Vodafone 845: Android on a budget

You hear Vodafone's own branded devices and think of the phones that are relatively cheap on the PAYG and are not that big a deal. This one, however, is a bit of a deal. That is because of its operating system: Android 2.1. It isn't normal Android, but, as many modern phones running Android, it's skinned and has a custom Vodafone 360 layer on top of it. That means it can get apps from the Vodafone 360 store or the Android store. That means this phone is hugely customisable.

It has a 2.8" resistive (see left) touch screen. So it won't deliver the same great performance as a capacitive screen such as on the HTC Magic. Its camera, pretty much like the phone, is nothing amazing. At 3MP it's behind the curve of most 5MP Android phones of the moment.

However, for such a cheap phone, it is pretty well connected. WiFi, 3G and Vodafone's decent network mean you're pretty well covered. Prices aren't official, but it should hopefully be available on around a £10 a month, 2 year tariff, or under £100 on PAYG. Overall, not a bad phone for such a promised cheap price.