Reasonably priced and sensibly sized Android phone

[Jonny_]

My Nokia 8 is getting on for 3 years old, and starting to show its age. Touchscreen response has become a bit random, the battery life is nothing like it used to be, and my mobile banking app now refuses to allow contactless payments due to the age of the device.

What I want in a phone is very much not what is in fashion, though. The Nokia 8 is bigger than I'd like (5.3" display, size is 151.5x73.7x7.9mm) and there seems to be very little with a <6" screen on offer now! A Nokia 8.3 is 20mm longer, 5mm wider and 1mm thicker, for example - not exactly pocket sized. Also, prices have become obscene! There's oodles of choice if you want a cheap 'n' nasty POS for around £100, and even more options if you have £600 to blow on a phone, but very little choice around the £250 mark. Oh, and curved screens are an idiotic idea and can GTF, but that seems to be almost totally unavoidable these days. Bah humbug.

So the upshot is that I'm really struggling to find anything that looks remotely worthwhile. Can the collective wisdom of PH point me toward something suitable?

Criteria are...

Price up to £250
No bigger than my Nokia 8, preferably smaller
Full HD display
Decent camera (the 8 has been a bit of a disappointment in this regard)
SD card slot
NFC
Up to date version of Android
NOT AN IPHONE! (my company-issued phone is an Iphone SE, the hardware and form factor are great, but I absolutely, utterly bloody detest everything about IOS.)

Fingers crossed there's something suitable out there, otherwise it's onto Fleabay to hunt down a new-old-stock phone from 2017...

[towser44]

I got a Xiaomi Note 8 Pro for £99 before Xmas. The screen is big, so outside your size remit, but by god, it's brilliant for the money with a 64mp quad camera, 4gb ram and 128gb storage. I've seen the later versions (Note 9's) for a little over a £100 recently on Hot UK Deals. If they do smaller size screen phones to fit your requirements I would highly recommend.

Edited by towser44 on Wednesday 3rd March 21:48

[chip*]

Just last week, I bought the Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC for £159 (6GB + 64GB). Pretty speedy enough for me, but with a slightly bigger 6.67" screen than you requested. I hesitated initially as the phone isn't 5G, but decided it wasn't a biggie for my use.

https://www.mi.com/uk/poco-x3-nfc/specs/

^ Price appear to have gone back up to £199 for the 6GB/64GB model, but you can buy the 6GB/128GB for just £169 with 14 hours left on this sale!.

Edited by chip* on Thursday 4th March 09:47

[adsk]

I had a Nokia 8 and replaced it with a Samsung A41. I've had it 8 months or so and been very happy with it. It's very hard finding light Android phones and the A41 is definitely at the lighter end of Android phones. Only minor negative is that it can be a little sluggish for 5 seconds or so when you wake it from standby otherwise it's a really good device. It's currently on Android 10 but an update is due is the next few months.

[emperorburger]

The Samsung Galaxy S10e was the go to phone for anyone looking for a smaller but fully featured Android handset.

Measuring 142 x 69.9 x 7.9mm it comes in a little smaller than your current Nokia.

You may struggle to find one new and I think prices have held up for what is effectively a discontinued model.

Excellent phone though.

[James_N]

Ive got a Xiaomi Redmi 9. got it on a deal after xmas for around £69. Great piece of kit. Huge screen, 2 day battery life! cant complain at all for the money

[untakenname]

I used to have high end phones but after getting annoyed with the Samsung that slid off a nearly flat table and broke after just two weeks I vowed just to use midrange phones.
I had a Redmi Note 7 which I installed the Pixel rom onto and was very impressed (especially with the GCAM camera) so I bought a Pixel 4 for my next phone but was underwhelmed with the battery life and also the size so I then got the Poco X3, didn't liked the bloated stock firmware so installed the Pixel rom onto that as well and haven't looked back as it's quicker and also cleaner.
Took this pic when I was swapping out microsd cars

Pixel 4 on left then Redmi Note 7 middle and Poco X3 on right for a size comparison, tbh I found the size of the Redmi Note 7 perfect for my handsize, the Poco X3 is slightly too large imo with the protection case on.


Imo get a device that you can reflash with a Pixel based rom and you won't look back, everything works on the Poco X3 including NFC for payment and the security updates are rapid as well as the camera being a lot better as it uses the google GCAM Pixel code and all the processing algorithms that go with it.

[Wombat3]

Have a look at the Samsung Galaxy A series - significantly less expensive than the S series. I've got an A40 as a work phone & a larger A50 for myself & they do everything I want. I try not to buy anything made in China these days if it can be avoided.

[Pieman68]

Wombat3 said:

Have a look at the Samsung Galaxy A series - significantly less expensive than the S series. I've got an A40 as a work phone & a larger A50 for myself & they do everything I want. I try not to buy anything made in China these days if it can be avoided.

Another vote here - although mine is probably a bit big for you I recently upgrade to the A71 and it's excellent

[Rich1973]

I have a Galaxy A21s that gets a big thumbs up. Great spec and battery life for a very reasonable price.

[deckster]

Moto G series very hard to beat for a mid-range phone - but as you've already noted, you are going to seriously struggle to get anything under a 6" screen these days.

[Funk]

deckster said:

Moto G series very hard to beat for a mid-range phone - but as you've already noted, you are going to seriously struggle to get anything under a 6" screen these days.

Was about to say exactly this - there just aren't many small-screen phones around. I'd be going for the Moto G9 Play - stock Android, ticks every box apart from screen (not full HD but HD+) and can be had for £100 under budget: https://www.techradar.com/uk/reviews/moto-g9-play

You couldn't pay me to have anything from Xaomi/OnePlus/Huawei etc - I don't trust them after the OnePlus data mining debacle and given how intrinsically phones are now tied to our digital IDs, I want something from a trusted source that gets regular updates and security patches (which the G9 Play will).

Or go the other way, add £100 to the budget and get the Google Pixel 4a at £349ish - no SD expansion but it comes with 128Gb onboard, 5.8" screen, latest and greatest Android, NFC, incredible camera and screen. Looking on eBay new unused ones are around £300.

https://www.techradar.com/uk/reviews/google-pixel-...

[Jonny_]

Thanks for all your suggestions.

The Xiaomi phones look like conspicuously good value given their specs, shame they don't make a smaller device as they're all pretty bulky items. Must admit I'm not 100% convinced over their security/privacy, although then again anything running Google software probably isn't the last word in privacy either.

The Pixel 4a appeals in terms of size and camera, but it's a fair chunk more than I want to spend, plus the lack of SD expandability is a pain.

I really don't fancy stepping back to a 720p display; even my old Moto G5 (which was generally a bit st, and replaced in short order by this Nokia 8) had a 1080p display.

So far the Galaxy A41 is looking favourite, but even then that seems to have some issues with laggy performance.

Here's hoping that the fickle winds of fashion change direction and we go back to "smaller phone = better" - like it was in the good old days of 2002...

[Funk]

In the nicest possible way, sub-£250 is budget phone territory and the options will be limited around that price-point. Something has to give to hit the price, be it screen, camera whatever. Also I wouldn't get hung up on 'no SD card' too much, especially with a phone that has 64-128Gb onboard. Mine's 128Gb and I've never gotten close to running out of room - just checked an I have 50% free still!

What about looking at used/refurbished? That would open up a world of better phones that might be only a year or two old.

[captain_cynic]

Funk said:

In the nicest possible way, sub-£250 is budget phone territory and the options will be limited around that price-point.

Nah... £250 is extreme fking value territory. You get 95% of the high end phone for 1/3 of the price. Ive always bought Android phones for around £250/A$500 barring the HTC Dream (first android phone made).

I've been looking at the Nokia 5.4 lately as a replacement for my 2.5 yr old 7.1 and I'm wondering what the higher end models do that the 5.4 doesn't. Of the OPs boxes the only one it doesn't tick I'd the Full HD screen but it's only £150. I was waiting to see what Pixel phone comes out in the sub £300 catagoey but at £150 I'm seriously tempted as I've been pretty happy with my Nokia 7.1.

I think too many people have been conditioned to think a good phone costs upwards of £500 and that hasn't been true for years.

[Jonny_]

captain_cynic said:

Funk said:

In the nicest possible way, sub-£250 is budget phone territory and the options will be limited around that price-point.

Nah... £250 is extreme fking value territory. You get 95% of the high end phone for 1/3 of the price. Ive always bought Android phones for around £250/A$500 barring the HTC Dream (first android phone made).

I've been looking at the Nokia 5.4 lately as a replacement for my 2.5 yr old 7.1 and I'm wondering what the higher end models do that the 5.4 doesn't. Of the OPs boxes the only one it doesn't tick I'd the Full HD screen but it's only £150. I was waiting to see what Pixel phone comes out in the sub £300 catagoey but at £150 I'm seriously tempted as I've been pretty happy with my Nokia 7.1.

I think too many people have been conditioned to think a good phone costs upwards of £500 and that hasn't been true for years.

Likewise, I always viewed £250 as the sweet spot between the true budget stuff and the pricey high end, but there seems to be a dearth of choice at that price point now. Oodles of options around £150 or below, even more at £350+, very little in between.

To be fair, within budget I can get something more than good enough in terms of spec, by going for one of the Chinese brands - Xiaomi, OnePlus etc - but by doing so wouldend up with a huge "phablet" type device.

[LuS1fer]

I bought an older OnePlus 6 which I've had for a few years now. It's got a fast processor and a lovely screen and us 6" X 3" which is pocket-size.

Not sure what they go for but it's a great phone and updates the OS regularly.

They do the Nord N10 but that is bigger but is on offer at Amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/OnePlus-Storage-SIM-Free-...

[Jonny_]

6 months later and I'm going to have to cave in to the inevitability of a 6.5" phone. Old phone is definitely starting to fail, with weird ghosting on the screen and the touchscreen becoming increasingly hit-and-miss.

Currently looking at a Poco M3 Pro 5G (6GB RAM/128GB storage version), which as far as I can tell is more or less identical to a couple of the other Xiaomi phones (a Redmi Note and a Realme 8), and the Poco variant just happens to be the lowest priced of the three.

As far as I can tell it looks OK for the £200 £169 price, although I don't think it'll be notably better than my Nokia 8 performance wise. The 5G capability might become handy over the new couple of years, and unlike quite a few phones now it still has a micro SD card slot.

Edited by Jonny_ on Sunday 5th September 22:42

[paulrockliffe]

Jonny_ said:

6 months later and I'm going to have to cave in to the inevitability of a 6.5" phone.

There was a more recent and more extensive thread over the summer about small phones. I was very much in the market for one, but I also caved. Ultimately what you can find that is small is very poor value for money or out of date, or requires a significant compromise such as a poor camera.

In the end it was screen size that I compromised on and I don't really regret it. It's worth looking at the overall sizes of the phones though and ignoring the screen diagonal that is usually quoted; I bought a Samsung Galaxy S20+, a new one on eBay for a little under £400, although it's a bigger screen than the Note 9 I had, the aspect ratio is different and the bezels smaller, so it's something like 8mm narrower, which makes a big difference.

I'd look at the S20 and the S10e too as they'll both be available cheaper than that and are smaller, the s10e is a good bit smaller. I didn't look in too much detail as once I'd decided to compromise on screen size I just went to the latest out of date phones as that's where the best value is. I rejected the S10e as it won't get Android 12, but the S20 will basically.

[Funk]

Following my earlier recommendation in the thread, the Pixel 4a is currently down to £279: https://store.google.com/gb/product/pixel_4a?hl=en...

Very well-reviewed and a bargain at that price...