Flagship phones are more expensive than ever in 2019 but as the top-end gets better, so too do the cheap smartphones. It’s possible to buy a mobile phone on a budget of under £200/$200 and still get a phone capable of handling everything you throw at it.
Our current favourite is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7. It might not be the most familiar brand name but it is the best combination of value, specs and design out there right now.
The best budget phones are also more attractive in the long-term thanks to cheaper contract prices, though you might prefer to buy these smartphones outright and then pay only for your minutes, texts and data.
If value for money is your number-one priority, you won’t find a more useful list of budget phones available in the UK, US and elsewhere. We’ve tested, rated and ranked the best cheap phones from Nokia, Motorola, Honor and other big brands, and alongside our reviews you’ll find expert buying advice to help decide whether a particular cheap phone really is the bargain it claims to be.
Should I buy a budget phone now or wait for Black Friday?
Black Friday is one of the biggest sales events of the year, and in 2019 takes place on 29 November. We’re already seeing some great consumer tech deals and expect them to continue right into January, with Black Friday deals followed by Cyber Monday deals, Christmas deals, Boxing day deals and then we’ve got the January sales.
That’s both good and bad, of course, because how do you know that a product won’t drop in price the very next week? The truth is you can never be entirely sure, but we’re now close enough to the main event that many retailers have already begun their Black Friday sales. Of the big UK retailers, Currys has started its Why Wait? sale, guaranteeing that products won’t drop any further in price for Black Friday, while Amazon has a range of Black Friday Countdown deals, with its main event starting on 22 November.
They aren’t the only ones, and we’ve been busy hunting down the best budget phone deals so that you don’t have to. While prices may go down further for Black Friday, some discounts will also end sooner, so unless you’re sure that a product will be discounted it’s always best to take a deal at face value: if you think the product is worth that amount of money, go for it. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to hold out for something that will never happen.
Below we’ve provided some buying advice on what to look for in a budget phone: even if the products we round up here are not discounted, you may find similar products at much lower prices – and if our #2 or #3 ranked product is discounted, that be enough for you to consider it over the #1 phone.
Your buying guide to the best budget phones in 2019
In our experience, the ideal way to get a cheap phone is to buy it SIM-free, then grab a great-value SIM-only deal. You won’t be paying £50-odd per month for a phone for the next two years and you can swap it for a newer model whenever you fancy. This is especially the case for cheap Chinese phones, with which you usually can’t get a contract.
All the phones here cost under £200/$200, which is up to a quarter of the price you’d often pay for select flagship phones – take a look at our guide to the best phones on the market for more on those high-end offerings.
Below are what we consider to be the best cheap phones on sale right now. We’ve based this rundown on their SIM-free pricing, as contracts change so often.
You can click on a phone in which you’re interested to read the full review, see example photos from the camera and check out benchmarking results.
Should you buy a locked phone?
You’ll quickly find that some of the best deals on cheap phones are sold via mobile operators. What you need to watch out for is whether these phones are sold locked to that operator’s network.
What about a Chinese phone?
An alternative is to buy a Chinese phone – you’ll find some of these in our chart too. You might not have heard of some of the brands featured and many aren’t available on the UK High Street (save for the likes of Huawei and Xiaomi) but Chinese phones are well-known for offering amazing specs for the money, not to mention undercutting their more established rivals.
Of course, there are downsides – for example, what should you do if a phone bought from China is faulty? We’ve rounded up the major pitfalls in our article on buying grey-market tech but if you’re still interested, you should see our round-up of the best Chinese phones for 2019.
What’s the best phone for a child?
If you’re looking for a budget phone for a child, look at our selection of the best kids’ phones which includes some of the same phones we have here, along with a few others that are particularly well-suited to kids.
What will you get for your money?
If you’re looking for a cheap phone, you have to accept the fact that the manufacturer is going to cut some corners to achieve that low price and you aren’t going to get the same performance, features or display quality as that of a phone costing two, three, or even four times the price.
It used to be the case that budget phones were instantly recognisable by their low-resolution displays, meagre storage and chunky, plastic bodies, but things are improving in this area all the time. These days, for £200 or less, it’s quite possible to buy a phone with a Full HD display, a svelte body and a camera that takes pictures you might actually want to share.
Most will support 4G connectivity but features like NFC, wireless charging and water resistance will likely be absent unless specifically stated.
Going forward, USB-C should become a standard for budget phones – a document unearthed by XDA-Developers notes that Google is demanding support for USB-C Power Delivery in all new Android devices and those updated to Android 9 or 10.
Best budget phone 2019
1. Xiaomi Redmi Note 7
A mid-range phone with a budget price, it’s difficult to argue with the incredible value offered by Redmi Note 7 – nothing even comes close to it in the UK budget phone market.
Looking more like the Mi flagship line than ever, it has a gorgeous all-glass design and rocks an impressive dual-camera with 48Mp lens.
With a big screen and all-day battery life, we love Redmi Note 7’s headphone jack and IR blaster, dual-SIM functionality and microSD storage expansion, and given the low price can turn a blind eye to the lack of NFC and premium features such as an in-display fingerprint sensor, wireless charging and waterproofing.
General performance is decent, up there with other Snapdragon 660 phones costing around £350, and even Xiaomi’s own Mi 9 SE, making this a great all-rounder.
Read our Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 review.
2. Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite
Budget Android phones don’t come better than this. The Mi A2 Lite has a premium design with 19:9 notch display, dual rear cameras and decent performance. Storage is generous, and we like the fact you can bolster the 64GB internal space with microSD cards up to 256GB in capacity without sacrificing dual-SIM support. A great budget buy.
Read our Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite review.
3. Honor 10 Lite
Honor has done it again with the 10 Lite, one of the best budget smartphones you can buy. For just £200 it has the best battery life of a phone in its price range, a large screen and dual cameras.
Those cameras fall down in low light and it’s a very clearly a plastic phone but the performance is excellent. It’s up there alongside the Moto G range as the best cheap phone about.
Read our Honor 10 Lite review.
4. Moto G7 Power
With a near-pure Android interface, the G7 Power is a decent alternative to Huawei and Honor’s offerings around this price, and its huge battery means a comfortable two-day battery life that can easily be made to stretch to three if needed.
Read our Moto G7 Power review.
5. Nokia 7.2
The Nokia 7.2 is a mid-range phone focused on design, offering a rather unique build when compared to the smooth, rounded smartphones on the market. With much more prominent angles, the Nokia 7.2 stands out, and the light refracting glass on the rear does a good job at providing the premium look the brand is going after.
The internals are fairly standard for the price, boasting a Snapdragon 660 alongside either 4- or 6GB of RAM, and the performance reflects this. Nokia wanted the Zeiss-manufactured lenses to be the star of the show but we’ve found the camera setup to be hit-and-miss, with great performance from the 48Mp sensor but disappointing performance from the wide-angle camera.
Still, a great design, impressive display and two years of guaranteed OS upgrades should be enough to tempt some consumers – especially at this affordable price.
Read our Nokia 7.2 review.
6. Xiaomi Mi 9T
The Mi 9T is the most balanced Xiaomi phone we’ve seen so far, combining some of the best features of the Mi 9 series to create an affordable and strong all-rounder. The large notch-less display, its huge battery and a triple-display camera promise to revolutionise the mid-range phone market.
Read our Xiaomi Mi 9T review.
7. Elephone U2
A very strong contender at the sub-£250 price point, Elephone‘s U2 is a good-looking phone with a cool pop-up selfie camera and conveniently located fingerprint sensor. Under close scrutiny some corners have been cut, including the lack of support for NFC and personal audio, relatively slow charging and a disappointing camera app. Performance and design go a long way to making up for this, however.
Read our Elephone U2 review.
8. Moto G7 Play
The G7 Play is a solid smartphone that despite not having high-end internals can provide a smooth, lag-free mobile experience – even when playing demanding games like PUBG Mobile, and that’s impressive. The build quality is great despite the use of plastic on the rear, with fine detailing giving the G7 Play a more premium look.
Of course, there have to be concessions made in a sub-£150 smartphone, and in the case of the G7 Play, that’s the cameras. While images are generally well-lit, the lack of a decent autofocus system means that most of your pictures will come out looking a little bit soft.
Still, if you’re not a photographer in-the-making, the Moto G7 Play is an impressive bit of kit and you’ll struggle to find something better at this price point.
Read our Moto G7 Play review.
9. Moto E6 Plus
Motorola hasn’t quite knocked it out the park here but there’s not much we can complain about considering the sub-£100 asking price.
This is a stylish phone that looks and feels more expensive than it really is. You get a large screen, solid battery like along with features such as a removable battery and fingerprint scanner.
It doesn’t have very impressive specs but this phone will cope with the basics just fine and there’s a microSD card slot to avoid running out of storage in a matter of weeks. Photography isn’t outstanding, but is perfectly acceptable for a device that’s so cheap.
All this means it’s one of the best phones you can get for under £100.
Read our Moto E6 Plus review.
10. Moto E5
The Moto E5 is one of the best budget phones around. Of course, you can spend a bit more and get something better but if you’re looking for the cheapest phone around that won’t make you want to throw it in the bin after a few days then this is it.
We’re very impressed by the design and build quality along with a number of features including the screen, camera, fingerprint scanner and battery life.
Just bear in mind that you don’t get some of the features available from more expensive alternatives.
Read our Moto E5 review.
11. Vodafone Smart V10
The highest compliment you can pay to this phone is that no-one would suspect it retails for just £105.
A modern design, superb battery life and above-par cameras mean there are few phones like it in the truly budget market. Of course, in an ideal world you’d have USB-C fast charging, a faster processor and a higher resolution screen, but at this price point we’re not complaining.
If you’re making your first foray into the smartphone world, or have become tired of spending hundreds of pounds on phones, the Smart V10 could be the phone for you, provided you are happy to be on Vodafone.
Read our Vodafone Smart V10 review.