Best budget android phone under £200

thatsean

I'll throw one more into the mix. Sony Xperia U - on offer at P4u and CPW for #150. Unlocked at both stores. Internal memory is limited, and the camera is a 5mp one, but I was after a smaller smartphone - and at 3.5 inches, the screen size is ideal for one handed use. I use Google play, and the streaming service to get around the low internal storage - with my '3' #15 per month payt sim.

Am loving it! :j

samizdat

I'd buy a second-hand Samsung Galaxy S2, which you can obtain in as-new condition for less than £200. For example, check the classified ads on https://www.avforums.com/forums/mobile-phone-classified-adverts/ (I have no affiliation).

The S2, as a former flagship, is in line for Jelly Bean before year-end. Still a good phone.

roddydogs

Whatever you get, I guarantee you you'll find better within a month.

thatsean

Totally true. I got my U as my first Android phone (been an iOS or BLueberry guy before), and now am hankering after the Nexus 4.

im-lost

sillygoose wrote: »

Is it even 'apart from that' though?

Take the budget G300..
"Speed, better camera, "quality", storage, better screen."
1GHz, 5MP camera with flash, Gorilla glass, 4Gb +sd card memory, 4" 480 x 800 screen 233 ppi pixel density

You have to go a way into the HTC range to get all that even, certainly costing a lot more.

I'm going to have to disagree with this.

Specs may seem similar, but they are worlds apart. There's no doubt it's a
decent phone for a good price. 1ghz processor means nothing, they are all
different, even between phones with the same one there can be massive differences, gorilla glass, well, that's pointless, it won't save your phone from
cracking the screen if it's dropped, storage is a moot point, very few use up
a lot of storage for apps and stuff.

There's more to phones than the basic specs. The user interface is worlds
apart from say the Huawei and a HTC with sense, the build quality, I'm a huge
fan of HTC, gone from Desire > sensation > one s and they all oose quality, even when against the other top spec phones like the Samsung's they worlds apart, put that build quality and package it with HTC sense and there's the reason for the
price difference between the 'budget' phone and a more expensive but similar
spec phone.

MillicentBystander

im-lost wrote: »

I'm going to have to disagree with this.

Specs may seem similar, but they are worlds apart. There's no doubt it's a
decent phone for a good price. 1ghz processor means nothing, they are all
different, even between phones with the same one there can be massive differences, gorilla glass, well, that's pointless, it won't save your phone from
cracking the screen if it's dropped, storage is a moot point, very few use up
a lot of storage for apps and stuff.

There's more to phones than the basic specs. The user interface is worlds
apart from say the Huawei and a HTC with sense, the build quality, I'm a huge
fan of HTC, gone from Desire > sensation > one s and they all oose quality, even when against the other top spec phones like the Samsung's they worlds apart, put that build quality and package it with HTC sense and there's the reason for the
price difference between the 'budget' phone and a more expensive but similar
spec phone.

Question: have you used a Huawei G300? And the HTC One V is £185 more than the G300. Justifiable? Of course not. Unless you are a mobile snob. Paying that much extra for Sense seems to make no, err, sense.

PS I had a HTC One S that i got with that crazy £16/mth CPW deal a few months ago. Very nice indeed but after I'd used my wife's G300 and realising just how much even a used One S went for at the time I sold it for almost £300 and bought a G300 for £63 (more cash back in those days) as i came to the realisation that it did absolutely everything I wanted a mobile to do and i sort of fancied those 2 days in a posh hotel in Chester that we went on on the proceeds. No regrets (and plenty of memories of those 2 days )

RosiPossum

To be completely unhelpful, my mum got an android phone for about £50 and it seems nice enough. The make is three initials, and I think there's a K in there somewhere! I'll let you know if I find out. She got it with Virgin Mobile.

Edit: http://www.virginmobile.com/vm/viewProduct.do?productId=19809632 It was a ZTE phone. No K in there at all, oops!