Best Budget 5G Android Smartphones under $600
We have ranked the top 5 budget smartphones under the $600 mark to help you in making the right decision.
The price of smartphones is going significantly up at a high pace. Like how can Apple get away with charging nearly $1500 for a top-spec iPhone or Samsung it’s $1600 for an S21 Ultra?
This price hike is even more confusing for some companies like One Plus, a company that has built its entire reputation on creating affordable flagships their latest phone is around $1000.
So, What are we left with?
Top 5 Best Budget Android Smartphones(under $600) with 5G connectivity
Google Pixel 4a 5G
Cracking our number 5 spot is Google Pixel 4a. Google never wanted to make its phone flashy rather it makes them simple and just to describe google phones we would choose the word “Simple”.
Google Pixel 4a is no exception to the main theme of google it has a mat finish with slightly rounded corners.
Then we have a square camera bump along with a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner and it has that all-new futuristic punch-hole design for a front-facing camera.
It got stereo speakers along with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack on the top which is pretty rare these days.
Specifications Overview:
Now let’s dig into the specifications first thing you will notice is that it has a 6.2 inches OLED HDR display with a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels.
This display panel is 60Hertz but it has got those all-balanced bezels that give it its simple but elegant look.
Google Pixel 4a is powered by Qualcomm SM7250 Snapdragon 765G 5G (7 nm) Chipset, which is not the fastest in the market but is the most balanced processor of performance to battery life.
Speaking of battery life it has a Li-Po 3885 mAh non-removable battery
This battery doesn’t seem enough for a 6.2 OLD display but it lasts about 7 hours on-screen on time and it also has a new always-on display feature for notifications.
Moving on to the storage it has a 128 GB of UFS 2.1 paired with 6Gb of Ram which is enough for a pixel as it runs stock android.
The software optimization is one of the best on Andriod smartphones as it comes with stock android 11 and gets updates more quickly than any other Andriod phone.
The most prominent feature of Pixel has always been its camera as they click some unbelievable pictures. They do not have any fancy hardware but manage to compete with flagship phones.
It has got a 12.2 MP, f/1.7, 27mm (wide), 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, dual pixel along with PDAF and OIS. It also has a 16 MP, f/2.2, 107˚ (ultrawide), 1.0µm lens which results in minimum image quality drop as we switch to ultra-wide.
The biggest improvement is in its video department and it can shoot [email protected]/60fps, [email protected]/60/120/240fps. It has an 8 MP, f/2.0, 24mm (wide), 1/4.0″, 1.12µm front-facing camera which can record up to [email protected] It also has Amazing astrophotography mode, Night sight, HDR, and many more features.
Verdict:
Overall it is a complete package you get 5G, a decent battery life, Headphone Jack, an Amazing Camera, a fast pure stock Android, A bright OLED display, and Ample storage so what more do you need?
OnePlus Nord 5G
One plus has always thrived through its online marketing and one plus Nord, in particular, has been the focus of a ton of hype.
This is a true midrange, unlike the more expensive device which we have seen from One plus in the past.
Have they really returned to their flagship killing roots? Let’s find out, Starting from its design it is an attractive phone with a glass back along with a plastic side frame.
It has got rounded edges that make it quite comfortable in hand and it is offered in spectacular colors that look great.
We get splash proofing as well on this device however there is no official IP rating for water or dust.
On the front, it got a dual pill-shaped cutout selfie camera and on the side, we have volume rockers, a power button,s, and a notification slider.
Specification Overview:
One Plus Nord has an Amazing 6.44 inches Fluid AMOLED 1080p display with a fast 90Hz refresh rate along with HDR10+.
It has a screen resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels along with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection against scratches.
This is an adaptive display and it changes according to your content and results in super smooth and highly sharp images. moreover, it has got an optical reader under the display and it is both accurate and lightning-fast.
Powering this phone is none other than Qualcomm SM7250 Snapdragon 765G 5G (7 nm). It comes with 64GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM, and 256GB 12GB RAM option which is more than enough.
Speaking of which this phone packs a Li-Po 4115 mAh nonremovable battery that goes hand in hand with this well-optimized processor.
Moreover, it supports fast charging of 30W and can charge the phone up to 70% in just 30 min. Sadly there is no audio jack and it has only a single speaker that is just above average.
We do get different sound enhancement software that somehow compensates but even these cannot fully cover the audio deficiency.
Moving on to the camera department, One plus Nord has a total of four cameras on the back. A 48 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/2.0″, 0.8µm along with PDAF and OIS, an ultrawide camera of 8 MP, f/2.3, 119˚ angle, a 5 MP, f/2.4 depth camera along with a 2 MP, f/2.4 macro sensor.
These cameras are able to record [email protected] and [email protected]/60/240fps. on the front side, we have a 32 MP, f/2.5, (wide), 1/2.8″, 0.8µm shooter along with an ultrawide 8 MP, f/2.5, 105˚ angle. The front camera can record [email protected]/60fps and [email protected]/60fps.
Verdict:
Overall it is a complete package it got a sharp display along with one of the best software optimization and it also got a perfect battery size paired with the most power-efficient processor along with 5G connectivity.
It comes with Oxygen OS which is by far close to stock android and animations look super smooth due to the 90Hz AMOLED panel.
One Plus Nord also got an optical fingerprint reader under the display which is a plus feature for some users.
Samsung Galaxy A52
Samsung is one of the top-selling Mobile phone brands and it is known for its luxurious Galaxy S and Note series.
Well, Samsung wanted to attract a larger market, so it introduced its mid-range budget series known as the A-series.
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G is no exception and it is one of the best in this series.
This phone has a unique design its back pane is made out of plastic but it doesn’t feel like plastic because it got beautiful new Awesome colors with a mat finish and this plastic back doesn’t feel cheap.
It feels sturdy in hand but it also has Ip67 water resistance. It is quite a large phone but it has a slim and sleek profile so, so it feels comfy to hand. The volume rockers and the power button are on the same side.
Now, let’s dig into the specifications.
Specification Overview:
Samsung is known for its displays and Samsung Galaxy A52 lives up to that reputation. It has decent 6.5 inches Super AMOLED Plus with 1080 x 2400 screen resolution and the front side has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection as well and it got a 120Hz refresh rate.
This is a super bright and good-quality display but it doesn’t support HDR 10 content. It has 128 Gb of UFS 2.1 fast storage along with 6GB or 8Gb ram depending on the variant you are buying.
Moreover, if you want more space then lucky for you it offers expandable storage through a microSD card. This phone has stereo speakers and a 3.5mm audio jack as well.
At the heart of the Samsung Galaxy A52, there is a Qualcomm SM7225 Snapdragon 750G 5G (8 nm) chipset that outperforms each and every task well so you don’t have to worry about its performance.
The phone is equipped with a large Li-Po 4500 mAh non-removable battery that can last all day even with 5G moreover it supports Fast charging of 25W and can charge up to 50% in just 30 minutes.
The quad-camera setup on the back includes a 64 MP sharpshooter with an aperture of f/1.8, that supports PDAF and OIS. Then it got an ultrawide camera of 12 MP with an aperture of f/2.2 and 123˚ degree field of view.
In addition to that, It has a 5Mp depth camera and a 5Mp macro camera that allows you to take some really good closeup shorts. The rear camera unit can record [email protected], [email protected]/60fps.
The punch hole design selfie camera has a 32 MP lens that can record [email protected], [email protected], and supports HDR. There are tons of shooting modes as well including AR mode.
Verdict:
This phone has 5G, Awesome mat finishes, a Fast processor, Ample memory, and a good camera. Moreover, the phone comes with a Samsung One UI 3.1 based on Android 11 straight out of the box.
This UI has a dark theme that helps to save a little bit of extra battery and its animations are really good.
For security, it has an optical fingerprint reader under its display and an Always-on display for Notifications.
Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro 5G
Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro 5G is a flagship-grade phone made from a material phone.
It has got glass on the front as well as on the back as well and the frame is aluminum and the back has a glossy mirror-like surface.
The back is also slightly curved and feels comfy in hand and it has Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the front and back as well. The front design is the same popular punch-hole screen.
Volume rockers and power buttons are on the same side, what is more, impressive is the location of its fingerprint scanner which is embedded in the power button.
This device is truly a camera powerhouse, possessing a flagship-level 108 MP camera sensor.
Specification Overview:
On the front Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro 5G got a 6.67 inches IPS LCD display with a super-fast 144Hz refresh rate.
This is one of the best LCD displays available on the market as it even supports HDR10+ content and can get 650 nits peak brightness.
Due to this high refresh rate scrolling, the content looks smoother, and the refresh rate is adaptive and adjusts according to the content.
As far as the audio is concerned it has stereo speakers on the bottom and the earpiece acts as the second one. The audio quality is also impressive but unfortunately, there is no headphone jack.
The storage is not expandable butt you get UFS 3.1 ultra-fast memory of 128GB with 8GB RAM or 256GB with 8GB RAM which is more than enough for many users.
On the front Xiaomi Mi 10, T Pro 5G got a 6.67 inches IPS LCD display with a super-fast 144Hz refresh rate. This is one of the best LCD displays available on the market as it even supports HDR10+ content and can get 650 nits peak brightness.
Due to this high refresh rate scrolling, the content looks smoother, and the refresh rate is adaptive and adjusts according to the content.
The storage is not expandable butt you get UFS 3.1 ultra-fast memory of 128GB with 8GB RAM or 256GB with 8GB RAM which is more than enough for many users.
At the heart of Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro 5G, there is Qualcomm SM8250 Snapdragon 865 5G (7 nm+) flagship-grade chipset, so the performance is excellent and you get 5G connectivity as well.
This phone has a Li-Po 5000 mAh non-removable battery that supports 33W fast charging and can charge up to 61% in just 30 minutes.
Now let’s talk about what makes this phone unique its 108MP camera sensor. It has a triple camera sensor on the back i.e 108 MP with an aperture of f/1.7 and supports PDAF and OIS as well.
For further enhancement, it has got a 13 MP ultrawide lens with a 123˚ wide field of view, and finally, a 5 MP macro camera as well.
This is the first budget smartphone that can shoot [email protected], [email protected]/60fps, and [email protected]/60/120fps.
On the front, we have a single punch-hole camera of 20 MP that can record video of [email protected] and [email protected]
Verdict:
Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro is a complete flagship killer you get a super-fast 144Hz refresh rate LCD display, a Flagship processor, a Super-detailed 108 Mp camera, stereo speakers, and Awesome battery life with fast charging capabilities.
Xiaomi Black Shark 4 5G
We have seen many dedicated gaming smartphones in the past couple of years. What do they have in common? They got top-of-the-line hardware and the best software to support it.
Well, they all share a very high price tag that can cost up to $2500, but this is a budget smartphone list and what we offer is the best budget gaming smartphone.
Xiaomi Black Shark 4 5G might not have top specifications but it does have enough to run any game at super high refresh rates.
So starting with the design we have a holographic X on the plastic back panel and the front has a glass panel. It got an aluminum frame and magnetic Physical pop-up gaming triggers that can be programmed accordingly.
Specification Overview:
Xiaomi Black Shark 4 has a 6.67 inches Super AMOLED display with a super-fast 144Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ supported, and 1300 nits peak brightness.
Everything looks super smooth on this display and it is an OLED display so the colors are quite accurate and crisp as well.
It runs on Joy UI 12.5 based on Android 11 which is Xiaomi-specific software built for gaming phones.
It has stereo speakers located on the front grill and bottom and we also have a 3.5mm audio jack as well.
For security, we have got a side-mounted super-fast fingerprint reader.
Moreover, it has got a non-removable battery of Li-Po 4500 mAh.
The battery supports Ultra-fast 120W charging and can charge this device to 100% in just 17 minutes.
The is available in 128GB with 6GB RAM, 128GB with 8GB RAM, 128GB with 12GB RAM, and 256GB with 12GB RAM.
At the heart of Xiaomi Black Shark 4 lies Qualcomm SM8250-AC Snapdragon 870 5G (7 nm) which can handle any game and deliver an outstanding performance as well.
The main feature of this phone is its touch response and those physical trigger buttons that can pop up with a mechanical switch.
It also has tons of add-ons but the most notable one is its fun cooler 2. The phone has a massive fan paired with an aluminum heatsink and of course RBG lights as well. This also has a digital display for temperature and helps to remove the heat during intense gaming sessions.
Generally, Gaming smartphones don’t have a good camera but Xiaomi Black Shark 4 has a triple camera setup in the rear, it has a 48 MP primary sensor with an aperture of f/1.8, and it also has an 8MP ultrawide lens and a 5MP macro lens.
The main sensor can record up to [email protected]/60fps, [email protected]/60/240fps, and [email protected] while we have a 20Mp front selfie camera that can record up to [email protected]
Verdict:
This is a great value-to-money budget gaming phone.
We get a super crispy Super AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate, a flagship processor, and dedicated gaming software. Some innovative features like physical gaming switches that can be mapped, and an Active cooler, make this phone worth buying.