The Best Smartphones Under $400 of 2024

Shop for top-rated smartphones without breaking the bank

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Buying the best budget smartphone doesn't mean compromising on everything you want. If you don't mind using an older model, our roundup has plenty of options to help you find what you're looking for as long as you're not an iPhone user.

in this article

Best Google

Google Pixel 6a

Google Pixel 6a.

Amazon

Pros
  • Excellent camera

  • All-day battery

Cons
  • No wireless charging

The Google Pixel 6a is an excellent 5G smartphone for the price. It's fast, good-looking, and lasts all day. It also has a great camera system.

Affordable phones often feature inconsistent cameras that wilt in low light. The Pixel 6a will give you a good result in nearly any scenario, including at night via the Night Sight mode. Given the price, it's no surprise that the base model 6a lacks some perks, such as wireless charging, but it's a tremendous value for a phone with no significant flaws.

Screen Size: 6.1 inches | Resolution: 2400x1080 | Processor: Google Tensor | Camera: 12.2MP dual rear and 8MP front | Battery: 4410 mAh

Best With a Stylus

Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G (2022)

Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G (2022).

Amazon

Pros
  • Great battery life

  • Built-in stylus

Cons
  • So so cameras

If you like to write out your ideas with a pen or a stylus, then the Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G will meet your needs.

It comes with an excellent stylus (and a slot to stow it) and has a large display and long battery life. When you remove the stylus, the phone launches compatible apps for taking notes, coloring, drawing, and more. It performs well, though its cameras could be better, particularly in low-light situations.

Screen Size: 6.8 inches | Resolution: 2460x1080 | Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 | Camera: 50MP, 8MP, 2 MP rear and 16 MP front | Battery: 5000 mAh

Best Motorola

Motorola Moto G Power (2020)

Moto G Power | 3-Day Battery1 | Unlocked | Made for US by Motorola | 4/64GB | 16MP Camera | 2020 | Black

Amazon

Pros
  • Huge battery capacity

  • Great sound quality

  • Good display

  • Durable and long-lasting

Cons
  • Heavy and bulky

  • Camera app is slow

  • No NFC

The Motorola Moto G Power costs less than $300, but you wouldn't know it. The smartphone has a long battery life, a good screen, and plenty of power. Some things are left out. It has no water resistance and no wireless charging. Those are perfectly fine trade-offs for a good phone at a very reasonable price. Oh, it works with nearly any carrier, too.

Front and center, you get a 6.4-inch display with a camera cutout in the upper-left corner. Under the hood, the phone is no slouch either. Camera capabilities are also impressive for the price, but the real selling point here is the battery. According to Motorola, the runtime should be enough to last three days without recharging.

Screen Size: 6.4 inches | Resolution: 2300 x 1080 | Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 | Camera: 16 MP/8 MP/2 MP rear and 16 MP front | Battery: 5000 mAh

Best for Handwriting

LG Stylo 6

LG Stylo 6 Unlocked Smartphone – 4/64 GB – White (Made for US Verizon, AT&T, T–Mobile, Sprint, Boost, Cricket, Metro (Universal Compatibility)

Amazon

Pros
  • Great stylus built in

  • Crisp display with thin bezels

  • Great battery life

Cons
  • Cameras aren't that great

  • Teardrop camera cutout is ugly

The LG Stylo 6 is a budget phone with a flagship look. It has a massive 6.8-inch IPS display and a mirror-finish glass back; it looks and feels high-end despite its modest price tag. It also features a built-in stylus. The MediaTek Helio P35 processor fails to impress, however.

The two reasons to love this phone are the upscale look and excellent stylus functionality. This is one of the best-looking sub-$300 phones around, and that extends to the beautiful FHD display. It's a bit dim in full sunlight but looks fantastic anywhere else.

The stylus is spring-loaded, and removing it automatically brings up a handful of memo and note options. It's responsive and accurate, with no discernible lag unless you move it fast. Forget to put it back in its holster, and the phone sounds an alarm when you try to turn it off.

You can find phones that perform better than the Stylo 6 for the same money, but you'll need help finding one that looks this fantastic at this price point. If you don't ask a lot out of your phone and only want something that looks great while performing basic tasks, the Stylo 6 fits that description perfectly.

Screen Size: 6.8 inches | Resolution: 2460 x 1080 | Processor: MediaTek MT6765 Helio P35 | Camera: 13 MP/5 MP/5 MP rear and 5 MP front | Battery: 4000 mAh

LG Stylo 6

Jeremy Laukkonen / Lifewire

What to Look for in a Budget Smartphone

Display

Budget smartphones typically don't have high refresh screens. However, OnePlus is increasingly bringing it to market at lower price points. The most common resolution for budget phones is 1080p, less crisp than the 2K panels on flagships. That said, it's still possible to get crisp screens and even OLED panels with dense, inky blacks and rich, saturated colors.

Processor

Mid-range chipsets consist of Snapdragon and MediaTek processors. While they won't match flagship processors in benchmark testing, many budget phones are optimized for day-to-day performance. This is especially true of Google's Pixel devices. The clean software works great with less powerful hardware. Most mid-range phones can handle typical apps, multitasking, and multimedia. More demanding 3D games might be challenging, but several budget phones can still do it.

Camera

In most cases, camera performance on mid-range phones tends to be an immense sacrifice, but this is only sometimes true. An increasing number of budget phones offer multiple rear cameras, giving you the option of telephoto zoom, wide-angle shots, and features like bokeh mode. Google's Pixel phones are particularly capable of punching above their weight regarding camera performance, boasting the same sensors as flagship models.

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