In 2026, the act of spending more than a grand on a new phone has never felt more questionable. Don’t get us wrong, there are some incredible handsets at the higher end, and if you plan on making full use of the features they bring to the table then the expense will likely be worth it, but if you just need a solid day to day phone for calls, a bit of light entertainment and taking decent pictures, then the best cheap phones are made with you in mind.
Unlike with the best phones overall, or even the slightly more expensive crowd of the best mid-range phones, cheaper devices do come with a level of compromise that, thankfully, is easy to navigate. After all, it makes sense that these phones don’t fire on every cylinder, as they’ve had to focus their efforts on certain areas in order to bring the price down – all you have to do is decide which features mean the most to you.
For instance, if you want a great screen or a solid set of cameras then the latest budget-friendly picks from Honor and Poco are a safe bet, whilst the likes of Samsung and Nothing (via its CMF sub-brand) have the software experience on lock. There’s more choice than ever, but thanks to the hard work of our tech experts, you can save yourself from a heap of research and use this very list to find your next upgrade quickly.
In order to keep things within a reasonable budget, we’ve set a strict upper limit of £400/$400 for this article, so you won’t find a phone that goes above that here. Plus, if you decide that you want to stick with your current phone for a bit longer then we recommend keeping this page bookmarked and returning to it when you’re ready for a new device, as our rankings may have changed.
Keep on reading to see which of the latest budget phones have most impressed our team of testers, and if you’re curious to save a buck on other tech purchases then feel free to check out our guides to the best cheap smartwatch, the best cheap headphones and the best cheap tablets.
Best cheap phones at a glance
- Best cheap phone for battery life: Honor Magic 8 Lite
- Best budget phone alternative: Poco F7
- Best slim budget phone: Motorola Edge 70 Fusion
- Best cheap phone design: Nothing Phone 4a
- Best budget camera phone: Motorola Edge 60 Neo
- Best budget gaming phone: Poco X8 Pro
- Best modular cheap phone: CMF Phone 2 Pro
- Best entry-level cheap phone: Motorola Moto G86 5G
- Best cheap phone for screen: Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G
Learn more about how we test mobile phones
Every phone we review goes through a series of uniform checks designed to gauge key things including build quality, screen accuracy, battery life, performance and camera prowess.
These include formal synthetic benchmarks and scripted tests, plus a series of real-world checks, such as how much battery it loses per hour streaming video.
We also make sure to use every phone we review as our primary handset for at least 4 days to ensure our review is as accurate as possible./
FAQs
The best cheap phone depends on your priorities. For the best overall experience, we recommend the Honor 400 due to its stunning AMOLED screen, huge storage, and six years of software and security updates.
Our favourite cheap phone for the camera is the Motorola Edge 60 Neo, though the Nothing Phone 3a isn’t too far behind.
Yes, all of the phones in the above list offer 5G connectivity so you’ll be able to get these data speeds as long as you have network coverage and a compatible SIM card.
We usually say between £200-400 / £200-400 just because you’ll get 5G connectivity, solid cameras, decent displays, and good enough performance for the price. Of course, you can go cheaper, but phones under £100/$100 often involve significant compromises in performance.
This depends on the manufacturer. Google Pixel phones offer the best support (seven years, for example for the Pixel 10a). Samsung traditionally offers 4-6 years worth of updates on A-Series phones, while Motorola and other brands typically offer 2-3 years. We’ll let you know for each of our picks, but if you’re ever in doubt check the manufacturer’s policy.
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