Recommended Android phone for about £150?

[A900ss]

Hi,

I’m looking for an Android phone and want to spend as little as possible.

It won’t be a main phone, used mainly for monitoring OBD stuff.

Ideally with very little bloatware so Android One handsets really welcome.

Camera irrelevant as it will never be used but I would like a good screen. Ideally not too big (5 to 5.5 inch) but must be 1080 and be bright to read.

Must be able to use the Google Play store so no Fire devices (and is Huawei banned as well?)

Can something like this be bought for £150 new? I’d rather not go down the secondhand route.

Thanks in advance.

[anonymous-user]

I bought a Samsung Galaxy A20e, not 1020 but I don't think you would notice on a phone anyway. Runs o.k

[Dave.]

At the risk of sounding like a broken record...

https://www.smartfonestore.com/browse/all/lg/nexus...

New, old stock Nexus 5x for less then £100 delivered.

Posting from mine I got about 18months ago, got my mother one, and the mother in-law one about 6 months ago and they've been great.

Theirs I left with stock ROM, mine has Lineage on.

[emperorburger]

If you are flexible on a bigger screen size, easily within budget

https://mobile.mi.com/uk/redmi-note-8-t/

£129.00

[GlenMH]

https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/nokia/1412183/noki...

[triumph-ant]

Personally I'd look at Motorola phones. Robust, cheap and Android is pretty stock. A G7 play would be about £99. I've bounced between different manufacturers but always come back to Motorola and been happy.

[emperorburger]

GlenMH said:

https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/nokia/1412183/noki...

Fails on the 1080p resolution requirement I think. Nevertheless, looks a decent spec.

[anonymous-user]

emperorburger said:

Fails on the 1080p resolution requirement I think. Nevertheless, looks a decent spec.

No one would notice the difference unless you had a magnifying glass.

[A900ss]

I’ve currently got a Motorola G5 doing the job but it’s now just getting too slow at multitasking. (This is the 3GB version).

I really want a 1080 screen as my main phone is an IPhone with a really nice screen so it is quite important.

Possibly a Nokia 6.2 but its screen is a bit larger than I need. I guess at £150 ish beggars can’t be choosers to much.

[A900ss]

The Spruce Goose said:

emperorburger said:

Fails on the 1080p resolution requirement I think. Nevertheless, looks a decent spec.

No one would notice the difference unless you had a magnifying glass.

I know what you’re saying but I did notice the difference between the previous phone at 720 and the current one at 1080.

Little things like this (and I admit they are small) do bug me more than they should.

[CanAm]

I have a Huawei and unfortunately the phone and texting parts are the worst. I also miss my Samsung’s ability to put text etc on pictures or screenshots.
The other aspects are ok.

[mikef]

Xiaomi Mi A2 lite. Grey import cheapest but can take a while to arrive

[AJB88]

Dave. said:

At the risk of sounding like a broken record...

https://www.smartfonestore.com/browse/all/lg/nexus...

New, old stock Nexus 5x for less then £100 delivered.

Posting from mine I got about 18months ago, got my mother one, and the mother in-law one about 6 months ago and they've been great.

Theirs I left with stock ROM, mine has Lineage on.

Unless the OP wants to faff around using ROM's though the 5X is well out of OS/Security support now isn't it?

He might find a lot of the apps he wants to run might not support the older OS version.

[Paul Drawmer]

Company in administration - so long term support may be a problem - but I have one, and it's fine.
Wiley Fox

https://wileyfox.com/products/swift-2-x

[AJB88]

Mum & Sister had the Swift X 2 (think it was)

At the time I had Pixel 2 XL and my dad had my Nexus 6P. After a bout a year sister's Wiley Fox stopped charging for no reason and soon after mums did the same. both ditched them for Pixel devices.

[Dave.]

AJB88 said:

Unless the OP wants to faff around using ROM's though the 5X is well out of OS/Security support now isn't it?

He might find a lot of the apps he wants to run might not support the older OS version.

Dec 18 was the latest security patch, running Oreo.

Doubt it's an issue for the OP to run Torque on.

[A900ss]

Just to close the thread, screen was all important and I didn’t want it too big so I’ve gone with a Samsung A40.

Nice screen and actually quite a small phone (comparatively).

1080, 5.9 inch screen but small body.

I’m missing out on ‘One’ and getting Samsung bloatware unfortunately.

I’ve also gone ‘graded’ (A2) to get it down to £129.

Thanks all.

[droopsnoot]

Dave. said:

At the risk of sounding like a broken record...

https://www.smartfonestore.com/browse/all/lg/nexus...

New, old stock Nexus 5x for less then £100 delivered.

Posting from mine I got about 18months ago, got my mother one, and the mother in-law one about 6 months ago and they've been great.

Theirs I left with stock ROM, mine has Lineage on.

Sorry to drag up an old post, but this looks interesting. I'm currently using an old Nokia N75, and am finding that even though I don't want to do much, even browsing to basic web sites is impossible now due to the browser not being interested.

The 5X looks great, it's a good enough price for a new phone, I can use it instead of my compact camera for most shots (recording car rebuild work, for example), but I'm concerned about the warning on the site about how it's not going to be updated any more. I don't particularly intend to use it for payments, for example, but I might, so I'm concerned that not being up to date might give me a security risk. Is that why you updated yours to Lineage? I've had a limited read up on that, but not in any detail.

[alorotom]

Dave. said:

Dec 18 was the latest security patch, running Oreo.

Doubt it's an issue for the OP to run Torque on.

Still it’s at best a 5yr old processor and very old tech by current standards

[Dave.]

droopsnoot said:

Sorry to drag up an old post, but this looks interesting. I'm currently using an old Nokia N75, and am finding that even though I don't want to do much, even browsing to basic web sites is impossible now due to the browser not being interested.

The 5X looks great, it's a good enough price for a new phone, I can use it instead of my compact camera for most shots (recording car rebuild work, for example), but I'm concerned about the warning on the site about how it's not going to be updated any more. I don't particularly intend to use it for payments, for example, but I might, so I'm concerned that not being up to date might give me a security risk. Is that why you updated yours to Lineage? I've had a limited read up on that, but not in any detail.

I've always fked about with my phone's, lineage seems to be the best for stability, although "officially" lineage stop supporting this phone a few months ago, but the same developer is still applying security patches every month so it's still up to date (Oreo).

The comment about it being 5yr old hardware, I've been using this for the past couple of years and it's fine, but I don't use it for anything strenuous, just browsing/WhatsApp/etc.

I also have a nexus 7 and 10 still in use....