Low cost smartphone handset

antallen

Hi,
I have a Galaxy S3 with a dying battery and a cracked screen. It's on contract with O2 which is ending in 1 month. I am going to go sim-only with giffgaff, but the question is what phone to buy? There's soooo many and I'm no phone geek!

The S3 is fine, a bit slow, but otherwise has everything I need. I had an LG 4XHD before and it was pretty much identical. Both of those are now quite old. Something newer and faster but otherwise the same would be fine. I do like the look of the LG Sytlus 2, mainly because it has a DAB radio in it. But that's a nice to have, not an essential. I definitely want to stick with Android. And I want to keep the cost down, buying the handset outright now.

What do you recommend?

Cisco001

What is your budget?

antallen

Cisco001 wrote: »

What is your budget?

As low as possible ... for a modern phone which does all the above. Say £200? But £150 or £100 would be better. Durability is important, especially the battery life, so I want a new phone rather than second hand, and I don't want to be waiting for it to initialise or process updates all the time.

ballyblack

Just out the new MOTO G4 around £150

Tesco £149(easily unlocked on ebay for around £1.30)

John Lewis

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/lenovo/lenovo-moto-g4

antallen

ballyblack wrote: »

Just out the new MOTO G4 around £150

Tesco £149(easily unlocked on ebay for around £1.30)

John Lewis

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/lenovo/lenovo-moto-g4

Like that. A bit big.

Any more with DAB? Or is that just the LG Stylus 2?

Cisco001

I am not aware any other smartphone with DAB apart from the one you mentioned.

firebird082

I've just done exactly this - swapped deathly slow Galaxy S3 for a Moto X Play (about £200 from JL) and £5 SIM only contract. Had it a couple of weeks so far and love it. No problems with battery life, but the screen is quite big (which I like, but others may not).

jenniewb

antallen wrote: »

Hi,
I have a Galaxy S3 with a dying battery and a cracked screen. It's on contract with O2 which is ending in 1 month. I am going to go sim-only with giffgaff, but the question is what phone to buy? There's soooo many and I'm no phone geek!

The S3 is fine, a bit slow, but otherwise has everything I need. I had an LG 4XHD before and it was pretty much identical. Both of those are now quite old. Something newer and faster but otherwise the same would be fine. I do like the look of the LG Sytlus 2, mainly because it has a DAB radio in it. But that's a nice to have, not an essential. I definitely want to stick with Android. And I want to keep the cost down, buying the handset outright now.

What do you recommend?

I moved from O2 to GiffGaff earlier this year. I also had an S3 and got fed up with it's slowness. I did replace the battery in mine for a larger battery but it still ate that for breakfast! I had mine checked over twice at the Samsung run mobile phone store as they suggested, twice and was told there was nothing wrong with it, so I can only assume they were all that bad!


I replaced my S3 with a Huawei P8 Lite. It's miles better! It not only works on 4G (as oppose to the 3G Samsung's 3G) and with the S3 it used to lag at first a little but by the end of 24 months was around 30 seconds. The only thing that worked without lags was the radio.


The P8 has an FM radio- not the same as a DAB but I'd check how the battery works out with a DAB radio on a phone. I'd looked into getting a portable DAB radio (Pure and Roberts both make them) but the complaints with either were how poorly the battery was- and that was without it doing all the same phone things you want from your monthly mobile phone fee.


Huawei have since made a P9 and P9 Lite, but they aren't that amazingly different in stats from the P8/P8 Lite for the price increase which is near enough double the cost comparing the P9 Lite to P8 Lite.


I also have a radio. Not every handset does that. I'm a bit of a radio addict. I can't do a phone without a radio and refuse to waste all my data and battery on a radio app when an FM radio does what I need it to. There are a handful of stations that are DAB only (Absolute, BBC Radio 4X for example) but there are many on FM still and although it doesn't run battery free, I can have the radio on most of the day and still get home and dry without needing to charge up halfway through.


Having said that, I totally recommend Ankers battery power packs- a fair price, not too heavy and reliable. Amazon have them.

J_B

antallen wrote: »

It's on contract with O2 which is ending in 1 month.

Just remember (maybe you already know?) that the contract doesn't "end", it just reaches the end of it's minimum term.
You will need to give 30 days notice .... best do that now, maybe O2 will offer you a deal??

HoofeHearted

Having read this thread I purchased a Moto G4 (Sim free) from Amazon (£142). It arrived yesterday and, so far, I am very pleased with it.

Many Thanks.

will-he-payitoff

HoofeHearted, thats a very good price for a Moto G4 are you sure its the latest model?