When it comes to picking one of the best cheap phones, you should always look for the features which are most important to you. A cheaper device won't be able to provide all the bells and whistles offered by top flagship models, however, you will find that most affordable options will still deliver a fairly robust smartphone experience.
A good cheap handset will still provide all the essential functions we've come to expect from today's best phones, such as the ability to make calls, send text messages, browse the internet, take photos and even play games. That said, the price difference can usually be measured by how well it does those things.
While it's true that budget smartphones have come a long way in the last few years, some may prioritise certain features over others. That means you should expect some trade-offs — you won’t always find the most powerful processors, 120Hz displays or versatile zoom cameras.
That said, you'll likely be surprised by what today's more affordable phones are capable of. Below you'll find a list of the best cheap phones in Australia for 2024. Whether you're looking for an Android or iOS device, every smartphone on this list is priced under AU$750, which is less than half of what you'd pay for a current flagship phone in 2024. Read on to find out why we've chosen these particular models.
The Quick List
Best for most people
The Pixel 8a offers big improvement like a brighter screen, longer battery life, charming design, and AI features that no other cheap phone can match.
Also Consider
Samsung's best cheap phone of 2024, the Galaxy A55 is a fantastic follow up to last year's Galaxy A54 — complete with outstanding cameras and battery life.
Save More
It may be over a year, but you'll appreciate the additional savings by choosing last year's top contender in the Google Pixel 6a.
Still worthy
It may have been superseded by Samsung's Galaxy A54, but the A53 5G is still better than most phones in its price range — especially now that you can find it at a discount.
Best cheap iPhone
Don't let its small size fool you because the iPhone SE (2022) packs a punch for what it can do. It's responsive, has good camera, and packs a lot of savings.
Best-looking cheap phone
Cheap phones don't normally look as good as the Nothing Phone 2a, which retains the distinctive design and Glyph interface of its more expensive siblings. Display and battery life are also strengths.
The best cheap phones you can buy today
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Best cheap phone overall
Google did everything right in making the Pixel 8a better than the Pixel 7a before it. Most notably, it's getting a tremendous boost over on the software side with its slew of AI features — like Magic Editor and Best Take — which it inherits from the more expensive Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro models.
If that's not enough, it sets the benchmark for all other cheap phones with its unbelievable software support. Whereas other phones barely get three years worth of software updates, the Pixel 8a goes the distance with its 7 years of major Android update, including security updates.
Over on the hardware side, the Pixel 8a benefits from a much brighter, more vibrant display that offers a 120Hz refresh rate. It battery life is also extended thanks largely to its bigger battery and the power efficiency of its Tensor G3 chip. While its camera improvements are minor, it's still one of the best in its class.
Add all of this up, while still coming up at the same $499 cost as its predecessor, the Pixel 8a is without question the best cheap phone money can buy,
Read our full Google Pixel 8a review.
Runner Up
As Samsung's top A-Series handset of 2024, the Galaxy A55 is a contender in the best cheap phones space — aided by it gorgeous looking display. In addition to its adaptive 120Hz rate, it shines brightly under the toughest conditions. On top of its slick display and impressive build quality, it also boasts some AI photographic capabilities.
However, the more satisfying part about the A55 is how its cameras continually deliver sharp photos and videos. For those looking for that high quality Samsung experience at a more affordable price point, you need only look towards the Galaxy A55.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy A55 review.
Bigger Savings
If you’re willing to overlook its disappointing battery life, the Google Pixel 6a is hard to beat as the best cheap phone overall. Credit the cameras, which always stand out on Google’s budget devices. Like its predecessors, the Pixel 6a relies on computational photography to deliver some of the best images in this price range — its photos can even challenge those produced by much more expensive phones. And unlike the iPhone SE (its closest competitor on the cheap camera phone front), the Pixel 6a supports a night mode.
You’ll also find a Tensor chipset powering the Pixel 6a — that’s the same silicon inside Google’s Pixel 6 flagships. As a result, the same AI-powered tricks Google’s flagship phone can pull off are available to the Pixel 6a, too, including the photo-editing Magic Eraser tool and on-device translation.
And, now that it's been superseded by the Pixel 7a, the Pixel 6a can found for a lot cheaper, often priced just under AU$600. It’s the phone to get if you place a premium on camera capabilities and special features. The biggest question these days is whether to pony up an additional dollarydoos to get newer Pixel 7a.
Read our full Google Pixel 6a review.
Still worthy
If the fact that there are newer models out there doesn't sway you, then you may want to give Samsung's Galaxy A53 a shot. This great mid-range handset had an RRP of AU$549 for the 128GB model at launch, and can often be found way cheaper than that these days. It also does just about everything well enough. It has a nice 6.5-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, supports 5G speeds and has a large 5,000mAh battery (our Pixel 6a vs. Galaxy A53 face-off goes into greater detail on the differences between these best cheap phone contenders for Android fans.)
Of course, the cameras could be better, especially in light of the Pixel 6a. However, they do just fine if you're okay with Samsung's characteristic oversaturated look. The performance won't wow you like the iPhone SE (2022), but it's good enough for most daily tasks.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy A53 5G review.
Best cheap iPhone
The iPhone SE 2022 takes cheap phones to the next level of performance by including Apple's powerful A15 Bionic chip. This is the same processor found in the iPhone 13, and it blows all Android phones away, whether you're playing games or editing video on the go.
This chip also gives the new iPhone SE 2022 a number of photography powers that the previous model lacked, including Smart HDR 4, Magic Fusion for better detail and Photographic Styles. In fact, in some scenarios the iPhone SE takes better pics than the Google Pixel 6a, as you can see in our Pixel 6a vs. iPhone SE 2022 face-off. Unfortunately, Apple didn't include Night mode for low-light situations.
The latest iPhone SE features the same design as before, so that means a small 4.7-inch display and big bezels, but some may prefer the old-school Touch ID button for quickly unlocking the device. Despite some trade-offs, the iPhone SE 2022 is one of the best cheap phones around for people who like small phones, and unlike the rumored iPhone SE 4, it's available right now. Priced at AU$719, Apple's cheapest new handset can often be found even cheaper than that.
Read our full iPhone SE 2022 review.
Who says that you have to sacrifice looks for a cheaper price? The Nothing Phone 2a still delivers the stylish translucent look and helpful Glyph interface found on the Nothing Phone 2, but for hundreds of dollars less. We're also impressed by the big, bright 6.7-inch display, which offers an adaptive refresh rate, as well as how long this phone lasted on our battery test.
Since the Nothing brand's launch in Australia, the Nothing Phone 2a has been readily available at retailers such as Amazon and JB Hi-Fi, and seems to go on sale fairly often. Apart from being cheap and looking good, it delivers in some other key areas like battery life, fast charging and value. In fact, the Nothing Phone 2a's time of 15 hours on our battery benchmark test is pretty impressive.
Read our full Nothing Phone 2a review.
What to look for in the best cheap phones
After you've found a phone at the right price for your budget — that's why you're considering one of the best cheap phones in the first place, after all — consider what features one of these devices has to offer and which ones you're sacrificing for a lower price tag. Battery life, the number and types of cameras, display refresh rate and the type of chipset powering the phone are all ways that cheap phones can distinguish themselves.
In some cases, you'll be able to compare phones to more expensive options to help crystalize what compromises you're making for a lower-cost model.
Generally, one area in which phone makers cut back for budget models is materials. They'll use plastic for the phone's case instead of metal and glass. Cheaper phones may also turn to LCD panels instead of OLED screens, though that's becoming less frequent among some of the best cheap phones running Android.
One other area to consider is software updates and support. We've seen cheaper Android phones either ship with older versions of Android or promise very few upgrades to future versions. Samsung has one of the better upgrade policies with its Galaxy A lineup, and the iPhone remains a standout for usually supporting five years of iOS updates.
How we test the best cheap phones
We evaluate budget-priced phones the same way we do flagships. We perform real-world testing and synthetic benchmarks over several days to evaluate it's performance and value. This includes our own battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over cellular at 150 nits of screen brightness. The devices that make our best phone battery life list tend to last over 11 hours.
In terms of performance, we use Geekbench 5 to measure overall speed and compare versus phones in the same price range. And the same thing goes for GFXBench for graphics testing. We also perform our own video editing/transcoding testing using the Adobe Premiere Rush app to gauge real-world speed.
For evaluating cameras on cheap phones, we will take multiple photos in different conditions and will use other affordably priced phones in the same scenarios in order to make side-by-side comparisons.
For more information, check out our how we test page for Tom's Guide.
