Best Cheap Phone of 2024: Most Value for the Money
We round up the best inexpensive phones we've reviewed from Apple, Samsung and Google Pixel. Our list of affordable phones should help you save money, with the cheapest starting at $160.
The best cheap phones on the market offer all the smartphone essentials without the hefty price tag of flagship competitors, like the Galaxy S24 or the iPhone 15. The lowest price you'll find in our list of top picks is $160. The more advanced models will run you $500, but that's still significantly cheaper than the superior models from Apple, Google and Samsung. If there is a specific budget you're adhering to, you can take a look at our rundowns of the best phones under $200 and the best phones under $500.
The $349 Google Pixel 6A is our favorite cheap phone. Google delivers all the big features that matter, like top-of-the-line cameras, a peppy processor and years' worth of software support. Google makes smart compromises to keep costs low; most notably a display that looks dim under direct sunlight.
The Pixel 6A provides a lot for less. Sure, Google's Pixel 7A, priced at $500 (and often less), is also a great value, but the Pixel 6A still takes crisp and colorful photos for its price. You also get the same eye-catching design and Pixel-specific software features, like Magic Eraser and Live Translate.
The $349 Pixel 6A holds its value well, even after Google's release of the Pixel 7A. In her Pixel 6A review, CNET's Lisa Eadicicco called it the "best Android phone under $500," noting that it keeps the same Tensor chip as the $339 Pixel 6, and many of the 6's best features. Plus, the 6A is often discounted to $299, at which price it becomes an amazing phone for under $300, thanks to its excellent software support.
The phone is slightly smaller than the Pixel 6, featuring a 6.1-inch OLED display and a refresh rate of 60Hz. It also has a similar camera system as the Pixel 5A, which includes a 12.2-megapixel main camera and a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera. The Tensor chip brings additional benefits you won't get with the Pixel 5A, such as Real Tone for more equitable skin tones, Face Unblur; Night Sight for low-light photography; and the Magic Eraser for removing unwanted elements from a photo.
Samsung's Galaxy A03S at $160 (£126, roughly AU$244) includes great features and could be a fit for someone in need of a cheap phone that can handle essential tasks. The phone's 6.5-inch screen, capped at 720p resolution, is great for reading the news, watching videos and playing games. Despite some performance lag during our review, the phone is good at multitasking. The tiny 32GB of storage space could fill up fast, so if you're considering this phone, you might want to expand the storage with a microSD card. Samsung also plans to support this phone with at least
The $429 iPhone SE is a mix of an older design with the latest smartphone features, including Apple's A15 Bionic chip and 5G support. It's also one of the few phones on the market that includes a smaller, 4.7-inch screen.