The Best New Cheap Android Phones

For the longest time, high consumer-price inflation was one of those things consigned to the 1980s. But the 2020s have been a nostalgic period, and along with “Stranger Things” and the rebirth for Oasis, came a return to steady, aggressive price rises. And though the worst of the post-COVID surge has ended, the AI build-out has kept prices stubbornly high for technology.A 64-gigabyte DDR5-6000 memory kit that only a few years ago sold for $159 now starts at about $854. Apple — which has more vertical integration and parts control than almost any other major technology company — was forced to raise prices on a range of Macs and iPads in June. The MacBook Neo rose from $599 to $699; the 512-gigabyte MacBook Air, from $1,099 to $1,299; and the 1-terabyte MacBook Pro, from $1,699 to $1,999. And yet, generally, the prices of technology continue to come down as its quality goes up. Nowhere is that truer than with smartphones.Once, budget smartphones lagged far behind the latest flagship models, with bad screens, plastic bodies, and unusable cameras. But that hasn’t been true for years, even in America, where the options are more limited.Take the Samsung Galaxy A27 5G. It has the now-standard 6.7-inch size, reasonable internal specifications, and a 120-hertz OLED screen — something you couldn’t say of iPhones until the 2021’s iPhone 13 Pro. Its Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 is far less powerful than a flagship iPhone chip, but Apple’s chips are so strong that only a fraction of users will ever strain them — potent enough that Apple now puts the A18 Pro in the MacBook Neo. An iPhone will swap between apps faster and load them almost instantly, but the Snapdragon chip will do everything you need without the budget-phone performance failures of old, such as lag or long delays opening apps. More importantly, the A27 has a big 5,000 mAh battery and IP64 water and dust resistance, along with six generations of operating-system upgrades and six years of security updates.Cameras are where flagship phones really stand out, but most people will never use Apple’s Pro photography features. A “Pro” iPhone lives up to the label with its photography features, but a vanishingly small percentage of users will ever edit ProRAW photography files from their iPhone, let alone shoot Log video on them to color-grade with a lookup table.In everyday life, photos from an iPhone will look nicer than the Samsung’s — particularly in challenging lighting, like at night or extreme glare. But it’s not some enormous difference. Expect the A27’s 50-megapixel main camera to be completely fine for 99 percent of your photo situations, and it also has a 5-megapixel ultrawide for backup.This is a good phone — and Samsung launched it in America for only $349.99. And if you’re willing to deal with the hassle of importing a device, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 Pro 5G is an even better option.You get a bright 6.67-inch, 2,712-by-1,220-pixel OLED display with a 120-hertz refresh rate; a reasonably fast MediaTek Dimensity 7300-Ultra chip; three rear cameras; and a big 5,110 mAh battery with 45-watt fast charging. You may have trouble connecting it to some American carriers, but this is an excellent phone — from about $240, imported.iOS is more pleasant to use than the stock launchers on Samsung and Redmi phones, but Android lets you replace the home-screen launcher with a third party option. Whenever I use an Android phone, I install Niagara Launcher, which is still my favorite phone interface of all time, presenting all apps as a customizable text list. It’s minimal, intuitive, great for reducing screen time, and it looks beautiful.That’s something your Apple-owning friends can’t install.

The Best New Cheap Android Phones

The Best New Cheap Android Phones

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