Best Android phone under £300

General Chat Tech & Gaming
1

If you were asked what phone for under £300?

They want:
Near stock Android
Decentish camera and battery life/charging speed
Heavy Netflix/Disney/iPlayer/YouTube usage
Not fussed on specific phone size or storage
Lightweight
Dual speakers
Preferably 2022 model onwards
Not a gamer other than Sudoku and Dots

So far i can think of the following currently discounted:

Google Pixel 6a

£284 (£399)

Samsung Galaxy A53 5G

£284 (£399)

Motorola Edge 30 neo

£299 (£349)

OnePlus Nord 2T 5G

£298 (£369)

Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G

£300 (£339)

Edit: as a handy table

Phone Price Size HDR Chip Battery Charging Weight Display Performance Battery Camera Connectivity Score endurance talk web video
Google Pixel 6a £284 (£399) 6.1 HDR10+ Tensor (17) 4410 mAh 18W 178g 76 66 73 67 85 72 94h 23:45 15:23 19:59
Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro 5G £300 (£339) 6.67 HDR10+, Dolby Vision Dimensity 1080 (43) 5000 mAh 67W 187g 87 43 73 71 82 70 97h 24:55:00 14:02 17:59
OnePlus Nord 2T 5G £298 (£369) 6.43 HDR10+ Dimensity 1300 (25) 4500 mAh 80W 190g 79 53 72 71 81 69 100h 26:40:00 16:38 17:44
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G £284 (£399) 6.5 HDR10 Exynos 1280 (57) 5000 mAh 25W 189g 84 41 77 68 75 67 113h 32:11:00 12:43 19:58
Motorola Edge 30 neo £299 (£349) 6.28 HDR10 Snapdragon 695 (62) 4020 mAh 68W 155g 87 39 71 64 79 66 104h 26:45:00 11:49 17:45
2

The new Oneplus Nord CE3 5G looks to be decent for £299 and the Pixel 6a is always a good shout

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3

I like your list, there are a lot of good phones under £300 these days, there’s little point in getting a flagship, unless of course, you want it

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4

Yeah the only reason i haven’t listed is due to seeing the Nord 2T under £300 atm which on paper is superior.

Also the CE3 appears to recycle the same 695 chip and appears minimal improvement on the previous.

Looks like they’re already selling the CE2 fifty off at £229

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5

Watched a review of it over the weekend and it looks decent for the money but like most OP phones will likely see a drop in price over the coming months. The Mrs needs a new phone and the CE3 will be a decent shout for her

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6

I’d personally only consider either the Pixel 6A or the Galaxy A53 due to 3-4 years OS updates and 5 years of security updates. I don’t think the others have this level of support?

Out of these two I guess it has to be Pixel 6A due to desire for near stock Android.

I’ve been using a Pixel 6A for about 5 months (switched from an iPhone SE) and I’ve been very happy with it.

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7

I dont think super long term support is a concern.
At the £100 / year price point if it gives three years then its done well.

I should have added to the OP that they are very happy with Galaxy historically and Motorola recently. They have used my Xiaomi and happy with that, but haven’t tried the Pixel/OnePlus.

The major positive on the Pixel 6a is the camera with Tensor chip even though its old tech at this point.

The negatives would be 6.1 and the 4410 mAh and very slow charging speed 18W compared

The Galaxy A53 has the 6.5 and decent battery 5000 mAh and a bit faster charging at 25W. But the camera is trumped by Pixel 6a. At currently £285 it seems ace.

The Motorola Edge 30 neo feels like it should be sub £250 for the specs, i don’t believe the 155g weight but that’s its best feature. The Snapdragon 695 would be more than enough but the camera i think is possibly the worst option out of those five.

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8

Pixel all the way.

Probably the most near stock android you’ll get.

Mindful of OnePlus, some networks aren’t fully compatible IE WiFi calling etc has issues.

Always found Samsung full of bloatware regardless of network. Ain’t nobody got time for flashing devices.

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9

Definitely but even that has proprietary software IE the Pixel Launcher. Google has been moving away from stock Android for years now, for better or worse.

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10

Honor Magic5 Lite is £279.99 and better specs than above phones (?!)

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11

Yeah, if you want a semi-OnePlus like UX then phones from their parent company Oppo might be a good choice. Basically every network sells their phones and supports VoLTE and VoWi-Fi on them. OxygenOS and ColorOS are basically identical these days.

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12

I have a Xiaomi as well but to describe MIUI as near stock Android is somewhat of a stretch…

You can buy a Pixel 7 for around £340 with trade-ins.

The Xiaomi/Poco F5 Pro will be launched very soon and they tend to be good vfm.

Otherwise, from your list, I suspect the Pixel 6a is the way to go. You can get often buy one for less than £299.

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13

Yeah you have to work a bit to dejunk it.

The biggest change is running Nova on it with control center old version.

Mine looks nothing like how you unbox it which is a bit misleading.

14

The four key things that lets it down is

No HDR support

No Gorilla glass just basic tempered

695 Snapdragon which is only on par with the Edge 30 neo

40W is faster than 6a/A53 but slower than the rest

Also has single speaker and no 4k video.

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15

With the a53 - I paid £180 for it - always worth waiting for Samsung doing one of its “send us a phone you would throw in the bin” for money off.

I have a couple of phones I get off eBay for £2 or so for that very reason…

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16

I’d vote for the Pixel but the thing that made me ditch my Pixel for a Samsung was the fact I couldn’t set separate volume levels for call and notifications.
Not sure if that’s an important factor in your scenario though.

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17

They’ve gone for the Nord 2T! I think at £298 its a fair price.

Was between Nord 2T and Note 12 Pro, and it won on better Dimensity chip and charging speed.

They ruled out Pixel 6a on size and charging.
Didn’t want to go back to Galaxy interface
Motorola overpriced (which i agree, if it was nearer £200 then a better deal)

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