Smart ways to cut costs on buying an expensive smartphone

Check out three of the best buys on the market

Moto G5 €199

When it comes to high-performance budget smartphones, Motorola is arguably the king. Its newest G5 (like all previous 'G' models) gives you a hell of a lot for your money, including a fingerprint scanner, a decent 13-megapixel rear camera and a pretty nice five-inch 1080p screen.

It also has a bit of metal thrown into the usual plastic you'd expect to see on a sub-€200 smartphone.

The five-inch HD screen is bright with 441 pixels per inch and, unlike posher phones, there's still a headphone port. So what's the catch?

Where it cuts corners is on the sameness of the design and just 16GB of storage. However, there's MicroSD expansion built in. Battery life is fine and it uses the older MicroUSB rather than USB-C to recharge.

Three Prism HD €99 from Three

Huawei includes a lot of useful specifications even on its lower-cost phones.

The P8 Lite may look plasticky but it has a relatively long-lasting battery (3,000mAh), a fingerprint reader for security and dual sim support, which would be handy for regular travellers.

With a 5.2-inch screen, this is a bigger display than many sub-€200 phones on the market at present.

Its 12-megapixel camera is genuinely decent for a budget phone, too.

Its 16GB of storage isn't a massive amount but this can be expanded through a microSD card.

It's hard to do much better for under €200.

Huawei P8 Lite, €199 from Eir

As much as smartphone technology has come on, it's still a big ask to get something you'd even vaguely compare to an iPhone for under €100.

Three has made a game attempt at it, though. Its rebadged TCL Android handset is a plastic five-inch device that can stream video and social media feeds, as well as take calls and texts without any problem.

It has a so-so (5-megapixel) rear camera and a paltry 8GB of storage, over half of which is taken up with system requirements. However, this is expandable to 32GB with a memory card. Battery life is OK and it does have a removable rear case, which some people miss.

It's noticeably slower and bittier than pricier Samsungs or Sonys and is obviously tied to Three. But for under €100 it's perfectly acceptable.