Vodafone Smart cheap Android smartphone

Like the LG GT540, the Vodafone Smart is a smartphone on a budget. It's smaller than most, with a tiny 2.8in screen and a relatively slow 528MHz processor, only half as fast as most of the other phones being released nowadays.

It uses the older Android 2.2 operating system but there's not a huge amount missing, feature-wise, compared to the newer version – certainly not on a screen this small. There are apps appearing that will require more recent editions of Android, but the Smart still includes features you'd expect such as email, a web browser and access to music and videos.

It is light, at 104g, and easy to slip into a pocket and carry around. It will connect to both wireless networks and Bluetooth devices, and it can send and receive data over Vodafone's mobile phone network. Impressively, it also includes a GPS receiver for mapping and navigation.

There's a headphone socket, though earphones aren't supplied, and it charges over USB – the cable for which is supplied, along with a mains charger.

As with the LG, the Smart was slow to respond when we pressed buttons and slow to load apps or do complex tasks. The small screen meant text was squashed and didn't look good, and icons and the on-screen keyboard were hard to use – we kept missing the right letters with our fingers.

It has a miserly 512MB of storage but a 2GB micro SD memory card is thrown in and can be swapped for a bigger one if more space is needed. The camera, though, was even worse than the one on the LG, at two megapixels.

That said, the Smart is well built (it's made by Chinese manufacturer Huawei on behalf of Vodafone) and works as an Android phone.

If you need a phone on a budget, and you can put up with the small icons and keyboard, this is an excellent choice – just be aware of its limitations before you buy. It's only available pay-as-you-go, not on contract, and only from Vodafone directly.