The Telstra Smart-Touch is Telstra’s first under $100 smart phone. It features Android 2.1, a resistive touch screen, GPS, MP3 player and FM radio, back facing camera and NextG network compatibility.
The phone features the standard Android installation and a stylus to use with the touch screen.
Check out the full review after the break.
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Score:
7.5 / 10
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The Good:
Cheap, Lot’s of features, small and light
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The Bad:
Feels cheap, resistive touch screen, may require Stylus
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Bottom Line:
A fantastic phone for only $99
Hardware and Performance
The Smart-Touch sports a 600 Mhz CPU, an unspecified amount of RAM, a 2.8 inch resistive touch screen, 2GB of external storage which the option to expand up to 32GB, a 3.2 MP camera and a 1100mAh battery.
The physical casing of the phone is plastic with a metal backing. The phone does feel cheap and poorly built. On the front are two physical buttons, a hang up button and a call button. Additionally, there are 3 other touch screen buttons: Home, Menu and Back. The screen is a 2.8 inch resistive touch screen and comes with a stylus to assist with operating it. The screen was easy to operate even though it was resistive, we didn’t need to use the stylus that much at all, however, it did assist sometimes when trying to click small buttons or webpage links.
The battery which is supplied is 1100mAh and the Telstra website claims 150 minutes of talk time and 200 hours of standby time. We found the battery to last a lot longer than expected. The phone’s battery lasted for two days with a small amount of calls and use. We where impressed by the battery life of the phone, however, when we started using the phone for games, web browsing and application use, it did get quite slow and the battery drained quicker. It lasted for about a day with moderate use.
Features
The Smart-Touch runs the older 2.1 ‘Éclair’ version of Android but the phone still offers features that an expensive phone would. The Smart-Touch is equipped with GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and also has a 3.2 MP camera. The phone has access to the Android Market for downloading third party apps and of course, syncing with Google Services. The Smart-Touch comes with just a standard Android installation with heaps of shortcuts to Telstra Services.
Conclusion
The Telstra Smart-Touch is a fantastic phone in the under $100 range and it offers features that an expensive smart phone would. At only $99, it’s a great buy.