is a reviewer with 10 years of experience writing about consumer tech. She has a special interest in mobile photography and telecom. Previously, she worked at DPReview.
Some of us take a kind of “I eat to live” rather than an “I live to eat” approach to gadgets. They’re tools that help you get things done, not something you want to invest a lot of time or money in. If that’s you — and there’s no judgment here from a certifiable gadget nerd — then you can probably think of more worthwhile ways to spend $1,000 than on a phone.
Budget phones to the rescue. These devices are roughly $500 or under, though not all of them, and they’re more capable than ever. You won’t get all the bells and whistles, but you will save a little money to spend on, I don’t know, actual bells and whistles. It’s your world.
What I’m looking for How we test Collapse There’s no shortcut to properly testing a phone; I put my personal SIM card (physical or otherwise) in each phone I review and live with it for a minimum of one full week. I set up each phone from scratch, load it up with my apps, and go about living my life — stress testing the battery, using GPS navigation on my bike while streaming radio, taking rapid-fire portrait mode photos of my kid — everything I can throw at it. Starting over with a new phone every week either sounds like a dream or your personal hell, depending on how Into Phones you are. For me, switching has become so routine that it’s mostly painless. Strong software support Collapse At least a couple of years of OS upgrades and, ideally, three years of security updates. There’s no point in buying even a cheap phone if you have to replace it after just a couple of years because it stopped getting security patches. A good screen Collapse Since you look at it roughly two thousand times a day, your phone’s screen is one place you shouldn’t compromise. An OLED has richer contrast and color than an LCD, and the big screens on today’s phones really need at least a 1080p resolution. Faster refresh rates like 90Hz and even 120Hz are becoming more common on budget phone screens, but for my money, a smooth-scrolling LCD doesn’t look as nice as an OLED with a standard refresh rate. Serviceable storage space Collapse If you plan to hang onto your phone for a while, you’ll want enough storage space to accommodate all the system files, photos, and videos you’ll accumulate over the years. Ideally you’ll get at least 128GB built in. One good rear camera, not four mediocre ones Collapse Upgrades like telephoto cameras and optical image stabilization are rare in the under-$500 class, but you can still expect good, basic performance in good lighting from any modern smartphone. Low light is trickier. Phones in this class should offer a night mode to help with non-moving subjects in very dim light. And there are no bonus points awarded for adding extra macro and depth cameras to pad out the rear camera array — those 2- and 5-megapixel sensors are pretty much useless.
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What compromises can you expect from a budget phone? Some combination of the following: slower processors, less storage, and worse cameras than flagship phones, almost across the board. Many have lower-resolution screens and water resistance is often less robust than on a pricier phone.
The best cheap iPhone
Screen: 6.1-inch, 1170p OLED / Processor: A18 Cameras: 48-megapixel f/1.6 with OIS, 12-megapixel selfie / Charging: 20W wired, 7.5W wireless / Weather-resistance rating: IP68
If I was making this recommendation to you face-to-face, you’d hear a heavy sigh. Yes, this is the cheapest new iPhone Apple makes. Yes, it comes with most of the things that make an iPhone an iPhone. But it comes with some significant tradeoffs — some of which make more sense than others — and it’s not exactly cheap. If you’re amenable to last year’s model or a refurbished iPhone 14, one of those might actually be a better option. But for an unfussy person who just wants a new iPhone for the least amount of money, the 16E will do the trick.
There’s a single 48-megapixel rear camera on the back, meaning there’s no ultrawide like on the regular 16. That’s an understandable tradeoff — so is the use of the older “notch” design rather than the Dynamic Island. But it’s harder to understand why Apple left out MagSafe here — that’s the ring of magnets built into the back of virtually every other iPhone since 2020. The 16E still supports wireless charging, but it can’t take advantage of the ecosystem of magnetic chargers and accessories on its own; you’ll need to add a magnetic case. This is a silly omission, and Apple should feel bad about it.
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