GSMArena smartphone shopping guide: November 2013

Under €100

This category used to be ruled by feature phones, but Android-powered smartphones are putting on the pressure big time. Most of the phones in this category end up being dual-SIMs, as most emerging markets they targeted have incomplete carrier coverage. But at this price point it doesn't hurt to have a second SIM slot even if you don't use it most of the time. Plus, single-SIM versions of many of these phones are either not available or not meaningfully cheaper.

People looking for a phone under €100 prioritize utility and cost. As such. all of these will have you chatting on social networks, using email and doing light web browsing. Dual-SIM support keeps things cheap - you need to buy just one phone and with two lines you can get a better deal on call minutes and texts than you can with a single SIM.

The Samsung Galaxy Y is an old model - it came out in late 2011 - but it's cheaper than certain feature phones. It runs Gingerbread on a slow CPU with little RAM, but it's good enough to browse the web, check email, install IM clients and simple apps of your choice. The key advantage here is that the featurephone ecosystems are particularly barren, so even a simple smartphone like the Galaxy Y can be much more flexible.

While finding worthwhile feature phone apps is near impossible, some phones come with a good app package out of the box. The Nokia Asha 210 Dual SIM comes with a browser, email client, WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter pre-installed, which is what most people need anyway. There are even GTalk and Yahoo chat clients.

The Asha 210 Dual SIM is for people looking to do a lot of talking and texting on the cheap. The hardware QWERTY offers a much better typing experience than you're likely to get on a sub-3.3" touchscreen. The phone has Wi-Fi, so you don't need to pay for a data plan to access social networks, too.

The Asha range has touchscreen devices too, like the Asha 501 Dual Sim. This one comes with almost the same messaging skills as the Asha 210, save for the WhatsApp client. What you gain with the bigger touchscreen over the Asha 210 (3" vs. 2.4") is easier web browsing, though this comes at the cost of comfy typing.

The Samsung Galaxy Young Duos is the 2013 successor to the Galaxy Y. It has a slightly bigger screen with double the resolution and a faster chipset. The chipset is nothing spectacular, but the 768MB RAM is pretty good. The Galaxy Young Duos also runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which is fairly recent. Plus, for a 50% price premium (around €30 in this case) over the Galaxy Y, you get a second SIM slot and a better screen, OS and chipset.