It may have touchscreen control, but the budget-priced Orange Vegas isn't exactly an iPhone-wannabe. Tapping into the touch control trend, but at a wallet-friendly price tag, Orange's newcomer debuts as the cheapest touchscreen phone around, pitched at just £48.50 in Orange's pay as you go packages, or free on contract.

At that sort of price you wouldn't expect the to hit the jackpot with iPhone-bothering functionality. The Vegas does, though, deal a playable hand of essential mobile phone features to go with the finger-dabbing user interface. It sports an MP3 player and FM radio, with MicroSD card expansion, has a sprinkling of organiser features, and packs a modest 1.3-megapixel camera that also shoots video.

There's no high-speed 3G functionality, though the dual-band GPRS-equipped handset is set up out of the box for accessing the Orange World mobile internet portal, with free access for a selection of popular sites like Bebo, Facebook,Twitter and MySpace on Orange's Dolphin pay as you go deal.

Design and handling
While its other features are typical entry-level fare, touchscreen control at this bargain basement price will certainly grab the Vegas more limelight than the average budget handset.

Its compact design will be a magnet for some too. Built for Orange by Chinese handset manufacturer ZTE, as well as being the UK's cheapest touchscreen handset, it's also the smallest and lightest - measuring a pocket-snuggling 93(h) x 53(w) x 16(d)mm and weighing in at 84g.

Available in black or pink (for the ladies), with chrome trim, it sports a 2.4-inch QVGA TFT touchscreen, with a conventional panel of controls beneath - similar to what you might expect on a run-of-the-mill sliderphone or Windows Mobile touch device. This includes a four-way navigation and select D-pad, a pair of softkey controls, plus regular Call and End buttons. Like many regular mobiles, the D-pad is also pre-set with four shortcuts to features.

In effect, this dual control set-up give you a belts-and-braces approach to operating much of the phone, as much of the navigation and task selection can be done either by conventional scrolling and key pressing or by touching the display. For most of the functionality, for instance, to select softkey options you can either tap them onscreen or press the physical keys beneath. You can also tap on lists to open options, or select them with the D-pad.

Touch operation
Of course, touch control is still the headline act on this phone. Unsurprisingly, the Vegas's touchscreen user interface is limited compared to the sophistication of the iPhone and other high-end devices. However, with no physical numberpad, finger tapping is essential some features, such as new number dialing, and touchscreen texting, for example.

Getting the numberpad up is a matter of pressing a square central icon in the phone's homescreen. Dialling should be straightforward; there's haptic feedback to confirm numbers have been pressed, although not for softkey options - which can be disconcerting when pressing the Clear button.

With a relatively small display area for a touch device, finger room isn't great. There's little leeway for finger straying, so a small stylus is supplied, slotted into the rear of the phone. This allows more precision in tapping onscreen; it's also handy for messaging - particularly in conjunction with the handwriting recognition software option, not to mention the incredibly small virtual Qwerty keyboard, which is impossible to use without it.

There is some swiping finger action to be had, though. From the homescreen you can disengage the automatic screen lock by stroking across the screen. A stroke across the top of the display brings up two rows of four touch feature shortcuts; half are pre-programmed for functions like messages, alarms, settings and mobile internet homepage, though all eight can be user defined by tapping and then choosing a feature.

The main menu has some stroke-through action too. The grid style main menu has been adapted for the small screen, so rather than a single grid of a dozen minuscule icons, the Vegas has three grids of four larger icons. These are arranged under general categories, so you can swipe between a grid displaying communications, entertainment, or tools. Alternatively, you can select a category by tapping an appropriate tab icon below the grids.

It's sensibly arranged, and makes the space uncluttered enough to find your way around. The sub-menu lists are the size you'd expect on a normal mobile, and options may require precision-pressing by the large-fingered; some users will prefer reaching for the stylus or using the D-pad rather than dabbing with a digit.

Puzzlingly, haptic feedback isn't used throughout the menu system, so although main menu options will buzz when you press them, sub menu options don't. This inconsistency can cause confusion and potential mispressing if the phone doesn't respond quickly enough - as is sometimes the case. It's a minor frustration, but something that could've been better implemented.

You can scroll up or down lists using finger swiping, so you can browse through your contacts list easily enough. Out of the box, though, you may be presented with a text search option for contacts, with a numberpad obscuring the list; you can remove this, however, by pressing a central keyboard-looking softkey.

Negotiating the menu system, the fairly conventional structure of sub menus and minimal non-essential touchscreen trickery means it's pretty comfortable to get to grips with. The features are generally straightforward to operate, too - they're mostly intuitive to work through.

Texting is one of the areas where many touchscreen phones in general struggle compared to regular handsets. The Vegas's text numberpad isn't particularly large, so if you're using your fingers you'll have to be careful (the stylus is probably a safer bet). It's not the most responsive keyboard, so fast-texters could find it a bit behind the pace.

Its predictive input system requires you to complete each word in a panel beneath the message before it being added to the message, which can seem odd, but is OK in practice - at least you get to see alternative word options clearly. No automatic capitals at the beginning of sentences could be a niggle for some users, but at least it's usable with the stylus.

Whether it'll win over the hearts of seasoned texters is another matter entirely; like other touchscreen phones, it still lacks the intuitive speed and simplicity we're used to with regular numberpad  texting.

Squeezing a Qwerty keyboard option in gets marks for effort, if not usability; keys are absolutely tiny, ranged across the bottom of the display, so pinpoint accuracy with the stylus is the only way to get accurate results. A servicable, if not particularly special, handwriting recognition option is another alternative.

Music player
As well as keeping your fingertips amused, the Vegas has an MP3 player inside for music listening. The music player interface isn't sophisticated, offering basic listing of tracks, though you do get attractive touch control graphics for the player onscreen, plus a decent selection of settings options.

You'll need a MicroSD memory card to supplement the internal storage; Orange claims it has 64MB of internal memory, though our review sample offered barely 0.5MB of free user space. MicroSDs up to 4GB capacity are supported, with a a slot under the battery for slipping them in. Sound quality through the basic supplied earphones is mediocre, with tunes sounding washed out and trebly, with little bass impact. As you'd expect, the loudspeaker option isn't going to improve sonic matters either.

There's no 3.5mm standard headphone socket, so to upgrade earphones you'll need to get an adapter for the phone's mini USB port. With the earphones in, though, you can tune into the 9-channel FM radio, which is suitably straightforward to tune and operate.

Camera action
Camerawork isn't a Vegas highlight. The entry-level 1.3-megapixel shooter is equipped with a reasonable settings and effects user interface, but it's seriously lacking in pixel power detail and image-capturing finesse. It's also remarkably slow to capture and process shots, taking several seconds, so you can end up with blurred images. It's performance is what you'd expect of this class of camera - it'll be OK for snap'n'send efforts, but not good enough for decent prints. Without a flash, low light shooting is particularly poor.

Video shooting is possible too, although again, an OK interface doesn't make up for very slow processing and ropey quality footage - it records at a jerky 7 frames per second in 176x144 pixels resolution.

Orange Vegas users can key straight into the Orange World content, info and services mobile internet portal, using the onboard browser. Operating at limited GPRS speeds, it's an ordinary pedestrian mobile internet browsing experience. Orange does, offer a pay as you go package that enables free interaction on Facebook, Bebo and MySpace via Orange World - if you don't mind rather leisurely social networking. 

The Vegas has a roster of typical stock organiser features, too, including calendar, alarm, calculator, stopwatch, convertor and world clock functions, while A2DP Bluetooth is supported on the device too.

Performance
Although users may need to compromise on texting usability, the voice calling experience on the Vegas is on the money, delivering lovely clear sound and reliable connectivity. Battery life isn't spectacular; Orange posts optimum figures of up to 3 hours talktime or 7 days standby, which is modest for a non-3G device, even taking touch operation into account. We still managed 2 to 3 days of running time between charges with typical phone usage but with minimal music playing.

Conclusion
Without doubt, touchscreen operation is the main act for the Orange Vegas - its other features are mostly unremarkable stuff you'd expect on a budget handset. The touchscreen control implementation doesn't stretch what the phone can do, though it makes for a reasonably novel experience for entry-level buyers looking for a taste of the latest trend.

It's pretty usable and not too tricksy - albeit much can be done with the regular controls without resorting to touch, and for the more fiddly control you'll require the help of the stylus. Its music player and camera performances are mediocre, and many users will find the texting procedure more of a drag than a conventional number-pressing handset

There again, this is a good-looking, compact handset that'll grab attention just for its touch control and design. And for a bit of fashionability for under £50, the Vegas won't be too much of a gamble.