Best Cheap Android Phones 2020
As of 2020, flagship smartphones are all nearly a thousand dollars or more. But as high-end phones get more expensive, cheaper phones are getting better. Cheaper phones are beautifully designed, with great screens, super-long battery life, excellent cameras, and awesome speakers. I have researched and made a list of all of the best cheap Android smartphones you can buy. You’ll find the perfect phone for you. So Let’s get into it.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro
Display: 6.53" Corning Gorilla Glass 5 (1080 x 2340 FHD+)
CPU: MTK Helio G90T 8 Core Gaming CPU
GPU: ARM Mali G76 MC4
RAM: 6 GB
Storage: 64 GB
Rear Camera: 64 MP + 8 MP + 2 MP + 2 MP
Front Camera: 20 MP
Battery: 4000 mAh
Weight: 199.8 gr
Xiaomi isn’t a well-known name in the West, but it should be: this company is making some of the best Android phones you can buy, for considerably less than competitors like Samsung or even Nokia.
For under $300, you’re getting a phone that looks and feels the part of a much more expensive phone, with capable specs and a huge 4500mAh battery. You also get a triple camera anchored by a capable 64MP main shooter and a big display. The big downside is Xiaomi’s software, which is a bit grating compared to the competition, and may not be updated as frequently or for as long as we’d like.
Pros
➕ Modern design
➕ Great Price
➕ Excellent battery life
➕ 64MP camera is a great addition
Cons
➖ MIUI software isn’t for everyone
➖ May not receive updates as often as phones in the West
Moto G Power
Display: 6.4" Max Vision IPS (1080 x 2300 FHD+)
CPU: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 665–8 Core (4 x 2GHz & 4 x 1.8GHz)
GPU: Qualcomm® Adreno™ 610
RAM: 4 GB
Storage: 64 GB
Rear Camera: 16 MP + 8 MP + 2 MP
Front Camera: 16 MP
Battery: 5000 mAh
Weight: 199 gr
Year after year, Motorola stands out as one of the best companies to watch for delivering good, cheap Android phones. 2020 saw the release of the Moto G Power, and if you’re in the market for an affordable smartphone, it’s hard to do much better than this.
The Power name is a reference to the phone’s best feature, battery life. With a 5,000 mAh battery crammed inside, you can easily get two or three days of use on a single charge. In a world where it’s the norm to throw your phone on the charger every single night, being able to go a few days without worrying about that is a dream come true.
Outside of the legendary battery life, the rest of the G Power’s hardware is just as good. The 6.4-inch Full HD display is easy on the eyes, performance is plenty fast thanks to the Snapdragon 665 processor, and graphical performance in mobile games is vastly improved compared to last year’s Moto G7. The G Power also has a trio of solid cameras, including a 16 MP primary camera, 2 MP macro camera, and 16 MP ultra-wide camera. This allows for a wide variety of different types of shots you can take with the phone, with image quality being pretty good considering how cheap the G Power is.
Tying all of this together is Motorola’s excellent software. The user interface is nearly identical to what you’d find on a Pixel, meaning it’s clean, pure Android as Google intended it. Motorola throws in a few software tweaks to further enhance your experiences, such as Moto Display and Moto Actions. The former is arguably the best always-on display out there, with the latter allowing you to move the phone in a chopping motion to turn on the flashlight or twist it to open the camera.
There are two complaints we have about the Moto G Power, the first of which is its lack of NFC. Contactless payment solutions like Google Pay are becoming more and more commonplace with every day that passes, and buying a phone in 2020 that doesn’t support this feels kind of silly. There’s also the fact that Motorola only promises one major OS update for the G Power, meaning it likely won’t be updated beyond Android 11 — a potential deal-breaker if you plan on keeping the phone for a long time.
If neither of those two things bothers you, however, the Moto G Power is a wonderfully complete package that we think a lot of people will be overly happy with.
Pros
➕ Great build quality and design
➕ Three rear cameras are a lot of fun
➕ Up to three-day battery life
➕ Moto Display and Moto Actions are great
Cons
➖ Moto G line isn’t known for swift software updates
➖ Lacks NFC
Google Pixel 3a
Display: 5.6" OLED (1080 x 2200 FHD+)
CPU: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 670–8 Core (4 x 2GHz & 4 x 1.7GHz)
GPU: Qualcomm® Adreno™ 615
RAM: 4 GB
Storage: 64 GB
Rear Camera: 12.2 MP Dual-Pixel
Front Camera: 8 MP
Battery: 3000 mAh
Weight: 147 gr
The Pixel 3a manages to pack all of the best parts of the standard Pixel 3 into a more affordable package by using a middle-of-the-road chipset and a polycarbonate body. The result is a nearly identical-looking phone for hundreds less that takes incredible photos using the same image processing and Night Sight technology.
While it’ll run you an extra Benjamin over the Moto G Power, the Pixel 3a is without a doubt the phone you should look at if photography is your main priority. It’s not just good for its price, the Pixel 3a takes some of the best photos of any phone on the market, even though it only has one lens. You also get a squeaky clean build of Android with three years of guaranteed software updates.
Pros
➕ Incredible camera
➕ Three years of updates
➕ Excellent build quality with polycarbonate shell
➕ Clean Android build
Cons
➖ Performance could be better
➖ The battery is not as impressive as others
Nokia 6.2
Display: 6.3" Corning Gorilla Glass 3 IPS (1080 x 2200 FHD+)
CPU: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 636–8 Core 1.8 GHz
GPU: Qualcomm® Adreno™ 509
RAM: 3 GB
Storage: 32 GB
Rear Camera: 16 MP + 8 MP + 5 MP
Front Camera: 8 MP
Battery: 3500 mAh
Weight: 180 gr
If you like maximizing your bang-for-buck, it’s impossible to ignore the Nokia 6.2. This is a product that brings a tremendous amount of value to the smartphone space, and it all starts with the design. The Nokia 6.2 looks and feels like a much more expensive phone than it is, thanks to the striking glass back, polycarbonate frame, and 6.3-inch Full HD+ display with slim bezels and a small waterdrop notch.
Other specs for the phone are just as impressive, including three rear cameras, 64GB of expandable storage, a 3,500 mAh battery, and charging via USB-C. You also get a dedicated button for the Google Assistant, along with an NFC chip for Google Pay.
Pros
➕ Beautiful glass design
➕ Three rear cameras
➕ Google Assistant button
➕ Clean and simple Android One software
Cons
➖ No CDMA carrier support
Samsung Galaxy A51
Display: 6.3" Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Super AMOLED (1080 x 2400 FHD+)
CPU: Exynos 9611– 8 Core (4x2.3 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4x1.7 GHz Cortex-A53)
GPU: Mali-G72 MP3
RAM: 6 GB
Storage: 128 GB
Rear Camera: 48 MP + 12 MP + 5 MP + 5 MP
Front Camera: 32 MP
Battery: 4000 mAh
Weight: 172 gr
As you can probably guess from the nearly identical name, the Galaxy A51 is very similar to the A50 mentioned above. For some shoppers, however, it could be a better purchase.
Much of the A50 DNA is shared by the A51, including the AMOLED display, 4,000 mAh battery for long endurance, and a nearly identical processor with the Exynos 9611. It’s a decent chipset, but on the A51, it results in some laggy performance now and then.
The cameras see quite a big upgrade, with the A51 touting a total of four sensors on its backside. There’s a 48MP primary camera, 12MP ultra-wide camera, 5MP macro camera, and a dedicated 5MP portrait camera. Not only does this setup allow for virtually endless possibilities with the kinds of photos you can take, but the 48MP primary camera is a fantastic shooter that captures wonderful detail and dynamic range.
In the U.S., you can only pick up the Galaxy A51 on Sprint or Verizon. That’s not ideal, but with both carriers often running some sort of promotion/deal for their devices, chances are you can save quite a bit of cash on the phone depending on when you buy.
Pros
➕ Great performance
➕ Excellent photographs with Four rear cameras
➕ Large 4,000 mAh battery
➕ Vibrant AMOLED display
Cons
➖ So-so processor
Nokia 4.2
Display: 5.71" IPS (720 x 1520)
CPU: Qualcomm SDM439 Snapdragon 439 – 8 Core (4x1.95 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4x1.45 GHz Cortex A53)
GPU: Adreno 505
RAM: 3 GB
Storage: 32 GB
Rear Camera: 13 MP + 2 MP
Front Camera: 8 MP
Battery: 3000 mAh
Weight: 161 gr
If you were impressed by the Nokia 7.1’s build materials for the money, the Nokia 4.2 features the same design and similar construction (the frame is metal, but the body is plastic) for just over half the price. Its tiny teardrop notch means you get an almost all-display device, and you still get Android 9 Pie thanks to the phone being part of the Android One program. You also get an update to Android 10 in Q2 2020, which shouldn’t be long now.
There’s a fingerprint sensor along the back, and a dedicated Google Assistant button on the side for quick voice commands. The power button doubles as a notification LED, glowing different colors to denote specific apps, and remarkably, this $129 phone has NFC to allow for Google Pay — something you rarely see in this price range.
You do have to sacrifice a bit of performance, but in the end, Nokia’s latest is a steal at under $150.
Pros
➕ Outstanding build materials
➕ Android One with Pie out of the box
➕ Smooth performance over Snapdragon 439
➕ NFC-compatible
➕ Notification LED in the power button
Cons
➖ Micro- USB charging
➖ Not CDMA-compatible
Thank you all for reading. I will write more stories about Gaming, Technology, Marketing, and Programming. Stay safe.
