Best Android phones under $300 in 2025

The $300 smartphone market has once again become very interesting thanks to exciting new launches, all packed with great features. Superb AMOLED screens, quirky designs, telephoto cameras, and proper IP ratings for waterproofing are all available in this segment, as long as you pick the right phones.

Our best overall pick has gotten a successor with the CMF Phone 2 Pro. Built on the same principles as the Phone 1, the Phone 2 Pro features a brighter display, telephoto camera, and longer software support. It's still tricky to buy in the U.S. though, so for that we have other great options from Samsung and Motorola. Here are all the best phones to buy under $300.

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

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.

Nothing's budget sub-brand CMF hit it out of the park with its debut CMF Phone 1, and it has done wonders once again with the Phone 2 Pro. The new model no longer has the removable back cover of the original, but Nothing has found a more elegant solution with a universal back cover that enables the use of multiple accessories. The Phone 2 Pro is a lot slimmer and lighter than the Phone 1, making it easier to live with.

The CMF Phone 2 Pro now uses a flexible AMOLED panel with slimmer bezels on all sides, higher peak brightness, and a more dynamic refresh rate. Even though the phone uses a now older MediaTek chipset, Nothing has done a good job optimizing it as there isn't any noticeable lag during usage.

The cameras on the CMF Phone 2 Pro are pretty great too for the segment. Daylight shots packed good details and vibrancy, and even low-light stills delivered good colors with no visible noise. Nothing OS is clean and has a good level of customizability. You even get the Essential Key that debuted with the Nothing Phone 3a Pro, a physical button that grants access to the Essential Space dashboard.

Best support

In typical A-series fashion, the new Samsung Galaxy A26 5G delivers excellent value for money. The super-affordable phone has a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED panel with a resolution of 1080x2340 pixels and a 120Hz refresh rate. The waterdrop-style notch has become a little long in the tooth, but the screen still gets pretty bright and works well for everyday usage.

Powered by the company's homegrown Exynos 1380 SoC, the Samsung Galaxy A26 5G has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. These specs may not be the best out there, but they are good enough for web browsing and casual gaming tasks. You even get an expansion slot that can hold microSD cards up to 1TB, allowing you to carry your entire media library in your pocket.

In a first, Samsung supplies six years of OS and six years of security updates. The phone runs Android 15 (with Samsung's One UI 7 overlay), which is impressive for an A series phone. This excellent update policy alone makes the Samsung Galaxy A26 5G one of the best Android phones in its price segment.

The smartphone has a triple-lens rear system with a 50MP primary unit, an 8MP ultra-wide module, and a 2MP macro sensor. The smartphone should be able to shoot decent images in well-lit conditions. As expected, the macro lens is probably not the best and simply exists to pad the spec sheet. There's a 13MP unit for selfies and video calls. Samsung also adds a 5,000mAh battery 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.

The image above should be enough to persuade you to get the Poco X6 Pro. It has the look to kill and the build quality to match. The yellow colorway looks striking and elegant with its vegan leather back. The smartphone also has an AMOLED panel on the front, which is easily among the best you'll find on any mid-range phone, much less in the sub-$ 300 price bracket.

The phone's super-fast SoC, 8GB or 12GB of RAM, and speedy UFS 4.0 storage mean it feels snappier than most in its class while giving you loads of power for multitasking and gaming. The downside is that the chipset is too powerful to run without a more expensive internal cooling solution, so you should expect the phone to heat up during longer gaming sessions.

Thankfully, the Mediatek Dimensity 8300 Ultra processor doesn't negatively affect battery life—quite the opposite! Our reviewer, Harish, noted that the Poco X6 featured "standout battery life" and ultra-fast 67W wired charging support.

The Poco X6 comes with Xiaomi's HyperOS on top of Android 14. This OS has plenty of convenient features and an excellent UI design, and Xiaomi will give this phone three years of promised updates. That means you'll see Android 16 plus one additional year of security updates before you consider upgrading again.

Finally, the primary camera is quite good, but the rest aren't worth using—particularly that useless 2MP macro unit. Only the manufacturers know why they continue to add a 2MP sensor in 2025, but we recommend 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.

The Samsung Galaxy A16 5G is a great choice when looking for a cheap Samsung phone. It's the ideal phone because it has 5G connectivity, so you can seamlessly watch your videos. Samsung also gave the A16 5G a huge 5,000mAh battery that can last two days with average use.

The phone also has a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a 1080 x 2340 resolution, 90Hz refresh rate, and 800 nits brightness at High Brightness Mode. You can also use high and standard Motion Smoothness modes to adjust the screen's refresh rate.

You won't have to worry about ending up with an outdated phone anytime soon since Samsung promises six years of Android OS updates that are almost as good as those of its flagship siblings. This Samsung phone also has an IP54 rating to resist accidental splashes.

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.

Few displays look as good as the one on the Redmi Note 13 Pro—this stunning 6.67-inch AMOLED panel with a 1220 x 2712 resolution and 1,800 peak brightness. The display also 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.

This is the phone for you if you love watching movies on your phone. That display will deliver the most accurate colors, the widest dynamic range, and a surplus of brightness to view the screen in sunlight. 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, which significantly improves drop and scratch performance, surviving drops to hard surfaces from up to two meters. It's also glass, typically only found on smartphones, and is hundreds of dollars pricier. Last but certainly not least is Xiaomi's Wet Touch feature, which makes it easy to use the touchscreen even when your hands are wet. Try that with your current phone; you'll find it impossible to type or swipe accurately 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 it with Android 14, fixing tons of issues. The new lower price makes this a significantly better value than it used to be.

Xiaomi was very slow to update this phone to Android 14—seven months after the phone and Android 14 officially launched. However, the Redmi Note 13 Pro has 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.

In a surprising development, Motorola has redefined its brand. Motorola created and released the best foldable phone and launched different phones that look and feel amazing. The Moto G Stylus 5G (2024) is the ideal example, sporting a stylish design clad in vegan leather and 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 quicker 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. Even though this isn't an active stylus like you'll find on the uber-premium Samsung phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, it's still nice to have one to jot down quick notes or annotate images and screenshots. You can quickly grab it since it's always inside the phone!

Motorola has also upgraded the cameras, outfitting the phone with surprisingly good image-capturing hardware, including an ultrawide-angle lens. Our reviewer, Derrek, was really wowed with the image quality and specifically lauded the phone for that feature. The Moto G Stylus 5G has a 48MP wide, 8MP ultrawide, 5MP macro, and a 2MP depth camera.

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 guarantee you feel safe online. So, if you don't care about many updates and want to focus on stylus support, this is an excellent choice for under $300.

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How to choose

While there's no doubt that the best Android phones offer you an unpaired user experience—complete with features such as top-tier cameras and wireless charging—these phones can be pricey. If you can't (or don't want to!) spend thousands of dollars on a flagship smartphone, you can easily find one that fits your under the $300 price point.

The downside of choosing a more affordable phone is that it lacks the latest features and has limited software support. But the good news is that you get all the essential features while having some extras. So, before deciding, look at what features you need the most.

Our top choice is the CMF Phone 2 Pro, a brilliant pick in this segment with an option to upgrade 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. The phone features a bright and beautiful—but also eye-friendly—AMOLED display, a powerful SoC, the second-best camera(s) on this list, and a unique back cover design that supports accessories.

For serious long-term value, the Samsung Galaxy A26 5G is the ideal choice. While the chipset isn't the fastest on this list, Samsung gives it six years of extended software support! That means Samsung updates it to Android 21 before dropping support, something no other phone on the list can claim. That's great if you like holding your phone for a long time.

Lastly, if we compare affordable phones with those that aren't so affordable, we can't ignore the Moto G Stylus 5G (2024). This phone has a swanky vegan leather back panel and an integrated stylus to give it a more premium vibe. The phone also has NFC for contactless payments, another feature commonly found in flagship phones.

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