Decent cheap Android phone recommendations?

Samsubg S21 is pretty cheap refurbished comapred to other phones, you can get it for less than £150

Where can you buy the phone from? I don’t know if I can buy it right now (because of practicality and location).

Bumping this thread to see if I can get more recommendations.

How cheap are you thinking?

£150 or less (it wouldn’t be the main phone, simply a phone to do the basics listed in the OP). Kind of like the purpose of a work phone.
Curse Apple for not allowing dual sim (and the process for getting an esim where I am is too bureaucratic).
I don’t care about camera quality, refresh rate, how “outdated” the model is (as in if it’s a Samsung Galaxy S10, and it ticks my boxes then that’s good).
If not then I might give up and use my old android phone despite the bloatware and it being cracked and slow.

The previous suggestion of a used S21 is a good choice, premium phones from a few gens back are a great way of getting more performance and features for your money. However newer entry level phones have come a long way in the last few years and can offer a similar experience, mainly losing out to older flagships in camera quality, wireless charging, and lower water/dust resistance.

For around £150 I'd be getting the Poco X6. Great performance, excellent screen, IP rating for dust and water resistance, big battery and fast charging, decent camera (which is about all you can expect in a phone at this price), it even still has a headphone jack.

https://www.mi.com/uk/product/poco-x6/?srsltid=AfmBOoq5owxJ4tjFk2RzdmO2d1dLrBWuKBVOWAXmiObFrMlYtvMqtj82

You could go cheaper, but considering your two requests for features are dual SIM and not being slow, I'd be paying a bit extra now for the improved chipset in phones or this tier to keep the phone feeling faster both when you buy it and over its lifespan.

I don’t need dual sim in the second phone. Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I’m saying that iPhones (my current and main phone) don’t allow dual physical sim outside of China/HK. So I’m happy to consider cheaper options if you had any with no dual sim.
Which is why I said curse Apple and I originally had to get and esim but the country where my second sim is from makes basic things far too bureaucratic.
Even things like water resistance, wireless charging, massive battery etc I don’t necessarily need.

Cheap and cheerful, and very reliable - Smartphones for elderly, best smartphones for seniors, easy to use smartphones, simple smartphones Ignore the 'elderly' tag - they are just simple to use.

The TCL 501 was 40 euro new online, and is pretty functional and allows two sims.
It's my only phone, and I'm on it roughly 3 hrs a day, so it does the job pretty well considering.

Sorry my mistake, but to be fair for this class of affordable phone, it's harder to find phones without dual SIM. For context I was narrowing down my selection between five or six other £150ish handsets and they all had dual SIM. I wouldn't know where to start looking for a decent Android phone with only a single sim these days.

If you wanted to go cheaper then the Samsung Galaxy A16 is a solid buy for £100. Below that and you don't just lose a bit of power and a few features, quality drops off a cliff- screens are low res, the processors are either ancient or anaemic, build quality gets ropey, about the only thing they hold onto is battery life because big cells are cheap and their weak components couldn't draw much power if they tried. I know you've said the bells and whistles aren't important, but even putting aside all thoughts of usability, their chipsets will either feel slow out the box or very quickly end up feeling that way.

https://amzn.eu/d/2m9Sjs8

Cheap and cheerful, and very reliable - Smartphones for elderly, best smartphones for seniors, easy to use smartphones, simple smartphones Ignore the 'elderly' tag - they are just simple to use.

Thank you all for your suggestions. I got the Samsung Galaxy A16 in the end (one of the suggestions here) after asking for advice at the tech shop as well.
The worker was very nice and says the phone should meet my needs (navigation, text/call, WhatsApp).
I can finally put the issue to bed now. Keep things where I am consistent (phone number wise).

great to hear that

I’m wondering what cheap Android would be good. I’m not bothered if the phone happens to be an old model. I simply potentially want the phone for call, text and navigation, that’s it. The rest besides it not being painfully slow and making sure that it can support WhatsApp long term doesn’t matter.
It will (if I get one) simply act as a phone to house a second physical sim for travel purposes.
Thanks in advance for any help.