BEST SMARTPHONES UNDER £100
They do exactly what you need
Covid passport
QR codes
Two-factor
There are plenty of valid reasons
not to own a smartphone. Perhaps you find touchscreens difficult to use, or you need a phone only for calls and texts. But increasingly in today’s world, it’s assumed and required that you have one, for everything from verifying your online accounts to scanning
QR codes. Without one, you can be locked out of everyday activities.
Before you grudgingly cave into the pressure to buy a smartphone, either to use as your main handset or a second phone, it’s worth investigating the cheapest available options. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to spend hundreds of pounds on an iphone or
Android phone to get ‘smart’ features.
Here we pick the best handsets for under £100 that offer everything you need to cope with modern life. So, with one exception, every phone we recommend does the following:
• Supports two-factor authentication (2FA) • Shows your NHS Covid ‘vaccine passport’ • Lets you easily scan QR codes
• Runs Whatsapp and other useful apps
As you won’t find a new, SIM- free iphone for less than £399, we’ve focused primarily on Android smartphones. However, we also look at ‘feature phones’ that offer essential internet options, to determine the lowest price you can pay for a smart experience.
Log into your accounts using 2FA
Many websites now secure your accounts using two-factor authentication (2FA), causing problems for non-smartphone owners. 2FA security codes sent by text message can usually be typed into the browser on your PC or laptop, but sometimes you’ll be asked to tap a link to confirm your identity. You won’t be able to do this if your phone isn’t ‘smart’, and therefore lacks a web browser.
The good news is that you can buy a basic phone with a mobile browser for under £30. Nokia’s 5310 handset currently costs just £29 on Amazon ( www.snipca.com/38654, pictured left) and comes with the Opera Mini browser. It’s a 2G- only phone with a 2.4in (non-touch) screen, so rather slow and small for everyday browsing, and doesn’t work with either Whatsapp or the Covid passport (it’s the exception we mentioned earlier), but works fine for opening account-verification links.
A bigger problem is posed by sites that require you to generate 2FA codes using an authenticator
app. This is more secure than typing codes sent by text because they’re valid only for a short time. However, if you can’t install an authenticator app then you may be locked out of your account.
Buying a budget Android phone will solve this dilemma, because you’ll be able to download an authenticator app such as Microsoft Authenticator ( www.snipca. com/38651) from the Google Play Store. The cheapest we’ve found is the Alcatel
1C ( www.snipca.com/38657, pictured above), which costs just £50 and runs the lightweight ‘Go edition’ of Android 8 (Oreo) – most authenticator apps require only Android 6 or later.
Display your vaccine passport in the NHS app
Although the Government has dropped plans to make ‘Covid passports’ mandatory in pubs and restaurants, it may still ask you to show them for travel and large events, so if you’ve had both your jabs it’s vital to have the proof to hand. Rather than showing (and possibly losing) your vaccination card, you can use the official England NHS app ( www. snipca.com/38658): just tap ‘Share your COVID-19 status’ on the home screen, choose Continue then select Travel to access your Covid records, which include your vaccination dates and test results. Sadly, this isn’t yet available in the NHS app for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - see page 11 for details of how to obtain proof in those countries.
The NHS app works on iphones running IOS 9 or later and Android devices with at least Android 5, which covers most smartphones from the past six years. The Alcatel 1C, mentioned above, is compatible with the NHS app, but we’d recommend paying £40 more for the Motorola Moto E6s ( www.snipca. com/38660, pictured above right).
Not only does this gorgeous £90 phone have a large (6.1in) screen for displaying your Covid details and the QR code that officials need to scan, but it also captures high-quality photos and videos. This is helpful for the rigorous identityverification process when you register for the NHS app ( www.snipca.com/38691).
The Moto E6s also has a fingerprint reader, so you log into the app and access your Covid-19 records without having to sign in manually every time. It offers 32GB of storage, 2GB of RAM (not 4GB as Amazon says) and 4G connectivity.
Scan QR codes to check in and view information
Phones running Android 9 have cameras that can scan QR codes without you needing to install dedicated apps. If the Motorola Moto E6s is just out of your price range, and you don’t mind buying a phone from a Chinese manufacturer, consider the Xiaomi Redmi 9A ( www. snipca.com/38664, pictured below), which costs £80. This offers the same amount of storage (32GB), an even bigger screen (6.53in) and runs Android 10, though it doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner. Its 13-megapixel rear camera, combined with its huge, bright display, make it ideal for scanning QR codes of any size. Its battery life is impressive, too, lasting up to two days between charges.
Don’t worry about finding the right smartphone to scan NHS QR codes, because the NHS COVID-19 app for England and Wales ( www.covid19.nhs.
uk), and the Check-in Scotland app
( www.snipca.com/38813), work on any handset running Android 6 or IOS 13.5 and upwards. Northern Ireland’s app ( www.snipca.com/38816) uses Bluetooth, not QR codes.
Chat on Whatsapp and Facebook
Both Whatsapp and Facebook are available on many cheap phones that use an operating system called KAIOS ( www.kaiostech.com). Based on Linux, this Android alternative allows devices without touchscreens to run apps from the KAIOS app store ( www.snipca. com/38668) – though not NHS apps.
Nokia’s Kaios-powered phones include the 6300 4G, which you can currently buy from its online store for £50 (down from £60) from www.snipca. com/38666. This has a similar design to Nokia’s classic handsets, but has been updated to include Wi-fi, Bluetooth, 4G and the aforementioned apps, as well as a web browser, FM radio and music player.
Alternatively, there’s the Doro 7030 (pictured above), which offers the same big buttons, simple interface and great battery life as the company’s other phones for seniors (such as the Doro 8050 – see our review, Issue 609, page 26). However, because it runs KAIOS it’s cheaper than Doro’s Android devices. It’s just £90 on Amazon at the time of writing ( www.snipca.com/38671), and has 4G, Wi-fi, Bluetooth, Whatsapp and Facebook, though it doesn’t let you access the KAIOS store. However, it does have GPS, which lets you share your location – a welcome feature in an emergency.