Android phone around £150-£200
Discussion
Hopefully a reasonably easy one. Daughter wants a new phone for her birthday, to replace a truly knackered el cheapo Motorola E series phone which is so slow it's painful to use.
Budget is £150 to £200. It needs to be decently fast and responsive and with a reasonably good camera. Minimum 128GB of storage, preferably 256GB, SD card slot would be nice if poss. Ideally 5G as well.
Don't want second hand.
So far I've found a Moto G85 5G on Amazon for about £180 which looks alright (12GB RAM, 256GB storage plus micro SD, Snapdragon 6 Gen 3). Or a Poco X7 at about £190, less RAM (8GB) and no SD card but theoretically a slightly better SOC (Dimensity 7300).
Any thoughts on these two or suggestions for alternatives would be appreciated.
Budget is £150 to £200. It needs to be decently fast and responsive and with a reasonably good camera. Minimum 128GB of storage, preferably 256GB, SD card slot would be nice if poss. Ideally 5G as well.
Don't want second hand.
So far I've found a Moto G85 5G on Amazon for about £180 which looks alright (12GB RAM, 256GB storage plus micro SD, Snapdragon 6 Gen 3). Or a Poco X7 at about £190, less RAM (8GB) and no SD card but theoretically a slightly better SOC (Dimensity 7300).
Any thoughts on these two or suggestions for alternatives would be appreciated.
Newer basic Poco M7 looks cheaper https://www.mi.com/uk/product/poco-m7-pro-5g/
My Motorola G53 is pretty decent and probably in budget. I am still fine with my G31, though - picked up the G53 as an upgrade but the G31 hasn't let me down - use it for social media (creating, not just browsing), video/photo editing, emails, browsing etc basically running my business from my phone when I'm not at home. So I would also recommend a G31 but it's under budget.
GlenMH said:
I have just got my daughter a 100 quid moto Gsomething from Argos and I am astonished at how good it is: dual sim, 8GB ram, micro SD storage etc etc.
The only thing I am a bit sad about his how tardy Moto are at getting Android 15 on to it.
I wouldn't worry too much about it.The only thing I am a bit sad about his how tardy Moto are at getting Android 15 on to it.
I have a Moto G54 which originally came with Android 13 but then got an upgrade to Android 14 last year which was the last promised upgrade.
Imagine my surprise when an upgrade to Android 15 appeared on my device last week, but the differences are so minor that it's barely noticeable.
The only major annoying change is the startup time now on power cycle is 3-4x longer than it was before!
Jonny_ said:
So far I've found a Moto G85 5G on Amazon for about £180 which looks alright (12GB RAM, 256GB storage plus micro SD, Snapdragon 6 Gen 3). Or a Poco X7 at about £190, less RAM (8GB) and no SD card but theoretically a slightly better SOC (Dimensity 7300).
The G85 will be more than fine if our experiences with the G55 are anything to go by (bought for a family member recently).The dual sim functionality is a bit of a red herring, it's one physical nano sim and then you can use an eSim alongside which is only helpful if you have a network who offer the eSim.
The difference in RAM amount probably won't make a huge amount of difference right now but may do in a couple of years time.
Minimum 256GB on board storage is a must thanks to the utter bloatware of some social media apps now and the microSD slot is a very nice to have.
The camera quality is a bit average and won't compete with a decent iPhone but then these are vaguely budget oriented phones.
The G85 should come with 4 years of update support to take you to June 2028. They're good, light phones with decent battery life and responsive UI. Just watch out for the Moto habit of trying to crowbar and download additional apps and games onto your device against your wishes.
They don't come with a charger in the box but if you connect it USB-C to USB-C to a suitable 30W charger then you'll benefit from some fast charging.
eltawater said:
Jonny_ said:
So far I've found a Moto G85 5G on Amazon for about £180 which looks alright (12GB RAM, 256GB storage plus micro SD, Snapdragon 6 Gen 3). Or a Poco X7 at about £190, less RAM (8GB) and no SD card but theoretically a slightly better SOC (Dimensity 7300).
The G85 will be more than fine if our experiences with the G55 are anything to go by (bought for a family member recently).The dual sim functionality is a bit of a red herring, it's one physical nano sim and then you can use an eSim alongside which is only helpful if you have a network who offer the eSim.
The difference in RAM amount probably won't make a huge amount of difference right now but may do in a couple of years time.
Minimum 256GB on board storage is a must thanks to the utter bloatware of some social media apps now and the microSD slot is a very nice to have.
The camera quality is a bit average and won't compete with a decent iPhone but then these are vaguely budget oriented phones.
The G85 should come with 4 years of update support to take you to June 2028. They're good, light phones with decent battery life and responsive UI. Just watch out for the Moto habit of trying to crowbar and download additional apps and games onto your device against your wishes.
They don't come with a charger in the box but if you connect it USB-C to USB-C to a suitable 30W charger then you'll benefit from some fast charging.
I spent some time deleting apps it decided to download, but at least it lets you delete them.
It's my 4th moto phone, so they are probably doing something right.
Here is a recent pic.
There's a wide range at this price point and there's limited reasons to spend more on a phone.
Recently received a works iPhone 16 Pro Max and I'm just glad I didn't spend my own money on it.
Other than it being my own company!
DOH!!!!
I really like the screen on the TCL 40 NXTPAPER which is well within budget at this price range but there's better phones if eye strain isn't an issue.
Recently received a works iPhone 16 Pro Max and I'm just glad I didn't spend my own money on it.
Other than it being my own company!
DOH!!!!
I really like the screen on the TCL 40 NXTPAPER which is well within budget at this price range but there's better phones if eye strain isn't an issue.
I'm a reasonably serial buyer of cheap Android phones, having four in the family that need new ones every so often.
After trying a variety of low-end Samsungs, none have impressed me and i have found them quite slow and basic feeling.
Both daughters have Motorola G-series phones and like them, but they are both suffering issues after just over 2 years use - periodic freezing and apps restarting at random times. They do get quite a hammering of Snapchat/Youtube/Tic-Toc/etc though.
My partner has got a RealMe which seems OK for the light use she needs.
I've got a Poco M4, which is really good. Its several years old now but still performs well. I't been dropped and bashed numerous times but has never been phased. I like the headphone socket, but have issues with getting it to unlock using Google Voice Assist (as in, it won't unlock). I'd buy another Poco rather than another brand at the same price.
After trying a variety of low-end Samsungs, none have impressed me and i have found them quite slow and basic feeling.
Both daughters have Motorola G-series phones and like them, but they are both suffering issues after just over 2 years use - periodic freezing and apps restarting at random times. They do get quite a hammering of Snapchat/Youtube/Tic-Toc/etc though.
My partner has got a RealMe which seems OK for the light use she needs.
I've got a Poco M4, which is really good. Its several years old now but still performs well. I't been dropped and bashed numerous times but has never been phased. I like the headphone socket, but have issues with getting it to unlock using Google Voice Assist (as in, it won't unlock). I'd buy another Poco rather than another brand at the same price.
Jonny_ said:
So far I've found a Moto G85 5G on Amazon for about £180 which looks alright (12GB RAM, 256GB storage plus micro SD, Snapdragon 6 Gen 3). Or a Poco X7 at about £190, less RAM (8GB) and no SD card but theoretically a slightly better SOC (Dimensity 7300).
Any thoughts on these two or suggestions for alternatives would be appreciated.
The Poco is currently on a discount on the Xiaomi website: Xiaomi Poco M7 Pro 5G 8GB + 256GB £144.06. Code is BRAVOMTAny thoughts on these two or suggestions for alternatives would be appreciated.
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