The EE Hawk is a budget phone with a need for speed

Budget smartphones don’t usually scream ‘speed demon’ at you, but EE’s new Hawk might well buck that trend. Despite costing just £149.99, the Hawk can is a Cat 6-capable handset, which means it can handle 4G+ downloads at up to 300Mbps; that’s an entire HD movies in a few minutes, or an album in a couple of seconds. It also comes loaded up with Android 7.1 Nougat, which is itself a nippy performer, although a 1.5GHz MediaTek 6750 processor paired with 2GB of RAM is unlikely to set the world alight, and its 5in 1280 x 720 screen is a bit of a downer too. Still, at this price it should be capable enough, and on the plus side we really like its stylish glass-backed design, complete with rear fingerprint scanner. Other highlights include a 13MP rear camera, 8MP front-facing effort and 2500mAh battery. It’ll be available exclusively on EE (obviously) from tomorrow (December 1), with monthly deals of just £14.99, plus free JBL headphones thrown in to boot, likely to prove a further draw.