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It may be fashionable to spend $1,000 on the latest flagship smartphone when it’s first released, but it’s not necessary. You don’t even have to spend $500 today to get a decent phone, whether it’s a refurbished iPhone or an affordable Android phone, as there are plenty of options for as little as $160 that could meet your needs.
But navigating the budget phone market can be tricky; Options that look good on paper may not be so in practice, and some phones will end up costing you more when you consider that many come with restrictive storage. While we at Engadget spend most of our time testing and reviewing mid- and high-end phones, we’ve tested several of the latest budget phones on the market to see which ones are really worth the money.
What to look for in a cheap phone
For this guide, our top picks cost between $100 and $300. Anything less and you could buy a dumb phone or a high-end calculator instead. Since they are meant to be more affordable than flagship and even mid-range phones, budget smartphones involve trade-offs; The cheaper a device is, the lower your expectations should be for specs, performance, and experience. For that reason, the best advice I can give you is to spend as much as you can. In this price range, even $50 or $100 more can get you a dramatically better product.
Second, you need to know what you want most from a phone. When buying a budget smartphone, you may have to sacrifice a decent main camera for longer battery life, or trade in a high-resolution display for a faster CPU. That’s what comes with the territory, but knowing your priorities will make it easier to find the right phone.
It’s also worth noting that some features can be difficult to find on cheap phones. For example, you won’t need to look hard for a device with all-day battery life, but if you want a phone with a great camera and excellent camera quality, you’d better buy one of our mid-range smartphone recommendations. guide, which all cost $600 or less. Wireless charging and waterproofing are also not easy to find in this price range and forget about the faster chipset. The good thing is that all of our recommendations come with headphone jacks, so you won’t need to purchase wireless headphones.
iOS is also off the table, as the $400 Apple iPhone SE is the most affordable iPhone in the line. That leaves the Android operating system as the only option. Fortunately today, there is little to complain about with Google’s operating system, and you may even prefer it to iOS. Finally, keep in mind that most Android manufacturers typically offer much less robust software features and support for their budget devices. In some cases, your new phone may only receive one major software update and a year or two of security patches beyond that date. This applies to the OnePlus and Motorola recommendations on our list.
If you want to keep your phone for as long as possible, Samsung has the best software policy of any Android maker in the budget segment, offering four years of security updates on all its devices. That said, if your main goal is software support (or overall device longevity), consider spending a little more on the $500 Google Pixel 7a, which is our favorite mid-range smartphone and has software updates planned through mid-2026.
The best cheap phones
OnePlus
Screen size: 6.72 inches | Storage capacity: 128GB + microSD | SIM card type: Nano-SIM | Front camera resolution: 16 megapixels | Rear camera resolution: 108MP main, 2MP macro | Weight: 6.8 ounces | Battery life: 12 hours, 30 minutes
The $300 OnePlus Nord N30 5G offers the best value of any of the smartphones on our list. No other phone in the price range features a processor as fast as the N30’s Snapdragon 695 5G chipset. Additionally, OnePlus has equipped the N30 with 5G connectivity in addition to a generous 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, meaning you probably won’t need to budget for a microSD card or cloud storage. It also comes with a 120Hz IPS display, an ideal feature for both gaming and daily use. Best of all, the N30 comes with a 50W power adapter for fast charging, allowing you to get a full day of battery life in 30 minutes. The N30 would be close to perfect if it had waterproofing and OnePlus had committed to rolling out more than one major Android OS update to the phone. — Igor Bonifacic, contributing reporter
$230 on Amazon
SAMSUNG
Screen size: 6.5 inches | Storage capacity: 128GB/256GB + microSD | SIM card type: Nano-SIM | Front camera resolution: 13 megapixels | Rear camera resolution: 50MP main, 5MP ultrawide, 2MP macro | Weight: 7.05 ounces | Battery life: 2 days
For just $200, the Galaxy A15 5G is a pretty extraordinary device. It has a 6.5-inch display with a slightly slower 90Hz refresh rate than the Nord N30. However, because it features an AMOLED panel instead of an LCD screen, it offers better brightness and richer colors than basically all of its rivals. It can also be configured with up to 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, and its 5000 mAh battery offers long battery life. Its camera system is solid for its price, offering a main camera that handles everyday shooting well and a selfie camera for video calls. And while its design isn’t too exciting, the polycarbonate Samsung uses on the back has a nice matte finish that looks more like glass than cheap plastic. Finally, the A15 comes with four years of security updates and three years of operating system updates, which is longer than most phones in this price range. — Sam Rutherford, Senior Reporter
$173 at Amazon
Motorola
Screen size: 6.5 inches | Storage capacity: 64GB + microSD | SIM card type: Nano-SIM | Front camera resolution: 8MP | Rear camera resolution: 50 megapixels | Weight: 6.53 ounces | Battery life: 46 hours
For those on a really tight budget, the Moto G Play 2024 covers all the bases well. It has a fast Snapdragon 680 processor along with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. And while that last number may seem small, the phone has a microSD card slot so you can add more space when you need it. Its 6.5-inch LCD display is also surprisingly sharp with a 90Hz refresh rate. The Moto G Play even has an IP52 rating for dust and water resistance. That’s not much, but it’s good enough to protect against an errant splash or two. Sure, the G Play is basic, but it’s basic in a good way. – MR
$110 on Amazon
Motorola
Screen size: 6.5 inches | Storage capacity: 64GB | SIM card type: Nano-SIM | Front camera resolution: 8MP | Rear camera resolution: 50 megapixels | Weight: 6.9 ounces | Battery life: 20 hours
The $200 Motorola Moto G Stylus offers something that none of the other options on this list do: a built-in stylus. If you love to doodle and take notes, this is the budget phone to buy. Fortunately, it also has a few other things going for it. The Moto G Stylus has a large, responsive 6.5-inch display and a long-lasting 5000 mAh battery. Plus, it’s available in two beautiful colors: midnight blue and glamorous pink.
As with other options in this price range, it would be nice if the Moto G Stylus came with a more capable camera, a fast charger, and better water protection. One word of advice: stay away from the Moto G Stylus 5G. It doesn’t offer enough of an upgrade to justify the $400 cost. — BI
$178 at Amazon
