UKC

Hello,

My phone died recently (Moto G 4g,) so I'm looking at replacing it with something similar (cheapest smartphone I can find that works well for a giffgaff sim.) So far I've narrowed the search to the Huawei Honor5x, the Moto G5 and the Wileyfox Swift 2, based on online reviews.

Does anyone have any others that they recommend? Any experience of the ones mentioned above? It seems to be a topic that comes up regularly, so thought I'd try to update the opinions.

Jonnie

In reply to jonnie3430:

What is "cheap" in your definition?

In reply to Babika:

Ha! The least I can pay! Ideally under £200, but would be happy to part with a lot less!

In reply to jonnie3430:
There's an ethical/fair trade smart phone on the market now, but I don' know how much it is.

Possibly worth thinking about...?

Edit: I saw a related heartbreaking video of children working in the rain in harsh conditions that would make me as an adult feel knackered and dispirited.

In reply to jonnie3430:

My sister has a Huawei seems happy with it.

In reply to jonnie3430:


Ok - well I bought my Mum in Law a Samsung J5 for around £150 at Christmas (its £134 now) and that seems to get good reviews, especially battery life. She uses it for all the normal smart phone stuff but I guess everyone has different requirements.

In reply to jonnie3430:

The Fairphone is £420, maybe buying a secondhand refurbished phone could be a plan?

Ethics ethics ethics

In reply to jonnie3430:

I nearly bought a Motog 5th gen. But decided it was too much given the loss of water resistance.

So i bought a used samsung galaxy s5 of ebay for I think £107. No regrets so far

In reply to jonnie3430:
Redmi 2 Xiaomi are good, battery long lasting, 4-5 days between charges without being on line most of the day. they about £100

I had a Huawei before that was good too.

In reply to jonnie3430:

OnePlus X or 2nd hand OnePlus 3.

Or Samsung A3/5

In reply to Timmd:


Impossible. Sure I heard/read/saw it takes in the order 100 kg of ore to make 1 kg of phone. It may be ethical with regard to employment practices, but environmental damage? No way.

In reply to ianstevens:


I don't know how much recycling plays a part in their manufacturing process, they do make them easily repairable though.

I guess a second hand phone actually could be the more ethical choice?

In reply to Timmd:


Yeah, I would think so as well - a second hand phone must be the best way. Don't get me wrong, I think the fairphone is a great idea - it's just not as guilt free as its manufacturers would like to make out.

In reply to jonnie3430:

Vodaphone Smart Ultra 6 has been very good to me. It's a rebadged ZTE so good hardware. They are up to the Smart Ultra 7 now (£125) but its basically the same. Locked to vodaphone but unlock codes £2 off ebay.

In reply to Babika:

Would second the j5. I have one. Battery life is very good and it is more than capable of doing all the usual functions etc..

In reply to jonnie3430:

I'd go for the j5 over your list, or even a second hand iPhone

In reply to Timmd:

Do you have an "ethical" phone?

In reply to jonnie3430:
I've had 2 HTC one M8's and very happy with them, I will buy a third in 2-3 years once my current breaks. They go on ebay for about £100 new.

One thing to Consider with smart phones is that they are all more or less the same, Any flagship phone that came out 3-4 years ago will be fairly decent for everyday use, and be about £100 on ebay.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Why have you put it quotes, I wonder?

Other than the environmental/resources footprint, they genuinely seem as ethical as phones can be.

I bought a cheap £20 stop gap one before I knew they existed. I certainly plan on buying one when/if this one breaks. Buying one sooner than that, I would consider to be a needless use of energy and resources.

How about you?

In reply to Timmd:


Don't overthink things. I only put in quotes because of the exchange you had with ianstevens on Monday. I thought you were meant to be all chilled and hippy-like, as opposed to "instantly on guard"


As I wasn't the one bringing the issue up on a thread asking about cheap smartphones which are inherently not going to tick the ethical criteria you've recently discovered, I don't need to answer that as it's none of your business.

In reply to jonnie3430:

All the options people are giving seem really expensive to me. I pay £7 a month on one of those contract thingys, with a new phone every couple of years, so I get 14 yearss use for under a hundred pounds. Am I missing something?

In reply to Robert Durran:


Maybe a decimal point?

In reply to Robert Durran:

In what universe is £7 * 12 * 14 < £100?

In reply to Blue Straggler:


In the universe where I forgot to multiply by 12.

In reply to john arran:


A duodecimal point in fact.........

In reply to Robert Durran:

Am I right in thinking that you are some sort of professional mathematician?
Well done for resisting the temptation to edit your post (or was it just because you'd passed the deadline? )

In reply to Blue Straggler:


Yes. I teach maths. Mutiplying and all that sort of stuff.........

In reply to jonnie3430:

Thanks all, will have a look at suggestions! Was avoiding the J5 as the work phone is a S5 Mini and it's pretty poor compared to the Moto G (keyboard, google maps/ satnav and the Samsung software that won't uninstall is just annoying!)

Took the broken phone into a repair shop and was told that it would be £30 to fix, but wasn't worth it as a more up to date phone cost the same. Not sure what was going on there, but will have a look at fixing it myself.

In reply to jonnie3430:

I currently have Xiaomi Redmi 3S and it's great for the price. I paid cca 180 EUR (postage included) and for that I got alu body, fingerprint scanner, 4000mAh battery, 3GB RAM, 32GB Rom... the only drawback I can think of is that you have to buy it directly from chinese sellers (but they do offer shipping from within EU, so no additional taxes). Warranty claims could be a problem (I'm not saying they are), but that's the risk I was willing to take. Many of my friends use those phones and they're all very pleased with them. One more thing to keep in mind when buying chinese phones - not many models support LTE band 20 (800MHz), so if that's important to you, get one that does support it.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

One can wonder?


You asked first, to be fair, and I told you. I'll take that as a no.

In reply to jonnie3430:

The moto g is a great phone, I've had the 2,3&4th gen. The 4th gen has some issues with the camera glass cover scratching too easily though.

They are always available sim free for about £160, which is pretty amazing considering the performance of the phone.

In reply to jonnie3430:

My mate loves his Cubot.

In reply to jonnie3430:
Did you ever see this one? I think it's what you need. As an additional feature, it's useful in a bar fight. No iPhone, Motorola or Samsung has got that!

http://www.runbo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/x61.jpg

Which is bigger? http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv30/uilleannpiper/silly%20phone_zpstz9a...

In reply to Timmd:


To ACTUALLY be fair, you selectively quoted me, trying to be clever by ignoring the entire point and context of my refusal to answer your irrelevant question.
You know.
This bit.
"As I wasn't the one bringing the issue up on a thread asking about cheap smartphones which are inherently not going to tick the ethical criteria you've recently discovered..."

In reply to jonnie3430:

In the interests of making a relevant contribution to this thread...
I just bought my mum a Moto G5 and it is what I would buy for myself in that price bracket. Carphone Warehouse, £159 SIM-free (i.e. unlocked)

If you want cheaper...
Vodafone are clearing out the Moto G4 Play (the trimmed down version of your old phone) at £80 but it will be locked to Vodafone.

They are also clearing out the Huawei Y6 (I, not II) at £49 plus £10 top-up, again obviously locked to Vodafone. I am considering getting myself one of these as a back-up.

Otherwise, the unpopular-but-actually-good Lumia range can be had cheaply second-hand, e.g. Lumia 635 for about £50 unlocked.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

NB I have never personally used any of the models I mention

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I brought up ethical smart phones up before I realised they were more expensive than the OP was prepared to spend. Having always used phones relatives weren't using, and never bought one, phone prices are something I'm largely unaware of.

I'm not trying to be clever, too, you did ask if I had an ethical smart phone, before telling me it's none of my business when I asked if you did. You can't ask a question and tell people asking the same in return is none of their business.

It's a funny old world on UKC...

In reply to Timmd:

Cheers all, I'll see what car phone warehouse can do.

Timmd: Thanks for your suggestion but I'm not a fan of fair trade goods. In the countries I've visited the administration required to achieve the status is something that only the better off businesses can afford, meaning they get stronger and the poorer producers suffer, or end up selling up, but still having to work the land, which bugs me a bit.

In reply to Blue Straggler:


I was procrastinating between various phones in a similar budget (one being LG K10) but had a look at the G5 after your post, and ended up getting one, so thank you for the tip-off!

In reply to jonnie3430:
That's interesting to hear about. Do you think that would apply to a company making smart phones in the same way as it would to a coffee growing business?

I guess I'm struggling to picture a 'grass roots' smart phone making company. It could be worth looking into who makes the smart phone before deciding that the same trend might apply across the board?

In reply to jonnie3430:

I bought the even cheaper motorolla moto e 2nd edition for £45 about 6 months ago. I've pit a custom ROM on it and am really happy.

In reply to Timmd:


Yes you can.

Here is a simple example.

Bob asks for a recommendation for a steak restaurant in Tuscany

Dave chips in saying "I read that eating meat is cruel to cows?"

Jim says "Dave, are you vegetarian yourself?"

Dave says "No, how about you?"

Jim doesn't have to answer that, as he was not the one raising an irrelevant question to Bob with a (perhaps unintended) air of moral superiority. The question is equally irrelevant and judgemental when posed to Jim.

In reply to Blue Straggler:
What, why are you putting moral superiority and being judgemental into some created scenario? I suggested the fair trade phone from a place of wanting to make the world slightly kinder, not exactly a bad thing - and I've never implied that others don't.

I took your question about whether I have one in a neutral sense, and responded in kind, to which you said it's none of my business.

Create whatever scenarios you like, but this is about fair trade phones and you asking if I had one. You're an argumentative sort it can seem - and slightly guarded? I've been open and honest - when asked.

In reply to Timmd:


It was an attempt to explain in simple terms why it is sometimes quite acceptable to ask someone a question and to not offer an answer to the same question asked back to you.

If you can't grasp such a simple example then I give up.

I hope the OP found my suggestions relevant and useful.

In reply to jonnie3430:

I've had a Moto G5 for a few months and am very happy with it. Screen is good, runs quickly, switching between apps normally instantaneous, can't find anything to complain about.

In reply to Blue Straggler:


Dunno about that but I am now thinking of having steak for dinner.... with a nice Italian red.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Thank-you, and thank-you all. Posted on my new Moto g5. The person in carphone warehouse agreed that the spec for this phone was the same as the latest Samsung, but that one looked better.

In reply to jonnie3430:

I have ordered a Huawei Y6 locked to Vodafone, £49. To use as a spare or to take to "higher risk" things like weekend music festivals, so my iPhone 7 doesn't get stolen

I'll report back as to whether it's any good (I know you already chose the Moto G5 which is a better decision for use as your main phone, but others may be interested in the Y6; for me it doesn't matter so much if it's a bit rubbish as it is only for occasional use)

In reply to Blue Straggler:
I have a feeling there is no stock of these (Huawei Y6) but Vodafone will earn some interest on everyone's money who's ordered one, for a few weeks until refunding us.
I won't be heartbroken and I don't need a spare handset until July so it's no hassle for me really