Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Cheap Android phone recommendations

Whatsapp recently changed to only support certain devices i.e. those running a certain level of Android software. Is your phone running old Android software?

e2a WhatsApp to stop working on older phones - find out if your model is affected

Thanks. I've checked & my phone runs on Android 5.1. It's not listed as model affected. I can't work out how to get whatsapp though. I've done google searches and found downloads but keep getting warnings about them being unsafe. Am probably being really thick but is there an obvious, easy way for me to get whatsapp on my phone?!
 
My Motorola Moto G is finally giving up on me after 4 years of (mostly) faithful service. I'm thinking of getting a Moto Force X (about 200 euros)... any better suggestions?
 
My Motorola Moto G is finally giving up on me after 4 years of (mostly) faithful service. I'm thinking of getting a Moto Force X (about 200 euros)... any better suggestions?

Yes, the same as you've got now is better than the X.
 
My android is fucked and I'm on a sim only contract so I need to buy a new one that's not too pricey (200 quid is the limit, I reckon). Some current recommendations would be really helpful.
 
My android is fucked and I'm on a sim only contract so I need to buy a new one that's not too pricey (200 quid is the limit, I reckon). Some current recommendations would be really helpful.

I'm quite impressed with the Moto G4 I got a few months back. Only thing I think could be better is the camera, although that's not a very fair comparison as I had an expensive Samsung before. Can be had for £140 from Argos.
 
I'm quite impressed with the Moto G4 I got a few months back. Only thing I think could be better is the camera, although that's not a very fair comparison as I had an expensive Samsung before. Can be had for £140 from Argos.

Thank you :) i should have mentioned a decent camera is one of the most important features for me :)
 
The Samsung Galaxy S6 camera is very good. It can be had for around £180. If you're good on eBay you'll get a great, unlocked phone with a great camera in excellent condition for around that.

I had the S6 before I had my current phone (a lower end Samsung). The camera on it really is excellent.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bmd
Has anyone any experience of both this xiaomi 5, or buying thru bestgear? I'm looking at this atm:

XiaoMi Mi5 64GB 4G Smartphone INTERNATIONAL VERSION-$219.69 and Online Shopping | GearBest.com Mobile

What I really want is the new Oneplus, but I can't afford it sim free and contract is more expensive than a galaxy s8 which is a better phone. I can just about afford the above.

Thoughts?

I've read the reviews and it looks very capable for the price. I've used GearBest a fair bit for e cigs and they've delivered no issues. Although it's never happened to me, be aware you can have to pay 20 percent import tax, which would push up the price a fair bit.
 
I bought a Cubot Max a while ago and have held off recommending it because I thought it might fail. Here's an Amazon link: Cubot Max 6.0 inch 4G LTE Smartphone Unlocked, MT6753: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics I know Amazon is evil but for a weird brand smartphone it's probably better to go somewhere that will actually refund you if it doesn't show up or whatever. I got it from there for half the price but it's still only about £125 most places.

My only complaint is the camera, which is not great. Bleaches out reds and has a jumpy zoom. TBH I've found this less of an issue than I expected.

Otherwise the battery life is excellent and I use it a LOT. This is partly because it comes with a battery twice as big as average and partly because it has no bloatware and allows you to put most things on the very large memory card you can put in.

Two Sim slots - useful when we were on holiday.

Runs everything you can think of.

Size (phablet size) is actually quite easy even for my tiny arthritic hands. Actually in many ways it's easier because there's less gripping - it just kind of sits in your hand. When I hold a smaller phone I have to grip more and usually drop it.

Good enough screen resolution for videos. Good screen size for that too.

Very good resistance to being dropped, drooled on (by the baby), etc, and the charging point is still fine after several months, which is one of my concerns with cheap phones.

Works with any sim.

I'm intending on buying one for my daughter when her birthday comes around.
 
I've read the reviews and it looks very capable for the price. I've used GearBest a fair bit for e cigs and they've delivered no issues. Although it's never happened to me, be aware you can have to pay 20 percent import tax, which would push up the price a fair bit.

Yeah, I think the possibility of import tax is my main worry. Im upgrading from a Oneplus one, and what I really want I'd the Oneplus 5 but no danger I can buy that outright and the contracts available make it more expensive than a galaxy s8.

So im in the odd position of choosing between an s8 or mi5.
 
Yeah, I think the possibility of import tax is my main worry. Im upgrading from a Oneplus one, and what I really want I'd the Oneplus 5 but no danger I can buy that outright and the contracts available make it more expensive than a galaxy s8.

So im in the odd position of choosing between an s8 or mi5.

I've gone for the S8 on contract in the end, but have been looking at the different options.

What's your budget for buying outright? The S7 appears to be falling nicely in price if you can stretch that far.
 
I've gone for the S8 on contract in the end, but have been looking at the different options.

What's your budget for buying outright? The S7 appears to be falling nicely in price if you can stretch that far.

Budget is minimal upfront really or I reckon I'd just pay up for the oneplus 5. Given the mi5 can be had for £175 tho, I'd be prepared to swallow that given the obvious saving over two years. Tho giff gaff are pretty rubbish for mobile data so I'd also have to investigate that too.

I was actually about to pull the trigger on the s8 cos its obvs better than the Oneplus and worked out cheaper too. No idea why I looked at the mi5. Decisions decisions...
 
Budget is minimal upfront really or I reckon I'd just pay up for the oneplus 5. Given the mi5 can be had for £175 tho, I'd be prepared to swallow that given the obvious saving over two years. Tho giff gaff are pretty rubbish for mobile data so I'd also have to investigate that too.

I was actually about to pull the trigger on the s8 cos its obvs better than the Oneplus and worked out cheaper too. No idea why I looked at the mi5. Decisions decisions...

Don't discount the Moto G phones for decent budget phones you can get in the UK and importantly get updates. Camera is comparable to mi5 from what Ive seen on the net.
 
Don't discount the Moto G phones for decent budget phones you can get in the UK and importantly get updates. Camera is comparable to mi5 from what Ive seen on the net.

Feels like that would be a bit of sideways step (I'm on a Oneplus one atm). Anyways, just went to buy the mi5 and the sale has sold out.

Looking like the s8 might be on...
 
Feels like that would be a bit of sideways step (I'm on a Oneplus one atm). Anyways, just went to buy the mi5 and the sale has sold out.

Looking like the s8 might be on...

Mine arrives later today. I'm feeling slightly shallow for spending so much on something I don't actually need (my current phone works fine) but I'm sure that will pass...
 
Mine arrives later today. I'm feeling slightly shallow for spending so much on something I don't actually need (my current phone works fine) but I'm sure that will pass...

I actually managed to find a discount code for the mi5 on geekbuying, so have plumped for that. Hopefully it a) turns up, and b) doesn't get snaffled by customs. Otherwise I'll spend the next two years staring longingly at peoples' s8s.
 
So I'm enjoying my Mi 5 so far. The adapter included wasn't correct so I'll have to pick one of those up. That and the £11 (I think) for it to clear customs are the only issues (that and the fact Ive lost the tool to get me since card out of my old phone but that's a seperate issue).

Wasn't so keen on the MIUI custom skin that was installed. Has some nice touches, and would probably have gotten used to it but I've boshed on the nova launcher anyway.
 
About 2 months ago I bought the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x for £165 off ebay for the 3gb/32gb version from UK based seller. They had pre-installed it with the global rom and google play so didn't have to faff around with it. I'm really happy with it - it does everything I want and the battery life is excellent.
 
Because of the camera I got persuade into buying a Moto G5 and giving my daughter my Cubot Max. What a mistake :( The battery life is terrible - literally goes down 1‰ every few minutes even when all apps are closed - and you can't move any apps to the SD card. There is theoretically an option to use My SD card as "adoptable" internal storage, but that's not possible since it's over 32gig and I don't particularly want to delete everything on my SD card when hardly any apps work with adoptable storage anyway.

The other features are all good, which is why it took me a week to figure out these problems. They make the phone have extremely limited use for me. And because I've used it I can't send it back (bought on Amazon Prime Now). What a waste of money.
 
Back
Top Bottom