Best Android phones under $300 in 2024

When you buy one of the best Android phones under $300 these days, you're getting a smartphone that doesn't compromise on a lot. Apart from having all the essentials like full 5G connectivity, long software support, and solid camera(s), these sub-$300 smartphones often include several features (e.g., a 3.5mm audio port, a microSD expansion slot) that are no longer found on flagship devices costing several times as much.

At Android Central, we test a plethora of phones—including those that are quite affordable yet packed with goodness—so our recommendations are backed by first-hand testing and reviews.

With that said, our top vote for the best Android phone under $300 goes to the CMF Phone 1 by Nothing. Having a unique modular design, this thing looks and feels far more premium than what its modest price tag might have you believe. You get a vibrant OLED panel, solid camera quality, and up to three years of security updates, even if some basics like NFC are missing. We also love the Samsung Galaxy A25 5G for its four years of OS updates, and the Moto G Stylus 5G (2024) which packs in an integrated stylus and wireless charging support. And what's even better is that during the upcoming Black Friday sale(s), you can snag some amazing discounts on many of these smartphones.

Written by

Written by

Nick Sutrich

Nick grew up in a telecom-savvy household and has been reviewing phones since 2011. Whether it's waxing poetic about Nokia's glory days or flipping open the latest foldable phones, he knows what makes a good phone and can help you understand which one to pick.

At a glance

Best overall

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Nick Sutrich

Nick has been reviewing phones since 2011, using everything from dirt-cheap no-name brands to the most expensive flagships from companies like Samsung and Google. He's a huge fan of folding phones and anything breaks the mold. He's also an avid photographer and can commonly be found carrying around three or four phones at a time for camera comparisons.

The CMF Phone 1 is the most exciting budget phone I've ever used. It's also the only truly good $200 phone I've ever used, and one that regularly feels more like a $400 phone. The first thing you'll notice about it, though, is the unique modular design. The back is held together with five removable screws and can be swapped out with several different colors and styles offered by the company.

Nothing also released official 3D printing guides, meaning you can make your own accessories and backs or just buy one from the 3D printing community! A variety of unique accessories are hot-swappable, thanks to the single large thumbscrew on the bottom right, making it easy to pop on a kickstand, lanyard, or anything else you can dream up.

Aside from the design, the rest of the smartphone is simply brilliant. The bright OLED panel up front is not only wonderful to look at in any light but it's also incredibly eye-friendly. It's got the most powerful chipset in its price class by far, giving you plenty of power for everyday tasks and surprisingly excellent gaming performance, as well.

The only reason this phone doesn't get the award for the best camera under $300 is because the Pixel 6a still exists, but it's barely a step down from that phone. Plus, the CMF Phone 1 takes much better portrait photos than the Pixel 6a, primarily because of the dedicated portrait sensor on the back and a better background blurring algorithm than what Google uses.

Finally, Nothing OS is a superb OS that I prefer over most flavors of Android. It not only has a unique dot matrix-like style but also features plenty of fun home screen widgets, great features, and up to three years of promised security updates. Nothing regularly updates its OS with new features and security patches too, so you'll never have to worry about feeling out of date.

Best support

In typical A-series fashion, the Samsung Galaxy A25 5G manages to deliver excellent value for money. The super-affordable phone has a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED panel with a resolution of 1080x2340 pixels and a 120Hz refresh rate. Sure, the waterdrop-style notch has become a little long in the tooth at this point, but the screen still gets pretty bright and works well for everyday usage.

Powered by the company's homegrown Exynos 1280 SoC, the Samsung Galaxy A25 5G comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. While these are not top-of-the-line specifications, they're more than enough for handling tasks such as web browsing and some casual gaming. You even get an expansion slot that can take up microSD cards of up to 1TB in size, allowing you to carry pretty much your entire media library in your pocket.

The smartphone runs Android 14 (with Samsung's One UI 6 overlay) and will get up to four years of OS updates, as well as five years of security updates. This means you will get Android updates until Android 18! This excellent update policy alone makes the Samsung Galaxy A25 5G one of the best Android phones in its price segment.

Speaking of cameras, there's a triple-lens rear system with a 50MP primary unit, an 8MP ultra-wide module, and a 2MP macro sensor. The smartphone can shoot some decent images in well-lit conditions, but low-light photos are largely unimpressive. As you'd expect, the macro lens is mostly useless and only exists to pad the spec sheet. Up front, there's a 13MP unit for all your selfies and video calls. The whole package is backed by a 5,000mAh battery that comes with 25W wired charging support.

Best design

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Harish Jonnalagadda

Harish Jonnalagadda tries to make sense of the befuddling maze that is the Asian smartphone industry. Before switching to phones, he used to write about PC hardware, covering motherboards and video cards. When he's not playing with the latest phones, he's either reading on his Kindle or trying to clear his backlog of games on Steam. He can also be found shouting at the TV over the weekends at Arsenal's continued woes.

If the picture above doesn't already clue you in, the Poco X6 Pro has the looks to kill and the build quality to match. The yellow colorway looks particularly striking and elegant with its vegan leather back, and the AMOLED panel on the front is easily one of the very best you'll find on any mid-range phone, much less in the sub-$300 price bracket.

The inclusion of a super-fast SoC, plenty of RAM, and speedy UFS 4.0 storage mean this phone feels snappier than most in its class, while giving you loads of power for  multitasking and gaming, alike. The downside is that the chipset is a bit too powerful to run without a more expensive internal cooling solution, so the phone gets pretty hot during longer gaming sessions.

Thankfully, that powerful processor doesn't negatively affect battery life. Quite the opposite, actually! Our reviewer, Harish, noted that the Poco X6 featured "standout battery life" with ultra-fast 67W wired charging support.

The Poco X6 comes with Xiaomi's HyperOS, built on Android 14, which sports plenty of convenient features, great UI design, and three years of promised updates. That means you'll see Android 16 plus one additional year of security updates before you consider upgrading again.

Lastly, the main camera is quite good, but the rest of the cameras aren't worth using at all—particularly that useless 2MP macro unit. We're still not sure why companies feel like a 2MP sensor is worth putting on any phone in 2024, but we'd recommend just not using it.

Best camera

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Nick Sutrich

Nick has been reviewing phones since 2011, using everything from dirt-cheap no-name brands to the most expensive flagships from companies like Samsung and Google. He's a huge fan of folding phones and anything breaks the mold. He's also an avid photographer and can commonly be found carrying around three or four phones at a time for camera comparisons.

For generations now, Google Pixel smartphones have been lauded for their excellent cameras that take the most consistently good pictures around. That's largely in part due to Google's incredible software, which utilizes an intelligent HDR+ algorithm that constantly takes photos, then combines several into one amazing picture with little to no effort.

If you compare the spec sheet for this phone versus other cameras—even ones on this list—you'll probably wonder how a 12MP camera could possibly outclass a 50MP or higher sensor. The answer is that Google doesn't need more megapixels to make a great photo, and that's all because of what I said in the paragraph above.

I've regularly called Pixel phones the best phones for parents and pet owners because of their ability to capture crisp images of objects in motion—in this case, that means the kids and the pets that refuse to hold still for a photo.

But while the camera is best-in-class, you'll also be pleasantly surprised at the overall performance of the Tensor G1 SoC inside the Pixel 6a. It's twice as fast as the chipset in the Galaxy A25 above and thus, can handle games and multitasking better. Tensor is known for getting a bit on the warm side, though, so don't plan on playing cutting-edge games for too long at a time.

The real downside to picking up a Pixel 6a at this point of time is that Android 15 will the last major OS update this phone gets, as official OS updates will end in July 2025. You'll still get two more years of security updates, at least, but do know that the new features you get next Summer are the last new features you'll get.

Best display

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Harish Jonnalagadda

Harish Jonnalagadda tries to make sense of the befuddling maze that is the Asian smartphone industry. Before switching to phones, he used to write about PC hardware, covering motherboards and video cards. When he's not playing with the latest phones, he's either reading on his Kindle or trying to clear his backlog of games on Steam. He can also be found shouting at the TV over the weekends at Arsenal's continued woes.

When it comes to displays, few look as good as the one on the Redmi Note 13 Pro. This gorgeous 6.67-inch AMOLED panel features the deep blacks and vibrant colors that AMOLEDs are known for, and it punches that second part up a notch with 12-bit Dolby Vision support.

If you love watching movies on your phone, this is the one to get as that display will deliver the most accurate colors, widest dynamic range, and plenty of brightness to see clearly even in bright sunlight. Better yet, Xiaomi outfitted the display with eye-friendly capabilities including TÜV Rheinland certifications for low blue light, circadian friendly, and even flicker-free thanks to DC-like dimming at high brightness and 1920Hz PWM dimming at low brightness.

On top of that display is the super durable Gorilla Glass Victus, a type of glass you'll normally only find on smartphones hundreds of dollars more expensive. And last but certainly not the least is Xiaomi's Wet Touch feature which makes it easy to use the touch screen even when your hands are wet. Try that with your current phone and you'll find that it's impossible to accurately type or swipe when water is on the screen.

While our reviewer Harish wasn't too impressed with the phone when it launched in September 2023, Xiaomi has since updated the phone with Android 14, fixing tons of issues, and the new lower price makes this a significantly better value than it used to be.

While Xiaomi was very slow to update this phone to Android 14—seven months after the phone and Android 14 officially launched—the Redmi Note 13 Pro still gets two more years of OS and security updates, so Xiaomi has plenty of time to make up for the slow first platform update.

Best with stylus

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Derrek Lee

Derrek resides on the Best Coast, originally from San Diego, and now living in Seattle. He's a long-time mobile tech enthusiast, starting with an obsession with Nokia that began at the age of 12. Since then, he's been lovingly known by most of his friends as the "Phone Guy." When he's not talking tech, he's either working out, hiking, playing video games (Playstation), or making videos.

Motorola truly reinvented itself over the past year; it not only launched our favorite foldable phone ever, but also a number of of budget-friendly phones that look and feel amazing. The Moto G Stylus 5G (2024) is the perfect example of this, sporting a stylish design clad in vegan leather, all while housing a lovely stylus inside its svelte frame.

The Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset inside isn't the fastest SoC on this list, but it's still faster than the one found in the Samsung Galaxy A25 5G near the top of this list. Of course, the main draw of this smartphone isn't the performance, it's the stylus that comes bundled with it.

Motorola has a suite of software features custom-designed to work with the stylus, and although this isn't an active stylus like you'll find on the uber-premium Samsung phones , it's still nice to have one to jot down quick notes or annotate images and screenshots, especially since it's always inside the phone waiting to be quickly used!

Motorola has also upgraded the cameras this time around, outfitting the phone with some surprisingly good image capturing hardware including an ultrawide-angle lens. Our reviewer, Derrek, was really impressed with the image quality and specifically lauded the phone for that feature.

While Motorola ships this one with Android 14 and its excellent Hello UX—complete with all our favorite Motorola gestures such as double-chop to turn on the flashlight—the Moto G Stylus 5G (2024) will only get updated to Android 15, plus three years of security updates to ensure you feel safe online. So, If you don't care about tons of updates and want to prioritize stylus support, this is a great choice for under $300.

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How to choose

While there's no doubt that the best Android phones offer you an unmatched user experience—complete with features such as top-tier cameras and wireless charging—these devices don't really come cheap. If you can't (or simply don't want to!) spend thousands of dollars on a flagship smartphone, we suggest taking a look at one of the many options available under the $300 price point. Sure, these do miss out on some nice-to-have features found in expensive phones and aren't supported for long, but they cover all the basics, while also having some extras. So, before making your decision, do take a look at what features you need the most.

Our top choice is the CMF Phone 1, a brilliant pick at just over $200 with an option to upgrade both the RAM and the storage for a little more. Even at that price, it's still a better phone than any other on this list, featuring a bright and beautiful—but also eye-friendly—OLED display, a powerful SoC, the second-best camera(s) on this list, and a unique modular design that you can 3D print parts for. It's an unbelievably fun phone that blew Android Central's Nicholas Sutrich away from the moment he tried it.

And don't forget about the Samsung Galaxy A25 5G if you want some serious long-term value. While the chipset isn't the fastest on this list, it has the longest software support promise of them all—5 years! That means it'll get updated to Android 18 before Samsung drops support, something that no other phone on the list can claim. That's great if you like to hold on to your phones for a long time.

Lastly, if we're comparing affordable phones with those that aren't so affordable, we can't ignore the Moto G Stylus 5G (2024). This thing comes with a swanky vegan leather back panel and an integrated stylus that makes it look and feel extremely premium. There's even NFC support for contactless payments, another feature that's commonly found in flagship phones.

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