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OnePlus has announced a new version of our current pick, the $300 Nord N30 5G. We’ve added details about the new phone and what to expect
Update Best 2021 Android Phone Review
High-end Android phones can cost $1,000 or more, but cheaper models can offer almost every feature you could want in a phone. After testing half a dozen phones over several days, we’ve 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 screen, a good battery, and even 5G connectivity, a rare feature for a phone that costs just $300.
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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 more expensive phones.
The OnePlus Nord N20 5G is more powerful than Samsung’s budget phone, and its 1080p OLED display is sharper than other phones in this price range, which typically have lower-resolution LCDs with poor contrast. The N20 5G also offers an in-display fingerprint sensor, a rare feature in a budget phone. An update to Android 12 is available, along with three years of security updates (until spring 2025). However, it doesn’t work on Verizon’s network.
Samsung’s cheapest 5G phones perform better than most phones in this price range, and Samsung offers an impressive four years of software updates.
The Samsung Galaxy A14 5G has a generic and boring design, but it’s more responsive than you’d expect for $200. The screen takes more fingerprints than more expensive phones, but it’s big and bright, and the A14 5G runs Android 13. Samsung promises more updates in the future as well, with a staggering four years of update support (in 2027) that most budget phones are lucky to see half of.
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The Pixel 6a offers the latest Android software, a great display, and a camera that rivals phones at twice the price.
Like Google’s past budget phone options, the Google Pixel 6a packs great software, but adds even more powerful hardware. The Pixel 6a beats the budget competition in almost every way, and it’s a great option if you can spend a little more money. For $450, the Pixel 6a offers one of the best cameras of any phone, including phones costing more than twice as much. Additionally, the software experience is smoother and more user-friendly than what you might find on a OnePlus or Samsung phone, and the Pixel 6a has the powerful Tensor processor found in more expensive Pixel phones. Google guarantees security updates until the summer of 2027. However, the Pixel 6 falls short of our other picks when it comes to battery life and lacks a headphone jack.
Samsung Galaxy A03s has better performance and update support than other budget phones and works on all cellular networks.
At just $160, the Samsung Galaxy A03s is the cheapest phone in Samsung’s current lineup, but it doesn’t feel like a bargain-basement phone. The A03s is fast enough for web browsing, texting and playing simple games. And despite the phone’s low price, Samsung isn’t skipping updates: the A03s will receive updates in 2026, with four years of support from launch, unheard of for such a cheap phone. The build quality is a letdown compared to the Galaxy A14 5G, the camera is not as good and this model lacks 5G support, but the battery life is excellent.
Best Android Phone Of 2023
Over the past 10 years, I’ve written more than a million words about Android phones, tablets, and software on sites like Wirecutter, Android Police, and ExtremeTech. I’ve lived with dozens of different Android phones as my “daily driver” during that time. I use and review more phones every year because more people will own them 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 be giving up some fancy features, like water resistance, wireless charging, or multiple camera modules. Cheaper phones usually can’t compete with quad-HD (1440p) displays or high-end processors in flagship phones, but you don’t need those things for a good experience.
Budget phones are great first smartphones, especially for kids and teenagers, or the outright clumsy. If you lose or break a high-end phone, especially one you’re paying for from your carrier, it can cost you a lot to replace, often $500 or more. If you don’t have insurance, you can pay the balance on a phone you no longer have, plus the cost of a new phone.
We also like that budget phones are usually bought online or unlocked directly from the manufacturer; You can use these phones on AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon on most networks in the US and the rest of the world. More importantly, you can use an unlocked phone on a prepaid mobile virtual network operator (MVNO); These low-cost operators operate on national networks, but impose more data usage restrictions or call limits. You can use an MVNO, and if a good deal comes along, you can put another carrier’s SIM card in your phone and get on with your life.
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Budget phones are great for someone looking for their first phone, especially for kids and teens, or those who are very clumsy.
It’s a good idea to stick with a reputable budget phone maker with a large US presence and retail operations, as such companies are likely to fix security issues quickly when rolling out patches. And choosing a phone from a big company like Google or Samsung means you’re going to run into major security flaws first.
After testing dozens of budget smartphones, most of them are not worth recommending, despite their low prices, poor performance, bloated software, useless cameras, few or no updates, or some combination of these problems. Here are the things we look for before recommending a phone:
OnePlus succeeds by packing a lot of power into its phones, and it does so with the OnePlus Nord N20 5G. While most budget Android phones have crappy 720p LCDs, the N20 5G has a sharper 1080p OLED. The N20 5G’s processor is a step up from what you get in the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G, and its impressive battery life is bolstered 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 four and five years of updates, respectively.
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As component prices have risen in recent years, we’ve seen budget phones move away from mid-range processors to cheaper, more reliable options. The N20 5G bucks that trend, running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 processor, which is more powerful than the MediaTek chip in the Galaxy A14 5G. The N20 5G also has 6GB of RAM and a healthy 128GB of storage, faster than what you’d get on the Galaxy A14 5G or Galaxy A03s, and a microSD card slot. Loading complex websites, running 3D games, and installing and launching apps is a better experience on the N20 5G than on other 2022 budget phones, except Google’s more expensive Pixel 6a. The N20 5G also has NFC for mobile payments, a feature often missing from budget phones.
1080p display resolutions used to be commonplace on sub-$300 phones, but supply chain issues related to the pandemic have made it rare these days. On the N20 5G, OnePlus offers a nice 1080p OLED display, which is sharper than the 720p LCD on the Galaxy A13 5G, although it’s not as bright or vibrant as the Pixel 6a’s OLED. The N20 5G’s display is limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, lower than the A14 5G’s 90Hz refresh rate. However, the N20 5G easily maintains its 60Hz refresh rate while running, while the A14 5G sometimes drops below 90Hz, making its main advantage less useful. And resolution is more important than refresh rate in phones in this price range.
The 4,500mAh battery is enough to keep the N20 5G going all day, no matter how hard you try. It can charge for two days depending on your usage, and this phone’s 33W charging is twice as fast as the A14 5G (15W). The N20 5G beats the Pixel 6 (18 W) in this regard. A full charge takes less than an hour. It’s also nice to see that the N20 comes with a 5G cable and charger, which many 2022 phones don’t.
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The Best Android Phones Of 2023: Tested And Reviewed
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