I bought this phone after much abuse from my wife about the state of my old one, a coal powered Nokia from the early 1800s. My initial impression was favourable and within a week i was swiping the touchscreen like a teenager and writing texts that actually made sense!

This was the first time I had been talked into a contract with a mobile phone company and I was happy with the ten pounds and change monthly fee that was quoted. I would advise caution here however as on receiving my first bill I had managed to rack up some extra charges with calls and from internet usage! Whilst this wasn't in the league of some of the horror stories I've heard of it was about double the amount I thought I had signed up for. To be fair to Orange though once I had called them and questioned them about this they did give me some tips which has reduced the bills in later months.

The other gripe with the phone is the build quality, although it initially seemed robust I did manage to get a load of pocket dust under the screen within a couple of weeks. Then it wouldn't let me re-charge the handset. Although Orange happily replaced the handset this had to be done by delivery rather than instore. This involves waiting at home for the best part of a week while Orange deliver three phones that don't work and finally one that does.

The phone itself is easy to use and the touchscreen is responsive with very little lag between touching icons and the on screen response. This includes occasional gaming on the phone for which the response time is very important. The inbuilt predictive text also works quite well although could be improved by 'learning' words that I use often but not in the phones dictionary. The phone works on the android platform and as such has a large number of apps (both useful and pointless)that can be downloaded to the phone.

The phone has a reasonable camera and video recorder although I don't use these very often. It can also be used to access the Internet and e-mails.

In conclusion a bit hit and miss, liked the phone disliked the hassle and build quality, 6/10