Vodafone Smart Ultra 6

[badoit]

I am wanting an upgrade to my ZTE Blade 3. Budget smart phones have come a long way since late 2012, it seems. I was looking at the Wileyfox Swift but they have put off the release date and anyway quite a few reviews have said the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 was as good as or  better value for £129. Now the Vodafone product is down to £99 I am leaning towards it even more.

I am on a Virgin Mobile SIM only 30 day contract (£8, 500 MB, 1000 mins, unlimited texts) but I am willing to switch carriers if it would make better sense. My usage is very light - from 29 Aug to 28 Sep I used 85 MB data and 4 mins voice calls.

My questions...

1. Some reviews say the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 is not locked to any UK network, I find that hard to believe - is it true?

2. If I went into a Vodafone shop and bought a Smart Ultra 6 for £99 I expect they would make me pay £10 PAYG topup?

3, Assuming the answers to 1 and 2 are "yes", I could shove a Virgin nanoSIM in the phone but would lose the £10 airtime payment effectively unless I used it up first?

4. That makes me think it would be more sensible to come over to Vodafone, port my number, and take out a £9.50 12 month SIM only contract? If I did that could I use the £10 towards the monthly payments?

I realise it might seem a bit cheeky to ask about whether to choose a rival company's product, but if I was chatting to a Vodafone shop staff member I would be asking these things.

Of course Virgin don't do 4G so that is another consideration.

[grolschuk]

Chances are they will stay working and unlocked, but at a saving of 20 quid, don't be surprised if one day they suddenly dont

[umbrokhan]

i will let you know if my unlock phone get locked to vodafone again.

[grolschuk]

Hopefully it will not lock again, but the guys were just making you aware that it could do

Great phone either way so have fun using it

[umbrokhan]

yeah love the phone just hope it get's lastest andriod update 6.0 Marshmallow.

becuase Moto G 3rd gen (2015) is getting Marshmallow december time.

if i knowed vodafone was not going to update the phone i would have got Moto G.

[BigD18t]

I unlocked mine day one, have done a few resets and even rooted and factory restored again after and it remains unlocked, as do the many other's people have unlocked. 

Save your self some money and go the ebay route, Modaco has a section for this phone which has a link to the code we have all used.