Best bargain smart phone?

[Ian Jackson]

My present phone makes phone calls and texts - but that's all.

I want to buy a modern smartphone for PAYG, but I'm amazed at the virtually infinite range of models and prices - literally anything from £10 to £1000.

It's only for occasional use, and doesn't need to do anything fancy - but obviously a few phonecalls, texts, internet, apps etc. The Samsung A20E (at around £150) seems to be well recommended as a reasonable compromise - but there are several others in a similar price range. I don't really want to pay more, so does anyone have any suggestions?

[R D S]

I had a Redmi Note 9 and loved it.

I reluctantly swapped it recently and gave it to the missus, she loves it too.

It's a decent size, good enough camera, very quick and responsive.

Had a few Redmi now over the years and I can't complain about any of them.

[newshound]

I had a series of Motorolas (G4, G5, etc) which were pretty good. I've just gone to a Huawei P smart 2019 which is *mostly* OK, but the wifi is flakey. I have a steady 60 to 70 MB/S at the router, most devices suck

15 MB/s out of that (including my old motos) without any problem. But the Huawei only manages that about 20% of the time. The rest of the time it is < 1MB/s. Doesn't seem to be a standard reported problem with them, I'm wondering if there's a "mechanical" problem with its aerial.

[Pamela]

[R D S]

The phone itself? I'm not aware of such. The stock browser might but I don't use it, I use Opera mini.

They are Android so as customisable as anything else.

[HVS]

On 17 Sep 2020, newshound wrote

I'll recommend them as well. I'm still using a Moto G4 Plus, which still does everything I need well enough that while I'd like to get a new toy, I can't really justify upgrading until this one dies on me, or until I need 5G capability.

My wife has a budget version of the G6 (Moto G6 Play), which seems to do everything she needs. It has a smaller screen -- which she prefers; it's too small for my liking, though.

I believe the G9 is now out, which still looks like good value for a flagship phone, and probably means that there are good deals on the G8 series out there. (I think some or all of the G8 series don't have NFC; that wouldn't bother me, but it's needed if you're one of those who pays for stuff with their phone).

Cheers, Harvey

[Theo]

All Android is a disasterzone as far as getting security updates, as well as apps spying on you. The Nokia phones are somewhat better in terms of updates.

In Apple-land, the iPhone 7 is available refurbished (eg MusicMagpie) around the £160 mark and is still in support (iOS 14 released yesterday). The iPhone 8 (£225) would get you an extra year of support.

Theo

[Martin Brown]

Need more information to make sensible suggestions. Is the camera important to you and how physically bit would you like it?

I am also in the market for a new phone. My 5 year old Moto G4 is getting towards end of life battery wise. For my money most of the newer

6" models are a bit too big to stick in a shirt pocket which I see as a major disadvantage. I chose the Moto because of its long battery life (for a smart phone - when new it was about 7 days).

I'm considering a Moto G8 Power or a Google Pixel 4a when it comes out. I could be persuaded towards other models. In an ideal world I want something the same size as what I have now and infinite battery life. I think a new Moto model will have about a 3 day battery life from new.

I'd be interested in any other smaller models with a long battery life and a fairly decent camera (or three).

I never watch video on my phone...

[The Natural Philosopher]

I've got a samsung galaxy J3, under £100 generic but with 3's android to get wifi calling a fair bit more.

its good enough for me

It looks like the A20 has superseded it. Mm. Its not mentioned as having support for wifi calling. be careful if that is a feature you need.

you need an A21s to get that..with three anyway.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I use firefox with Ublock enabled

Not bad

yep

[Max Demian]

SIM Free Motorola E5 Play 16GB Mobile Phone - Black: £59.95

Clearance. Getting cheaper and cheaper. I've got one and it's fine. About the only thing it doesn't do is NFC.

[RJH]

I thought wifi calling was carrier dependent, and nothing to do with the phone?

Whichever, I've just got it on my iPhone and it works very well - ID, £6/m.

[Dave Liquorice]

Phone requires it in its firmware and your choosen network operator needs to offer it. Not very many of the MNVO's offer WiFi calling.

As for a phone I'm very happy with my Nokia 6.1, with Andriod One so very little bloatware.

[Fredxx]

I'm not aware of an excessive number. Apps usually carry their own advertising. I use App Ops to block apps accessing the internet.

The other thing I like about Xiaomi is they allow you to unlock their bootloader so you can root the phone. Other companies like Huawei don't.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

email me with your address and I will send you a brand new nice wee ANDROID cheepo phone.....with new leather case...it will make up for you not getting my TS520SE

[tony sayer]

Might have a look at that as a backup to my urber trusty MOTO G4 solid as a rock that:)

[newshound]

The only issues I had with Moto relate to battery life. I had one with a replaceable battery, after 18 months or so the battery life got short so I put in a new battery but that didn't make any real difference. Thinking it might be a hardware issue I picked up another one which was fine for a year or so before doing the same thing. Factory resets did not cure it.

[Pamela]

There's talk that ads are shown by customised Android, not the browser.

On the other hand, some think Redmi European handsets are not configured to show the ads.

It's hard enough dsitinguishing Xioami, Redmi and Poco handsets from one another without working out regional variations. Everything seems to vary which probably makes spare parts hard to get and reduces second hand value.

[Scott]

Pixel phones certainly get security updates.

[Theo]

Only for three years since first coming on the market. iPhones get them for about six.

Given that Pixel and iPhones are roughly in the same price bracket, flagship to flagship, mid-tier (Pixel 4a) to mid-tier (iPhone SE), Pixel gets you half the supported lifetime.

This is something to bear in mind when buying a secondhand or previous-gen phone though - it's cheaper because you have fewer years of lifetime.

(a rough ballpark I used to have was £100 per year - buy a £100 phone and it won't get updates, pay £200 and it'll last for 2 years, pay £600 and it'll last for six. In this cirumstance you don't save money by having a cheaper phone, you have to throw it away and get a new one each year if you want security updates)

Theo