The best budget camera phones give you a premium smartphone shooting experience without the premium price. It may seem like smartphones are just constantly getting more and more expensive – because they are – but the good news is that you don’t have to pay flagship prices to get a great phone. Sophisticated camera tech is always filtering into cheaper phones, and so, we’ve compiled a list of the best budget phones we’ve tested to help you find the right model for your photography.
When buying a cheap phone you’re going to be looking at one of two things – new budget phones, or older flagships. Both have their pros and cons, and we’ve included plenty of both options in this guide, with options from Samsung, Google, Motorola, Nothing and more. Be aware that this list is Android only, as there’s simply no contest between Android and iOS when it comes to pricing (see our guide to for more on this).
However, with new phones coming out all the time, we keep this list regularly updated, and often see phones migrating on here that until recently were featured in our guide to the . We’ve reviewed, tested and rated every camera phone on this list, so you can be sure that we’re only recommending products we can definitely vouch for. We’ve included options for a range of budgets, including mid-range camera phones as well as ultra-cheap models.
All a budget camera phone has to do to make it onto this list is justify its price tag! If you’re not sure what some of the technical specs on a phone’s camera mean, you can scroll to the bottom of this page where we’ve put together an explainer on how to choose the best budget camera phone. Looking specifically to shoot video? Then check out our guide to the . Google has long been in the habit of bringing out budget versions of its flagship phones, and the Pixel 8a is the latest in the line.
A slimmed-down version of the Pixel 8, this phone packs a dual-camera setup that’s largely unchanged from the perevious Pixel 7a. The upgrades and differences are largely internal, as the Pixel 8a inherits the latest tech that manufacturers everywhere have decided needs to be inserted into everyone’s lives – AI. Users of the Pixel 8a now have Best Take, Magic Editor, and Audio Magic Eraser to play with, in addition to the more conventional photographic modes that have appeared on previous generations, such as Night Sight and long exposure.
The cameras themselves are a 64MP wide-angle f/1.9 main camera, which produces 16MP images via pixel binning, and a 13MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera with fixed focus.
Fairly standard stuff, but as we found in our review, it results in images of consistently high quality, with a pleasing level of detail and punchy colours. The various shooting modes on the camera app work well, and if you have access to a decent smartphone support like a mini-tripod, you can take advantage of highly specialised modes like the astrophotography function, which captures an exposure of 2.5 minutes.
Having taken hundreds of photos with both camera modules, we can say that results are (as expected) much more consistent from the main camera. The ultra-wide module does produce noticeably more noise, especially evident when you inspect your images up close. However, we like the fact that you can switch on raw shooting, and our tests of 4K video produced consistently fine results (albeit with some wind noise intermittently a factor).
Honestly the main rival to the Google Pixel 8a is likely to be another Google phone – if you don’t care about the AI features then the Pixel 7a is going to deliver much the same hardware for a cheaper price. However, with its price still temptingly low, we can safely say that the Google Pixel 8a is the best budget camera phone on the market, and you will not be disappointed with the results it produces. Read our full .
It’s a truism in tech that yesteryear’s flagship is this year’s bargain, and so it goes with the Samsung Galaxy S22. It was never a hugely expensive phone (by smartphone standards at least), originally retailing at £769 / $799, but given that it can now be picked up for about £449 / $449, that’s quite a substantial saving. The Galaxy S22 was the entry-level model, not a million miles away in features from mid-range phones like the Galaxy A54, listed below.
So it doesn’t get the headline-grabbing 108MP or 200MP main cameras of its flagship siblings like the or , but it still has a more-than-respectable 50MP main camera that benefits from optical stabilisation. This sits alongside a 12MP ultra-wide-angle, as well as a 10MP 3x telephoto camera that’s stabilised (and is a good deal more welcome than a rubbishy little macro camera). As befitting a flagship phone, the Galaxy S22 also feels premium in the hand and has all the quality-of-life features you’d expect from such a device.
Wireless charging, an in-screen fingerprint reader –Samsung even chucks in IP68 waterproofing, meaning it can even survive being submerged in water (though, as ever, we’re not recommending you test this enthusiastically). The imaging performance of the Galaxy S22 is consistently impressive, delivering punchy colours and good consistency between the different camera modules. There’s no dedicated macro mode as the ultra-wide-angle camera is fixed focus (you’ll have to pay for an Ultra model for that kind of luxury), but telephoto performance is generally very good as long as there’s sufficient light.
You can even record 8K video at 24p if that’s something you’re interested in; though in truth, most people will probably be just fine with the excellent 4K, which is also available on the selfie camera. Read our full . This is one of the more impressive budget phones we’ve tested recently, and if you’re looking for something that will deliver decent photo and video quality in a range of conditions, it’ll fit the bill well.
The Motorola Edge 40 Neo sports an unflashy but functional double camera system, the main camera being a 50MP unit with optical image stabilisation and an f/1.8 aperture. The 12.
5MP pixel-binned images it produces are punchy and full of colour – vibrant without getting that over-saturated feel that can plague a lot of phone cameras. We also found the phone to be a quietly capable performer in low light – taking it to a night-time skating event resulted in a batch of pleasingly detailed portraits, without the noise and blur that commonly mars low-light images from budget phones. The ultra-wide camera, a 13MP unit, is less good, producing images that lack detail, and the digital zooms are best avoided.
The 32MP selfie camera acquits itself well, and the phone also produces decent-looking 4K video. The Motorola Edge 40 Neo offers an unremarkable but capable imaging package for a very tempting price. Having taken it for a test drive, we can definitely recommend the phone for budget-conscious smartphone shooters.
If you like the look of the recently announced flagship but find it to be a little out of your budget, this is definitely a solid alternative. Read our full . You may well not have come across the Infinix Zero 30 5G before, but it’s a super-cheap phone with a pretty impressive camera setup – especially if you like taking selfies.
The front-facing camera is a 50MP module with an f/2.45 aperture and even phase-detection autofocus (PDAF). It puts out glorious 12MP images, though you can use the full 50MP resolution if you want, and offers a useful LED flash if you need a touch more light.
It can also be used to capture 4K 60p video. On the other side, things are also impressive. The main module is a 108MP wide-angle that uses 9-in-1 pixel binning to produce 11.
8MP images. One thing we particularly like here is that one of the lens elements is glass rather than plastic, improving quality and light-gathering ability, also helped by a generous aperture of f/1.65.
Here once again there is PDAF, and you can also crop in significantly with the 3x lossless zoom to simulate telephoto reach. Alongside it is a 13MP ultra-wide-angle camera, with autofocus – this powers the macro mode. There’s also a 2.
4MP “depth” camera to help with portrait mode. The Infinix Zero 30 5G really is impressive for its price, but the catch is that it’s only available in certain territories. If you can get it, the phone is definitely worth considering – we came away pretty impressed following our review, with the camera(s) capturing natural-looking results in a wide variety of shooting situations.
Read our full The latest and best in Samsung’s Galaxy A line of budget-friendly smartphones, the Samsung Galxy A55 is not a terribly flashy phone. It doesn’t have the AI wizardry of the latest Galaxy S handsets – however, as you’d expect, it’s available at a much cheaper price. The RRP about the phone is £439 (it’s not currently available in the US) and regular offers and discounts mean it’s often practically even cheaper than that.
And the good news is that you still get a highly capable camera phone for the money. The triple-camera setup on the Galaxy A55 is fairly standard for a phone of this type, and isn’t changed much from the previous . The main event, and one you’ll spend most of your time using, is the 50MP f/1.
8 wide-angle main camera with optical stabilisation; this camera outputs images at 12MP with pixel binning, and the level of quality is consistently good, with pleasing detail. There’s also a 12MP ultra-wide camera, which does a commendable job of matching it for detail and colour reproduction. Then there’s also the 5MP macro camera with fixed focus, which is.
.. okay at best.
We would have preferred a telephoto module with a decent bit of power behind it; though of course, this would have added to the cost. The phone is pleasant to use – it’s got that Samsung smoothness in its operation and interface. The photo app is intuitive and comes with packed with fun shooting modes, as well as manual mode to give you full settings control.
The display offers a refresh rate of 120Hz (pretty good) and a peak brightness of 1,000 nits (less so). We appreciate the generous battery with 5000mAh capacity, though a wireless charging option would have been nice. The Samsung Galaxy A55 is not any kind of wheel reinvention from the previous model in the series, but it’s another solid mid-range camera phone that does a consistently good job of capturing quality images and videos.
Plus, the aforementioned frequent discounts mean you stand a decent chance of picking it up for a bargain price. Read our full . Even though this is a reasonably mid-priced phone, the Honor 90 still manages to pack in a , with a 1/1.
4 inch sensor that’s upgraded in size compared to the previous version. Elsewhere on the phone, you’ve got an ultra-wide 12MP module with a 16mm equivalent lens, and a 2MP ‘depth’ camera that’s intended for creating images with a shallow depth of field (a.k.
a. Portrait Mode). All this adds up to a pretty impressive package for a smartphone at this price – which varies depending on whether you want 256GB or 512GB of storage.
In our full review, we found the Honor 90 to be a pleasant and capable camera phone that was able to cope with a wide variety of shooting situations. It can’t shoot 8K video and 4K tops out at 30fps, but it’s only a small percentage of users who are going to be bothered about that. Realistically, the bigger omission for most people is going to be the lack of a telephoto camera, reducing your options when shooting at a distance.
Most of the specialist modes are decent enough, though we found the close-up SuperMacro mode to be fairly lacklustre, resulting in an undesirable loss of image detail. The display on the Honor 90 is gorgeous, and we came away pretty impressed by how long the battery was capable of holding up. It produces consistently attractive images too, especially when you stick with the main camera module.
For this price, it’s an excellent phone all-around. Read our full . The Xiaomi 12T Pro’s 200MP resolution is not all it seems, since it uses pixel binning (combining the signals from several pixels) to produce a default resolution of just 12.
5MP in most modes. There is a 50MP UltraHD mode which is usable in good light but the 200MP mode is very poor. The ultra-wide camera is just 8MP, and the macro camera seems pretty pointless with just 2 megapixels.
You do get a variety of ‘long exposure’ modes. 4K video can be recorded at 60fps or 30fps, with the option of 8K capture, and high-speed video at up to 1920fps at reduced resolution. The case of the Xiaomi 12T Pro is quite slim but the camera array stands proud on the back and the main camera sticks out still further, so it wobbles a little when laid flat.
though only via the supplied 120W charger and cable. Image quality from the main camera is good, but the ultra-wide and macro cameras are less impressive. The 200MP sensor seems more of a marketing gimmick than a practical tool.
Read our full The , at the top of the list for Xiaomi’s mid-range Redmi series is one of the which gives the best results and while nowhere near what you’d get from a real camera with a high resolution sensor, as long as you treat the camera as a 12.5MP camera you should be pleased with the results. The is capable but image quality is poor, particularly towards the corners of the frame.
The is quite frankly terrible. If you want a budget smartphone with a large , , and a , and aren’t really too concerned about the camera features, then this is a phone that could be for you. Read our full With the Pixel 7, Google has wisely concentrated on a good 50MP main camera and a decent 12MP ultra-wide camera, and not tried to add in a third ‘macro’ camera.
The cameras are mounted in the Pixel’s controversial (design-wise) ‘camera bar’. The Pixel 7 has a slightly smaller screen and body compared to the previous Pixel 6, together with an improved 10.8MP front-facing ‘selfie’ camera.
The Pixel 7 lacks the telephoto camera of the Pixel 7 Pro and has to make do with a ‘Digital Super Res’ zoom that offers up to 8x magnification but is best at the default setting of 2x. , and this phone has an IP68 rating which indicates it’s waterproof down to 1.5m depth for 30mins.
This phone does feel very well made. The image quality from the main camera is good, as is the ultra-wide camera, though there is some distortion. The selfie camera is fixed-focus, however, and the lack of a macro mode on this phone could prove a drawback.
Read our full With a whopping (5500mAh for US customers) battery the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite sports the longest battery life on our list. As a matter of fact it would rival some of the best flagship camera phones in this aspect. However there’s a catch, it only has one camera backed by a 50MP sensor.
But don’t let this put you off, it is a simple set up ,but that’s not always a bad thing. If you are a casual shooter and want a hassle-free camera the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite might just be the one for you. In good light it produces images with nicely saturated colours and good level of detail.
There’s a portrait mode on the main camera as well as on the selfie-camera, with a shallow depth of field effect. There is a 2x sensor crop option for zooming and a 10x digital zoom, however the latter is best avoided. Even though it lacks a dedicated macro mode, you can get reasonably close and fill the frame with some subjects.
The Full HD video created by it has decent colours, detail and is reasonably stable too. At 6.7”, the CE4 Lite is on the larger side, but surprisingly despite the low cost, the OLED display is actually pretty good – especially when it comes to brightness.
It is rated as IP54, which should see it resist dust fairly well, as well as splashes and so on. Read our full . The Google Pixel 7a is Google’s previous generation of entry-level smartphone, and represented a on the phone compared to what came before.
With a new 64MP wide-angle camera, a 13MP ultra-wide-angle camera, plus an updated 13MP selfie camera, all three cameras are capable of recording 4K video. You’ll also find that the phone has even more photography features than the cheaper Pixel 6a, including Motion Blur, which is great for creative shots of light painting, light trails, and smooth waterfalls. The Google Pixel 7a may not have a telephoto camera, but at this price point very few budget camera phones do.
To make up for this the phone uses Super Resolution Zoom, which gives reasonably good 2x zoom photos. You can use up to 8x zoom, but the results aren’t as good. Another nice feature of the Pixel 7a is the fact that the main camera can actually give pretty good close-up performance, even though it doesn’t have a dedicated “macro” mode.
Google is clearly committed to rolling out its AI-powered editing tools and has as long as they have a Google Photos account. You don’t even need a Google-made phone for this; it’ll work fine on iPhone and any other Android device. Read our full The Nothing Phone 1 includes 2 rear cameras, along with that form “GLYPH” lights.
These can be used for notifications, as well as more soft lighting when needed. The design is certainly unique, and it’s quite impressive what’s on offer for the price. There’s support for manual shooting, as well as raw images, and the usual portrait and night modes.
, with OIS, and an f/1.9 aperture. The ultra-wide-angle camera doesn’t quite perform as well, but considering the budget price, it’s nice to see that both the standard and the ultra-wide cameras are 50MP units, and both offer auto-focus.
This helps with , and the GLYPH lights mean you don’t always have to use the harsh LED flash when extra lighting is needed. Available in white (as shown above) or black, the phone certainly stands out from the crowd. This makes it especially appealing to those looking for something different to the usual smartphones from Apple and Samsung.
It has an RRP that is around $469/£400 for the 128GB version, but you might be able to find it on offer for similar prices for the 256GB version. The OPPO Reno8 Pro 5G lies in the middle of the Oppo range and includes a three-camera array and the MariSilicon X neural processing unit (NPU), inherited from the Find X5 Pro. Oppo is pitching this smartphone strongly at photographers, including both Night and Portrait modes, though no optical stabilization.
We have a guide to for astrophotography fans. , but the ultra-wide camera is pretty poor by comparison, with dull colors and much less detail from the 8MP sensor. The 2MP macro camera is worse still and captures very little detail.
The front camera, however has a 32MP sensor. The OPPO Reno8 Pro 5G can capture good quality 4K video, but only up to 30fps. Build quality is good, with a with a 6.
7in, 20:9 screen and Gorilla Glass front and back. This does make the Oppo very slippery, however, and best held with both hands or put in a case. It has an IP54 rating for dust and water resistance, so it should survive being accidentally splashed but not immersion in water.
The 4500 mAh battery can be charged to 50% with the supplied 80W charger. Read our full The Reno10 features a triple-lens set-up with good overall picture quality, ColorOs 13.1 operating system (android 13) and a large 5000mAh battery that provides (67W).
The main 64 MP camera performs best with a good amount of detail and well-saturated colours. The 2x telephoto also gives great results, the weakest 8MP ultrawide camera presents acceptable quality especially if you’ll only view images on your phone. Night and Portrait modes work well but there is no dedicated macro mode.
Instead, there is a Pro mode which allows you to control ISO, shutter speed and exposure compensation, making it more enticing for photographers, although there is still no option to shoot in raw format. 4K video recording now seems to become standard in the budget range, but with the Reno10 it only goes up to 30fps. The ‘Super Steady’ stabilisation is a welcome new addition available in Full HD video mode.
The 6.7 inch AMOLED screen has a relatively low 2412 x 1080 pixel resolution and no extra protection such as Gorilla Glass. Despite a few flaws, the Reno 10 is a good all-rounder that won’t set you back a fortune and delivers fine results.
We’ll concentrate on the photography features, and these centre around the phone’s camera array. These days, , each with its own sensor. Typically, the main camera will have the best sensor and widest-aperture lens, but you can also expect to get an ultra-wide camera too.
These typically have a lower resolution, however, and don’t usually match the main camera for quality, though they will be fine for most users. You may also get a ‘macro’ camera for ultra-close-ups, though in this price range, they sometimes have very low resolution and are not necessarily worth having. If you’re keen on close-ups, take a look at our .
What you tend not to get even in the best budget and mid-range camera phones is a telephoto camera. Instead, you have to rely on a digital zoom, which will be effective but won’t provide the same quality. It’s also worth checking out the front ‘selfie’ camera.
The specs vary, and if you film or photograph yourself a lot, a front camera with a good sensor and autofocus (not all have autofocus) is definitely worth having. . The best budget camera phones may have ‘resolutions’ of 50MP, 108MP or 200MP, but this doesn’t mean the same as it would in a regular camera.
These resolutions are ‘ ’ down to around 12 megapixels for actual shooting, and while there are modes that use the full resolution, . Otherwise, look out for the general features like the size of the screen, whether the phone uses toughened ‘Gorilla Glass’ or plastic, and how much memory and/or storage comes with the phone. Lastly, camera phones will often come with an IP rating that tells you how resistant it is to dust and moisture.
IP64, for example, means the phone is , while IP68 means the phone can withstand full immersion in water for a limited time..
