ANDROID PHONES FROM £219

As this roundup of four affordable contenders shows, there's no need to spend a fortune on a phone

- Tim Danton

Two months ago (see issue 346, p70) we started on a mission: to bring you reviews of highly affordable phones. It isn't only about the cost of living crisis and the need to save money, but our belief that while flagship phones make for interesting reading they aren't necessarily what people should be buying. Indeed, as this roundup shows, you can grab a great phone for less than £300.

One big difference between this batch of affordable phones and the last - which ranged from £120 to £159 - is that they support 5G. All the previous models were stuck on 4G. If this isn't an issue, note that the non-5G version of the Galaxy A14 can be snapped up for £179.

What else do you get by stepping up by £100 or so? Certainly screen quality improves. Last time, all four phones had LCD panels, but two here pack an OLED display. And not shoddy OLED panels with poor colour accuracy, either.

We don't have such great news for photographers. None of these phones offer a jump in quality compared to the Moto G13, which came out top last time; think snaps rather than portraits. And if you want optical zoom, you'll need to pay more than £300.

There are other missing features compared to flagship phones. Only one model supports wireless charging (the Motorola Edge 30 Neo), they're all stuck on Wi-Fi 5, and water resistance is basic at best. But just compare the prices of these phones to those of the Zenfone 10 (see p68) or even the Honor 90 (see p69).

We're starting to source our next mini Labs of phones for issue 350. If there's a phone you'd like us to include, email [e-mail].

How we test