Best (android) phone for €100

cormie

I was recommending a Z3 compact to a friend but they were adamant not to spend more than €100 on a phone. Can anyone recommend a phone around the same size of a Z3, with a good camera and good battery, that should be easy enough to get for €100 or less. Please include phones that would be easy enough to get 2nd hand for €100.

Any help appreciated!

Yawns

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Original-4150mAh-Battery-Cellphone-Cubot-Note-S-5-5inch-1280X720-Android-5-1-Smartphone-3G-WCDMA/32577951634.html?shortkey=vyERrUVN&addresstype=600

Order from the UK warehouse to a Parcel Motel account.

The specs look really great for that price. Should be around €80 including shipping and PM fee. Coming from UK so no customs and should only take a few days to arrive. The only major downside is that 4G is NOT supported but it does have 3G.

I'm going to be ordering one in a few days myself.

cormie

Thanks a lot for the suggestion. Do you know anything about this brand? I wouldn't be crazy on them ordering an unknown Chinese device and would rather get a more popular device second hand than a brand new unknown device if both had the same specs. This is due to troubleshooting, ota updates etc, it's always better to have a popular phone as more people have them so it's easier to find info on queries when checking Google

homer911

Vodafone Smart Prime?

Mantis Toboggan

I'd add another 30 bucks and get the ultra 6. Excellent phone.

cormie

Thanks for the suggestions folks are these easy to unlock? I checked the Irish VF site and see the price for Ultra 6 is €179, but checked amazon and see it's £99, so guessing this is where you get it for €130? Unfortunately, they aren't on vodafone so would need to probably pay for unlocking too. Could be a good option for a brand new one for sure, but wondering, would they be better off getting a better, unlocked used phone through adverts? I don't think 2nd hand is a problem for them and might be preferable if they can get a better device and cheaper?

Mantis Toboggan

cormie wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestions folks are these easy to unlock? I checked the Irish VF site and see the price for Ultra 6 is €179, but checked amazon and see it's £99, so guessing this is where you get it for €130? Unfortunately, they aren't on vodafone so would need to probably pay for unlocking too. Could be a good option for a brand new one for sure, but wondering, would they be better off getting a better, unlocked used phone through adverts? I don't think 2nd hand is a problem for them and might be preferable if they can get a better device and cheaper?

It's around 2 quid for unlock code, arrives usually in a few minutes. I've unlocked a few, no problem.

donegal.

smart ultra , €2 or €3 on ebay and very easy to do yourself.

you can't unlock the smart prime. you'd have to find a vodafone customer to request an unlock code for it.

I'd recommend the wileyfox, an english brand that a bit above your price range

Trond

cormie wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestions folks are these easy to unlock? I checked the Irish VF site and see the price for Ultra 6 is €179, but checked amazon and see it's £99, so guessing this is where you get it for €130? Unfortunately, they aren't on vodafone so would need to probably pay for unlocking too. Could be a good option for a brand new one for sure, but wondering, would they be better off getting a better, unlocked used phone through adverts? I don't think 2nd hand is a problem for them and might be preferable if they can get a better device and cheaper?

Basically no. Buying it off Amazon prime gives you far better customer service in case there is any issues.

I bought one for my mother off amazon, delivered it cost for €140 including a case. Unlocked code took 24 hours and was €2.50 on ebay.

cormie

Thanks a lot folks. Seems to be a popular choice.

I've compared 3 phones here, my friends old one, the Ultra 6 and my Z3:
http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=7206&idPhone2=7313&idPhone3=6538

The Z3 is clearly the best and if a pristine one could be had for €140 it'd be the best choice as it wouldn't be very likely it would develop any problems in the year or so after buying it, the same time where you'd have any comeback with a new phone (although it may be 2 years, I'm always confused over this).

The Z3 main attractions would be:
Amazing camera for photo and video
Amazing battery/performance ratio
Waterproof and dust proof
Mine has fallen plenty of times and survived

but of course getting a used Z3 anywhere near the price of a new Ultra 6 is very unlikely so in this case, the Ultra 6 will probably win out.

cormie

Thanks for the advice everyone, they went with an Ultra 6 from Amazon. The smart prime doesn't seem half bad considering it's almost half the price either though!

Any idea where to get the unlock codes for €3?

donegal.

i got one of this guy

cormie

Thanks a lot!!

cormie

Hi again folks, I'm just wondering, I think this phone will be delivered tomorrow. If it was for me, I'd definitely be looking to de-bloat it (with the help of an android expert I know) but I'm not sure my friend will mind that much, but if there's any easy to use de-bloater that doesn't mess with warranty and will still allow OTA updates and all the rest, please let me know.

I'm going to have to get some sim card contacts off a micro sim too, so I'm thinking it's going to have to be micro sim in spare phone - spare phone connected to laptop (maybe via myphoneexplorer), then copy sim card info to computer, and then connect ultra 6 back to computer and put the sim card info to the new sim card... and then of course set the phone up so everything is synced with gmail and not relying on the sim card at all.

donegal.

is their old phone android? will the contacts not automatically sync?

if not why not just put the old sim into the phone first. would the contacts then be added to the new google account?

cormie

Thanks for the reply. Their old phone is android, but it's a bigger sim so it won't fit in the new phone and it's also in for repair at the moment with Tesco, but they kept the sim card.

Are you using the stock rom with all the VF bloatware on your own Ultra 6? Does it interfere much?

donegal.

afaik, when you put the new sim card into the phone it'll ask you to sign into your google account. All your contacts will then be on the phone.

you can use the old big sim card. You can cut it down to size with a pair of scissors.

its my wife that has the ultra and she hasn't complained about bloatware .

cormie

Would be a little wary of cutting the sim card with a scissors. I know I have my phone set up to sync to gmail and it syncs straight away, I'm just not sure how my friend had their phone set up and whether it was syncing to gmail at all or whether all the contacts were stored on the sim.

Cool, hopefully there's not so much bloat on it so