The Best Cheap Phones in 2025, Tested and Reviewed by Us
Looking to save money on your next smartphone? These are the best cheap phones to buy, fully tested by our team of experts
Need a new smartphone? With prices rising everywhere, maybe it’s time to consider some of the best cheap phones on the market. A lot of the most sought-after features have been making their way down to more affordable models, and we’ve now reached the point where you can get a lot of phone for not a lot of money.
Here at Expert Reviews, we’ve tested all of the best phones – we reviewed around 50 handsets last year alone – thoroughly assessing each one against some comprehensive criteria and checking them against our benchmarking spreadsheet containing data going all the way back to 2008.
As such, we’re well placed to separate the true cheap bargains from the definite duds, and we’ve laid out our top picks for you below. We regularly revise this selection, so you can be sure that our recommendations are always up to date.
You can jump down to our buying guide, where we outline the important features to look for when shopping for a cheap smartphone. Otherwise, read on to see our choices for the best cheap phones you can buy right now.
Best cheap phone: At a glance
| Best cheap phone | Motorola Moto G54 5G | Check price at Amazon |
| Best under £100 | Motorola Moto G13 | Check price at Amazon |
| Best cheap iPhone | iPhone 11 (renewed) | Check price at Amazon |
How we test cheap phones
We test cheap phones using a variety of in-house and publicly available benchmark methods. We test CPU and gaming performance using the Geekbench and GFXBench applications, available from both the Apple App Store and Google Play. These provide us with performance scores we can use to directly compare handsets.
Display testing is performed using a colorimeter and the DisplayCal software for Windows and Mac. This test provides us with figures for overall color accuracy, as well as maximum brightness and contrast.
For battery life, we set the phone’s screen to a standardised brightness, switch off all data connections and play a 20-hour looped video. When the handset switches off, we charge it up and record the timestamp.
When testing a phone’s cameras, we use a competitor handset for direct comparison while taking pictures in a variety of different shooting scenarios, including low-light and portrait photography. Depending on the lenses available, we may also capture ultrawide or zoomed images, as well as testing any resolution and frame rate settings available for video recording.
This is just a brief glimpse of the testing process we use when reviewing the latest smartphones. If you’re keen to find out even more detail, including how we interpret the various results, you can read our dedicated How we test phones article for more information.
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The best cheap phones you can buy in 2025
1. Motorola Moto G54 5G: Best cheap phone overall
Price when reviewed: $168 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… gorgeous display and impressive performance
- Not so great for… software support and low-light photography
The Motorola Moto G54 5G undercuts its predecessor in price, while delivering an impressive upgrade to the display and overall performance – it’s the best phone in its class right now.
It’s great to see the display has been bumped back up to 1080p. The contrast and black level have been greatly improved, and the color accuracy we recorded in testing was nothing short of outstanding.
Performance takes a huge leap too, delivering speeds that can rival phones in the $250–350 range. Sure, battery life takes a hit over the previous model – lasting for 21 hours, instead of 23 – but it’s still good enough for this price.
Our biggest complaint is that Motorola only promises one software update, topping out at Android 14. This is disappointing, as Motorola’s software is otherwise faultless, delivering as close to stock Android as it gets.
Key specs – Processor: 2.2GHz MediaTek Helio; RAM: 8GB; Display: 6.5in, 2,400 x 1,080; Storage: 256GB; Cameras: 50MP, 2MP (macro); Operating system: Android 13; Weight: 6.1oz
2. Motorola Moto G13: Best cheap phone under $100
Price when reviewed: $75 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… impressive features and battery life on a cheap
- Not so great for… photography or 5G support
While cheap phones often bring to mind sluggish performance, the Motorola Moto G13 bucks this trend by including a smooth 90Hz refresh rate on its 6.5in display. The resolution doesn’t look as crisp as flagship phones, but swiping and scrolling feels more fluid than on the 60Hz alternatives used on the vast majority of cheap phones.
The Snapdragon processor delivers decent performance and the battery lasted close to 20 hours in our standard looping video test. Throw in a 3.5mm headphone jack, dual-SIM capacity, and space for a microSD card to expand the storage, and the Moto G13 offers terrific value for very little money.
Key specs – Processor: 2.4GHz Snapdragon; RAM: 6GB; Display: 6.5in, 2,400 x 1,080; Storage: 128GB; Cameras: 50MP, 2MP (macro), 2MP (depth); Operating system: Android 13; Weight: 6.5oz
3. Apple iPhone 11 (renewed): Best cheap iPhone
Price when reviewed: From $217 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… an affordable iPhone with a decent battery life
- Not so great for… only available second-hand and outdated design
It isn’t Apple’s most up-to-date version, but the iPhone 11 is still a reliable purchase, despite launching in 2019. So, if your budget can’t stretch to brand-new, and you don’t mind buying renewed, then this iPhone will serve you well.
The iPhone 11’s build quality holds up, as does the lovely 6.1in Retina display – delivering fantastic color accuracy in our testing. Likewise, the A13 Bionic processor, while not a match for the latest Apple chipsets, is still more than capable for a variety of intensive tasks. The iPhone 11 also supports the last iteration of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 17, if you were worried that you might be losing out on the software side of things.
If you want a cheap Apple phone and aren’t worried about it being slightly outdated then the iPhone 11 is your best bet.
Key specs – Processor: 2.65GHz Apple A13 Bionic; RAM: 4GB; Display: 6.1in, 1,792 x 828; Storage: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB; Cameras: 12MP, 12MP (wide); Operating system: iOS 16; Weight: 6.9oz
4. Motorola Moto G84 5G: Best cheap phone display
Price when reviewed: $232 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… flawless OLED display and phenomenal battery life
- Not so great for… middling performance and stingy software support
OLED displays are a rare find in the cheap market, but the Moto G84’s screen would be exceptional even at twice the price. Brightness and color accuracy were particularly impressive in testing – using a colorimeter, we recorded a peak brightness of 747cd/m² and an average Delta E color variance score of 0.63, both of which are outstanding.
Our testing also showed some excellent stamina, with the G84 lasting 26hrs 24mins in our looping video battery life test. Finally, rounding out the positives is a solid camera suite that proved particularly adept at low-light shots – while not a patch on flagship models, the clarity is above-average for a cheap phone.
Motorola has only promised one OS upgrade – bringing the phone to Android 14 – and the older processor was outpaced by the cheaper Moto G54 in testing but, even so, the flawless display, impressive stamina, and competent cameras easily outweigh these negatives. For this price, the Moto G84 5G is a fantastic bargain.
Key specs – Processor: 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 695; RAM: 12GB; Display: 6.5in, 2,400 x 1,080; Storage: 256GB; Cameras: 50MP, 8MP (wide); Operating system: Android 13; Weight: 5.6oz
5. iPhone SE 3 (2022) (renewed): Best value iPhone
Price when reviewed: From $220 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… compact design and good performance
- Not so great for… battery life and display is only 60Hz
The iPhone SE 3 (2022) might be stretching the definition of a cheap smartphone, but Apple’s idea of cheap isn’t exactly the same as everyone else’s. If you want a newer iPhone – bearing in mind the renewed iPhone 11 above is a few years old – then the best-value option is the iPhone SE.
Despite having the look and feel of a phone from days gone by, the iPhone SE 3 is a formidable small-sized handset. It benefits from Apple’s speedy A15 Bionic chipset – the same processor inside the iPhone 13, which originally cost more than twice as much – and the 12-megapixel camera is also exceptional, producing crisp and vibrant images during our camera testing.
The only fly in the ointment is the short battery life, lasting a hair over 12 hours in our test. If you can accept that, the iPhone SE 3 (2022) is an impressive compact handset, and the most affordable new iPhone around.
Key specs – Processor: 3.23GHz Apple A15 Bionic; RAM: 4GB; Display: 4.7in, 1,334 x 750; Storage: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB; Camera: 12MP; Operating system: iOS 15; Weight: 5.1oz
How to choose the best cheap phone for you
How much should I spend?
This is the key question and, while the definition of cheap may differ from person to person, when it comes to smartphones, we’re generally looking at handsets that are at or under the $350 mark. That may sound a little high to be called cheap, but prices in general have steadily been rising, so the goalposts for what is considered affordable have been moving with them.
To be clear, that’s the upper limit, not the average – you can still find some impressive phones for closer to $100, if your cheap is particularly tight. Of course, in the other direction, iPhones tend to carry a higher premium, so if you want that Apple logo, expect to spend a little more.
What kind of features should I look out for?
Cheap phones won’t get all the bells and whistles of their $1,000+ flagship counterparts, but there’s still plenty of functionality in this price range. These are the most important things to bear in mind while shopping:
Display: This is where cheap phones have improved massively over the past few years. Plenty of handsets now offer Full HD (1080p) resolution, with 90Hz or 120Hz refresh rates, meaning everything will look sharp and scrolling will feel smooth. Most are LCD screens, but OLED displays have started cropping up in this price range too, offering more vibrant colors and deeper blacks.
Cameras: You won’t find far-reaching telephoto lenses at this price, but cheap cameras have come a long way. Megapixel (MP) count gives you an idea of the camera’s resolution – basically, the level of detail in your photos – but to see how well they perform, check out our full reviews, where we publish camera samples for you to peruse.
Battery life: A battery’s capacity is measured in milliamps-per-hour (mAh), and the general rule is that higher the capacity, the longer it should last on a single charge.
Performance: You can get an idea of a phone’s performance from the clock speed of the processor (measured in GHz) and how much RAM it has (anything more than 4GB will do). We’ve listed both of these in the key specs under each mini-review, so you can see at a glance roughly how well each phone will perform. If you like to play phone games, all the entries here will handle the likes of Candy Crush well enough, but some may struggle with more demanding 3D games.
Storage: There are three sizes you’ll tend to see in cheap phones: 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB. Obviously, more storage space will allow you to save more apps, photos, videos, and so on, but it’s potentially worth picking up a lower-capacity model if it has a microSD card slot – allowing you to add more when the internal storage fills up.
