Vodafone Smart III review

The Smart III is running an almost-stock version of Android, with some mild Vodafone tweaks. Chief among these is the Kikin search tool. This lets you select text in a supported app such as the web browser, and Kikin then pops down from the top of the screen with web results, images, videos, news and maps for the selected search result. It’s certainly a lot more convenient than opening a new tab in the browser and copying and pasting a search term into Google.

The camera’s 5-megapixel resolution is fairly low by modern standards, and it produces reasonable images. Outdoor shots showed accurate colours and a fair bit of detail, but the lower resolution is apparent when you zoom in. Indoor images were very impressive, showing clear details and not much noise under low light. Video camera quality is pretty laughable, though, with grainy footage that looked like it was taken ten years ago. It’s generally a good camera for a budget phone, and better than the ZTE Blade III’s sensor, which also impressed us.

The Vodafone Smart III has some flaws, notably its occasionally slow web browsing and slightly unresponsive screen, but we like its design and camera. It’s a competent Android phone at a good price, but we found the ZTE Blade III, which is £80 on Virgin prepay, to have a better screen. We’d also be tempted to save up another £35 for the dual-core Huawei Ascent G510, but if £100 is your budget, the Smart III is a perfectly decent buy.