Long gone are the days when ‘budget phone’ meant ‘bad phone’. You can now get a really powerful bit of hardware for a fraction of the cost of a flagship.
We’ve collated a list of some of the best deals we can find on cheap phones right now. Using a £250/$300 price limit, below you’ll find a host of devices that punch above their weight in terms of features, performance and design, considering their price.
Many of the deals in this list are Prime Day discounts. On Amazon, that means you’ll need to be a Prime member. It costs £7.99/$14.99 per month, but there’s a 30-day free trial provided you haven’t signed up before.
If you have a little more to spend, remember to look at our separate guides to the best mid-range phone deals and best flagship phone deals.
What are the best budget phones?
These are our five favourite budget phones right now. As you can see, at the moment Xiaomi is pretty hard to beat:
Xiaomi Poco X3 ProXiaomi Redmi Note 10 ProXiaomi Poco M4 ProXiaomi Poco M4 Pro 5GXiaomi Redmi Note 11
For a longer ranking, check out our complete guide to the best budget phones.
Where to find the best deals on cheap phones?
The simple answer is that the best places to buy phones tend to be the same places you’d buy most of your tech: electronics shops and department stores. You can also check with carriers and networks, not to mention going direct to manufacturers’ websites. Here are some ideas to get you started:
UK stores
US stores
Best budget phone deals
Top 10 Budget Phone Deals
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G + Nintendo Switch OLED
1
From: Virgin Media
Now:
From £25 per month
If you want to pick up a shiny new Nintendo Switch OLED – the updated model – with a new phone then this superb deal from Virgin Media is for you. Get the Galaxy A22 with 200GB data for a monthly cost of £30 and bag the Switch while you’re at it. There are cheaper options too.
Xiaomi 11T 5G (8GB/256GB)
2
From: Amazon UK
Was: £549
Now:
£385
(£164 off for Prime members)
The Xiaomi 11T is a compelling option in the mid-range market with a 120Hz display, a 108Mp camera set-up and a durable battery life. Read our Xiaomi 11T 5G review for more info.
The same phone is reduced to £409 at the official Mi Store, but also comes with a free pair of Redmi Buds 3 Pro earbuds, worth £59.
Redmi Note 10 Pro (6GB/128GB)
3
From: Amazon UK
Was: £269
Now:
£129
(£140 off for Prime members)
An incredible value phone with a spec sheet that includes a 120Hz AMOLED screen and a 108Mp camera, but it lacks 5G. Read our Redmi Note 10 Pro review for more info.
Redmi Note 11 (4GB/128GB)
4
From: Amazon UK
Was: £199.99
Now:
£109
(£90.99 off for Prime members)
A quietly appealing budget phone that gives you a 90Hz AMOLED display and exemplary battery life in a well-put-together design. If you don’t need 5G or a particularly great camera, it’s a great choice. Read our Redmi Note 11 review for more info.
Poco X4 Pro 5G (8GB/256GB)
5
From: Amazon UK
Was: £299
Now:
£209
(£90 off for Prime members)
The Poco X4 Pro is a comfortably mid-range smartphone with a premium design and high-end features, including a 6.67in 120Hz AMOLED display and 67W fast charging. Read our Poco X4 Pro 5G review for more info.
Over at the official Mi Store you can pick up the same phone for the slightly higher price of £249, but with a free Smart Clock worth £49.99 thrown in.
Redmi Note 11 Pro (6GB/128GB)
6
From: Amazon UK
Was: £299
Now:
£209
(£90 off for Prime members)
Beautiful aesthetics get the Note 11 Pro off to a great start, while the performance and features keep this theme going. It’s a solid mid-range device, but here lacking 5G. Read our Redmi Note 11 Pro review for more info.
Over at the official Mi Store, the savings are smaller with the 6GB/128GB model on offer at £259, but you do also get some free Redmi Buds 3 Pro earbuds (worth £59.99), and some free basic in-ear headphones worth £6.99.
Poco M4 Pro (8GB/256GB)
7
From: Amazon UK
Was: £249
Now:
£169
(£80 off for Prime members)
The Poco M4 Pro offers another winning combination of decent specs at a budget price. If you don’t need 5G then you get a superior AMOLED display, a sharper 64Mp main camera and more memory as standard. Read our Poco M4 Pro review for more info.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G (4GB/128GB)
8
From: Amazon
Was: £209
Now:
£169
(£40 off)
A superb deal on a phone we gave a 4-star review to. For an insanely low price you get a 90Hz display, headphone jack, dual 5G SIM slots and a sleek design.
Moto G60s
9
From: Amazon
Was: £219.99
Now:
£179.99
(£50 off)
The Moto G60s has unbelievably fast 50W charging built in so you can top up in minutes. Add to that the great battery life after you’ve unplugged and an impressively smooth 120Hz display, you’ve got an excellent phone for the price – now even less. However, do be aware that shipping will take 1-2 months.
How to choose a budget phone
There are a lot of affordable smartphones out there and although swinging for the lowest price tag can be tempting, it doesn’t make sense to skimp on a product you’ll likely end up using almost every day for years at a time.
Try and buy from an established brand that you know and trust, not only as bigger companies’ products are usually held to higher quality standards, but should anything go wrong with your purchase, more established players also typically offer more robust customer support.
With that in mind, the biggest players in the budget space right now are Xiaomi, Oppo, Realme, Motorola, and Nokia – though Samsung offers a few cheap handsets too.
Don’t expect affordable phones such as these to feel like miniature flagships; such phones most obviously sacrifice hardware and/or camera performance to cut costs, while others opt for lesser build quality or less-premium materials, such as polycarbonate instead of glass or metal.
The display and camera used to be two of the most obvious indicators that you were using a budget handset but even these fundamental pieces of phone hardware have improved massively in recent years. Entries like the
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro highlight this shift perfectly.
There are also devices like the
Moto G9 Power, which place a focus on excelling in one specific area (in this phone’s case, battery longevity), whilst still feeling like a more conventional affordable phone in other respects.
One other advantage of buying a more affordable smartphone is that, if you’re after a contract, such devices are more likely to come with zero upfront cost, lower monthly pricing and, potentially, shorter-term plans. As such, they also make great first-time options for those new to smartphones, those who are accident-prone and kids.
Where to find deals
If you’re looking to buy a phone outright, rather than on-contract,
Amazon has some of the biggest bargains, but make sure you check the specs carefully – third-party sellers sometimes use Amazon to shift international stock, which may vary slightly from what you find in local stores.
If you find that you’re missing out on
Amazon’s Lightning deals, which run for just a few hours and offer limited stock, we’d recommend signing up for
Amazon’s 30-day free trial of Prime, which will get you access to deals 30 minutes before everyone else. Plus, you’ll get free next-day delivery with the Prime trial, as well as access to Prime Instant Video and more.
Sign up for Prime now.
Again, if you’d like to know more about the current affordable phone landscape, give our
best budget phones roundup a read or head to our
best tech deals right now feature for reductions on other consumer tech.
