Budget smartphone recommendation please - Huwawei?

[FrogFairy]

I am finally taking the plunge and getting a mobile phone. This is long overdue and I am embarrassed at just how clueless I am. Please forgive the following ramble but I am trying to include any info that could be relevant to my best choice.

My plan is to buy an unlocked phone outright probably from Amazon or John Lewis. Then I will get a SIM only contract from Tesco who have excellent coverage in my area. Budget for phone up to £200 but could go a bit over of it gets me a significantly better phone. I want new rather than refurbished.

I will be keeping the phone as long as possible so durability and longevity are more important to me than unnecessary flashy bells and whistles.
Must be easy to set up and use.
Screen preferably larger rather than smaller.
I am aware of the Huwawei/Google situation but their phones are still selling so assume no need to worry about this.

I have an iPad that I use at home for the usual browsing/banking/shopping etc so won’t be doing too much of that on the phone. I previously had a Google Nexus tablet so am familiar with the Android system.

There are several Huwawei phones ranging from £90 to £200 but I really don’t have the knowledge to understand how the specs compare and decide if more expensive means better for me or just wasting money.

If you have a Huwawei or anything else in this price range that you would recommend I would be ever so grateful for your advice.

Thanks in advance, I have tried searching previous threads but technology moves on so fast that recommended phones are now superseded by newer ones.

I'm not sure why it isn't linking . maybe if i do it without the square brackets? ]]

Will send the link to you OP. not sure why it isn't posting

If you are considering Huawei carphone warehouse has a couple of them for 9.99 a month including data texts and minutes. Over 2 years this would cost 240.00 then if you still want phone and no update then you switch with them onto a sim only deal until you need to upgrade or phone breaks it's on their ID network which is as good as every other network. I have my second Huawei and have had no problems at all.
Carphone warehouse are still delivering at the moment.

I have had Huawei P range for many years. They are easy to use and are not in the same price range as Samsung and iPhone. I have had the P10, P20 and now P30. You can go for the lite version if you don't plan on having lots of photos or music on there. Or you can add in a SD card if you do. The P30 still uses Google, I think it will only affect that later models.

I've got one, I love mine. Nearly 2 yr old and the battery still charges fast and lasts ages.

i have the p smart 2019 and pay 20 a month all in from virgin.

Definitely wouldn't go and buy one then a separate simcard. If you look on tesco website the cheapest Huawei is 8.00 a month so would cost under 200.00 for 2 years with simcard. If you bought that phone from a store for 90.00 or so then I don't think you would get a sim for 5.00 a month. I know you said you were going to keep it but if it broke then you could get a replacement after 2 years free rather than paying out again

I probably wouldn't choose Huawei. Motorola is also good (and also an android phone).

I would also look at the phone & SIM deals at Tesco as they can be cheaper than buying a phone & sim separately.

If you do buy a phone & SIM deal, you can change to sim only after the contract is up (and no you don't need to give them the phone back if you do so).

Be aware that some of the cheaper smartphones have very little internal storage and sometimes it's not possible to move things to a memory card, even if the phone has one. So you might find yourself running out of space for apps, photos, music etc.

Tesco uses the O2 network, as does Giff Gaff, so it might also be worth looking at them for a 30 day rolling sim service where you can easily change the amount you pay from month to month as you work out how much data you use.

I got a Motorola G7 power from them - mine was a £100 black Friday special and it's now been replaced by the G8, but it's a great budget phone and the battery lasts about 3 days. Available from JL for £130

www.johnlewis.com/motorola-g7-power-smartphone-android-6-2-4g-lte-sim-free-64gb/p4039474

Thanks very much to all who replied. Lots to think about and plenty of reviews to read through.

i got a huawei honor 9 lite 2 years ago for £100 (cashback offer via carphone warehouse) i pay £6 ish a month to ee for 1000 minutes, 1gb data & unlimited texts, previously had iphone. i love my honor, has been a great phone, performance, quality, look, etc. saved lots doing it this way, if you take care of your phone you can sell it on later for fifty + to cex & put that towards a new model. i've been doing this for a while now, worth looking on 02 for refurbs, i did that with last iphone purchase, i got an older model mint one, had no signs of usage at all, looked brand new, sold it 2 years ago & it paid for my honor, was thinking of trading up but i'm sticking with it as very happy, still looks mint & works fine.

my honor is 32gb also plenty of fiver sim deals around when i last looked, i actually called ee said i wanted to leave as had seen a good fiver sim offer with other provider, they matched the offer.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-sim-only-contracts/