Cheap phones are no longer naff 2G bricks. They’re sleek, well-
designed handsets that have nearly as much processing power and
screen quality as phones that cost three or four times as much as
their budget label. The technology in high-end phones quickly fi lters
down to the cheaper models because the production and
development is already in place, enabling the likes of Samsung, LG
and Motorola to repackage existing software and hardware into a
much cheaper device.
Market pressures have also forced a change. The likes of Huawei,
Xiaomi and OnePlus have carved a huge niche by making phones with
good specs and selling them online by themselves really cheaply. This
has forced others to follow suit and we are reaping the benefi ts.
We have judged the Wileyfox Swift, LG G4c, Moto G (2015) and the
Vodafone Smart speed 6 as some of the highest quality phones freely
available to the Western audience at a much lower price than you’d pay
for their fl agship siblings. These phones represent great options as
maybe a second mobile you could use for work, an entry-level handset
that would make an ideal fi rst smartphone or an inexpensive device to
take travelling where you still need smartphone capabilities, but don’t
want to risk your shiny S6 or G4.Group test
Budget phones «