Best Cheap Phones 2025: Our favourite affordable handsets

The Motorola Edge 50 Fusion is not only an impressive all-rounder at a very tempting price of just £349, but it’s also one of the more compact budget options around right now.

It measures in at just 7.9mm thick and 175g, which makes it a delight to hold and use, and that’s further improved by IP68 dust and water resistance, and the option of either vegan leather or frosted plastic depending on the colour you go for. There isn’t the Pantone colour certification we saw with last year’s Edge 40 Neo, but that was really just a nice-to-have.

The 6.7-inch screen isn’t to be sniffed at either. It sports a curved OLED panel delivering vibrant colours and deep blacks with great contrast. It can also reach a rapid 144Hz, beating the 120Hz panels of others in our list, allowing for a buttery-smooth experience that’s also well suited to gaming.

That’s backed up by a surprisingly capable camera system comprised of an OIS-enabled 50MP main snapper and a 13MP ultrawide on the rear, along with a 32MP selfie camera. The main sensor, in particular, is capable in well-lit and low-light environments, especially when compared to the Samsung Galaxy A35 5G, with auto-enhance AI helping to boost the colour and detail from the auxiliary lenses.

Performance is also surprisingly good considering its budget price tag, with the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 and a healthy 12GB of RAM able to compete with mid-range phones that cost £200 more. It’s still not powerful enough for high-end AAA gaming, and won’t be able to compete with the likes of the Poco X7 Pro, but for all but dedicated mobile gamers, it should more than suffice.

And, despite its more compact dimensions than rivals, it still packs in a large 5000mAh battery that doesn’t struggle to last a full day without needing a top-up, though it can’t quite make it through a second day. The good news is that 68W fast charge tech can provide a full charge in just 47 minutes, among the fastest you’ll find at the budget end of the market.

Reviewer: Jon Mundy

Full review: Motorola Edge 50 Fusion

The Nothing Phone 3a is the follow-up to the hugely popular budget-focused Nothing Phone 2a from 2024, and just like its predecessor, there’s a lot to love. It not only retains the iconic Nothing design DNA but new features that help it truly stand out from the competition.

If you’re looking for a unique-looking phone on a budget, the Nothing Phone 3a fits the bill and then some with its iconic transparent design, which gives you a good look at the internals on the rear panel. Like the others in the collection, it also sports the Glyph interface that flashes in time to ringtones and texts and doubles up as a handy camera timer.

Still, the most important aspect of the Phone 3a is the tech, and Nothing has excelled once again. The 6.7-inch 120Hz AMOLED screen is bright and accurate, with a whopping 3000nits peak brightness when watching HDR10+ content and an impressive 1300nits in regular high-brightness mode.

That’s flanked by a triple camera setup comprised of a 50MP wide, 8MP ultrawide and, rather surprisingly, a 50MP 2x telephoto lens.

The latter is still rare at the price point, and while it can’t quite compete with the periscope lens of the more premium Nothing Phone 3a Pro, it delivers excellent results in daylight. The 50MP main is similarly capable, though it performs way better in low-light scenarios. The ultrawide has taken a hit, dropping down from 50MP on the previous generation and it’s easily the weakest of the trio as a result, but it’ll still take a decent wide-angle shot.

That’s backed up by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 which allows it to outperform the competition in tests, and a 5000mAh battery delivers all-day battery life. There’s also the dot-matrix-inspired Nothing OS to appreciate, complete with Nothing’s new Essential Space, essentially its own spin on AI with some pretty handy features.

Reviewer: Cam Bunton

Full review: Nothing Phone 3a

The Motorola Edge 50 Neo is similar to the Edge 50 Fusion in many regards; it’s similarly thin and lightweight, at 8.1mm thick and 171g, and it sports speedy 68W fast charging, but there are key differences that make it stand out.

For one, it boasts a range of Pantone-certified colour options with the Pantone logo clear for everyone to see on the vegan leather-clad rear. These give the phones a distinctive look not only compared to the Fusion, but most other budget-friendly phones.

Most importantly, however, the Edge 50 Neo offers a surprisingly capable camera setup comprised of a 50MP main, 13MP ultrawide, and 10MP 3x telephoto, the latter of which is rarely seen at the price point. Performance is solid from the main sensor, which is able to handle both well-lit and low-light scenarios with ease. The auxiliary lenses don’t quite match up, but the ability to get closer to the action with the 3x sensor is very much appreciated.

Elsewhere, the Edge 50 Neo is a fairly compact device with a 6.4-inch OLED screen that makes it easy to use one-handed, though it’s equally not as well suited for gaming and binging as larger alternatives. It also means that it has a slightly smaller 4310mAh battery than the standard 5000mAh we see in 2025, though it’s more than enough to power the smaller display and get through a day unaided.

Reviewer: Sean Cameron

Full review: Motorola Edge 50 Neo

The Poco X7 Pro delivers proper flagship-level performance that’s perfect for gaming without the associated price tag. That’s down to the use of the Dimensity 8400-Ultra, which sits just under MediaTek’s flagship 9000 series chips, complete with either 8- or 12GB of RAM.

Combined, the phone is slick and fast in daily use, and it can also handle demanding 3D games like CoD Mobile for extended periods with a large liquid cooling system under the hood. Gaming-specific software features allow access to common settings from within games to boost that experience further.  

That’s paired with a bright, vivid 6.67-inch AMOLED display that’s more than large enough to game on, and the super-smooth 120Hz refresh rate helps things feel more responsive still. It’s also fairly high-res at 1.5K, and the screen is completely flat.

The phone’s gaming focus is completed by a massive 6000mAh battery that easily lasts a day, if not two days, depending on what you’re up to. Considering 30 minutes of gaming used just 5%, you’ll be able to game to your heart’s content. And, with 90W fast charge support, it’ll get a full recharge in under an hour.

There are weak points, of course; the dual 50MP main and 8MP ultrawide lenses are nothing to get excited about, and Xiaomi’s HyperOS 2 is both full of bloatware and about as far from stock Android as you can get. However, if you care about performance above all else, it’s the ideal cheap option.

Reviewer: Chris Hall

Full review: Poco X7 Pro 

Editor’s Note: Samsung has announced the Galaxy A36 5G, due out later in March. We’ll be reviewing the smartphone as soon as it’s available.

If you’re looking for a solid all-rounder that’ll just keep on going, Samsung’s Galaxy A35 5G is a tempting option. Our reviewer found that, even on busy days with nearly 8 hours of screen-on time, the phone still had enough juice to last ’till bedtime and, on less busy days, it could easily make it to the end of a second day.

Of course, battery longevity isn’t the only reason to opt for the Galaxy A35 5G over other options in our list. The Galaxy A35 5G has design staples rarely seen at the price point including an aluminium frame, glass rear, IP67 dust and water resistance and even Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection for the 6.6-inch display that helps it look and feel even more like a Galaxy S24 at a cheaper price.

That 6.6-inch 120Hz AMOLED display is a highlight of the affordable phone. It might match the A33’s panel, but the AMOLED nature means that blacks are deep and colours are particularly vibrant, and at 1000nits peak brightness, it’s easy enough to use outdoors.

If there’s one area where the Galaxy A35 5G’s budget nature truly shines through, it’s in the chipset department. Using the same Exynos 1380 chipset as 2023’s Galaxy A54 5G isn’t necessarily a bad thing, offering a boost in performance compared to the A34 5G, but there are options like the Poco X7 Pro that’ll deliver faster everyday performance, and at a similar price too.

Still, if you want a cheap phone that’ll keep on going, the Samsung Galaxy A35 5G remains a tempting choice.

Reviewer: Jon Mundy

Full review: Samsung Galaxy A35 5G

What if you want a decent entry-level phone for less than £200 that simply does the job? The TCL 40R 5G fits the bill.

The budget-focused device offers all the main staples of a solid budget smartphone experience with 5G connectivity, a good-looking design, long battery life from a 5,000mAh cell and decent (though not quite snappy) everyday performance.

There’s a large 6.6-inch LCD display with a 90Hz refresh rate great for scrolling and binging, though its sub-1080p resolution can make elements look a little soft. The main 50MP rear camera is capable of delivering surprisingly sharp images for the price, at least.

It might not be able to compete with more premium options on the market, but for the £199 price tag, you won’t find much better right now.

Reviewer: Lloyd Coombes

Full review: TCL 40R 5G

The Nothing CMF Phone 1 isn’t just affordable, it’s also customisable thanks to its modular design, making it stand out from the vast majority of budget handsets on the market. 

The CMF Phone 1 has a removable back casing, allowing you to switch out the colour of the device at a whim or repair a damaged rear for as little as £30. There’s also the Accessory Point in the bottom corner, where you can attach lanyards, kickstands and even a magnetic card wallet. 

The 6.67-inch AMOLED display has a 120Hz refresh rate and 2000 nits of peak brightness. We did notice the occasional stutter and the refresh rate isn’t able to drop down to reserve battery, but the screen is still great for binge-watching content considering its budget price. There’s also an optical fingerprint sensor in the display. 

The camera module includes a 50-megapixel main camera and a second depth sensor for blurring in portrait mode. We found the effect generally to be nice, though the sensor did sometimes struggle with edge detection. The main camera, meanwhile, captures sharp, colour-rich shots in daylight with decent 2x digital zoom. We did encounter some issues in HDR and low-light images often came out looking over-sharpened, but for the phone’s price, we remained impressed with its overall performance. 

The CMF Phone 1 is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 with 8GB of RAM that is capable of running just about any mobile game – just not in their extreme or ultra graphics settings. The software, meanwhile, has an immediately recognisable Nothing look to it, with bold, retro iconography and typefaces. There’s also a dedicated ChatGPT widget for chatting to the AI assistant. 

When it comes to battery life, the phone can last around two days with light use, though apps like WhatsApp and social media will drain the battery much faster. Charging speeds are limited with 30 minutes of charging offering about 35%, but if you’re someone who charges their phone every night overnight this shouldn’t be a problem. 

Reviewer: Cam Bunton

Full Review: Nothing CMF Phone 1