Vodafone Smart Prime $149

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#1315347 1-Jun-2015 09:55

I know this is probably dumb for expecting this on such a cheap phone, but with band 28 4g coming, why does it not seem to be a priority for phone manufacturers? Surely Vodafone would want to showcase it on their own brand phones? Does it require modems that are really new, or is it more expensive to put it in a device?

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sonyxperiageek

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#1315394 1-Jun-2015 10:31

mattwnz:
lokhor: I'm going to go take a look at the store today. I've been using an S4 which is kind of awful - battery runs out so quickly and its slow.

I will never buy a samsung galaxy phone for the same reasons. What can help though is doing a full reset, and only having a few apps on it, and disable memory intensive things such as S-voice,which you probably don't use anyway.

So you buy a smartphone without using it to its full potential...Sounds like a dumb phone now lol.

Sony

NikT

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#1315539 1-Jun-2015 15:07

Hey guys,

I've been dealing closely with this one for a while. Looking forward to seeing what people think once they've handled one, because it sure doesn't look or feel like a budget phone at all. In many ways, this is the successor to the Smart 4 power, which debuted at $349, and I personally consider it to be a Moto G killer at half the price (Bearing in mind that most people don't care about updates, and Lollipop is great already). It's awesome to see this much tech available for so few dollars, anyone who's been used to phones in this price range is going to be blown away.

Few fun notes:

There's a full permissions manager onboard - yes, the best feature of M is available out of the box on a $149 Lollipop phone
Snapdragon 410 is in devices up to $849, so we're not dealing with a dual core Mediatek chipset here
Display is 5" 720p IPS and viewing angles are great
Double tap to wake!
2500mAh battery goes a long way in a phone this size

Any questions, let me know - I can put up camera samples or benchmark results if requested.

ubernoob:

Does it work with Semble ?

Not yet - we're working on it. Hopefully in a future update.

paulmilbank: I know this is probably dumb for expecting this on such a cheap phone, but with band 28 4g coming, why does it not seem to be a priority for phone manufacturers? Surely Vodafone would want to showcase it on their own brand phones? Does it require modems that are really new, or is it more expensive to put it in a device?

It's just economies of scale - these phones are built for a primarily European market, so they support band 20/800MHz rather than band 28/700MHz. Band 28 will pop up in the range naturally once the entry-level baseband chipsets support more bands. :)

- Nik

Product Manager @ PB Tech

Smartphones @ PB Tech | Headphones @ PB Tech

macuser

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#1315806 1-Jun-2015 22:53

Looks like a great device, think my girlfriend is going to get this and use it unlocked on 2degrees ($30 for unlock fee is still a lot cheaper than Moto G) Had a play at St Lukes and it's really nice!

dylanp

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#1315866 2-Jun-2015 08:39

ubernoob:Does it work with Semble ?

It's going through the testing process at the moment.

shk292

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#1315927 2-Jun-2015 10:06

It looks like a really great phone. I was amazed at how negative that techradar review was - this seems a natural successor to the Moto G, which everyone raved about, and it adds removable storage

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NikT

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#1315972 2-Jun-2015 10:22

On the performance side, I know some markets have the device encrypted out of the box ala Nexus 6 - this does affect its performance. The local market version is not encrypted by default.
Really don't know what they're on about with the screen. Batch variation or early sample perhaps, as it's a proper IPS panel. That's also the grey variant rather than the silver that's available locally.

There will be a factory unlocked version available through the Vodafone online shop as per usual, RRP $179.

Product Manager @ PB Tech

Smartphones @ PB Tech | Headphones @ PB Tech

lokhor

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#1316356 2-Jun-2015 17:27

NikT: On the performance side, I know some markets have the device encrypted out of the box ala Nexus 6 - this does affect its performance. The local market version is not encrypted by default.
Really don't know what they're on about with the screen. Batch variation or early sample perhaps, as it's a proper IPS panel. That's also the grey variant rather than the silver that's available locally.

There will be a factory unlocked version available through the Vodafone online shop as per usual, RRP $179.

I think perhaps there is another model as they appear to have a MediaTek processor also.

All comments are my own opinion, and not that of my employer unless explicitly stated.

timmmay

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#1316360 2-Jun-2015 17:31

lokhor: I'm going to go take a look at the store today. I've been using an S4 which is kind of awful - battery runs out so quickly and its slow.

I have an S4 with WanamLite ROM, which is just touchwiz with a few tweaks. I'm a light user, in that some days I just check facebook and email a few times on 4G, doing that my battery is at 84% after charging this morning. When I'm using it heavily, which includes music streamed over Wifi and such, the battery still easily lasts the day. Maybe you need to look at what's taking CPU and battery on your phone. My S4 is great.

ludez

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#1316361 2-Jun-2015 17:33

NikT: Hey guys,

I've been dealing closely with this one for a while. Looking forward to seeing what people think once they've handled one, because it sure doesn't look or feel like a budget phone at all. In many ways, this is the successor to the Smart 4 power, which debuted at $349, and I personally consider it to be a Moto G killer at half the price (Bearing in mind that most people don't care about updates, and Lollipop is great already). It's awesome to see this much tech available for so few dollars, anyone who's been used to phones in this price range is going to be blown away.

Few fun notes:

There's a full permissions manager onboard - yes, the best feature of M is available out of the box on a $149 Lollipop phone
Snapdragon 410 is in devices up to $849, so we're not dealing with a dual core Mediatek chipset here
Display is 5" 720p IPS and viewing angles are great
Double tap to wake!
2500mAh battery goes a long way in a phone this size

Any questions, let me know - I can put up camera samples or benchmark results if requested.

ubernoob:

Does it work with Semble ?

Not yet - we're working on it. Hopefully in a future update.

paulmilbank: I know this is probably dumb for expecting this on such a cheap phone, but with band 28 4g coming, why does it not seem to be a priority for phone manufacturers? Surely Vodafone would want to showcase it on their own brand phones? Does it require modems that are really new, or is it more expensive to put it in a device?

It's just economies of scale - these phones are built for a primarily European market, so they support band 20/800MHz rather than band 28/700MHz. Band 28 will pop up in the range naturally once the entry-level baseband chipsets support more bands. :)

- Nik

Some photo samples would be great

lokhor

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#1316366 2-Jun-2015 17:37

timmmay:
lokhor: I'm going to go take a look at the store today. I've been using an S4 which is kind of awful - battery runs out so quickly and its slow.

I have an S4 with WanamLite ROM, which is just touchwiz with a few tweaks. I'm a light user, in that some days I just check facebook and email a few times on 4G, doing that my battery is at 84% after charging this morning. When I'm using it heavily, which includes music streamed over Wifi and such, the battery still easily lasts the day. Maybe you need to look at what's taking CPU and battery on your phone. My S4 is great.

Without Root access it's very difficult to work out what's draining it. Today I have been intermittently charging my phone on and off at my desk and barely using my phone - after 4hrs 37 on battery its now at 47% with screen on time of 17 minutes. Something is wrong but I don't see that I should have to go out of my way to try and resolve it. It shouldn't be so difficult.

Anyway that's pretty off-topic. I actually think this phone is a great budget buy. I am probably more interested in what's to come in the mid-range space, particularly around the $350-400 mark.

All comments are my own opinion, and not that of my employer unless explicitly stated.

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graemewi

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#1330719 24-Jun-2015 14:04

The Warehouse are doing this for $99 this week, I picked one up from another related retailer on a price match. I did try to get Warehouse Stationery to price match plus their beat it by 5% policy but they were out of stock... worth a try though!

Impressed with the phone so far - only had a play while it is charging. Certainly more crisp than my 4 year old Gingerbread'ed X5!

G

macuser

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#1330733 24-Jun-2015 14:29

graemewi: The Warehouse are doing this for $99 this week, I picked one up from another related retailer on a price match. I did try to get Warehouse Stationery to price match plus their beat it by 5% policy but they were out of stock... worth a try though!

Impressed with the phone so far - only had a play while it is charging. Certainly more crisp than my 4 year old Gingerbread'ed X5!

G

Sick deal

Yabanize

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#1330749 24-Jun-2015 14:44

Wow. $99

According to the spec sheet it supports 850 and 2100 3g, so it could work on Spark or Skinny too if you unlocked it

graemewi

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#1330752 24-Jun-2015 14:50

Yabanize: Wow. $99 According to the spec sheet it supports 850 and 2100 3g, so it could work on Spark or Skinny too if you unlocked it

Going to do the unlock tonight if I can pick up a blank ~~Spark~~ 2 degrees micro sim on the way home... even including the $30 unlock fee it seems a pretty good phone for $129!

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