Our list of the best smartphones available in 2019 to buy with a budget of £100
A few years ago you had to fork out a significant amount to get your hands on a phone with a decent display, good performance and the ability to browse the internet. But the price of smartphones has decreased rapidly in recent times, meaning there are some true bargains to be had.
We’ve picked out the best smartphones that are priced under £100 (SIM-Free or on Pay As You Go). You’ll be pretty amazed at what you can get for your money, but if you've got a little more money to spend then jump to the end of the article for some slightly pricier - but still very affordable - options.
All the mobiles listed, from the incredibly affordable Moto E5 Play, to the surprisingly accomplished Alcatel 3V, are available to buy in the UK and we’ll continue to update our list throughout 2019 and beyond.
Anyway, enough talk and on with our list of the best smartphones available for under £100 - along with a few other handsets worth considering if you can stretch your budget a little bit further.
Coming in at around £70 the Nokia 1 is one of the very cheapest smartphones on this list and one of the cheapest you can buy.
We won’t pretend it’s an amazing phone, but you can’t complain too much for the money. It has a battery that comfortably lasts a day of use, plus a colourful plastic shell that can survive a fall, and a compact 4.5-inch screen.
The Nokia 1 also runs Android Go, which is a minimalist take on Android, with no real bloat or flourishes. That’s no bad thing, as it makes for an intuitive interface and helps ensure you can get the best performance possible out of this phone’s quad-core chipset.
Rounding out the specs there’s 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, a microSD card slot, a 5MP rear camera and a 2MP front-facing one. Basic then, but at what this costs it’s a solid setup.
The LG K4 (2017) has a 5.0-inch screen, so it’s a compact option, especially as it’s just 7.9mm thick, while its quad-core chipset and 1GB of RAM ensure it can handle the basics you’d expect from a smartphone.
There’s only 8GB of storage, but you do also get a microSD card slot, and there’s a 5MP camera on both the front and back, plus a 2,500mAh battery, which isn’t a bad size for a phone this small. It’s a removable battery too, so you’re free to carry a spare if you need it to last longer.
The LG K4 (2017) can’t match the phones below it on this list, but for the money there’s no area where it’s overly lacking, making it a solid choice for the basics.
The Nokia 2.1 is a mix of the impressive and the basic, but let’s start with the good bits. The highlight of the phone is almost certainly its huge 4,000mAh battery, giving you some of the best battery life you’ll get for £100 or less.
It also has a large and fairly sharp 5.5-inch 720 x 1280 screen, with a pixel density of around 267 pixels per inch, and it runs a recent version of Android, namely Pie. It even has an aluminium frame, for a touch of quality in the design.
The rest is not so impressive, but still reasonable for the price. The Nokia 2.1 has for example a 1.4GHz quad-core Snapdragon 425 chipset, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, a microSD card slot, an 8MP rear camera and a 5MP front-facing one. Not bad at all, but this is definitely one to buy for the screen and battery.
Motorola has long been making great phones for an affordable price, and the Moto E5 Play is one of its cheapest yet, coming in at just around £60.
So just what do you get for your money? More than you might think, starting with a 5.3-inch 18:9 screen, so it’s got a modern aspect ratio.
On the back meanwhile there’s a fingerprint scanner, plus an 8MP camera, while the front has a 5MP selfie camera, complete with its own flash – which is something far pricier phones often don’t offer.
Don’t expect top-tier performance from the Moto E5 Play’s Snapdragon 425 chipset and 1GB of RAM (despite the name this won’t be great for gaming) but for general navigation and all the smartphone basics it should do just fine.
Rounding out the specs there’s 16GB of storage, a microSD card slot and a 2,100mAh battery. However, one of the most interesting features is the software rather than the hardware, as this thing runs Android Go, which comes with minimal bloat and lighter versions of key apps, so the space goes further and your phone runs more smoothly.
The Honor 8S has a 5.71-inch 720 x 1520 screen, which is a good size and one of the highest resolutions you’ll find at this end of the market (though notably the Alcatel 3V below has it beat there).
It also has a nice design, with a small notch at the top and a 19:9 aspect ratio, making it look like a slightly pricier phone than it is.
Elsewhere it’s less impressive but still very solid for the money, packing a 13MP main camera, a 5MP front-facing one, a 2GHz quad-core chipset, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a 3,020mAh battery.
The Alcatel 3V is newer than many phones in this list and it’s also better, giving you a really quite staggering amount for around £100.
It has a massive 6.0-inch screen that’s sharp too at 1080 x 2160 (coming in at 402 pixels per inch), and it has a modern 18:9 aspect ratio.
The Alcatel 3V also has a dual-lens camera on the back, made up of 12MP and 2MP lenses, plus there’s a fingerprint scanner, so there are a lot of fairly high-end features here.
Elsewhere the specs are more ordinary but by no means disappointing given the price. It has a very shiny plastic back, a 3,000mAh battery, 16GB of storage, 2GB of RAM, a microSD card slot and a quad-core MediaTek MT8735A chipset. Not bad at all. Note however that its sub-£100 price only applies on certain pay as you go plans - it's closer to £130 SIM-free.
There are other great handsets that you can pick up for not much more than £100, so if you can stretch your budget you might want to consider the Samsung Galaxy J4+, which has a fairly large and fairly sharp 6.0-inch 720 x 1480 display, a respectable 2GB of RAM for solid performance and a decent 13MP camera, all for just around £140.
And then there’s the Moto E5, which is a super-cheap option from Motorola, though still comes in at around £130. It sports a 5.7-inch 720 x 1440 screen, a near stock version of Android Oreo, a quad-core chipset, 2GB of RAM, a 13MP rear camera, a fingerprint scanner and a big 4,000mAh battery.
Or you might want to consider the Honor 9 Lite if you can stretch to £160. This has a 5.65-inch 1080 x 2160 screen, an octa-core chipset, a dual-lens rear camera and 3GB of RAM.
Whether you are on a really tight budget or just want to save a bit of money, one of these phones should suit.
The Nokia 1 comes in last place in our list, simply because it’s not as good as the other entries, but with its low price it’s still worthy of a place. The LG K4 (2017) is a great basic option for the money, the Nokia 2.1 has superb battery life, the Moto E5 Play has software that helps your money go further, the Honor 8S has a great screen, and the Alcatel 3V takes first place as a top all-rounder coupled with an entry-level price.
But if you can stretch to beyond £100 you can get a little more for your money with the Moto E5, Honor 9 Lite or Samsung Galaxy J4+.
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