Best New Smartphone I can get for £350

Jim3255 · 1 Oct 2018 at 09:21

Hi,

My current Samsung Galaxy SIII phone is cracked, home button not working, I also find the screen a bit small and I am getting worried that more and more apps are not supported by the older 4.4.4 Android OS.

So I am looking for a new phone, it must be new. My budget is £350, I would like to spend all that and get maximum value for money. I live in the United Kingdom. There seems to be a lot of choice out there, and I am finding it very difficult to decide. It needs the following features, any suggestions? Also where would be a good place to buy from? ;

1. SIM free/unlocked to any network

2. Screen that is bigger, but not so large that it is awkward to fit in my pocket and drains battery fast etc. The average size for phones being released at the moment looks ideal. Also high resolution.

3. Excellent performance for apps like web browsing, youtube, productivity

4. Excellent battery life

5. Regular headphone jack

6. Doesn't need huge amount of storage space as just 8GB seems to be fine to be honest at the moment with my SIII.

7. Not a garish colour, black would be ideal. Light/not too heavy.

MrRockliffe · 1 Oct 2018 at 09:31

Nokia 8 looks like it'll be a good fit. My only concern would be battery life not being good enough.

If you'd prefer a taller display, and better battery life, take a look at the Nokia 7 Plus.

Edit: You've also got the Xperia XZ2/XZ1, which have stereo front facing speakers, which I like for YouTube videos.

Just seen that the Pocophone F1 is available in the UK now as well.

mattyfez · 1 Oct 2018 at 09:35

LG g6.
Waterproof too.

Jim3255 · 1 Oct 2018 at 12:41

What about the Samsung Galaxy A8? I could push my budget to a maximum of £400. I am thinking about buying it from Argos. Even though Amazon prices seem to be about £100 cheaper, I am worried that some suppliers manage this by slipping the odd customer a refurbished instead of new phone..

Jim3255 · 1 Oct 2018 at 12:41

What about the Samsung Galaxy A8? I could push my budget to a maximum of £400. I am thinking about buying it from Argos. Even though Amazon prices seem to be about £100 cheaper, I am worried that some suppliers manage this by slipping the odd customer a refurbished instead of new phone..

Mobius 1 · 1 Oct 2018 at 12:45

If you buy from amazon directly and not some third party seller, you’ll definitely get a new phone.

Jim3255 · 1 Oct 2018 at 12:54

Where do I go to buy from Amazon directly? When I search on amazon it seems to bring up product results from 3rd party sellers only.

Jim3255 · 1 Oct 2018 at 12:57

Also, I am seeing a lot of phones with notches. What are these like to use? It seems like something that could be irritating!

mccarf · 1 Oct 2018 at 13:01

Jim3255 said:
Where do I go to buy from Amazon directly? When I search on amazon it seems to bring up product results from 3rd party sellers only.

They don't sell an A8, that's why you can't see it. Personally, I'd suggest a Nokia 8 as above^^^^

Jim3255 · 1 Oct 2018 at 13:16

First, thanks for your help. I will make a decision soon! The price I see for buying directly from Amazon for a Nokia 8 is about £260. That's £100 or so less than my budget, is there not something better I could get and spend all my budget? Also, I watched a review for the Nokia 8 and it seems one of the best things about it is the camera, but to be honest I am not that bothered about the camera as I probably wouldn't use it much.

lmfy2k · 1 Oct 2018 at 13:33

The Huawei mate 10 Pro ticks all boxes apart from the headphone jack, but you can use a USB C adapter

https://m.gsmarena.com/huawei_mate_10_pro-8854.php

Availabe for £335 from cex grade A

https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail...wei-mate-10-pro-bla-l09-128gb-grey-unlocked-a

mid_gen · 1 Oct 2018 at 13:34

If you don't care about the camera then you don't need to spend more than 2-300 quid to get as good a phone as you'll need.

The Moto G6, Nokia 6 will tick all your boxes. I have the Moto G5, it's a great phone.

No point throwing money away on bells and whistles when smartphones are basically commodity items these days.

MrRockliffe · 1 Oct 2018 at 13:39

The Nokia 8 offers monster performance, and can be had for a very reasonable price.

You won't see any benefit spending 50-100 pounds more on a phone, and because it's stock android, it'll continue performing well.

Shocky-FM · 1 Oct 2018 at 15:30

LG G6 probably if I was on a tight budget, you can pick them up for under £300 and they're generally nice phone. for the price.

decent quality HDR display, water-resistant and an SDCard slot, Snapdragon 821 is still plenty fast enough,

Rimsy · 1 Oct 2018 at 17:01

HTC U11 can be had directly from HTC UK for £399 if you can increase your budget by £50.
It really is a fantastic phone and 18 months since getting mine I'm still struggling to find something worth replacing it with.
Great camera, water resistant, good screen without the stupid narrow aspect ratio and currently on android 8.0 June security.

Liquid_Entity · 1 Oct 2018 at 17:14

Honor View 10 can be had for around £329. Had mine since April and its been awesome.

Smok3y · 1 Oct 2018 at 18:55

Pocophone F1

dbmzk1 · 1 Oct 2018 at 20:58

Just got an Honor Play and it's great id recommend it.

Fens · 1 Oct 2018 at 22:34

Pocophone or G6.

If you want to stick with Samsung then you do occasionally see Galaxy S8s popping up for between £350-£400 (currently £400 on the rainforest or £350 for a grey import), worth keeping an eye on HUKD.

mattyfez · 1 Oct 2018 at 22:39

lmfy2k said:
The Huawei mate 10 Pro ticks all boxes apart from the headphone jack, but you can use a USB C adapter

https://m.gsmarena.com/huawei_mate_10_pro-8854.php

Availabe for £335 from cex grade A

https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail...wei-mate-10-pro-bla-l09-128gb-grey-unlocked-a

Huawei are good phones, but the audio hardware is abysmal, you can't fix it with EQ it's just really rubbish audio..and the new ones don't even have a headphone jack.

So if you want to listen to music on headphones at all, I'd avoid them.