Best Midrange Android SmartPhone £100-£250

mrobsessed

I'm in the market for a new Android phone but there seems to be a huge gulf between the top end £500+ phones and the cheapies at £100 or less.

Also there seems to be less value and consistency as you approach £200 with some very underwhelming devices for sale which don't warrant paying double the price of a basic £100 smartphone.

I have been using an Orange San Francisco for over two years, which for the money (£90) has been amazing, but its rather sluggish and limited in storage, and needs to be replaced.

It seems the Google Nexus 4 stands out a mile at £240, offering top end specs at a bargain mid price - but is there anything else that offers such great cost/performance value, in the cheaper price range I mention?

The HTC One S looks very good and is considered a midrange phone, but even that comes in a £350, and the Nexus 4 blows it out of the water.

Anyone got any more tips, or is the Nexus 4 a no-brainer?

Cheers,
Mr O

gibby9

I don't think you can beat the nexus 4 for value if you are looking to buy outright.

DUTR

As with post #2, the Nexus 4 by a country mile for the money.
I have just recieved an Xperia Z, which is 16gb internal storage, my previous phone was 1gb (probably more than the san fransisco) but only 300mb was user available, the xperia z is showing 11gb available , I had a 32gb sd card in the Ray and in 18 months used about 8gb and nearly half of that was to load a full film.

sillygoose

Depends if your San Fransisco is on Orange and you want to stay with them and just move your sIM. The SF is a good handset but you might find something like the Orange San Diego at £100 a sufficient step up, it has a very quick processor, bigger screen, 16gb storage and an 8MP camera so quite a step up.

Everyone knows the Huawei G300 is great value/quality but there is an upgraded version which you can get SIM free for about £180 the G330. Quick dual core processor, 4GB memory but upgradable due to card slot, good screen and so on.

That leaves the Nexus - unbeatable value, if your budget goes into that range. Only hampered by lack of a slot for a memory card so you need to buy one with as much memory already in as you can afford or accept its useful lifetime may be shorter, depending on what you do with it and if it ever becomes a limit.

As you say, plenty of LG, Samsung, HTC models but the spec. often underwhelms for the price and makes you more reluctant to part with good money.

One other thing, the SF is a nice compact 'slip in your pocket phone' whilst the Nexus is nearer a tablet in size, consider if its going to be inconvenient in your day to day life, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing!

mrobsessed

sillygoose wrote: »

...you might find something like the Orange San Diego at £100 a sufficient step up, it has a very quick processor, bigger screen, 16gb storage and an 8MP camera so quite a step up.

It's a good phone but it does have issues as it uses an Intel processor so is not compatible with some Android apps that are 'chip specific' with the much more usual ARM processor that the vast majority of Android phones have.

sillygoose wrote: »

Everyone knows the Huawei G300 is great value/quality but there is an upgraded version which you can get SIM free for about £180 the G330. Quick dual core processor, 4GB memory but upgradable due to card slot, good screen and so on.

That's definitely worth looking at, but can you buy it unlocked or on Orange? Yet another advantage of the Nexus is that it is unlocked so it can be used with any SIM and it also has a clean version of the latest Android OS without the manufacturers bloatware you get on most phones.

Thanks for your help!

MillicentBystander

Until my son purchased the Nexus 4 i was sniffy about 'large' phones. I was wrong, it's absolutely superb and not at all 'awkward' for everyday use. And starting at £250 delivered for the 8gb version it's a total billy bargain.

The G330 sillygoose mentions is supposedly going to be avalaible SIM free for £100 once its exclusivity period with talktalk mobile is over (the £180 price is the price charged by unofficial 3rd party sellers at the moment) At £100 it's an absolute steal but no-one knows when it will be publicly available.

sillygoose

MillicentBystander wrote: »

Until my son purchased the Nexus 4 i was sniffy about 'large' phones. I was wrong, it's absolutely superb and not at all 'awkward' for everyday use. And starting at £250 delivered for the 8gb version it's a total billy bargain.

The G330 sillygoose mentions is supposedly going to be avalaible SIM free for £100 once its exclusivity period with talktalk mobile is over (the £180 price is the price charged by unofficial 3rd party sellers at the moment) At £100 it's an absolute steal but no-one knows when it will be publicly available.

All true.

It depends on how much your budget is. I am hoping the Ascend P1 which you can currently buy around £250 drops as I would skip the G330 for a P1 which is a lovely bit of kit and in the size I prefer (+ very slim) but everything else as upgraded as I will ever need.

I have messed with larger phones and even an SIII is too awkward to me. It can't stay in a pocket when I am working as it will get cracked, can't put it down anywhere for various reasons so I usually wear in a belt case. A belt case for a Nexus would look like an incontinence bag! :eek: