{"id":590173,"date":"2026-04-17T17:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T17:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/590173\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T17:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T17:52:08","slug":"our-new-favorite-budget-phones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/590173\/","title":{"rendered":"Our new favorite budget phones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Over the last few months, every phone maker under the sun has refreshed its lineups, especially at the affordable end, with no major budget phone launches now expected until next year. That made it the perfect time to go back and reassess The Verge\u2019s recommendations for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/gadgets\/912271\/best-budget-smartphones-cheap-iphone-android-phones\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">best budget phones<\/a> you can buy right now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">You won\u2019t be too surprised to hear that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/tech\/891164\/apple-iphone-17e-review\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">iPhone 17E<\/a> is now our recommendation for the best cheap iPhone, not least because it\u2019s the only cheap iPhone. Still, this year\u2019s addition of MagSafe charging makes it a much more well-rounded package than last year\u2019s 16E, and with the same A19 chip as the flagship iPhone 17, you won\u2019t find any phone with better performance for the price.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">On the Android side, I may have bemoaned how same-y <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/tech\/894319\/google-pixel-10a-review-screen-specs-battery-camera\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google\u2019s Pixel 10A is in my review<\/a>, but last year\u2019s 9A was great, and a carbon copy of that is still pretty great too. It\u2019s still the best cheap Android option for most people, thanks to lengthy software support and a capable camera. There is competition, though; my favorite alternative right now is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/tech\/896626\/nothing-phone-4a-pro-review-design-specs-battery-camera\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nothing Phone 4A Pro<\/a>, a bigger phone with a beautiful display and original aesthetic \u2014 and unlike most previous Nothing phones, it\u2019s available to buy in the US.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the last few months, every phone maker under the sun has refreshed its lineups, especially at the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[4329,517,166,168,4535,4536,165,12074,172,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-590173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-android","9":"tag-apple","10":"tag-gadgets","11":"tag-google","12":"tag-ios","13":"tag-iphone","14":"tag-mobile","15":"tag-phones","16":"tag-tech","17":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}