The best cheap new Android phone? Realme C35 wants to take Motorola's crown

Could this be the best new budget phone in the Android market? The Realme C35 isn't brand new to the world - it was announced back in February 2022 in some markets - but it is all new to the UK, where it'll retail for £149. 

That price point is the big-hit headline about this handset, putting it head to head with the likes of Motorola - the latter company's G series handsets, such as the Moto G31, are often touted as the best budget phones available. 

• Best cheap phones 2024: the best cheap smartphones, ranked
• Best Android phones 2024: top Android mobiles as tested and reviewed

But Realme has been rising through the ranks in recent years, which is why you'll often see the name appear on best-of lists, both budget and sub-flagship. It was even the first company to announce crazy-fast 150W UltraDart charging, showing off its technological know-how.

Realme C35: Key spec appeal

While the Realme C35 doesn't feature said charging, it does have some eye-catching features, including a 6.6-inch LCD screen with a greater-than-Full-HD resolution (1080 x 2408 pixels) and even a 50-megapixel main rear camera (as part of its triple-lens setup - although don't expect much of the macro and depth sensors).

There are plenty of other appealing specs, too, from a 3.5mm headphone jack, side-mounted fingerprint scanner, dedicated microSD card slot to expand the onboard storage, to a large capacity 5,000mAh battery that should keep this handset ticking along for an age.

Colour options are typically Realme: there's Glowing Black and Glowing Green available, the latter pictured above.

All that might be enough to see Motorola quake in its boots, because as sub-£150 phones go, Realme has ticked lots of appealing boxes here. We'll see how it fares in the Realworld™ when we review this cheap and cheerful Android phone.