Best cheap phones 2025 tested — Our top budget phone picks

The best cheap phones can provide all you need without breaking the bank. And right now, the Google Pixel 9a is our top pick, showing you can get a whole lot for just $500.

If you want to spend less than that, we have more options for you. And if you’re after a cheap iPhone, the iPhone 16e is here too, looking a little out of place with its 600-buck price tag but deserving to be here as the cheapest way of getting a new Apple phone.

The phones on this list all come with compromises compared to the flagship phones we often see dominating the tech news headlines, but that’s what has to come with lowering the cost of these devices. We’ll flag the strengths and weaknesses of these phones clearly as we go down the list so you understand exactly what you’re in for when you make your purchase.

Without further ado, let’s check out the best cheap phones.

Written by

Written by

John Velasco

I'm the senior editor for mobile at Tom's Guide, where I've been working since 2023. I've been covering mobile tech for 16 years in total, starting with old school feature phones and early smartphones powered by Palm OS and Windows Mobile. I'm a New Jersey native and keep up with the latest mobile tech.

The Quick List

What to look for in the best cheap phones

After you've found a cheap phone at the exact right price for your budget, there are a few other things to consider.

Think about the features that this device has to offer and which ones you're sacrificing for that specific price tag. Battery life, the number and types of cameras, display refresh rate and the type of chipset powering the phone are all ways that cheap phones can distinguish themselves.

One other area to consider is software updates and support. We've seen cheaper Android phones either ship with older versions of Android or promise very few upgrades to future versions. Samsung and Google tend to have some of the better upgrade policies with its Galaxy A lineup, and the iPhone remains a standout for usually supporting five years of iOS updates.

The best cheap phones you can buy today

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Best cheap phone overall

Google Pixel 9a camera samples

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Google's done a lot of things right with the Pixel 9a. Not only does it offer plenty of upgrades over the Pixel 8a, Google's also kept the price the same. In an age where the threat of price hikes are increasingly common, it's refreshing to see a phone this feature-rich sell for under $500.

The Pixel 9a is easily the most well-rounded phone you can buy for that price right now. Most notable is AI, and Google has added the majority of features you'd find on the rest of the Pixel 9 series. A couple of features are missing, like Pixel Screenshots and Call Notes, but the really important stuff is still here.

Gemini Live, Pixel Studio's image generation and Reimagine to name a few. Plus all the features we've seen on older models, like Magic Editor and Best Take. All thanks to the Tensor G4 chipset which, while not a performance powerhouse, makes up for it in AI prowess.

While the design is simple, it's incredible to see that Google has reduced the camera bump to almost nothing. Considering how large some phone cameras are, that's an incredible achievement. In typical Google style those dual cameras offer better quality than their specs let on.

The display is also notable, with a new 6.3-inch panel that has proven to be brighter and more accurate than Pixel 8a could hope to be. Then there's the adaptive refresh rate, which switches between 60 and 120Hz depending on what's on screen — just like Pixel 9.

Read our full Google Pixel 9a review.

Best value cheap phone

Nothing Phone 3a camera samples

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Who says that you have to sacrifice looks for a cheaper price? The Nothing Phone 3a still delivers the stylish translucent look and helpful Glyph interface as its other siblings, but packages in more features. My colleague, Philip Michaels, praises its bright and crisp 6.7-inch AMOLED display, which offers an adaptive refresh rate up to 120Hz, as well as how long this phone lasted on our battery test.

With a price of $379, it might be tough to track down to buy one given the limited release in the U.S. through Nothing's developer beta program, but it's worth waiting for given the big improvements around its cameras, which now includes a dedicated telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom.

Even though the Moto G Power (2025) is the longest lasting phone on this list, the Nothing Phone 3a's time of 15 hours and 24 minutes on our battery benchmark test is pretty impressive.

Read our full Nothing Phone 3a review.

Best cheap phone under $300

Motorola Moto G Power 2025 camera samples

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The Moto G Power 2025 is a budget phone that prioritizes battery longevity. That's why power is in its name, as it's packed with a 5,000 mAh battery that's among the best phone battery life we've tested at 17 hours and 13 minutes.

Complementing that is its speedy 30W wired charging that gets it to 53% after 30 minutes of charging. And for a phone that costs $299, it also includes wireless charging support, which seems more like a luxury for cheap phones.

However, its Mediatek Dimensity 6300 chip underperforms, and as a result, can exhibit sluggish performance for demanding tasks. The camera system, a dual camera arrangement, can still capture high-quality images — but mainly when the lightning conditions are ideal. That's because it struggles under low light.

Finally, it's worth pointing out that Motorola now offers two years of major Android upgrades and three years of security updates. This means you can expect to hold onto this budget longer, while gaining some of the best new features of Android.

Read our full Moto G Power 2025 review.

Best cheap phone under $200

Motorola Moto G 2025 camera samples

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If you don't mind the kind of compromises you have to make to get a phone's price to drop below $200 — in this case, those would be tepid performance and a dim display — the latest version of the Moto G will appeal to your budget-minded needs. And the phone may actually surprise you with what it does offer at that price.

At this point, it's not surprising that the Moto G lasts a long-time on a charge, as Motorola makes that a key selling point with its budget phones. With a time of just over 18.5 hours on our battery test, this is the lowest-cost device to crash our long-lasting phone rankings. And 30W wired charging speeds can fill up more than 50% of the battery in just half-an-hour.

Even though you're limited to a main camera and a dedicated macro sensor, the Moto G (2025) takes surprisingly good photos, though features like portrait mode can be inconsistent. And a nice vegan leather back panel makes the phone feel a lot fancier than its budget price would suggest. Credit Motorola for finding a way to add some nice touches to its new Moto G while keeping the price nice and low.

Read our full Moto G (2025) review.

Best cheap iPhone

iPhone 16e camera samples

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Apple has ditched the iPhone SE line that used to act as the first rung on its smartphone ladder in favor of the new iPhone 16e. This is the most fully-featured budget iPhone yet, although sadly it's also the most expensive, and a full $100 more than the top cheap Android phone we recommended back at the top of the guide.

Price aside, you get quite a deal thanks to Apple using its mighty A18 chipset to give this phone plenty of power. The glass and aluminum design, and an OLED screen make the phone feel lovely to handle and look at, and Apple Intelligence support gives you access to all of Apple's latest features.

The single rear camera can hold its own against better-equipped phones thanks to a versatile 48MP sensor, but we wish it had an ultrawide camera to further flesh the experience out. It's also odd that Apple chose to install wireless charging but no MagSafe magnets. Overall though, this is still a worthy bearer of the iPhone name, and will suit users on tighter budgets.

Read our full iPhone 16e review.

How we test the best cheap phones

We evaluate budget-priced phones the same way we do flagships. We perform real-world testing and synthetic benchmarks over several days to evaluate it's performance and value. This includes our own battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over cellular at 150 nits of screen brightness. The devices that make our best phone battery life list tend to last over 11 hours.

In terms of performance, we use Geekbench 5 to measure overall speed and compare versus phones in the same price range. And the same thing goes for 3DMark's Wild Life Unlimited for graphics testing. We also perform our own video editing/transcoding testing using the Adobe Premiere Rush app to gauge real-world speed.

For evaluating cameras on cheap phones, we will take multiple photos in different conditions and will use other affordably priced phones in the same scenarios in order to make side-by-side comparisons.

For more information, check out our how we test page for Tom's Guide.