it held onto its battery life admirably. With medium to heavy use I managed to get two days use out of it. This involved browsing the internet, playing a few games, making calls and watching videos.

With lighter use, I could easily see the Vodafone Smart 4 Power stretch for at least another day. The low price and impressive battery life means that if you're a keen camper or festival goer, then the Vodafone Smart 4 Power would be a decent choice.

The Vodafone Smart 4 Power also comes with a few power saving features. These can be accessed through the battery management menu.

The battery saving options are not as exhaustive as those seen in other handsets such as the HTC Desire 510.

You can choose to dim the brightness of the screen (and by how much), as well as turn off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. There's also a setting for 'White list for backlight off', which lets you choose which apps you want to stop running when the screen is turned off.

It's pretty basic, but it offers a quick and easy way to shut down services and features to preserve the battery when you need it.

In our battery test, which involves running a high definition video for 90 minutes with the screen at full brightness, the Vodafone Smart 4 Power lost just 20% of its battery. In comparison, the EE Kestrel lost 30% of its battery during the same test, while the HTC Desire 510 managed a similarly impressive 19%.

Playing the rather intensive Real Racing 3 game for 15 minutes made the battery drop a further 7%, though those 15 minutes were a bit of a chore due to the Vodafone Smart 4 Power's poor performance – more on that later.

Throughout the tests the Vodafone Smart 4 Power held onto its battery life admirably, and can easily withstand a day of medium to heavy use. Whether or not you'd want to use it for that long is another question...

As the 4G connection is one of the main selling points of the Vodafone Smart 4 Power, it's going to be used a lot for browsing the web, over 4G, 3G and wireless networks.

It comes with two web browsers, Google Chrome and a native app. Both perform fine, though my preference is for Chrome.

Web pages were delivered quickly and the larger screen size meant that reading text-heavy website was comfortable. Though I lamented the lower resolution earlier in this reviey, for websites I found it actually worked in the Smart 4 Power's favour.

Because of the big screen and lower resolution, text was large and easy to read, it meant I didn't have to zoom in on websites to read them, like I have with smartphones with higher resolutions.

Vodafone clearly wants the Smart 4 Power to be a smartphone you use to surf the internet regardless of where you are, and in this regard I think it's done very well.

Making and receiving calls is also fine, with the phone app providing a big dial pad for typing in numbers. Again, the large screen helps make this a good choice of phone for people who have trouble viewing and using phones with smaller screens and higher resolutions.

It would have been nice to have more accessibility options to help people who have trouble seeing use the phone, as the big screen is a real benefit here.

Call quality is perfectly acceptable, and though it falls short of the clarity found in more expensive phones such as the Xperia Z3, it's fine for a handset of this price.

Text messages are handled by Android's default Messaging app, so everything is handled as expected. The 5-inch screen size of the Smart 4 Power can be either a blessing or a curse here, depending on how comfortable you are typing on a large screen.

It makes the keys large and easy to hit, but I did find I was stretching my fingers a bit more than usual when typing one-handed. When typing with two hands, the larger screen (and therefore keyboard) helps make sure your fingers aren't knocking into each other.

I'm a fast typist and was pleased to see that the keyboard kept up with my furious key presses, smoothly correcting any spelling errors or typos as I went along.

Media and games are increasingly seen as essential to the smartphone experience. As far as watching videos goes on the Smart 4 Power, while the increased screen size is nice, the low resolution of 540 x 960 pixels means you're not going to bask in the glory of full HD.

Video playback was pretty disappointing, with both the low resolution and juddery playback marring the viewing experience. Sadly I can't recommend the Smart 4 Power for watching films, which means its nice big screen goes to waste here.

Music playback is handled by Google Play Music, with the sound quality being solid, but not mind blowing.

Regardless of the type of media you'd want to play on the Vodafone Smart 4 Power, you'll want to invest in a memory card, as the Smart 4 Power's paltry 4GB of internal space will fill up very quickly.

With Android 4.4 installed you have access to Google Play Store and a huge range of apps and games.

Again, you're going to be limited to how many apps and games you install because of the low internal memory, however you may need to lay off some of the more intensive games due to the relatively weak specifications of the Smart 4 Power.

Camera

The Vodafone Smart 4 Power features a main camera with a 5 megapixel sensor. I wasn't expecting much considering the price of the handset, and though the photos taken with the Smart 4 Power were acceptable, they lacked sharpness and clarity.

This meant that certain details were lost. Colour reproduction was OK, but some snaps did appear washed out.

What I did like about the Smart 4 Power's camera was how fast it managed to take photos, with barely a pause from when I pressed the screen to the image being captured. A dedicated camera button on the body would have made it much more useful for taking quick shots.

A front-facing VGA camera is also present, though the low quality of the camera leads to blurred looking shots, so you'll want to look elsewhere if you're a fan of taking selfies.

The Smart 4 Power's rear camera can also capture 720p video. It does the job fine, though even at 720p resolution the footage suffers from the same lack of sharpness as the still photos.

If you want a cheap smartphone that can take the odd short video to put up on Facebook or YouTube, then you might not mind the Smart 4 Power's lack of finesse when it comes to image quality. if you're looking for a camera that can capture once in a lifetime events, you'd be much better looking elsewhere.

Camera samples

Click here to see the full res image

Click here to see the full res image

Click here to see the full res image

The Vodafone Smart 4 Power is a difficult phone to either recommend or write off. For everything it does right, such as a brilliant battery life and decent Android performance, it disappoints in other respects, such as its poor quality camera and screen.

However, these disappointments are balanced by a low price that makes me more willing to forgive some of its transgressions.

As I said at the beginning of this review, creating a budget handset is a delicate balancing act between keeping the price as low as possible while packing in enough power and features to make a desirable smartphone. Unfortunately, I don't think Vodafone has got the balance quite right.

We liked

There's not much to dislike about the price, and the Vodafone Smart 4 Power is one of the cheapest 4G capable smartphones on the market. If you're after a cheap no frills smartphone, you'll probably be perfectly happy with the Smart 4 Power.

Battery life is excellent as well, which makes the Smart 4 Power a good choice as an emergency backup phone, or one that you could happily take camping without worrying about having to find a charging point every day.

I also liked the build quality, which made the phone feel sturdy and well built despite its low price.

We disliked

Though the screen is large, the resolution is unfortunately too low, making the Android user interface look a bit ugly. Videos also suffer from the poor resolution, and the low specs of the smartphone means it can struggle with some high-definition video.

The camera quality is also poor, and although I wasn't expecting much from a smartphone at this price, I was still left disappointed.

The 4GB of in-built storage is also very small compared to its competitors, and even straight out of the box you'll find very little room to store apps or photographs, forcing you to buy a microSD card.

Final verdict

If you buy the Vodafone Smart 4 Power knowing exactly what you're going to get (which is a cheap 4G smartphone that's good for browsing the web and little else), then you may not be disappointed.

However, while it is cheaper than some of its rivals, crucially it's still not as cheap as the EE Kestrel, which although has a smaller screen, is comparable to the Smart 4 Power in a number of ways.

It's also worth bearing in mind that although the Vodafone Smart 4 Power is around £30 cheaper than the HTC Desire 510 and the Moto G 4G you might need to invest in a microSD card to increase the storage space, which would eliminate the price advantage of the Smart 4 Power.

Unfortunately, that price advantage is all the Smart 4 Power has over the Desire 510 and the G 4G, which means either of those are a much wiser purchase.

First reviewed: October 2014

We suspect most of you only have to hear the dreaded "PAC" word to get that icy chill down your spine; we all know how much of a faff jumping from one phone's network contract to another can be.

But Three and TalkTalk have formed an unusual alliance in the hope of changing things. The duo have come together and penned an open letter to Ofcom, asking for a shakeup to the rules that would make switching networks much more straightforward.

The aim is to get rid of the furore of dealing with salespeople trying to keep you hooked by offering you better deals based on a number of conditions, which is time consuming and, in many cases, just plain annoying.

PAC man

"At present there are several different processes dependant on which supplier you are leaving and which you are moving to, which causes confusion among consumers and leads to lower switching rates than other sectors," reads the letter, signed by the Chief Executives of Three, TalkTalk and the Federation of Communications Services, and LetsSaveMoney.com founder Sarah Willingham.

As it explains, providers are currently able to hide their best deals until a customer threatens to leave, so only a minority of people actually end up getting the best contracts.

"We welcome Ofcom's programme of work on switching, but ask that Ofcom delivers reform for the entire market, as soon as possible, rather than leaving whole sectors subject to further delays. It is time we delivered a switching system that puts the interests of all communications consumers first."

New measures would make for a more honest system, but who knows if Three's and TalkTalk's approach will prove to be successful.

• Upgrading could soon be easier than ever - here are the 10 best phones in the world right now

Via Gizmodo

Coinciding with the announcement that Transport for London is rolling out contactless payments across the network, EE has confirmed that customers will be able to use its own Cash on Tap service on the tube.

EE rolled out Cash on Tap to London buses last month, but now the contactless system will work with Underground, DLR and Overground networks.

For the uninitiated, Cash on Tap lets users make contactless payments with their EE phones. The timing ahead of the iPhone 6 and Apple Pay, Cupertino's own wireless payment service, certainly hasn't gone unnoticed.

EE's service is partnered with Mastercard, but the benefit for London commuters using Cash on Tap will be the avoidance of card clash - something that's sure to be a problem with the rollout of contactless payments on London's transport system.

• We're tried out Apple Pay, and this is what we thought

EE is top dog once again in a ranking of network reliability, but it seems that Three might be starting to nip at its heels.

In a test by RootMetrics, EE came out as number one in every category with an overall reliability score of 90.5, with Three following closely behind with an overall reliability score of 89.9 - certainly not a bad showing from the numeric network.

In fact while EE edged the victory UK-wide, Three has the highest reliability score in Northern Ireland and Scotland and joint highest in Wales.

Comprehensive tests

These scores are awarded based on how consistently a network can carry out data, call and texting tasks in cities across the UK and are the culmination of over 900,000 tests.

So they should be fairly accurate, and a high reliability score suggests that Three has a consistently good service. It may not always be the fastest but it will get the job done.

Three also came second for text performance, mobile internet performance, speed and overall score, though it came dead last for call performance.

That's not entirely surprising as a recent report from Ofcom suggested that Three is the third best of the four networks for successfully connecting calls. But while Three certainly has work to do it does look like it's catching up with EE in most areas.

• Three will also let you roam for free.

Mobile network EE has provoked anger by introducing a priority customer service line that allows users customers to jump to the front of the queue for a flat rate of 50 pence.

When calling through to EE's customer service line, an automated message now entices callers to move straight through to a representative, rather than wait in line.

In June this year Ofcom named and shamed EE as the UK's most-complained mobile network, with 0.12 calls per 1,000 customers. Now the firm is asking users whether they want to pay for the privilege.

The Priority Answer initiative, which is available to EE's pay monthly users, has angered long-time customers who believe all calls should be treated equally.

'A joke'

@PhilUK53 tweeted: "Thought it was a joke that @EE were allowing customers to jump queue for 50p. Do they not think great customer service should be a given?"

@Gadget_Ry wrote: "EE is just the RyanAir of mobile networks. They've introduced a 50p "queue jump" charge for their customer service calls."

The network defended the move claiming it had made a heavy investment in customer service, which included bringing call centre jobs back to the UK.

"We've already committed to returning over 1,000 roles to the UK from overseas call centres, and have already opened two new UK centres. To contribute to this and other investments in service we have introduced some small charges for certain customer services," a spokesperson said.

Would you pay for the very un-British privilege of jumping to the front of the line? Share your thoughts below.

• 4G and LTE: Everything you need to know

Via BBC

If your business has a stack of old computer equipment in an old storage room or closet, you aren't alone. Organizations of all sizes regularly deal with monitors, PCs, printers, and mobile devices that need to be discarded. The problem? There's no easy way to get rid of old equipment.

Businesses face several challenges when removing old equipment, with stiff penalties for errors. Regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and PCI Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) have put many businesses under fire, forcing them to ensure all data is completely removed from devices before they're sent off to recycling.

Security is only one issue you'll deal with as you seek to get your old equipment out of the way. Here are a few tips that will help you make sure you aren't hit with hefty fines and, even worse, jail time for improper disposition procedures.

Recycling programs

Whether your business is environmentally aware or not, you have about eighty-two million reasons to avoid depositing electronic equipment into landfills. Just last year, Wal-Mart was ordered to pay $82 million for violations of the Clean Water Act after the company was caught dumping hazardous materials down the drain.

While you likely won't face the level of penalties that Wal-Mart paid, there are monetary losses attached to incorrectly dumping electronics. Improper landfill disposal can result in thousands of dollars in fines, depending on the laws in your area. If that equipment can somehow be traced back to you, you may not only be facing penalties, but you may also be required to deal with the general public seeing you as a company that doesn't care about the environment.

Data protection

Another area that can incur hefty fines for businesses is security. When a company deals with consumer data on its servers, it falls under a new level of scrutiny by authorities. For organizations handling health information, HIPAA regulations require that all patient health data remain private at all times. When a piece of equipment is sent off for recycling, if data remains on it and becomes compromised, the original owner of that equipment may be subjected to fines, as well as being required to notify all affected parties of the data being compromised.

When equipment containing credit card data falls into the wrong hands, businesses may face stiff penalties. One of the most recent cases of credit cards being compromised was Miami's Total Bank, where personal information of 72,500 customers may have been accessed by a third party.

Whether through a hacking attempt, an internal employee, or lost/stolen equipment, customer data is constantly at risk. Even one misplaced laptop can cause hundreds of thousands of records to be compromised, requiring the company to notify each customer that a breach has occurred. Many states also have data breach notification laws that require businesses to pay for 12 months of credit monitoring for every customer that might have been impacted.

How to dispose responsibly

Even if a business knows the importance of recycling responsibly, learning how to get rid of old equipment is an additional challenge. The EPA offers a list of places that accept old equipment, with locations varying by the type and brand of device. Best Buy and Staples are also among big box retailers who accept old electronics, with the latter paying customers for their old equipment.

A great option for your replaced electronics is to donate them to a local nonprofit or school. These organizations may be searching for equipment like yours, so it can't hurt to ask around before you sell it or drop it off at a recycling center. No matter how you recycle your equipment, it will likely be sold or given to people who would have otherwise had to purchase new devices, requiring manufacturing processes that impact the environment.

Ofcom has just published some research into big British mobile operators, and it makes for some interesting reading.

According to the report, which looked into the quality of networks in both urban and rural areas, EE is currently the top dog with 97% of calls connected successfully over its network.

That pushes it just ahead of O2, which came in second with a 95.3% quality rate, dragged down slightly by less impressive results in rural areas.

Three wasn't too far behind that, while Vodafone brought up the rear with a total of 92.6% in quality.

4G obligation

EE, O2, Three and Vodafone are all working with Ofcom to develop a common standard for measuring call quality across the networks, the watchdog said.

Ofcom also added that all four networks are meeting the 90% coverage obligation for 3G, and that the operators have "indicated" that they intend to match O2's 98% 4G coverage obligation.

• Hands on with the cheapest 4G smartphone on the market, the EE Kestrel

EE has announced that its contactless Cash on Tap application is now compatible with all London buses, with support extending to the London Underground, DLR and Overground services from September 16.

There's no waiting required for those of you who love travelling on the iconic red double deckers, as you can jump aboard any one of the 8,600 buses from today and use the Cash on Tap app to pay for your journey.

EE promises that you'll pay the same using its app as you would using an Oyster card, with any single journey costing £1.45, with daily and Monday to Sunday bus fares capped at £4.40 and £20.20 respectively.

Being able to leave your Oyster card at home - and potentially your contactless bank card as well - means there's less chance of the dreaded "card clash" happening too.

Limited appeal

You'll need to be an EE pay monthly customer and have a compatible, NFC-enabled Android smartphone (sorry iPhone and Windows Phone owners) for the service to work - so it's rather limited for now.

At the moment the service only supports pay-as-you-go journeys, and we'll have to wait and see about season ticket support - although it does provide the same value as daily and weekly passes.

• Contactless coming to the tube on September 16

Tesco Mobile is now offering 4G LTE speeds to its pay-as-you-go customers without hiking up the cost.

The mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which offers a service using O2's spectrum, will move all pre-pay users data plans to the new speeds as of today (July 24).

New customers will also be able to sign up for 4G tariffs, which range from 500MB to 8GB a month, at the same prices it had offered for 3G.

Users who don't want a specific monthly allowance each month can simply choose to use data as they please at a cost of ten pence per megabyte.

No premium on premium speeds

Tesco had already been offering 4G speeds to its monthly contracted customers at no extra cost, so now everyone under the supermarket's banner has access to the next-gen speeds.

Robb Kerr, mobile phones expert at consumer champion USwitch.com said Tesco is showing the way forward for other operators.

"Tesco's new free 4G pay as you go offering now gives it the edge on the competition of the other MVNOs, Giffgaff and Virgin Mobile. Crucially for mobile users, it makes 4G well and truly affordable, even for those not on contracts.

"No premium for 4G has to be the way forward, even more so as we slowly approach the two-year anniversary of its arrival in the UK. Bigger inroads of affordability need to be made."

• 4G and LTE: Everything you need to know

Via TrustedReviews

Update: Virgin Media has now confirmed that Three will be joining its Underground Wi-Fi network, providing customers with free access to the web. Virgin Media will also bring seven more stations online before the end of July, pushing the total connected stops to 144.

Until now Three customers have been looking enviously along the platform as those on EE, Vodafone and O2 enjoy free Wi-Fi on the London Underground, but that's about to change.

TechRadar sat down with Three's Director of Customer Strategy, Danny Dixon, who revealed that the data-friendly network would finally hop aboard the free Wi-Fi express by the end of July.

What does that mean? Well you'll be able to get online at 137 Underground stations (ticket halls, corridors and platforms should all be covered) free of charge.

The service comes courtesy of Virgin Media who originally installed the Wi-Fi network ahead of the London 2012 Olympics (remember them?).

London Underground Wi-Fi timeline

• March 2011 - TfL announces Wi-Fi hotspots plan
• June 2012 - Free Wi-Fi roll out starts
• July 2012 - 40 stations covered
• November 2012 - Pricing announced for upcoming paywall
• December 2012 - 120 stations covered
• January 2013 - Paywall up for those not on Virgin, EE or Vodafone
• April 2013 - O2 joins the free Wi-Fi club
• July 2013 - O2 customers get online after delay
• July 2014 - Three finally joins in

Meet the impressive sounding Vodafone Smart 4 Turbo and Smart 4 Power, the latest handsets to bear Big Red's name and this time there's 4G inside.

Vodafone is no stranger to own-brand handsets, but the Smart 4 Turbo and Smart 4 Power are the first to arrive with 4G capabilities.

You can get your hands on the Vodafone Smart 4 Turbo now, which boasts a 4.5-inch display, 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, microSD slot, 5MP rear camera, front cam and Android 4.4 KitKat.

It'll set you back just £135 on PAYG, but you'll need to fork out £31.50 per month if you want it on the Red 4G plan with unlimited texts and calls and 4GB superfast of data, which is pretty steep for what is being billed as an affordable handset.

Feel the Power

The Vodafone Smart 4 Power will be "available soon" and boasts a larger 5-inch HD display, 1.3GHz MediaTek quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, microSD slot, 5MP rear camera, front snapper and Android 4.4.

There's currently no pricing for the Smart 4 Power, but it will be more expensive than the Turbo.

The Smart 4 Turbo provides direct competition to the £99 EE Kestrel which offers up 4G support alongside a 4.5-inch display, 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM 5MP rear camera, microSD slot and Android 4.3 - oh and don't forget about the Motorola Moto G 4G either.

Looking for a budget slate too? See our best cheap tablets list

Vodafone has taken a leaf out of Three's "Feel at Home" book with its WorldTraveller service allowing customers to use their UK minutes, texts and data allowances abroad.

WorldTaveller launches today for Vodafone's pay monthly customers, but unlike Three's offering it's not free of charge.

Instead you'll have to pay £5 per day for the privilege of using your contracted minutes, texts and data in the USA, India, Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Ghana, Qatar and South Africa.

You'll also be able to receive calls and texts for free when you sign up to WorldTraveller - which can be done by dialling 5555 from your Vodafone mobile and opting into the service.

Step in the right direction

While it may not be as value for money on paper, it's still a big step forward in reducing roaming charges in long haul destinations as they can be exceedingly steep.

Recently we've seen roaming charges slashed for all operators across the European Union, and Vodafone has its EuroTraveller service which provides the same features as WorldTraveller in most European countries for £3 per day (it's only £2 per day until the end of August 2014).

• The 16 countries that are part of Three's 'Feel at Home' service

The EU has cut roaming charges as new price caps come into effect from today which sees the cost of calls, texts and data reduced when abroad.

It's data roaming charges that have seen the biggest cut, with prices slashed to 16p per MB (before VAT) - down over 50% from 36p per MB.

Text messages have dropped by a pence, from 6p to 5p, while making a call from an EU country back home will now cost your a maximum of 15p per minute rather than 19p.

It's also cheaper to receive calls while abroad in the EU, with the price falling from 6p per minute to 4p per minute.

Travellers beware

Be aware though that these price caps only apply in countries which are part of the European Union, so if you're travelling elsewhere - Switzerland for example - prices are likely to be much steeper.

Three customers can feel even more smug however, as the network has also expanded its 'Feel at Home' service today to 16 countries, allowing you to use your contract allowance of minutes, texts and data abroad for no extra cost.

The additional destinations added on July 1 2014 are France, Switzerland, Israel, Finland and Norway - with Italy, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and the Republic of Ireland already part of the service.

Via BBC

Last week we heard from EE that it was beginning trials of mobile voice calls over Wi-Fi with a plan to launch the service fully later this year, and rival network Three is also getting in on the action.

The data friendly carrier has launched its beta "inTouch" service, allowing customers to make calls (and send/receive texts) over a Wi-Fi connection, although its implementation isn't quite as seamless as EE's plans.

Only Three customers who are experiencing serious issues with signal at home can currently download the app (on a compatible handset running Android 4.0 or above) to make calls over their wireless internet connection - similar to O2's TuGo offering.

EE's solution doesn't require an app, with the carrier automatically switching between mobile and Wi-Fi signal so you can continue to use your phone's dialler app as normal.

Three expects the final version of inTouch will be launched in August when it will also be available on iOS.

• EE is bringing voice calls to 4G and Wi-Fi