When articles start with “you won’t believe…”, you’re probably in for a jolly trip down the garden path. But seriously, you won’t believe how cheap EE’s new 4G smartphone is.
In the race to the handset-pricing bottom, EE offers its latest contender – the EE Rook – a 4G/LTE-friendly smartphone that costs just £39.
That’s if you’re an existing EE customer, mind. For everyone else, you’ll need to pay £49 – hardly over the odds.
Of course, you can’t expect the device to be packing any serious computing heft as a result.
The EE Rook is powered by a 1GHz quad-core MediaTek processor, offers 8GB of storage, 1GB of RAM, and – thankfully – runs on Google’s latest Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system.
You can upgrade the storage by a further 32GB thanks to a microSD slot, too.
It’s also got a 5-megapixel camera, a 4-inch “high resolution” FWVGA display, and a 1,500mAh battery that’s purportedly good for over five hours of talk time.
But is there a market for such a device? Well according to EE, 44 per cent of Pay As You Go customers in the UK spend £50 or less on a handset. That’s the Rook’s target territory.
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She continues: “The new Rook from EE provides a great 4G smartphone at a compelling price – allowing even more people to enjoy the benefits of our superfast mobile network from high speed web browsing and downloads to gaming and streaming.”
Related: Best Android Smartphones 2015
If you buy a Rook from EE, you’ll also be eligible for discounts on a number of items, including 20 per cent off a £14.99 selfie stick.
Oh, there is one caveat – you’ll need to top up at least £10 at the time of purchase to buy an EE Rook on PAYG.
If you’re looking for something a bit more powerful, check out our smartphone group test video:
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.