The Vodafone V345 - the cheapest physical keyboard phone?

The V345 is one of the more basic physical keyboard phones, with a price tag to match. While it boasts its suitability for social networking and web access, this appears to mean that it can access the internet – albeit slowly – and it has built-in Facebook so there’s no need to download the app.

In appearance it is similar to the iconic design of the Blackberry Curve, with perhaps a touch of the familiar early Nokias around the curved edges. The keys on the QWERTY keyboard are similar in size and shape to the Curve, although some have complained that they are too small. At 105mm in height and 58mm in length, it is fairly standard, although with a 12mm depth it is quite thick. It does, however, have the option for push or pull email, which is a useful aspect.

The V345 is undoubtedly a simple phone – the camera is a mere 0.3 megapixels (an example of somebody else's 0.3 megapixel photo can be found here) and it can only connect to a 2G network – but it could be perfect for someone who just wants the basic functions of a phone. It is the Nokia 3310 for the Smartphone generation.