GSMArena smartphone buyer's guide: 2015 Holiday Edition

€100-€200

Tablets failed to kill the humble PC, but big phones are certainly capable of hurting a number of tablets. For less than €200 you can get a 5.5" 1080p screen and enough processing power for proper multitasking. If you prefer something more compact, there's a solid choice of five-inchers.

Early this year LG put out a few phones, which were not a part of its regular letter lineup. The LG Spirit is a surprisingly capable fighter that doesn’t fly far above the €100 threshold. It has a good-quality screen, sharp and with good viewing angles, and a mid-range camera that shoots 8MP stills and 1080p videos. It even has a 64-bit Snapdragon 410 chipset, a popular choice in the midrange.

Keep in mind that this is the H440N version, the H420 version undoes some of the good – it drops to a 5MP camera and a 32-bit MediaTek chipset. It's still a good phone, just not as good as its cousin.

A slightly bigger option is the LG Magna, which has a 5" 720p screen instead. It builds on the Spirit with optional dual-SIM connectivity and a 5MP selfie cam. It comes only with 32-bit chipsets though and there's a single-SIM, non-LTE version so be careful.

The Lumia 630 is just a little over €100, but the Microsoft Lumia 640 is worth the extra bucks so we jumped straight to it. It has a 5" 720p screen, bigger and sharper than the 630, and a better camera setup – 8MP main camera that shoots 1080p videos, plus a 720p selfie cam. The chipset is the same, but you get double the RAM at 1GB.

We're looking specifically at the 3G, dual-SIM model, though the Lumia 640 comes in any combination of 3G or 4G and single or dual-SIM, so pick your poison.

This model has a phablet-sized option too, the Microsoft Lumia 640 XL. It bumps up the screen size to 5.7", keeping the 720p resolution. Most of the other specs are the same, but the camera gets a noticeable upgrade – a bigger, sharper 13MP sensor with a Carl Zeiss lens (a premium feature) and a 5MP/1080p selfie cam.

As with the other 640’s, the Lumia 640 XL lets you pick and choose 3G or 4G, single or dual-SIM (with prices varying accordingly).

A similar duo is the Meizu m2 team. The Meizu m2 has a 5" 720p screen like the Lumia 640, but tops it with a 64-bit processor and a better camera – 13MP rear and 5MP front. It's a dual-SIM phone with LTE, the same combo on the Lumia will be pricier.

The Meizu m2 note pumps up the screen to 5.5" 1080p and boosts the chipset performance with double the CPU cores (eight) and more GPU power. It also offers a 32GB option.

Note that both these Meizus run Flyme 4.5, a very comprehensive skin over Android 5.1 Lollipop. Changes to Android run so deep that it may look alien to users in the Western hemisphere.

At roughly the same price, the Lenovo K3 Note has essentially the same specs: a 5.5" 1080p screen, an octa-core 64-bit chipset with 2GB of RAM, 13MP/1080p main camera and so on. It does have a separate microSD slot though, so you can use two SIMs and expanded storage (which the m2 note can't). It has the same quirky UI though, this time called "Lenovo Vibe 2.0."

Unveiled only a few days ago, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 surprises with its low price and capable specs. Like the other two, it has a 5.5" 1080p screen and an octa-core processor – a MediaTek Helio X10, which has a pretty solid GPU.

What it offers above the K3 Note and m2 note is a fingerprint reader on the back, the metal back. That's right, the Redmi Note 3 offers premium build and features, all at a highly affordable price. No NFC means no Android Pay though.

The Moto G 2nd gen belongs in this category, but we think the price premium of the Motorola Moto G (3rd gen) is worth it. It's one of the most affordable phones with waterproofing (IPX7, good for up to 1m underwater for half an hour).

Compared to its predecessor, it upgrades to a 64-bit chipset and has a version with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, in addition to the standard 1GB/8GB model. The camera makes a noticeable jump forward too, going up to 13MP/1080p and bringing a 5MP selfie camera with it.

By the way, if you were looking at the Moto E, it's a nice phone but keep in mind that it has been locked out of the Marshmallow update. And that would’ve been one of the major reasons to go with Motorola over other makers.

Here at the office we have our fair share of AMOLED screens – the perfect blacks look great at night and these screens generally have better contrast too (color accuracy can vary significantly across models). So we thought about including the Galaxy J2, one of the cheapest AMOLED-equipped phones but it's probably not worth it just for the screen.

Now, the Samsung Galaxy J5 is by no means cheap for the specs it offers, but unlike the J2 it is a capable phone on its own. And it has a 5" Super AMOLED screen of 720p resolution. The camera department boasts a 13MP/1080p main shooter and a 5MP selfie cam with its own LED flash. On the connectivity side there's LTE and optional dual-SIM.

To round things off, a decent 64-bit chipset with 1.5GB of RAM runs the Android 5.1 Lollipop. It shapes up to be good competition to the Moto G (3rd gen) if you value the screen over things like waterproofing. It's not clear if/when the Galaxy J5 will get Marshmallow though.

You can have the same 5" 720p Super AMOLED screen at a much lower cost with the new Samsung Z3. It's a Tizen phone and the specs are slightly lower, e.g. 1GB of RAM instead of 1.5GB, an 8MP camera instead of 13MP and no LTE. You still get dual-SIM and a 5MP selfie cam though.

What didn’t make the cut

Here are the phones that didn’t get the nod in this category. The Moto E (2nd gen) was skipped for its Marshmallow-less future. Without that, it really belongs inthe sub-€100 euro category. Its friend, the Moto G (2nd gen) is getting the 6.0 update and we like its stereo speakers, though the 3rd gen model is really worth the extra few bucks.

Motorola Moto E (2nd gen) • Motorola Moto G (2nd gen)

The Galaxy J2 appeals with a Super AMOLED screen, but we'd rather pay extra for the J5 or settle for a Tizen-powered Z3.

Another Samsung, the Galaxy On5 is a recent addition to the 5" crowd, but its availability is limited and we don't feel it offers enough over, say, an LG Magna or a Meizu m2 to import one. The Galaxy On7 is available in the same regions, but its 5.5" 720p screen lags behind the Meizu m2 note and Lenovo K3 Note, while the rest of the specs offer no meaningful improvements.

The Galaxy A3 belongs to a higher-end series than the J-crew, but at basically the same price the Galaxy J5 is better than the A3 (bigger, sharper screen, higher-res main camera and selfie flash). It is super thin and light though – 6.9mm and 110g – so if you value compactness, then go for the A3 over the J5.

Samsung Galaxy J2 • Samsung Galaxy On5 • Samsung Galaxy On7 • Samsung Galaxy A3

Other notable mentions are Microsoft's Lumia 540 and Lumia 550. The Lumia 640 easily trumps them in terms of specs and the newer Lumia 550 isn't ahead on software updates.

Microsoft Lumia 550 • Microsoft Lumia 540 Dual SIM