Cheapest Phones Under $50 – Top 10 Budget Phones

Latest Phones (2023)

Cheapest Phones Under $50 – Top 10 Budget Phones

June 12, 20206:34 pm By Chris

If you need the cheapest phones under USD 50 that are still very useful, this list can help you. These $20 to $50 budget phones can also be cheaper than the same phone models that are sold in your local store.

But before getting a very cheap phone online, you need to know the phones that you should avoid and the best specs that you can get for $20 to $50. Don’t fall for the trap of some very cheap phones that you will find useless in the end.

Contents (Jump to the sections below)
I. Best Specs for $20 to $50 budget phones
II. Top 10 Cheapest Phones for Sale Online
III. My Recommendations from the Top 10

Best Specs for $20 to $50 budget phones

Choose the Phone Type

There are two types of phones that you can choose from for a $20 to $50 budget: (1) Feature Phone and (2) Smartphone. Feature phones are generally cheaper than smartphones and some can still be very useful in 2020. A decent Feature Phone in 2020 could be as low as $20. You can easily recognize a feature phone with its physical keypad. It’s great for basic functionalities such as texting, calling, and receiving e-mails.

A modest and decent Smartphone in 2020 could be as low as $30. Smartphones are the type of phones that we usually see every day. It’s generally priced higher than a feature phone because it can do more than the basic functionalities. It has a wider screen that fills most of the space of the phone’s front surface. It has faster hardware and an extensive operating system where you can install a wide variety of apps and games.

Network Connectivity in 2020 (Avoid 2G Phones)

The network connectivity of very cheap smartphones online is one of the most important detail that you have to check. Smartphones or Feature phones within the $20 to $50 budget range can already connect to faster network bands like 4G LTE. There are a lot of very cheap phones for sale online that can connect to the 2G network only. You need to avoid those phones because 2G technology is already obsolete. Simply put, 2G phones that are being sold online won’t work for calling and texting.

Camera Quality – Good or Bad?

Excellent camera quality is not the best feature that you can find in the cheapest smartphones online, but the photos can still be good. For a $30 to $50 budget, you can already get an 8MP rear camera with HDR and 5MP front camera. As long as you have good lighting conditions, the photos can still be sharp and vivid like the photos captured from more expensive phones. Here is an example of a photo that was captured using Samsung Galaxy J3 Orbit which is only less than $50 (Tracfone).

Battery Life – The BEST feature

The very long battery life is the best feature of most Feature Phones. Since you will only use the basic functionalities in this type of phone, you are not going to use it as often as you use a smartphone. With moderate use, some feature phones can even last up to a few days without charging. The battery of feature phones is also removable. I know people who are able to use their feature phones for more than 10 years because they were able to replace the batteries.

A smartphone in the $30 to $50 price range’s battery life may vary depending on usage. Generally, it can have a long battery life that can last up to 9 hours of talk time and up to 14 days of standby time.

One of the factors for the long battery life of these cheap smartphones is the TFT display which does not consume too much power compared to the AMOLED display of expensive smartphones. Also, because of the lower RAM of cheap smartphones, users can only run a limited number of apps simultaneously and that saves battery life.

The big advantage of these cheap smartphones over expensive ones is that the battery is removable so you can purchase a replacement battery online.

CPU & RAM (The boring but very IMPORTANT specs you should NOT miss)

CPU or Central Processing Unit is the primary factor in a mobile phone’s performance. CPUs are classified as low-range, mid-range, or high-range, with high-range being the fastest and more expensive. For a Smartphone or Feature Phone between $20 to $50, you can expect 1.1 GHz to 1.5 GHz Quad-core low-range CPU. This CPU speed is good enough to meet your modest needs.

The Random-Access Memory or RAM of the phone is one of the specs that you need to look at because it also contributes to the speed of the phone. A higher RAM in a smartphone will give you faster performance when running multiple applications. The cheapest but decent Smartphones online right now have RAM that ranges from 512 MB to 2 GB.

Feature phones, on the other hand, usually have 512 MB RAM only. This RAM size is sufficient to run the basic functionalities smoothly.

Display – Quality and Size Options Vary

For a $30 to $50 smartphone, the touchscreen display size can range from 4.0″ to 5.5″. It is large enough to comfortably read texts and view images. You can also expect a colored High Definition (HD) resolution. This display quality can provide rich and vivid imagery and crystal-clear text.

For a $20 feature phone, you can expect a colored LCD (TFT) display with a size between 2.4″ to 2.8″. The display is not touchscreen and the resolution is usually QVGA (320 x 240 pixels). The smaller display size and QVGA resolution are good enough for texting, calling, calendar, and other basic utilities and games.

Operating System (OS) – Your Online Security is ALWAYS important

For smartphones in the $30 to $50 range, you can already expect an Android OS 8.0 to Android 9.0 OS. The latest Android OS in 2020 is Android 10.0. As you can see, the OS version of these cheap smartphones is not far from the latest Android OS. This means you can still have a secure and capable phone at a very cheap price. You can install most of the latest apps and games if your phone can meet its RAM and internal storage requirements.

A Feature Phone’s OS cannot install a variety of new applications. This is because the phone runs on an old proprietary OS that is powered by Java, not Android. This is actually good enough for users who just want the basic functionalities and can be very beneficial to those who want to be far from the negative effects of social media.

Network Availability – What to expect?

Smartphones and Feature phones that are locked to ONE specific network carrier can be as low as $30 and $20, respectively. Examples of these network carriers that offer the cheapest phones are Tracfone and Total Wireless. This doesn’t mean that you have to enter into a contract with these networks. You can purchase the prepaid plans separately. For example, Tracfone has a plan that has Unlimited Calls and Text with 1 GB of mobile data for 30 days.

Smartphones that can connect globally to any GSM carrier networks can be as low as $40. Examples of GSM networks in the United States that you can use are AT&T, T-Mobile, Cricket, Metro PCS, Straight Talk, and more.

Also, note that prices of phones online (e.g. Amazon) can be cheaper compared to the prices in the network carrier’s local store. An example of this is AT&T’s Cingular Flip 2 which is cheaper on Amazon compared to the price in the AT&T store.

Storage – Keep it Simple

Smartphones within the $30 to $50 price range already have 16 GB of internal storage. And since these are Android smartphones, it can use a microSD card up to 32 GB. Some of the phones can use up to 64 GB as well.

But I recommend only using a 32 GB microSD card so that it can read the microSD card faster. If you have a 64GB micro SD card or higher and there are a lot of files in, it will take more time for these very cheap phones to read it because of low-range CPU and the RAM that is not very high.

The $20 to $40 feature phones have 4 GB of internal storage, and can also use a micro SD card up to 32 GB. The internal storage is very small to install additional applications. I also do not advise installing applications in the microSD card if the phone even allows it because it will not be as fast when it’s installed in the internal memory. So, the additional 32GB is really just for multimedia files like photos, video clips, and documents.

Top 10 Cheapest Phones for Sale

Updated on: June 13, 2020 (Sorted from the lowest to the highest price)

#1 – Alcatel MyFlip

Type: Feature Phone
Network Connectivity: 4G LTE
Camera: 2MP
Battery Life: Up to 6.5 hours of talk time or 12 days of standby time
CPU& RAM: 1.1 GHz Quad-Core Processor; 512MB RAM
Display: 2.8″ (colored)
Operating System: Proprietary, Not Android
Storage: 4GB Internal Memory, supports microSD (up to 32GB)

Price: USD 19.75 (Tracfone); USD 19.88 (Total Wireless); USD 24.99 (Simple Mobile); USD 25.99 (Net10)