Gadgets

The best cheap phones of 2025

It might be trendy to spend $1,000 on the latest flagship smartphone when it’s first released, but it’s not necessary. You don’t even need to spend $500 today to get a decent handset, whether it’s a refurbished iPhone or an affordable Android phone, as there are plenty of options as low as $160 that can fit your needs.

But navigating the budget phone market can be tricky; options that look good on paper may not work, and some portable devices will end up costing you more when you consider that many come with limited storage. While we at Engadget spend most of our time testing and reviewing the best mobile phones, we’ve checked out a bunch of the latest budget-friendly phones on the market to see which ones are worth your money.

In this guide, our top picks cost between $100 and $300. Anything less and you might as well go buy a dumb phone or high-end calculator instead. Designed to be more affordable than flagship phones and mid-range handsets, budget smartphones involve compromises; the cheaper the device, the lower your expectations regarding specifications, performance and experience should be. For that reason, the best advice I can give is to spend as much money as possible. In this price range, even $50 or $100 more can get you a much better product.

Second, you have to know what you want most in a phone. When buying a budget smartphone, you may need to sacrifice a decent camera for long battery life, or trade a high-resolution display for a faster CPU. That’s just what comes with the environment, but knowing your priorities will make it easier to find the right phone.

It is also worth noting that some features can be difficult to find in cheap handsets. For example, you won’t need to look for a device with all-day battery life – but if you’re looking for a good camera phone with excellent camera quality, it’s better to take out one of our mid-range smartphone recommendations. guide, all up to $600 or less. Wireless charging and waterproofing are also hard to come by in this price range and forget about a super fast chipset. On the bright side, all of our recommendations come with headphone jacks, so you won’t need to get wireless headphones.

iOS is also off the table, as the $400 Apple iPhone SE is the most affordable iPhone on the list. That leaves Android OS as the only option. Thankfully today, there’s little to complain about Google’s OS — and you might even prefer it to iOS. Finally, remember that many Android manufacturers often offer less robust software features and support for their budget devices. In some cases, your new phone may receive one major software update and a year or two of security beyond that. That applies to the OnePlus and Motorola recommendations on our list.

If you’d like to keep your phone as long as possible, Samsung has the best software policy of any Android manufacturer in the budget space, offering four years of security updates for all of its devices. That said, if software support (or overall device longevity) is your main focus, consider spending more on the $500 Google Pixel 7a, which is our favorite mid-range smartphone and has software updates scheduled for mid-2026.

OnePlus

Screen size: 6.72 inches | Storage capacity: 128GB + microSD | SIM card type: Nano-SIM | Front camera configuration: 16 MP | Rear camera configuration: 108MP main, 2MP macro | Weight: 6.8 oz 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 this price bracket packs a processor as fast as the N30’s Snapdragon 695 5G chipset. In addition, OnePlus described the N30 with 5G connectivity in addition to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which means that you probably won’t need the budget for a microSD card or cloud storage. It comes with a 120Hz IPS display, a great feature for both gaming and everyday use. Best of all, the N30 ships with a 50W power adapter for fast charging, allowing you to get a full day of battery life in 30 minutes. The N30 would have been almost perfect if it had waterproofing and OnePlus had committed to pushing a major Android OS update to the phone. – Igor Bonifacic, Contributing Reporter

$230 at Amazon

SAMSUNG

Screen size: 6.5 inches | Storage capacity: 128GB/256GB + microSD | SIM card type: Nano-SIM | Front camera configuration: 13 MP | Rear camera configuration: 50MP main, 5MP ultrawide, 2MP macro | Weight: 7.05 oz Battery life: 2 days

For just $200, the Galaxy A15 5G is an amazing device. It has a 6.5-inch display with a 90Hz refresh rate which is slightly slower than the Nord N30. However, because it features an AMOLED panel instead of an LCD display, it has better brightness and richer colors than its rivals. It can also be configured with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and its 5,000 mAh battery delivers long battery life. Its camera system is solid for its price, offering a main camera that handles everyday photos well and a selfie camera for video calls. And while its design isn’t particularly exciting, the polycarbonate Samsung uses on the back has a nice matte finish that feels more like glass than cheap plastic. Finally, the A15 comes with four years of security updates and three years of OS upgrades, which is longer than most handsets 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 configuration: 8 MP | Rear camera configuration: 50 MP | Weight: 6.53 oz Battery life: 46 hours

For those on a tight budget, the 2024 Moto G Play covers all the bases well. It has a fast Snapdragon 680 processor and 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. And while that storage number may seem small, the phone has a microSD card slot so you can add more space if you need it. Its 6.5-inch LCD screen is incredibly sharp with a 90Hz refresh rate. The Moto G Play 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 basic in a good way. – MR

$110 at Amazon

Motorola

Screen size: 6.5-inch | Storage capacity: 64GB | SIM card type: Nano-SIM | Front camera configuration: 8 MP | Rear camera configuration: 50 MP | Weight: 6.9 oz Battery life: 20 hours

The $200 Motorola Moto G Stylus offers something that nothing else on this list does: a built-in stylus. If you like doodling and jotting down notes, this is a cheap phone to buy. Thankfully, it has a few other things going for it as well. The Moto G Stylus sports a large and responsive 6.5-inch display and a long-lasting 5,000mAh battery. Also, it is available in two beautiful colors: midnight blue and glam pink.

Like other options in this price range, it would be nice if the Moto G Stylus came with a better camera, faster charger and better water protection. One word of advice: avoid the Moto G Stylus 5G. It doesn’t offer enough of an upgrade to justify the $400 cost. — IB

$178 at Amazon


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