Vodafone Smart 3 is clever on price and features

The big red network has announced the third generation of its own-brand smartphone in the form of the Vodafone Smart 3, looking to offer a slug of power at a low price.

Building on its predecessor the Smart 2, the Vodafone Smart 3 packs a 4-inch display, 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, 5MP camera, microSD slot and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

While the specs won't exactly set the world alight, the price might: the Vodafone Smart 3 will set you back £95 on PAYG, or you can pick it up for free on contracts starting at £13 per month.

This places it against the likes of the ZTE Blade 3, Huawei Ascend G330 and Nokia Lumia 520 at the increasingly competitive bottom end of the mobile market.

More of the same

For those of you who are cripplingly fashion conscious there's two whole colour options for you to choose from - black and white. Breaking the mould there, Vodafone. Well done.

In terms of design the Smart 3 appears to be just another slab of generic plastic measuring a distinctly average 123.2 x 64.4 x 10.9mm.

The only point of interest on the front is the red speaker grill located in the bottom left corner.

We can only hope the Vodafone Smart 3 is an improvement on its predecessor, with the Smart 2 plagued by poor battery life, a disappointing display and flaky camera resulting in a lowly two out of five stars.