Other Cheap Phones to Consider
We highly recommend you stick with the phones above, but here are some alternatives worth considering.
Samsung Galaxy A26 for $300: If you want a Samsung phone but don’t want to spend much, I think the Galaxy A26 (6/10, WIRED Review) is the best bang for your buck. Performance is solid, battery life lasts a full day, there’s an IP67 water resistance rating, and the camera is OK. It even has expandable storage (though no headphone jack), and Samsung promises six years of software updates, which is unparalleled at this price. It seems to no longer be available from Samsung, which means a successor is on the way.
Samsung Galaxy A36 for $400: With a higher price, you’d think the A36 would be even better than the A26, right? Wrong. The Galaxy A36 (6/10, WIRED Review) hits many highs, including a brighter display, good battery life, and solid cameras, but storage is not expandable, and performance was bizarrely more choppy. The six years of software support are nice, but if the phone is already annoying to operate, I can’t imagine what it’ll be like in six years. It’s an OK phone, but you can do better. (It’s a better buy at its sale price of $230.)
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Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
TCL 60 XE Nxtpaper 5G for $200: TCL’s 60 XE (7/10, WIRED Recommends) has an anti-reflective matte screen called Nxtpaper to limit the blue light entering your eyes for better sleep and reduced eye fatigue. There’s no evidence to suggest that blue-light blockers work, but if you ignore those claims, this is still a great budget phone with a pleasing matte screen. There is a switch on the side that lets you flip between different display modes that turn the screen closer to a monochrome or color E Ink experience, great for fans of e-readers. Performance is good, the camera is decent, and there are extras like a headphone jack and microSD card slot. The only problem is that the screen is hard to read in direct sunlight.
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Moto G 2026 for $200: The Moto G 2026 comes in this gorgeous pink! It’s a pretty-looking phone, and a decent $200 handset. Performance is sluggish, which is why I think you’re better off buying the Moto G Power 2026 when it goes on sale. The cameras are barely passable, but you can make contactless payments, access 5G connectivity, and perform day-to-day tasks with a bit of patience.
Moto G Play 2026 for $180: Motorola’s new Moto G Play 2026 adds 5G connectivity for the first time. However, performance is still quite sluggish, with apps and webpages taking several seconds to load. If you want to pay very little money, this will do the job, but I think you should buy the Moto G Power 2026 instead, especially when it inevitably goes on sale. While the Power’s performance isn’t amazing, it’s much better than the Play’s and has stronger cameras and more features.
Minimal Phone for $450: Want to reduce your reliance on a smartphone? The Minimal Phone (6/10, WIRED Review) has an e-paper touchscreen and a physical keyboard, but it runs Android. That means you can still access every app you’d want via the Google Play Store, but the experience is going to be inferior, due to the phone’s low refresh rate (good luck watching videos on this thing) and the tiny monochrome screen. Still, this is a decent alternative (or maybe even a second phone) if you just want to get away from doomscrolling.
Samsung Galaxy A17 5G for $200: The new Galaxy A17 doesn’t change much from its predecessor—it’s still frustrating to use, perhaps even more so this year. The paltry 4 GB of RAM constantly slowed down everything. If I were in an emergency, I would not trust the A17 to help reliably. The good news is that the camera is decent, there’s a long software update window, and the AMOLED screen is nice—not to mention the expandable storage. But you need a lot of patience with this phone, so it’s only for someone whose needs are very minimal.
Nuu N20 for $130: Right after I tested the Galaxy A16 last year, I moved on to the cheaper Nuu N20. Color me surprised. Yes, it can still be sluggish, but performance on this nearly $100 phone is far better and manageable. I used it for a week with no major problems. Well, except one: GPS on this device isn’t great. The few times I used it for navigation, it struggled to find my location and was slow to update the map. Another big problem? The N20 runs Android 14, so it’s already out of date, and the company tells me there is no “exact schedule for software updates.”
Sonim XP Pro 5G for $550: This rugged phone is sold through Verizon only, but I tested it on Google Fi and didn’t have any connectivity issues. (Fi is powered by T-Mobile’s network.) I have dropped this Android phone multiple times on the sidewalk (on purpose), and the screen has not cracked. It’s quite durable, and that’s largely the reason to buy it. On its own, it’s not wholly impressive—you can buy more powerful, feature-rich phones for the money. The camera is especially bad, consistently delivering blurry shots unless you stay as still as a statue. But performance is decent, it comes with 256 GB of storage with a microSD card slot, and there’s a customizable button you can set to trigger a shortcut or open an app.
Nothing Phone (3a) Lite for £249: Nothing’s Phone (3a) Lite (6/10, WIRED Review) is a confusing smartphone in its lineup. The CMF Phone 2 Pro exists and is similar in price (CMF is Nothing’s sub-brand), and in general, there are better phones you can buy for the money. The cameras are lackluster, and there’s a lot of bloatware, which feels like the opposite of Nothing’s philosophy. Performance is decent, as is its battery life, but this phone also didn’t launch in the US.
What Phones Should You Avoid?
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If you’re eyeing a cheap phone, try to stick to name brands. There are several smartphones you’ll find for dirt cheap on Amazon, but you’re about to load up whatever you buy with your personal information and photos—it’s important to make sure it’s a reputable brand with good security practices (or at least some kind of record that it does issue security patches).
