Top Low Budget Smartphones

Huawei Ascend G6

Low price smartphone, 4G and selfies

Huawei has downsized its ultra-thin Ascend P6, slapped on a budget price tag and released the Ascend G6.

The biggest selling points is that the Ascend G6 is its 4G connectivity, which grants access to super-fast mobile internet. At the time of its release 4G was relatively rare in sub-£200 smartphones.

Since then 4G has been cropping up more regularly in budget blowers, some of which are a fair bit cheaper than the Ascend G6, but Huawei's effort offers decent battery life and a good range of cameras for the price.

The Huawei Ascend G6 also comes with an impressive front-facing camera for taking selfies, all wrapped up in a clean, if a bit unexciting, design

HTC Desire 510

Speedy 4G internet for those on a budget

The HTC Desire 510 comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 quad core processor that's clocked at 1.2GHz and 1GB of RAM. Powered by Android KitKat to feel fast and responsive.rs.

The Desire 510 also comes with a removable 2100mAh battery that lasts longer than many budget smartphones, as well as 4G support for super fast mobile internet.

What keeps the HTC Desire 510 from appearing any higher is the camera which manages to miss out certain details in day to day snapping. The 4.7-inch screen is also disappointing, sporting a resolution of only 480 x 854.

Despite these compromises the HTC Desire 510 is a good choice if you're looking for a budget smartphone, especially for browsing the internet.

Nokia Lumia 530

A small smartphone for a small price

The Nokia Lumia 530 can be easily picked up for under £80, you get a pretty decent little smartphone for your money.

The Quad-core Snapdragon 200 processor and 512MB RAM that the Nokia Lumia 530 comes with are enough to power Windows 8.1 for a reasonably slick and smooth experience, though it is let down by coming with a rather paltry 4GB of storage space, but at least you can expand it with a microSD card.

The Lumia 530 also proves itself to be surprisingly adept at gaming and manages to keep pace with some of the more expensive Windows Phone handsets.

If you're after a cheap and cheerful smartphone that packs a number of features for a rock-bottom price, then you won't go too far wrong with the Nokia Lumia 530.

Nokia Lumia 735

Cheap, cheerful and perfect for selfies

The Nokia Lumia 735 is everything that a selfie lover could wish for, with a fantastic 5MP front-facing camera and a brightly coloured design that makes it stand out from the crowd.

The 4.7-inch 720p screen looks particularly good, though the quad-core 1.2GHz processor and 1GB RAM sometimes strain compared to other budget smartphones when it comes to performance.

The Lumia 735 is a decent budget smartphone that will appeal to the younger selfie generation.

Motorola Moto E (2015)

The new Moto E packs LTE and a few sweet upgrades

The second generation Moto E shows that Motorola isn't messing around when it comes to budget smartphones, as it continues the legacy of its predecessor as one of the best affordable handsets you can buy.

A whole host of new features have been added to the Motorola Moto E (2015) including 4G LTE connectivity and a decent – though not exactly premium design.

It also ships with Android 5.0 Lollipop, making it one of the cheapest smartphones to come with Google's latest mobile operating system straight out of the box.

The Motorola Moto E (2015) isn't quite aas good as the slightly more expensive Motorola Moto G (2014) which, spoiler alert, appears later on in this list, but for the low, low price you'll be hard pressed to find a better smartphone.

Nokia Lumia 635

Fast 4G for a low price

The Lumia 635 brings everything we liked about the Lumia 630 with a few extra tweaks like 4G. Super-fast 4G mobile internet is becoming an ever more common sight on budget phones, but that doesn't mean we should take those handsets under £200 the do include it for granted.

A 4.5-inch 854 x 480 display does the trick, along with a quad-core Snapdragon 400 and 512MB of RAM, which keeps Windows 8.1 unning well.

Microsoft has committed to upgrading Windows Phone 8.1 devices to its latest mobile operating system, Windows 10 Mobile for free so you'll be able to get a shiny new and improved Windows Phone experience for a pretty low price with the Lumia 635.

If you're not too bothered by 4G then you can save even more money by picking up the Lumia 630, which is shorn of the connection – but those of you who want quick access to websites and to stream media, the Lumia 635 is an excellent choice.

Motorola Moto G (2014)

The best budget smartphone money can buy

Motorola is back and the Moto G is a cracking handset.

In fact the Moto G is the best budget handset currently on the market, and if you're looking for maximum bang for your cash look no further.

The 5-inch display is high quality despite being only 720p, the quad-core processor is adept at handling most tasks and it's got the latest version of Google's Android to boot.

There's no NFC, and unlike 2013’s edition there is no 4G version just yet, but those are minor concessions in what is otherwise a top notch smartphone.