Update 3 Shop Mobile Phones Review

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Update 3 Shop Mobile Phones Review

Google just announced the Pixel 7a. We’ve added details about the new Android phone to our What’s Up section.

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High-end Android phones can cost $1,000 or more, but cheaper models can still offer almost all the features you want in a phone. After testing the phone for a few days and half a dozen, we have come to the conclusion that the OnePlus Nord N20 5G is the best budget Android phone out there. It’s fast enough for most people, and has a sharp OLED display, a good battery, and even 5G connectivity — a rare feature for a phone that costs just $300.

The OnePlus Nord N20 5G has good performance and a sharp 1080p OLED display with an in-display fingerprint reader, a feature usually reserved for expensive phones.

The OnePlus Nord N20 5G is more powerful than Samsung’s budget phones, and its 1080p OLED display is sharper than other phones in this price range, which typically have lower-resolution LCDs with less contrast. The N20 5G even offers an in-display fingerprint sensor, a rare feature on budget phones. There is an update available for Android 12, along with three years of security updates (until spring 2025). However, it does not work on the Verizon network.

Samsung’s cheapest 5G phone performs better than most phones in this price range, and Samsung offers an impressive four-year warranty on software updates.

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The Samsung Galaxy A14 5G has a boring, generic design, but it’s more responsive than you might expect for just $200. The screen gets more fingerprints than more expensive phones, but it’s big and bright, and the A14 5G runs Android 13. with an amazing four-year update support (until early 2027) with several more updates in the future. Most budget phones are lucky to see half that.

The Pixel 6a offers the latest Android software, a great display, and a camera that rivals phones that cost twice the price.

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Like Google’s past budget phone options, the Google Pixel 6a has great software, but it adds more powerful hardware. The Pixel 6a beats the budget competition in almost every way, making it a great choice if you can afford to spend a little more. For $450, the Pixel 6a offers one of the best cameras on any smartphone, including phones that cost twice as much. In addition, the software experience is smoother and more comfortable than what you’ll find on OnePlus or Samsung phones, and the Pixel 6a has the same powerful Tensor processor as the more expensive Pixel phones. Google also guarantees security updates until the summer of 2027. However, the Pixel 6a lags behind our other picks in battery life, and it lacks a headphone jack.

Samsung Galaxy A03s has better performance and update support than other ultra budget phones and works on all mobile networks.

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At just $160, the Samsung Galaxy A03s is the cheapest phone in Samsung’s current lineup, but it doesn’t act like one. The A03 is fast enough to browse the web, send messages and play simple games. Despite the low price of the phone, Samsung does not skimp on updates: the A03s will receive updates until the beginning of 2026, a full four years of support, which is unheard of for such a cheap phone. The build quality is a step down compared to the Galaxy A14 5G, the camera isn’t very good and this model doesn’t have 5G support, but the battery life is great.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve written over a million words about Android phones, tablets, and software on sites like Wirecutter, Android Police, and ExtremeTech. I’ve also lived with dozens of different Android phones as my “daily drivers” during this time. Every year I use and review more phones than most people will own in their lifetime.

The best smartphones have never been more expensive, but for less than a quarter of the price of a flagship phone, you can have a phone that does almost as much. You’ll just be giving up a few cool features like water resistance, wireless charging, or multiple camera modules. Cheap phones usually can’t compete with quad-HD (1440p) screens or top-of-the-line processors in flagship phones, but you don’t need them to get a good experience.

Budget phones are great first smartphones, especially for kids and teenagers or people who are extremely clumsy. If you lose or break a higher-end phone, especially one that you’re still paying your carrier for, you may have to spend a lot of money to replace it — often $500 or more. If you don’t have insurance, you can pay the price of a new phone with the balance you no longer have.

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We also like that budget phones are usually bought online or directly from the manufacturer; you can use these phones on AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon in the US and 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 carrier restrictions. You can use an MVNO, and if a better deal is available, you can pop another operator’s SIM into your phone and move on with your life.

Budget phones are great for those getting their first smartphone, especially kids and teenagers or the extremely clumsy.

It’s a good idea to stick with a more reputable budget phone maker with a strong US and retail presence, as such companies are more likely to address any security issues quickly by deploying patches. And choosing a phone from a big company like Google or Samsung makes it less likely that you’ll encounter major security flaws in the first place.

After testing dozens of budget smartphones, we found most of them to be unrecommended, despite their low prices, due to their terrible performance, bloated software, useless cameras, infrequent or non-existent updates, or a combination of these issues. Here’s what we look for in a phone before recommending it:

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OnePlus got to where it is by offering a lot of power in its phones for not a lot of money, and it does just that with the OnePlus Nord N20 5G. While most budget Android phones have mediocre 720p LCDs, the N20 5G has a sharper, 1080p OLED. The N20 5G’s processor is also a step up from what you get in the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G, and its impressive battery life is further boosted by 33W fast charging. However, camera performance is poor, even for a budget phone, and OnePlus only offers three years of security updates, while Samsung and Google offer updates for four and five years, respectively.