Spec me a sub-£200ish phone

[GreatAuk]

Hello there,

A family member is looking to change phone, having had a frustrating experience with a Nokia G22 (very unresponsive screen, slow, poor cameras, poor battery life). Their biggest priorities are camera quality and battery life, ideally costing under £200. I said I'd help them pick a new phone, but to be honest I'm not that familiar with the options at this price point these days so was wondering if anyone might be able to advise!

So far my shortlist is:

- Moto G84, £179. Seems like a solid all rounder that gets good reviews and I have a soft spot for Motorolas, with the gesture control stuff. I have read that some people are having problems with the phone not receiving or displaying notifications when the screen is off (!!!), but this doesn't seem to affect everyone...

- Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 5G, think I can also get this for £179. Again seems a fairly solid all rounder, although some reports it drains the battery fairly quickly when in use, and apparently some Xiaomi phones have issues with the cameras fogging up...

What else do you guys reckon should be on the shortlist? Might go a bit over budget if there was a good reason, but under £200 is the preference.

 

[GreatAuk]

Navigating brand loyalty is always a problem when i was looking at budget phones, look at the people that will never hear a bad word said against Xiaomi what ever they put out.

Yeah I noticed that reading through some reddit threads, seems Xiaomi in particular have some very 'loyal' customers. Even some of the threads about cameras fogging up there were people downplaying how much of an issue it was if you just couldn't use your camera in some weather conditions lol.

Also hard knowing which reviews to take note of given most of the reviewers have probably only actually used the phone for a few days at maximum, and who knows how 'unbiased' they actually are. Feels like you get the most variety and most focus on reviews for flagship phones, whereas the more budget offerings get fewer reviews and perhaps less thorough reviews too.

I guess I have my own preferences for Motorolo, as I remember my 2nd gen Moto G and my Moto G5plus being great back in the day. But then some people say they've gone downhill under Lenovo, and seeing how long the issue with notifications has apparently been around without resolution (some people saying disabling all battery optimisation fixes it, some saying it doesn't...) and the relatively short software support period has given pause for thought.

 

[GreatAuk]

I used a Redmi Note 13 Pro for a month or so while dealing with my faulty S24 Ultra. It was to be for my daughter, but I liked it so much that I got myself a Xiaomi 14.

I felt the Note 13 Pro was a bargain for the ~£200 price! Now it's being used by it's intended owner, she really likes it!

Thanks, that's a good vote of confidence . How did you / your daughter find the battery life on the Note 13 pro?

If anyone you know has access to EPP or student portal

Samsung A35 5G Awesome Lemon: £50 Off with Phone Trade-In at Samsung, Only £245.65 | hotukdeals

www.hotukdeals.com

£195 with trade-in of any phone

I think that deal has ended, but have noticed Samsung seem to put on pretty good deals now and then, presumably when they have some excess stock to shift. I have EPP access via my work rewards site thing, and the A35 would probably be a decent option so will keep an eye out.

Problem with used is the degraded battery, bring back when you could easily replace batteries

Yeah unfortunately that's one thing that puts me off used phones... seems like depreciation is a bit slower than it used to be too, so you have to go for older phones to get a good deal (so battery degradation more likely). I know manufacturers like Samsung do official refurbished phones where the battery has been replaced and they get some kind of warranty, but the prices are just too high to make sense imo.

Not ruling used phones out entirely though, and something like an S21 FE would probably be a good option.

 

[GreatAuk]

Interestingly watched this video yesterday, which maybe explains why it can be harder to find good information about mid range / budget phones:

Hadn't realised the extent to which the 'flagship' phone share of the market has grown. Eg using his numbers, in Germany only 28% of phones sold in 2024 had a RRP of less than 800 Euros. Presumably the UK has a similar pattern.

I easily got through my day of use with it. I used it as my main daily driver, with lots of reddit, email, browsing, whatsapp, video calling, music playing, wireless android auto (occasionally while charging but not always) etc etc.

It perhaps doesn't last as long as a top end 8Gen1+ and beyond phone with similar 5000mAh battery, but it was fine.

My daughter usually gets a couple days out of it, though she is only 9 and uses it mainly for browsing Roblox sites and using Google Meet to talk to me, and Messages. She does like to dig at the iPhone users in the house about how fast it charges.
It was dead, she plugged it in, 15 minutes later she said "it's only got to 47%". She has my sarcasm

In use I found it faster than using a Samsung A54, and I don't think the A55 is much quicker.

Thanks for the feedback, and haha got a good sense of humour!

Note 13 Pro is going on the shortlist I think, realised it can be had for only a bit more than the regular Note 13 and might well be worth it