The best phones under $300 in 2024
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Phones that cost $300 or less, for example Motorola’s Moto G Power 5G (2024) and Samsung Galaxy A25 5Goffer much more features and functionality than you would expect. Phones under $300 have NFC for contactless payments, 120Hz displays with high refresh rates for games and smooth animations, wireless charging support, and years of software updates, making them more flexible than ever.
This does not mean that everyone telephone in this category it is perfect. The cameras are a mixed bag in all these phones. And when buying a cheap phoneyou have a main choice: Do you want a phone that’s fun or one that lasts a long time? Unfortunately, you can’t have both. Luckily for you, there are a number of great smartphones that cost $300 or less to choose from. We’ve tested and reviewed every phone on this list.
If you’re looking to save money on your next phone purchase, check out our review of the the best Cyber Monday deals. Note that you may find some Cyber Monday phone deals this holiday season, bringing these affordable models down to an even lower price.
What’s the best phone under $300?
The best phone you can buy under $300 is Motorola’s 2024 Moto G Power 5G. It comes with a colorful vegan leather back that adds to an eye-catching design that we don’t usually see in lower-priced phones – the Pale Lilac color is definitely something to behold. The Moto G Power 5G also has notable features like support for Google Pay contactless payments, 30W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. We were able to take some decent photos with the Moto G Power, and its multitasking capabilities make it a great choice for most everyday tasks. We just wish Motorola would reconsider its software and security update promises along with its design, as the phone will only get one OS update to Android 15 and three years of security updates.
The best phones under $300
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The Motorola Moto G Power 5G is the most versatile option in this roundup, offering wireless charging, a high-refresh 120Hz screen, Google Pay for contactless payments, and a fantastic vegan leather design. Combine that with a camera that takes decent photos in bright environments and a processor that’s capable of handling most everyday tasks, and you’ve got a phone that’s both fun to use without being crammed with the extra bells and whistles we see in phones with higher prices.
While this phone suffers from having a shorter software and security support schedule (1 year stock Android OS, three years security updates) than Samsung’s Galaxy A25 5G, it’s a more useful device. And it’s that appeal that makes the Moto G Power 5G our top recommendation for a phone that costs $300 or less.
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The Samsung Galaxy A25 5G the best feature is its commitment to receive four years of major Android OS updates and five years of security updates. If you’re buying a new phone to last as long as possible before you need to buy a new one, then the Galaxy A25 is the cheapest you can get for the long haul. No other phone in this price range comes close to this level of support.
The Galaxy A25 5G has a lot to offer in other ways, including a decent 1080p screen and loud dual speakers for music. But I found the phone to have issues with some multitasking. Its cameras struggle with indoor settings, and its plastic design combined with a thick camera notch looks dated compared to other phones in this price range. This makes Samsung’s $300 phone a good choice when all you need is a phone that will last for years, but if you’re looking for higher performance and features, you should consider other options
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The OnePlus Nord N30 5G packs a lot of features for the money, but its 50-watt charging speed is a standout for this price range. The phone can charge from 0% to 100% in 45 minutes, while most other phones that cost $300 or less need 90 minutes to two hours to do the same. Its large 6.72-inch, 1080p display runs at a 120Hz refresh rate and also makes apps, games, websites and streaming video animate smoothly.
It’s worth noting that the 108-megapixel primary camera – despite being an astonishing megapixel count for a phone – takes photos that are only marginally better than what I usually see from phones in this price range. This means it can take good, detailed photos outdoors with lots of light. Photos taken in darker settings are a struggle for the N30, with indoor photos looking washed out or blurry.
The phone will also only get one software update to Android 14 along with three years of security updates – which is average for this price range, but still disappointingly short.
Although OnePlus faces stiff competition from Google’s Pixel 6A — especially when the Pixel is discounted to $299 — it packs a lot of functionality for its price.
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Of course, I’m cheating by including this phone in the list, but Google’s Pixel 6A has been discount up to $320 a lot lately and it’s an easy recommendation when it’s discounted in the budget phone range.
The Pixel 6A normally costs $349 last year and won our Editors’ Choice award. In her review, CNET’s Lisa Eadicico praised the phone for its great camera, Pixel-exclusive features like Magic Eraser, its colorful design, and being among the first to get new Android updates.
Although Google has since released $499 Pixel 7AThe Pixel 6A still gets two more years of software updates and four more years of security updates. That means it will continue to get new Android features and support from Google, and that remaining timeline is still more than you’ll see from new 2023 phones that cost between $200 and $300.
These cheaper devices tend to cut back significantly in one area or another to achieve these low prices. Most often, these drawbacks include limited software support, carrier support, or bloatware (pre-installed apps you never wanted). These compromises often mean that these devices should not be used after two to three years, especially after the end of security update support.
It’s also notable that while these phones retail for $200 to $300, many are often offered at a deep discount — or even free — as part of a carrier subsidy deal. If you plan to stick with the same wireless carrier for two years, these phones may just become part of the cost of your service.
Every phone on this list has been thoroughly tested by CNET’s review team. We actually use the phone, test the features, play games and take pictures. We appreciate all the marketing promises a company makes about its phones. If we find something we don’t like, whether it’s battery life or build quality, we tell you all about it.
We check every aspect of the phone during testing:
- Display
- Design and feel
- CPU performance
- Battery life
- Camera quality
- Characteristics
We test all the phone’s cameras (both front and rear) in a variety of conditions: from outdoors in sunlight to dim indoor locations and night scenes (for all available night modes). We also compare our findings to similarly priced models. We have a series of real-life battery tests to see how long a phone lasts in everyday use.
We take into account the additional features of the phone such as 5G, fingerprint and face readers, styluses, fast charging, foldable displays and other useful extras. We also weigh all of our experience and testing against the price, so you know whether or not a phone represents good value.
Read on more: How we test phones
There aren’t many other phones in this price range this year that hit the $200 to $250 price range, but if you’re looking to go a little cheaper, our top picks under $200 are Samsung Galaxy A15 5G. Although I found this phone to be significantly slower in performance than the Galaxy A25, it includes the same promise of receiving four years of software updates and five years of security updates, making it an attractive option when all you need is a phone.
Motorola’s $200 Moto G 5G (2024) is also a decent option that comes close to being an excellent $200 phone thanks to a similar vegan leather design to the Moto G Power (2024), NFC inclusion, and decent cameras. However, I found the Moto G 5G struggled with multitasking, making it harder to recommend if you find yourself switching apps frequently.
How about Apple’s iPhone?
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