Top end Samsung Galaxies or Apple iPhones may well be packed to the brim with features, but they also cost more than a month’s average salary in South Africa. Sure, they’re well designed, but they tend to come in at well over the R8 000 mark [Try R12 000 – Ed]. Clearly, something must be done

And it is. A swathe of sub-R1 0000 smartphones like the MTN Steppa 2, Vodacom Smart 4 Mini and Microsoft’s budget Lumias are showing exactly how you can more than half as good as a flagship smartphone for a tenth of the price. But they all lack one thing which even in South Africa is becoming a must-have when it comes to your phone.

4G/LTE modems.

Admittedly this may not be the most important requirement for those who are in the market for a cut-price cellphone, but its an oversight that’s fixed with the introduction of Vodacom’s R1 499 Smart 4 Turbo. It’s a 4.5inch Android handset much in the vein of its Smart 4 and Kicka phones and Smart Tab 3G tablet, but it comes with a 150Mbps CAT 4 modem inside for superfast internet access (providing you’re in range of one of Vodacom’s 2 000 LTE base stations, of course).

To put that in perspective, Vodacom’s own standalone LTE modem costs R3 635 on prepay. You can buy two of these phones and use them as WiFi hotspots for less than the cost of one LTE modem.

But, of course, this isn’t designed to be a standalone modem and what’s going to concern most is whether or not it’s a decent enough phone to sacrifice frills for frugality. (Overseas readers note: R1 499 is about $128 or £83 at the time of writing.)

Read on to find out.

Design

The look and feel of any phone can be just as important as its internal components, and there is no doubt the men and women who designed the Smart 4 Turbo kept that top of mind. Weighing in at 155g, this phone feels comfortable in the hand, being neither too heavy nor too light. The 4.5-inch size makes it small enough for those with small hands to use comfortably yet doesn’t make someone with large hands feel like a visitor to Lilliput. On top of this, the back cover features a soft satin finish that doesn’t fall into the trap of being overly designed to make a budget phone feel premium – instead, it just feels comfortable. Which is good.

Hardware

The Smart 4 Turbo is quite a bit more powerful than many other budget smartphones, including MTN’s pokey little Steppa 2.

Like the Steppa 2, this is a Qualcomm Reference Device (QRD) handset, which means the design and spec has been provided by chip manufacturer Qualcomm and simply rebadged with someone else’s label (in this case Vodacom). The disadvantage is that it’s an off-the-shelf look that lacks imagination. The advantage is that Qualcomm abosrbs the R&D cost, so it’s cheap, and the hardware inside all works together very well.

In this case, were you to split the Smart 4 Turbo open you’d find a Qualcomm MSM8926 Snapdragon 400 system-on-a-chip CPU, which is built around a quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 processor with an Adreno 305 GPU on the same die. You’d also find the 4G modem on the same chip. Its 1GB of RAM isn’t overly generous, but it is plenty for the chip to shine for one so penuriously priced. The phone can handle the memory demands of the Android operating system as well as a few apps without so much as a hiccup.

Again, to put that chip into context, it’s exactly the same one you’ll find in the LG G2 Mini or Moto G LTE – neither of which are exactly slouches.

Software

Vodafone has opted to avoid too much unnecessary bloat by keeping the Android OS as clean as possible. While there are a few unnecessary apps, these can be safely ignored or uninstalled entirely. The Android 4.4.4 KitKat experience is something that only adds to this phone’s appeal and without any unnecessary additions to its UI, the Smart 4 Turbo remains nippy and responsive.

We ran a quick AnTuTu benchmark and scored just over 19 200 points. Considering the Xperia Tablet Z racked up an impressive AnTuTu score of 22 000 a few years back, and still performs well today, that’s a fantastic score from a smartphone that costs just R1 499.

Whether the Smart 4 Turbo gets Android Lollipop will depend entirely on Vodafone.

Display

The 4.5-inch screen only has a resolution of 480 x 854, but even this also doesn’t feel like a terrible let down. The lack of pixel density can be seen on occasion but overall the experience is a pleasant one; even the viewing angles aren’t that bad. The touch screen is precise, which makes using the Smart 4 Turbo a dream and really helps to make one forget that this is actually a budget device.

Camera

The five megapixel camera means that the Smart 4 Turbo won’t be snapping any Pulitzer prize-winning photos, but it’s certainly good enough for the occasional snap and selfie, and cannot be faulted too much given the price. The fact that it can also record 720P video scores it a few extra points, but those with aspirations of shooting award-winning footage should look elsewhere.  If you do plan on shooting lots of video or snapping lots of pictures then it would be wise to pop in a micro SD card, as the internal storage is limited to 4GB. 

Battery

The real unspoken hero of the Smart 4 Turbo is the 1 880mAh battery. Over the course of a day this phone was subjected to WiFi and GPS use, a constant stream of IMs as well as photos being taken and the odd right swipe on Tinder; only after 16 hours of punishment did the battery get below 15%.

That’s not something to laugh at, especially as the Smart 4 Turbo achieved it without any sort of battery-stretching app helping out. Even better, there is nothing stopping anyone from downloading Qualcomm’s Battery Guru app (the same one found on MTN’s Steppa 2) and using it to extend the phone’s battery life even further.

The most important thing to take away here is that the Smart 4 Turbo can easily last you a full day of pretty intensive use, and longer if you need it to through battery-stretching apps.

Conclusion

The Smart 4 Turbo is a truly amazing little phone. No aspects truly disappoint, and even though it’s technically a budget phone, it delivers impressive performance. The price tag is quite a bit higher than other budget phones such as the MTN Steppa 2, the Gobbi IVP and the Vodafone Smart 4 Mini, yet what the Smart 4 Turbo offers over these other devices makes it worth the price premium.

At the time of writing Vodacom has not released any details of the packages and specials it will offer with the Smart 4 Turbo, but when it does this phone should be at the top of the list for anyone interested in a budget phone with all the features one could need to get a proper modern-day smartphone experience out of it.

At the very least the Smart 4 Turbo should be considered by anyone looking for a spare Android phone in case your primary device is rendered inoperative, or as an affordable yet potent first phone for a child or teenager.

Specifications

Price: R1 499
Display: 4.5 inch, 480 × 854 resolution LCD display (218ppi)
Operating System: Android 4.4.4
Processor: 1.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor
Memory: 1GB of RAM
Storage: 4GB, expandable with a microSD card
Battery: 1 880mAh
Camera: 5 megapixel rear camera, VGA front-facing camera
Networking: 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, LTE