Your guide to buying a budget smartphone: Talking Tech podcast
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Hey there, listeners, it's Brett Molina. Welcome back to Talking Tech. Last week we talked about Samsung. They introduced their latest line of smartphones, the Galaxy S22. They're available in three versions. There's the standard S22, the S22 Plus, and the S22 ultra, which is essentially the Galaxy Note reborn. Prices for the phones start at $799.99 and go all the way up to $1199.99. Now, I've been someone that has been kind of a big opponent of the $1000 smartphone. I feel like $1000 for a smartphone is wild. It's a lot of money and it feels like a lot. There are phones out there you can get that are just as good and you can save a couple hundred dollars or even more.
I write about this in a story that you can read on tech.usatoday.com. It's basically a guide to buying smartphones on a budget. There are lots of options out there in lots and lots of price ranges. Now it might not have the latest and greatest features. So, obviously you have folks that are huge fans of the highest, highest end phone they're going out to get the iPhone 13 Pro Max or they're going to get this Galaxy S22 Ultra because they want the top, top of the line. But if you go down the line, you can still get a pretty good phone for a pretty good price. And there are still lots of options out there that might not offer the latest features, the most up to-date camera, the sharpest screen, or they might not run as fast as you would. But if you're looking for something that does basics, you'll get the job done. So I break down some of these phones, you can go as low as under $100.
BLU, which is a smartphone maker, they make several Android models that are under $100, including the BLU Vivo X6, which is $84.95 according to Walmart's website. That particular model is sold out, but it has features like a 6.1 inch display. It has a 13 megapixel camera on the front and the back, and you can get up to 64GB of storage. Again, if you just want a bare phones, basic, "I'm sending email or texts, I'm checking the web, I'm taking pictures. That's all I needed for." That's probably as basic as you can get. Of course, as you go up in price, you get some more features added in.
Motorola had some solid phones That's part of its Moto G line. One example was the Moto G Pure, which is around $140 and, again, you get a big screen, you get a 13 megapixel camera, you get storage. Motorola also says the battery lasts up to two days. So if you're looking for something with just a little more beef in terms of charge, that's a good option. It also supports Android 11, which is fairly new and it also has expandable storage. So if you want even more storage on there, you can add that as well.
As you go up the line, again, the prices go higher, but also you get a little bit more in terms of the phone features. OnePlus is another good example. Have the Nord N100, which is $180. And it has a lot of really cool touches to it. It has the big screen. It has 64GB of storage, but you can expand it to go all the way up to 256GB if you really need more space. It's even got stuff like the face unlock, the fingerprint sensor. It's got a three camera system. So it's feeling like it's got a lot of those touches as the new phones, only it's $180. You see some Samsung phones in there as well that have a lot of similar features. The Galaxy A Series of phones is probably the most notable. Those are the ones that kind of fall within that $150-300 range.
One important note though if you're picking a Samsung phone, I saw this on their website and it might still apply if you check them out, a lot of their phones are at good prices, but they require you to make a trade in. So if you make a trade in, you might get the price. But if not, you might have to pay more. So keep that in mind when you're looking at phones and you're looking for prices that the price may differ depending on whether you trade in or not.
Now, if you go under $300, that's interesting too, because Motorola has a smartphone that's basically like the Galaxy Note only it's, again, under $300. It's got a 6.8 inch screen, it's got a 50 megapixel camera system, a good battery. And again, under $300. Not too bad. It's right around though in the $400 zone, which is where you start getting into the iPhone. iPhone SE starts at $399. If you love Apple, this is the cheapest iPhone you can get. Again, you're not going to get all the bells and whistles, and this is something I'm going to repeat. You get a 4.7 inch display, so it's smaller than some of the other phones out there. You don't get 5G and you only get one rear camera. But again, it's a newer processing chip. So the phone's going to have some zip, even though it's not as expensive. It also has touch ID and the pictures are still going to be pretty solid, even for the price.
Also available, and this one kind of surprised me, Samsung Z Flip 3 5G, which is their flip phone. It looks like the old school kind of clamshell flip phones. And it has a 6.7 inch screen. And with a trade in, you can get it for $400. So pretty good deal. But again, I have to raise this because it's something that comes up when you're buying on the low end is you're not going to have the sharpest of screen, the camera might not be as sharp and as precise as you want on these high end phones. If you're coming from a newish iPhone and you want to downgrade, that is something to keep in mind is the phones aren't going to operate maybe as well as your last phone. And so it's kind of a little bit of a you get what you pay for thing. But that's something important to note.
Another option to consider too, though, if you want to save a little money but you want to kind of a newer model, is going refurbished. Each company has different guidelines as far as what qualifies and what they do. So for iPhones, for example, they will give you a new battery, you get a new outer shell on the phone. They say they've clean and tested the device. They've replaced some of the parts if necessary, and you get a one year warranty. Samsung says that their phones that are refurbished are restored to what they call a quote, "like new condition." It's got a new battery. It has the latest software updates. You also get a one year warranty there. I checked Samsung's website. They had a Galaxy S20, which is only a couple years old and we refurbished for $250. So that's not bad.
There are also retailers like Best Buy and Gazelle that will sell refurbished phones too if you're looking for something kind of newer, but you don't want to spend that money. Important thing note though before you buy, double check the policies for each of those companies as far as what processes they take for quality of the phones, what they do to ensure that the phone still works really well even though it's refurbished, and then also if there's any policies with returns. All that stuff, you should double check before you buy anything. So just something to keep in mind if you're looking to get a budget phone.
You can read more about my coverage, check out more of these phones and check on anything related to tech by going to tech.usatoday.com. Listeners, let's hear from you. Do you have any comments, questions, show ideas, any tech problems you want us to try to address? You can find me on Twitter @BrettMolina23. Please don't forget to subscribe and rate us or leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you get your podcasts. And don't forget, do you want tech news delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe to the Talking Tech newsletter. It's out every Thursday. Go to newsletters.usatoday.com. You've been listening to Talking Tech. We'll be back tomorrow with another quick hit from the world of tech.