New phone

[peterb]

I'm looking for a cheape few frills phone to replace my failing Blackberry.

Found this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Karbonn-A5S-...ywords=Karbonn

And this

http://www.7dayshop.com/products/yez...k-UPYEA35EINUK

I had never heard of either, but the Karbonn is made in India and is dual Sim, the other, yezz, I've not heard of at all. But at under £70 they seem worth a punt.

Any comments? (The low res camera and lack of 4g are not issues for me)

[Domestic_Ginger]

Moto E may be worth looking at for £70.

Hukd have phone offers aplenty maybe worth searching.

I don't really do phones; sorry.

[DanceswithUnix]

I wouldn't want a phone with only 512MB of ram.

The Moto E is pretty good value, the yardstick that others are measured by. When looking for a contract for my son, we got a Moto E for free on a £7.50/month contract on Tesco Mobile.

Are you already on a contract?

Note that most Moto phones can be unlocked for £1.30 via ebay, but that isn't guaranteed. My son's can't even with the most expensive £6.50 unlocks.

[outwar6010]

You could probably get a used s4 for £150ish

[peterb]

Already have a contract, so needs to be Sim free. Having the two sim option could be useful, though not essential.

[DanceswithUnix]

Already have a contract, so needs to be Sim free. Having the two sim option could be useful, though not essential.

I would check out how much a pay as you go Moto E would cost with whoever you have your contract with as a baseline. I assume your old phone was micro sim?

Moto G is available in dual Sim, slightly cheaper in white for some reason: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Motorola-5-I.../dp/B00NBSZ56C

[Jasp]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1915404854...035&rmvSB=true ZTE Blade for £59.99 decent enough spec with 4g

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/pay-.../sku86176-grey New vodafone if your on their network, no unlock codes on ebay for it yet as brand new £79

[DanceswithUnix]

Another thing I would say is try and have a play on a phone before you buy it.

My daughter has a cheap Samsung phone, the display quality is awful, waste of £35 frankly.

[peterb]

You could probably get a used s4 for £150ish

Still more than I want, and all the Samsung bloatware.

I would check out how much a pay as you go Moto E would cost with whoever you have your contract with as a baseline. I assume your old phone was micro sim?

Moto G is available in dual Sim, slightly cheaper in white for some reason: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Motorola-5-I.../dp/B00NBSZ56C

It's a standard Sim, but that's not a problem

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1915404854...035&rmvSB=true ZTE Blade for £59.99 decent enough spec with 4g

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/pay-.../sku86176-grey New vodafone if your on their network, no unlock codes on ebay for it yet as brand new £79

I'm very wary of buying anything like a phone off eBay, too much risk for me.

Another thing I would say is try and have a play on a phone before you buy it.

My daughter has a cheap Samsung phone, the display quality is awful, waste of £35 frankly.

Mm, the Motorola is beginning to edge ahead.

[Biscuit]

Cheap smartphones are generally an utter waste of time in my experience, often the performance is so dire that even basic tasks like sending a text message make you want to throw it down a spiral staircase. Moto G (1st gen) would be the one that gets my vote. Bit more expensive and it isnt dual sim, however it gets frequent updates (Mine has been on Android 5 for a while now and I waited for the patched update), quick, smooth, good size, good screen, good battery life.

[peterb]

Cheap smartphones are generally an utter waste of time in my experience, often the performance is so dire that even basic tasks like sending a text message make you want to throw it down a spiral staircase. Moto G (1st gen) would be the one that gets my vote. Bit more expensive and it isnt dual sim, however it gets frequent updates (Mine has been on Android 5 for a while now and I waited for the patched update), quick, smooth, good size, good screen, good battery life.

Thank you, I was looking at that, although double the original budget, but then why not go for the second gen, or the Motorola E series?

[Biscuit]

Second Gen is a bit bigger and the moto E is lower resolution. Not much of a big deal in fairness, I'm just basing my recommendation on the positive experience I have with my Moto G-1

[DanceswithUnix]

I find the lower res screen of the Moto E still quite usable. The camera is pretty bad, but then even the top end phones aren't as good as a cheap point and shoot. It can matter if you use apps like Google Translate or barcode readers as the lack of focus makes getting a good close up image difficult. Again, it isn't as bad as the Samsung Pocket Neo which seems incapable of reading a basic QR code the camera is so bad.

The Moto G is more usable in that respect.

[peterb]

My Blackberry copes quite well with QR codes, but I have only ever used them as a curiosity, I have found no real use for them!

Most of my phone use is text, with some voice, so the screen red isn't too much of an issue, I use my iPad for most of my mobile computing anyway. Ideally I'd have an iPhone, but that just duplicates the iPad functions (apart from phones) so a bit pointless. If I was going to spend a fortune on a high price, hi spec phone, it would be a straightforward decision, iPhone, but at the cheap end, android will do just fine, just the price point.

Motorola E is getting close to it.

[peterb]

Well, I was all set to get the Motorola G second generation this afternoon, only to find that the only one in store (Carphone_Wharehouse) was the 4G single Sim version. I'm not bothered about 4G, but I might have gone with it if it didn't come with Android 5. Too many horror stories about it.

However CW do sell the dual sim on line, so looks like that's what I'll be getting, and if that lasts as long as my aged Blackbery (6 years) I'll be quite happy!

Thanks to everyone for their comments.

[DanceswithUnix]

Motorola have held off on Android 5 for ages, I think they have waited until it is stable. Should be fine.