Motorola Motofone F3

Launch price £30.00

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Stuff says

The F3 is very cheap, looks good and has a monstrous battery life – but the brow-furrowing, overcomplicated menus let it down

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What are you looking for in a mobile? If your answer is ‘something that makes calls, send texts and has a battery life to rival the sun’, then the F3 should, theoretically, be the phone for you.

It’s exceptionally slim with a waist of just 9mm – not quite as thin as Samsung’s 6.9mm X820 but we’re not complaining – and its remarkably clear monochrome screen is made from the same stuff used in e-paper. Even in bright sunlight, there’ll  be no squinting required.

Voice commands
The F3 is worth considering if your eyesight is impaired, both because the screen is outstandingly clear and because it’s possible to set the menu buttons to be accompanied by a voice command. These tell you you’re about to create a text message, change the ringtone and so on.

And because the electrophoretic screen uses barely any energy and isn’t backlit, it means that battery life is outstanding – if you leave it in standby mode it’ll last for well over a week.

Moto’s menus strike again
So far, so good – but what lets the phone down? Well, Motorola has always been criticised for its confusing, labyrinthine operating systems, and sadly this lets the F3 down again.