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Best budget smartphone 2024: The top cheap phones you can buy in the UK

Looking to save money on your next smartphone? We reveal the best budget handsets you can buy in the UK

Aren’t modern smartphones excellent? It’s like having a mini-supercomputer in your pocket compared to the bulky handsets of old. Technology, on the whole, has been getting better every year and – crucially – much cheaper, too. You no longer need to hand over wallet-wilting sums of cash for your annual upgrade. Move your gaze away from those usual smartphone flagship big-hitters and you will find yourself a fantastic bargain, as there are some cracking budget smartphones to be found.

Yes, headline-grabbing flagships such as the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the iPhone 14 Pro are wonderful, but you no longer have to spend top dollar for a superb smartphone experience. Want to know more? Well, that’s where we come in. These are the very best budget smartphones you can buy.

Every year, Expert Reviews puts hundreds of smartphones to the test so you don’t have to, with the best coverage in the UK. That means we can definitively tell you which budget smartphone is perfect for you. Take a look below and you will spot our regularly curated list of the best budget smartphones you can buy, as well as a helpful budget smartphone buying guide.

Best budget smartphone: At a glance

Best budget phoneMotorola Moto G54 5G (~£179)Check price at Amazon
Best for battery lifeHonor Magic 5 Lite (~£200)Check price at Argos
Best under £100Motorola Moto G13 (~£97)Check price at Amazon
Best budget iPhoneiPhone 11 (renewed) (~£214)Check price at Back Market
Best cameraHonor 90 Lite (~£200)Check price at Amazon

How to choose the best budget smartphone for you

Picking the perfect budget phone isn’t easy, and there are all sorts of factors to consider when making your purchase. Before you head to the checkout, you will want to make sure you have all the bases covered. To make your decision a bit easier, we’ve highlighted the main criteria you need to look out for.

Should I buy a phone on contract or SIM-free?

Budget smartphones are, as you would expect, cheaper to buy outright than other handsets, with prices starting as low as £100 or so. As a result, if you have the cash, we recommend you buy one SIM-free. You can then find the right SIM-only deal from any network and sell your phone when you want to upgrade. If you don’t have the cash, you will need to go for a contract deal, but these don’t tend to be great value for budget phones as you end up spending much more by the time your contract ends.

Which smartphone operating system do I need?

With budget smartphones, there isn’t much choice when it comes to mobile operating systems. Bar some exceptions, every budget smartphone runs Google’s Android OS. Rest assured, though: Android is easy to use, whether you’re a first-time user or mobile veteran. Just check which Android version the phone is running as older versions may no longer be supported with regular security updates and might lack essential features.

If iOS is more your thing, you only have one choice if money is tight. Apple’s iPhone 11 might begin to be showing its age, but it’s still on sale and remains an excellent budget Apple device.

What should I look for in a smartphone display?

While flagship phones are fitted with the best, biggest and highest-resolution screens, you can still find budget smartphones with high-quality displays. Cheap handsets usually have a minimum screen resolution of 720p, but some slightly more expensive alternatives offer Full HD (1080p) resolution displays for sharper viewing.

The majority of budget smartphones we recommend use LCD panel technology, which is more than good enough for the price you’re paying. However, we’re starting to see OLED displays crop up at the lower end of the scale as well, which produce even better colours and a deeper black level. Read our full reviews if you want to know how good a phone’s screen is.

Battery life and performance

Budget phones aren’t equipped with top-end internals. But that’s not to say their performance is bad – far from it, with reasonably speedy chips often making an appearance in affordable handsets. To get an idea of what to expect from a phone’s performance, look at the clock speed of the chip (measured in GHz) and how much RAM is inside (anything more than 4GB will do the job nicely).

Battery life is crucial, and each phone’s stamina is different. When considering your next budget phone, keep an eye out for the phone’s battery capacity (listed in mAh) – the higher the number, the longer you can expect the battery to last on a single charge. If you’re stuck, we’ve rounded up the longest-lasting phones in one place.

How much storage do I need?

It’s amazing how much storage you can eat through on a phone with apps, games and images. You will want at least 32GB of onboard storage, though 64GB is preferred. Also look out for phones with a microSD card slot, as you can cheaply add more space when your internal storage eventually fills up.


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 testing any available resolution and frame rate settings in video recording.

This is only 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 smartphones article for more information.

READ NEXT: Best Android smartphone


Best budget smartphones you can buy in 2024

1. Motorola Moto G54 5G: Best budget phone overall

Price when reviewed: £179 | Check price at Amazon

Motorola Moto G54 5G sitting face up on a desk, clock and apps showing on homescreen

The Motorola Moto G54 5G undercuts its predecessor on price while delivering impressive upgrades to the display and overall performance – it’s the best phone in its class right now.

It’s great to see that the display has been bumped back up to 1080p. Contrast and black levels are greatly improved, and colour accuracy is nothing short of outstanding.

Performance takes a huge leap, too. The MediaTek Dimensity 7020 chipset that powers the G54 5G delivers speeds that rival phones in the £200 – £300 price range. As a result, battery life takes a small hit over the previous model, but it’s still decent enough for this price.

Our biggest complaint is that Motorola is only promising one software update, topping out with Android 14. This is disappointing, as Motorola’s software is otherwise faultless, delivering as close to stock Android as it gets.

Read our full Motorola Moto G54 5G review

Key specs – Processor: Octa-core 2.2GHz MediaTek Dimensity 7020; Display: 6.5in, 2,400 x 1,080; Storage: 256GB; Cameras: 50MP, 2MP (macro); Operating system: Android 13; Weight: 177g


2. Honor Magic 5 Lite: Best budget phone for battery life

Price when reviewed: £200 | Check price at Argos

Honor Magic 5 Lite in hand, screen on, in front of blue and orange cushions

The Honor Magic 5 Lite isn’t just the best budget phone for battery life; it has enough stamina to outlast phones that cost two, three or even four times as much. In our standardised test, the 5 Lite lasted for an outstanding 28hrs 45mins, rocketing up to very near the top of our best phone battery life list.

The Honor Magic 5 Lite isn’t just a one-trick pony, either. Alongside that incredible stamina, the phone has a large and vibrant 6.67in OLED display that curves elegantly off to the sides, with a crisp 2,400 x 1,080 resolution and smooth 120Hz refresh rate. Contrast levels are essentially perfect, as is the case with OLED, and the peak brightness of 518cd/m2 is impressive for the price as well.

There are a couple areas of compromise – performance, while decent, isn’t class-leading by any stretch, and low-light photography is fairly mediocre – but if you want the best battery life you can get for less than £300, no phone can beat the Honor Magic 5 Lite.

Read our full Honor Magic 5 Lite review

Key specs – Processor: Octa-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G; Display: 6.67in 2,400 x 1,080; Storage: 128GB; Cameras: 64MP, 5MP (wide), 2MP (macro); Operating system: Android 12; Weight: 175g

Check price at Argos

3. Motorola Moto G13: Best budget phone under £100

Price when reviewed: £97 | Check price at Amazon

Motorola Moto G13, rear view, in hand in front of a graffitied wall

While budget phones often bring to mind sluggish performance, the Motorola Moto G13 bucks this trend by including a smoother 90Hz refresh rate for its 6.5in display. The resolution is still 720p so it won’t look as crisp as flagship phones, but swiping and scrolling feels more fluid than the 60Hz alternatives used by the vast majority of budget phones.

The Mediatek Helio G85 processor delivers decent performance for a budget phone, and the 5,000mAh battery fared even better, lasting for 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.

Read our full Motorola Moto G13 review

Key specs – Processor: Octa-core 2GHz Mediatek Helio G85; Display: 6.5in 1,600 x 720; Storage: 128GB; Cameras: 50MP, 2MP (macro), 2MP (depth); Operating system: Android 13; Weight: 184g


4. Nokia G42 5G: Best budget phone for repairability

Price when reviewed: £175 | Check price at Amazon

Nokia G42 5G front view, leaning on a stack of comic books

The G42 5G is the second in Nokia’s line of repairable phones, and once again you can perform repairs such as replacing the battery or charging port yourself, with affordable spare parts, tools and guides available on the iFixit website. Repairs can be done in as little as five minutes, and most importantly, performing them doesn’t void the phone’s warranty or compromise the IP52 dust and water resistance rating.

On top of the repair-friendly design, the Nokia G42 5G puts in a solid showing for its price range, with competitive performance in both CPU and GPU benchmarks, and particularly impressive battery life. The repairability is somewhat undermined by the brand only pledging two software updates, and display colour accuracy could be better, but for a decent budget phone that’s easy to patch up yourself, the Nokia G42 5G is the best out there.

Read our full Nokia G42 5G review

Key specs – Processor: Octa-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 Plus 5G; Display: 6.56in 1,612 x 720; Storage: 128GB; Cameras: 50MP, 2MP (macro), 2MP (depth); Operating system: Android 13; Weight: 194g


5. Apple iPhone 11 (renewed): Best budget iPhone

Price when reviewed: £214 | Check price at Back Market

Apple iPhone 11 leaning against a post in a plant pot full of decorative stones

It isn’t Apple’s most up-to-date iPhone, but the iPhone 11 is still a reliable purchase. If your budget can’t quite stretch to a brand-new Apple smartphone, then the iPhone 11, despite launching in 2019, will still serve you well so long as you don’t mind buying a renewed model.

The iPhone 11’s build quality still holds up, as does its lovely-looking 6.1in Retina display. Likewise, the A13 Bionic processor, while not quite a match for the latest Apple chipsets, is still more than capable for a variety of intensive tasks. The iPhone 11 also supports the newest version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 16, if you were worried that you might be outdated on the software side of things.

If you want an Apple phone on a budget and aren’t fussed about it being slightly outdated, then the iPhone 11 is your best bet.

Read our full iPhone 11 review

Key specs – Processor: Hexa-core 2.65GHz Apple A13 Bionic; Display: 6.1in 1,792 x 828; Storage: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB; Cameras: 12MP, 12MP (wide); Operating system: iOS 16; Weight: 194g

Check price at Back Market


6. Honor 90 Lite: Best budget phone camera

Price when reviewed: £199 | Check price at Amazon

Honor 90 Lite front view, leaning on a plant pot

The Honor 90 Lite was already a competent budget handset at its original price, but it’s since received a series of price cuts that have pushed it firmly into bargain territory. At this new, lower price, both the performance and battery life are very competitive, and the lack of an OLED display is less egregious. The LCD panel we get is still decent enough, with respectable colour accuracy and a perfectly acceptable peak brightness of 441cd/m2.

What’s easier to be openly positive about is the main camera. This lens is a beefy 100MP number that shoots 25MP pixel-binned images as standard. Shots captured in good lighting conditions are pleasingly natural, with no over-the-top colour saturation or excessive contrast. The backup shooters aren’t as impressive, and the MagicOS UI is still as cluttered and clumsy as ever, but if you can look past these foibles, the Honor 90 Lite is a solid all-rounder that’s been slashed down to a terrific price.

Read our full Honor 90 Lite review

Key specs – Processor: Octa-core 2.2GHz Mediatek Dimensity 6020; Display: 6.7in 2,388 x 1,080; Storage: 256GB; Cameras: 100MP, 5MP (ultrawide), 2MP (macro); Operating system: Android 13; Weight: 179g


7. Apple iPhone SE 3 (2022): Best-value (new) iPhone

Price when reviewed: £379 | Check price at John Lewis

Apple iPhone SE 3 (2022) in hand, in front of a bush with red flowers

The iPhone SE 3 (2022) might be stretching the definition of a budget smartphone, but Apple’s idea of what constitutes cheap isn’t exactly the same as everyone else’s. If you want a newer iPhone – the renewed iPhone 11 above is a few years old – then your 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 that benefits from Apple’s fastest-ever mobile chipset, the A15 Bionic. That’s the same processor found inside the iPhone 13, which costs more than twice as much. The cheapest iPhone by quite a distance, the iPhone SE’s 12MP camera is also absolutely exceptional. The only fly in the ointment is the short battery life, but if you’re able to spend twice as much compared to other phones on this list, then the iPhone SE 3 (2022) is well worth considering.

Read our full iPhone SE 3 (2022) review

Key specs – Processor: Hexa-core 3.23GHz Apple A15 Bionic; Display: 4.7in 1,334 x 750; Storage: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB; Camera: 12MP; Operating system: iOS 15; Weight: 144g

Check price at John Lewis


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