That kind of longevity is rarely seen at this price point. Speaking of durability, Samsung also promises four years of Android OS updates along with five years of security updates.

It looks nice, but plastic doesn’t give you the same kind of durability you might look for in a modern smartphone. The phone has a flat-screen and plastic build coated to look like metal. The design of the phone is another area where some compromises have been made. It’s a demonstrably awesome experience at a very reasonable price point. Samsung as a rule makes great displays, and the 120Hz refresh rate makes everything extremely smooth. The other part of the phone that you don’t often see at this price point is the 120Hz refresh rate you get in the display. It all comes down to personal preference. You might just have to give up a little “realism” to get there. This generally makes photos taken quite sharable and attractive. Samsung’s camera processing is driven toward a “social media sharing” look that punches up, brightens, and saturates colors more than you might see in reality. The main sensor is capable of taking some really great shots, even measuring up to the main camera on Samsung’s flagship, the Galaxy S22 Ultra (BB). There’s a 64 MP main camera sensor and 12MP ultrawide camera, along with dual 5MP cameras for depth and macro respectively. Like the Pixel 5a 5G, the camera setup on this phone is no slouch. Combined with 5G support, a 5,000mAh battery, and Samsung’s guarantee of four years of OS upgrades and five years of security updates and this is a phone that will last a long time. Under the hood, you get the Samsung Exynos 1280, 6BG, or 8BG of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of storage. That also means it’ll be among the first to get OS and security updates until August of 2027.

It comes with the latest version of Android available, Android 12. The Pixel 6a is Google’s latest budget smartphone and it is no exception. The A-series usually comes with a few compromises that allow the phone to ship with a lower price tag. Traditionally, Pixel phones have come in two flavors – the flagship series and the A-Series. If you’re looking for peak Android performance and good camera performance on a budget, it really doesn’t get better than the Google Pixel 6a.

Best Value (not sold in US): Poco X4 Pro.

Best Features & Specs: OnePlus Nord N200.

So without further ado, here are our picks for the best cheap Android phones you can get right now.

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