Vodafone Smart Prime 7 – Performance
With budget phones, the main creator of problems is the performance. To keep the price down, lower-specced processors are used and that tends to cause issues. The Vodafone Smart Prime 7 sort of falls into this pit too, but it’s still a perfectly usable phone.
Inside you’ve got a low-end quad-core Snapdragon 210 CPU paired with 1GB of RAM, whih for 2016 that isn’t all that much. Especially when devices such as the Moto G4 are offering 2GB of RAM, a 1080p display and a very capable Snapdragon 617 CPU. I know it costs more (£169), but it’s well worth the extra cash.
Related: Best Android smartphone
It’s perfectly acceptable for the price, but it doesn’t push beyond it. It’s predictable, rather than trying to do something extra.
Benchmarking seems completely redundant on a device that costs £75, but if you want the scores on the doors, here you go. In Geekbench 3 it scores 331 on the single-core test and 1,070 on the multi-core version. That’s a little better than the other Snapdragon 210 device I’ve tested before, and that phone (the HTC Desire 530) is much more expensive.
There’s 8GB internal storage, but it seems that only 4GB of that is actually usable. Vodafone tells me the user should have 5GB, but it only shows me 3.99GB. Not sure what the issue is here, but it’s still a pitiful amount of storage. You’ll need an SD card here, no doubt.
Another thing to note is that the Vodafone Smart Prime 7 is, you guessed it, locked to Vodafone. A Three user? Or O2? Don’t even think about it. Call quality and 4G signal was great, with calls coming across crisp and clear.
How we test phones
We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly and we use the phone as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Used as our main phone for the review period
Reviewed using respected industry benchmarks and real world testing
Always has a SIM card installed
Tested with phone calls, games and popular apps
Key features
I think it’s fair to say that price is the key point of this phone. People buying the Vodafone Smart Prime 7 will likely want a handset that offers them basic functionality for a sensible price. Good news guys: this phone goes way beyond that ‘basic’ requirement.
For one thing it offers 4G, so you’ll be well placed to take advantage of fast browsing, downloads and the like; 4G isn’t unheard of for budget handsets like this, but it’s always great to see, as it makes for a much better phone experience.
Tied into that are Vodafone’s optional services, such as Spotify and Sky Sports which, depending on your tariff, you may get some free access to. With 4G these are going to fly along at a fair old clip that even good 3G can’t match – it’s a real bonus to have.
Another nice selling point is that the Smart Prime 7 offers a simple, stock Android experience – and it’s Android 6.0 Marshmallow to boot. Now, I’m not someone who believes custom Android UIs are a bad thing, but I’m also aware that some people quite like the way standard Android looks – and those people will love this phone, as very little has been tweaked.
On the downside there’s a fair amount of Vodafone branding. This isn’t really a massive surprise – it’s a Vodafone-branded device after all, and it’s clearly being subsidised by your subscription to its network. And the interference is minimal enough; Vodafone’s apps are mostly there to help you monitor your account and sell you accessories.
Also included is Vodafone’s Message+, this is like iMessage on an iPhone, and enables you to text people via SMS, but other Vodafone users can be reached using more modern means that don’t incur the charge for sending a regular text message. I get what Vodafone is trying to do here, and there are options for video calling too which make sense.
The problem is WhatsApp. In a world where there’s a service that everyone is using, and one that does most of the things Message+ does, Vodafone’s offering seems sort of pointless. Still, it’s there, and it seems decent enough in concept; how much benefit you’ll get from it will depend on how many people you know who are on Vodafone.
Because this is a Vodafone exclusive it makes sense to talk about your buying options. At the time of writing the phone is £75 on pay-as-you-go, or you can get it for free on tariffs starting at £16 per month. That entry-level deal only gets you 250MB of data though, so be careful. If I was buying this phone I’d grab it on PAYG and get Vodafone’s 1GB bundle for £15 per month – but with no contract, obviously.
You also get an FM radio. I sort of like this – it’s a feature that’s going extinct on phones, but when you’re bored and in an area with poor data coverage it can make for a nice distraction.
What is the Vodafone Smart Prime 7?
If there’s anyone capable of making a phone that can punch above its weight, it’s the mobile networks. They have the ability to subsidise the cost of the device by making sure you use their network, alongside the features that go with it.
EE has done this successfully in the past with its impressive Harrier line of phones, and Vodafone dished out some good handsets last year with both the Smart Prime 6 and Smart Ultra 6.
Now Vodafone returns with the Smart Prime 7. It offers up a 5-inch 720p display, quad-core processor, removable storage and a pretty clean build of Android Marshmallow all for £75.
What’s the best phone you can buy right now?
Vodafone Smart Prime 7 – Display
At 5-inches, the Vodafone Smart Prime 7’s display is on the small side for a modern Android phone, and for the price it’s quite impressive.
It’s a 720p LCD panel and I would say that 5 inches is just about the limit with a display of this resolution. Pixels are visible if you get in close, colours are a tad muted and it just feels a bit washed out.
Viewing angles, though, are surprisingly good. Tilting the phone to either side doesn’t completely ruin the image and it doesn’t have a pinkish tinge, something I found a little off-putting on the HTC 10.
Brightness isn’t an issue either, I normally have it on about 50-60% and it’s perfectly readable in the majority of conditions.
My main issues with the screen comes with its responsiveness, or lack thereof. There have been multiple occasions when the screen hasn’t done anything when I’ve touched it, and I’ve had to try multiple times for it to respond. I also feel it requires a much more specific touch – when trying to hit a link for example – and on numerous occasions I’ve tapped on the wrong thing by accident.
Design
Let’s start with the look and feel. The Smart Prime 7 is plastic, and to get the SIM and optional microSD cards in you have to pop off the back cover. It’s thin and a bit flimsy – it gives way when you push it with modest force – but that’s not a negative point.
It’s not badly designed at all, and it feels like it will comfortably survive the rigours of day-to-day use. The black version of the phone is pictured throughout this review, but you can also pick it up in a white version as well.
On the right side are the power button and volume rocker – standard stuff. On the back is a small and nicely subtle Vodafone logo, along with the 8MP camera and LED flash. The headphone jack is on the top, while at the bottom is the micro USB port for charging.
Vodafone has gone for hardware buttons for the Prime 7 – they’re capacitive, and only visible when lit by a backlight. You get the standard Android back and home buttons, and what I call the pointless square.
The pointless square does have a point – it’s for task-switching – but the decision to make this icon a square is one that will confuse me until the day I die. It makes no logical sense – mind you, the home circle is only fractionally better.
The Smart Prime 7’s screen is of a fairly modest resolution. No QHD here, just trusty old 720 x 1280. As a phone snob you might think I’d bemoan that, but actually it’s really good.
It’s nearly impossible to see the pixels on the 5-inch screen, and the pixels per inch number of 293 is only a little lower than the iPhone SE’s 326. In short, the screen is nice, and the spec doesn’t really tell the whole story.
Vodafone Smart Prime 7 – Design and build
The Vodafone Smart Prime 7 feels like a phone that costs £75. When you consider that budget phones from the likes of Honor and Motorola are starting to take design and build seriously, it’s disappointing to see the Smart Prime 7 is dull and unambitious.
It’s a plastic slab of a phone, with a clean front and a flimsy removable back. That back has a slight woven pattern that feels like it should be textured, but it’s not. It lacks grip and bends easily when removed.
On the sides there’s a volume and power switch, both of which continue that flimsy feeling. They have a slight texture, so they can be easily felt in your pocket, but they lack a satisfying click.
The sides themselves are plastic, even though from a distance they do resemble metal. I thought we’d got past that stage of phone design where we tried to make plastic look like metal, but it seems not.
It’s not all bad, though – at 7.9mm it’s a thin phone and one that easily fits into a pocket. It’s light too, and while there’s a rather large bezel surrounding the 5-inch display it still feels compact. It’s about the same size as the Moto G3, and slightly larger than the iPhone 6S, but I can use it in one hand without too much trouble.
Related: Best cheap smartphone
Below the display is a set of three capacitive keys, each of which light up momentarily when you touch them.
Vodafone Smart First 7 Full Specifications
| Name | Vodafone Smart First 7 |
| Brand | Vodafone |
| Model | Smart First 7 |
| Price | 2,850.00 Taka (approx) |
| Category | Smartphone |
| Showroom | Click Here |
Network
| Network Type | GSM / HSPA |
| Network 2G | GSM 900 / 1800 |
| Network 3G | HSDPA 900 / 2100 |
| Speed | HSPA 21.1/5.76 Mbps |
| GPRS | Yes |
| EDGE | Yes |
Launch
| Launch Announcement | 2016, May |
| Launch Date | Available. Released 2016, May |
Body
| Body Dimensions | 114.4 x 62.8 x 12 mm (4.50 x 2.47 x 0.47 in) |
| Body Weight | 110 g (3.88 oz) |
| Network Sim | Mini-SIM |
Display
| Display Type | TFT TN capacitive Touchscreen |
| Display Size | 3.5 inches, 36.5 cm2 (~50.8% screen-to-body ratio) |
| Display Resolution | 320 x 480 pixels, 3:2 ratio |
| Display Density | 165 ppi density |
Platform
| Operating System | Android |
| OS Version | 5.1 (Lollipop) |
| Chipset | Spreadtrum SC7731G |
| CPU | Quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7 |
| GPU | Mali-400MP2 |
Memory
| Memory Internal | 4 GB |
| Memory External | microSD, up to 64 GB (dedicated slot) |
| Ram | 512 MB RAM |
Camera
| Primary Camera | 2 MP |
| Video | 720p@30fps |
Sound
| Audio | Vibration, MP3, WAV Ringtones |
| Loudspeaker | Yes |
| 3.5mm Jack | Yes |
Connectivity
| WiFi | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Hotspot |
| Bluetooth | 2.1, A2DP |
| USB | microUSB 2.0 |
| GPS | A-GPS only |
| Fm Radio | Yes |
Features
| Messaging | SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, IM |
| Browser | Yes |
| Java | No |
Battery
| Battery Type | Removable Li-Ion Battery |
| Battery Capacity | 1400 mAh Battery |
| Battery Talk Time | Up to 5 h (3G) |
More
| Body Color | Volcano Black, Tech White |
| Other Features | MP3/eAAC+ player MP4/H.264 player Document viewer Photo/video editor |
Above mentioned information is not 100% accurate. There is always having a chance to make a mistake to adding information. Generally we collect information from manufacturer website and other reputed sources. Please inform us if you have found any mistake or wrong information.
Rating
Total:
Display 75%
Camera 80%
Battery 57%
Storage 60%
Performance 62%
Related Phones
Symphony E95
BDT 2,990.00
View Details
Symphony E90
BDT 2,990.00
View Details
Symphony Roar V20
BDT 3,190.00
View Details
We A10
BDT 2,950.00
View Details
Reviews
Realme C55 Review
Realme C55 is a budget smartphone that offers a lot of value for money. It has a premium design, a large and vibrant display, a fast processor, and a long-lasting battery. It also comes with a decent camera system and a variety of useful features. Design and Display Realme C55 android smartphone has a sleek and modern design. It is made of plastic, but it feels sturdy and well-built. The back panel….English
Oppo A17 Review
Oppo A17 is a budget smartphone that offers a decent set of features for its price point. The device features a 6.44 inches HD+ display with a resolution of 720 x 1600 pixels. It is powered by a MediaTek Helio P35 processor, paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, which can be expanded via a microSD card.Oppo A17 has a quad-camera setup on the back, consisting of a 13-megapixel….English