The best cheap phone you can buy in 2018

Most people are not going to spend $ 1,000 on a phone. Worldwide, the average selling price of a smartphone is approaching $ 300. This previously meant buying something that is a pain to use. But in recent years, some of these cheaper smartphones have been surprisingly good.

In many ways, these cheaper phones are even more important. It's across the phones in this price range that a lot of people will take photos, check their email, read news and interact with the world. So, how important are these phones – many .

Fortunately, the situation improves day by day. Yes, you will have to miss some high-end features when you get a cheaper phone. But you will not have to submit to a bad experience. A big budget phone should always be good to use, even with its price sensitive limits.

For this article, we specifically look at phones under $ 300, with no contract or additional charges. We also focus on phones that you can buy in the United States, with a warranty from the United States. Many of these phones are available worldwide and will be good choices; but some countries, like China and India, also have a number of popular under $ 300 phones that we have not included here, because they're not sold in the United States .

This article will be continuously updated and reviewed, so be sure to check if you are not in the market right now.

The best phone under $ 300, without a lot of competition, is Moto G6 from Motorola. And to make it even better, it only costs $ 250.

The Moto G6 looks like a phone twice as expensive. It has a bright, clear and colorful 5.7 inch screen that fills most of the front of the phone. And despite its large screen size, the G6 still feels relatively thin, small and easy to hold.

The G6 is also nice to use. In my tests, performance has never been a problem – many phones in this price range stuttered sometimes, especially when scrolling applications – and its battery easily lasted all day. The phone includes the latest version of Android, Android Oreo, and it is promised an upgrade to Android P as well. Motorola only makes a few settings, mostly useful, on Android, so the experience here is clean and familiar.

Motorola includes some other important features that are not necessarily standard: a headphone jack, a fingerprint sensor and a USB key. -C Charging port, which is nicer to use than Micro USB. The phone is also available unlocked and operates on all major US carriers. One thing that would have been nice to see Motorola add is NFC, for mobile payments; this is not a huge loss in the United States, but they are much more used in many parts of the world. (And in fact, the European model of the phone includes it.)

The biggest missed on the G6 is its front and rear cameras, which produce beautiful photos in full day but become slow, blurry and dull in the lower light, including the interior. Unfortunately, it is the norm for phones in this price range; While this is always a disadvantage, the G6's cameras are about as good as possible without spending a lot more.

Choosing a phone for less than $ 300 usually involves a few compromises. But this is not the case with the Moto G6. This is, quite simply, a good phone, and it's hard to beat without spending a lot more.

Apple does not sell an iPhone under $ 300. Its cheapest, iPhone SE, is selling regularly for $ 349. But this is not the case everywhere: many prepaid carriers sell the iPhone SE for less than $ 200, with the caveat that it is locked in their service. And at that price, it's a good deal.

The SE iPhone is two years old at this point, but it still works well out of the box. It will have iOS 12 this fall, which is supposed to offer further performance improvements, and it may very well get another year (or more) of operating system updates, which is more than any other phone in this article. And while his camera tends to make the pictures a little bland, it captures clear pictures that are the best you'll find in this price range.

Really, there is only one drawback the iPhone SE: it's really, really small, with just a screen of 4 inches. Most people seem to prefer much bigger phones, and the SE iPhone looks a bit like a toy in comparison. His keyboard is small and harder to type, and it's almost stupid to watch pictures on his small screen.

If you are looking for a small phone, then this is a fantastic choice, and you should definitely have it. IPhones are also quite reliable and have a strong support network, if you ever need to get it fixed. In addition, iOS always has better applications and gives you access to services like iMessage.

Once you have less than $ 200, you have to start making big tradeoffs. Maybe you get a solid performance, but a worse screen. Maybe you get a better screen but no fingerprint sensor.

The best phones in this price range do a good job of managing these compromises, and the one that does it best right now is the LG K30. relatively good screen, a decent speaker, and a solid build. It works perfectly in everyday use, and it even uses a Snapdragon processor (an older version of the model used in the Moto G6). Viewing angles are one of its obvious weaknesses – if you look at an angle, the brightness starts to quickly decrease. It also lacks support for 5GHz Wi-Fi networks, which is frustrating for most phones under $ 200.

The phone runs Android Nougat, which has a standard year in this price range. LG has added some tweaks to Android that make the home screen a bit more like an iPhone, and also included a handful of apps. You can not delete them, but some of them – like a voice recorder and a radio app – are useful additions. Unfortunately, you will probably be stuck on Nougat; LG is slow to update even its high-end phones, so it is unlikely that the K30 will have Oreo (let alone P).

His camera is among the best options in the $ 300 sub-phone field. The images look good as long as they are magnified on your phone;

The real thing that gives the K30 the advantage in this area is its fingerprint sensor: many phones below $ 200 do not have not, which is a major flaw. Smartphones need to be secure, and fingerprint sensors make it incredibly easy for everyone to do it. Not only that, but they simply make opening your phone more convenient because you just have to press the sensor.

The K30 sells for $ 180 and runs on all major US carriers. If you are an Amazon Prime subscriber, you can also get a Prime Prime version for $ 140, which includes half storage (16 GB) and a bunch of non-removable Amazon apps. Applications are a reasonable compromise; Storage can be a bigger problem for you, but it can be extended by a Micro SD card if you need more.

There are a huge number of other options, and you have to be careful because a lot of them are just bad . You can find other strong choices of Motorola, and Samsung also has excellent cheap phones. But in general, anything stronger in one price range has dropped something in another, so be sure to look for major loopholes if you are considering something else.