Vodafone have just uploaded this sneak peek video showing their new Vodafone Smart. Heidi from Vodafone gives us a tour of this new Android 2.2 device and it’ll be available on Pay As You Go pretty soon. It has a 2 megapixel camera, 2.8″ capacitive touch screen, WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G connectivity. You can have it in black or white plus there’ll be other colours available soon. There’s even the possibility of designing your own covers online.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il9OztJi6xs’]
The Smart will arrive in store from “early summer”, costing around €90 in Germany, Italy and the UK. That works out at about £79. If you’re interested, check out the Vodafone overview page, where you can look around the phone yourself. The Smart 858 is actually built by Huawei under the name “U8160”.
Update – Eurodroid have found shots showing those custom covers..
Link – Vodafone Press Release
Vodafone Announces the Vodafone Smart – A Smartphone for Everyone
16 May 2011
Vodafone today announces the launch of the Vodafone Smart, the latest handset in its own-brand range and the first in its category: a fully-featured smartphone with popular appeal for the next wave of data users.
The Vodafone Smart delivers a compelling smartphone experience, empowering customers to enter the world of the mobile internet, bringing together apps, navigation, social-networking and multimedia, all at a great price, in a great package.
Patrick Chomet, Vodafone Group Terminals Director said, “More and more Vodafone customers are enjoying the benefits of smartphones which currently account for over 40% of the phones we sell in Europe. Continuing to push the boundaries through our own-brand range, the Vodafone Smart is a new smartphone concept. It takes the higher end mobile internet experience and packages it for the mass market, its range of covers and accessories making it a fun fashion statement. Available on pay as you go plans, and on the fast, reliable Vodafone networks, the Vodafone Smart is a great step-up into the world of mobile data.”
The Vodafone Smart will be rolled out in a range of colours – from cool monochromes, through bold brights, to bespoke graphic designs. What’s more, customers will be able to personalise their phone, creating their own one-off covers on the web. With spring/summer and autumn/winter cover ranges planned, customers can build up a cover collection to suit their style and spirit.
The Android 2.2 software will give customers access to the full Android experience, including the Android Market™, Gmail™, Google Maps™ and Google Talk™ instant messaging. In addition, the phone has a zoom camera and a capacitive touchscreen as well as 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.
The Vodafone design team have created the user experience with first-time smartphone users in mind and, as such, the homescreen comes pre-loaded with direct links to key content and features including Facebook™, Twitter™, email, Vodafone’s ‘Prepay Manager’ for quick top-ups, Vodafone Music and finally the ‘Updates’ widget, which gives customers easy access to a shortlist of leading Android Market apps and other services selected by local Vodafone editors.
The Vodafone Smart will be available across the Vodafone footprint by early summer. Germany, Italy and the UK will be among the first to sell the phone which will retail for around €90.
What is the point the CPU is so slow it will make it a nightmare to use. clocked at only 528mhz.
The wife’s got The budget Orange san francisco and yes its 800*480 but again the cpu is only 600mhz and it runs very slow.
You might as well buy a second user palm pre for £55.00 from cex with 12 months warranty and use the giffgaff sim in it which is o2 based which most pre’s are anyway. which gives you 250 mins and unlimited texts and unlimited internet for £10 yes it does.
I do not work for cex I just got a pre from them so I understand what it can do for the money.
If anything I say keep away from these price mobiles. as Most people are to “Dumb” to understand what it cannot do and want it to do what there mates iphones or high end android phones can do for the this low price
Not everyone earns £100,000 a year. Perfect for all people that aren’t snobby, a great phone.
it’s a great phone, but the batt dies to fast is there any other battery on the market to buy that will last longer?
how do i get it to work on the 02 network?
how do i get it to work on the 02 network?
Don’t listen to these comments. It’s a BRILLIANT phone. Hardly slow at all and has everything you could want from a budget SMART phone. For £60 it’s a brilliant buy.
Good, but it’s battery dies so fast. Doesn’t even last a whole day.
no it dont i use it all the time and it lasts like 2 1/2 days till it runs out so i dont knwo what phone u r talkin bout…… The phone is brilliant
I’ve had mine for about a week and it’s quite adequate for what I want. The phone is locked to Vodafone but just put an Asda mobile SIM card in and it works fine. As a cheapskate, I’m too mean to pay for mobile internet anyway but you might need to adjust some settings if you really want to spend your money on mobile data.
Asda mobile is less than half the price of Vodafone PAYG (even though it uses Vodafone’s network anyway), the phone works fine on WiFi and if you’re a BT broadband customer you can use other people’s BT FON / Openzone WiFi hotspots, you just need to type in your userid and password each time you connect.
It’s not as good as a £400 phone but you wouldn’t expect it to be. As a phone to put in your pocket and carry with you it’s better.
The only negatives are that the battery life is not great and the supplied headphones are rubbish, but at least it’s got a regular 3.5mm headphone socket.
I agree the batteries are really no good , I don’t get a day if I am using Bluetooth and wifi