Help buying a low-budget smartphone!

I have Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro it isn't bad and it has a keyboard! the only bad thing is that it's screen is very small...but it's ok if you get used to it

nexus 4

Android only? Because you can get an iPhone 4 for the cheap nowadays - even more so if good condition second hand.

I wouldn't take the Xperia Mini Pro because of the slide-out keyboard, but it has 4.0 support whereas the Galaxy Mini is stuck at 2.3 (not bad, but 4.0+ is better in usability imo - I've only played with them, not used them daily).

e: like mrmiht said, Nexus 4 is a great option too and it's a steal just for the specs.

Well... can you use the keyboard for games like SNESoid or GameBoid emulator? If the answer is yes, I'll take it.

Samsung Galaxy Ace.

Nexus 4 but its out of stock

what about the galaxy s2 instead? I have no idea how much it is on your end but it's been out for about 2 years so the price for it here is low. It's a pretty neat phone. I am using it.

Virgin mobile, Optimus Slider. It's..... It works and it is cheap.

Samsung Galaxy Y is a good one

those are dumb phones. The only smart ones are nexus 4 and iphone 5

xperia play

Xperia x8

If you list Galaxy Mini, check on Mini 2 as well. It will get Jelly Bean soon (although that soon is in Valve time..).

Actually, I have the Mini Pro (sk17i) right next to me, running the FreeXperia rom based on Cyanogenmod10 with an extended kernel. Runs great. But if you plan to play the emulators with the hardware keyboard... well lets say its kinda small. :D

Don't get a SE, it's slower than an average 90-year-old in quicksand.