It’s not excellent, although. It’s simple sufficient to disregard the low-res display, however it doesn’t get very vivid, so studying the show on sunny days could be powerful. The machine itself feels very plasticky and attracts quite a lot of fingerprints on the again, so that you’ll wish to clear it recurrently. The foremost digital camera can snap some respectable pictures in the course of the day, however it’s fairly lackluster in low gentle. Overall, these flaws don’t detract from the Galaxy A13 5G’s worth. It’s a reasonably low-cost cellphone that simply works.
Works on all three main US carriers.
This OnePlus (7/10, WIRED Recommends) received’t work on Verizon and solely helps 4G LTE on AT&T, however it’s an in any other case glorious 5G cellphone that delivers spectacular specs. That consists of an AMOLED display (uncommon at this worth) and nice efficiency. It has a headphone jack, NFC, and a MicroSD card, plus it’ll get three years of safety updates. Downsides? The cameras are solely satisfactory, and the A13 will solely be up to date to Android 12.
Best Under $200 (and Best Battery Life)
Want the longest attainable battery life? Two days is fairly nice from the Pixel 5A or Galaxy A32 5G above, however Motorola’s Moto G Power (2021) can final round three full days on a single cost, due to its 5,000-mAh battery. It used to retail for $250 however is now nearly all the time $150, which makes it an excellent higher worth.
The Snapdragon 662 chip inside with 4 gigs of RAM is completely sufficient; you’ll be capable to run all of your apps and most video games simply superb. The 720p LCD show isn’t as good as our different picks, however it nonetheless will get vivid sufficient to see it in sunny circumstances outside. Similarly, the rear digital camera system fares effectively in the course of the day, however it’s inferior to the Pixel 5A in low gentle.
It solely comes with 64 gigabytes of storage, so that you’ll wish to make use of the MicroSD card so as to add extra space. There’s a headphone jack and a fingerprint sensor too, however no NFC. That means you possibly can’t use this cellphone to make contactless funds with providers like Google Pay. The biggest downside? Motorola will provide only one extra yr of safety updates, and this machine received’t be up to date to Android 12. This could be a deal-breaker for you, and that’s completely comprehensible.
You could be questioning why I didn’t advocate the newer Moto G Power 2022. That’s as a result of after operating benchmark assessments, I confirmed my suspicions that efficiency on the newer handset is markedly worse than the 2021 model (Motorola switched to a lesser Mediatek chipset). It’s very sluggish, and the outcomes from the digital camera additionally felt like a downgrade. It does final three full days, however so long as the 2021 Moto G Power continues to be out there, I feel it’s a greater purchase.
Works on all three main US carriers.
Not to be confused with the Moto G Stylus 5G, the Moto G Stylus 2022 is the lesser model that lacks 5G assist and NFC for contactless funds. It’s an in any other case completely superb cellphone, as I famous in my review, however it’s not an improve over its predecessor in any method. It performs effectively sufficient to run most apps and video games, you get almost two-day battery life, and it’ll get three years of safety updates (however one OS improve to Android 12).
There are solely two telephones on this information that assist wi-fi charging: the iPhone SE 2022 and the Nokia XR20 (7/10, WIRED Recommends). If you need the comfort of not having to plug in a charger to juice up your cellphone, that’s a adequate cause to spring for the XR20. (Read our Best Wireless Chargers guide for some suggestions.) It additionally occurs to be a rugged smartphone with out wanting too gaudy or too thick. I dropped it onto the sidewalk 3 times throughout my testing and it barely bought scuffed up (although that’s no assure it’ll survive each drop).
It recurrently dips to $500 or much less, which is why it has discovered a spot on this information. I used to be positively shocked once I examined the XR20 late in 2021. You get fairly dependable efficiency with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G, day-long battery life, a vivid LCD display, and dual-SIM assist, which isn’t frequent on most telephones offered within the US. There’s even a headphone jack, which is uncommon to see on pricier telephones, together with an IP68 water- and dust-resistance ranking.
