Vodafone Smart ultra

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#1336398 3-Jul-2015 12:58

TyroneB: My smart 4 power battery is pretty much dead only giving me 4~ hours on screen life.
Would this be a good upgrade? Saw the promo video on Facebook for it and its fairly cheap.
If I buy it outright can I keep the same sim as my current plan?

Would be a great upgrade from the Vodafone Smart 4 power.

Yes, can keep same number etc. It takes a nano sim so you'll likely need a new sim. Pick up a free blank Semble sim when you buy the phone and you'll be future proofed for using that too. You can swap to the new sim yourself using our My Vodafone Android app or through My Vodafone on our website, more info at http://www.vodafone.co.nz/simswap/

nedkelly: Semble support?

We're working on it at the moment.

BigMal

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#1336746 4-Jul-2015 08:27

So I bought one of these yesterday to replace my broken Nexus 5.

I installed Google Launcher and removed Vodafone apps. I installed other missing google apps and now it's essentially a stock Android experience - FANTASTIC!

The screen is big and beautiful. The phone itself is very big and takes a bit of getting used to, thankfully I'm a big guy with big hands so not too much of an issue.

Battery life so far has been superb, far superior to the Nexus 5.

Performance is very good. I don't play games, I just mainly surf, reddit, email and watch videos and it does all of those things well.

Speakers are a bit sh * t, but I don't use those often so no big problem there.

The phone is also very light, considerably lighter than the Nexus 5. It looks very iphone-ish but doesn't feel premium, probably due to all the plastic.

The only significant downside is the camera is very average, slow to focus and slow to take photos. Usable but not a great camera.

Overall it's a great performer for $299, a very capable smart phone. If they could somehow get a better camera and slightly faster processor, even if it cost an extra $50-$100 then this phone would be an absolute killer.

MurrayM

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#1336747 4-Jul-2015 08:33

Thanks for your comments, BigMal, most interesting.

I've got the Prime and found the camera pretty fast at focusing. I play a geolocation game called Munzee that requires me to go to a location and then scan a QR code and the Prime focuses and scans the QR code almost instantly, certainly faster than my old S3. I guess since the Prime and Ultra are made by different companies then they'll have totally different hardware inside.

Just out of interest, which Google apps were missing that you had to install?

BigMal

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#1336827 4-Jul-2015 10:23

Although I haven't tried I'm sure it'd scan QR codes pretty quickly. However taking photos of moving objects (eg. children) is tough work. Even taking photos of static objects, unless the lighting is perfect, the results are very average. The camera is the only real let down with this phone, a side from the camera it's a very nice device.

I had to install the photos app, google launcher and a couple of others which I can't recall off the top of my head. Visually it's no different to stock which is great.

NikT

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#1337009 4-Jul-2015 18:32

BigMal: Although I haven't tried I'm sure it'd scan QR codes pretty quickly. However taking photos of moving objects (eg. children) is tough work. Even taking photos of static objects, unless the lighting is perfect, the results are very average. The camera is the only real let down with this phone, a side from the camera it's a very nice device.

I had to install the photos app, google launcher and a couple of others which I can't recall off the top of my head. Visually it's no different to stock which is great.

Are you using the Google Camera app or the stock app?

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BigMal

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#1337016 4-Jul-2015 18:45

NikT:
BigMal: Although I haven't tried I'm sure it'd scan QR codes pretty quickly. However taking photos of moving objects (eg. children) is tough work. Even taking photos of static objects, unless the lighting is perfect, the results are very average. The camera is the only real let down with this phone, a side from the camera it's a very nice device.

I had to install the photos app, google launcher and a couple of others which I can't recall off the top of my head. Visually it's no different to stock which is great.

Are you using the Google Camera app or the stock app?

I use the vodafone camera app. I tried the google camera app but most of the features (HDR etc) were unavailable.

BigMal

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#1337020 4-Jul-2015 18:50

Actually I got that wrong. HDR is available on the Google camera app, I'll give it a go and do some comparisons.

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#1337060 4-Jul-2015 19:35

Can you get the Vodafone or Google camera apps to save to an SD card? I couldn't on my Prime and had to install A Better Camera to get that functionality.

IronH

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#1337064 4-Jul-2015 20:06

Benchmark results: Smart Ultra 6 vs Z3 Compact for comparison sake (Snapdragon 615 vs Snapdragon 801)

Antutu: 25952 vs 45715
GeekBench single/multi: 659/2488 vs 960/2705 (FYI Snapdragon 600 Galaxy S4 scores 658/1834)
Epic Citadel: 58.8FPS 1920x1080 vs 56.1FPS 1200x720
3Dmark: Ice Storm Extreme 5339 vs Ice Storm Unlimited 20264
Quadrant: 2706 vs 24774
Vellamo Chrome Browser: 2259 vs 3019
Vellamo Single: 960 vs 1526
Vellamo Multi: 894 vs 1722
GFX Manhattan offscreen: 5.6FPS vs 11FPS
GFX TREX offscreen: 14FPS vs 26FPS
GPU Bench normalised: 22,386 vs 17,512

proof here: https://youtu.be/TZ90aj3ESwc

Temps are also good, even after all the benchmarking the device was only mildly warm to the touch, the inbuilt thermal sensors reached a max of 61deg.

I agree with Bigmal - speakers are rubbish, but at least they don't distort at full volume. I think the majority of the money went into the screen, viewing angles are great. The colours and viewing angles are better than the Z3 Compact, and it gets incredibly bright. The downside is that it doesn't get very dim if you like to read in bed without disturbing your significant other.

BigMal

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#1337066 4-Jul-2015 20:16

Interesting that it performed better on Epic Citadel and at a higher res.

I might try some cardboard games and see how it performs.

IronH

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#1337155 4-Jul-2015 22:52

BigMal: Interesting that it performed better on Epic Citadel and at a higher res.

I might try some cardboard games and see how it performs.

let me know because I'm getting a VR headset which I was planning to use with this phone, hopefully it copes ok.

richms

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#1337171 4-Jul-2015 23:59

What charging speeds does it get with its quick charge implimentation? 12v or just 9v like the note 4?

Richard rich.ms

BigMal

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#1337270 5-Jul-2015 11:54

IronH:
BigMal: Interesting that it performed better on Epic Citadel and at a higher res.

I might try some cardboard games and see how it performs.
let me know because I'm getting a VR headset which I was planning to use with this phone, hopefully it copes ok.

I tried cardboard and it doesn't really work. By the looks of it the phone doesn't contain a gyroscope which essentially makes it useless for VR apps.

IronH

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#1337290 5-Jul-2015 13:08

BigMal:
IronH:
BigMal: Interesting that it performed better on Epic Citadel and at a higher res.

I might try some cardboard games and see how it performs.
let me know because I'm getting a VR headset which I was planning to use with this phone, hopefully it copes ok.

I tried cardboard and it doesn't really work. By the looks of it the phone doesn't contain a gyroscope which essentially makes it useless for VR apps.

Oh true, I actually noticed in GFXBench under the systems info tab that there are ticks next to every feature except barometer and gyroscope, but I didn't click until now. I guess I will need to buy another phablet :)

BigMal

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#1337296 5-Jul-2015 13:22

IronH:
BigMal:
IronH:
BigMal: Interesting that it performed better on Epic Citadel and at a higher res.

I might try some cardboard games and see how it performs.
let me know because I'm getting a VR headset which I was planning to use with this phone, hopefully it copes ok.

I tried cardboard and it doesn't really work. By the looks of it the phone doesn't contain a gyroscope which essentially makes it useless for VR apps.

Oh true, I actually noticed in GFXBench under the systems info tab that there are ticks next to every feature except barometer and gyroscope, but I didn't click until now. I guess I will need to buy another phablet :)

Yeah I'm waiting for a more dedicated VR experience like Morpheus.

The phone has great battery life though. I charged it up at 5pm and it was 20% two days later with approx 4 hours screen on time (however relevant that stat is). My Nexus 5 running Android M got nowhere near that.

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