Vodafone 226

Vodafone 226

Good points: Simplicity, toughness, common-sense menus. Small, slim and light.

Bad points: The screen scuffs easily and the keys are a bit small.

Another of a my five quid second hand miracles. The Vodafone 226 is a small, slim basic phone made by Sagem.

This little phone lives in a small pocket of my son's school bag. There's no browser, no camera, no games, no java and no gimmicks. The phone is plain and unflashy and less likely to be stolen than a fashion phone.

The phone came without a manual but the menus are so simple and sensible, I didn't need one to set the handset to my chosen options. Setting the family phone numbers to speed dial was a breeze.

With the phone switched off in its pocket except for the three emergencies when my son needed to call home, the battery lasted the whole of last term on a single charge. I realise this doesn't reflect typical usage, so I can't comment on battery life under daily use.

If I was using this as my own phone, I'd probably want to text using a stylus as the keys are small enough to be fiddly. The numerals are small, too; a bit of an eye strain for poor old myopic me.

The screen picks up pocket scuffs very easily, judging by the look of the one I bought; for our purposes it doesn't matter, but if you manage to pick up a nice unscratched one, remember to protect it or it'll soon look scruffy.