Vodafone Smart Ultra 7 review – return of the Moto G killer?

Vodafone’s Smart Ultra 6 was one of my favourite budget handsets of last year. Yes, you had to sign up to Vodafone in order to get one, but its budget-defying specs were fantastic value for money, and its large 5.5in display offered an excellent big screen alternative to the 3rd Gen Moto G.

Now Vodafone’s back with the Smart Ultra 7, a super-cheap phablet that costs just £135 on Vodafone’s Pay As You Go service. You can also get it on a £19-per-month on contract, but that only gets you 500MB of data, 500 minutes and unlimited texts. You’ll save £33 over two years if you buy the phone upfront and choose an identical SIM-only plan from Vodafone for £12-per-month. However, there are far better SIM-only deals out there if you’re happy to buy your handset first, as we’ll discuss later.

In terms of raw specs, not a lot’s actually changed since last year’s model, as the Ultra 7 still has a 5.5in, 1,920×1,080 resolution display, a 13-megapixel camera and 16GB of onboard storage. Instead, the main differences are a new processor and an all-new design.

Its rivals, however, have done anything but stand still over the last 12 months, as the new Moto G4 also has a large 5.5in Full HD display this year as well as a new and improved chipset. The Smart Ultra 7’s got its work cut out for it then, but it still does a pretty good job at giving at the Moto G4 a run for its money – at least when it comes to overall speed.

Performance

This time, Vodafone’s gone with an octa-core 2.0GHz MediaTek MT6755 processor, which is paired with 2GB of RAM. In terms of speed, it’s not far behind the Moto G4’s Snapdragon 617 chip, as the Smart Ultra 7 scored 784 in Geekbench 3’s single core test and 2,927 in the multicore test, the former just edging in front of the Moto G4’s result of 717.

That’s pretty impressive for a phone that costs just £135, and it storms past other, cheaper budget smartphones like the Wileyfox Swift, 3rd Gen Moto G and the Obi Worldphone MV1. It certainly feels pretty nippy in everyday use, and its vanilla version of Android 6.0.1 rarely leaves you waiting for anything to happen. Web browsing was silky smooth, too, despite its rather underwhelming score of 683 in Peacekeeper.

It’s an excellent gaming device, too, deftly handling 3D games like Hearthstone with ease. It’s perhaps not cut out for the most demanding titles, as evidenced by its rather measly score of 339 frames (5.5fps) in the offscreen Manhattan 3.0 test in GFX Bench GL, but you should still be able to play most titles on offer in the Google Play Store perfectly well.

Battery Life

However, it may have the speed to shoot past other budget handsets, but its stamina is decidedly lacking, as its 2,960mAh battery only managed 9h 55m in our continuous video playback test with the screen brightness set to our usual measurement of 170cd/m2. This is pretty underwhelming even for a sub-£150 phone, as even the 3rd Gen Moto G managed over 11 hours under the same conditions. It pales against the Moto G4’s battery life as well, which lasted an impressive 13h 39m.

Display

Once past the Ultra Smart 7’s speed, everything starts to go a bit downhill, as its 5.5in, 1,920×1,080 resolution display was also pretty poor. It’s an IPS panel, but its overly warm colour cast really spoils its overall appearance. It does, admittedly, have a Picture Mode setting in the Display options that lets you tweak the colour tuning, but the Standard and Vivid presets looked even worse and I struggled to find a decent balance with the customisable User profile as well.

Even after fiddling with the settings, though, the quality of the Smart Ultra 7’s screen simply can’t match the display on the Moto G4. The Smart Ultra 7, for instance, can only show 85% of the sRGB colour gamut (down from the G4’s 90%), and its contrast ratio of 922:1 is miles behind our measurement of 1,693:1 for the G4. The Smart Ultra 7 isn’t as bright, either, topping out at just 373.82cd/m2. This is just about good enough for use outdoors, but you’ll need to have the brightness set to max or be shrouded in shadow to see it clearly.

Camera

I wasn’t overly impressed by its 13-megapixel camera, either, as nearly all my test shots had a rather pinkish tinge to them, particularly when it came to rendering orange brickwork. Outdoor shots were also rather dark for my liking, and it struggled with fine detail. Instead, bricks merged into a homogenous mass and subtler patches of colour almost looked like they’d been smeared across the frame. HDR, admittedly, helped brighten some of our images, but the effect is quite dramatic and doesn’t always make pictures look completely natural.

^ Not only was the Vodafone Smart Ultra 7 lacking in detail, but it also struggled to expose the clouds correctly, even in overcast weather conditions

^ Switching on HDR mode did help, but the rather artificial-looking results may not be to everyone’s tastes

Our indoor shots were also rather lacking in detail, and even shots taken with our studio lights turned on were rather rough round the edges. The fur on our teddy bear, for example, was very fuzzy and short on definition, and even the grooves in our felt tips pens was barely discernible.

^ The colour temperature wasn’t quite right indoors, either, as everything has a rather pinkish hue

Conclusion

It’s a shame, really, as I would have been willing to put up with the Smart Ultra 7’s off-colour screen had its camera been better. Ultimately, though, the Smart Ultra 7 has just one too many flaws to make it a viable budget contender to the mighty Moto G4. Add in a rather underwhelming battery life and the gap widens even further. The Moto G4 might be more expensive than the Smart Ultra 7 upfront, but that extra £35 is definitely money well spent.

You also don’t need to tie yourself into Vodafone’s contract or SIM-only rates by going with an unlocked Moto G4, as you can get some truly fantastic SIM-only deals if you’re prepared to shop around a bit. iD Mobile, for instance, is currently offering a 1GB plan for just £5-per-month on a rolling one month plan. This might change over time as it’s not fixed for twelve months like many SIM-only deals, but at least you then have the freedom to change deals if prices start to increase.

That said, as a budget phablet on contract it’s a reasonable deal, though you could pick up the better-rounded Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo for a similar monthly outlay, and with a more generous contract if you shop around. That leaves the Smart Ultra 7 a bit stuck until pricing becomes more attractive.

Buy the Smart Ultra 7 now from Vodafone