Weekend Poll: What Price Do You Consider To Be A ‘budget’ Smartphone?
It took a little longer than anyone intended to, but the Pixel 9a is finally here. My review went like on Android Police yesterday, and while I’d encourage anyone reading this to check it out, the short version is pretty simple: I like this phone a lot. Google’s been on a tear lately, earning high praise across the board for the entire Pixel 9 generation, but in my eyes, the Pixel 9a might be the best of the bunch. It’s not that this latest A-series entry can take on the 9 Pro spec-for-spec, of course; instead, it all comes down to what you get for the price.
Obviously, practically every MSRP is up in the air right now, depending on which way the tariff winds blow. But at its $500 launch price, the Pixel 9a is practically unbeatable. For the last year and change, $500 has been the sweet spot for scoring a perfectly good Android phone without breaking the bank. Last year saw the Pixel 8a and the OnePlus 12R square off, with each cutting just enough corners from their respective sources of flagship inspiration to bring the price down by a few hundred bucks. Google offered a great camera and clean software build, while OnePlus offered high-end performance and a big-and-bright display.
But while OnePlus restored some of those missing features on its latest R-series entry — especially when it comes to the camera — it came at a quite literal price. At $600, the OnePlus 13R, like Apple’s new iPhone 16e, are pretty firmly out of whatever you’d call “budget” territory. The Pixel 9a, similarly, made sure to improve plenty of the weaknesses last seen on the 8a, all while keeping that MSRP locked at $500 for another generation.
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Except… is $500 actually a budget smartphone? In my head, and in this current economic climate, I’d argue it’s at the absolute top of the space, the last number you could possibly argue in favor of before entering the midrange space. And yet, I’m sure plenty of people would disagree with me, and it’s hard not to understand why. While we’ve all adapted to a world of four-digit flagships, it wasn’t all too long ago where the typical high-end smartphone fell somewhere between $600 and $700. It’s tough to square that with a $500 “budget” smartphone.
You can, of course, find plenty of options well below that $500 price point. Motorola has plenty of options ranging from $200 to $400, and you can pretty frequently spot steep discounts on those already-low prices. Samsung’s Galaxy A-series isn’t as streamlined as Google’s, but its prices also range significantly lower, offering respectable devices for as low as $200 or $300. Those are undoubtedly budget offerings, but they also come with far more cut corners, caveats, and constraints than Google’s Pixel 9a.
Nearly five years ago, my former AP co-worker Ryne Hager asked our readers what they considered to be a budget Android phone. Options in that particular poll ranged from under $100 all the way up to $400. By those metrics, it’s not just the OnePlus 13R and the iPhone 16e that would fall outside the “budget” moniker — it’s the Pixel 9a too. Yet, when you adjust for inflation, $400 in September of 2020 has the same buying power today of around $491. In other words, about $500.
So, I’m redoing that very same poll, albeit with some changes. I’ve streamlined the responses below to deliver $100 price ranges, rather than dividing numbers by $50 increments. It’s not unheard of, but these days, most phones start at round numbers — $200, $300, $400 — rather than launching for $250 or $350. It’s just a better way to keep things simple, but if you have a specific device in mind that falls at a very specific price, sound off in the comments below.
Otherwise, this is a pretty straightforward question. What do you, in 2025, consider to be a “budget” price for a smartphone? Are you a purist sticking with that $200 response, or are you fine spending up to $500 for your next phone as long as the experience is truly worth it?
