Now is a great time to buy one of the best bargain phones, with holiday deals and price cuts as phone makers get new models ready. We saw recent discounts on just about every phone on this list (maybe not the iPhone as much), so if you want a great deal, we’ll keep you posted.
We’ve reviewed every phone on this list, and many more that weren’t quite good enough to recommend. You can trust we’ll only recommend the best cheap phone that’s only cheap when it comes to the price tag. I’ve reviewed hundreds of phones, and TechRadar has reviewed more than 1,000 phones in all, working with Future Labs for precise testing and real world understanding.
We’ve got suggestions on this list for the cheapest iPhone worth buying, the best overall bargain phone, which is an Android phone, to no surprise: the Google Pixel 8a. We can also suggest the best battery life bargain phone, and even cheaper bargains overall.
We’re constantly testing new phones, and we have more bargain phones from Samsung and Motorola in the hands of reviewers right now, so check back soon and we should have even more options if you need to spend less but still get a great phone.
Philip Berne
Phil Berne is a preeminent voice in consumer electronic reviews. He has been reviewing phones since before the first iPhone, and he even worked as an internal reviewer for Samsung, offering his opinion on top secret new models before launch. He has reviewed hundreds of phones and tablets, including all of the latest Samsung Galaxy, Apple iPhone, and Google Pixel phones.
Quick List
Current best price: $599 at Apple
Best price ever: $599 at Apple
We found the iPhone 14 to be a better value than the cheapest iPhone, the iPhone SE, with its bigger screen, more cameras, and all the latest iOS features.
Read more below
Current best price: $399 at Amazon
Best price ever: $399 at Amazon
The Pixel 8a gets seven years of Android updates, plus all of Google’s latest AI features. It takes great photos and is totally durable.
Read more below
Current best price: $499.99 at Amazon
Best price ever: $399.99 at Amazon
The OnePlus 12R gives you the best battery life on any smartphone, with super-fast charging. It’s not very durable, but the trade-offs may be worthwhile.
Read more below
Current best price: $253.99 at Walmart
Best price ever: $253.99 at Walmart
The Galaxy A35 has a beautiful screen, satisfying performance, and lots of personality. It looks like Samsung’s expensive phones, even though it costs a fraction of the price.
Read more below
The best cheap phones in 2024
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Below, you’ll find full write-ups for each of the best cheap phones in our list. We’ve tested each model extensively, so you can be sure that our recommendations can be trusted.
The best cheap iPhone
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Buy it if
✅ You want the cheapest good iPhone: The iPhone 14 is the cheapest iPhone that’s still available from Apple brand new that we’d buy, with enough power and a big screen to blend in with the rest.
✅ You want to be a blue bubble: There are a lot of Apple features that only work between iPhones, including the iMessage blue bubbles, and new SharePlay and NameDrop sharing features.
Don’t buy it if:
❌ You can wait a bit longer: The iPhone SE is rumored to get an update with a more powerful processor and a modern look, but it may not be this cheap.
❌ You want Apple Intelligence: You’ll need a phone with an Apple A17 Pro processor, like the iPhone 16, to use the Apple Intelligence AI features, this phone will never get them.
Don’t be fooled by the iPhone 14’s age. Sure, we first reviewed it back in 2022, but Apple keeps phones fresh with new iOS updates for five years, so it’s can use almost all the best iOS 18 features.
It’s got an Apple A15 Bionic processor inside, and it’s powerful enough to take today’s best Android phones, let alone the bargain models on this list.
The iPhone 14 starts at $599, which is expensive, but if you must have a new iPhone, this is the affordable model we’d recommend. The iPhone SE also has an A15 Bionic inside, and it was launched in 2022, but we’ve used both phones side-by-side, and we greatly prefer the iPhone 14.
If you must have a home button, though, grab that iPhone SE soon, because rumors suggest Apple may replace it with a more contemporary look.
We prefer the iPhone 14’s OLED display, compared to the dinky LCD screen on the iPhone SE. The iPhone 14 also gives you two 12MP cameras, including an ultra wide that handles close-up photography, as well as a better selfie camera.
Plus, you won’t look like the person carrying the old iPhone with a Home button if you pick the iPhone 14 over the iPhone SE.
Read our full iPhone 14 review
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Design | Near-identical design to iPhone 13 | 4/5 |
| Display | Familiar 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR | 3.5/5 |
| Performance | Uses the iPhone 13 Pro’s A15 Bionic chip | 4/5 |
| Camera | Familiar 12MP main + ultrawide on the back | 3.5/5 |
| Battery | Enough juice for a busy day | 4/5 |
| Software | iOS 16 is one of Apple’s biggest platfomr updates in a while | 4.5/5 |
| Value | A good if familiar phone at, fortunately, an unchanged price | 3.5/5 |
The best cheap Android
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Buy it if
✅ You want Pro-ish photos to share: The Pixel 8a takes great photos that look a lot like what the Pixel 8 Pro can shoot, but the photos are smaller and easier to share.
✅ You want the latest AI features: We found all of the latest Pixel AI features on the Pixel 8a when we reviewed the phone, and it gets updates regularly.
Don’t buy it if:
❌ You want the new Pixel look: The Pixel got a major redesign with the Pixel 9, so you may want to wait (or save up) if you don’t want to look dated.
❌ It isn’t on sale with a discount: The Pixel 8a gets regular price cuts, so wait until you find a great deal to press GO on that purchase. You may save hundreds.
The Google Pixel 8a is one of the best A-series bargain phones I’ve seen from Google in a while, and it keeps up with the fancier Pixel 8 family in all the best ways. Most importantly, the Pixel 8a will get Android OS updates for the next seven years, an unheard-of promise for a phone in this price range. That means you can keep it longer and it will still be totally up to date.
I enjoyed using the Pixel 8a with all of Google’s cool new AI features, including the generative writing tools to help you write text messages and emails in Gmail. I preferred using Google Gemini to replace the older Google Assistant. Google Photos gets the Magic Editor tool that helps you restyle your photos, and Best Take to perfect your group shots. You really get everything with this bargain model.
If you are looking for an absolute steal, keep a close eye on this phone. Google A-series phones get great deals on Amazon throughout the year, and you may find this one priced even lower than $499. The Pixel 7a dropped to $349 on the regular.
Read our full Google Pixel 8a review
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Value | The same price as last year (in the US at least), and a good value for Google’s long-term software updates and Android support. | 5 / 5 |
| Design | Unimpeachably a Pixel, but with great color and a nice finish, it feels both premium and youthful at once. I especially appreciate IP68 water resistance. | 5 / 5 |
| Display | Great, bright display, just like the screen we loved on the Pixel 8. It could be bigger, sharper, faster, but it’s very bright, and that’s good enough. | 4 / 5 |
| Software | Google’s AI features are getting more useful and more prevalent, and with seven years of Android updates, this is a phone to watch for a long time. It could get even better. | 4 / 5 |
| Camera | Photos look very similar to Pixel 8 Pro shots, until you zoom in close. Still great for a phone at this price. The AI editing features are the real standout. | 3 / 5 |
| Performance | Google’s Tensor G3 has us questioning whether this phone will last seven years, but for now it’s capable of running all of Google’s best features… with help from the cloud, of course. | 3 / 5 |
| Battery | The battery is smaller than the Pixel 8, and battery life suffers. Charging is also a bit slower, whether wired or wireless. If you need more screen time, we have other suggestions. | 3 / 5 |
The best cheap phone for battery life
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Buy it if
✅ You want the best battery life: You have to find a specialty gaming phone to beat the OnePlus 12R in battery longevity, and nothing at this cheap price.
✅ You want great performance: The OnePlus 12R is surprisingly fast for such a bargain phone with great battery life. It’s a true flagship killer.
Don’t buy it if:
❌ You might get it wet: You can find other phones that are IP68 water resistant, but the OnePlus 12R can’t handle a dunk, or even a very heavy rainstorm.
❌ You want an AI phone: For better (I think) or worse, OnePlus has skipped most of the AI features you’ll find on Google’s Pixel 8a and other new phones.
The OnePlus 12R finally brings the winning OnePlus R-series phone to the US, and I was surprised by how powerful and capable this phone could be, especially in terms of battery. It’s available for $499, but in classic OnePlus fashion almost everybody will get at least $100 for any phone you can trade, so it’s effectively a $400 phone.
For that price, you get an amazingly bright display, larger and brighter than the iPhone 13 and Google Pixel 8a by far. You also get blazing performance with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor that was the crown of the best Android phones in my 2023 benchmark testing. OnePlus knows how to kill your desire to spend a lot of money on flagship phones, with a great display and fast performance.
The OnePlus 12R also has the best battery life of any smartphone I’ve tested. With a huge 5,500mAh battery inside, a cell normally reserved for hardcore gaming phones, this phone lasted 18 hours in my rundown tests, while most phones die before 12 hours is up.
Unfortunately, the OnePlus 12R isn’t water resistant, it can only handle a light splashing. It also gets a respectable four years of Android updates, but Samsung, Google, and Apple all offer more than that. This phone won’t likely drop in price, so if you can find a trade to help you knock the cost down, go for it.
Read our full OnePlus 12R review
Take a look at our OnePlus discount codes for the best OnePlus offers and savings.
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Value | So long as you’re happy with the OnePlus 12R’s weaknesses, there’s a lot of great smartphone for your money here. | 4 / 5 |
| Design | Beautiful fit and finish hides lackluster ingress protection against dust and water. | 3.5 / 5 |
| Display | A superb display, that’s stunning, bright, power efficient and smart. As long as you’re happy with the size and resolution, there’s little wrong here. | 5 / 5 |
| Software | OxygenOS 14 on the 12R is full of features without feeling overwhelming. The phone’s long-term update roadmap is behind the curve, though. | 4 / 5 |
| Camera | A superb main 50MP snapper should cover you for most things, but the secondary cameras don’t justify their presence on the 12R, especially that macro snapper. | 3.5 / 5 |
| Performance | Last year’s flagship silicon still packs plenty of punch, supported by OnePlus’ efforts with the Trinity Engine. Thermals could be better, despite the company’s claims, though. | 4 / 5 |
| Battery | A big battery that results in the brand’s best longevity to date in our tests. No wireless charging is the only misstep here. | 4.5 / 5 |
The best cheap Samsung phone
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Buy it if
✅ You want a great display for less: At this price, the Galaxy A15 is the best smartphone screen you’re going to see. It looks like a premium device.
✅ You want tons of features: The Galaxy A15 has Samsung’s pedigree, which means plenty of software features to take advantage of the hardware.
Don’t buy it if:
❌ You expect Galaxy S cameras: This is a Galaxy A phone, not a premium Galaxy S, so it’s cameras won’t measure up to the best camera phones.
❌ You need to charge fast: The OnePlus 12R charges faster and lasts longer, so if battery and longevity are important, you may want to spring for that phone.
The Samsung Galaxy A35 5G impressed us with its top-notch features and its great Samsung display, all for less than $400. We liked diving into Samsung’s OneUI software features, which gave us plenty of useful tools, customizations, and shortcuts, especially compared to more basic Android software from Google and Motorola.
Compared to other phones at this price, we preferred the Galaxy A35 5G’s camera options, with a 5MP macro camera lens in addition to the 50MP main camera and an 8MP ultra wide. It also has solid battery life with a 5,000 mAh battery, the same size you’ll find in Samsung’s big flagship Galaxy S phones, and in our testing it had no trouble lasting all day.
Samsung’s Exynos processor is no slouch, but we still got better performance from the flagship Samsung Galaxy S24. Still, we had no trouble playing our favorite games and browing the web with this Galaxy device. If you need a serious work phone, you’ll have to spend more, but for less than $400, the Galaxy A35 5G is the best phone to buy.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy A35 review
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Value | A few areas exceed expectations, while most others match it. | 4 / 5 |
| Design | A generic Android phone in a few colors. | 3.5 / 5 |
| Display | A great-looking display for the price. | 4 / 5 |
| Software | One UI looks good with useful features; bloatware loses points. | 3.5 / 5 |
| Camera | A dab AI hand doesn’t save some ungainly pictures. | 3 / 5 |
| Performance | Middling processing scores don’t do justice to this phone’s power. | 3.5 / 5 |
| Battery | A standard battery for a phone like this, with slow charging. | 3.5 / 5 |
FAQs
When does the iPhone (or Galaxy) get cheaper?
Different phone makers drop prices at different times. Apple almost never drops the price of the iPhone before the next edition is launched. It doesn’t get the discount sales that the iPad and Macbook might get before the next big thing arrives. Instead, you have to wait for the new iPhone, and then the older iPhone comes down in price. It’s still worth buying then, because iPhone devices last a long time.
Samsung’s Galaxy phones usually see periodic sales throughout the year. The best discounts happen at launch or soon after, but you may see a discount a month or so before the next Galaxy launches. Samsung keeps its phones around when the next big thing arrives, but they don’t always drop in price then, so take advantage of a discount when you see one.
Google’s Pixel phones fluctuate in price throughout the year, but they usually hit a low price around the November holiday shopping season, and that’s the lowest price we’ll see for a while. Once that bottom is established, that’s the price you should pay (unless you find it cheaper).
What is the best cheap phone?
The best cheap iPhone is the iPhone 14, because it offers a larger, OLED display than the iPhone SE, and an extra ultra wide camera. The best cheap Android is the Pixel 8a, because it gives you all of Google’s Pixel AI features, plus great photos, on a phone for less than $500. The OnePlus 12R is also a great option with incredible battery life, and it’s especially cheap if you also have a phone to trade.
How to choose the best cheap phone
If you are looking for a cheap phone, you’ll need to first decide on your price range. Our bargain phones cost less than $500, but there are plenty of options that are even cheaper. Then you need to decide what is most important, and what you can sacrifice. You can find a cheap phone with top-notch software features, extra-long battery life, or impressive durability, but usually not all three.
If battery life is the most important thing, choose OnePlus and give up on Samsung’s features and durability. If durability is key, choose a Samsung phone, but know that OnePlus charges faster and is more powerful. If the latest features are important, look at the Google Pixel, but it won’t have the battery life of a OnePlus phone or the impressive display of the Samsung devices.
Do I need a name brand phone from Apple, Samsung or Google?
You can find a good device cheap from an unfamiliar phone maker, but the question is what happens when something goes wrong? No matter which iPhone, Galaxy or Pixel you buy, you know who to call if you have questions or if it breaks. Apple, Samsung and Google, respectively, all have a reliable track record, and they operate locally so you won’t have to ship a broken phone internationally for repairs.
Before you buy an off-brand phone, see if they have a customer service number you can call, and check what the warranty covers and how they handle repairs. That’s the worst case scenario, so it’s best to be aware in advance.
The other advantage is software updates. Google offers seven years of updates on the Pixel 8a, starting from 2024, and Apple will support each iPhone for at least five years from when it launched. Samsung supports its Galaxy S phones for seven years, but not the Galaxy A phones.
Should I buy a used phone?
I would personally avoid used phones right now, unless you are buying from the most trustworthy source. While you might find an iPhone 15 cheap on Swappa or eBay, you can’t be sure that the phone you get is what it claims. If that iPhone broke, was it repaired by Apple, or was it repaired by a company like uBreakiFix, which might swap premium parts, like the display, with sub-par tech for cheap? I would rather get a cheap new phone I can rely upon than buy a used phone and hope I don’t encounter shenanigans.
How we test
- Review period: At least one week, usually 2-4 weeks or longer
- Testing includes: web browsing, photo editing, social media, photography, gaming, streaming video, audio playback, writing documents, being creative
- Tools used: 3D Mark: Original, 3D Mark:Extreme, 3D Mark: Slingshot Extreme (unlimited), Geekbench 6.2.2, Geekbench, Crossmark, proprietary tests
We test cheap phones the same way we test all smartphones, by using them as our primary device over a period of weeks. We judge these phones based on what they deliver for the price, so we aren’t expecting top performance and professional photographs, but we do expect high quality, because even a cheap phone is an expensive investment.
We use these phones for messaging, phone calls, listening to music and audio, and browsing the web. We watch videos, play games, and use these phones in our cars for navigation and music. We use these phones for work and personal business.
We also test these phones in Future Labs, where they undergo rigorous and scientific testing for performance, display quality, battery life, and much more. We use colorimeter equipment to understand display quality, electrical testing gear to understand charging and battery performance, and other quantitative tools. All phones are given the same benchmark testing and real world expectations.
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