first smart phone ever

[kingblue]

you can get a neken n6 delivered for £118 its got a 13mp camera i got one when my htc one had to get repaired and i find it a very decent phone

only slight problem i notice with some chinese phones is the caller id not showing up at times even though the caller name is saved etc

[Coffeegirl]

if you want a fairly hassle free phone i would suggest the iNew V3 (might be slightly over your budget though). since you said you want a decent camera that would be a good choice as usually the cameras of chinese phones are pretty crappy.
[Snip]
regarding the 3g in UK - you should have a look which frequency is used by your provider for 3g -
many chinese phones either support 900/2100 or 850/2100, which is usually ok for Europe.
according to http://www.worldtimezone.com/gsm.html in UK 2100 is used. you might want to check anyways.

Thank you for the information

Yes a decent camera would be nice! I have had experience in using HTC wildfire and find the camera quality ok for what I need. Something better within the price range would be fab.

You know how some things just call out to girls to buy them? ;)

This one is jumping out at me, what do you make of it?

http://www.chinabuye.com/n3-quad-core-3g...i-gps-pink

[linr76]

well it's pretty. pink. but thats about it.
its not a "brand" name... whatever that means for chinese phones.
but you are better off taking one with a brand name.
take a look at the picture samples thread in this forum to see what the cameras are like.
and be sure to check gizbeat.com!

if you want good quality you should seek for Zopo, Jiayu, iNew, and such
there are superb phones from china, eg oppo, huawai, lenovo, meizu but these are all quite expensive in comparison.

[Coffeegirl]

well it's pretty. pink. but thats about it.
its not a "brand" name... whatever that means for chinese phones.
but you are better off taking one with a brand name.
take a look at the picture samples thread in this forum to see what the cameras are like.
and be sure to check gizbeat.com!

if you want good quality you should seek for Zopo, Jiayu, iNew, and such
there are superb phones from china, eg oppo, huawai, lenovo, meizu but these are all quite expensive in comparison.

oh ok, I wasn't really concentrating on brand names!

I was more looking at the specs and whether they matched my needs or not!

[linr76]

its not really a problem, but with all these phones that have no "brand" name you never know what you get.
might be good, might be the worst crap.
and the small price difference is not worth the gamble imo.

good brands also include:

THL, TCL, iOcean, Elephone, UMI, Coolpad

you have to make some compromise in any case, as there is always something that could be better.
Some of the phones are full of chinese apps for example, some do not come with google play store installed, and so on.
you need to do a lot of research or simply spend more money.

if you do not need dual sim support you may also want to check for used non-chinese phones, there are good offers around.

[lookylooky]

+ the inew V3. I don't own one but have been very impressed with what I've seen and heard so far. If you can afford the extra little money it might the one to go with.

[linr76]

exactly - that is also why i chose to buy an iNew V3.
after a long line of top shelf Samsung i finally deem the chinese phones have evolved enough and from what i read so far the iNew seems to be pretty sweet for the money.

[adminlvieira]

Well they really confuse with só many options .... About inew its na decente phone althoutgh the reviews say it hás na crappy battery life, for the price range i will bet on a red Rice, or an cubot 6

[Snip: Rude language and shop link removed]

i bougth mine chinese phone expecting an life of one year.. Só Its almost there... 10 pounds per month you can buy a 120 phone each tear.. Mine hás bad battery life, crappy photos, AMD bad WiFi, and coverage away from the big cities... But it already was dropped 3 times and didnt brake yet... Its na legend .

Só you cant always trust the specifications no papper, and if you are picky you havê to spend time searching onde phone thar suits you... An friend hás na jiayu g4 and he is very please with it, can confirma that tales better pictures better WiFi better battery than mine ...

[Brewmaster]

One of the best deals out there is the Timmy E128 phone. I purchased one for my wife for Christmas and she is extremely happy. Under $100.00 US and very capable.

Just my 2 cents.

I have an iNew V3 - but for twice the price of the Timmy. And it's not twice the phone.

[linr76]

if you are out for a cheap phone maybe the timmy is a good choice, but i would strongly disagree that it is in any way comparable to the inew for example.
for around 70 USD more you get:
quad core instead of dual core (big difference, new CPU generation actually performs well)
a decent 13MP F2.2 camera instead of 5MP with probably F2.8 and a crappy lens
a good screen with gorilla glas (720p IPS instead of 854x480 with probably plastic cover LCD)
1GB Ram instead of 512MB (and believe me that makes a world of a difference)
12.5GB of Storage instead of 2.3GB - no need for a microSD card
also the Timmy does not support OTG and NFC (if that is important, otherwise disregard)

coffegirl wanted a quad core phone,
maybe a cheaper alternative would be the Landvo L800 - specs wise comparable to the timmy but with the newer mtk6582 quad core.
also check the w450, its a decent quality quad core phone for cheap.

as coffegirl mentioned she wants to use the camera a lot, and i do not think she will be happy with the cheaper alternatives.