Last year was all about budget Android smartphones, and to kickoff 2016 we have a new king in the budget market. Buying an excellent smartphone doesn’t mean spending $600 or signing your life away with a 2-year contract. Right now there are countless excellent smartphones under $400, and impressively enough, some great ones for under $200 that all budget shoppers need to know about.
Now that 2015 is over and the Galaxy S6, G4 and more are here, with replacements already coming soon, buyers are weighing their options. If you’re not up on the latest news you won’t know where to look, so our list below has everything you need to know about the cheaper side of the Android isle.
Our list above has a few great smartphones that won’t break the bank, but many of them still cost nearly $300, which is out of reach for many. As a result, the list below will go over everything buyers need to know about some excellent Android smartphones that actually cost less than $200.
Alcatel, who typically makes cheap smartphones that aren't all that great, changed things up in 2015. Earlier this year they debuted and released a stunning 5.5-inch phone called the Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3, but it's barely over our budget here today.
However, earlier this week a brand new Onetouch Idol 3 was announced with a smaller 4.7-inch display and a wallet-friendly $179 price tag to take on Motorola.
The Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 offers buyers a 4.7-inch 720p HD display which will look slightly better than the Moto G. It has a similar quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor with 1.5 GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and a micro-SD slot, dual front facing speakers that sound quite impressive, and two awesome cameras. A 13 megapixel rear and 5mp front camera setup, Android 5.0 Lollipop, and a smaller 2,000 mAh battery.
The battery is the weakest link, but with a smaller display battery life should be on-par with the Moto G. This phone is sleek, runs great, sounds good, looks premium and costs the same low $179 price. This phone goes on sale August 14th from Amazon, or the link below. Oh, and the 5.5-inch more powerful model is $249
This year everyone wants part of Motorola's budget pie. ASUS has a great choice in the new ZenFone 2. The all-new ASUS ZenFone 2 runs an Intel processor like many computers, rather than what most Android phones are powered by.
The ZenFone 2 comes with a premium look, feel, and decent specs, all for only $199. This phone comes with a large 5.5-inch 1920 x 1200 Full HD display, a 1.8 GHz quad-core Intel processor with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, 13 megapixel rear and 5 MP front cameras, a large 3,000 mAh battery, and supports 4G LTE on all GSM carriers (so no Verizon, Sprint, or US Cellular) but will work with all other carriers. This is better than the Moto G for the 1080p display, bigger screen and battery, but it doesn't run stock Android.
It is powered by the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop, and ASUS has four colors: Black, Silver, Gold or Red all for only $199. It's well-rounded for the price. There's also a version with a faster processor 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage which is equally as impressive but costs $299. The more you know, the better.
While this next one isn't as good as the first three, it's also much cheaper if you truly can't afford the $179 price point we've been focusing on.
If you want to go really, really cheap, get the Moto E. The new Moto E delivers a quad-core processor, 4G LTE and Android Lollipop in a small package for only $149 outright. The screen is bigger than last years Moto E at 4.5-inches, but sadly offers a low 960 x 540 resolution. The first model had dual front facing speakers, but this model that was removed in favor of a bigger screen and 4G LTE. All of that is only $149 outright though, so pick your battles.
The Moto E 2015 already runs the latest Android 5.1 Lollipop, and has plenty to offer for those on a really tight budget. If you have to, get this, otherwise spend $30 more and grab the Moto G, you'll be glad you did.
Last but certainly not least, is the new King of the budget market. It's better than the Moto G, has more to offer than the ASUS ZenFone with the same 5.5-inch screen, and much more.
We're talking about the new Huawei Honor 5x. It was announced in early January at CES 2016, and went on sale on January 31st for only $199. The price is good, and the features are even better.
The Huawei Honor 5x has a 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080p Full HD display (not 720p) and is made almost entirely out of metal. It looks and feels like a premium phone, but only costs $199. It's powered by the latest budget-minded 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with 2GB of RAM, has 16GB of storage, a 13 megapixel rear and 5MP camera setup, and a fingerprint scanner on the back.
Yes a 1080p HD display, fingerprint scanner, metal design, micro-SD card and a 3,000 mAh battery all for only $199. The only downside to this excellent well-rounded phone is it runs Android 5.1 Lollipop, not Marshmallow, and has a custom skin over stock Android. That aside, it's excellent and worth the price. It comes in Silver, White and Gold and is available from Amazon, Newegg, Huawei and other retailers. If it's out of stock, look elsewhere.
Note: 3g, 4g, field testing 5g, No smartphone is any faster than the end user. I have yet to meet an individual that can accurately describe all the apps on their phone.
Do you need that particular phone or is it a status symbol?
I picked up this, "Verykool s3503" for a little over $40. It's been dropped, wet and traveled through 3 countries without a problem.
