As big brand phone companies keep competing to boast the most sought-after device on the market, they continually add crazy features and high-spec components to turn your head. This means the prices seem to be going up and up too. Trouble is, it's so cool having the latest tech. If you can't justify a thousand-dollar-plus price-tag for something that could just as easily slip out of your pocket never to be seen again, Vodafone may have a solution...

 

The new Vodafone Smart 7 range features 3 options priced from $349 right down to - wait for it - $79. (With a fourth high-end model due for release next month)

For those of you who've dealt with pocket-change price-tag phones before, especially in-house branded devices, you've probably stuck with it for about a week before losing your mind and wishing you'd used the money for a down payment on "real" phone.

In my experience, anything under $150 means no storage, no processing power, no battery life, no screen size, no features and an obsolete operating system that won't run any of your favourite apps.

This is where Vodafone has seized the opportunity to offer something more... for less.

I've spent a fortnight comparing the Smart mini 7 with the Smart ultra 7 and there were plenty of surprises waiting for me - most of them good.

Each of these latest handsets from Vodafone were designed to run the latest Android build from the word go, even the Smart mini 7. So unlike most other budget phones, all your apps should function the same way they would on any other Android device.

Both phones I tried had good battery life, easily seeing me through the day, although I must point out, the Smart ultra 7 was much faster when it came to charging.

The Vodafone home screen launcher is pretty user friendly, not too different from what you'd find on a Google phone like the Nexus or using the Google Now Launcher. I could have done without the Google search bar at the top of every home screen though. I tried to find a way to turn it off but failed.

Both phones provided excellent sound quality over bluetooth connections and I was also impressed with the motion sensors; even the $79 phone was quick to respond when I changed from portrait to landscape and back again.

However, there's only so much you can expect from an entry-level phone at an extremely entry-level price.

It's all about storage. Call me Mr Cynical, but I've always been highly suspicious of the way devices are priced because of the amount of storage space they boast. I simply can't believe it costs that much more to manufacture a chip with 64GB capacity than a chip with 4GB. Yes, you read that right. The Smart mini 7 only comes with 4GB storage, which is mostly taken up with system files anyway. So unless you already have a microSD card to slot into it, you'll definitely need one for this phone to be any use to you at all.

At least it does have a memory expansion slot, so your 4GB phone can become a 36GB phone in seconds. But remember, there are certain limitations to using a microSD as your main storage partition. There's no problem saving all your photos, music and videos to your added memory space and you can install apps on it too. But I found any apps saved to the microSD lost the ability to run their associated widgets on the home screen. If you don't understand what I just said, then this won't be a problem for you.

On the other hand, the Smart ultra 7 sports a more respectable 16GB internal memory (still a little thin by 2016 standards, but quite usable on its own)

The Smart mini 7 ran smoothly enough on its quad-core processor but with only 512MB of ram, things certainly slowed down quickly once any multi-tasking was attempted. On the other hand, its big brother features an octacore processor (dual quad-core configuration) and a full 2GB of ram, so flicking from app to app posed no problems at all.

I wasn't very impressed with the camera experience on either device. I didn't expect great shots from the smaller phone - at just 2MP the quality was never going to be exhibition standard. But the 13MP camera on the Smart ultra 7 wasn't much chop either. Many of my images came out blurred and I had to reshoot them. The selfie cameras on both phones worked well enough, with the budget VGA version on the Smart mini 7 doing a surprisingly good job of my Periscope videos. I'm thinking if photography is really your thing, you might have to move up into a different price bracket.

Of course, the most obvious difference between these two phones is screen size. 1.5 inches doesn't seem like a big difference on paper, but in reality, you simply can't compare a 4" screen with the Smart ultra 7's massive 5.5" display. There aren't actually that many phones out there with a screen that big. It's full HD and not only looks way better than the tiny Smart mini 7, but feels a lot nicer to use as well.

In fact, the Smart ultra 7 feels great just sitting in your hand. The attractive metal frame combined with the textured back cover provide a solid touch which is also very classy to look at. The Smart mini 7 is certainly lighter, but its all-plastic casing really does make it look and feel like a cheaper phone.

Which it is of course. WAY cheaper. And yet it carries out most functions required of a modern phone admirably, making it a great choice if you need a temporary phone in a hurry, or perhaps a first smart phone for one of the kids.

Meanwhile, the Smart ultra 7 is easily $270 better, just on screen size alone. It looks equally as sophisticated as handsets priced a thousand dollars more and it does most of the things they do. Neither phone would be my first choice for photos, but if you're working to a budget, they're the smart choice.

Click here for more information on the Vodafone Smart mini 7

Click here for more information on the Vodafone Smart ultra 7