Apple iPhone 6 Plus vs Smart Ultra 6: Which is best for you?

Vodafone recently decided to get involved with the phablet hype by launching its own 4G device: the Smart Ultra 6.

Despite being positioned at the budget end of the scale with a cheerful £125 price tag when purchased on a pay-as-you-go plan, it still boasts an impressive set of specifications. But, how does it compare to Apple’s most recent flagship smartphone, the Apple iPhone 6 Plus? We took a closer look to find out.

Design

On first glance, the two devices look very similar. Both feature similar rounded edges with the top bezel holding the front camera and speaker looking virtually identical.

The bottom bezel is slightly different, with Vodafone plumping for three different buttons similar to that of the Sony Xperia devices rather than Apple’s traditional single home button.

The Ultra 6 is slightly chunkier in all areas than the iPhone 6 Plus, measuring 154 x 77 x 8.35mm compared to 158.1 x 77.8 x 7.1mm. But apart from that, the two smartphones are rather similar... at a distance that is.

When you look a big closer you see that the Ultra 6 does have more of a budget look and feel about it, but that is to be expected.

Display

Both phablets feature 5.5-inch displays, so Vodafone has clearly followed the trend for big screens with this device. I must admit I prefer a slightly smaller screen, but that’s a bit of a moot point seeing I’m comparing phablets, so let’s move on.

The Ultra 6 also has a foot-up on the competition with the display, being 1080p when most other devices in the price range are 720p. So kudos to Vodafone for not allowing any compromise on the display.

Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus display has a 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution with a 401ppi, which doesn’t match other top-of-the-range devices such as the Nexus 6, but is still a quality screen.

Camera

Surprisingly, the Ultra 6 has outdone the iPhone 6 Plus on both the front and back cameras. The Ultra 6 boasts a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera, whereas the iPhone 6 Plus users can only make use of an 8-megapixel rear camera and a lowly 1.2-megapixel selfie snapper.

This camera combination also beats Google’s Nexus 6 (13-megapixel and 2-megapixel) so Vodafone can be very proud of its efforts.

Under the hood

While Apple (somewhat surprisingly) opted for a dual-core Apple A8 processor with a clock speed of 1.4GHz in the iPhone 6 Plus, Vodafone more than matched this with a 1.5 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

The Ultra 6 also comes out on top with a 3,000 mAh battery and 2GB of RAM compared to a 2,915 mAh battery and just 1GB of RAM in the iPhone 6 Plus.

The final difference is that the Ultra 6 runs Android Lollipop 5.1, whereas the iPhone 6 Plus of course runs Apple’s iOS 8 operating system.

Verdict

For a budget phone, Vodafone has done exceptionally well to create a device with serious substance, although it does let itself down somewhat in the style department when compared to the high-end iPhone 6 Plus.

Having said that, if it’s budget you’re after the design probably isn’t all that important, making the Ultra 6 an extremely viable option.

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