Best budget smartphone 2019: The best cheap phones you can buy in the UK

Looking to save money on your next smartphone? We reveal the best budget phones you can buy in the UK in 2019

Aren't modern smartphones excellent? It's like having a mini-supercomputer in your pocket compared to the bulky handsets of old. Technology, on the whole, has been getting better every year and – crucially – much cheaper, too. You no longer need to hand over wallet-wilting sums of cash for your annual smartphone upgrade. Move your gaze away from those usual smartphone flagship big-hitters and you'll find yourself a fantastically priced bargain, as there are some cracking budget smartphones to be found.

Yes, those headline-grabbing flagships such as Samsung's Galaxy S10 and the iPhone Xs are wonderful, but you no longer have to spend top dollar for a great smartphone experience. Would you like to know more? Well, that's where we come in. These are the very best budget smartphones you can buy in 2019.

How to buy the best budget smartphone for you

Picking the perfect budget phone isn't easy and there are all sorts of factors to consider when making your purchase. Before you head to the checkout, you'll want to make sure you have all the bases covered, so to make your decision a little bit easier, we've highlighted the main criteria you need to look out for.

Should I buy a phone on contract or SIM-free? 

Budget smartphones are, as you'd expect, cheaper to buy outright than other handsets, with prices starting at around £50 in some cases. As a result, if you have the cash, we recommend that you buy one SIM-free. You can then find the right SIM-only deal from any network and sell your phone when you want to upgrade. If you don't have the cash upfront, you'll need to go for a contract deal, but these don't tend to be great value for budget phones as you end up spending so much more by the time your contract period ends.

Which smartphone operating system do I need?

With budget phones, there isn't much choice when it comes to mobile operating systems. Bar one exception, every budget smartphone is running on Google's increasingly-popular OS, Android. Rest assured, though: Android is very easy to use whether you're a first-time user or mobile veteran. Just make sure to check which Android version the phone is running as older versions may no longer be supported with regular security updates and lack in essential features. 

If iOS is more your thing, you only have one choice. Apple's dinky iPhone SE might be long in the tooth, but it's still on sale and remains an excellent budget Apple device. Generally speaking, iOS offers a far more streamlined experience, with apps appearing first on Apple's storefront, but lacks the sheer customisability of Android.

What should I look for in a smartphone display?

While flagship phones are fitted with the best, biggest and highest resolution screens, you can still find budget smartphones with high-quality displays. Cheap handsets these days usually have a minimum screen resolution of 1,280 x 720, but some slightly more expensive alternatives offer Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) resolution displays for sharper viewing. 

Nearly all of the budget smartphones we recommend use LCD panel technology, which is more than good enough. However, we're now starting to see AMOLED displays crop up at the lower end of the scale as well, as with Samsung's budget phones, which produce even better colours and much deeper blacks. Read our full reviews if you want to know the details of how good a phone's screen is.

Battery life and performance

Budget phones, as the name suggests, aren't equipped with top-end internals. But that's not to say their performance is bad – far from it as we're starting to see reasonably high clock speed chips make an appearance in handsets at the bottom end of the spectrum. To get a good idea of what to expect from a phone's performance, you'll want to look at the clock speed of the chip (measured in GHz) and how much RAM is inside (anything more than 4GB will suffice). 

Battery life is a crucial aspect of whether a phone is good or not, and each phone's stamina is different. When considering your next budget phone, keep an eye out on the phone's battery capacity (measured in mAh) – the higher the number, the longer you can expect the battery to last on a single charge. If you're stuck, we've rounded up the longest-lasting phones in one place. 

How much storage do I need?

It's amazing how much storage you can eat through on a phone with apps, games and images taking up a lot of space. You'll want at least 16GB of onboard storage and you'll want to look out for phones with a microSD card slot, as you can cheaply add more space when your internal storage eventually fills up.