Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
SMARTPHONE USES PER WEEK
Actions are selected by the CNET Group marketing team, and may not be relevant to this article.
Phones that cost $300 or less, like Motorola’s Moto G Power 5G (2024) and Samsung Galaxy A25 5G by Samsungprovide more and more functionality than you can expect. Phones under $300 have NFC for contactless payments, high-refresh 120Hz displays for games and animations, support for wireless charging and years of software updates, making them more flexible than ever.
That does not mean that everyone phone in this category is perfect. Cameras are a mixed bag on both phones. And when buying a cheap phoneyou have great choice: Do you want a fun or durable phone? Unfortunately, you can’t have both. Luckily for you, there are several high-end 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 Happy Cyber Monday. Remember that you can find more Cyber Monday phone sales this holiday season that brings these cheap models at a very low price.
What is the best phone under $300?
The best phone you can buy for under $300 is Motorola’s Moto G Power 5G for 2024. It comes in a beautiful vegan leather that adds a touch of luxury you don’t see in cheap phones – Pale Lilac. color is something to behold. The Moto G Power 5G also has popular features such as support for Google Pay, 30W Wired Charging and 15W Wired Charging. We were able to take great photos with the Moto G Power, and its versatility makes it a great choice for everyday tasks. We just wish Motorola would update its software and security promises along with its design, as the phone will receive one OS update to Android 15 and three years of security updates.
The best phones under $300
Hide our expert take
Graphic Design 1/1
The Motorola Moto G Power 5G it’s the most versatile of the round, offering wireless charging, a 120Hz refresh screen, Google Pay for contactless payments and a premium vegan leather design. Combine this with a camera that takes great photos in bright environments, and a processor that can handle most everyday tasks, and you have a phone that’s fun to use without the extra bells and whistles we see in expensive phones.
Although this phone suffers from having a shorter software and security support period (one year of main Android OS, three years of security updates) than Samsung’s Galaxy A25 5G, it is a very useful device. And it’s this appeal that makes the Moto G Power 5G our top recommendation for a phone that costs $300 or less.
Hide our expert take
Show our experts to take
Graphic Design 1/1
The Samsung Galaxy A25 5G’s The best part is its commitment to get major Android OS updates every four years and security updates every five years. If you’re buying a new phone to last as long as possible before buying another one, then the Galaxy A25 is the best value for your long-term use. 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 1,080p screen and dual speakers for music. But I found the phone to have issues with multitasking. Its cameras compete with the internal settings and the plastic design combined with the chunky camera notch feels a little dated compared to other phones at this price point. This makes Samsung’s $300 phone a good choice when all you want is a phone that will get years of support, but if you’re looking for powerful performance and features, you’ll need to consider other options.
Show our experts to take
Show our experts to take
Graphic Design 1/1
The OnePlus Nord N30 5G packs a lot of features for the money, but its 50-watt processor is standard at this price point. The phone can charge from 0% to 100% in 45 minutes, and most other phones costing $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 makes apps, games, websites and streaming videos look great.
It’s worth mentioning that the 108-megapixel main camera – while it’s a surprising number of megapixels for a phone – takes photos that are slightly better than what I usually see on phones at this price point. This means that it can take good, detailed photos in outdoor environments with sufficient light. Images taken in low light are a problem for the N30, with indoor images looking washed out or blurry.
The phone will also only get one Android 14 update along with three years of security updates – which is a long time at this price, but still disappointingly short.
While OnePlus faces tough competition from Google’s Pixel 6A — especially when the Pixel is discounted to $299 — it also packs a lot of functionality for its price.
Show our experts to take
Show our experts to take
Graphic Design 1/1
Admittedly, I’m cheating by including this phone on the list, but Google’s Pixel 6A has been discount up to $320 more recently and it’s a simple idea when it comes to budget phones.
Regularly $349, the Pixel 6A won our Editors’ Choice Award last year. In a review, CNET’s Lisa Eadicicco praised the phone for its excellent camera, Pixel-only features like Magic Eraser, beautiful design and being one of the first to get the latest Android updates.
Even Google released it recently $499 Pixel 7AThe Pixel 6A still receives two additional years of software updates and four additional years of security updates. This means that it will continue to get Android updates and support from Google, and the time left is still more than you will see new smartphones in 2023 that cost between $200 and $300.
Show our experts to take
These low-cost devices are gradually reduced in some areas to meet the lower prices. Often times, these problems include poor software support, carrier support or bloatware (loaded software you never asked for). These products often mean just that these tools should not be used after two or three years, especially after the security updates expire.
It’s worth noting that even though these phones sell for $200 to $300, many of them are available at a very low price — or even for free — as part of a sponsorship deal. If you plan to have the same wireless carrier for two years, these calls may be part of the cost of your service.
Show more
Each phone on this list has been thoroughly tested by CNET’s panel of experts. We use the phone, test features, play games and take pictures. We examine every promise the company makes about its phones. If we find something we don’t like, whether it’s battery life or design, we tell you all about it.
We examine every aspect of the phone during testing:
- Show it
- Making and feeling
- Processor performance
- Battery life
- Camera quality
- Appearance
We test all the phone’s cameras (front and back) in different ways: from outdoors and sunlight to dark indoors and night scenes (in all night colors). We also compare our findings with similar value models. We have several battery tests around the world to see how long the phone lasts in daily use.
We consider other features of the phone such as 5G, fingerprint and face readers, writing, quick charging, curved displays and other additional features. We also put everything we’ve experienced and weighed against the price to determine whether or not the phone represents good value.
Read it More information: How We Test Phones
Show more
This year there aren’t many other phones in this price range that have hit the $200 to $250 mark, but if you’re looking for a really low price point our pick above $200 is Samsung Galaxy A15 5G. Although I found this phone to be a bit slower 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 if you’re looking for a phone.
Motorola’s $200 Moto G 5G (2024) it’s a good option that comes close to being the best phone for $ 200 thanks to the leather design similar to the Moto G Power (2024), plus NFC and good cameras. However I found the Moto G 5G to struggle with multitasking, which makes it difficult to recommend if you find yourself switching between apps.
Show more
What about Apple’s iPhone?
