[Closed] The best sub £300 Android phone (not Nokia 8)

After much research my son got a Huawei P Smart, which saved us ££ and seems excellent

I was going to suggest buying the best Huawei you can find within your budget

I've had a gander at the Huawei p20 lite but reviews are not great.

I've had a couple of Huawei phones (mate 9 and p10) and both were well constructed phones with decent battery life and excellent cameras. Two niggles with both though.

<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">The Bluetooth would randomly drop connection with stereo in my van and car. </span>

Strava would randomly stop during a ride. Not always and not after the same amount of time when it did.

I suspect both issues were to do with Huawei's aggressive battery management.

If you can live with the possibility of these problems then the P Smart or P20 lite would be a good shout.

The Moto G or X ranges are very good, the G6 being the latest new “budget” phone or if you don’t mind being behind the curve and saving some cash the G5s is very good still.

Do some googling - theres a recent article somewhere (tech radar?) called something like “Why by a £1000 smartphone vs a Budget phone?” Which basically explains you get 20% less performance for 80% less money and 100% less stress about damaging or losing it.

Doing the old reccomend what you have..

Moto G5S plus, can be had for about £230. For the price I am well impressed.

Very well constructed, good battery, ace camera, no significant messing with the OS by Motorola, almost stock Android.

Does everything I need with no fuss.

former flagship models that are now "old", e.g. Samsung s7 edge?

Same reccomedation as 10key.

I'm on a Sony z3 compact. Does everything a smart phone should do and is a bit water proof- not salt water proof as I found out.

When my first one started playing up after 3 years I bought one from China fro £150.

Still happy 🙂

That's kind of the decision I've given myself, the best of the brand new budget/mid range phones with the moto g6 plus or an 18month since release flagship Google phone.

Motorola are supposedly not brilliant at OS updates, which may or may not be a consideration. And Huawei are known for Strava / GPS issues which again may or may not be a problem, and I'm not sure what kind of workarounds there are.

The new Xiaomi A2 and A2 Lite look pretty decent value but I don't really know much about either. If it were me I'd be tempted by a Mi Mix 2 from eGlobal Central for £250, although there's the issue of spending quite a lot of money on something where you're going to get little to no support and comeback if something goes wrong.

watch the older phones for how long they'll be supported for android updates. at the point that stops you're going to find app support starts to go too.

op, i understand your reasons for being unhappy with nokia, but the new 6.1 is getting decent reviews.

I got a 64gb  moto G6 plus for £240 a couple of weeks ago as I broke my G5. It seems a fine phone for the money.

No experience of the Huawei phones though.

op, i understand your reasons for being unhappy with nokia, but the new 6.1 is getting decent reviews.

I've got the 6.1.

And I've got the microphone problem that he had too; seems to be a glitch that arrived with the 8.1.0 Android update... seems to have affected several phones, not just Nokia.  I'm holding out for the next update that'll hopefully fix it.

Bloke at work has just got an Honor 9 Lite & is very pleased with it. I think he paid £170 new.

I've been using the G6 plus for a few months. It's pretty good.

Two biggest issues - adaptive brightness doesn't respond very well and battery life isn't that great.

It's a good size screen though, stable and fast.

I’ve got the 6.1.

As have I.  I can't fault it.

I was looking at the G6 - Amazon have an exclusive model which is uprated from the stock version - but the Nokia beats it hands-down on spec in every area bar the camera.

motorola g6 plus here and really liking it

I have a Mi A1 and it's great apart from the camera. It's nice having latest stock android.

seadog101

Doing the old reccomend what you have..

Moto G5S plus, can be had for about £230. For the price I am well impressed.

Very well constructed, good battery, ace camera, no significant messing with the OS by Motorola, almost stock Android.

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Does everything I need with no fuss.

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Second this, it is a great phone.

Huawei agressive power management: It does cause bother but It is possible to turn it off/white list apps.

I'm currently thinking about side grading as my Huawei P9 is more than enough for my needs so I'm thinking about an LG g6 (not to be confused with the moto g6) as its waterproof and has a slightly bigger battery, both of which are desirable features for me..

No way I'm going for a flagship phone like an s9 or p20 Pro, they don't offer any benefit for the extra cost, imo.

As above, whichever Huawei/Honor best fits your budget and yes, delve into the settings and you can turn off the power management. Downside, you lose a couple of Strava recordings (straight lines until you restart it) until you realise but the plus side is that for apps you don't need idling in the background they get switched off and the battery life is great.

I've got a Nokia 8 and agree it's not particularly good. I bought wifey a Moto G6 in the Amazon prime deals a couple of weeks ago for £200. It's a great piece of kit.

Go for a huawei and set battery management for strava to manual.

I'm in the market for my first ever smart phone, and after extensive research I'm going to go with the Moto G6 as the camera looks like a smiley face.

I do hope this helps.

I bought an Huawei p9 lite in July 2016 for £150. I didn't want an expensive phone as I go mtbing and its easy to crack a screen or do water damage.

Apart from the strava issue it's been great. over 2 years later it still performs well and the battery life is still great. I'd definitely buy another. I once dropped it 20ft off some scaffolding and it didn't even scratch. Its a very well built phone.

With the money I'd saved I bought a garmin 810.

At Christmas 2016 I bought my wife a moto 4play. I think it was about the same price. This phone struggles and we have had to factory reset set a few times. I'm currently looking at replacing it with an Huawei phone.

Huawei are still trying to establish themselves so you can get a bargain. I think they are the 3rd largest manufacturer in the world. Trump banned the sale in America I think as its Chinese state backed so They are really trying to establish a European market share.</span>

I note that apples profits increased again as they have sold less units for more money. I just think they are taking the p#&s.

Another Moto g6 user

Had a G3 up till this arrived. It didn't seem to have an issues with being able to install apps so It seems it was still supported in a low key way , yes It may not have had the latest and greatest is but nothing stopping modern apps being downloads sure.

Moto6 has brilliant battery life I find, turbo power charger also good. USBC is a welcome upgrade over b which should die in a fiery pit. Finger print works well for banking apps and the face recognition unlock is a peach.

For 200 spondoolies I won't grumble with its performance.

That's good to hear as I never wanted to be a smart phone ****er but work are forcing me into ownership, and I miss my old RAZR so am a little bit brand loyal.

Just dropped to £199.99 at John Lewis, which is nice as it means I won't have to mix with the proles at Argos.

Will be nice to have a camera again.

G6 plus here too - would buy again.

FYI - no issues at all with my Nokia 8

Did you get all the software updates, especially update to Oreo and all the patches on that? Though sounds like the USB issue was probably a genuine hardware fault. Though sometimes it can be down to the cable or what you plug it in to (any phone that is).

Really like the camera, and the latest update brings back the old Lumia style camera app with manual-ish controls (semi-manual, like most phone cameras you can't adjust aperture manually). Only negative is it doesn't have as close a focus as my old Lumia, but otherwise quality is better and the HDR mode works quite well.

Anyway, personally I'd go for bloat free phones, stock Android, so rules out Samsung, Moto etc. The Nokia (HMD) phones are virtually stock Android (just a few firmware tweaks to suit the hardware and a custom camera app).

Anyway, personally I’d go for bloat free phones, stock Android, so rules out Samsung, Moto etc.

The Moto Es & Gs are nearly stock. They're certainly not bloaty.

I fell for the moto g4+ (XT-1642) direct about a year ago - yes its bloat free, it was pretty quick however it has some issues. In particular order these are the reasons why I may never my another motorola.

1) No compass. I didn't realise when I bought it, but I do miss it and would never ever ever buy a phone without a compass ever again. I wish it said on the advert that please take note, no compass, it will piss you off.

2) The battery or something causes it to ring once and then shut down, it normally needs to be below 25%, but it pisses me off. It started 8 months in they warrantied it straight off, but I don't think they changed anything as it did the same thing they very day I got it back. Its 18 month old now, I cannot get a warranty put of motorola, they keep asking me to send my charging history and blame me for not charging it often enough. It has now started doing it even at 60% charge. It also does it when using the camera.
Annoying thing is even though it rings and shows a number, the number is not stored and even if I call my provider they have no record of the call.

3) the camera sucks balls.

I meant "in no particular order"

I had to send two faulty Nokia 8s back - one with a port failure as it happens, charging plug mysteriously stopped fitting in.

Gave up on them and ponied up a bit more for a Huawei Mate 10 Pro, which is £100 over your budget but a real cut above any other phone I've had (and waterproof, which will be handy)...

https://ao.com/product/51091wvh-huawei-mobile-phone-grey-53680-305.aspx

Strava advice above is useful, thanks guys.

Oooh charging port failure - that's another thing, its got very loose there.

and waterproof,

Not according to the information in the link you posted...?

It's such a shame the old Nokia went down the tubes, I am quite sure they would be making a beautiful rugged Android phone now which would have cornered the market.  Unless you pay a fortune most Android phones are pretty guff/ disposable.

Mate 10 Pro has IP67 Water resistance/proofing.

gsmarena is the place to look for specs/comparisons.

Mate 10 Pro can currently be had for £382 from Amazon - ordered one yesterday as an update for an aging Motorola G3..

LGg6 is also waterproof and a bit cheaper that's why it's in my sights rather than the Huawei mate 10 Pro.. And it also has a headphone jack which the mate 10 lacks .. The standard Huawei headphones are absolutely rubbish and the audio hardware on the phone is nothing to shout about either.

And I don't want to buy a new set of wireless headphones due to the hassle of keeping them charged up and my existing headphones are great, from an old Samsung s3.

I was heading towards replacing my Motorola X style with the new Moto G6 plus. I've been swayed by the Sony Xperia Xz1 compact which is on offer at CPW at the moment £269.  I wanted something a bit smaller.

Another Moto G6 here, got mine off Amazon with the special edition 64Gb version for £230

No issues and it works fine for everything that I want it to do, fingerprint reader, compas, NFC and USB C turbo charger is really useful too.  Only downside is the lack of full waterproofing that my old MotoG3 had.

I've got the Motorola X4 - really happy with it so far.

 I’ve been swayed by the Sony Xperia Xz1 compact which is on offer at CPW at the moment £269.  I wanted something a bit smaller.

Got one of these yesterday to replace my ageing Z3 compact. It's a very nice phone - I've never never been keen on huge phablets. For £259 (what I paid at CPW) it's an absolute bargain. The new XZ2 Compact has a better screen, but proportionately worse battery life.

Thanks everyone, in the end I used the eBay 10% voucher, £37 worth of nectar and got the Honor 10 for £295, I've not had a play with it yet but will let you know what I think. Other phones that made the shortlist are the g6, g6 plus, honor 9, honor 10 view, mate 10 and one plus 6 but that was a grey import.

After this thread, I decided to upgrade my Moto G5. Found it slow, camera wasn't amazing and I'd cracked the screen.

Got a Google Pixel Grade C refurb from Laptops direct for £150.

It's in excellent condition, I can't see anything wrong with it. Other than not having the charger but that's only a tenner.

It's fast and the camera is excellent

former flagship models that are now “old”, e.g. Samsung s7 edge?

A bit late but that was the right answer. I am paying £15/month for one and it was "free". I estimate my 4gb and unlimited calls/voice at £10/month so in effect the phone is £5 x 24 = £120 (minus eventual residual value). Oh and I got a free waterproof Bluetooth speaker.

Significantly faster/better than cheaper current phones but I am sure the OP will be happy with the one he got.

Well, all the kids that I employ tell me that my new G6 is either lit or peng. Both of which I am assured are good. Happy days!

What about the one plus phones, are they any good?