Cheap Smart Phone?

[The Mad Monk]

I would like to buy - new if possible - a smart phone, less than £200.

What about the Ulefone(?), or Maze Alpha? Are there any UK stockists?

Not too big, your recommendations, please.

[JimbobVFR]

IMO Motorola Moto G phones are awesome for the money.

https://www.motorola.co.uk/smartphones-moto-g-plus...

[ZesPak]

Another vote here for moto g. Have had several in the family, near stock android, relatively long updates and generally solid phones.

For budget phones I wouldn't go any other way.

[AJB88]

Anything that is on "Android One" will be best, guaranteed to get updates then and pretty quickly as well. Motorola, Nokia etc.

A lot of these cheap end phones very rarely get any updates.

[Neil_Sc]

I would be looking at a chinese phone in terms of bang for buck.

I have ran an Xiaomi Note 7 for the last 15 months and still getting updates without issue, for £159 (6GB + 64GB model) I would be buying a Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC, review link https://www.techradar.com/uk/reviews/xiaomi-poco-x...

Great battery, great performance, 120hz screen, half decent camera, what is not to like?

[gman88667733]

Moto G phones are usually my go-to on a budget. The only issue is they do not get updated frequently/ for very long.

Since Lenovo took over Moto, their update schedule has been terrible, I assume most cheap Moto's now won't even get a major update, just a few security patches.

Not the end of the world, but worth considering for security etc...


+1 for the Poco X3, no experience with it personally, but from what I've seen it is great. Very highly regarded.

[gaseous clay]

Moto G, bought one for my mum and it is surprisingly good.

[Scrump]

Moto G
I currently have a G6 plus bought in 2018 which was updated to Android 9 but won’t get Android 10 Stil gets security updates though.

Wife has had a few Moto G over the years and they have all been great with a life of about 4 years.

[snuffy]

Funny you should ask because I've just bought one.

So, 6 months ago I broken the screen on my S10, had it repaired (£180) since the contract still had a fair time to run. Last week it got wet and that killed the screen again. This time they wanted £230 to fix it so I told them to shove that idea.

Anyway, I bought myself a Moto G8 for £117. Okay, it does have a bit of a plastic feel about it, does not have wireless charging or NFC, but apart from that I'm now struggling to see why an S10 costs £800 (or whatever) and a G8 was £120 or so.

My previous phones have been an S8 and S6 (and I think an S4 as well) and I was going to upgrade to an S20 next month (when my contract allows me to), but I'm most likely going to change to a sim free plan instead.

[ZesPak]

snuffy said:

Anyway, I bought myself a Moto G8 for £117. Okay, it does have a bit of a plastic feel about it, does not have wireless charging or NFC, but apart from that I'm now struggling to see why an S10 costs £800 (or whatever) and a G8 was £120 or so.

This.

Ever since getting the first moto G for my sister and mother I had to try hard to justify a high end phone. Back then the camera's on the Moto G's were pretty terrible but they are very adequate now.
But yes, the Moto G has become very large. No NFC/wirless charging. Other than that, there is no way to justify a high end phone for me now in that regard other than "I want the shiny".

[snuffy]

ZesPak said:

This.

Ever since getting the first moto G for my sister and mother I had to try hard to justify a high end phone. Back then the camera's on the Moto G's were pretty terrible but they are very adequate now.
But yes, the Moto G has become very large. No NFC/wirless charging. Other than that, there is no way to justify a high end phone for me now in that regard other than "I want the shiny".

Good point, that is true. It is bigger than my S10 but now I've had it a week or so I've become used to it.

I am indeed struggling to justify getting an S20 now when the G8 is more than fine.

[gman88667733]

One of my cars cost less than all the newest high end phones, bloody ludicrous!

Have to agree with the above. I've had expensive ones and now would always rather have a cheaper phone (currently the Pixel 3a) and much prefer the experience.

[The Mad Monk]

I have had a quick look and there seems to be five 'families' of Motorola phone?

Motorola Edge
Motorola Razr
Motorola one
Moto G
Moto E

Does anybody know what the names signify?

[AJB88]

Razr is the flip phone.

[anonymous-user]

Neil_Sc said:

I would be looking at a chinese phone in terms of bang for buck.

I have ran an Xiaomi Note 7 for the last 15 months and still getting updates without issue, for £159 (6GB + 64GB model) I would be buying a Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC, review link https://www.techradar.com/uk/reviews/xiaomi-poco-x...

Great battery, great performance, 120hz screen, half decent camera, what is not to like?

That is exactly the phone I would go for too.

It may not bother you, but check the screen resolution of the phone before you buy. The Motorola G9 for instance is classed as HD+, which is only 720 x 1560 pixels. Ideally you want FHD+ which is 1,080 × 2,340 pixels.

I love £200 smart phones, it is the phone equivalent of shedding in that you don't have to worry about it, if you break it you just buy another.

[deebs]

https://www.techradar.com/uk/best/best-cheap-phone...

[matchmaker]

Another vote for Motorola. My current is a G9 play which has excellent battery life and unlike previous models has NFC.

[ZesPak]

matchmaker said:

Another vote for Motorola. My current is a G9 play which has excellent battery life and unlike previous models has NFC.

bought my mother a G8 Play as they had massive discounts because the G9 was on it's way.
Needless to say she won't miss NFC.

[Neil_Sc]

Joey Deacon said:

That is exactly the phone I would go for too.

It may not bother you, but check the screen resolution of the phone before you buy. The Motorola G9 for instance is classed as HD+, which is only 720 x 1560 pixels. Ideally you want FHD+ which is 1,080 × 2,340 pixels.

I love £200 smart phones, it is the phone equivalent of shedding in that you don't have to worry about it, if you break it you just buy another.

The law of sod multiplies your chances of flushing a smartphone down the toilet for every £100 extra you spend on it.

[Scrump]

The Mad Monk said:

I have had a quick look and there seems to be five 'families' of Motorola phone?

Motorola Edge
Motorola Razr
Motorola one
Moto G
Moto E

Does anybody know what the names signify?

Moto E is their budget range.
Moto G is their middle range (and the most popular judging by PHers recommendations)
Motorola one runs the Android one operating system, don’t seem as popular as G series (not sure why)
Motorola Razr is their flip phone
Motorola Edge is their top of the range.