Best 5G Smartphones Under $300 (2026): Tested Picks That Are Actually Worth Buying

The under $300 smartphone market is not the desert of low resolution, laggy, compromises that it once was. A couple years ago, the term budget phone was defined by an LCD screen, slow chipset and perhaps two years of software updates which now become the most competitive segment in the smartphone market. In 2026, looking for the best 5g smartphones under $300 no longer means settling for a frustrating experience. Brands like Samsung, Motorola, Google and OnePlus are all competing for the same buyer, one who wants to own a phone that feels good in their hands all day long without spending $1,000 high-end device.

Features that were once found in only premium phones are gradually gaining position in under $300 smartphones.  The presence of AMOLED screens, 120Hz refresh rate, as well as powerful hardware such as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 makes a pleasant daily experience regardless of multitasking, streaming, or gaming activities.

The software side of the development is just as impressive. Samsung and Google provide six or more years of updates for some budget smartphones which were not even considered before just a few years back. This means that a $300 smartphone can now stay reliable and functional for many years. 

Despite this, have realistic expectations. You’re not likely to be getting flagship gaming performance, fastest charging on the market, or a telephoto camera at this price. Each of the phones below has at least one legitimate weakness, be it a weak plastic frame, a dim screen, a camera that doesn’t work at night. It’s not about finding a phone that has no issues, it’s about working out which issues you can tolerate.

The same routine was followed on all phones. Same apps, charging time was measured and the same set of daylight, low-light or portrait photos were taken back-to-back for a fair comparison.

How We Tested

Every phone was my main phone for at least 8 to 10 weeks and no backup phones, no choosing time frames that were good. I made sure to record a series of photos on each phone using screen-on time, which I recorded using the built-in battery stats, and then timed the charging on each phone using a wall meter while the charging time was between roughly 20% and 80%, while also taking the same photo set, a shaded doorway, a backlit window, a dimly lit kitchen at night, and a selfie in mixed indoor light on each phone within the same hour to maintain lighting conditions. I also compared each brand’s official support policy with actual update release histories, as promised support and actual support are not necessarily equal.

Comparison Table

The 10 Best 5G Smartphones Under $300

1. Samsung Galaxy A26 5G (Best Overall)

Price: $262.99 at Amazon

Quick Verdict: This is the phone that I would reach for after the review period. It’s not necessarily the best in any given category, but in its day-to-day usage, I never once found myself wishing it did something better during normal daily use.

Why We Recommend It: The combination of a truly impressive 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display screen, 5000mAh battery, and Samsung’s promise of 6 years of updates, along with its water resistance (IP67), is difficult to beat with any other phone in this category.

The first thing I noticed in the Samsung Galaxy A26 wasn’t the screen, it was how the phone would pick up mid-notification. Unlocking with the side fingerprint sensor and diving straight into the reply felt immediate, lacking half second delay found as I experienced on the Moto G (2026). It only stumbles whenever I multitask. 

For example leaving Google Maps active in the background and switching to Spotify and then coming back results in a visible app reload gap of a second or two, an error that never happened on the A36. By day three, I completely forgot the AMOLED display was good for a budget phone because it was just the screen for me which I used.

The outdoor display of Samsung Galaxy A26 exceeded my expectations. I did not have to shield the screen with my hands to read the text as I had to do while using Moto G power because the AMOLED’s contrast did a lot of work that raw brightness usually handles. While playing a demanding game at high settings, I had to experience drop frames from time to time especially if Chrome is still open in the background.

In side by side testing with the Pixel 8a and the Moto G Power, the 50Mp main camera of Samsung Galaxy A26 delivers brighter shadows, warmer colors and vibrant photos that are ideal for any social media individual, just not the true to the scene kind that the Pixel delivers. But the downside that I felt was the backlit window shot. Night mode is decent but not amazing. To be honest, after the first day I didn’t use the 2MP macro lens.

The battery life in practice over 1 week of typical use was just over 6 hours of screen-on time between charges, even with Wi-Fi at home, cellular data on the move, GPS navigation twice, Spotify listening during a commute, and the regular use of Instagram. 25W charging isn’t quick, with a real hour on the wall to get a full charge.

One UI 7 based on android 15 delivers a polished and intuitive software experience that feels mature not overloaded. Features like Circle to Search are something that I never thought I’d use almost every day. It’s six years of OS and security updates, ripe enough to be patched well into the early 2030s, a promise that’s very rare this far down the price spectrum.

Pros of Samsung Galaxy A26:

• High contrast 120Hz Super AMOLED Screen.
• Class leading 6 years Software Support.
• Reliable all-day battery
• IP67 water resistance

Cons of Samsung Galaxy A26:

• Background applications reload during multitasking.
• When using backlight on images, highlights are clipped more than expected.
• Slow Charging speed.

Scorecard of Samsung Galaxy A26

Who Should Buy It? Students, parents or anyone who wants to upgrade from an old device with years of security updates staying under a $300 budget, this is the best of all.

2. Google Pixel 8a (Best Camera)

Price: $252.88 at Amazon

Quick Verdict: The Pixel 8a originally launched at $499 but now regularly appears on the market, refurbished or at a discount, for under $300. At that price, it is in the league of its own offering the best camera and it comes with Google’s best-in-class seven-year software promise.

Why We Recommend It: Tensor G3 offers true computational photography, Gemini features, and extended guaranteed updates.

Real-World Experience: After using A26 for a week, the first thing I noticed is the size of Google Pixel 8a, having 6.1 inch frame felt small but in a good way. One handed scrolling, subway texting, and slipped into my jeans pocket, it was the only phone that didn’t feel like I was carrying a phablet. The app switching was instant and I can’t blame all of the credit for that on the raw horsepower, the Tensor G3 isn’t a powerhouse.

The Actua display (rated up to 2,000 nits peak) was easier to read at a glance, displayed side-by-side with the A26 in direct sunlight, while the AMOLED still did a decent job in contrast. The Pixel took the lead in another department, color accuracy, with greens appearing like real leaves instead of the fairly over blown green that Samsung is known for.

The camera is the reason I purchase it. The A26 and Moto G Power both resulted in grainy and slightly smeared images of the same dim kitchen area, but the Pixel’s Night Sight mode did not disappoint me, with the text on a cereal box visible on the frame. This test shows how natural skin tones appeared under any phone in daylight, whereas the A26 had a warm and bright appearance which was perfect for Instagram but didn’t feel quite as natural as seeing with the eye. 

The battery size is the smallest at 4,492mAh, and that’s what it did, I got about an hour more screen-on time than the A26, and far more than the Moto G Power. By 2026 standards, wired charging at 18W is slow, but I did use the charging pad from Motorola and Samsung most nights for the 7.5W charging, something that none of these phones support.

7 years of software and security updates running till 2031. Plus the true-to-life and useful Gemini utilities such as Magic Editor, makes it feel more premium here and there than it appears at this price.

Pros of Google Pixel 8a

• Clean best camera, particularly under low-light conditions.
• Seven years of software & security updates.
• Compact size, truly one-hand friendly.
• Wireless charging included

Cons of Google Pixel 8a

• The shortest battery life.
• Slow 18W wired charging
• This item is only available when it’s on sale or refurbished.

Scorecard of Google Pixel 8a

Who Should Buy It? Photography enthusiasts and those wishing to see the software on the longest runway, as long as you’re willing to take the option of purchasing refurbished or an opportunity sale.

3. Motorola Moto G Power (2025) (Best Battery)

Price: $129.99 Motorola Store and Amazon 

Quick Verdict: Moto G Power resolves one specific issue that plagues many phones, namely if the current phone dies by 6pm, this is a much better solution than anything mentioned here  at the price of the most attractive phone screen.

Why We Recommend It: Motorola really geared towards one purpose and it did just that it was the only phone in my test group that regularly had 20%+ of its battery life remaining at the end of a full day of real use.

I noticed the difference on day 2, when I had not charged overnight but had 34% of battery left by 7am after a full day of usage the day before. I can’t say the same thing about any of the other phones in this list. You’ll see the trade-off when you open the camera app at low light levels or when you try to do two things simultaneously, and that hesitation you don’t seem to have with A26 and A36.

The difference is immediately apparent when displayed in the same lighting conditions as the A26, colors look flatter, blacks appear dark gray and not black. It is an excellent LCD screen, the display is clear and crisp, the 120Hz refresh per second makes scrolling comfortable, if you’ve had any experience with an AMOLED phone in the past few years, you’ll see the difference in the first five minutes.

Cameras daylight shots were fairly good, reasonably accurate colors but certainly less detailed than the A26 when zoomed in on the same shaded doorway comparison shot. The quality inside was worse than I would have hoped, with a dinner table shot under warm bulb lighting looking visibly softer, and yellow-cast when compared to the same shot on the Pixel 8a.

Battery Life is all that matters. During the same five-day test window, I spent a bit more than 7 hours screen-on, which is about an hour more than the A26 and nearly 2 hours more than the Pixel 8a. The 30W TurboPower charging is truly quick and punchy as well too, as a 15-minute charge at low battery gave me a solid, usable amount to get going with before heading out.

The real trade-off is software & Updates. Motorola’s update commitment here is thin, Samsung’s or Google’s guarantees to provide several years of security patches and a good number of significant OS upgrades. Take this into account if you’re going to have a phone for 5 years or more.

Pros of Moto G Power

• Great real-world battery life in all the phones tested.
• Fast and truly functional 30W TurboPower charging.
• Wireless design, convenient, comfortable vegan leather, with headphone jack.
• microSD expandable storage.

Cons of Moto G Power

• The LCD display looks noticeably flatter.
• Weak long-term software update commitment
• Camera performance drops indoors.

Scorecard of Moto G Power

Who Should Buy It? Chronic over-schedulers, shift workers, and frequent travelers are people who hate low battery notifications.

4. Motorola Edge (2024) (Best Gaming)

Price: $249.99 at Motorola Store, $288 at Amazon 

Quick Verdict: frequently available for under $300, this is the closest you’ll get to a budget flagship, with a powerful chipset and a smooth 144Hz screen refresh rate display that usually leave budget phones behind.

Why We Recommend It: This was the only phone in the group where I was able to forget I was using a below $300 phone.

I have installed League of Legends: Wild Rift on Motorola Edge and the Moto G (2026) simultaneously. Animations were choppy but noticeable on the G (2026) and was relatively fine-tuned enough on the Edge that I didn’t give much thought to how it looked. It’s the biggest real world performance gap I noticed during my test, not because of benchmark numbers but because of the difference in movement of the same game on two phones from the same company. 

The P-OLED screen, measuring 6.6 inches, was extremely close to matching its promised peak brightness of 1,300 nits during my outdoor testing and was more readable in full sunlight compared to the Galaxy A26 and particularly, the Moto G Power which had the LCD screen. The 144Hz refresh rate helped a lot too. Once you got used to it, going back to the other phones tested here felt a bit sluggish.

The daylight shots with its camera were bright and well-detailed while the low light performance truly impressed me, but a shot under identical conditions, taken at night, was actually brighter and cleaner than the A26’s nighttime version of the same scene, though the Pixel 8a’s still beat it down. There seemed to be no telephoto lens, meaning that any zooming shot lost detail quickly. 

The only exception of Motorola Edge is Battery Life. On average I was on-screen for about 5.5 hours over the course of my test window, which is a pretty good average and definitely behind the Moto G Power. It compensates in part with the real ability to charge quickly with 68W charging via wire, which took about 15 minutes to reach about 50% of battery life at the time from a low charge, compared to every other phone here. 15W wireless charging is a real bonus at this price.

Three years of major software and security updates. A step up from Motorola’s low-cost offerings, but not quite as good as Samsung’s and Google’s.

Pros of Motorola Edge

• Fast and smooth phone in this guide.
• The best gaming performance for this price range.
• Fast 68W wired and 15W wireless charging.
• Brightest and most vivid display.

Cons of Motorola Edge

• Average battery life.
• Only two years guaranteed OS upgrades.
• Typically will come in at a price which is not under $300 unless a sale is offered.

Scorecard of Motorola Edge

Who Should Buy It? If you’re looking for the fastest phone and don’t mind mediocre battery life, this is your best bet.

5. Samsung Galaxy A36 5G (Best Samsung)

Price: $279.99 at Amazon 

Quick Verdict: The Samsung Galaxy A36 is the older sibling of the A26, with a ballpark comparable pace to the league leader but a much bolder chip sound, and of course much faster charging speed, for a slightly higher price tag.

Why We Recommend It: It’s a rare refresh that replaces chipset generations instead of reusing last year’s silicon, and Samsung has pledged the same six-year software update that it provided on the A26.

Running the same app-switching scenario I had for the A26 (Maps, go to Spotify and jump back to Maps), the A36 reloaded Maps significantly less frequently. Well, it is a small thing, but over the course of a week of everyday usage, ‘small things happening less often’ is essentially what a better chipset can feel like. Of course it wasn’t all bad, as the 12GB RAM options were particularly useful here too, apps remained running in the background longer than on the A26 next to it.

Visually, I could not tell the difference between the display and the A26 when viewed side-by-side, both have the same super bright and high contrast 120Hz AMOLED panel. The real-world impact is found right under the hood, where the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 did a little bit better on a round of a rather challenging game than the A26’s Exynos 1380 did in the same test.

Camera hardware is largely the same as the A26 and it produced the same kinds of results when shooting the same test scenes, the same warm, brightened Samsung appearance, and the same clipped highlights in the backlit-window shot. The only real improvement was a bump in the front camera, the 12MP, 10-bit HDR front facing camera offers a marked improvement in capturing selfies in mixed lighting when compared to the A26.

Battery life was relatively comparable to the A26 at 5,000mAh, where this device excels is its charging capability. The 45W wired charging, which is almost double the charging capability of the A26, gives you an extra boost after just 15 minutes of charging, which may seem insignificant on paper, but is much appreciated in practice.

One UI 7’s software and security updates are the same six years as the A26 and it comes with the same AI photo tools and Circle to Search.

Pros of Samsung Galaxy A36

• When using the Snapdragon chip, it seems to be snappier than the Exynos chip of A26’s.
• Faster 45W charging.
• 6-year software support.
• Improved front camera detail.

Cons of Samsung Galaxy A36

• More expensive than the A26.
• No Micro SD expansion as compared to the A26
• The rear camera output remains more or less the same.

Scorecard of Samsung Galaxy A36

Who Should Buy It? For Samsung fans looking for a slightly more powerful, quicker charging replacement for the A26 and who don’t require expandable storage.

6. Motorola Moto G (2026) (Best Motorola)

Price: $299.99 at Motorola Store and $262.70 at Amazon

Quick Verdict: Motorola’s honest 5G entry level phone isn’t saying it’s a high-tech device. It’s a reliable phone with decent battery life, a straightforward interface, and a screen resolution that reveals exactly where the cut has been.

Why We Recommend It: It’s the lowest priced of all new Motorola in this guide and doesn’t make commitments which it can’t keep.

First day of real-world experience: Text and scroll felt completely fine. I only knew of any real hesitation on the Motorola Moto G when I attempted to have a video call on a podcast downloading in the background, and that’s when I saw a stutter. It took significantly longer to load a game that I had just recently played on Edge (2024), and it wasn’t something that was subtle.

Display and performance is where the spec sheet fails to tell the whole story. The refresh rate of 120Hz gives a smooth scrolling experience, but as soon as I start reading any words, the 720p resolution becomes apparent, reading a full article of a news site was softer and less crisp on literally every other phone I tested, even the less expensive Galaxy A16.

The camera’s daylight shots were just acceptable, not impressive, good for group chats, not something I’d want to print out. Even though the camera hardware was more or less comparable across all the phones, the most apparent glaring weakness was nighttime photos. One came out significantly darker than the other captured in the same dim room, which was captured by the Moto G Power next to it. The 32MP selfie camera was an unexpected positive surprise that was more detailed than I would have thought for this low price.

The battery life is decent and reliable in my experience and as much as 5,200mAh on paper, which is impressive enough, but somewhat surprisingly not as effective as the Moto G Power’s battery life despite the larger cell. The 30W TurboPower charging was still a very strong factor.

Motorola’s Hello UI remains largely off the shelf Android, and adds some really cool features such as flashlight gesture controls. There are limits of 2 OS updates and 3 years of security patches and that’s a clear lag behind Samsung and Google here.

Pros of Motorola Moto G

• Super comfortable and anti-slip vegan leather design.
• 5,200mAh battery, which supports fast 30W charging.
• Clean, Near-stock Android software.
• Still has a 3.5mm headphone port

Cons of Motorola Moto G

• This 720p resolution is definitely softer than all the competitors in this test.
• Clear hesitation in multitasking
• Limited commitment to software updates.

Scorecard of Motorola Moto G

Who Should Buy It? If someone is merely interested in the most affordable Motorola that is truly new and only for calling, texting and light social media.

7. Samsung Galaxy A16 5G (Best Value)

Price: $129.95 at Amazon 

Quick verdict: This is slightly cheaper than just about everything here at under $150-$200 but it still offers Samsung’s long-term update promise and a high-quality AMOLED display, albeit with a chipset that can sometimes remind you of what you paid for it.

Why we recommend it: We’re not sure of another phone that offers the AMOLED screen and 6-year software lifeline for this price.

Samsung Galaxy A16 was the phone that most often stalled half way through a scroll when an app updated itself while in the background, never experiencing it on the A26 or A36. It’s not a turn off, it’s the kind of tiny thing you start to think about more as time goes on.

Brightness came in around 750 nits in my tests. That’s really good brightness for this price range, and colors on the AMOLED display panel were still vibrant in contrast to the LCD panels of the Moto phones. The 90Hz refresh rate (as opposed to 120Hz) is a minor downgrade, and I could only tell you about it if I had just emerged from a 120Hz phone, which I did in this test.

Photographs from Cameras Daylight were pretty good, and I was surprised at the improvement with the video goggles, compared to last year’s model. It is only usable for social media in the night shot or portrait mode, as the A26 has, with a bit less low-light detail.

A full day of moderate use was easily met with the 5,000mAh battery, which was just on par with the A26. No wireless charging is available here, but 25W charging isn’t impressive or particularly innovative.

The Samsung Galaxy A16 own headline: six years of OS and security updates. The same as Samsung’s higher-priced A series phones. That’s an outlandish guarantee for a cell phone that is frequently selling for under $200.

Pros of Samsung Galaxy A16

• AMOLED display with truly colorful screen.
• 6 years of OS and security updates
• The camera features solid performance in daylight conditions.
• microSD expandable storage

Cons of Samsung Galaxy A16

• Noticeable stutters while using applications in the background
• It has a refresh rate of only 90Hz.
• No headphone jack

Scorecard of Samsung Galaxy A16

Who Should Buy It? Those who are on a budget, do not mind any occasional lag times and are willing to pay for the longest software life.

8. OnePlus Nord N30 5G (Best Value Alternative)

Price: $299.99 at OnePlus Store and $239.72 at Amazon

Quick Verdict: The oldest device, leaning heavily on a massive 108MP sensor, fastest charge time in this entire guide and a big display, not really an attractive software experience for more than two years after the initial launch, but still irresistible on the device itself.

Why We Recommend It: Very few phones in this price range boast as quick charging times and the display and camera resolution allow it to appear more capable than the asking price.

Switching between Chrome and Maps was half a beat slower here than on the newer Snapdragon 6-series phones in this test, but noticeable if you’ve just been playing with Chrome the way I have been. Where it recovered some goodwill was the 15 minutes of charging from low battery got me a long way along with it compared to any other phone in here, including the fast-charging Edge (2024).

The 6.72-inch LCD panel is big, smooth and 120Hz, but when compared to the AMOLED Samsung screens, the colors look washed out and the blacks read gray instead of black here. I saw this difference between the Moto G Power and the A26, but it’s more noticeable here.

The 108MP sensor gave me genuinely detailed photos of the same problem of a shaded doorway in the daylight when I pixel peeped the same image. The benefit was lost in the indoor environment and at night, when pictures became softer and less crisp than Samsung and Google’s in this test. The lack of true ultrawide, occupied by the macro and depth sensor so what I could do creatively with it was limited.

When testing battery life, 5,000mAh was enough and provided solid all-day battery life but it’s 50W SUPERVOOC charging that’s truly the fastest in this entire series, and in this case, the phone was able to get around 80% battery from empty in just about 30 minutes as per OnePlus’s own charging test, which essentially matched what I saw with my own wall charger.

Software and security updates are the real compromise for long term buyers. OnePlus promised to just one Android OS upgrade and three years of security updates and that support was already ended. Don’t buy this as an investment, but as a hardware-value item that will need replacement in the near future.

Pros of OnePlus Nord N30

• Fastest charging speed as seen on this guide.
• Large and smooth 120Hz display
• High base RAM and storage for the price
• The sensor boasts 108MP as the first light sensor in the smartphone, ensuring superb daylight detail.

Cons of OnePlus Nord N30

• The support for software is now over.
• There are no true ultrawide cameras.
• The most recent and competitive offering is a half-step quicker than chipset. 

Scorecard of OnePlus Nord N30

Who Should Buy It? Those who are only interested in the initial cost of the hardware and rapid charging, and are likely to upgrade the phone in a couple of years anyway.

9. Google Pixel 6a 5G

Price: $134.44 at Amazon 

Quick verdict: The 6a is several years old and past the point of needing an OS upgrade, but can still be had for a lot less than $200 and is the lowest-priced real taste of Google’s camera and software experience, provided you’re aware of its limitations.

Why We Recommend It: It’s the cheapest path to Pixel’s camera processing, and receives security updates as well as version updates, despite the latter having ended.

The difference first felt like no more than a day after the Pixel 8a hit the market, though I didn’t notice it for any length of time until I had been using the 60Hz 8a. Despite all of this, the text and social browsing experience with Google felt smooth, as did every day texting and social browsing, and the camera app and mode switching were still a little bit laggy, a problem the 8a doesn’t suffer from.

The 6.1 screen’s colors and contrast is still quite good, although its refresh rate and overall brightness is quite low compared to the newer Pixel.

Even though the Tensor chip is older, the daylight color rendition is still more natural than the A26’s warmer and brighter processing in this side-by-side comparison photo, and this is some Pixel “look” that’s withstood the generations. The Nord N30’s version of the same dark kitchen was quieter, while the 8a’s version of the same scene was noisier than that of the Moto G Power in identical conditions.

Adequate battery life, not impressive, but good enough for a full day of moderate use, however the slowest charge offered here and with 18W wired, no wireless charging.

The obvious restriction: major operating system updates have stopped, while security patches will trickle in; not as heavily as before, though they will come. This is not a phone to buy that is meant to last for years and years but is meant to be replaced within a year or two.

Pros of Google Pixel 6a

• Very low genuine Pixel camera price
• Clean and fast feeling near-stock Android software.
• Easily hand held and compact

Cons of Google Pixel 6a

• When paired with the 8a, 60Hz display seems out of the game.
• The major OS updates have been completed.
• Slowest charging speed, as per the guide.

Scorecard of Google Pixel 6a

Who Should Buy It? Those who are very price sensitive and wish to stick with Google’s camera and software for a year or two before upgrading.

10. Apple iPhone 13 (Best iPhone)

Price: $273.26 at Amazon

Quick Verdict: There is only one iPhone in this price range that makes this budget worthwhile, a refurbished 128GB in good condition, which is now on sale for $220 to $280 and still running Apple’s latest iOS version, and will continue to do so for several years.

Why we recommend it: It’s an old flagship that still feels current because Apple’s software support window is longer than any Android brand’s here besides Google and Samsung’s newest promises and it’s the only one in this list that is not running Android, which is significant if you’ve already got an iPhone.

After a week of Android, getting back into the iPhone 13 felt like a different philosophy altogether. Face ID unlocking was quicker and more reliable than all the side-mounted fingerprint sensors on this list, and even when you are not facing the sensor directly, it was able to unlock where the Moto G (2026)’s sensor had a tendency to mess up. The one area where it felt dated was the 60Hz display, after just a week on the Motorola Edge’s 144Hz panel, scrolling through Safari was less smooth, the only thing I felt dated on this device.

The 6.1-in Super Retina XDR OLED panel looks great for contrast and color as well when compared to the Galaxy A26, with blacks being just as dark, but Samsung’s display appeared slightly more vibrant by comparison, more similar to what Android consumers would expect. The A15 Bionic chip, though a few years old already, was capable of running all of the aforementioned without missing a beat, whereas the Moto G (2026) and even the Galaxy A16 with the same workloads suffer from a few stutters.

The dual 12MP camera setup, which is paired with sensor-shift stabilization on the main camera, delivered the best results overall, not the most detailed (the Pixel 8a’s night pictures and the Nord N30’s day shots are better, in the respective areas), but the most consistent results in various lighting scenarios I tested in. The iPhone captured detail in the bright window and shadowed foreground noticeably better in the same shot that had clipped highlights in the Galaxy A26’s backlit window, which was taken below.

Over my test period, I averaged just over 5.5 hours of screen-on time with mixed usage, which puts me right in the middle between the Pixel 8a and the Galaxy A26, not the best, but not the worst either. The biggest weakness is charging: There’s no charger in the box, wired charging is capped at around 20W, and there’s no fast-charging cable included either, so be prepared to make a fast-charging cable purchase to go with it, if you don’t already have one.

The best reason to purchase an iPhone 13 in 2026 is that it is running Apple’s latest version of iOS and, given Apple’s history of supporting major OS versions for 6-7 years, should be able to stay on full OS updates well into 2027 or 2028 and security updates even longer. That’s a software showcase that matches Samsung’s top promises here, but on a hardware platform that’s worn the pants of the masses for three years-plus.

Pros of iPhone 13

• Highest performance across all lighting situations.
• Face ID unlock was more quick and accurate than the fingerprints tested.
• The software runway experience has lasted long with Apple’s update history.
• A15 Bionic chip still supports day-to-day multitasking and gaming without stuttering.

Cons of iPhone 13

• The 60Hz display is definitely behind the 120Hz+ Android shown here.
• No charger provided and charging is slow, even by the standards of 2026.
• Price only applies if this is a refurbished or used device. 
• Battery health verification is important.
• The Lightning port is used instead of USB-C.

Scorecard of iPhone 13

Who Should Buy It? Buyers already inside Apple’s ecosystem (iMessage, AirDrop, an Apple Watch) who want the most dependable all-around camera in this guide and don’t mind buying refurbished or accepting a 60Hz screen.

In which phone should you invest?

If you don’t want to have any phone with a weak point, this is the Samsung Galaxy A26 5G, it’s the easiest recommendation in this guide because of its AMOLED display, all day battery and 6 years of updates.

Photography is the most important factor for me, and I was not averse to paying to have it refurbished, so the Google Pixel 8a made the best photos of the bunch at least in low light  and had the longest software runaway.

The Motorola Moto G Power (2025) changes that completely, though it does mean that its LCD screen doesn’t look quite as good as it once did.

If gaming and multitasking is the priority, the Motorola Edge (2024) is worth keeping an eye on, thanks to its chipset and 144Hz refresh rate, which took the game to a new level during testing.

And if you just want to spend as little as possible but still have a good AMOLED screen with long-term updates and updates, Samsung Galaxy A16 5G is still the best deal for you.

The refurbished iPhone 13 is the only phone in this test that fits this budget and has been the most reliable in terms of camera and video quality, even on Android.

Final Verdict

2026 may be a time when there’s no such thing as a single “best” phone under $300; there’s a best phone for your priorities. The Galaxy A26 5G emerged as the better choice overall as it didn’t appear to make as many compromises as the others for the things I noticed in my day-to-day use. If, however, one factor is more important to you than a balanced experience, on this list you will find another phone that might work better for you: camera, battery, gaming, or price. There are no real downsides to this (as in a few years ago), just different honest compromises.

If you are short on budget and want to buy Best Camera phone, check out our selection on “Best camera phones under $300“.