Many of us yearn for the best flagship smartphones that manufacturers can make, but their prices are increasingly hard to justify. This begs the question: what exactly do we lose out on when we opt for a budget phone instead?
We all remember how horrible cheap smartphones used to be a decade ago. My first phone was a $140 Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus—a phone from 2012 that had a single-core processor, no selfie camera, and a tiny 3.65" display.
Now, compare that ancient brick to a modern $150 budget phone like the 2024 Moto G Play, a phone with an 8-core Snapdragon 680, 50MP main camera, 6.5" 90Hz display, and many other features to boot. The feature set checks all the boxes; I argue that most people could use this phone daily without growing to hate it. To give some perspective on the price, you could outfit a small office with several Moto G Plays instead of purchasing a single Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
This isn't to say that you should go out and buy a $150 phone, as these phones have some notable drawbacks. They often get poor software support, might have inferior build quality, and are not environmentally friendly. Still, you could spend three times the amount and still stay within the "budget phone" range.
A great example is the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G. I spent some time this weekend comparing the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G to its more expensive cousin, the Samsung Galaxy S23+. To my great surprise, I couldn't tell the difference between the two. Both have stunning displays that are plenty bright, have a premium design, and are incredibly fast and snappy. Look at these photos and tell me which is which:
Unless you're a Samsung aficionado, you won't be able to tell the difference. The only giveaway that the A54 is cheaper is the slightly thicker bezels on the front—the A54 is on the right. Another close contender to the A54 in terms of price is the slightly older Samsung Galaxy S22. It's more premium and has a faster processor, but it won't get the same software support as the A54. This raises another question—should you buy a mid-range phone or an old flagship?
If you like snapping photos, you'll be pleased to hear that budget phones have amazing cameras now. Exhibit A is the Google Pixel 7a—the budget version of the Google Pixel 7. It had the best user-rated camera of any smartphone in Marques Brownlee's The Blind Smartphone Camera Test video; it even beat the Pixel 8 Pro. This doesn't necessarily mean that the Pixel 7a has the best camera in the world, but it was certainly good enough to convince the blind camera test participants to vote for it.
Let's briefly go back to the Samsung Galaxy S23+ and A54 comparison. I snapped a photo with each phone, and you almost can't tell the difference between the two images in terms of image quality.
Ignore the color difference between the two photos because the A54 had a color enhancement effect turned on by default, so the image looks more vibrant. The S23+ photo has a slightly better high dynamic range, but other than that, the photos are near-identical.
It's worth noting that the camera system is often one of the main differences between a flagship and a budget phone. The camera is one of the main selling points of Ultra phones, such as the 108MP camera on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Still, how many people need a camera that can do a 100x digital zoom? The camera on our A54 here is plenty good for most people.
Flagship phones used to be significantly better than mid-range models in every way you can think of—they were significantly more powerful, had much brighter and better-looking displays, better cameras, larger batteries, better build quality, and cutting-edge features like wireless charging and lightning-fast fingerprint scanners. Over the years, many of these features have trickled down to even the cheapest of budget phones, and they've become so good that you can't tell the difference unless you're looking for them.
Unless you're an enthusiast, you don't really need the latest and most powerful SoC with the world's most advanced camera system and a razor-sharp 7-inch 1440p 120Hz AMOLED display all in one package, especially when that package will set you back $1,000 or more. Heck, I love technology so much that I write articles about it for a living, and I still have a budget smartphone from 2019 in my pocket. I haven't felt like I needed an upgrade at any point because my phone still holds up in all aspects I care about.
Budget phones can deliver an all-around good experience and also pack one of those flagship-grade features. We have the Pixel 7a and its camera, but there's also the 3rd gen iPhone SE with the slightly older but still powerful Apple A15 Bionic chip. The OnePlus Nord N30 packs 50W fast charging. The aforementioned Samsung Galaxy A54 5G has a display that even some flagships envy. Check out our list of the best budget Android phones for more terrific recommendations.
The term "budget phone" is broad, as both a $150 phone and a $500 model technically fall into the budget category as they're not flagship models, but the difference between them can be enormous. Still, the value proposition is more linear with budget phones than flagships. A $300 phone can knock a $200 phone out of the water, yet it's still a relatively modest phone that most people can afford.
Now, compare that difference with that between a flagship and an ultra flagship phone from the same brand. The difference in price is usually around $200 to $300, but you only get incremental improvements and maybe one or two niche features like faster charging or a stylus. If flagships are for enthusiasts, then ultra models are for the ultra enthusiasts. The best thing is that these experimental features we see in flagship phones today will eventually trickle down to budget models a few years down the line once the tech is ready and cheap enough to mass-produce. That's how budget phones have become so good over the years.
One of the main reasons I don't want an expensive phone is that I drop my phone more often than I care to admit, partially because I'm clumsy and partially because I don't care if I ding it. It's the same reason people love driving beater cars—you don't care if you smash the bumper of an old Camry, but you'd dread a paintwork scratch on a Lamborghini. A broken screen on a flagship phone can set you back several hundred dollars, which is the price of some budget phones, so it hurts when you break it.
My fiancée has a Samsung Galaxy S23+, and merely holding that device in my hand stresses me out. If you're feeling apprehensive about the possibility of accidentally dropping a $1,000 phone, opt for a cheaper model; it'll put your mind at ease.
You're not missing out on much by opting for a budget smartphone. Today's cheap phones are faster, better, and packed with more features than ever before, to the point that most of us can comfortably live with them. While flagship phones still deserve a place in our hearts for the awesome cutting-edge tech they pack, we don't necessarily need them in our pockets anymore. Their mid-range brethren can take care of us just fine at a fraction of the cost.
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