Best Phones Under $300 in 2024

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Phones that cost $300 or less, like Motorola’s Moto G Power 5G (2024) and Samsung’s Galaxy A25 5G, offer a lot more features and functionality than you might expect. Sub-$300 phones have NFC for contactless payments, 120Hz high refresh rate displays for gaming and smooth animations, support for wireless charging and years of software updates, making them more versatile than ever.

That doesn’t mean that every phone in this category is perfect. Cameras are a mixed bag across all of these phones. And when buying a cheap phone, you have a major 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 tested and reviewed every phone on this list.

If you’re looking to save money on your next phone purchase, check out our roundup of the best Cyber Monday deals. Keep in mind that you may find some Cyber Monday phone deals this holiday season that bring these affordable models down to an even lower 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 with a colorful vegan leather back that adds to an eye-catching design that we don’t typically see in lower-cost phones — the Pale Lilac color is definitely something to behold. The Moto G Power 5G also has standout 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 daily tasks. We just wish that Motorola overhauled its software and security update promises alongside its design, as the phone will receive only one OS update to Android 15 and three years of security updates.

Best phones under $300

These cheaper devices tend to scale back significantly in one area or another in order to achieve those low prices. Most commonly, these drawbacks include limited software support, carrier support or bloatware (preloaded apps that you never asked for). These trade-offs often mean that these devices should not be used after two to three years, especially after security update support ends.

It’s also notable that while these phones retail for $200 to $300, many of them are often available at a deep discount — or even for free — as part of a carrier subsidy deal. If you are planning to stick with the same wireless carrier for two years, these phones could just become part of the cost of your service.

Every phone on this list has been thoroughly tested by CNET’s expert reviews team. We actually use the phone, test the features, play games and take photos. We assess any marketing promises that a company makes about its phones. If we find something we don’t like, be it battery life or build quality, we tell you all about it.

We examine every aspect of a phone during testing:

Display
Design and feel
Processor performance
Battery life
Camera quality
Features

We test all of a phone’s cameras (both front and back) in a variety of conditions: from outdoors under sunlight to dimmer indoor locales and nighttime scenes (for any available night modes). We also compare our findings against similarly priced models. We have a series of real-world battery tests to see how long a phone lasts under everyday use.

We take into account additional phone features like 5G, fingerprint and face readers, styluses, fast charging, foldable displays and other useful extras. We also weigh all of our experiences and testing against the price so you know whether a phone represents good value or not.

Read more: How We Test Phones

This year there aren’t many other phones in this price range that hit the $200 to $250 price range, but if you want to go a bit cheaper our top pick under $200 is the Samsung Galaxy A15 5G. While I found this phone to be noticeably slower in performance than the Galaxy A25, it does include the same pledge of receiving four years of software updates and five years of security updates, making it an appealing 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 and the Moto G Power (2024), inclusion of NFC and decent cameras. However I found the Moto G 5G to struggle with multitasking, making it harder to recommend if you find yourself often swapping between apps.

What about Apple’s iPhone?

Apple does not currently sell any iPhone options between $200 and $300. The cheapest new iPhone you can get is the iPhone SE at $429. That iPhone is a great value for its fast processor and a great camera but held back by its dated design that harkens back to the iPhone 6, 7 and 8.

If you don’t mind getting a preowned device and want something with a bigger screen, as of this writing Verizon sells a 64GB iPhone 11 for $275.

You can also get the 2020 version of the iPhone SE as a refurbished model between $200 and $300 on websites like Amazon and Best Buy, but beware of each store’s policies for refurbished devices. Be especially sure to check that the refurbished device includes a warranty for repairs, since without one you may have to pay Apple or another retailer a high price for a screen repair or other accidental damage.