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Vodafone 845 review

Vodafone 845
Our Rating :

A great budget Android smartphone with limitless home screen customisation, the 845 has all the features of a more expensive smartphone - except a larger screen

Specifications

Android 2.1, 2.8in 240×320 display

http://www.vodafone.co.uk

The Vodafone 845 is a budget Android phone available free on contract for £20 per month. It comes with a heavily customised version of Android 2.1, so it can handle multiple Google accounts and has improvements to the camera application that older versions of the OS lack. Despite its small size, the 845 still has room for GPS, WiFi, a 3.2-megapixel camera and an FM radio.

As usual with a carrier-specific phone, the 845 has its fair share of Vodafone branding, although thankfully it’s limited to four icons for the four Vodafone apps. These include re-skinned Contacts and Email apps, the Music Shop, and a My Web icon that’s basically a link Vodafone’s home page.

Android 2.1 comes with five home screens that you can flick through from side to side. With the 845, if you drag an icon to the border of the existing home screens, a new home screen is created. In effect, you can create an unlimited number of rows and columns to fit all the icons and widgets you want.

Vodafone has bundled a copy of Documents To Go, an office document viewer, as well as a File Manager and a couple of small utilities, but it hasn’t made a serious attempt at social aggregation. The contacts app doesn’t merge contacts between various services, and is prone to accepting duplicates.

The 845 feels tough, but won’t turn any heads. Its optical touchpad is useful, although we felt it could have been placed further from the adjoining keys, as we sometimes activated it by mistake. The touchscreen is resistive and so requires a bit more pressure, and as a result we didn’t feel it was as responsive as others. The camera takes acceptable snaps for Facebook, but low light quality is poor and there’s no flash.

As a budget Android phone, the 845 stands out for having the latest version of the operating system, but despite a host of great features, it’s no match for the Samsung Galaxy Portal with its 3.2in AMOLED capacitive touchscreen.

Details

Rating ****

Hardware

Main display size 2.8in
Native resolution 240×320
Second Display No
CCD effective megapixels 3.2-megapixel
Video recording format 3GP
Connectivity Bluetooth, USB, WiFi
GPS yes
Internal memory 128MB
Memory card support microSDHC
Memory card included 0MB
Operating frequencies GSM 900/1800/1900, 3G 900/2100
Wireless data GPRS, HSDPA
Size 99x55x14mm
Weight 109g

Features

Operating system Android 2.1
Microsoft Office compatibility Word/Excel/PowerPoint viewers
Email client POP3/IMAP/Exchange
Audio format support MP3, WAV, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA
Video playback formats MP4, H.263, H.264
FM Radio no
Web Browser Webkit
Accessories headset, data cable, charger
Talk time 3.5 hours
Standby time 12.1 days
Tested battery life (MP3 playback) 18h 11m

Buying Information

Price on contract £20-per-month, 18-month contract
Contract/prepay supplier www.vodafone.co.uk
Details www.vodafone.co.uk

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