Tech Tools review: Vodafone gets Smart with Platinum 7

When it comes to affordable smartphones, Vodafone’s Smart range has been doing some good work. Decent cameras, good specs, better prices. The Smart Platinum 7 is the higher end of things, using Android Marshmallow that can take almost anything you throw at it without a hitch.

At first glance, the only thing that marks this out as Vodafone's own-brand is the discreet logo on the back. The Platinum 7 looks good, with a case that doesn't suggest "budget" and a large 5.5 inch display. Gorilla glass front and back make this look every inch the premium phone, although as Sony and Samsung have discovered, those glass cases act as fingerprint magnets.

Two speakers on the front – top and bottom of the display, facing you – provide better than expected audio, so when it comes to watching movies or video clips, it won’t be let down with rubbish sound. In terms of watching movies, the screen on the Platinum 7 is impressive, especially given its price. The AMOLED display is high definition– no 4K here – and bright, so it should (in theory, given that the Irish summer has remained true to form this hasn’t been pushed to its limits) work reasonably well even in stronger sunlight. It’s not quite as bright as its rival OnePlus 3 though, at least on paper.

Like most premium handsets these days, the Platinum 7 has a fingerprint reader. It’s located on the rear of the device, and while it’s not the speediest, I didn’t experience a significant amount of read failures.

One area where you may notice a difference between the Platinum 7 and the likes of the Galaxy S7, for example, is the camera. The 16 megapixel camera is more than adequate for most photo situations, and the front facing camera at 8 megapixels will satisfy event the most ardent selfie fan. Both come with flash too, so low light can be dealt with. There is a bit of softness in the images though, a situation that worsens in lower light.

The Platinum 7 is powered by the 1.8GHz Snapdragon 652 chip. That makes it reasonably fast, but it’s not quite at the level of the S7 or the OnePlus 3, both of which run on the Snapdragon 820 chip. Chances are you will not notice, unless you are trying out some seriously power hungry applications.

One thing Vodafone has paid attention to is bloatware. Networks putting out their own-brand phones tend to cram them with the apps that they think you should be using. And then you can't delete them. Vodafone has kept this to a minimum, adding things like Message+ and Call+. The latter adds the ability to send your location and photos to the recipient of your call, preparing the information before you make the call.

If they also have Vodafone’s Message+ app on the phone, that information is sent over a data connection; if they don’t it’s sent over SMS. It’s not essential, and I can’t really think of too many situations where I would go out of my way to use that feature. You can also add a reason for your call, so if they miss it, a message will automatically be sent to explain exactly what you wanted. As a hater of voicemail, this is significantly more useful to me.

Battery is always the sticking point for phones. The Platinum 7's 3,000 mAh battery is helped by the new features in Android Marshmallow such as Google Doze that cuts the power wasted when the phone isn't in active use. The end result is a battery that should last almost two days. I got a day and a half consistently.

The good

For a budget friendly phone, the Smart Platinum 7 has a decent spec. The screen is one of the best things about the phone, and it’s far better than I expected it to be. The lack of bloatware is a major plus, although one or two apps do creep in there. Some can be uninstalled, others cannot, but it’s far less annoying than previous own-brand handsets have been. Price wise, the Platinum 7 is reasonable at €399. That puts it in the same ballpark as the OnePlus 3.

The not so good

While the camera performs decently in good light, give or take a bit of softness on some images, low light is where the wheels start to come off a bit. But you can say that about a lot of smartphone cameras. It does a decent jobs, but not outstanding.

The rest

The phone comes with 32GB of internal memory, which can be expanded with a memory card by up 128GB. The phone also supports quick charging, which means you can charge about 50 per cent in half an hour. The Platinum 7 comes with a deal on Plantronics Backbeat Sense bluetooth headphones – they cost €89 when you buy the phone, which saves you €90.

The verdict

HHHH

The Platinum 7 is a budget phone that punches above its weight.