If sticking to a budget is important, there are plenty of worthwhile phones for less than $300 . And these phones will likely take a new spotlight as holiday deals discount them even more, but there's a big tradeoff to phones in this price range. A phone with modern specs like an eye-catching design, improved multitasking and wireless charging might still only receive one major software update and three years of security patches.
Some sub-$300 phones have a longer timeline of four years for software updates and five years of security updates. But those devices skimp on certain features, possibly leaving you wanting to upgrade sooner anyway. This is the dilemma I've been weighing after testing a variety of phones that cost less than $300 over the course of 2024.
We take software and security timelines seriously in our reviews because these updates can dictate whether devices get new software features and critical fixes. Now that premium phones like the Samsung Galaxy S24 and the Pixel 8 are promised seven years of software and security updates, we'd like to see more affordable phones step up to at least four to five years. However we're not there just yet.
Most phones that cost $300 or less are shipping with a promise of one additional software update and three years of security updates. While Samsung is taking the opposite approach with its $200 Galaxy A15 5G and $300 Galaxy A25 5G , both of which get four years of software updates and five years of security updates, both hav.
