Are Budget Smartphones a waste of time/money ?

cal60

I recently posted a thread regarding phone recommendations. I have for a considerable time been looking to replace a Sony Xperia st26i with something better which does not cost an "arm and a leg" . I am not a power user (mainly phone/text/email and some messaging). I have not succeeded in my quest .

Android budget phones (my Xperia is an example) seem to be underpowered memory wise and suffer from the lack of updates and will lead to frustration browsing/updating. Apple - well there is no Apple budget phone (maybe a 5s at this stage ?). Windows - seems to be the poor relation.

Feature phone - certainly inexpensive but once you get used to the smartphone threading of SMS messages it would be hard to go back to non-threaded.

I am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that short of spending €250+ the smartphone "Emperor has no clothes". Thoughts ?

antodeco

I bought the Elephone P9000 for €200. High end spec phone. 32GB ROM, 4GB RAM. Honestly can't fault it

Mantis Toboggan

If you do your research you will find perfectly good phones for less than €250

Vic Vinegar

I bought a Cubot Note S for under €80 and it's very good, monster battery life too, lasts about 2.5 to 3 days. 2gb ram, quad core cpu, nice screen. It's not top of the range but i don't need that anyway. I don't understand why some people feel the need to spend €500 plus on phones but each to their own.

GBX

I paid €190 for a Jiayu S3 3gb Ram, 16gb storage with SD back in May 15. Recently got a Ulefone Power for herself for €150 delivered from Amazon. 2 highly recommended phones with decent spec.
There are great phones in the price range your looking for. Check out www.kimovil.com for spec and price comparison.

DavyD_83

Go the Chinese phones route.
I've come to the conclusion Anything under €200 (prob even <€250 you can buy from a phoneshop here (VF, Carphone Warehouse etc) is pretty much a waste.
The specs you get on a <€200 Chinese phone rivals the most expensive phones available in shops.

And if you want to go budget, the likes of Vic Vinegar's above for €80 will be way better than the budget shop offerings.

Check out the Android Phones forum for loads of recommendations.

ScottScott

I bought an Asus Zen Phone 2 Laser on Amazon in January, paid €190 and it works great!
2gb ram, quad core cpu and a really good camera, but not the best for music 'cause the speaker is a little poor.

smilerf

I have a Ulefone Power which I love before that I had a Huawei G7 which was great too

drunkmonkey

Moto G4 is 100 less than your 250 and decent specced. Huawei have also good reliable phones for well under 250.
There's a lot of crap out there for under 250 but there's also some very good phones with proper irish warranty and supported by the networks.
Paying 400 + for a phone isn't crazy for a good one, if you take care of it you'll get half of your money back in 2yrs, that's probably more true of iPhone than any other make as there is in high demand and keep a lot of there value second hand. Saying that samsung s5/6/7 always had a good resale as well.
So spend the 600 with the intention of getting 300 back when your changing again. On bill pay you'll nearly all ways get back more than you originally paid for a phone when changing.

irishgrover

there are plenty of very good "budget" smart phones. I'd say just pick a budget and then start doing research....of course "budget" is relative....I'd consider it to be around €150 plus or minus.... in that range I would recommend that VF smart ultra, the Moto G or the wiley fox.... all great phones, with different features, screen sizes etc

BailMeOut

Moto G for less than €200 which is a solid very high quality phone http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=100720339

StereoSound

The Moto G4 would probably be the most premium feeling phone in this bracket.

cal60

DavyD_83 wrote: »

Go the Chinese phones route.
I've come to the conclusion Anything under €200 (prob even <€250 you can buy from a phoneshop here (VF, Carphone Warehouse etc) is pretty much a waste.
The specs you get on a <€200 Chinese phone rivals the most expensive phones available in shops.

And if you want to go budget, the likes of Vic Vinegar's above for €80 will be way better than the budget shop offerings.

Check out the Android Phones forum for loads of recommendations.

Thanks for the comment Davy - I readily admit I am not well versed in these matters - so I may be wrong - but I'm not sure I am comfortable (ethically) with Chinese non-brand phones - bbc.com/news/business-30532463 ( I can't post a full URL)- and that related to Apple

Kat1170

cal60 wrote: »

Thanks for the comment Davy - I readily admit I am not well versed in these matters - so I may be wrong - but I'm not sure I am comfortable (ethically) with Chinese non-brand phones - bbc.com/news/business-30532463 ( I can't post a full URL)- and that related to Apple

Well according to your LINK that rules out branded AND non-branded Chinese phones for you, not much scope left.

riclad

I bought a sony experia m last year , I bought a samsung j3 8gig last week for 170 euro .
both are good phones ,i use coolreader,music apps ,youtube, browser .
I see little difference between the 2 phones ,the samsung has the latest version of android .
The sony has a nice music player app , 5inch screen.
Just get a phone 2gig ram, 4-5inch screen ,read reviews re battery life.screen quality .
Maybe some phones are 200-400 because it has a metal case ,super hd mega pixel camera, Fingerprint reader etc i dont care about camera ,s or hd video modes .
Who cares about updates,if you are a casual user. a new phone will have the latest version of android OS, i prefer to buy in a local shop, of course you can get a cheap chinese phone if you buy online .

smilerf

Op you're going to get way more value for your money in this price bracket if you go Chinese

wheresmybeaver

This price bracket is very well served by Windows Phone. Particularly if you're not too concerned with apps then without spending big bucks you'll get a reliable and smaller handset. Messenger, whatsapp, Facebook, skype etc work very well but notably there is no snapchat app for the platform (and probably not anytime soon either) .

Have a look in a phone shop at the budget Windows phones and you might find something you like. Even with low specs the performance is very good.

Zardoz

I bought a Huawei P8 Lite a few months back for ~110 euro .
Excellent phone but has a poor battery life.

Macker1

Has anyone got experience of using the Huawei P9 lite. I can pick this up for 50 euro on my Tesco Mobile contract.

Macker1

Zardoz wrote:

I bought a Huawei P8 Lite a few months back for ~110 euro . Excellent phone but has a poor battery life.

How bad....? Was it just that battery/phone. How was the phone apart from that.

Zardoz

Macker1 wrote: »

How bad....? Was it just that battery/phone. How was the phone apart from that.

The battery life on the phone is poor in general ,its only 2200mah .

It seems to consume alot of energy when its not being used.

Ive upgraded it from Lollipop to Marshmallow and that has improved the battery a bit ,it leaks huge power in Lollipop.
It could drop 15% overnight ,thats way too high .
It seems to use extra power if the mobile data signal is poor so I often disable it.

It also takes an age to charge ,which is annoying.

See review here
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9435/the-huawei-p8-lite-review/6

Its a real pity the battery performance is so poor as its an excellent phone otherwise,its dual sim as well.

The battery performance in the P9 lite is much better it would seem ,from reading reviews.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Huawei-P9-Lite-Smartphone-Review.166326.0.html

The non-removable battery in the P9 Lite has a capacity of 3000 mAh, which clearly surpasses that of it P8 Lite predecessor (2200 mAh). The P9 Lite's battery life is very good throughout, and clearly better than that of the P8 Lite in every test scenario and largely outruns that of the P9 (the idle benchmark being the exception). Otherwise, the P9 Lite is the clear winner in this trio.

Alf Stewart.

Recently bought my mother this ( Moto X 16GB SIM-Free Smartphone - Black) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HU2KSSK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_j-bUxbY38N9AE on Amazon.

£70/€80

I can't fault it.

Mick_1970

Just bought a Doogee X5 for €57 delivered, can't fault it in any way.

http://eud.dx.com/product/presale-doogee-x5-quad-core-android-5-1-wcdma-bar-phone-w-5-0-ips-hd-8gb-rom-gps-xender-black-852400551

fergiesfolly

My daughter, after destroying multiple mid-price phones, is in need of another device.
We refuse to lash out big money, so looking for something under €100.
The biggest requirement is ability to put apps on the SD card. She has a Sony Xperia M4 and it won't accommodate that function.
She also uses a lot of data(on Vodafone), so 4g would be important.
Decent camera would be a bonus.
I wouldn't be the world's greatest techie, so something useable out of the box would be great.
Thanks

DopeTech

fergiesfolly wrote: »

My daughter, after destroying multiple mid-price phones, is in need of another device.
We refuse to lash out big money, so looking for something under €100.
The biggest requirement is ability to put apps on the SD card. She has a Sony Xperia M4 and it won't accommodate that function.
She also uses a lot of data(on Vodafone), so 4g would be important.
Decent camera would be a bonus.
I wouldn't be the world's greatest techie, so something useable out of the box would be great.
Thanks

Moto g - €89.99 using discount code meteor30.

It will lock to the network of the forst sim inserted. Unlock code can be bought for just over a euro if required.

If your not on meteor and want to buy one use my workaround to still get the discount.


http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=100609330&postcount=52

riclad

IT depends on the app ,some apps wont work on an sdcard, get a 16gig phone, 2gig ram.

fergiesfolly

riclad wrote: »

IT depends on the app ,some apps wont work on an sdcard, get a 16gig phone, 2gig ram.

Can you recommend a half decent, budget phone with 16gigs?

riclad

https://store.meteor.ie/phones/pay-as-you-go-phones/HTC-Desire-825

this has 16 gig ,read reviews before you buy it,
re battery life , camera etc
i,m posting the link, i,m not saying is it good or bad.
google desire htc 825 reviews.
it has good specs .

blackdog2

I personally dont understand why people dont go secondhand. i just got an htc one m8 for 130 delivered off ebay (buy it now, no horrible auctions involved) and am about to grab a galaxy s5. i have had clones before (cubot) as well as cheap chinese brands (lenovo) and the two year old flagships for 150 or under blow them out of the water

blackdog2

blackdog2 wrote: »

I personally dont understand why people dont go secondhand. i just got an htc one m8 for 130 delivered off ebay (buy it now, no horrible auctions involved) and am about to grab a galaxy s5. i have had clones before (cubot) as well as cheap chinese brands (lenovo) and the two year old flagships for 150 or under blow them out of the water

Both the M8 and S5 were great phones. Only downside to buying them so old is that they're no longer supported by Sammy/HTC, so no more software updates, and they're also out of warranty.

Personally, if I was going second hand, I would only buy devices that are a year old so that they still have a year of warranty at the very least.

sonofenoch

I've a vodafone smart does me, a phone's a phone ....I don't twatter/fakebook/sneekchat or even play games come to think of it.......I can't think of nothing worse than walking around with the worry of dropping or losing your 700 euro phone

riclad

It,s nice to buy a new phone with the latest version of android on it.
Yes , you can buy a great phone on ebay, flagship phone from 2 years ago.
I have no wish to have an iphone , i know 2 people who had their iphone.S
robbed in the city centre .
One by a pickpocket ,one some lad just ran up and snatched the phone
from his hand at midnight in o,connell st.

cal60

@sonofenoch - I was looking at the Vodafone offerIng - which one do you have ?

Dave147

ScottScott wrote:

I bought an Asus Zen Phone 2 Laser on Amazon in January, paid €190 and it works great! 2gb ram, quad core cpu and a really good camera, but not the best for music 'cause the speaker is a little poor.

Why would it matter if the speaker is poor for music? Do you not have headphones?

CelticRambler

I was looking for a "budget" phone about 18 months ago, but decided to move up a price bracket ... and splashed out 90€ for a French-branded, Chinese-made un-unlocked dual sim phone, including a 64GB SD card. Having used it way more than I expected and found it still more than meets my requirements, I wouldn't ever think of spending over 99€ now.

Then again, after touring the retailers in Ireland, I think ye're all ripped off when it comes to phone prices and calls/data packages.

sonofenoch

cal60 wrote: »

@sonofenoch - I was looking at the Vodafone offerIng - which one do you have ?

Prime 6 ...circa 80 odd euro, 100 bucks would be my absolute limit for a phone so might get the 7 someday........when I see the price some people will pay for a phone I must admit my knees buckle a little

sonofenoch

sonofenoch wrote: »

Prime 6 ...circa 80 odd euro, 100 bucks would be my absolute limit for a phone so might get the 7 someday........when I see the price some people will pay for a phone I must admit my knees buckle a little

Ah it's like anything in life. I have had many many flagship phones in my life, but can't understand the money people would spend on clothes, booze, etc

sonofenoch

Basil3 wrote: »

Ah it's like anything in life. I have had many many flagship phones in my life, but can't understand the money people would spend on clothes, booze, etc

But why would you spend 600 euro or much more on a phone, what does it do that a 100 euro phone doesn't? I don't get it .....other than been a 'brand' or something to be seen with as a fashion accessory (I'd associate that kind of thing more with teenagers than adults) or the money no object very rich.......it's like why would you spend over a grand for a gaming pc when you could build your own for half the price

sonofenoch

sonofenoch wrote: »

But why would you spend 600 euro or much more on a phone, what does it do that a 100 euro phone doesn't? I don't get it .....other than been a 'brand' or something to be seen with as a fashion accessory (I'd associate that kind of thing more with teenagers than adults) or the money no object very rich.......it's like why would you spend over a grand for a gaming pc when you could build your own for half the price

That's exactly it. Why would you spend €100 on a shirt, when you can get one for €5 at Penney's? What does it do that the other doesn't?

To answer your question, I upgrade to the latest device each year, so it costs me about €300 when I sell on my previous device. The benefits I get is the latest tech, latest features, and latest Android version. I also tinker with Android devices as a hobby, and do part time Android development. That's easily worth €300/year to me.

That's not to say that there aren't a lot of great cheap phones around. I was using the Smart Ultra 6 for a couple of months, and thought it was really decent. Only think I really didn't like was the camera....I could survive with everything else.

sonofenoch

Basil3 wrote: »

That's exactly it. Why would you spend €100 on a shirt, when you can get one for €5 at Penney's? What does it do that the other doesn't?

To answer your question, I upgrade to the latest device each year, so it costs me about €300 when I sell on my previous device. The benefits I get is the latest tech, latest features, and latest Android version. I also tinker with Android devices as a hobby, and do part time Android development. That's easily worth €300/year to me.

That's not to say that there aren't a lot of great cheap phones around. I was using the Smart Ultra 6 for a couple of months, and thought it was really decent. Only think I really didn't like was the camera....I could survive with everything else.

That's fine, and I'm sure there are others who make the most of what it offers......but the vast majority don't really need such phones, they're gimmicks to show off.........it's like buying a top of the range Ferrari to do a shopping or school run, you'll never use it to it's capability but it looks nice and shiny

ArnieSilvia

I highly recommend Motorola Moto G series, we have 4 at home, used heavily. Need to be charged daily if used a lot but can last much longer on standby with GPS and mobile data off. Great value for money. I haven't run out of memory yet, GPS is good, two sim cards that can be used simultaneously, not locked to any network, simple system without network providers crap on it, updates automatically, what else would you need.
I paid 200 for mine (XT1068 model with 5 inch screen), they can be bought a lot cheaper now.

cal60

Thanks guys for all the suggestions. Managed to find a MotoG 4thGen on Amazon.co.uk yesterday for €169. Ordered and looking forward to receiving it next week sometime

Kilboor

The Samsung J3, Huawei G7, and Moto G are really decent budget phones available from your high street phone shops, however apart from the G7 (which itself is a Chinese phone) they absolutely pale in comparison to the offerings available in the grey market of China.