Vodafone Smart Platinum 7 Phone Review

In July 2015, Vodafone turned the mobile phone market upside down by releasing the Smart Ultra 6. It offered medium-to-high end hardware at a budget price of just £125. Now Vodafone are trying to do the same thing with their new flagship, the Smart Platinum 7. Rather than being marketed as a budget phone, though, the Platinum 7 targets users after a premium handset, but at a lesser price of £300. While I got a sneaky pre-release look at the Platinum 7 at a launch event in London, I also got my very own review sample to take home with me. Since then, I have been hard at work to bring KitGuru readers the full review. We assess the design, performance, camera and battery life (amongst a whole load of other areas) and give our final verdict on whether the Platinum 7 really is a flagship killer. Specifications 5.5-inch 2560x1440 AMOLED display Snapdragon 652 4xA72 1.8 Ghz + 4xA53 1.2 GHz CPU 3GB RAM 32GB interal storage, microSD cards up to128GB supported Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 16MP rear camera, 8MP front camera 3000mAH battery 154 x 75.65 x 6.99 mm (L x W x D) 4G+ ready The Vodafone Smart Platinum 7 ships in a fairly non-descript box, with just a diagram of the phone on the front. On the back are the specifications of the device, as well as box contents. Inside you get two product booklets, an AC adapter, earphones and a USB cable. While the AC adapter shown is a European model, I am sure UK customers will get the correct socket type, as review samples often have the wrong AC adapter included. Right away, the Platinum 7 has the look of a premium device. Both the front and the back of the phone are covered with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, which certainly looks good and feels great in your hand. The front of the device also features stereo speakers, something I love to see on a bigger phone as it greatly improves the user experience when watching videos or listening to music. The frame of the Platinum 7 is anodised aluminium, which adds sturdiness and looks classy, too. On the left edge of the phone is a camera button for easier pictures, as well as the SIM tray (which fits both a micro SIM and a micro SD card). On the right-side edge is a volume rocker and on/off switch. The micro USB port (Type B) is located at the bottom of the phone, while on the top edge is an audio jack. The 16MP camera is obviously located on the back, and it is worth pointing out it does protrude slightly. Just below the camera is the fingerprint scanner - a feature I greatly appreciate, especially at the £300 price. The standout feature of the display is its resolution - 2560x1440, crammed into a 5.5-inch panel. This gives a pixel density of 534 PPI, which is stunningly sharp. In the past I have questioned the need for QHD displays on phones, as the extra pixels are a drain on the battery, and 1080p is still very sharp for a phone. However, as I will explore in more detail later, the battery is more than capable of dealing with the 2K display. As such, I welcome its inclusion given images are so crisp while games look exceptionally good. Colours also look great, and contrast is especially good thanks to the AMOLED panel. Watching movies, for instance, is very rewarding thanks to this technology, as blacks are ultra-deep. Viewing angles are also stellar, with no noticeable colour shift. Brightness levels are still a slight struggle in direct sunlight, but I am yet to see a phone which does not have this problem - so it can hardly be held against the Platinum 7. As with all the latest Android flagships, the Platinum 7 ships with Android Marshmallow 6.0.1. In all honesty, I cannot really distinguish between it and its predecessor, Lollipop. Icons have the same, flat aesthetic, while the home buttons are still 3 different shapes. The launcher is also very similar, except users now scroll down through their apps, as opposed to sideways. The quick-settings drop-down panel is another area where things have not changed, while the full settings menu is also left untouched. One cool feature that the Platinum 7 includes, though, is the ability to change the function of the camera key. By default it will take a picture for you when the camera app is open, but it can be changed to launch your favourite app, for example. This is a neat touch which simply allows extra customisation potential. On the whole, the software is very functional. While to me, it seems just like Lollipop, that is no bad thing. There is zero Vodafone bloatware, and Android has been left untouched. While I would usually include a screenshot of CPU-Z here, it did not correctly identify the Snapdragon 652 CPU inside the Platinum 7. So before coming to the benchmarks, I want to touch on real-world performance. In my experience of the Platinum 7, it is an exceptionally fast and responsive phone. I faced no lag when opening or switching between apps, and games (such as Stick Hero and Temple Run 2) ran very smoothly. 3GB of RAM is also very generous, as over a 3-hour period, my average use was 52% of the 3GB. This just means there is more than enough system memory to keep things snappy. Moving on to the synthetic benchmarks, then, and we start with Geekbench 3. I compared the Platinum 7 to the iPhone 6S as this is the type of phone Vodafone are seeking to dethrone, even though the Platinum 7 is barely half the price of the iPhone. As you can see, the Platinum actually beats the iPhone for the multi-core score. The iPhone does come out a fair way ahead for single-core performance, though. Next, I ran 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited. While the iPhone did pull away here, 18000 points is still a great score for a £300 phone. This puts the Snapdragon 652 in the same sort of league as the Snapdragon 808 and 810. Finally, I also ran Ookla Speedtest to ensure 4G speeds are good enough. In all honesty, I was hoping for slightly faster speeds from the Platinum 7. However, it is not always easy to tell whether the phone or the operator's signal speed is to blame. While I used the supplied Vodafone SIM card, if the Platinum 7 could be unlocked and used on the EE network, with whom I get speeds up to 80 Mbps, I would wager the 4G speeds would be increased. The Platinum 7's rear camera is 16MP, while the front camera is 8MP. The level of detail in images is very impressive, while the auto-exposure deals very well with high-contrast situations. Occasionally, the auto-white balance will not quite meter the light properly, resulting in a slightly washed-out image (as above). This is rare, however, and there is always the ability to set the white balance using manual mode. Manual mode also has a very cool 'depth-of-field' slider, which lets you choose where the camera will focus. Above you can see two examples of this - deep vs shallow depth-of-field effects. On the whole, the camera is very capable. Colours are nice and vibrant, while the 16MP resolution is also more than enough for a smartphone. To test a smartphone's battery life, we run the Geekbench 3 battery benchmark. The Platinum 7 did very well, with a time of nearly 9 hours. For an octacore phone with a QHD display, this is extremely impressive. I cannot really fathom how adding more pixels to the display, as well as including a more powerful CPU, can mean the Platinum 7 lasts over 3 hours longer than the Ultra 6. Still, it is a quite incredible result. In the real world, too, the Platinum will last well over a day. I found, come the evening when I would usually charge my phone, the Platinum still had around 40% battery left, meaning it could probably last a day-and-a-half if need be. A full day on a single charge is guaranteed.It is safe to say the Vodafone Smart Platinum 7 is another success story for the company. Build construction is of the highest quality, with a Gorilla Glass 3 front panel and an anodised aluminium frame. The 2K display is also incredibly sharp, with great viewing angles and vibrant colours. It does struggle a bit in direct sunlight, but so does every other phone I have tested. The OS, Android Marshmallow, is very lean and efficient, with no added bloatware or unnecessary bits of software. This helps keep the phone very snappy and responsive, which is confirmed by our benchmark scores. To recap, the Platinum 7 scores higher than the iPhone 6S in the Geekbench 3 multi-core performance test. This is incredible for a £300 phone, and confirms to us that Vodafone has brought flagship performance at a much lower price. A 16MP camera is also appreciated, with a useful manual mode and high level of detail present in images. Very occasionally I found that the auto-white balance was not quite right, but this was rare. The majority of the time, the Platinum 7 takes very good photos indeed. And to cap it all off, the battery life is very strong for a phone with a QHD display. In the real-world, I found it should last well over a day, while in our Geekbench 3 test, it beat the Smart Ultra 6 by over 3 hours. As such, we can safely conclude that the Smart Platinum 7 is another great phone from Vodafone. It is available to buy as of today, with a pay-as-you-go handset price of £300. You can pick one up directly from Vodafone HERE. Pros Premium look and feel. Great performance. Very competitive price. Stunning 2K display. Stereo speakers. Fingerprint scanner. Cons Camera auto-white balance is not infallible. Screen brightness still struggles in bright daylight. KitGuru says: Vodafone are onto another winner with the Smart Platinum 7. It delivers a top-class experience for a less-than-premium price.