Reasonably Powerful Phone under $100AUD

AlphaGamer46 · October 22, 2016

Hi.

I got a Samsung Galaxy S4 a while back, but it had a broken screen. Today, I thought I'd try to fix it. Didn't work out, because I ended up shoving my prying tool underneath the first layer of the digitiser.

This leaves me without a mobile phone.

I have resurrected my old Samsung Galaxy S2 to use in the meantime, but I've been looking at mobile phones on plans, in local stores and online.

I was looking on eBay, but the cheapest phone I could find that fit my criteria was another Galaxy S4 for about $250AUD. Firstly, that's too much for me, I'm only a student and every dollar counts, and secondly, I have tried the Galaxy S4. I don't want another one.

Upon having a look online, it proved hard to find anything. I saw cheap smartphones, but they were generic brands and were terribly specced.

The criteria for the phone are as follows:

Screen needs to be in the area of 5 inches, probably smallest I would go is 4.7"
At least a quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage if it has microSD slot, 32GB with no microSD card slot
Must run at least Android 5.0 Lollipop or newer
Must be 4G compatible
Phone must be in reasonably good condition (as long as the screen has no cracks
Around the $100AUD mark either on eBay Australia, JB Hi-Fi Australia or even Dick Smith online Australia.

I would prefer an Android phone, but I would purchase an iPhone, however I expect the 5c to not have much time left on its software support, so it rules the 5c out, and the 5s's are upwards of $400AUD.

All opinions will be considered carefully before making the decision as to what phone I purchase.

Thanks so much guys,

-Alpha.

uzarnom · October 23, 2016

Okay being a fellow Australian, i advise looking at the following areas as well,
- Post Office (usually really expensive but sometimes with no advertising they do some great deals on electronics, picked up a 2TB portable HDD @ $73 when office works selling 1TB @ $89
- Gumtree, even if the phone is locked to telstra check if there are ways to unlock it (i have a HTC M7 got it for $70 can be unlocked by telstra)
- Cash converters (they actually have some really competitive selling prices, but they don't give much for buying (they are a tiger prawn shop)

- Save the children (more cloths but sometimes they get electronics, they don't know what to price them. My sister picked up a ds with 10 games $15. (on that day some little girl name "Molly" cried)

- Check if there is an auction house around (look for police auctions)

For recommendations:
- Refurbished Nexus 4 (at least something with a new battery) has almost everything except storage and 4G
- The HTC M7 doesn't look bad if you get it from china (ebay idk how legit though)
- Most of the normal big retailers (good guys, harvey norman, kogan, jb) your probably looking cheapest $170 and the specs usually don't meet (ram mostly)
- One possibility is to buy a broken phone and fix it, (check repair ability online before the purchase)

Best of luck, let me know how you go

AlphaGamer46 · October 23, 2016

6 hours ago, uzarnom said:

Okay being a fellow Australian, i advise looking at the following areas as well,
- Post Office (usually really expensive but sometimes with no advertising they do some great deals on electronics, picked up a 2TB portable HDD @ $73 when office works selling 1TB @ $89
- Gumtree, even if the phone is locked to telstra check if there are ways to unlock it (i have a HTC M7 got it for $70 can be unlocked by telstra)
- Cash converters (they actually have some really competitive selling prices, but they don't give much for buying (they are a tiger prawn shop)

- Save the children (more cloths but sometimes they get electronics, they don't know what to price them. My sister picked up a ds with 10 games $15. (on that day some little girl name "Molly" cried)

- Check if there is an auction house around (look for police auctions)

For recommendations:
- Refurbished Nexus 4 (at least something with a new battery) has almost everything except storage and 4G
- The HTC M7 doesn't look bad if you get it from china (ebay idk how legit though)
- Most of the normal big retailers (good guys, harvey norman, kogan, jb) your probably looking cheapest $170 and the specs usually don't meet (ram mostly)
- One possibility is to buy a broken phone and fix it, (check repair ability online before the purchase)

Best of luck, let me know how you go

After lots of looking, I decided that I did not want a secondhand phone due to how terrible the condition was on most devices.

I did some more research about JB Hi-Fi, and found an LG K10 smartphone for $249AUD. It was a bit more than what I wanted to spend, but it has a lot of power, and it proves that you don't need to spend upwards of $700AUD for a smartphone to get decent power.

I'll be posting my review of the K10 soon, so stay tuned!

Thanks man too for all your help, it means a lot.

-Alpha.