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We’ve tested 20 of the best budget Android phones since 2015, carrying each one for multiple days of hands-on testing. Right now, our favorite is the Motorola Moto G4, which offers the best combination of features and price. It performs better than most other budget Android devices, works on every major US carrier, and offers easy-to-use software. But everyone’s budget is different, so we also have picks for shoppers who can spend a little more as well as for those who need a decent smartphone for the price of a console video game. January 31, 2017: Nextbit announced that it would halt sales of the Robin following its acquisition by Razer, so we’ve removed the Robin from the Competition section.
If you currently own one, Nextbit has committed to another six months of hardware support and another year of software updates. January 4, 2017: We’ve updated our upgrade pick. The OnePlus 3 is being replaced by the OnePlus 3T, which is nearly identical but slightly improved.
Our ultrabudget pick has disappeared and we’ve replaced it with the $100 Moto G4 Play. We’ve also tested and dismissed a few other options. November 17, 2016: Some budget Android phones, including some units of the Blu R1 HD, our ultracheap pick, included software that sent user information to a server in China.
Blu says that it has patched the R1 HD, and none of our other picks were affected. You can read more about this topic below. September 5, 2016: We've overhauled our guide to cheap Android phones to cover this year's best models.
Our new favorite budget Android phone is the $200 Moto G4, while the OnePlus 3 is the best phone between $300 and $400. And the Blu R1 HD is the cheapest decent phone you can buy, at just $60—if you're an Amazon Prime member and you don't mind ads. Well-rounded but affordable Motorola Moto G4 The Moto G4 offers better performance and build quality than other phones in its price range. Its UI is clean and its software is bloat-free, and it works on all major US carriers—even Verizon. $180* from Motorola *At the time of publishing, the price was $200. For the fourth year in a row, the best cheap Android phone comes from the Moto G line. For just $200—that’s the full price, not a down payment or a subsidized price—the Moto G4 gives you a 5.5-inch 1920×1080 LCD screen, 2 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of storage with a microSD card slot. It’s faster than most other budget phones thanks to its Snapdragon 617 processor, and the Android 6.0 software is clean and fast, with no bloatware.
The Moto G4 has better software than phones more than three times its price. The fourth-generation Moto G is also the first in Motorola’s budget line to be unlocked for all US carriers, even Verizon and Sprint.
Plus, you can customize the Moto G with colorful back plates and accent colors. We recommend the $200 version with 16 GB of storage. You can upgrade to 32 GB for $30 more, or you can get a 64 GB microSD card for the same money.
If you can spend more, the OnePlus 3T is an especially fast phone thanks to its Snapdragon 821 processor and 6 GB of RAM. That’s the sort of hardware we’re used to seeing in phones costing hundreds of dollars more, and it makes the OnePlus 3T noticeably speedier than our previous pick in this category, the Nexus 5X, which was already faster than other budget phones. The 16-megapixel camera is optically stabilized and rivals the cameras on flagship phones such as the LG V20 (though not the iPhones, Pixels, or Galaxy phones).
The fingerprint sensor is quick and accurate, and the software is very close to stock Android 6.0 Marshmallow. And although the 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED screen isn’t especially bright and has odd color calibration, the OnePlus 3T is still the best phone you can get for around $450. The discontinued OnePlus 3 was slightly cheaper, but also slightly slower. For its cost, the Moto G4 Play has solid build quality, an acceptable screen, and great software.
It’s a great value, as long as you can cope with Amazon’s lock screen ads.If you need a good phone that costs as little as possible, get the Moto G4 Play. It cuts the right corners to keep the price down without making the experience unbearable. The G4 Play runs a clean, fast version of Android Marshmallow with a Nougat update on the way. It has a light-but-durable plastic frame and a grippy back panel that hides a removable battery, something you rarely see anymore in phones of any price. The display and performance are both good enough, but not what you’d get with a flagship phone or even a regular Moto G4. The 8-megapixel camera isn’t great, but it’s better than what you get with other phones in this price range.
As with the regular Moto G4, the G4 Play has two versions. There’s a normal phone for $150 and an ad-subsidized $100 version for Amazon Prime members. We don’t love ads on phones, but at least the ads (which appear on the lockscreen) are unobtrusive.
It’s a great deal if every dollar counts.Over the past five years, I’ve written more than a million words about Android phones, tablets, and software on sites such as Android Police, ExtremeTech, and Tested.
I’ve also lived with dozens of different Android phones as my “daily drivers” during that time. I use and review more phones every year than most people will own in their entire lives. Good smartphones have never been cheaper. For a third of the price of a flagship phone like the Samsung Galaxy S7 or Google Pixel, you can get a phone that does almost as much, minus a few fancy features such as wireless charging, a fingerprint sensor, or a near-field communication (NFC) chip. A cheap phone probably won’t come with a quad-HD (2560×1440) screen or a top-of-the-line processor, but you don’t need those things to have a good experience.
Budget phones are, of course, great for anyone who can’t or doesn’t want to spend a lot on a phone. They’re also excellent for someone getting their first smartphone (especially kids and teenagers), or for the terminally clumsy. If you lose or break a higher-end phone, especially one you’re still paying your carrier for, you may have to shell out a lot to replace it—often $500 or more. If you don’t have insurance, you can end up paying the balance on a phone you don’t have anymore, plus the price of a new phone.
(Even if you do have insurance, replacing or repairing an expensive phone can cost more than getting a cheap new one that can tide you over.)A phone like the Moto G4 can also make more sense than a flagship phone for other reasons, as the things that make budget handsets less fancy than flagship phones can actually be tremendous assets. Glass or metal backs make a phone feel high-class, for example, but the plastic on the Moto G4 can take a hit.High-end phones such as the Galaxy S7 waste significant power running eight CPU cores, tracking your steps, and syncing device-specific account information, none of which necessarily improve your experience.
The less-powerful internals of budget phones often mean that these handsets have much better battery life than flagship phones—definitely the case with our pick.Budget devices are also usually GSM-unlocked, meaning you can use them on either AT T or T-Mobile in the United States as well as most networks in the rest of the world. A few phones, like the Moto G4, even support CDMA networks like those of Verizon and Sprint.
Some budget phones also have dual SIM slots, making them even more capable traveling companions. More important, you can use unlocked phones on prepaid mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). These low-cost carriers operate on national networks but have a few more data-usage restrictions or calling limits.
You can use one MVNO, and if a better deal comes along, you can just pop in a different SIM card and get on with your life. More expensive phones, such as the Galaxy S7, Google Pixel, and Apple iPhone are also available unlocked, but, well, they’re much more expensive. High-end phones waste power running eight CPU cores, tracking your steps, and syncing other information, none of which necessarily improve your experience.
The big US carriers have also started offering voice and data plans that make it easy to bring your own budget phone. Instead of subsidizing phone prices over long-term service contracts, most of the carriers now promote financing or leasing plans for purchasing phones, along with separate, no-contract monthly service plans for cell and data service. If you buy a cheap phone for full price, afterward you need to pay only for the price of service, with no commitment beyond the current month’s billing cycle.
Premium phones still have a place, though. Flagship models provide much better screens and cameras, and much more built-in storage, as well as flashy features such as NFC for contactless payment, fingerprint sensors, wireless charging, faster processors, speedier charging, and better construction.
If you expect to be gaming, multitasking, or shooting photos and video on a regular basis, a flagship phone like the Samsung Galaxy S7 will serve you better. If your daily routine doesn’t include those things, it makes sense to buy something cheaper.
Lastly, inexpensive phones from small companies are also more prone to security issues. Budget-device makers have less control over the manufacturing and supply chain, so hardware and software partners can intentionally or unintentionally introduce malware into a device, as reported in The New York Times (parent company of The Wirecutter). A more reputable budget-phone maker with a strong US presence and retail operation can ensure that any security issues are dealt with swiftly.
We saw this happen recently with smartphone retailer Blu: It acted quickly to correct a security flaw, whereas a lesser-known budget-phone maker might have never released a fix. Choosing a phone from a huge company such as Samsung, Google, or LG makes it less likely you’ll encounter this type of security flaw in the first place.From our research and our years of experience with Android phones, we know that the quality of the screen is very important but varies wildly independent of resolution.
Although you don’t have to settle for a blurry 840×800 display anymore, some panels still outshine others—often literally. Many budget phones now have 1920×1080 screens, but qualities such as viewing angles and color accuracy can mean the difference between an okay phone and a great one. Still, a budget phone today should have at least a decent 720p screen.
As with any smartphone, a budget phone’s software can have a big impact on how pleasant it is to use. Some manufacturers insist on cluttering a phone with obtrusive overlays and crappy preinstalled apps that slow down the device and often look less refined than stock Android. Many of these apps are included only because the app creators paid the phone maker to preinstall them. This practice helps subsidize costs for the phone maker, but you shouldn’t have to declutter your phone right after you buy it. Worse, you can’t remove some bloatware at all—only disable it. And the slower hardware used in budget smartphones can make a heavy UI skin even more annoying. Overall, the closer to stock Android software a phone gets, and the fewer preinstalled apps a phone has, the more likely we are to recommend it.We eliminated phones that don’t look likely to receive OS updates or security patches from their makers.
Some companies are better than others at providing such updates, while some barely support their phones at all. For example, Google and Samsung issue monthly security updates, while Motorola and OnePlus have both had problems getting updates out in a timely manner—Motorola says the Moto G4 will get security patches, but not every month. Other makers are worse.
Android 7.0 just launched, so a new phone should at least be running Android 6.0—and it should be new enough to be likely to get the upgrade to 7.0.Inside, most budget phones use a midrange system-on-a-chip (SoC). Each is fast enough to handle Android 6.0 and to perform basic tasks such as email, Web browsing, and media playback. Gaming might bog down some of the slower chips, but RAM is more important in this regard: There’s a big difference in performance between budget phones that have 2 GB of RAM or more and those that have only 1 GB. You don’t need to spend much more to get 2 GB in phones that offer it, and it’s worth that extra cost.Some cheaper phones have only 8 GB of storage for apps, photos, music, and everything else—but that storage also holds the operating system and preloaded apps, so you end up with only a few gigabytes free. This restriction makes a microSD card slot essential on any phone with 16 GB of storage or less.If a good phone camera is important to you, the options are extremely limited when it comes to budget smartphones.
Even high-end Android phone cameras often struggle, and the further down you go, the worse things get. Some budget-phone cameras do okay outdoors or in bright light, but you should spend some extra money if you want a phone that can replace your point-and-shoot camera. The cheapest phone with a good camera is the OnePlus 3T, which costs $440 as of the time of writing and has a better camera than anything else under $500. You’ll have to spend hundreds of dollars more on a flagship such as the iPhone 7 or the Samsung Galaxy S7 to get a better one.As mentioned above, most budget devices are SIM-unlocked, so you can use them on any compatible carrier. For this feature to be meaningful, however, it’s important for the phone to support 3G and 4G bands on the right carriers: You will have plenty of plan options when you buy one of these phones, but mostly on GSM networks with LTE support such as AT T, T-Mobile, some regional carriers, and the MVNOs that use those networks.
(Sprint and Verizon are picky about registering unlocked phones for their aging 2G/3G CDMA networks if the phones were purchased elsewhere, so your options are more limited with those carriers. ) Being on a GSM network offers you the most freedom to take advantage of budget phones. Our top pick, the Moto G4, is compatible with both GSM and CDMA networks, so it’ll work on all major US carriers.
We didn’t consider iOS and Windows Phone smartphones for this guide. The cheapest iPhone is the 16GB iPhone SE for $400—barely inside what we would consider budget—but without a microSD card slot, the 16 GB of storage is too little to recommend. (Indeed, in our iPhone guide, we specifically recommend against 16 GB in an iPhone.
) Meanwhile, you can find some cheap Windows Phone options, but that OS still lags on features and has nowhere near the app support of Android or iOS.I tested nine budget smartphones for my first round of testing in 2015, and I evaluated eleven more in late 2016. For the testing, I carried each handset as my only phone for a while—no cheating by grabbing a different phone when things got weird or inconvenient, as they sometimes do with budget phones. Since these phones are mostly unlocked handsets, I was able to transfer my SIM and rely on the test device for all my mobile computing needs, everything from messaging to Web browsing to running Android Auto in my car.When reviewing each phone, I looked for annoyances such as a confusing user experience, interface lag or stuttering, and impractical unique features—extra features should make a phone more convenient and easier to use rather than get in the way. The design and build quality of a phone are also important, because “budget” shouldn’t automatically mean that the handset feels as if you could snap it in two with your bare hands. I also noted how the battery held up during each day of testing.
The intention here was to test how the phones would perform in real-world use, without any special knowledge or hacking on the user’s part, so I did all of my testing on unmodified software with the stock apps whenever possible. If an included app or service needed to be replaced or disabled, I’ve noted that in this guide.
The Motorola Moto G4 has faster hardware, cleaner software, and a better display than other budget phones, yet with a starting price of just $200 at this writing, it costs the same or less—and unlike most cheap unlocked phones, it works on all major US carriers, not just AT T and T-Mobile. The Moto G4’s exterior is also customizable, with multiple color options for its back panel and metallic accents. It isn’t water resistant to the degree the 2015 Moto G was, but it is still built better than most other phones in this class, and it is splash resistant.
The Moto G4 is completely unlocked, and it works on all major carriers, even CDMA networks like Verizon and Sprint. And unlike with many budget phones, you don’t have to compromise on LTE support: Motorola has even made sure the G4 is certified to work on T-Mobile’s band 12 LTE with support for VoLTE (voice over LTE), in contrast to many other budget phones such as the 2015 Moto G.Many other low-cost phones have heavy UI layers that slow down the handset, but the Moto G4 is a joy to use. The G4’s mostly stock version of Marshmallow keeps the phone running smoothly despite the midrange processor.
The few additions Moto has made to Android tend to be useful—for example, Moto Display lets you view and act on notifications on the display while the rest of the phone remains asleep, and gestures let you open the camera or turn on the flashlight with a flick of the wrist or a chopping motion, respectively.As Devindra Hardawar of Engadget writes, “There’s nothing budget about the 5.5-inch 1080p displays on the G4 and G4 Plus.” The LCD screen on the Moto G4 is larger than the displays on previous Moto G models, and the resolution, colors, and viewing angles are better than those of other budget phones we’ve tested.
The screen gets bright enough for anyone to use it comfortably outdoors for long Pokémon Go sessions. A large display also means a large phone, and with the Moto G4 that large body hosts a 3,000-mAh battery.
In our testing, the handset lasted through a full day of heavy use (though not a full day of Pokémon Go; that’s impossible) with about 25 percent left in the tank. You can make it two days with lighter usage. When you buy the Moto G4 from Motorola, you can choose between white and black front panels, eight rear-panel colors, and five accent colors (for the rim around the camera lens). You can also add a custom engraving or bootup greeting. These options make the G4 a nice break from the mundane sea of black slabs you see elsewhere in the budget-phone category.
The overall build quality is excellent, with a grippy texture on the resin back panel.The 13-megapixel rear-facing camera on the Moto G4 is about average for a budget phone.
It does well in bright light, but focusing takes a little too long; in low light, your shots will come out grainy and too dark. The camera isn’t as good as the one on the OnePlus 3T, but it’s better than the camera on the Moto G4 Play. (Engadget calls the Moto G4’s camera “a bit hit or miss.”)If you want to make contactless payments through Android Pay or to use other NFC-based device-to-device communication, you’re out of luck—the Moto G4 lacks an NFC radio. This omission is pretty common in budget phones, though.
While the G4’s rear panel is removable—to allow you to swap the SIM and microSD card—the battery is not. The panel also lacks the reinforcement and gaskets necessary for true water resistance as the 2015 Moto G had. As a result, the G4 is only splash resistant, meaning you cannot submerge it. We were very happy with the IP68 water-resistance rating of last year’s Moto G, and we’re disappointed that Motorola skipped the feature this year. Another small gripe: The buttons are stiff and not very tactile. That said, the Moto G4 offers a good Android experience at an extremely competitive price. You won’t get certain things like NFC or a fingerprint reader, but it has the features most people need in a smartphone.
If you want to save $50, you can get the Amazon Prime Exclusive version of the Moto G4, which has lock-screen ads and a few preloaded Amazon apps. At $150, it’s the same price as the ad-free Moto G4 Play, which is our ultra-budget pick. The ad-supported Moto G4 is faster, and has a better screen and camera, than the Moto G4 Play. If you’re a Prime member, and if you can stomach the ads, it’s a better deal. But if you’re not, or you’d rather have a worse phone than look at ads, get the ad-free Moto G4 Play.The standard Moto G4 is a better choice for most people, but the Moto G4 Plus is a good alternative if you can’t live without a fingerprint sensor or if you need a slightly better camera, or if you can find it on sale. It’s otherwise identical to the G4.The upgraded 16-megapixel camera in the G4 Plus offers better dynamic range and low-light performance than the camera in the G4. It also adds laser autofocus for faster captures. It’s better than the regular G4’s camera for sure, but if you need a good camera you should save up for the OnePlus 3T.The Plus also has a front fingerprint scanner, which Android Authority notes is “comparable in quality to the scanners found with more high-end smartphones. ” However, as Vlad Savov at The Verge points out, the fingerprint sensor, despite sitting “exactly where a home button should and having the shape of a home button, isn’t actually a home button.
”The Moto G4 Plus starts at $250. We don’t recommend the $300 version with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage because it has the same midrange processor as the cheaper options, so it won’t really take advantage of all that extra memory. You’re better off spending the extra $50 on a big microSD card.If you can afford to spend a bit more on your phone, get the OnePlus 3T. Its blazing-fast hardware, superb build quality, and speedy fingerprint sensor make it a good phone, period, not just a good $430 phone. If cheaper smartphones like the Moto G4 omit too many of the features you want, the OnePlus 3T will be more to your liking—it makes the right compromises to keep the price reasonable while offering a flagship-level experience.
The 3T has slightly faster hardware than the OnePlus 3 it’s replacing after just 5 months, but the price is a little higher too. We still think it’s the best phone in this price range now that the OnePlus 3 is going away, though it doesn’t work on Verizon or Sprint. When we say that a budget phone performs well, we often mean that it performs well for a budget phone.
The OnePlus 3T, however, uses a top-of-the-line Snapdragon 821 processor and comes with 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage (but no microSD card slot, unfortunately). As I write in my review for Android Police, “The OnePlus 3T is as fast as phones that cost twice as much.”The OnePlus 3T is unlocked, and it supports dual SIM cards—which none of our other picks do. This feature lets you use two different cellular carriers without swapping cards, and it’s handy when you’re traveling. Unlike the Moto G4 family, the OnePlus 3 is compatible only with GSM networks like those of AT T and T-Mobile, but it has full-band support for both, including the elusive band 12 on T-Mobile.
On the left side of the phone is something you won’t find on any other Android phone: an alert slider. This switch allows you to toggle between normal, priority, and silent notification modes without waking the phone up. The home button, meanwhile, doubles as a fingerprint sensor, and it’s one of the fastest and most accurate we’ve ever tested.The OnePlus 3T’s 16-megapixel Sony image sensor rivals the camera on phones like the Nexus 6P. In every kind of lighting, this phone’s photos exhibit far better color reproduction and crispness than photos from the Moto G4 or G4 Plus. It is unchanged from the OnePlus 3 camera, of which Chris Velazco from Engadget writes, “It’s pretty good in every situation.
”The OnePlus 3T’s version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow, called OxygenOS, is clean, fast, and close to stock Android, though it adds a number of cool extras like gestures—which work with the screen turned off—to launch the camera or turn on the flashlight. The Moto G4 has similar tricks, but they’re otherwise rare on Android phones. You’ll also find a dark-UI mode to make the OnePlus 3 more pleasant to use at night.
How fast OnePlus will update the 3’s software, however, isn’t clear: The OnePlus 2 didn’t get Android 6.0 until June 2016, eight months after that software launched. However, OnePlus says the OnePlus 3T and OnePlus 3 should be updated to Android 7.0 in the coming weeks.The OnePlus 3’s 5.5-inch, 1080p AMOLED display got mixed reviews: While The Verge wrote that it’s “more than sufficient,” Ars Technica said that “[t]he OnePlus 3 won’t win any display awards.
” The display hasn’t changed with the 3T, which has the same color calibration issues with default settings—such as whites that are too cool and greens that are almost neon. Text can look a little more fuzzy than on the Moto G4’s 1080p LCD. The OnePlus 3T’s display doesn’t look bad, but a $440 phone should have a better screen. OnePlus says that it went with the 1080p display to save battery life, and that might have been a good decision.The 3,000-mAh battery in the OnePlus 3 was on the small side, but the 3T boosts that to 3,400 mAh, enough to get you through a day comfortably.
This phone does have fast charging, but not the Qualcomm Quick Charge technology most other phones use, or even USB Power Delivery; OnePlus’s Dash Charge works only with the included power adapter, and you can’t get Dash Charge hardware from anyone else. It’ll still charge at normal speed with a standard USB-C cable and adapter, and any fast charging is better than none, but using a proprietary quick-charging technology instead of a standard is annoying.The Motorola Moto G4 Play is the cheapest phone you can get that still offers good build quality, a sharp HD display, and reasonable performance.
It also has one of the best versions of Android you’ll find on a budget phone with no heavy skins or redundant applications. The efficient hardware (and removable) 2,800-mAh battery mean the G4 Play will run more than a day on a charge, too.The standard Moto G4 is $150, but we recommend the $100 Amazon Prime edition if you have Prime and want to save some money. Both have full support for CDMA carriers (like Verizon and Sprint) as well as GSM ones (AT T and T-Mobile).
Like our previous pick, the discontinued Blu R1 HD, the Moto G4 Play comes with a $50 discount in exchange for subtle lock screen ads for Amazon products—similar to what you’d find on a subsidized Kindle. We don’t love the idea of ads on a phone, but this is the best phone you’ll get for $100.Many inexpensive phones run ancient versions of Android or have clunky interfaces, but not the Moto G4 Play. The G4 Play has a clean version of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, one without a ton of pre-installed apps (though the Prime version does have a few extra Amazon apps). A Nougat update is allegedly on the way. The software does include Moto Display, which is one of the manufacturer Android tweaks that we really like. The display wakes up when you get a notification or pick up the phone, allowing you to view notifications and unlock the device with a swipe.
You have to give up fancy hardware features like a fingerprint sensor, NFC chip, and metal frame, but the plastic isn’t bad. ZDNet says, “The hardware is fairly basic, but it feels solidly built with a back that is easy to grip and keep secure. ” The removable back also reveals the removable battery, a genuine rarity in phones of all prices these days. Even without swapping in a spare battery, the G4 Play lasts for more than a day of heavy use—it’s even better than the R1 HD.The Moto G4 Play has a 5-inch 1280×720 LCD that’s sharp and very bright, making it good in outdoor settings.
The viewing angles are weak, and the colors aren’t the most accurate we’ve seen, but it’s an okay display for the price. The rest of the specs are entry-level as well. The quad-core Snapdragon 410 with 2 GB of RAM is a slight improvement over the MediaTek chips phones like the R1 HD use, but it’s still not suitable for more than basic usage. TechRadar says the G4 Play is “just powerful enough to provide a passable Marshmallow experience.
” If you multitask heavily or try to play a 3D game, it will lag. You only get 16 GB of internal storage, but there’s a microSD card slot.Android Authority calls the camera performance “predictable” for a cheap phone—that means mediocre. The 8-megapixel rear camera captures images quickly, but low light performance is poor and colors look a bit washed out, even in bright light.
It’s fine in a pinch, but anyone interested in snapping photos on a budget should step up to the Moto G4 Plus or G4 at least. If you can’t justify $200 or more for our other budget picks, the Moto G4 Play is the best you can get. It’s fast enough for basic tasks, the screen is readable outdoors, and the software is clean and efficient. The excellent battery life and removable battery are appreciated as well. We also like that it works on all major carriers.
At CES 2017, Huawei introduced the 5.5-inch Full HD Honor 6X, a $250 smartphone with a dual-lens rear camera. The primary rear camera is 12 megapixels, while the secondary rear camera is 2 megapixels. The 6X also provides 32 GB of internal storage and 3 GB of RAM, and Huawei claims it can last for two days on a single charge.
It’s launching with Android Marshmallow, though. The 6X is available now.HMD Global announced three phones at Mobile World Congress: the 5-inch Nokia 3, the 5.2-inch Nokia 5, and the 5.5-inch Nokia 6. All of them run on stock Android.
Each phone offers different specs (the top-of-the-line Nokia 6 has a Snapdragon 430), but they all have microSD card slots and fingerprint sensors. The 3, 5, and 6 will cost around $150, $200, and $250, respectively, when they ship in the next few months.
The Honor 5X, our former runner-up pick, has a 5.5-inch 1080p screen, an aluminum chassis, and a very good rear-facing fingerprint sensor. Its 13-megapixel camera can produce surprisingly good photos, which is rare for models in its price range.
However, its software is nowhere near as good as Motorola’s—the cluttered UI is missing an app tray, and some basic Android features such as notifications and background tasks require constant babysitting. The 5X eventually got a Marshmallow update in June 2016, but there’s no word on Nougat.The Huawei Honor 8 is more expensive than the Honor 5X, and the hardware shows it. The metal and Gorilla Glass frame is beautiful, with a Samsung design vibe. The 5.2-inch 1080p display is excellent too. However, the software is still a mess (it doesn’t even support Android Auto) and Huawei has yet to live up to its update promises for the Honor 5X. We’re concerned the Honor 8 will lag behind as well. The OnePlus 3T is a better choice in this price range.
The Blu R1 HD was our previous ultra-budget pick, but it went out of stock several weeks ago shortly before the malware scare. The device has been updated to remove the offending software, and it recently went on sale again. However, the slightly-more-expensive Moto G4 Play seems like a better purchase because it’s faster and doesn’t have a history of sending your data to a server in China.
The R1 HD is only an option if you refuse to spend more than $60.The Moto Z Play is the best device in Motorola’s new Z lineup, but that’s not really saying much. These phones have support for Motorola’s line of Moto Mod snap-on accessories, but the Mods cost as much as $300. The Z Play is the least expensive Moto Z phone at $450 ($400 on Verizon), and the battery life is incredible. However, the design is clunky and Moto Mods are still not a selling point.
Unless battery life is your only criteria, the OnePlus 3T is better—cheaper, faster, and more attractive. Neither the ZTE Axon 7 or Axon 7 Mini are good enough to get our recommendation over similarly priced phones. The Axon 7 has high-end specs including a 5.5-inch 1440p AMOLED display, Snapdragon 820, and 4 GB of RAM. However, the phone is heavy and the buttons aren’t very good. The software is also annoying compared to OnePlus’s. The Axon 7 Mini has improved buttons and is only $300, but the Snapdragon 617 chip is much slower.
The software is also still annoying to deal with. Both these phones have rear-facing fingerprint sensors, which are great. Although, they aren’t as fast or accurate as the ones Motorola uses on the cheaper Moto G4 and G4 Plus.The Alcatel Idol 4S aims to be a more premium phone compared to last year’s Idol 3, but it fails to compete in this higher price bracket. The $400 phone has a Snapdragon 652 CPU, 3 GB of RAM, a 5.5-inch 2560×1440 AMOLED screen, and a 16-megapixel camera.
The box doubles as a VR headset, which is a neat trick. There isn’t much else to the Idol 4S, though. The performance, camera, and design are not as good as the OnePlus 3T.LeEco is not a big name in the US, but the Chinese firm is trying to wiggle its way in with big deals on its first North American devices.
The Le Pro3 has a Snapdragon 821 and 4 GB of RAM but costs only $400. However, the software is almost universally described as “frustrating. ” It includes a ton of preloaded apps and confusing interface changes to Android. The Le Pro3 also lacks a headphone jack. The $250 Le S2 steps down to a Snapdragon 652 and 3 GB of RAM, but it’s still got the bad software and no headphone jack. The Moto G4 is a much better choice.
We actively moderate the comments section to make it relevant and helpful for our readers, and to stay up to date with our latest picks. You can read our moderation policy FAQ here. The Best Plug-In Smart Outlet We tested eight smart plug-in switches using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and found the Belkin WeMo Mini is the best way for most people to add smart control to the outlets in their homes. Your Guide +Email +Twitter +Google Ryan Whitwam writes about all areas of technology and science, but especially Android.
His extensive musings on Android can be found at Android Police and Tested. com. He also contributes regularly to Geek.com, ExtremeTech, and more. When he's not writing about amazing things that actually exist, he writes science fiction. It’s still unclear whether computer glasses are more beneficial than other eyestrain-reduction options, such as apps that reduce blue-light exposure.
April 20, 2017 The Best Earbuds After 35 hours researching and testing 16 high-end earbuds head-to-head with an expert listening panel, we’ve picked the Bang Olufsen Beoplay H3 for being fun to listen to, comfortable to wear for long periods, and beautiful to look at. We help support the hundreds of hours that go into our evaluations through affiliate commissions on purchases made through our links. We’re committed to publishing unbiased guides that clearly detail our decision-making criteria to our readers, but we just want you to know.Here's how to support our writers and our work. For more on our ethics, ideas and how we work, read this. We obtain the products we review through a mixture of buying our own and working with companies to borrow review units. Our policy is to return or donate products after we’re finished working with them.