Compare Vodafone mobile phones

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Name	Product	Display	Display	Rear camera	Battery size	Overall rating	More info	More info
Vodafone Smart C9		4 inches 480 x 800	Display 4 inches 480 x 800 Rear camera 2MP Battery size 1,500 mAh	2MP	1,500 mAh	Not yet rated	Where to buy View details	Where to buy View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
Vodafone Smart A9		2.4 inches 240 x 320	Display 2.4 inches 240 x 320 Rear camera 2MP Battery size 1,000 mAh	2MP	1,000 mAh	Not yet rated	Where to buy View details	Where to buy View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
Vodafone Smart E9 4G		5 inches 480 x 960	Display 5 inches 480 x 960 Rear camera 5MP Battery size 2,000 mAh	5MP	2,000 mAh	Not yet rated	Where to buy View details	Where to buy View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...

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What to consider when choosing a Vodafone phone

Vodafone offers a wide variety of premium and mid-range phones on contract terms to Australian consumers. But in terms of phones that specifically bear the Vodafone brand name, it has typically only focused on very low-cost prepaid devices.

It's not as though Vodafone has its own factory and phone R&D division pumping these phones out, though. Like similar devices you could buy that are labelled as "Telstra" or "Optus" phones, they're standard designs being built by a Chinese Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), although you rarely see much of that manufacturer's branding on Vodafone's phones.

With a focus on basic features and value, here's what you need to consider when choosing a Vodafone phone:

• Internal storage

  Vodafone's phones tend on the much cheaper side, typically selling for around $100 or less, and that does constrict how much storage each phone has. By modern standards, they're often very low storage devices, with the Vodafone Smart C9 3G, for example, shipping with just 4GB of onboard storage. The good news here is that they often support storage expansion via microSD card if you do run out of space on the phone itself.

• Screen size

  Again, cost considerations mean that you're rarely looking at a huge phone when you buy a Vodafone model, although that may suit you if you prefer smaller screened devices. The use of smaller screens does also rather hide that typically these are phones with very low resolution.

• Price

  Vodafone's own-brand phones are sold to its prepaid customers on a value basis, meaning you typically won't pay much for them. After all, Vodafone will quite happily sell you a contract phone worth quite a bit more, but it recognises that there's also a market for more affordable devices and folks who would like the assurance of a phone that carries the Vodafone brand. Vodafone's own-brand phones have varied over the years anywhere from $60 to $200 outright.

• Headphone jack

  It's an oddity of the mobile phone space that many premium phones have dropped standard 3.5mm headphone jack, but they're quite common in cheap phones. Vodafone's own devices typically work off reference designs that still include standard headphone jacks, as well as support for Bluetooth headphones.

• Security options

  Cheap phones are rarely awash with high-end security features, and much of Vodafone's offerings in this space have been lucky to even include simple fingerprint sensors. The current model Vodafone C9 3G, for example, doesn't have one, so you'd need to use a touchscreen unlock pattern for simple security. The other issue here is software updates, and, like many low-cost phones, these can be rather few and far between.

• Camera quality

  Vodafone hasn't updated its prepaid smartphone fleet in a while, and even within the budget space, that means that they feature very ordinary cameras indeed. We've seen a lot of rapid movement in the budget space at around $200 in terms of camera quality, but Vodafone's more ordinary camera tech is unlikely to deliver particularly good results.

• Network speed and support

  Vodafone (now part of the TPG group) is in the process of rolling out its own 5G network, but its ambition for its own branded phones is significantly less ambitious. At the time of writing, its current sole prepaid phone has support only for 3G, not even 4G. Vodafone's 3G coverage in populated areas of Australia is far better than it used to be, but a 3G phone isn't going to be particularly fast at any task you throw at it.

• Wireless charging/quick charging

  You just don't see wireless charging in phones as cheap as Vodafone's prepaid offerings, so it's no surprise to not see it present. Fast charging is also absent, but that's totally in line with expectations at this price point.

• Battery life

  Expect smaller battery capacities due to a mix of the lower price points and smaller physical frames of many of Vodafone's prepaid devices. Again, as an example, the Vodafone C9 3G runs on a 1,500mAh battery, which is astonishingly small by current standards. Vodafone says it's good for up to 5 hours of talk time or 10 days on standby, but if you're using it as a smartphone with apps, you'll probably see less than that.

• Waterproof design

  Again, this is a feature you just don't see in real low-level budget phones. A little light rain is probably okay, but any kind of immersion will turn your Vodafone branded phone into a brick in most cases.

• Performance

  Vodafone's current crop of phones – and many of its predecessors – have all been simple and slow phones, in line with what you pay for them. They have at least picked up on the use of Android Go, the low-fat version of Android designed to run on cheaper processors, so there's a small quantity of room to move for app performance. You don't have to pay much more than the asking price for Vodafone's current single prepaid phone to get better performance, though, and it's worth bearing that in mind, given that you'll almost certainly pay more in prepaid access fees than the cost of the phone in very short order.

Looking for a Vodafone phone on a plan?

Vodafone offers plenty of plans for phones from the big brands, but when it comes to its own phones, it rarely makes them available on contract terms. That's because they're designed to sell to the crowd that just wants a simple Vodafone prepaid plan and cheap phone instead.

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