New phone for £100
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CX53

Original Poster:

3,025 posts

140 months

Friday 2nd October 2020
quotequote all
My mum has asked for my help to find a new phone, preferably brand new and not used or refurbed.

Current phone is my old iphone 7, leaked some sort of fluid possibly from the battery and cuts out during phone calls so more than likely knackered.

Small budget of £100. I've recommended she up it and go for a Huawei P30 lite as mine has been amazing for the money. I paid around 170 quid and it's every bit as good if not better than the iPhone 7 it replaced, the camera is way better, and the OS is easy to use and very very similar to iPhone.

Does a decent similar phone exist for around that budget?

It has to be as quick as the iPhone and take as good pictures, easy to use, not like a big step back.

If not then I will try and find a reasonable pay monthly deal on something better but she would prefer outright and sim only.


Thanks all

dhutch

17,892 posts

227 months

Friday 2nd October 2020
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I know you said ideally not second hand, but if she likes the iPhone 7, what about a 2017 spec iPhone SE.

The original 2016 SE with larger memory.

Partner has just switched from hers to the new gen 2020 iPhone SE as her contract rolled over but it's been a cracking phone for her and still does everything she needs.

If you're interested, it's due to go on eBay this weekend...

Daniel

CX53

Original Poster:

3,025 posts

140 months

Friday 2nd October 2020
quotequote all
dhutch said:
I know you said ideally not second hand, but if she likes the iPhone 7, what about a 2017 spec iPhone SE.

The original 2016 SE with larger memory.

Partner has just switched from hers to the new gen 2020 iPhone SE as her contract rolled over but it's been a cracking phone for her and still does everything she needs.

If you're interested, it's due to go on eBay this weekend...

Daniel
Thanks Daniel,

Unfortunately one of the requirements is brand new, if it were me then I'd be going second hand

CX53

Original Poster:

3,025 posts

140 months

Friday 2nd October 2020
quotequote all
ash73 said:
A brand new phone, as good as an iPhone 7, for £100... this should be interesting.
Don't forget, as good is subjective.

If you are particularly tech savvy or work in IT then you'll know what's comparable spec wise. Personally I find my £150 Huawei every bit as good as my old iphone with the added bonus of a better camera and battery life. I don't know if it's as good on paper, but to me it definitely is.

I appreciate £100 is a low budget but hoping to find something close. As long as it isn't laggy and slow, has a nice simple to use screen and menu, can browse the Internet, use the usual apps etc then that is perfectly fine.

CX53

Original Poster:

3,025 posts

140 months

Friday 2nd October 2020
quotequote all
ash73 said:
I think matching the camera will be tricky.

Are Huawei still in the dog house with Google apps disabled on new devices?
I'm not too sure, mine still runs them fine and gets updates etc, I'll have a look in to it and see what I can find out..

The P30 lite I've got is great but I haven't ever seen any of the cheaper ones

CX53

Original Poster:

3,025 posts

140 months

Friday 2nd October 2020
quotequote all
ash73 said:
I've got a Huawei tablet and that was great value too, but I'd just check what the story is with new devices.
Will do, cheers thumbup

AlexC1981

5,853 posts

247 months

Friday 2nd October 2020
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This would be pretty decent for £120. I have the model two generations older and it's still reasonable. It's quite a bit bigger and heavier than an iphone 7 though.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Xiaomi-Redmi-Note-Dual-Bl...


stevoknevo

1,760 posts

220 months

Friday 2nd October 2020
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Nokia 2.3 seems well liked for £100, and it runs on Android One so two years of software/three years security updates. Quite big though.

Condi

20,486 posts

201 months

Saturday 3rd October 2020
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Motorola G7 Play £99 from Argos and it does pretty much the same my Samsung S10.

Obviously there are differences, the camera is very noticeable worse, web pages do tend to hang at times, and no doubt if you were playing games you'd see a big difference in performance, but for general calls/messages/music/apps then it does it all.

mickyh7

2,347 posts

116 months

Saturday 3rd October 2020
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Can't you just 'TopUp' her budget ?
Get her a really good phone and stay quiet about it?
Mum's the word !

hotchy

4,830 posts

156 months

Saturday 3rd October 2020
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mickyh7 said:
Can't you just 'TopUp' her budget ?
Get her a really good phone and stay quiet about it?
Mum's the word !
Haha I do this. My dad wanted a chromecast and none was in stock and he was refusing the £50 4k one so I just bought it and said currys gave me it for the same. Just easier lol

Drawweight

3,612 posts

146 months

Saturday 3rd October 2020
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My wife and I bought Motorola Moto G phones, sim free as a cheap alternative for surfing and calls.

They both lasted barely a year before freezing/ failing to turn on.

They certainly weren’t the cheapest of the cheap and had got good reviews but to be honest they were rubbish so I wouldn’t like to think what a sub £100 phone would be like.

You might be lucky if it’s only used for making calls but I wouldn’t chance it.

Get a cheap model/sh/reconditioned iPhone instead.

ZesPak

26,154 posts

226 months

Sunday 4th October 2020
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Drawweight said:
My wife and I bought Motorola Moto G phones, sim free as a cheap alternative for surfing and calls.

They both lasted barely a year before freezing/ failing to turn on.

They certainly weren’t the cheapest of the cheap and had got good reviews but to be honest they were rubbish so I wouldn’t like to think what a sub £100 phone would be like.
Opposed to that, we've had a run of Moto G's and my wife doesn't want anything else. My parent's who are less tech-minded get her old ones. My father got her 2015 moto G now and it's still running great.
For budget phones, it's about as low as I'd want to go new. They feel snappy and last a long time. Her latest is the Moto G6 Plus and really makes me question why I spend TRIPPLE the amount on anything else.

The_Jackal

4,854 posts

227 months

Sunday 4th October 2020
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You may just have to tell her she cant buy a similar specced phone new for £100.

NGRhodes

1,291 posts

102 months

Sunday 4th October 2020
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Nokia 4.2 is an option, we got the 16gb model, (about £100), if you need the storage 32gb model is about £20/30 more.
Camera is marginally worse, has a better CPU though. Screen is similar spec.

alorotom

12,788 posts

217 months

Sunday 4th October 2020
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Seriously don’t understand the obsession with the MotoG range here - Not great spec, awful and very unresponsive camera, laggy interface, plastic (not) fantastic

Frankly for £100 there is nothing comparable to an iPhone 7 out there that you can buy for new.

Where had the £100 marker come from, clearly the 7 was way more than this when it was new.

ZesPak

26,154 posts

226 months

Sunday 4th October 2020
quotequote all
alorotom said:
Seriously don’t understand the obsession with the MotoG range here - Not great spec, awful and very unresponsive camera, laggy interface, plastic (not) fantastic
As I mentioned, ours did great. They aren't great spec but were very reliable for us. Two years ago we got the "plus" as it had a better camera and we're happy with it, low light isn't as good as my S9 but other than that it's a pretty good camera.

Interface is smooth though.