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- Best budget phone: At a glance
- How we test budget smartphones
- The best budget smartphones you can buy in 2026
- 1. Motorola Moto G77: Best budget phone overall
- 2. Honor Magic 8 Lite: Best budget phone battery life
- 3. Nothing Phone (4a): Best budget phone cameras
- 4. iPhone 13 (refurbished): Best budget iPhone
- 5. Google Pixel 8a (refurbished): Best budget phone for AI
- How to choose the best budget phone for you
- Our experts have tested over 600 smartphones, covering options for all budgets
- We judge every phone against the same thorough review criteria, assessing their design, display, cameras, performance, battery life and software experience
- Our favourite budget phone is the Motorola Moto G77. It offers fantastic value for money, with a lovely AMOLED display, a bumper battery and solid front and rear cameras for under £250
- Read on to see which other budget phones we recommend, with the top picks for battery life, cameras, gaming and more
With prices rising everywhere we look, there’s never been a better time to consider switching to one of the best budget smartphones on the market. Right now, our favourite cheap phone is the Motorola Moto G77 – it represents great value, with solid cameras, a great battery and a display that punches above its weight.
If you’d like to see what else we recommend, there are plenty of other options. We’ve tested all of the best smartphones, reviewing around 50 handsets last year alone. We thoroughly assess each phone, using the most comprehensive testing process in the UK and a benchmarking spreadsheet that contains data going all the way back to the birth of Expert Reviews in 2010.
As such, we’re well equipped to separate the bargain budget handsets from the duds, and we’ve laid out our top picks below. We regularly update the selection, so you can be sure that our recommendations are always up to date.
Best budget phone: At a glance
£250 (8GB RAM + 128GB storage)
- Accurate and bright AMOLED display
- Great battery life
- Slim, lightweight design
£299 (8GB RAM + 512GB storage)
- 40hr battery life in our tests
- Bright, colour-accurate display
- IP68/IP69 durability
£379 (8GB RAM + 128GB storage)
- 3.5x telephoto camera
- Crisp AMOLED display
- Unique design
£217 (4GB RAM + 128GB storage)
- A15 Bionic is a swift performer
- Excellent main camera
- Modern design
£199 (8GB RAM + 128GB storage)
- Versatile camera suite
- Excellent AI features (eg. Circle to Search)
- Strong performance for its age
How we test budget smartphones
Budget smartphones are tested 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 the Apple App Store and Google Play. Both of these apps provide us with performance scores, which can be used to directly compare against other handsets.
Display testing is performed using a colorimeter and the DisplayCal software for Windows and Mac. This test provides us with figures for overall colour 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 always 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 test available resolution and frame rate settings in video recording.
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 smartphones article for more information.
Independence is at the heart of everything we do at Expert Reviews. Our experts have been testing the latest smartphones for almost two decades: in that time, well over 600 phones and tablets have undergone our stringent tests.
Our recommendation can’t be bought. The products you see on this page have all been rigorously tested using the same carefully crafted methodology, so you can be sure our choices are fair and grounded in hard facts. If a product falls short – even if it’s a new release from a major brand – we won’t shy away from telling you.
The best budget smartphones you can buy in 2026
1. Motorola Moto G77: Best budget phone overall
Price when reviewed: £250 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… a lovely display, strong battery life and slim, lightweight design
- Not so great for… middling performance and only IP64 rated
The Motorola Moto G77 is an extremely well-featured phone for the price and our new favourite budget smartphone overall.
It’s worth drawing attention to a couple of major selling points here. First is the 6.78in AMOLED display, a rarity at this price. It’s bright and colour-accurate: I recorded 775 nits when pushing the adaptive brightness feature to its limits (more than enough for bright daylight) and took a Delta E reading of 1.13, which is just shy of the score of 1 I’d hope for from a budget phone display.
Second is the battery, which ran for a whopping 27hrs 38mins in my standardised looped video test. That’s two hours more than our previous favourite budget phone, the Motorola Moto G56 5G. You’ve got 30W charging here too, which will refill the battery to 50% in just 30 mins and to full in 1hr 15mins.
The G77 delivered a slightly mediocre performance in our CPU/GPU tests, but that’s hardly unexpected from a budget smartphone. The cameras fared better: the 108MP main camera in particular produced some good shots for the money, even if the 8MP wide lens and 3x zoom didn’t exactly blow us away.
In other words: this is a remarkably complete package for such an inexpensive phone.
Read our 2026 Motorola Moto G77 review
Key specs – Processor: MediaTek Dimensity 6400 | RAM: 8GB | Display: 6.78in, 2,772 x 1,272 | Storage: 128GB | Cameras: 108MP, 8MP (wide), 32MP (front) | Operating system: Android 16 | Weight: 182g
2. Honor Magic 8 Lite: Best budget phone battery life
Price when reviewed: £299 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… outstanding battery life and bright, punchy display
- Not so great for… disappointing ultrawide camera and middling performance
The Honor Magic 8 Lite is impressively slim and lightweight considering that it is harbouring one of the highest-capacity batteries of any phone I’ve tested. The gargantuan 7,500mAh silicon-carbon cell allowed the Magic 8 Lite to absolutely demolish my standard battery test, running the looping video for over 40 hours – that’s better than plenty of phones that cost three or even four times this much.
Almost as impressive is the 6.79in AMOLED display, which not only benefits from the perfect black and contrast levels of an OLED panel, it also delivered exceptional peak brightness and colour accuracy in my testing. The robust IP68/IP69K dust and water resistance is to be commended, too, making this far more durable than most of its rivals.
The main camera is broadly competent, capturing sharp detail and natural colours in good lighting and reasonably clean images after dark. The backup ultrawide is a letdown, however, with poor detail and washed out contrast. Equally, performance is fine but rivals scored quite a bit higher in the Geekbench 6 CPU tests, so there’s better quality to be had for this kind of money.
Read our 2026 Honor Magic 8 Lite review
Key specs – Processor: 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 4; RAM: 8GB; Display: 6.79in, 2,640 x 1,200; Storage: 512GB; Cameras: 108MP, 5MP (ultrawide); Operating system: Android 15; Weight: 189g
3. Nothing Phone (4a): Best budget phone cameras
Price when reviewed: £379 | Check price at John Lewis
- Great for… sharp 3.5x telephoto camera and eye-catching design
- Not so great for… performance and battery life are only okay
Nothing phones are always worth considering for those who want something that stands out from the pack, but there’s so much more to like here than just the iconic design. The Phone (4a) is one of very few handsets in this price range that include a telephoto camera, and it captured fantastic portraits and close-up macro shots in my test shoot.
Alongside that is a 50-megapixel main lens that delivers great definition and natural colouring in good lighting, as well as generally solid night photos. Factor in the bright and colour-accurate AMOLED display, useful AI via the Essential Space app and the unique Glyph lighting notification system, and the Nothing Phone (4a) is a very well-rounded phone.
The only issues I have with it is that performance and battery life are only ok, with rivals scoring better in both regards in my testing. Neither are bad here, however, so if you want the best cameras you can get on a budget phone, this is still the best way to go.
Read our 2026 Nothing Phone (4a) review
Key specs – Processor: 2.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 4; RAM: 8GB; Display: 6.78in, 2,720 x 1,224; Storage: 128GB, 256GB; Cameras: 50MP, 50MP (3.5x telephoto), 8MP (ultrawide); Operating system: Android 16; Weight: 205g
4. iPhone 13 (refurbished): Best budget iPhone
Price when reviewed: £214 | Check price at Back Market
- Great for… fast performance and excellent main camera
- Not so great for… weaker battery life and only a 60Hz display
The iPhone 13 still has a lot of value to offer, especially if you’re looking to pick up an iPhone on the cheap. The 6.1in OLED display only has a 60Hz refresh rate but it pairs that with a crisp 2,532 x 1,170 resolution and excellent peak brightness, hitting over 1,000 nits in our testing.
The A15 Bionic chip is a swift performer, too, outpacing phones that cost hundreds more than this and the main camera captures strong shots in all light conditions. Battery life is better than the iPhone 12 but still fairly weak by modern standards, only lasting 20 hours in our video rundown test.
Still, the design looks close to more recent iPhones – ideal if your child wants to be seen with an iPhone – and the main staples are all covered well. If you’re looking to get that Apple logo without paying exorbitant prices, a refurbished iPhone 13 is an excellent choice.
Read our 2021 Apple iPhone 13 review
Key specs – Processor: 3.23GHz Apple A15 Bionic; RAM: 4GB; Display: 6.1in, 2,532 x 1,170; Storage: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB; Cameras: 12MP, 12MP (wide); Operating system: iOS 15; Weight: 174g
5. Google Pixel 8a (refurbished): Best budget phone for AI
Price when reviewed: £200 | Check price at Back Market
- Great for… excellent AI features and versatile camera suite
- Not so great for… slower charging speeds and middling battery life
Truthfully, there’s a lot to love about the Google Pixel 8a – the display is crisp and colour-accurate, the performance is decent for this price and the software is due to be supported until 2031. What really makes it stand out, however, is the wealth of AI features that Google has included here.
It was one of the first phones to offer Circle to Search and the AI-powered Gemini smart assistant, and the already excellent camera suite is further expanded by features like the face-swapping Best Take and Audio Magic Eraser. Of all the AI-powered editing features that we’ve tested, Google’s selection is easily the most consistent and effective.
In fact, the only real area of concern with the Pixel 8a is the battery. Stamina is fine, lasting around 24 hours in our testing, but you can get much better for less money. And when depleted, the 18W charging is fairly sluggish, taking close to two hours to hit 100%. Still, if you want some fun AI tools to play around with, there’s simply no better choice.
Read our 2024 Google Pixel 8a review
Key specs – Processor: 3.0GHz Google Tensor G3; RAM: 8GB; Display: 6.1in, 2,400 x 1,080; Storage: 128GB, 256GB; Cameras: 64MP, 13MP (wide); Operating system: Android 14; Weight: 188g
How to choose the best budget phone for you
How much should I spend?
This is the key question, and while the definition of budget can differ from person to person, when it comes to smartphones, we’re generally looking at handsets that fall under or around the £300 mark. That may sound a little high to be called budget, but phone prices in general have steadily been rising, so the goalposts for what is considered an affordable model have been moving with them.
To be clear, that’s an upper limit, not an average – you can find impressively specced phones for closer to £100 if your budget is particularly tight. In the opposite direction, iPhones tend to carry higher premiums, so if you want that Apple logo, expect to spend a little more.
What kind of features should I look out for?
While budget smartphones don’t get all of the bells and whistles that their £1,000+ flagship counterparts offer, there’s still plenty of functionality in this price range. These are the top things to bear in mind while shopping:
Display
This is an area in which budget phones have improved massively over the past few years. Plenty of handsets now offer Full HD (1080p) resolutions and 90Hz or 120Hz refresh rates, meaning that everything will look sharp and scrolling will feel smooth. Most are LCD screens, but OLED displays have started cropping up around this price as well, offering more vibrant colours and a deeper black level.
Cameras
You won’t see far-reaching telephoto lenses at this price, but otherwise, budget cameras have come a long way. Megapixel (MP) count gives you an idea of the camera’s resolution (how detailed images are, basically), but to see how well they perform, check out our full reviews, where we publish camera samples for you to peruse.
Battery
Battery capacity is measured in milliamps-per-hour (mAh) and the general rule is that higher-capacity batteries should last longer on a single charge. We’ve tested all of these devices, so you can jump over to our full reviews to see exactly how long each lasted in our standardised test. You can also check our best phone battery life ranking page to see what models offer the absolute best stamina.
Performance
You can get an idea of a phone’s performance by checking the clock speed of the processor (measured in GHz) and how much RAM is inside (anything more than 4GB will do nicely). We list both of these in the key specs of each mini-review, so you can see at a glance roughly how well each phone will perform. If you like to play phone games, check our full reviews to see how well each model performed in our tests; all entries here will handle the likes of Candy Crush well enough, but some may struggle with more demanding 3D games.
Storage
There are three main storage capacities you’ll see in budget phones: 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. More storage space will naturally allow for more apps, photos, videos and the like, but you can get away with picking up a lower-capacity model if it also has a microSD card slot, allowing you to add more space when the internal storage fills up.
