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Wednesday 23 July 2014

The Vodafone Smart 4 Turbo - initial hands on

This post forms part of a three post review Hands on | Part 1 | Part 2
Heya

Today I get to play with a fresh new 4g device from Vodafone. The Smart 4 Turbo. Minus the racing stripes sadly. But for two weeks I'll be chatting about the device from both a budget concious users perspective and a parents perspective.



Firstly let's do the initial hands on thought.
On seeing the device I was worried the phone would be a cut corners to cost Alcatel junker, but no. They've used a new manufacturer, hugely popular in China to create a well specced device on a darned good price point, now to many specifications mean nothing but for the budget concious geek the more bang you can easily get for your buck the better. So for you to decide I've pulled the specs of GSMArena as they're listed in the best format on the GSM scene in my opinion. - Thanks Guys!


GENERAL2G NetworkGSM 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G NetworkHSDPA 900 / 2100
4G NetworkLTE 800 / 1800 / 2600
SIMMicro-SIM
Announced2014, Q2
StatusAvailable. Released 2014, Q2
BODYDimensions134.5 x 67.5 x 10.4 mm (5.30 x 2.66 x 0.41 in)
Weight155 g (5.47 oz)
DISPLAYTypeTFT capacitive touchscreen
Size480 x 854 pixels, 4.5 inches (~218 ppi pixel density)
MultitouchYes
SOUNDAlert typesVibration, MP3 ringtones
LoudspeakerYes
3.5mm jackYes
MEMORYCard slotmicroSD, up to 32 GB
Internal4 GB, 1 GB RAM
DATAGPRSYes
EDGEYes
SpeedHSPA+; LTE, Cat4, 50 Mbps UL, 150 Mbps DL
WLANWi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetoothv4.0, A2DP
NFCYes
USBmicroUSB v2.0
CAMERAPrimary5 MP, 2592 х 1944 pixels, LED flash
FeaturesGeo-tagging
VideoYes
SecondaryVGA
FEATURESOSAndroid OS, v4.4.2 (KitKat)
ChipsetQualcomm MSM8926 Snapdragon 400
CPUQuad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7
GPUAdreno 305
SensorsAccelerometer, proximity
MessagingSMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
BrowserHTML
RadioFM
GPSYes, with A-GPS
JavaYes, via Java MIDP emulator
ColorsBlack, White
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- SNS integration
- MP3/WMA/eAAC+ player
- MP4/H.263/H.264 player
- Organizer
- Document viewer
- Photo viewer/editor
- Voice memo/dial
- Predictive text input
BATTERYLi-Ion 1880 mAh battery

While the specs are possibly low to mid range compared to some of the latest and greatest 4g devices it's a well thought through device, especially with additions like NFC and even a 3g only variant (I won't lie! Get the 4g version it's worth it) 
I won't lie I think vodafone have done a great job here on the first few hours. We live in an area where signal is hard to come by without a Sure Signal, in places where the go to Nokia 3510 can't squeeze any signal out the Smart 4 Turbo seems to pull it through, even Edge/2g seems to work better where it refuses to on my main sim! (I should say Vodafone have lent me a 4g sim to play with too.) We'll be trying the device in 2g, 3g, faux g(Hspa) and 4g LTE networks over time.

I'll let you know more about the phone over the next two weeks. Including benchmarks, gaming with the kids trying it out and a few other bits and bobs.

If you have any ideas drop them here and I'll test them out.

The Smart 4 Turbo is avaliable for £135 in Vodafone stores prepaid, and avaliable on contract with Vodafone Red 4g plans. you can get more information online or if local visit the new Vodafone Dunstable store in the Quadrant Centre to have a hands on play with the phone itself.

4 comments:

  1. BBC Iplayer will not play content neither will BBC website

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wi-fi not full signal 6 foot away from router, when looking at hotspots signal strength a lot weaker and does not connect if too weak..

    ReplyDelete
  3. can't change ringtone for a track off my sd card!!!?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heres the way to do it

      connect the phone to your computer and open the SD Card in explorer or similar (I use windows here but the principal is the same on a mac and linux)

      make a folder called Ringtones (it has to be "Ringtones" with the Capital R or it won't work)

      make a copy of the track and place it in the ringtones folder,

      similar for notifications too, just make a notifications folder

      hope that helps

      Delete