So in a couple of weeks, I leave my current job which supplies me with a phone. This means that for the first time in roughly 4-5 years, I'll need to buy a phone and I'm kind of at a loss.

I'm definitely wanting to stick with Android, I see nothing appealing about either iOS or WP.
I've been using Samsungs the past few years as that's what work has supplied me with and I generally like them, certainly having borrowed a Huawei P8 from a friend to try out, I find there are certain aspects of Samsung's UI that sit better with me. However I will give any/all brands reasonable consideration as I'm acutely aware that you get a lot of bang for your buck with some of the Chinese OEMs.

Beyond that I'm at a stage now whereby I don't feel the need to have the very top of the range simply because it's the top of the range - I've used an S6 and an S6 Edge+ lately and while they're undoubtedly lovely handsets, I can't really see the difference between a 1080HD screen and a QHD screen at that sorta size. I also don't tend to take a huge number of photos on my phone, don't really need a crazy-powerful SoC either as I use my phone as a communication tool, I'm not needing to render 3D CAD models on it or anything like that.

The only other thing is that a dual-SIM handset would be preferable - I'd prefer not to have to use my personal number as a point of contact for work, so I'll be getting myself a second SIM to use but I'd prefer not to have to carry 2 handsets (it's a pain just now) - not to mention not have to purchase 2 handsets.


To that end, I'd found a dual-SIM version of the Samsung A8 online for ~£260, which I figure is a reasonable starting point.
Can anyone recommend anything else worth comparing it to?

I can understand your reluctance with Emotion UI on the Huawei phone but there are plenty of others that are not as heavily skinned as that. The OnePlus 2 is £290 and dual sim. It has a great 1080p screen and a big battery. If you need sd card support then look elsewhere but it has 64gb of storage built in.

It's very un-Android IMO, the lack of the proper app drawer really didn't work for me.
One thing I think I'll struggle with with any non-Samsung handset is the notification bar - I like the Samsung solution with the toggles being accessible at the same time as the notifications, whereas a lot of handsets I've tried you have to switch between toggles and notifications and it seems so poor in comparison. I guess I'd get used to it though.


Thanks for the recommendation. I was generally aware of the OnePlus handsets but had somehow never clocked that any of them were dual-SIM, so it's definitely one I'm considering now.
64GB would be more than enough for me - as I mentioned, I've used a couple of the S6 family this year and they were both 32GB and I had no problems.