The best smartphone you can buy for under $500

Some of america instrumentality a benignant of “I devour to live” alternatively than an “I unrecorded to eat” attack to gadgets. They’re tools that assistance you get things done, not thing you privation to put a batch of clip oregon wealth in. If that’s you — and there’s nary judgement present from a certifiable gadget nerd — past you tin astir apt deliberation of much worthwhile ways to walk $1,000 than connected a phone.

Budget phones to the rescue. These devices are astir $500 oregon under, and they’re much susceptible than ever before. You won’t get each the bells and whistles, but you volition prevention a small wealth to walk on, I don’t know, existent bells and whistles. It’s your world.

Many of our picks tally astir $400 oregon $500, but determination are large options for $300 and under, too. You tin find a bright, high-definition OLED surface oregon a artillery that lasts for days. If you tin hone successful connected the 1 oregon 2 features that are astir important to you and you’re consenting to compromise elsewhere, you tin get a telephone that suits your needs for fractional the terms of a flagship.

What compromises tin you expect from a fund phone? Some operation of the following: slower processors, little storage, and lousier cameras than flagship phones, astir crossed the board. Many person lower-resolution screens, and astir deficiency authoritative water-resistance ratings, wireless charging, and NFC chips for contactless payment.

The champion iPhone nether $500

Screen: 4.7-inch, 1334p LCD / Processor: A15 Bionic Cameras: 12-megapixel f/1.8 with OIS, 7-megapixel selfie / Charging: 20W wired, 7.5W wireless / Weather-resistance rating: IP67

If your fund has a strict $500 headdress and you’re looking for a caller iPhone, the prime is easy. The 2022 iPhone SE is the only caller iPhone nether $500. It’s the slightest costly mode to get into the iOS ecosystem and it’ll bash the job, but I would powerfully promote anyone looking astatine the SE to see whether it’s doable to walk a spot much connected an iPhone 14, present priced astatine $599.

The important happening to cognize astir the SE is that it comes with a precise small, precise dated 4.7-inch screen. It’s the aforesaid size arsenic the 1 connected the iPhone 6, and it’s starting to consciousness cramped successful an property erstwhile apps and web pages are designed for bigger screens. The SE’s large bezels marque the instrumentality look dated, too, but the usability of a tiny surface volition beryllium a bigger origin implicit the years to come.

That’s the biggest sound against the SE — and it’s an important one. But if you’re not disquieted astir a cramped screen, past the SE has a batch of upsides. Its A15 processor is the aforesaid arsenic the 1 successful the iPhone 13 Pro Max, truthful show is precise good.

There’s IP67 waterproofing and wireless charging — some uncommon successful this terms scope — and adjacent though it uses an older 12-megapixel camera, it takes precise bully photos and high-quality video clips. The camera has nary nighttime mode, which is simply a funny omission — fundamentally every other midrange telephone offers immoderate benignant of low-light photograph mode, and the phone’s processor is surely up to the task. Apple gonna Apple.

The champion Android telephone nether $500

Screen: 6.1-inch, 1080p OLED, 120Hz / Processor: Tensor G3 Cameras: 64-megapixel f/1.89 with OIS, 13-megapixel ultrawide, 13-megapixel selfie / Battery: 4,492mAh / Charging: 18W wired, 7.5W wireless / Weather-resistance rating: IP67

Google offers immoderate precise bully high-end phones successful the Pixel 9, 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL, but it’s the company’s fund telephone that makes the astir sense. For $500, the Pixel 8A offers a full batch of what makes its pricier siblings good, but astatine astir fractional the cost.

It’s a humble update implicit the Pixel 7A, which you tin inactive buy, but the 8A comes with 1 large upgrade implicit the erstwhile generation: 7 years of OS and information updates. If you’re the benignant of idiosyncratic who likes to bent onto their instrumentality for a agelong time, that’s immense — particularly successful the fund class wherever different phones mightiness lone travel with 1 oregon 2 level upgrades.

The 8A is besides Google’s archetypal fund telephone to travel with a 120Hz display, truthful scrolling and animations look ace smooth. You besides get wireless charging and an IP67 standing for extortion against h2o immersion. The camera strategy is reliable, but it’s the astir evident spot wherever Google had to marque immoderate compromises to support the terms low. It’s a good all-around camera, but stepping up to 1 of the latest Pixel models gets you improved debased airy performance, an updated ultrawide camera, and a full batch of AI-powered features.

The champion fund telephone that performs similar a flagship

Screen: 6.78-inch, 1264 x 2780 120Hz OLED / Processor: Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Cameras: 50-megapixel f/1.8 with OIS, 8-megapixel ultrawide, 2-megapixel macro, 16-megapixel selfie / Battery: 5,500mAh / Charging: 80W wired / Weather-resistance rating: IP64

The OnePlus 12R is $500, but it could easy instrumentality you into reasoning it costs doubly arsenic much. It comes with a precise big, precise bully screen, with refresh rates that spell up to 120Hz and each the mode down to 1Hz, making for a creaseless scrolling acquisition erstwhile you request it and savings connected artillery beingness erstwhile you don’t. It’s a diagnostic seldom seen connected a telephone nether $800.

The 12R is equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, which is simply a procreation down 2024’s processor du jour, the 8 Gen 3. But the 8 Gen 2 inactive whips — it’s hard to propulsion thing astatine this telephone that it can’t handle. Less good: the 12R’s IP64 rating, which means it’s splash resistant but not afloat h2o immersible, similar the Pixel 8A.

Fast charging is benignant of OnePlus’ trademark, and the 12R stays existent to the marque with up to 80W accelerated wired charging successful the US (it’s up to 100W successful different regions). It’s bully if you privation to complaint your telephone connected a much compressed schedule, similar during your greeting regular alternatively than astatine night.

Personally, I’d alternatively person slower wired charging if it meant I could person a diagnostic that’s not contiguous connected the 12R: wireless charging. That is, erstwhile again, thing the Pixel 8A offers. But that’s the quality of the 12R — it knows what it is and what it isn’t. And if a low-cost telephone with a big, high-quality surface and fantabulous show is what you’re after, past the 12R is it.

The champion telephone nether $400

Screen: 6.1-inch, 1080p OLED / Processor: Tensor Cameras: 12-megapixel f/1.7 with OIS, 8-megapixel selfie / Battery: 4,410mAh / Charging: 18W wired / Weather-resistance rating: IP67

The Pixel 6A astir apt isn’t agelong for this world. It was announced successful 2022, Google nary longer sells it new, and with the accomplishment of the Pixel 8A it’s present 2 generations behind. But the 6A is hanging astir astatine third-party retailers similar Amazon, and if you tin people 1 for $300, it’s a heck of a deal. It’s scheduled to get 1 much OS upgrade and 3 much years of information updates, which is simply a decent instrumentality connected that investment.

The phone’s biggest plus is Tensor, the custom-built chipset Google utilized successful the company’s 2021 flagships, the 6 and 6 Pro. Not lone does it alteration bully wide show now, but it besides means that the 6A volition support up for galore years to travel — it’ll person information patches until astatine slightest July 2027. The 6A besides comes with an IP67 water-resistance rating, truthful it’s inactive a bully all-around stake if you privation a fund telephone that volition last.

The 6A’s 6.1-inch 1080p OLED offers a modular 60Hz refresh rate. It wasn’t excessively awesome for the phone’s archetypal $449 retail price, but for nether $400, it’s 1 of the amended screens retired there. Unfortunately, the fingerprint sensor nether the show is besides connected the dilatory side. It’s not unusable, but it’s noticeably a bushed slower than the champion fingerprint sensors retired there.

The 6A uses the aforesaid 12-megapixel modular wide camera arsenic galore Pixel phones earlier it, which is inactive a precise bully camera — particularly for the midrange class. The phone’s 4,410mAh artillery is connected the tiny side, but wide artillery show is amended than its size would suggest. 

The champion inexpensive telephone for a semipermanent relationship

Screen: 6.6-inch, 1080p resolution, 120Hz OLED / Processor: Exynos 1380 Cameras: 50-megapixel f/1.8 with OIS, 8-megapixel ultrawide, 5-megapixel macro, 13-megapixel selfie / Battery: 5,000mAh / Charging: 25W wired / Weather-resistance rating: IP67

The Samsung Galaxy A35 5G comes with amazingly beardown specs for its $399 price. They’re the benignant of features you won’t truly spot from the outside, but they’re important, peculiarly its IP67 standing for particulate and h2o resistance. Unlike virtually each different telephone astatine this price, the A35 5G is built to withstand h2o immersion, truthful you don’t request to sweat it if your telephone lands successful a toilet vessel oregon puddle.

Here’s different unexciting spec: 4 years of OS updates and 5 years of information updates. That’s not the precise champion successful the fund class — the Pixel 8A takes that grant with 7 years of updates — but it’s overmuch amended than the 2 oregon 3 years we typically spot successful phones good nether $500.

The camera is lackluster; it’s good successful agleam airy but struggles successful dim and mixed indoor lighting. It doesn’t person the strongest processing show you tin find nether $500, either, and the Samsung-made Exynos processor occasionally stutters erstwhile rapidly bouncing betwixt tasks. I was horrified — horrified! — erstwhile I accidentally texted my hubby 1 of the automatically generated replies due to the fact that it popped up astatine the past infinitesimal arsenic I was trying to pat connected thing else. These things don’t hap erstwhile everything loads quickly.

But overall, it’s a compelling bundle — particularly with a big, crowd-pleasing OLED show and beardown artillery performance. If you’re a airy idiosyncratic and not fussy astir camera quality, the A35 5G offers immoderate upgrades that marque a existent quality successful the agelong term.

Other fund phones we tested

The 2024 Motorola Moto G Power has each the makings of a bully fund phone, including a beauteous vegan leather exterior and wireless charging. But it’s loaded with bloatware of the worst kind, and that unsocial disqualifies it from our recommendations. Read our hands-on impressions.

We besides tested the OnePlus Nord N300, which doesn’t marque an quality among our recommendations. The N300 is precise affordable astatine $228 but cuts excessively galore corners to see accelerated charging. The pricier 12R that snags our proposal supra offers overmuch amended wide performance. Read our review.

If your fund has immoderate wiggle room, determination are a mates of $600 phones worthy considering that are conscionable extracurricular the scope of this guide. The Samsung Galaxy S23 FE is simply a precocious summation to the S23 lineup that offers a telephoto lens and a large screen. And for thing rather different, the Nothing Phone 2 is an enactment with its sleek quality and flashy interface (literally, it flashes) — conscionable cognize that it’s not afloat compatible with Verizon’s network.

Update, September 19th: Adjusted pricing and updated the Pixel 8A conception to bespeak the accomplishment of Google’s Pixel 9 bid phones.