Get a mobile phone for a fiver from Asda

Asda is selling the Alcatel 1010 handset for just a fiver, making it the cheapest mobile phone around.

Asda has slashed the price of the Alcatel One Touch 1010 mobile handset to just £5. This is an incredibly low price for a mobile phone, especially given that the same model retails at £17.99 on Amazon.com.

Five pounds is practically nothing to pay for a phone, but its features and functions are fairly basic. Here's what you get for your fiver:

• This handset costs £5 on the T-Mobile network.
• There is no minimum credit top-up for this pay-as-you-go deal.
• You can make and receive calls and send and receive SMS text messages, with storage for up to 100 contacts.
• This handset cannot run apps, so social-networking apps and games don't work on it.
• It comes with an MP3 player, wireless FM radio and 3MB of onboard memory.
• The handset lasts 333 hours on standby (that's almost a fortnight), so it has far better battery life than high-powered smartphones.
• The 'candy bar'-style handset measures just 10.6x5.6x1.3cm.
• The screen is a mere 1.45 inches square, with a 128x128 pixel display.
• The handset comes in three colours: Black, Deep Red or Fascinating Red (a pink/purple red).
• It weighs a tiny 59 grams (about the same as six £1 coins).

Cheap and cheerful

Clearly, this is no high-end smartphone running the latest apps on a crystal-clear screen. Instead, this basic model is aimed firmly at the low end of the market. It's light, portable and cheap.

Claire McAuley, Asda's chief buyer for mobiles, says, "Purse strings are stretched ahead of the festive season. A quarter of mums are budgeting more than ever and our customers are always looking for new ways to save money. We've launched the lowest-priced phone as a solution to keeping in touch at the lowest cost possible this Christmas and are expecting shoppers of all ages to snap them off the shelves."

In other words, the Alcatel 1010 could be great for granddad, granny and anyone else who wants a basic phone to keep in touch and for use in emergencies. It's also a handset that you won't cry over if it gets lost, stolen or broken, as an instant replacement would only be another £5.

Compare mobile phone deals at Recombu

Bargain-basement mobile deals

A phone costing just £5 that fits easily in your pocket, requires no minimum top-up and comes SIM-free sounds like the bargain of a lifetime.

Then again, similar headline-grabbing offers have appeared before, such as Carphone Warehouse's launch of a 99p handset in November 2010. For a limited period, the high-street chain sold the Alcatel OT-209 handset for under £1, but customers had to buy £10 of pay-as-you-go credit on the Virgin network.

So, what other mobile bargains are available in the run-up to Christmas? Here are three deals to cater to all tastes, from basic to top end:

A budget smartphone for £100

If you don't fancy a basic feature phone such as the Alcatel 1010, then spending under £200 will bag you a half-decent budget smartphone. According to the experts at PC Advisor, these seven handsets fall into in this sub-£200 category (sorted by rating out of 10):

According to PC Advisor's testers, "The Huawei Ascend G 300 is a budget Android smartphone that outperforms everything in its price range." Hence, this £100 bargain buy looks like the pick of the bunch for cost-conscious buyers.

£15 a month SIM-only deal for heavy users

If you are a heavy user of your smartphone (you do lots of web-surfing, texting and calling) and are looking for a cheaper contract, then Three mobile's The One Plan is a SIM-only offer costing £15 a month. This is a 12-month contract, so costs £180 for one year.

This may sound pricey, but you get a bumper bundle for your money: 2,000 call minutes, 5,000 Three-to-Three minutes, 5,000 texts and unlimited data including free tethering. Although described as 'unlimited' data, fair usage is set at one Terabyte (1,000GB) a month.

Using free tethering, you can connect a PC, laptop or tablet to the internet via your handset, so it could even replace your home broadband and landline.

The best value iPhone 5S contract

If you're after the latest handset from Apple then you might like the iPhone 5S.

Most iPhone 5S contracts tie you in for two years and require you to pay a hefty sum upfront for the handset, which has a recommended retail price (RRP) of £549. Buying a 5S on contract is a balancing act between how much you can afford on day one versus how much you want to pay each month.

One of the best tariffs comes from Vodafone. You pay £269.99 upfront, followed by 24 monthly payments of £17, totalling £677.99. That's not even £130 more than the handset's RRP, yet it gives you a monthly package of 300 minutes, unlimited texts and a 250MB data allowance. overall it averages out at £28 a month for two years - not bad for the best smartphone Apple has to offer.

With fierce competition among handset manufacturers and network providers for customers, there are bargain mobile deals everywhere. However, don't sign on the dotted line until you've shopped around online for the deepest discounts and biggest bargains.

Are you paying too much for your mobile phone? Check out the best deals at Recombu

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