A flagship smartphone can price you $1,000 or extra, however you don’t should spend practically that a lot to get the options you want. After weeks of testing half a dozen cheaper Android telephones, we discovered that the OnePlus Nord N30 5G is the perfect funds Android telephone. It’s quick sufficient for most individuals, has a shiny LCD display, delivers good battery life, and even has Verizon 5G connectivity—a uncommon characteristic for a telephone that prices simply $300.
Our decide
The OnePlus Nord N30 5G delivers strong efficiency and has a shiny, quick LCD display with a excessive refresh price. It additionally comes with a side-mounted fingerprint reader and Verizon 5G help.
The OnePlus Nord N30 5G is the newer model of our earlier decide, and although it doesn’t supply flagship efficiency, it does have some high-end options. Not like many funds telephones, its 6.7-inch, 120 Hz refresh price show is nice for gaming. The N30 5G has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chip and eight GB of RAM, which delivers extra highly effective efficiency than lots of the funds telephones we’ve examined. It is going to help Android 14 when it rolls out, and it’ll get safety updates via June 2026. And in contrast to the Nord N20, the Nord N30 works on Verizon’s sooner 5G UW community.
Runner-up
Samsung’s most cost-effective 5G telephone performs higher than most telephones on this value vary, and Samsung provides a formidable 4 years of assured software program updates.
The Samsung Galaxy A14 5G has a boring, generic design, and the display picks up extra fingerprints than dearer telephones, but it surely’s huge, shiny, and extra responsive than you would possibly anticipate for simply $200. It additionally runs Android 13, and Samsung guarantees a number of extra updates sooner or later, too, with an astonishing 4 years’ value of replace help (via early 2027). Most funds telephones are fortunate to get half that.
Finances decide
The Samsung Galaxy A03s has higher efficiency and replace help than different ultra-budget telephones, and it really works on all mobile networks.
At a mere $160, the Samsung Galaxy A03s is the most affordable telephone in Samsung’s present lineup, but it surely doesn’t carry out like a bargain-basement telephone. The A03s is quick sufficient to browse the online, ship messages, and play easy video games. And regardless of the telephone’s low value, Samsung isn’t skimping on updates: The A03s will obtain updates via early 2026, a full 4 years’ value of help from launch, exceptional for a telephone this low cost. The construct high quality takes a step down as compared with the Galaxy A14 5G, the digicam isn’t superb, and this mannequin has no 5G help, however the battery life is superb.