advantages
- Cheap
- Good call quality
- Attractive design
disadvantage
- Touchscreen is not very responsive
- Software is a little rough around the edges
- Bad camera
key specifications
- Touch screen
- 2 megapixel camera
- FM radio
- dual band.
The Orange Miami is a basic touchscreen phone available from Orange for just £30, but you’ll also have to pay for a £10 minimum top-up when you buy the handset. Although the phone is Orange branded, it’s actually a facelifted version of the ZTE G-N281, so it might be available on other networks in countries other than the UK.
The Miami is available in either pink or black and the design looks pretty snazzy for a budget model. The battery cover is tastefully rounded which, combined with the handset’s smaller size and light weight, makes for convenient handling. We also like the chrome effect used on the band that runs around the front edge of the phone, as well as the hardware buttons for power, volume control and camera. Complementing these physical buttons are two touch buttons at the bottom of the screen for call control functions, with the on-hook button also acting as a back button when navigating through the phone’s software.
Unfortunately, there’s no dedicated headphone jack – instead, the included headphones plug into the micro-USB port on the bottom of the phone. At least Orange included a short adapter cable with the box, which you can use to connect your own headphones to your cell phone – but then you don’t need the hands-free microphone built into Miami’s own headphones.
The phone’s software is mainly controlled via the small 2.75-inch touchscreen. But unlike most smartphones today, the Miami uses a resistive rather than an older-style capacitive display. Capacitive displays are generally much more sensitive to touch input than resistive displays, and that’s certainly the case here. In fact, the screen turns out to be one of the phone’s biggest weaknesses, as it responds inconsistently to finger presses. At times it feels quite responsive, but other times you have to press the screen multiple times to make it respond.
The handset’s user interface is similar to that of Samsung’s older mid-range touchscreen phones like the Tocco Lite. There is a single home screen with a column of quick launch icons on the left for quick access to features like phone book, text messaging, camera and internet. Tapping it will open a small submenu giving you more options. For example, when you tap the phone icon, you have the option to view call history, missed calls, received calls, or recently dialed calls. It’s a quick and effective way to jump to the types of features you’re likely to use on a daily basis.
Alternatively, you can press the soft menu button at the bottom of the screen to bring up the phone’s main menu. Here you’ll find some extras like the widget player, which is really a very basic RSS news reader, alongside an FM radio, image and video viewers, FM radio and some basic games.
Overall, the Miami’s software feels a little rough around the edges and some of the menus are difficult to understand at first. For example, we had to wonder why there are three different ways to access the music player when they all lead to the same app.
There is only about 19MB of free space in the phone’s internal memory. So if you want to use the music player, you really need to insert a microSD card into the slot under the battery cover. However, the music player is very basic as it’s really just a file browser and lacks niceties like the ability to show album art.
Predictably, the included headphones aren’t great, as they have poor bass response, but if you swap them out for your own cans, you’ll find the Miami puts out good quality audio.
Although there’s a web browser on board, we wouldn’t recommend this handset for internet use. This is not only because the web browser is rudimentary and renders pages slowly, but also because the phone lacks 3G and Wi-Fi support, so even simple web pages take ages to load.
The cameras on most budget phones are paltry, and unfortunately, the Miami’s is no different. It’s a very basic 2-megapixel shooter that lacks a flash or autofocus, but at least the camera app offers a few extra features, including a night mode, white balance presets (tungsten, daylight fluorescence, etc.), continuous shooting, and a delay timer . However, none of these extras can get over the fact that the results are poor even by budget cameraphone standards. Images tend to look quite dirty, especially around the edges of the frame, and highlights often look very burned out. Also, the shutter is slow to respond and you’ll have to hold the phone very still if you don’t want the result to be a blurry mess.
Call quality is pretty good, it’s both clear and accurate, but battery life is disappointing. It is only designed for three hours of talk time. So if you like long chats with your friends, it’s not the right phone for you.
verdict
At £40 including the £10 top-up fee, the Orange Miami is very cheap for a touchscreen phone. But even at this low price we find it difficult to recommend it, mainly because the touchscreen just isn’t responsive enough to provide a satisfying user experience. Factor in the phone’s rough and finished UI and second-rate camera, and we’d recommend looking to something like Samsung’s Toco Lite – it costs around £20 more but is a lot more user-friendly.
How we test phones
We put every cell phone we test through its paces. We use industry standard tests to properly compare features and we use the phone as our main device during the review period. We will always tell you what we find and we never accept money to rate a product.
Learn more about how we test in our Ethics Policy.
Used as our main phone during the period
Verified against respected industry benchmarks and real-world tests
Always has a SIM card installed
Tested with phone calls, games and popular apps
points in detail
performance 5
design 7
value 6
functions 5