You Can Have An Awesome Budget Phone For Less Than You Think!
The big dogs of mobile would have you thinking that you need to fork out £600+ for a premium well-balanced smartphone... well that's just plain false!
If our 100's of reviews have taught us anything, it's that you can match the raw performance of a £1000 Samsung flagship, for around the £400 price-point.
And the same holds true in 2023 brands like Xiaomi costing half of Samsung's latest offerings while offering the same performance.
But... what if we take it a step further and set out to prove that you can have a premium-build phone with good performance for under £150. Well that's exactly what this best budget smartphone list is here to do.
... You can have your budget phone cake and eat it! ...
With all bargain smartphones, there are Pros & Cons to consider with the main one being: will it work in the U.K?. But, since we're a bunch of super helpful geeks, we've shortlisted only the best low-cost phones that have Full UK Network Coverage.
That's right, not every budget smartphone will work in the U.K. But you can rest assured that every budget phone in this list will!
Editors Side Note: Inflation... inflation... crazy-a$$ inflation... over the year, everything has become rather more expensive. So I've taken a few liberties and added a few phones that are a teeny but over-budget in this 2023 Best Budget Phone List! Don't worry though, there's still some hidden tech-gems to be had for less than £150.
Our helpful phone buying tips FAQ section is at the end of this guide as well as all the comments from you lovely folks.
Let's get to it!
The Top 11 'Budget' Phones - U.K Edition
Xiaomi Poco M4 Pro - Beauty & The Battery Life Beast
Price From: £169.99
Tech Specs: 6.088" IPS, 1280x600 resolution, 232 PPI, MediaTek Helio A22 (2Ghz | 4-cores), 3GB RAM, 16GB Storage, 4080mAh Battery,WiFi, Android 9 with Full UK Support for 3, 7 & 20 (4G) bands.
Samsung Galaxy A20 - Budget Super AMOLED Display
Price From: £149.99
Not to be confused with the A20e (which doesn't benefit from a Super AMOLED display), the A20 is the first of Samsung's budget smartphones to include Super AMOLED display technology.
If you love candy-popping colour and incredible black levels... then you'll fall in love with the Samsung Galaxy A20.
The catch? it's only a 720P display. This means you're giving up a little crispness in favour of the advanced AMOLED colour reproduction.
You're also getting a large fast-charge-ready 4000mAh battery squeezed into a super slim 7.8mm thick body. Although this time, the rear of the phone is made from plastic, helping it achieve its featherweight status at only 169g.
If you aren't already sold on the display, then let's talk about the impressive dual-camera setup. Samsung has combined a 13MP main camera with a 5MP 123° Wide-Angle lens so that you can frame every scene perfectly. You aren't getting Samsung's Galaxy-level camera quality here, but it's fantastic for the price.
Close to the top of our £150 budget, the Samsung A20 is a great choice for media consumers who value excellent battery life. Just remember that you'll be paying a small premium for the Samsung brand name, but in return, you are getting Samsung's epic build quality and no-nonsense warranty program.
Tech Specs: 6.4" HD+ Super AMOLED, 1560x720 resolution, 268 PPI, Samsung (1.6Ghz | 8-cores), 3GB RAM, 32GB Storage, 4000mAh Fast Charge Battery, Single-band N WiFi, Android 9 (One UI) with Full UK Support for 3, 7 & 20 (4G) bands.
Are Low-cost Cheap Phones Any Good?
This is a question I hear all the time. When you've been shelling out 40+ pounds a month to own the latest iPhone, it can come as a shock knowing you could be saving £100's on a SIM-only smartphone.
Now before you get too excited, not all areas of budget smartphones compare to flagships £600+ devices. The most obvious of these is camera performance. Squeezing a DSLR camera into a slim pocket-ready display doesn't come cheap. To get Instagram worthy photos you will have to shell out over the £300 mark. But, if you don't have 25000 Instagram followers, then you'll do just fine with one of the budget phones above.
What has trickled down into low-cost smartphones is the performance. The £100 smartphone of today, is more powerful than a 3-4 year old flagship. We're also seeing 3GB RAM standard and as well as a massive drop in the price of SD Cards.
So my answer is, Yes. Pick the right budget smartphone and it'll be the best decision you can make. It won't be blazing fast, but you'll have fat pockets from all the money you've saved!
Are Cheap Phones Reliable?
Another common question is: are cheap smartphones reliable? and it's a valid concern as not every mobile manufacturer produces their phones to the same standards.
When you buy an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy smartphone, you know that they're getting a fully tested, high-grade phone.
So how do we know what we're getting when dealing with smaller manufacturers that offer low-cost smartphones?
Well hopefully websites like Review Hub will answer that question. We closely inspect all the budget smartphones that come through our doors for craftsmanship faults and performance issues.
To answer the question: Yes. We've been particularly impressed with the reliability of Xiaomi, Doogee, UMiDigi & Cubot.
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What's Your Favourite U.K-Ready Budget Phone?
Hi
Just wanted to ask if any of the above phones are affected by the Huawei situation and possible lack of support from Google etc. I know Honor phones are the same brand as Huawei but how about the other cheaper ones?
And do you know much about these newer/smaller companies and what their support, warranties and customer service is like if one ever develops a fault.
I've just sent back an Xperia L3 because although i didn't have any real issues with the features (except not having a 'glance screen' to just look at it for the clock and any messages etc), the phone bar signal and 4G connection was very low in places where my old Lumia 640 has always been great for signal/4G
Even side by side the Lumia still gave full bar service yet the L3 was awful at one or zero bars. I wonder if it's the fact it didn't seem to support GiffGaff & O2's band 40 [2300MHz] which supposedly is used in busy town areas. They also use bands 1, 3 & 20 for 4G although band 20 is more fro rural areas.
Do you know about these phone's capabilities on these bands? I believe TDD-LTE & FDD-LTE supports ALL 4G bands in the UK and Europe, like Samsung phones do..?
Thanks