Budget Android phone - seeking recommendations

[Steely Glint]

I'm looking for a budget (< £100) android phone for my mum, since her four year old HTC Hero appears to be reaching the end of it's useful lifespan. It will mainly be used for e-mail, SMS, phoning people, and occasionally sat-nav. I think I'm really looking for something that's going to run smoothly and with a minimum of fuss above anything else, i.e smooth animations and touch screen interactions, apps open instantly etc. No third party android reskin with OTT animations on under powered hardware silliness.

[Hazir]

There's a wide range of good quality chinese phones; zopo; jiayu, oppo (though this brand may be outside of your price range) xiaomi. I am using a Zopo zp990+ as we speak. In general I like this phone, what I like less about it is that it sometimes looses wifi connection for no good reason and that sometimes GPS is sluggish. Also look at special offers by Aldi and the likes; they can have high spec phones at discount prices. Motorola phones should also give you a decent enough experience if you want a barebone android experience.

A nice extra of most chinese phones is that they are dual-sim. A feature most people who use it wouldn't forego in a replacement phone.