The best phones under $500 offer great camera systems, decent performance, and large displays. Most of these phones include some of the features you’d find on a $1,000+ flagship. They even offer years of software and security updates to help keep your phone lasting longer.
While these phones offer savings that justify their price over $500, those savings are increasingly in areas where you might not want to spend a fortune on a flagship when you just want a solid device for everyday use.
Contents
Best Phone Under $500
1. Google Pixel 8A
The Pixel 8A is so good that it almost makes the regular Pixel 8 feel irrelevant. It shares so much in common with its more expensive sibling, from AI-powered features like Circle to Search to its gorgeous aesthetic and powerful Tensor G3 processor, that it’s hard to see why you’d buy the Pixel 8 instead.
The Pixel 8 offers a slightly better camera system, a slightly larger screen, and the ability to wirelessly charge other phones and accessories from the back of the device.
But these features don’t feel important enough for most people to make a buying decision. As I wrote in my review, the Pixel 8A raised the bar for what a $500 phone should be like.
2. Nothing Phone (2a)
The Nothing Phone (2a) offers a plastic back instead of glass. The Nothing Phone (2a) still has a transparent back, but the glass is plastic instead of glass.
The Phone (2a) is Nothing’s latest budget smartphone. It offers balanced technical specifications, but its design stands out, which my colleague Antoine Engels considers the best mid-range smartphone of 2024.
The Phone (2a) offers a pleasant experience with the Nothing OS 2.5 interface, and durability is ensured by the promise of three Android updates and a four-year security update policy. The phone doesn’t have the latest Snapdragon SoC, but its performance is decent and reliable.
With a 5000 mAh battery that supports 45W fast charging, the Phone (2a) is the autonomy champion in its price range. In our battery benchmarks, the phone lasted an impressive 17 hours and 02 minutes. You can easily use your Phone(2a) for two days without having to charge it, and it also has the added benefit of not charging too slowly.
The only concession, in my opinion, is the photo quality, which is not all that convincing, especially at night. Other than that, the Nothing Phone (2a) is a well-rounded mid-range smartphone with a beautiful screen, decent performance, and, most importantly, amazing battery life.
3. OnePlus 12R
The $500 OnePlus 12R isn’t the best phone you can buy, but it offers solid overall performance for its reasonable price tag. The previous-generation processor still delivers plenty of power for gaming, the camera setup is fine for the casual photographer, and the design is similar to its more premium siblings.
However, it also supports 80W fast charging, so you can go from empty to fully charged in about 30 minutes, and the screen has wet touch technology, so you can use it accurately even in the rain. It’s a shame that this phone doesn’t have longer software support, but it’s a decent all-rounder for those on a tight budget.
4. Motorola Edge 40
The black version of the Edge 40 doesn’t do a great job of showing off the design of the model. The phone comes in a variety of flashy colors, but the back is made of a soft-touch material that feels premium and comfortable to the touch.
For those who prefer a curved display, the Edge 40 is one of the few options left in this price range, offering a gorgeous, fast screen that refreshes at 144Hz.
On the software front, Motorola has tightened up its software update policy to match Xiaomi’s four years of security updates, which is less than Samsung and Google’s but still reasonable for most people. And the Dimensity 8200 should be more than capable of delivering decent performance until then.
5. Apple iPhone SE (2022)
The $429 iPhone SE mixes the latest smartphone features, including Apple’s A15 Bionic chip and 5G support, with an old-school design. It is also one of the few phones on the market that has a small 4.7-inch screen.
The thing I like or hate most about this phone is its retro design. If you want a bigger iPhone in this price range, you might want to consider the iPhone 12, which also gets a larger screen and Face ID.
The phone only has a 12-megapixel primary camera, which doesn’t support Night Mode. Most of the other phones in this roundup include multiple cameras along with features like Night Mode, so the omission is noticeable.
The photos make up for this with the inclusion of Deep Fusion photo processing, which improves mid- to low-light shots, and Smart HDR4 processing, which improves color and contrast.
6. Google Pixel 7A
Google has released the Pixel 8A, which costs $500. You can read our review of the Pixel 8A here . If you’re buying the Pixel 7A, make sure it’s on sale.
Google’s budget phone is making the leap to the Pixel 7A in 2024. The Pixel 7A offers many of the same benefits as the Pixel 7, but at a lower price. Like the Pixel 7, the Pixel 7A runs on Google’s Tensor G2 processor, which means it offers many of the same photo-editing and language-translation features as its more expensive sibling.
The Pixel 7A’s 64-megapixel camera takes excellent photos that rival the Pixel 7’s quality. We still like the Pixel 7, but the Pixel 7A’s lower price makes it a better deal for most people.
Otherwise, the main differences between the Pixel 7 and 7A come down to the former’s more robust build, slightly faster charging, and the ability to wirelessly charge compatible accessories.