A few years ago I bought my Dad one of the original Moto G phones (an XT1039 like this) it’s a neat little thing at just 116 x 66 x 13 mm with a 4.5″ screen. But with just 8Gb of onboard storage and the fact that not all apps can be moved to the SD card he has run out of space so is looking for a new phone.

He is happy with the performance of the Moto G and likes the size. He is not really a power user so looking for something that also uses Android that he is used to and that ideally is not too big. Also he is not keen on spending too much so I would say £150 is the maximum.

So my the current options I have spotted are:
Xiaomi A2. 159 x 75 x 7mm. 4Gb RAM/64Gb. £120 – Not entirely sure this is the version I need to make sure it is fully UK compliant
Nokia 2.2. 146 x 70 x 9 mm. 2Gb RAM/16Gb. £80
Nokia 3.2 159 x 76 x 9 mm. 2Gb RAM/16Gb. £99
Nokia 4.2. 149 x 71 x 8 mm. 3Gb RAM/32Gb. £130
Nokia 5.1. 150 x 70 x 8 mm. 2Gb RAM/16 Gb. £130

Does anyone have any experience of these phones or alternative contenders given the criteria?

Any advice appreciated!

Sony z3 compact off ebay.

£60 for a previous generation top of the range smart phone.

I’ve got a 64g card in mine.

Mi A2 for £120 is a steal if it’s the UK version, paid £170 a few months back from Amazon, noticed they had dropped price after releasing some new models.

Second-hand Samsung S7.

Having played the chinese smartphone game for the last 4 years its nice to get back tona phone thats actually responsive!

Does he like the size because he genuinely likes titchy phones or just because that’s all he’s used to? Without half the front lost to bezel you’re getting more screen for the same size handset.

Either way, as your Dad isn’t a serial upgrader get one like the Xiaomi A2 as it’ll probably get updates for longer than “skinned” android phones.

Mi A2 from official UK stockist here: https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/xiaomi-mi-a2-android-one-4gb64gb-at-clovecouk-for-12499-3287127

Why not Nokia 6.1? Pretty much same size as the 5.1, and more memory, faster processor etc.

Hate to go over budget but you can get the Samsung A40 for about £170 and has great screen and a bit smaller than those Nokias. One handed mode is also good. But otherwise I like some of the Nokias and I think most of them have “Android One” which means they will get some software updates.

Thanks for the suggestions all!

True the Nokia 6.1 is £125 on Amazon. 149 x 76 x 9mm. 32Gb. Seems little reason not to go for that over other Nokias.

Had a Sony Z3 Compact myself – nice but fragile and battery life no where near my Xiaomi. I’ve been really impressed with my Xiaomi over the last two years so can’t really say I find it unresponsive. My father certainly wouldn’t notice. He likes a small phone because it is small, a bigger one will be just that to him as he is not really a frequent user (it is often turned off).

Samsung looks neat but doesn’t really look sufficiently better to go over budget for.

Thank you for link to Mi A2 UK version. Good to get a fix on which version to buy!

Hmm, just spotted a potential reason not to go for the Nokia 6.1 in that it is available in the blue colour for £125 but other colours, critically plain old boring black, are way more expensive like £240!

I’d welcome any other suggestions that fit the small brief better!

Well, I have that blue Nokia. It’s a brilliant bit of kit, with two flaws.

Firstly, the camera isn’t great, particularly in low light. This can be improved with 3rd party camera apps, but you cannot fully fix hardware with software. The stock camera app is absolute garbage, it locked up the phone more often than it actually took pictures.

Secondly, and somewhat astonishingly, it cannot (yet) use SD cards as adoptable storage. I only discovered this the other week when I added an SD, after maybe a year of ownership. Granted I do have a lot of apps on it, but I’m starting to hit storage limits and can’t readily move apps across to the SD. I’m hoping this is fixed in a patch at some point, they added the feature a few months ago but pulled it as it was causing data corruption.

In all other areas it’s been brilliant. Good battery life, great screen, rapid and responsive, and an aluminium shell you could knock nails in with (which is just as well as it’s suffered Instantaneous Deceleration Trauma a couple of times in car parks now). Oh, and it’s on the Android One programme, so guaranteed timely updates and no bloatware.

Second-hand Samsung S7.

This^.

Got a refurbed S7 off ebay for the Mrs. It was £120 and when it turned up, looked brand new. Not a mark on it.

From this seller. Samsung S7 refurb