1. Electronics
  2. Smartphones

The Best Budget Android Phones

By Ryan Whitwam and Roderick Scott
Updated
Our three picks for best budget Android phones.
Photo: Michael Hession

A flagship smartphone can cost you $1,000 or more, but you don’t have to spend nearly that much to get the features you need. After weeks of testing half a dozen cheaper Android phones, we found that the OnePlus Nord N30 5G is the best budget Android phone. It’s fast enough for most people, has a bright LCD screen, delivers good battery life, and even has Verizon 5G connectivity—a rare feature for a phone that costs just $300.

Everything we recommend

Our pick

The OnePlus Nord N30 5G delivers solid performance and has a bright, fast LCD screen with a high refresh rate. It also comes with a side-mounted fingerprint reader and Verizon 5G support.

Runner-up

Samsung’s cheapest 5G phone performs better than most phones in this price range, and Samsung offers an impressive four years of guaranteed software updates.

Budget pick

The Samsung Galaxy A03s has better performance and update support than other ultra-budget phones, and it works on all cellular networks.

Our pick

The OnePlus Nord N30 5G delivers solid performance and has a bright, fast LCD screen with a high refresh rate. It also comes with a side-mounted fingerprint reader and Verizon 5G support.

The OnePlus Nord N30 5G is the newer version of our previous pick, and though it doesn’t offer flagship performance, it does have some high-end features. Unlike many budget phones, its 6.7-inch, 120 Hz refresh rate display is good for gaming. The N30 5G has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chip and 8 GB of RAM, which delivers more powerful performance than many of the budget phones we’ve tested. It will support Android 14 when it rolls out, and it will get security updates through June 2026. And unlike the Nord N20, the Nord N30 works on Verizon’s faster 5G UW network.

Runner-up

Samsung’s cheapest 5G phone performs better than most phones in this price range, and Samsung offers an impressive four years of guaranteed software updates.

The Samsung Galaxy A14 5G has a boring, generic design, and the screen picks up more fingerprints than more expensive phones, but it’s big, bright, and more responsive than you might expect for just $200. It also runs Android 13, and Samsung promises several more updates in the future, too, with an astonishing four years’ worth of update support (through early 2027). Most budget phones are lucky to get half that.

Budget pick

The Samsung Galaxy A03s has better performance and update support than other ultra-budget phones, and it works on all cellular networks.

At a mere $160, the Samsung Galaxy A03s is the cheapest phone in Samsung’s current lineup, but it doesn’t perform like a bargain-basement phone. The A03s is fast enough to browse the web, send messages, and play simple games. And despite the phone’s low price, Samsung isn’t skimping on updates: The A03s will receive updates through early 2026, a full four years’ worth of support from launch, unheard of for a phone this cheap. The build quality takes a step down in comparison with the Galaxy A14 5G, the camera isn’t very good, and this model has no 5G support, but the battery life is excellent.

Wirecutter staff writer Roderick Scott has been reviewing consumer tech, including Android phones, for more than a decade. His Android experience goes all the way back to the HTC G1, the Google Nexus, Samsung’s first Galaxy S model, and Motorola’s Droids, in addition to every current flagship Android phone—and everything in between.

Previous testing for this guide was done by Ryan Whitwam, who has reviewed Android phones for Wirecutter since 2015.

The best smartphones have never been more expensive, but you can still find a phone with high-end features for a fraction of the price of a flagship phone. You’ll just be giving up a few fancy features, such as water resistance, wireless charging, or a dedicated telephoto camera lens. Cheap phones usually can’t compete with the quad-HD (1440p) screens or top-of-the-line processors in the most expensive phones, but you don’t need those things to have a good daily experience.

Budget phones are excellent first smartphones, especially for kids and teenagers, or the terminally clumsy. If you lose or break a higher-end phone, especially one that you’re still paying your carrier for, you may have to shell out a lot to replace it—often $500 or more. If you don’t have insurance, you can end up paying the balance on a phone you don’t have anymore, plus the price of a new phone.

We also like that budget phones are usually unlocked whether purchased online or directly from the manufacturer; you can use these phones on AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon in the United States, and on most networks in the rest of the world. More importantly, you can use an unlocked phone on a prepaid mobile virtual network operator (MVNO); these low-cost carriers operate on national networks but tend to impose more data-usage restrictions or calling limits. You can use an MVNO, and if a better deal comes along, you can pop a different carrier’s SIM card into your phone and get on with your life.

It’s a good idea to stick to a more reputable manufacturer of budget phones with a strong US presence and retail operation, as such companies are more likely to deal with any security issues swiftly with the deployment of patches. And choosing a phone from Google or Samsung makes it less likely you’ll encounter major security flaws in the first place.

Our three picks for best budget Android phones lying face down displaying their camera lenses.
Photo: Michael Hession

After testing dozens of budget smartphones, we’ve found that most of them aren’t worth recommending despite their low prices—they often have abysmal performance, bloated software, useless cameras, infrequent or nonexistent updates, or some combination of those issues. Here are the things we look for in a phone before recommending it:

  • Software: A budget phone is slower than a high-end model, so it’s important that the phone isn’t loaded down with unnecessary, poorly performing apps or customized user interfaces. Lower-cost phones also tend to receive fewer updates, so they should have the latest Android software with recent security patches out of the box. If a manufacturer doesn’t have a good history of keeping phones updated, it’s harder for us to recommend that company’s phones.
  • Performance and battery: Most budget phones have a midrange processor and less memory than expensive phones offer, but any phone we recommend is fast enough to handle basic tasks like email, web browsing, and streaming videos and music. Less powerful hardware is usually less battery-hungry, so these phones run longer on a charge than flagship phones.
  • Carrier support: The best budget phones work on every major phone network, and we don’t recommend models locked to a single carrier or with poor cellular band support. Because most budget phones are unlocked, you can usually switch carriers, and this gives you the most choice when you’re shopping around for good deals on a plan.
Our three picks for best budget Android phones lying face up.
Photo: Michael Hession
  • Display: Our minimum acceptable resolution for budget phone screens is 720p. Budget phones almost always have LCD screens, and they’re dimmer and less vibrant than the OLED screens in many high-end phones, but we only recommend phones with decent brightness, viewing angles, and colors.
  • Extra features: Phones toward the top of the budget range should have features such as a good fingerprint sensor to unlock the phone without a passcode, NFC for mobile payments, support for newer, faster Wi-Fi, and 5G connectivity. Cheaper phones might lack some or all of those features, but can still be worth buying if the price is right.
  • Camera: If a good phone camera is a key feature for you, we recommend buying a Google Pixel model—either the Pixel 6a if you can find one in stock or the newer Pixel 7a if you find it on sale. Otherwise, your budget options are limited. Even high-end Android phone cameras sometimes struggle, and things get worse the cheaper you go. A good budget-phone camera should do okay outdoors or in bright light, but you’ll have to spend more to get a phone with a good low-light camera.
  • Design and build quality: If your new phone falls apart within a few months of buying it, that defeats the purpose of getting a budget phone in the first place. Water resistance is still rare in budget phones, but they should have sturdy bodies that don’t bend or creak if you sit on them, and their buttons and ports should be secure, with no wobble.
Our pick for best budget Android phone, the OnePlus Nord N30 5G, lying face down.
Photo: Michael Hession

Our pick

The OnePlus Nord N30 5G delivers solid performance and has a bright, fast LCD screen with a high refresh rate. It also comes with a side-mounted fingerprint reader and Verizon 5G support.

The OnePlus Nord N30 5G is similar to its predecessor, the Nord N20 5G, but features upgrades like a larger screen, more RAM, and faster charging. There are a couple of drawbacks: The N30 doesn’t have an OLED display, a downgrade from the N20, and the newer model also lacks the N20’s in-display fingerprint reader. But the N30 5G is powered by the same processor as the N20 and delivers the same solid performance, and the N30’s battery life is also impressive. OnePlus has guaranteed one software update to Android 14 along with three years of security updates. We wish OnePlus had upgraded the N30’s cameras, but unfortunately the quality is just as weak as last year’s model.

The N30 has a larger display with a higher refresh rate. The Nord N30 5G got a size bump from the N20 5G’s 6.4-inch 60 Hz OLED display up to a 6.7-inch 120 Hz LCD screen. The larger screen gives you more room for watching videos, and the faster 120 Hz refresh rate offers smoother scrolling and is ideal for gaming, an uncommon feature for a budget phone. However, the display doesn’t get bright enough to see easily in direct sunlight, and the colors aren’t as vibrant as the Nord N20’s OLED screen.

Photo: Michael Hession

The N30 delivers near-flagship performance for a low price. The Nord N30 5G is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 695 processor. With 8 GB of RAM (an upgrade over the N20’s 6 GB), the Nord N30 5G can handle background apps and tasks like a phone well above its price point. Loading power-hungry websites and running graphically intensive games like Call of Duty: Mobile or Fortnite was much smoother on the N30 than on most budget phones we’ve tested. The N30 5G also has NFC for mobile payments, a feature not all budget phones offer. It also comes with 128 GB of base storage and a microSD card slot for expandable storage.

It will support Android 14 and get years of security updates. The Nord N30 5G runs Oxygen OS 13.1 UI. This is essentially a stock version of Android 13 with OnePlus’ own icons, file manager, notes, and other customizations on top. The Nord N30 is set to get one software update to Android 14 and security updates until June 2026, which is longer than most budget phones.

The battery can last an entire day and then some. The N30 has a larger 5,000 mAh battery than the Nord N20’s 4,500 mAh pack, which means it lasts longer on a charge. Our review unit lasted a day and a half on a charge with moderate usage. When we used the phone more intensively to play games, we had to charge it before bed. And despite the new 120 Hz display, the switch from OLED to LCD ensures that the faster refresh rate doesn’t negatively affect the N30 5G’s battery. The N30 5G’s wired charging speeds also got an upgrade over the N20, from 33 W to 50 W fast charging. Using the included charging brick, you can charge up to 35% in 10 minutes, up to 80% in 30 minutes, and up to 100% in 45 minutes.

The Nord N30 5G is available unlocked from OnePlus directly, or you can buy it from Amazon, Best Buy, T-Mobile, or Metro by T-Mobile. The unlocked version will work on all three US carriers. The N30 can take advantage of Verizon’s millimeter-wave 5G spectrum, which means you might see faster download and upload speeds, but only in very specific areas.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The camera quality isn’t the best, even in good lighting. The N30 5G has three rear camera lenses. The main camera is a 108-megapixel sensor that shrinks the image down to a 12-megapixel size. This sounds impressive on paper, and OnePlus says the results will give you more details and colors in your photos and videos. But in real-world use, you’ll only get adequate photos in well-lit situations. The images still lack clarity, and colors appear slightly washed out. In low-light conditions, results are noisy, and moving subjects tend to be blurry. We saw similar results from the N30’s 16-megapixel selfie camera. The N30 also has a 2-megapixel macro camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. In our experience, the depth sensor is somewhat useful for portrait photos, and the macro was almost pointless.

It feels like a budget phone. The N30 5G has a plastic body with a curved glossy rear that is a fingerprint magnet and can feel a bit slippery at times. The upside is that it’s lightweight. OnePlus downgraded the display from the N20—the N30 has an LCD screen instead of OLED. And instead of an in-display fingerprint sensor, like the N20 offered, the fingerprint reader is now built into the side-mounted power button. The upside is that it’s fast at unlocking the phone. We wish OnePlus had kept some of the N20’s higher-end features, but the N30 is still very good for the price.

Our runner-up pick for best budget Android phone, the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G, lying face up.
Photo: Michael Hession

Runner-up

Samsung’s cheapest 5G phone performs better than most phones in this price range, and Samsung offers an impressive four years of guaranteed software updates.

The Samsung Galaxy A14 5G has everything you need in a budget smartphone. You can measure the battery life in days, it’s more than fast enough to handle every basic task you might throw at it, and it works on all US carriers. The screen collects distracting fingerprint smudges during use, but it’s large and vibrant, and Samsung promises four years’ worth of update support, so the A14 5G is safe to use through early 2027. It also ships with Android 13.

Samsung’s version of Android is excellent. One UI has become a strength after years of bad experiences on past Galaxy phones. Poor software support usually renders budget phones unsafe to use within a year or two. In contrast, Samsung has promised two new versions of Android (versions 14 and 15), and the A14 5G is guaranteed security patches until early 2027, so conceivably it could last as long as a $1,000 flagship phone. In addition to its four years of update support, One UI on the A14 5G includes everything you need and then some, including a file manager, smart-home hub, cloud storage, and Microsoft Office. Unless you purchase a carrier model, which is sure to be loaded with excessive spam apps, the A14 5G shouldn’t overwhelm you with clutter.

Its capable processor offers fast-enough performance. The A14 5G’s MediaTek Dimensity 700 chip isn’t the newest or fastest, but it’s got more power than most phones in this price range. The A14 5G also has 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage with a microSD card slot for expansion—a rare bonus these days. The A14 5G has been great for basic smartphone tasks like web browsing, light multitasking, messaging, and even some gaming. The phone also includes support for 5G networks and NFC for contactless payments. And, Samsung’s Galaxy A14 5G works on all the major carriers, even Verizon. However, the A14 doesn’t support very many 5G frequencies, so you won’t get the same performance as you would with a flagship 5G phone like the Pixel 7 or even the midrange Pixel 7a.

The Galaxy A14 has an adequate display to suit your needs. Samsung equipped the A14 5G with a 6.6-inch LCD panel. It has a 1080p resolution, but the A14 5G screen’s 90 Hz refresh rate makes scrolling smoother. Its brightness is almost on a par with our pick, the OnePlus Nord N30 5G, but the colors are flatter, and the A14 5G’s screen lacks an oleophobic coating, which makes glass phone screens easy to clean by repelling skin oils. Similar to the N30 5G, Samsung’s budget phone is also missing an in-display fingerprint sensor; something you only get with OLED screens. The A14 5G does feature a side-mounted capacitive sensor integrated in the power button, so you don’t even have to press down to wake and unlock the phone—it just needs a quick tap.

The A14 5G will easily last you two days on a charge. It doesn’t offer wireless charging, but its 15 W USB-C charging is fast enough to fill the 5,000 mAh battery completely in about two hours. Although Samsung doesn’t include a charger in the box with the A14 5G, any USB-C charger from the past few years should be able to hit the maximum charging speed on this phone.

The Samsung Galaxy A14 5G Android phone, lying face down.
Photo: Michael Hession

You won’t get great camera results, but it’s better than most budget phones. The photos taken with the A14 5G aren’t as good as those with Samsung’s more expensive phones. It has what appears to be three cameras on the back, but only its 50-megapixel primary camera is worth using, and only in good light. The 2-megapixel macro camera takes poor-quality photos, the depth sensor adds nothing to the experience, and its low-light performance is disappointing.

The Galaxy A14’s build is cheaper, thicker, and heavier than it should be. Whereas some budget phones have experimented with more premium materials like glass and aluminum, the A14 5G is all plastic. The back panel is thin and flexible, giving it a cheap feel, and the network of fine lines don’t look any nicer. It’s not certified for water and dust resistance, either. The phone is also thicker and heavier than it seems like it should be, especially compared with the Pixel 7, which has high-end hardware and construction. The enormous bezels surrounding the A14’s LCD also make it feel bigger than the screen measurement suggests.

The A14 5G works on all US carriers, available in both unlocked and carrier-locked variants. However, the carrier-specific versions of the A14 5G are likely to have an extensive array of bloatware, and updates will probably be slower, so we don’t recommend buying them unless they’re on sale.

The Samsung Galaxy A03s Android phone, lying face up.
Photo: Michael Hession

Budget pick

The Samsung Galaxy A03s has better performance and update support than other ultra-budget phones, and it works on all cellular networks.

The Samsung Galaxy A03s is the best phone available right now for those on a strict budget. For $160, or even less from some carrier stores, the A03s offers good software, acceptable performance, and security update support through summer 2026. (Even some flagship phones won’t get updates for that long.) While the A03s looks a lot like the A14 5G in the front, it has a thinner plastic shell and a slower processor. However, it has a USB-C port instead of the older Micro-USB, a headphone jack, and a fingerprint sensor, the last of which is often missing in ultra-budget phones.

It has less bloatware than other budget phones. Most budget phones ship with slow, cluttered software and a multitude of third-party apps, but Samsung didn’t overload the A03s with too many extras. This phone includes Samsung features such as pop-up view for notifications and one-handed mode. Purchasing the A03s from a carrier saves you a few bucks but is likely to mean more bundled software to remove.

You’ll get longer software support than most budget phones. Currently, the A03s runs on Android 13, and it will receive four years of update support. It may get Android 14 in the future, but Samsung does not guarantee instant updates to new versions like Google does for the Pixel 7a. Still, most phones this cheap get only a handful of security fixes before they’re forgotten.

The screen on the Galaxy A03s is acceptable. The A03s has a 6.5-inch 720p LCD display. It’s sharp enough for regular use, but it’s not bright, and the viewing angles are narrower, so it starts to appear washed out if you’re not looking at it head-on. Both of those factors can make the phone hard to use outdoors. The screen also lacks an oil-resistant coating, raising the likelihood of fingerprints and smudges accumulating. The 1080p screens on the N30 5G and the Pixel 7a are better in every way, which you’d probably expect from any phone that costs more.

The Samsung Galaxy A03s Android phone, lying face up.
Don’t be fooled by the three camera lenses on the back of the Samsung Galaxy A03s. Even the best of them won’t take shareable photos. Photo: Michael Hession

You get what you pay for in regards to the performance. The A03s isn’t a fast phone, and it can’t run graphically intensive games well or multiple apps in split-screen, but messaging, web browsing, and simple apps all work fine on its MediaTek Helio G33 processor. And with only 3 GB of RAM, that’s really all you can ask for at this price. There’s no NFC support, which means no contactless payments, but this phone does have a fingerprint sensor in the power button.

Don’t expect many shareable results from its cameras. The 13-megapixel primary camera is okay for casual snapshots, but you probably wouldn’t want to keep any of the photos forever. It produces grainy, blurry pictures in all but the most perfect lighting. None of the camera enhancements from Samsung’s more expensive phones work here because of the less capable hardware. The depth sensor doesn’t have any noticeable impact on photo quality, and the macro camera is the same as every other macro cam we’ve tested: bad.

The battery life is extremely good. With its lower-resolution screen and low-power processor, the A03s can run on its 5,000 mAh battery for the better part of a week. The A03s also charges at 15 W, the same as the A14 5G and only a bit slower than the Pixel 7a’s 18 W charging.

In March, Motorola announced three new budget phones: the $300 Moto G Power, the $200 Moto G 5G, and the $150 Moto G Play.

The Moto G Power offers a 6.7-inch 120 Hz display, a MediaTek Dimensity 7020 chip, 8 GB of RAM, NFC, an additional 8-megapixel ultrawide, and 15 W wireless charging capability. The Moto G 5G offers a 6.6-inch 120 Hz display, a Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 chip, 4 GB of RAM, NFC, and an additional 2-megapixel macro camera. The Moto G Play offers a 6.5-inch 90 Hz display, a Snapdragon 680 chip, and 4 GB of RAM. All three models have a 50-megapixel camera sensor, Dolby Atmos stereo speakers, a headphone jack, a microSD slot, and a 5,000 mAh battery. The G Power and G 5G offer 128GB of storage, while the G Play has 64GB.

The Moto G Power goes on sale on March 22nd for carriers and on March 29th unlocked. The Moto G 5G goes on sale on March 21st for carriers and on May 2nd unlocked. The Moto G Play is already available online and in stores.

Samsung have also announced the Galaxy A35 and Galaxy A55 from their budget A-line, though the A55 isn’t coming to the US. Both models have a 6.6-inch 120 Hz OLED display, with 1,000 nits of maximum brightness, Exynos processors, 50-megapixel main camera sensors and 5-megapixel macro sensors, 5,000 mAh cell batteries with 25 W fast charging. Each have four years of software updates, and five years of security updates, and both offer Samsung’s Knox Vault from their flagship phones, which encrypts personal data and keeps it away from the main OS and processor for better security.

The Galaxy A35 offers up to 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB of storage, and an additional 8-megapixel ultrawide sensor. Pricing and release details are expected in April.

There’s also the $200 Samsung A15 which launched late last year, has a 6.5-inch OLED display with 90 Hz refresh rate, powered by a MediaTek 6835 processor, 4 GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage, a 5,000 mAh battery with 25 W fast charging, a 50-megapixel main sensor, 5-megapixel ultrawide, and a 2-megapixel macro sensor. We’ll be testing this for our next update, and will investigate the A35 and Motorola’s new budget options as they become available.

You can often save money by buying an older budget phone, but be careful—such devices are sometimes refurbished and may not work as well as a new one. Budget phones also have shorter support lives than flagship handsets do, and getting a budget phone that’s already a year or more old means that it may not receive any security updates.

Google raised the price of its budget A-series line-up when it released the Pixel 7a, but it is an all-around upgrade over its predecessor. The 7a looks identical to the Pixel 7, complete with a metal frame and camera bar, but has a smaller plastic body compared to the Pixel 7’s glass one. The 7a has a 6.1-inch 1080p display, Google’s Tensor G2 processor, has 8 GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage, a fingerprint scanner, a 64-megapixel main camera, a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera, and a 13-megapixel selfie camera. It also offers solid battery life with 18W fast charging and 7.5W wireless charging. And, like the Pixel 7, the 7a also has facial recognition. The bad news: It’s just too expensive to be considered a budget phone. We do recommend it if you have more money to spend or if you find it on sale.

Motorola’s 2023 budget Android phones include the 5G version of the Moto G Power, the Moto G 5G, and the Moto G Stylus. Although they share many similarities, such as the same design and features, they differ in their processors and camera sensors. On paper, the Moto G Stylus seemed like a potential pick for this guide, but in real-world usage, it didn’t hold up. Although the stock Android software is smooth and easy to use, there is a significant amount of bloatware, with some unnecessary software disguised as native apps and folders, which was frustrating. Additionally, the camera app can be slow to open, capture, and preview images. You’d be better off buying our pick, the OnePlus Nord N30 5G, instead.

This article was edited by Caitlin McGarry and Arthur Gies.

Meet your guides

Ryan Whitwam

Roderick Scott

Roderick Scott is Wirecutter's staff writer reporting on smartphones, tablets, and accessories. He is the former publisher of TechGuySmartBuy, where he reviewed everything from phones to headphones to smart speakers to cars. He is also a former aspiring songwriter, music producer, and A&R working with local talent.

Further reading

  • Several Android phones laid out on a pink surface.

    The Best Android Phones

    by Roderick Scott and Ryan Whitwam

    Excellent Android phones come in all sizes at a variety of prices, but Google’s latest Pixels are the best you can buy.

  • Three tablets sitting face up on a red background.

    The Best Android Tablets

    by Roderick Scott and Ryan Whitwam

    Good Android tablets are few and far between, but if you don’t want an iPad, Google's Pixel Tablet is your best bet.

  • Four smartwatches laid out on a pink background.

    The Best Smartwatch for Android Phones

    by Ryan Whitwam

    Smartwatches offer a good way to wrangle notifications and track activity. Samsung’s Galaxy Watch6 is the best option for Android users.

Edit
Dismiss