Buying a $300 Phone Comes With a Big Choice: Fun Features or More Features

If sticking to a budget is important, there are many benefits phones under $300. And these phones may have new features since the holiday sales are heavily discounted, but there are great trade-offs for phones at these prices. A phone with modern features like an eye-catching design, great performance and wireless charging can only get one software update and three years of protection. Some phones under $300 have extended warranty periods of four years for software updates and five years for security updates. But these tools are limited to some features, which may leave you wanting to upgrade sooner rather than later.

This is the problem that I have weighed after testing different phones that cost less than $300 in the year 2024. We consider the time of software and security seriously in our reviews because these updates can determine if the devices get new software and fix problems. . Now high-end phones like Samsung Galaxy S24 and Pixel 8 promised seven years of software and security updates, we’d like to see cheaper phones go up to four to five years.

However, we are not there yet. Most phones that cost $300 or less ship with the promise of additional software and three years of security updates. While Samsung is taking a different approach $200 Galaxy A15 5G and $300 Galaxy A25 5Gboth of which get four years of software updates and five years of security updates, both have unique designs and lack the hardware found on similar phones.

That means consumers have to grapple with the same thought I’ve been pondering for the past few months: Do you go with a fully loaded phone, like $300 OnePlus Nord N30 5Gwhich has high-speed cables and a large 108-megapixel camera? Or it’s better to choose a bare-bones phone like the one in the Samsung Galaxy A series, which will get important updates in the coming years. And to make things even more confusing, what about an old device that is now available at a low price, such as Google Pixel 6A?

A lot, but a short update

Motorola and OnePlus both offer $300 phones that are worth your time and attention.

This year Moto G Power 5G it’s gorgeous, starting with its Pale Lilac vegan leather design. Everything Fire G line now they use the article, which makes you not to use the phone if you choose not to use the phone is a crime. Motorola has also thrown a 15-watt wireless charger into the mix, making it one of the cheapest phones to include this option. You’ll get a maximum of 30W when you plug in a phone and charge it the old-fashioned way, but the flexibility of wireless charging is very useful — and rare at this price.

Last year’s OnePlus Nord N30 5G has a sleek design, which emphasizes its large 108-megapixel camera. It took good pictures when I reviewed it last year, but its real value was the 50-watt SuperVooc charger. Although it is proprietary (meaning that only the included charger achieves this speed), it increases the battery to 75% in 30 minutes – a speed that many other smartphones do not achieve.

Both phones also include a 120Hz refresh rate, NFC for contactless payments and faster processors for multitasking and gaming. But unfortunately, both phones also have short update schedules, with the OnePlus phone already one year in its schedule receiving Android 14. Although the N30 is still on sale, it only takes two more years of security updates. Meanwhile, Motorola’s new Moto G Power 5G will get Android 15 sometime in the future and security updates until 2027.

Long life, but a phone that is uncomfortable

Samsung deserves credit for extending the life of its affordable Galaxy A phones. It’s amazing that the $200 Galaxy A15 and $300 Galaxy A25 receive four years of software updates and five years of security updates. No competitor comes close to that promise.

However I wish all these calls were more fun. Samsung nailed the basics on both phones, with super-refreshing displays, NFC contactless payments and powerful enough processors.

But compared to other phones of the same price, the Samsung Galaxy A’s hardware feels inferior. Both are made of plastic and have a protective notch instead of the slightly cut-out selfie camera found on many other competing phones. Although Samsung’s cheap phones can handle basic tasks without any problems, they struggle with many simple tasks. The A15’s are especially slow to load. Although the A25 works well with most tasks, it sometimes stutters when downloading games or playing music while using the browser and password manager at the same time.

This makes the Galaxy A15 and Galaxy A25 more than adequate if what you want is a compact phone that won’t need to be replaced anytime soon. But I’m worried you’re going to have limitations as apps and services grow in the coming years, especially if these phones are already overloaded.

Could the Google Pixel 6A be a low-budget hero?

You may have noticed that I haven’t discussed the cameras on any of the phones mentioned before. That’s because they all have large 50-megapixel cameras, none of them take very impressive pictures. However Google’s Pixel 6A is still available for sale and usually get a price under $300.

Thank you the latest additions offered to the Pixel 6 and laterThe Pixel 6A will now receive software updates until July 2027 along with security updates in the meantime. This is very encouraging for this low-cost phone, especially considering that Google originally planned for a software update for the Pixel 6A in 2025.

The Pixel 6A’s 12.2-megapixel main camera is still impressive for the price. It runs on Google’s first-generation Tensor processor and comes with many popular Pixel features such as Magic Eraser for image editing, Live Translate and long-standing Pixel features such as Call and Hold Me. Pixel 6A also includes AI-powered Return to Search. Even the Pixel 6A will miss out on Google’s latest and greatest features Gemini AI imagesit’s still a reliable option even two years after its release.

However, you won’t find wireless charging or a headphone jack on the Pixel 6A, and its screen is smaller and smaller than the other phones mentioned in this article.

How can you choose the best option?

Your needs are very important when choosing a budget phone. If you want a lot of value for money wrapped in impressive features, consider phones from Motorola, Google and OnePlus.

However, if the most important reason for buying a cheap phone is to avoid long-term upgrades, you should consider Samsung Galaxy A phones.

The irony is that you can’t have both. A phone that gets replaced in four years may not be the one you want to have for four years.