Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 Quick Review

Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 Quick Review

Thanks to Vodafone UK for the loaner.

Brief:  The new Orange San Francisco from Vodafone.

Price:  £125 PAYG or “free” from contracts starting at £17 a month.

Specifications:  As Voda themselves area little Spartan with the details the best source as ever is GSM Arena http://www.gsmarena.com/vodafone_smart_ultra_6-7313.php

Accessories:  Infuriatingly this black phone comes with white bits.  Charger, micro USB cable and a pair of ear buds.  I loathe that, it’s a black phone, come with black accessories for god sake!  Anyway they are all easily swapped for ones to my tastes that I already have.  Then hitting up eBay there is a very good selection of cases and bits, literally thousands.  I do love random eBay cases for phones and it’s nice to see a relatively rare, carrier phone get some accessory love.

Build Quality:  It’s good.  Though if you are one of those that equates heavy with quality then you won’t be pleased, its exceedingly light in the hand.  It feels like it could blow away in a stiff breeze but the fit and finish is nice.  It’s just super light plastic.  The back however, it’s too smooth and I felt really could have done with a soft touch finish for grip.

Aesthetics:  It looks like an Iphone.  I can’t say that makes me swoon, actually it’s a little off putting.  It looks so much like a phone trying to look like an Iphone to me it says, I wanted an Iphone but I couldn’t afford one.  That is a shame as its really nice device.  Just visually, it’s got no personality of its own.

As a phone:  Very good, actually very, very good.  CPU is good enough to always feel snappy, likewise the GPU can manage to Run Asphalt 8 on high with no problems. (Antutu score of 25978 and Geekbench 3 score of 638 and 2289.) Its 1080p screen is VERY good, a tremendous showing for a budget handset.  To think it’s got the same number of pixels as your 42 inch TV does. Is that not a modern marvel?  Its battery could easily see me through a normal day.   In fact the only thing I missed was 5GHz WiFi support but then I remember it’s an el cheapo phone.  The specs just don’t belong to that of cheap device.  God if it just had a more grippy back it would be just about everything I want in a phone.  Then it seals the deal with practically stock Android on top and Vodfone seriously have a phone that is worth changing networks to get.

Sound:  It’s fine.  However like the camera, it’s nice and probably better than you expect, certainly than you expect for the money.  But….. I wanted an improvement over the DAC with the Snapdragon 400 and there isn’t any, if anything this here falls behind the aging little Moto G 4G.  Not that most normal would notice or find anything to complain about.  Its overall quality is good but when you stretch things, you pair with harder to drive things and it begins to show up that the little capacitors in there aren’t as big as I might want.  If anything it’s that the phone is so amazingly good else where I wanted the same to hold true for the audio and it doesn’t.  It’s good for sure but I wanted amazing.  Mids are really nice mind, a dab of cream splashed in that paired ever so nicely with the likes of Nora Jones.  Lovely for sure but in a phone I think a more assertive, gym like bounce might be more appropriate for its audience.

Value:  Off the charts.   For what you get, for what you pay it has me wondering if Vodafone is taking a hit on every one it sells.  For its price tag the Ultra 6 is hands down the king of value right new. 

Pro’s:  Insanely good value.  Specs are stupendous. 

Con’s:  Vodafone exclusive, if you live somewhere without Voda UK signal (like America.)