Sunday, July 1, 2018

11 Cheap Smartphones (Under $250) Ranked Best to Worst

Moto G6

The best phone you can get for the money, the Moto G6 offers a colorful 5.7-inch display with minimal bezels, dual cameras and solid performance form its Snapdragon 450 processor. Plus, unlike most unlocked phones, you can use this one on any GSM or CDMA carrier, so it will work with all of the major providers.

Other perks of the GG6 include a powerful speaker, a fingerprint sensor up front that lets you perform various shortcuts gestures and TurboPower Charging to get the phone juiced up fast via USB-C. The battery life is pretty good, too, at about 9.5 hours.

Honor 7X

Here’s a scenario: you’ve got just $200 to spend, but you have certain requirements for creature comforts, like a massive 18:9 full-screen design, solid midrange performance, a metal chassis, and dual cameras. It turns out only one phone checks all those boxes, and it’s the Honor 7X. The latest model to drop from Huawei’s budget-focused brand, the 7X has about everything the average user could ask for in a smartphone, but costs just a third of what you’d spend on most flagship models.
Unfortunately, like many cheap unlocked phones, the 7X is only compatible with GSM networks, like AT&T and T-Mobile. If that doesn’t impact you, though, you’ll have a hard time finding a better value among Android devices. And it's now available for pre-order through Amazon.

ZTE Blade Z Max

A great option for MetroPCS customers, the Blade Z Max features a gorgeous 6-inch display, dual-lens camera and fingerprint sensor for less than $150. The 16-MP and 2-MP rear shooters enable effects like portrait mode, bokeh and monocolor. Another highlight is the nearly 11.5 hours of endurance from the 4,080 mAh battery, which makes this one of the longest lasting phones for the price.

ZTE Max XL

Available for Sprint and its prepaid services like Boost, the ZTE Max XL lives up to its name by packing a delightfully bright 6-inch screen and a 3,990 mAh that will get you through the day on a charge. A Snapdragon 435 processor provides decent performance, especially for a phone with a price tag of around $100, depending on which carrier you buy from.

Moto E4 Plus

This 5.5-inch Android phone delivers a lot for very little dough. The Moto E4 Plus lasted a whopping 14 hours and 48 minutes on our web surfing battery test. The Snapdragon 427 processor isn’t very fast, but you get a premium metal back, a 13-MP camera that snaps pretty good photos and a colorful display.

Samsung J7 Prime

A good Samsung phone under $200? The J7 Prime is a pretty solid handset for the price, offering a 5.5-inch full HD screen and a pretty impressive 13 megapixel camera. The shooter works well even in low light. The Galaxy S6-like design looks pretty good, too. The Exynos processor inside the J7 Prime provides decent performance, but the 8.5 hours of battery life is below average.

Asus ZenFone 4 Max

The Max part of this phone’s name definitely refers to the battery life, as this Asus lasted an epic 15 hours on our web surfing test. The ZenFone 4 Max also allows for reverse charging through a packaged USB on-the-go cable, meaning you can top off other mobile devices. Other features include a fingerprint sensor, 720p 5.5-inch screen and dual cameras: a 13-megapixel shooter and a wide-angle lens with a 120-degree field-of-view, rated at 5-MP. However, the design is a bit dated (complete with microUSB) and the software looks and feels cluttered. Note that Asus just unveiled its ZenFone 5 lineup and while U.S. pricing isn't known, we expect to see some inexpensive models once the new phones start arriving in April.

Blu R2 Plus

The Blu R2 Plus is a decent Android phone under $150 with a 5.5-inch display, a fingerprint reader and 13-MP camera that performs pretty well for the price. There are some odd design choices, though, such as the microUSB port on the top of the phone. What ultimately put this handset towards the back of the pack is its middling battery life and sluggish MediaTek processor.

Nuu Mobile X5

With a solid metal body, fingerprint sensor and roomy 5.5-inch display, the Nuu Mobile X5seems like a deal, until you realize that it’s battery lasts a lame 7 hours and 3 minutes. That’s nearly 3 hours less than the average phone. The MediaTek processor doesn’t offer much oomph either, even for a budget Android phone.