A phone – even a good one – doesn't have to cost you a whole paycheck. Affordable, fully-featured smartphones are popping into the market more and more often, putting previously premium features into lower and lower price ranges.
Before we start, we have to decide what is actually classified as 'cheap'. Smartphones in general aren't all that affordable when bought outright (though we will be referring to outright, unlocked pricing in this story) with most costing more than $800 and many even reaching more than $1000. For the purposes of this story, we've included only phones that are cheaper than $600, though we have made sure to include a range of prices under this threshold.
Motorola Moto G
Price: $284
The Moto G set the standard for budget smartphones, and continues to hold onto that distinction year after year. It's a sub-$300 phone that boasts an IPX7 waterproof rating, a feature that many phones around the $1000 mark have yet to integrate. At its price point it's obviously not the most high-powered smartphone on the market, but its functionality is more than adequate for the price.
The third generation Moto G features a 13MP rear camera with a colour-balancing dual LED flash and 5MP front camera. The Gorilla Glass-protected HD display is a sizeable 12.7cm. One drawback is the meagre 16GB internal memory, though that can be expanded with an optional microSD card up to 32GB. The Moto G Is also 4G compatible, though very few smartphones, even the budget ones, aren't these days.
Specs
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 with 1.4 GHz quad-core
Operating system: Android Lollipop
RAM: 2GB
Storage: 16GB expandable to 32GB with microSD card
Cameras: 5MP front, 13MP rear
Display: 720p HD
Battery: 2470 mAh
Plus: Dual micro-SIM, Micro USB
OnePlus 3
Price: $550
The OnePlus 3 was recently named by our friends over at Gizmodo as 'the best cheap phone you can buy', though it comes with one main drawback: a highly limited availability in Australia. In fact, the OnePlus 3 isn't available at all in Australia, yet.
OnePlus has a great range of budget smartphones, from its OnePlus One, to the OnePlus 2 to the even cheaper OnePlus X. But the OnePlus 3 is the most 'premium' of its range, at the best price.
The OnePlus 3 boasts a fully metal construction for a truly premium look and feel, completed by the 15cm 1080p display. It also packs in a whole 6GB of RAM, and running a mod of Android called Oxygen OS, the OnePlus 3 is fully optimised to run nice and smoothly. Its 16MP rear camera can even shoot in RAW, while the front-facing camera boasts an impressive 8MP.
The only drawback to the OnePlus 3 is that its 3000mAh battery can run out in less than a day when overly taxed, though despite this it could easily be a competitor for smartphones that are twice its price.
Specs
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 820
Operating system: Oxygen OS
RAM: 6GB
Storage: 64GB
Cameras: 8MP front, 16MP rear
Display: 1080p Full HD
Battery: 3000 mAh
Plus: Dual nano-SIM, USB C connection
Xiaomi Mi5
Price: $425
The Mi5 from Xiaomi sounds too good to be true – and that's because it is. The Xiaomi is a great high-end phone for an incredibly cheap price, but getting your hands on one can be difficult. Without an official Australian importer, it can be hard to find Xiaomi's phones in Australia, though there's usually a way to get your hands on one.
If you do manage to find one, you can expect an impressively powerful phone for the price, built around the same Snapdragon processor as the new LG G5 or Samsung Galaxy 7. The metal and glass body has a premium feel, though the 'pro' version has a 'marble-textured' ceramic finish. $425 will get you the standard 32GB model, going up to $490 for the 64GB model, or $575 for the 125GB Pro model. This one's worth keeping an eye out for.
Specs
Processor: Snapdragon 820 Quad-core Kryo 1.8GHz
Operating System: Android Marshmallow
RAM: 3GB
Storage: 32GB to 125GB
Cameras: 4MP front, 16MP rear
Display: 1920 x 1080
Battery: 3000mAh
Plus: 4G dual nano SIM, USB C
Kogan Agora 6
Price: $179
The Kogan Agora 6 is the newest, cheapest phone made by Kogan, and while you're not going to get a stellar phone for $179, it is a smartphone that you can buy for $179. Kogan says that the Agora boasts "amazing performance and features normally found in a phone many times the price of the Agora 6", though we've yet to put it through its paces ourselves.
It does have a large, 5-inch HD display which is uncommon in cheaper phones; 2GB RAM; and a 1.3 GHz OctaCore processor. Although it only has 16GB of internal storage, it has the option of adding a microSD card up to 32GB, something some of the more expensive phones on this list offer.
One step up from the Agora 6 is the Agora 6 Plus, a $349 phone that Kogan says is comparable to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S7. We're not so sure about that, but at its price, it could still be a neat little phone for some.
Specs
Processor: Octacore 1.3GHZ
Operating system: Android Lollipop
RAM: 2GB
Storage: 16GB expandable to 32GB with microSD card
Cameras: 5MP front, 8MP rear
Display: HD IPS
Battery: 2050 mAh
Plus: Dual Micro SIM, Micro USB
iPhone 5s
Price: $469
While Android users have plenty of options when it comes to cheap phones, iOS devotees don't have so many. All of the iPhones available at retail right now will set you back more than $800 when bought outright – but would you buy a phone that's almost three years old? Despite its age, however, the 5s is a good little phone, which some even find preferable to the iPhone 6.
With a 1.7GHz dual-core A7 ARM processor, 1GB of RAM, dual-band 4G/LTE, an 8MP camera with dual flash and a 1570mAh battery, the specs of the 5s are obviously nothing special these days. However you can pick one up for cheap (at least as far as iPhones go) with new models being sold by Kogan for $469, and refurbished phones going as low as $399.
Specs
Processor: 1.7GHz dual-core
GPU: Apple M7
Operating system: iOS 7
RAM: 1GB
Storage: 16GB to 64GB
Cameras: 1.2MP front, 8MP rear
Display: 640 x 1136 IPS
Battery: Li-Po 1440mAh
Plus: Nano SIM, Lightning to USB
