This is a review of the Smarty mobile service in the UK covering calls, text messages and internet usage.
Introduction
Smarty uses the Three network (UK) and I’ve been using the service for quite a while. This review only focuses on how I’ve used the service. I’m on a monthly plan and I can cancel the service anytime I want to. I was primarily using Smarty for phone calls and messaging, with the occasionally internet usage. Recently I’ve used the internet more often, including as part of a temporary hotspot set up, providing internet to two computers.
Please note: This isn’t a sponsored review. I just decided to blog about the service based upon my experience. This review isn’t a recommendation and your experience might be different.
Telephone calls and text messaging
Where I live, I’ve never had a signal issue with Smarty, but at my parents home elsewhere in England (UK), I have had a problem with signal strength.
Until the Covid-19 crisis my fiancée and I didn’t spend the working day together and we would text each other and we would often speak via phone one to two times a day. We found Smarty to be reliable, not presenting us with any problems when we wanted to communicate to each other.
Having unlimited calls and text messages does make a difference, My fiancée uses another phone service and she has set minutes, whereas I don’t. It isn’t unusual for my fiancée to run out of minutes on her phone service, but I don’t as I use Smarty.
At home we no-longer use our landline to make telephone calls and I find it a comfort to know that I have unlimited calls on my mobile phone. So if on the odd occasion my call usage is higher than normal, I’ve not experienced a problem or extra cost.
Internet usage
I don’t use whatsapp or similar services on a mobile phone and for quite a while I would just turn on mobile internet when I used it and the switch it off the rest of the time.
In May 2020 I used Speedtest to perform a Smarty internet speed test and below is a screenshot of the result.
Now here is where it gets interesting… During the Covid-19 crisis my internet connection at home went offline, so I set up a temporary WiFi hotspot on my mobile phone, then turned on the mobile internet. Smarty worked well, coping with Skype, a remote connection and general broadband usage.
Not related to Smarty, but I was also impressed by how well my Samsung Galaxy S5 G900T mobile phone coped acting as a hotspot and the battery usage was lower than I expected.
I’m on the 2GB plan and if I didn’t use 2GB during the last billing period, Smarty discount £2 GBP. This is fantastic and I enjoy the flexibility of the Smarty service. Often I won’t use the data for a while and it isn’t unusual for me to receive the message below.
Conclusion
I’ve been using mobile services for many years and Smarty is my favourite so far. I don’t have the need currently, but in the future I might use their ‘Unlimited data’ plan as the pricing looks good to me.