The Vodafone 845 is cheap, but that rarely means pretty. Or at least it didn’t: skip to a few years back and you’d find all manner of boxy and – by today’s standards – ugly mobiles, but the Vodafone 845 is a brand new device, so it should be up to the sleek standards of the latest smartphones, right? Read on to find out if it is in this part of our Vodafone 845 review.
Read the rest of our Vodafone 845 review
Vodafone 845 review
Vodafone 845 review: Android 2.1
Vodafone 845 review: The rivals
The Vodafone 845 isn’t a pretty phone. With a smallish 2.8-inch screen in tow, its footprint is petite, but the impression the Vodafone 845 leaves with you is more of boxiness than beauty. Beveled edges aside, the very square soft keys of this phone make it look significantly less friendly, less slick and less distinct in its design than the T-Mobile Pulse Mini – the Vodafone 845′s closest rival, spec-wise.
Its body is functional rather than fantastic, but this is not a dealbreaker for a budget phone by any means. On the plus side, we reckon the Vodafone 845 could withstand a few more accidental drops than an iPhone 4 before sustaining serious damage.
Every cloud has a silver lining, and that’s the shiny edge to the cumulonimbus that hangs over the Vodafone 845′s uninspiring looks. The battery cover protects the camera lens too, which is a rare bonus in a smartphone these days.
The sides of the body aren’t packed with too many buttons – there’s just a power button and a volume rocker, along with a push-in tab that unlocks the Vodafone 845′s battery plate. On the bottom of the phone are the micro USB slot and 3.5mm headphone jack. The power and volume buttons are bright silver, which – truth be told – looks a tiny bit tacky alongside the muted metallic body. More cheap and cheerful “brownie points” for the Vodafone 845, then.
The Vodafone 845′s budget origins also show through in the phone’s touchscreen. It’s a resistive model, the type that’s slowing dying out in favour of the capacitive kind, as used in the iPhone and almost every other high and mid-range smartphone on the market.
Resistive touchscreens rely on sensing direct pressure from your finger, so the Vodafone 845 doesn’t respond very well to light touches. The touchscreen needs to be calibrated for optimum results, and when trying to type texts or emails we’re still left hankering after something better.
2.8-inches isn’t much space for a QWERTY keyboard to spread out, and the Vodafone 845′s screen would fare a lot better if a stylus was included. Styli aren’t cool, seen as relics from the touchscreen past, but with budget phones like the Vodafone 845, they can improve your experience. With a finger, typing accuracy just isn’t good enough to make typing longer emails as comfortable as a slightly more expensive capactive-screened phone.
The display is stuck in the past too. The 320×240 pixel display is just fine for the 2.8-inch screen – unlike the HTC Wildfire, this resolution doesn’t feel like it’s being stretched too far. However, with just 65k colours at its disposal, colours don’t look very rich or deep. Your eyes do get used to the reduced colour palette after time, but it’s disappointing when the Vodafone 845 manages to pack-in plenty of non-budget features like Wi-Fi and HSDPA.
The Vodafone 845 is one of the cheapest Android phones around, but it’s in the build and touchscreen that the cut corners and cheaper components start to show their grimy little faces. It’s what stops the Vodafone 845 from becoming a big player on the small-budget Android scene.
Read the rest of our Vodafone 845 review
Vodafone 845 review
Vodafone 845 review: Android 2.1
Vodafone 845 review: The rivals
