[img_assist|nid=26223|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=150|height=150]Two weeks ago, I temporarily set aside my beloved Sony Xperia T for something a little different – the Prestigio Multiphone 5000.
The two smartphones both run Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), though the Xperia T has the edge in terms of specs – with a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM, compared to a 1.2GHz dual-core and 512GB RAM. The big difference, though, is price.
The Xperia launched late last year with an RRP of £399.99. The Multiphones RRP is just £149. Boasting a 5” screen, thats a lot of phone for your money.
The Multiphone is a slightly less glamorous affair. That larger screen contributes to the devices chunkiness – something that gets commented on more or less every time I pull it out of my pocket. The phones case is plastic, and looks and feels a bit cheap. But you know what? It is cheap.
£150 is the kind of price which encourages non-smartphone users to take the leap. Thats the power of low-end devices – speaking personally, it was Oranges line of own-branded ZTE smartphones which convinced me as a money-conscious student it was time to adopt. 
Trade-offs
The Multiphone has its share of technical weaknesses: the screen size is offset by a fairly low resolution of 480×800, and the devices internal memory is just 4GB, most of which is used up by pre-installed software, relying on its microSD slot for additional space. But to a first-time smartphone user, these limitations arent really going to matter too much.
The key here is Android 4.1, which means the handset can access pretty much every app going – and it handled everything I threw at it remarkably well. The highest compliment I can pay the Multiphone is that, on a day-to-day basis, using it didnt feel too different from the Xperia.
That raises an important question. Prestigios cheapest Android handset – a very basic low-end affair running Android 2.3 – costs £89.99. For comparison, the iPhone 5 is sold by Apple for £529. The iPhone is admittedly a far superior piece of technology, but how different is the experience of using these two handsets? I suspect not as much as their prices would suggest.
