The best cheap phones for 2026

A few years ago, it may have been fashionable to spend $1,000 on the latest flagship smartphone, but for most people, that’s neither practical nor necessary. You don’t even need to spend $500 today to get a decent device, whether it’s a refurbished iPhone or an affordable Android phone, because there are plenty of decent options at just $160.

However, navigating the budget phone market can be tricky; Options that look good on paper may not be so in practice, and some devices will end up costing you more when you consider that many come with restrictive storage. While we spend most of our time reviewing mid-to-high-end handsets at Engadget, we’ve tested a number of the latest budget phones on the market to consider them the best cheap phones you can get right now.

Best Cheap Phones

Samsung

Read our full Samsung Galaxy A17 5G review

Building a cheap phone is tricky because manufacturers have a very strict limit on what they can include and still stay under cost. Samsung has balanced this well on the Galaxy A17 5G by equipping it with a large 6.7-inch OLED display with solid brightness (up to 800 nits) and a 90Hz refresh rate. The phone’s design also defies its price because, even though it’s made of polycarbonate (i.e. plastic), it doesn’t feel cheap. You even get a microSD card slot for expandable storage and three cameras on the back. However, since one of them is a 2MP macro, it probably won’t see as much use as the 50MP main or the 5MP ultrawide.

The only thing I wish Samsung would splurge a little more on is the phone’s Exynos 1330 chip, as it’s a bit dated and sometimes struggles with things like multitasking or running more demanding apps. That said, starting at just $200 (or less depending on discounts), the Galaxy A17 offers a lot of value for not a lot of money. — Sam Rutherford, senior reporter

OnePlus

The OnePlus Nord N30 5G was our previous top pick. At $300, it’s normally $100 more than the A16 5G. However, if you can find it on sale for a lower price, it’s still worth considering over the A16. For one thing, the N30 has a faster 120Hz display and its Snapdragon 695 chip, while older than the A16’s Exynos 1330, still outperforms it in some areas.

Another reason to consider the N30 over the A16 is that it comes with a 50W power adapter, allowing you to get a full day of battery life in 30 minutes. If you hope to use your new phone for as long as possible, the A16 is the better choice, but the N30 may be an interesting alternative. — Igor Bonifacic, senior journalist

Motorola

For those on a very tight budget, the Moto G Play 2024 covers all the bases well. It has a pretty fast Snapdragon 680 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. And while that last number may seem small, the phone has a microSD card slot so you can add more space if and when you need it.

Its 6.5-inch LCD screen is also surprisingly sharp with a 90Hz refresh rate. The Moto G Play even has an IP52 rating for dust and water resistance. It’s not much, but it’s enough to protect against an errant splash or two. Sure, the G Play is basic, but it’s basic in a good way. -SR

Motorola

The $400 Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G offers something none of the other picks on this list do: a built-in stylus. If you like doodling and taking notes, then this is the cheap phone to buy. Fortunately, it also has a few other benefits. The Moto G Stylus 5G sports a large, responsive 6.7-inch display and a long-lasting 5,000mAh battery. Plus, it doesn’t look bad at all.

As with other options in this price range, it would be nice if the Moto G Stylus 5G came with a better camera, faster charging, and water protection. With this recommendation, be sure to avoid paying full price for the Moto G Stylus 5G. Fortunately, that’s not hard to do with the phone frequently on sale. -IB

What to look for in a cheap phone

For this guide, our top picks cost between $100 and $300. Anything less and you might as well buy a stupid phone instead. Since they are meant to be more affordable than flagship phones and even mid-range handsets, budget smartphones involve compromises; The cheaper a device is, the lower your expectations should be for specs, performance, and experience. For this reason, the best advice I can give you is to spend as much as you can afford. In this price range, even $50 or $100 more can get you a significantly 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 long battery life, or trade a high-resolution screen for a faster processor. That’s just what comes with the territory, but knowing your priorities will make finding the right phone easier.

It’s also worth noting that some features may be difficult to find on cheaper handsets. For example, you won’t need to look far for a device with all-day battery life, but if you want a phone with excellent camera quality, you’re better off following one of the recommendations in our guide to mid-range smartphones, all of which cost $600 or less.

Wireless charging and waterproofing are also not easy to find in this price range and forget about the fastest chipset. On the bright side, most of our recommendations come with headphone jacks, so you won’t need to buy wireless headphones.

iOS is also off the agenda since, following the discontinuation of the iPhone SE, the $599 iPhone 16e is now Apple’s most affordable offering. This leaves Android as the only option in the sub-$300 price bracket. Fortunately, today there’s not much to complain about with Google’s operating system – and you might 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. This applies to the OnePlus and Motorola recommendations on our list.

If you want to keep your phone as long as possible, Samsung has the best software policy of any Android manufacturer in the budget realm, offering at least four years of security updates on all its devices. Recently, it even started offering six years of support on the $200 A16 5G, which we recommend below. That said, if software support (or overall device longevity) is your main goal, consider spending a little more for the $500 Google Pixel 9a, or even the previous-generation Pixel 8a, which has software updates scheduled until mid-2031.