Following on from the VM800, Virgin Media has continued on its apparent quest to produce the cheapest, pinkest phones around with the VM202.

Unfortunately, we weren't as keen on this offering, although there's no denying it's a bargain. At just £29.99, the VM202 costs less than the monthly bill payments for an iPhone contract, and you'd certainly be less freaked out at the prospect of losing or breaking it. Plus, top up £10 when you buy it you get 300 free texts.

The handset itself is a combination of black and 'dazzle pink', with a slide out QWERTY keyboard - a good feature to have given the price of the phone. However, the overall effect is quite heavy and clunky, especially if you're used to a slightly slicker (albeit more expensive) mobile.

The VM202 comes with a Micro SD card providing 1GB of memory, allowing users to store photos, songs and emails on the handset. A definite plus point is the fact you can use your own headphones with the device - particularly necessary since the ones supplied are incredibly uncomfortable.

Internet access is pretty slow and the size of the screen means there is a lot of scrolling involved. Although the VM202 comes with a promise of easy access to Facebook via a Java app, in reality it's still fairly slow, and other popular sites such as Twitter are only available through the browser.

In terms of features, this is definitely a no-frills phone. As well as an MP3 player, there's a radio and the most basic of cameras - nothing to shout about, but then the VM202 is not the type of phone to get if you're a bit of a gadget geek. Then again it's not particularly easy to use - while all new phones take a while to get used to, we found this one particularly frustrating when trying to fathom even the most basic of functions. 

Let's get back to the main selling point though: the price. It's this that makes the VM202 a viable option as a back-up phone - one to take to clubs, bars, gigs and festivals when you know there's a chance you and your mobile might not stay together for long. Apart from that, most people will probably find it a bit limited - if you want something cheap and girly with a QWERTY keyboard, we'd recommend going for the VM800 instead.