Are there any good all-round smartphones under £250?

[Jonny_]

I've had a Moto G5 for the last 11 months, bought as a cheap replacement for my old Xperia Z3 which started to fail after 2 years' use. But I'm fed up of the lousy camera on the G5, plus it's a bit of a bulky thing. Question is, what to replace it with?

It used to be pretty easy to find a good mid-range phone around the £200 mark, but the "mid-range" phone these days has become a £300-£500 item. Where my old Z3 cost just over £200, its 2018 equivalent (Xperia XA2) is another hundred quid.

For under £250 SIM-free, is it possible to get...

Good camera
1080p or better screen
Around 5" display size (no giant "phablets"!)
Minimum 32GB of storage, preferably 64GB
Android 8
Fast charging and/or wireless charging

... or am I asking for the moon on a stick for a tenner?

[Jonny_]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I wasn't aware of the imminent Moto G6; if it's got a notably better camera than the G5 then it could be a good option. Especially that Amazon special with extra RAM and storage. I'll have a trawl around for some reviews and sample photos from the G6. It's not like Lenovo can't do a decent camera; my fiance has the G4 Plus and that takes a far better photo than my G5. In retrospect I should probably have bought the G5 Plus.

I wouldn't really want to go back to a 720p screen, which rules out the Sony XA1. If the XA2 was cheaper it'd probably be ideal.

As for the LG phones, although it's got an impressive spec the G5 is pretty old now and doesn't look like it's getting an update to Android 8, certainly won't be getting any further updates. I'm probably being overly picky, but would rather buy a current model phone that's going to get at least one further OS update before the manufacturer abandons it.

[Jonny_]

I was quite tempted by the Honor 9 Lite, only thing it’s lacking is fast charging, which is a feature I do like on my Moto G5.

The chap who got the Huawei P20 Lite for under £200 did very well indeed, I can’t find it for less than £300 other than secondhand on eBay or from the various sketchy Chinese sellers l that crop up in Google search results.

Moto G6 still looking favourite at the mo!

[Jonny_]

Just to conclude the thread, in a "better late than never" fashion...

I've put up with my old Moto G5 for 5 months longer, and reached the point where I'm ready to launch the POS out of the car window at speed! It's getting horribly slow, 16GB of internal storage really isn't enough these days, and the camera really is dismal.

I had another dig around online today and eventually stumbled across the Nokia 8, on offer at John Lewis for £260. Previously it was well out of my price range, having launched late last year at about £500; presumably there must be a new model coming along for it to be so heavily discounted. Last year's flagship rather than this year's budget model, so the spec still looks miles better than anything at similar money.

I did briefly consider a Huawei P20 Lite, but prefer the stock Android, faster processor and higher resolution screen on the Nokia. Other than the camera, the 8 also trounces the Sony XA2 (on paper, at least) which was otherwise looking a strong possibility. And it's going to get an Android 9 update apparently, so being last year's model shouldn't be an issue.

So I've ordered a blue one. Covered half the cost using some JL vouchers that I had, so there's another bonus. It should arrive some time next week - why oh why do I always order these things just before a weekend? - so will find out then if it's the bargain I'm hoping it is.

[Jonny_]

The Mad Monk said:

Moto G5S?
G6
G6Plus etc.
No?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/motorola-5-7-Inch-Android...

They all seem good, don't they?

I had considered the G6, but it's become a £200+ phone whereas my G5 was at least cheap - £130 as I recall. And despite the price hike still has a low end Snapdragon 400 Series CPU. Seemed poor value to me. Dismissed the G5S as being far too similar to this G5, and all the Plus models are huge 6 inch phablets which I don't want.

Plus I must admit the G5 has put me off the Moto G series. Had some decent Moto phones in the past, fiance is still using her G4 Plus with no problems, but as I initially tried to type this reply on the G5 it froze solid and needed a hard reset to revive... Perhaps the phone has a sense of irony...?

[Jonny_]

Have been using the Nokia for a few days now. So far so good, it's miles smoother and faster than the old Moto G5 was. Screen is not only sharper but far more vivid, and can go ridiculously bright.

Camera produces much better images than the G5 too. Even compared with the iPhone 7 I use for work, they're slightly more detailed. The Nokia camera isn't as quick to respond as the iPhone but it's far quicker than the G5.

The battery life is proving excellent so far, I haven't managed to run it down below 40% after a full day's use, including some YouTube videos and games - similar use would have had the Moto demanding a charge well before bedtime.

Only downside so far is that the rounded edges of the screen mean that the glass screen protector I bought doesn't fit well. I may have to resort to the flexible plastic ones despite the lower level of protection.