Best Phone - Max Budget €250

Paully D

Hi guys,

Firstly, thanks for the advice on my previous thread re: best Andriod tablet at €250 or less. The Samsung Galaxy Tab A was highly recommended and I managed to pick it up for €209.99 at Black Friday. It was been flaweless thus far.

Now, I'm back looking for recommendations on a phone at the same price point please/

After finding the aforementioned tablet very good, my eye is drawn to the Samsung Galaxy A3 (2016) which is available at around €230.

http://www.carphonewarehouse.ie/shop/phones-plans/all-phones/galaxy-a3-(2016)

http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Samsung-Galaxy-A3-2016-Review_id4198

Any thoughts or recommendations greatly appreciated.

ED E

First off, buy from Amazon.de. They sell most handsets SIM free and usually at the best price.

The best value is usually found in the Moto G line and Huawei's mid tier range. Samsung haven't really been that great outside the flaghships. For €250 I'd try and hit 2GB ram and a 1080P screen which that A series doesnt have.

Felix Jones is God

Motorola G 4th Gen is available in Argos at €179. You probably won't find anything better imo

um7y1h83ge06nx

The Moto G4s are on Amazon as well, sim free. I got the G4 Plus on their warehouse for about £134. Fantastic phone so far and well reviewed.

Zonda999

I'd agree with the posters suggesting the Moto G4, I've just bought a refurbished one off Argos Ebay (for circa €140 delivered) for my father as a Christmas present. I had a play with it to check over its condition and I was amazed with it to be honest. I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 myself and the G4 seemed a quicker phone to me, no doubt helped by running effectively pure android.

Mid range Samsungs like the A3 are relatively poor as regards specification relative to their cost I think. My brother in law a few months back was looking for a half decent phone and he only wanted Samsung. So he got a sim free Samsung A5 and cost €340. Its a nice phone and all and the metal frame is very nice but the core specs are the same as the Moto G4 and that can be had for nearly half the money. The specification of the Samsung A3 that you mention fall short of the G4. The only thing is that the A3 will be metal (as opposed to plastic for the G4) and will have an AMOLED (which is only 720p resolution as opposed to 1080p in the G4) screen which some people may consider superior to the IPS screen of the G4. Thats personal preference more than anything though

Have a look at the comparison between the two phones here:

http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=7791&idPhone2=8103

HTC M8 for €239.99 & €10 delivery.
Claimed to be New.......... http://www.pigsback.com/en-ie/offer/268437?utm_source=shopping&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20161204


They are €280 ish refurbished elsewhere so seems a genuine deal.

(seems too good to be true)

ED E

Augeo wrote: »

HTC M8 for €239.99 & €10 delivery.
Claimed to be New.......... http://www.pigsback.com/en-ie/offer/268437?utm_source=shopping&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20161204


They are €280 ish refurbished elsewhere so seems a genuine deal.

(seems too good to be true)

Why link it then? Viberstore seem to only sell refurbs so its unlikely to actually be new.

ED E

ED E wrote: »

Why link it then? Viberstore seem to only sell refurbs so its unlikely to actually be new.

Because the add specifically states it's new and it's far better than anything else mentioned so far.
A bit of research should clarify, as I'm not in the market I'm not doing the research.

Felix Jones is God

The HTC 8 series were problematic and it's still no better that the Motorola, which runs pure android and probably would do better in comparison

Beefy78

Augeo wrote: »

HTC M8 for €239.99 & €10 delivery.
Claimed to be New.......... http://www.pigsback.com/en-ie/offer/268437?utm_source=shopping&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20161204


They are €280 ish refurbished elsewhere so seems a genuine deal.

(seems too good to be true)

The M8 is the worst phone I have ever owned. I appreciate that that sounds like hyperbole but it is an absolute piece of ****. Such a shame as the M7 may have been the best phone ever owned.

I wouldn't have paid €25 for my M8 had I known the issues I'd have with it over the next 18 months.

Beefy78

Felix Jones is God wrote: »

Motorola G 4th Gen is available in Argos at €179. You probably won't find anything better imo

Any idea what the battery is like? I also need to get a new phone and am shopping in this price bracket and I've decided that a decent battery life is probably my top consideration (beyond price) now.

Felix Jones is God

Beefy78 wrote: »

Any idea what the battery is like? I also need to get a new phone and am shopping in this price bracket and I've decided that a decent battery life is probably my top consideration (beyond price) now.

It's a 3000mah battery, I have a Samsung s7 with the same size battery and with heavy usage I get a full day from it between charges

D0NNELLY

Had an m9 for a while. Now it sits in a drawer while i use a two year old Vodafone ultra 6.

Wouldn't go near an m7, 8 or 9 again.

The Moto recommended above is the best phone available at your price point.

Beefy78

Beefy78 wrote: »

.........

I wouldn't have paid €25 for my M8 had I known the issues I'd have with it over the next 18 months.

I have one the last 6 months, fantastic & faultless in my experience

Beefy78

I honestly hope that stays like it and you didn't end up with one which went south as quickly as I did.

Mine:
- has speakers which barely work
- has a knackered microphone meaning I can only take calls using the hands free
- has had to have a complete reboot to factory settings three times because of various complete breakings of the operating system
- has a battery which gets maybe two hours of decent usage out of a charge and completely turns off when it hits 20% remaining
- has a headphone socket which disconnects every couple of minutes
- has a tinder app which doesn't send me any messages from girls (this one may not be the phone to be fair)

It's a really bad phone. I ordered a Moto G4 earlier because of this thread and hopefully I don't have any of these problems with that.

Dravokivich

Yeah, got myself a G4 and been inundated with messages from girls on tinder since man!