10 best pay-as-you-go festival phones

Fear your swanky and smashable smartphone won't go the distance? IndyBest finds rugged and reliable devices for your rucksack

Phones might have got a lot smarter in recent years – but they’ve also got a lot less rugged, and their battery lives have slowly reduced enough to make you feel lucky if they last a day. That might be OK most of the time, but if you’re setting off to a festival or just into the great outdoors, you’re going to want something a bit more durable – or just cheap enough to not feel too bad about leaving it behind. We’ve tried and tested a range of phones to bring you a selection. We considered ruggedness, battery life, functions and price. The prices below are for the handsets only.

1. Doro PhoneEasy 508: £29.95, argos.co.uk

This is as simple as a phone can be: big buttons, a menu that’s easy to navigate, no internet and plenty of sound feedback. It’s easy to operate in the dark and mud.

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2. Samsung E1200: £14.95, argos.co.uk

The rubber keyboard on this phone helps to keep it clean, as well as letting it see off bumps and scratches. There’s no internet but it has a camera (a not particularly hi-tech one, granted) and it will last up to a month without charging.

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3. Nokia 225: £35, tesco.com

Nokia built this as an affordable way of getting people connected. It makes sense for people looking for a back-up phone – it has a battery that will last a month plus access to most of the important apps and features. Comes in five colours.

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4. Samsung Galaxy S5: £449, littlewoods.com; pay-monthly deals available

Samsung also makes a waterproof, and fairly rugged, smartphone. While it’s not the newest – its successor, the S6, just came out, though it isn’t waterproof – it’s still got a good screen and is quick. Plus the camera’s good for capturing festival moments.

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5. Samsung E1270: £4.99 plus £20 top-up, carphonewarehouse.com

Flip phones are perfect for festivals: all the important bits are on the inside, so they can take a bit of bashing about, and the design helps them to stay small and light. This also packs in a good battery life.

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6. Nokia 3310: £17.99, 2ndhandmobilephones.co

Here’s the Nokia that everyone remembers, and which has become a symbol of the movement back to less smart and more robust phones. They can only be bought second-hand now – so the batteries might be slightly depleted – but one of these will invoke plenty of nostalgia.

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7. CAT B15Q: £233.98, amazon.co.uk

Built by a firm better known for its trucks and diggers, this Android phone comes with much of the same ruggedness but still manages to be a decent smartphone, too. It’s resistant to water and being dropped.

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8. Alcatel 10.10: £8.39, amazon.co.uk

This was made in part expressly as a second phone – for festivals and nights out – and is knowingly basic with no internet. But it still has a music player, a bright screen, a radio, a torch and a speaker, all packed into a fairly small box.

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9. Nokia 105: £19.99, pcworld.co.uk

This is still built to last and has a colour screen, as well as a torch and a radio – but that’s about as hi-tech as it gets (there’s no internet). It also has a battery that should see you through even the longest festival.

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10. Sony Xperia Z3: £399, giffgaff.com

This has a bright touchscreen, the internet and high performance, but in a waterproof and resilient box and with a decent battery life. The huge glass screen means it’s more sensitive than the other phones here – but it does a lot more, too.

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Verdict:

If you’re looking for something rugged and long-lasting, but don’t want to compromise on features, the Nokia 225 gives you everything you’re likely to need to call on but won’t break, or break the bank. If you need something a little more complicated and high-powered, the S5 is a modern smartphone that can see off most of the challenges of festival season.

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