The best budget camera phones in 2024 | Amateur Photographer

The best budget camera phones are perfect for those who want a great smartphone shooting experience for cheap. It may seem like smartphones are constantly getting more and more expensive, and the reason it feels like that is because many of them are. However, there is an ever growing market of budget-friendly phones out there too, including both new models and older flagships that have been significantly discounted.

And you don’t have to make major compromises to get one of these phones either. Sophisticated camera tech has a tendency to filter down into the cheaper phones, so you can still get a phone that takes brilliant photos without spending too much money. We know what we are talking about in this regard – the phones on this list are ones we’ve personally tested and reviewed – and a number of them are used by AP staff as our daily phones. With options from Samsung, Google, Oppo, Motorola, Honor, Xiaomi, and even Apple, you’ll definitely be able to find a great camera phone that suits you.

We’ve included options for a range of budgets, including mid-range camera phones as well as ultra-cheap models. But in order to get on this list, it has to deliver a good shooting experience! If you’re looking for something more high-end, see our main guide to the best camera phones, and we also have a handy breakdown of Android vs iOS: which is better for photography if you’re weighing up the two operating systems.

If you’re not sure what some of the technical specs on a phone’s camera mean, you can scroll to the bottom of this page where we’ve put together an explainer on how to choose the best budget camera phone.

Looking for the best deal on budget camera phones? Not only will you find the best budget camera phones, but you’ll also find some of the best cheap camera phone deals, as our ‘Buy now’ buttons are setup to automatically take you to the best prices, from trusted retailers, plus you’ll also find a list of other retailers below each camera, so you can find the right deal for you.

Here’s our quick run-down of the best budget and mid-range camera phones:

Continuing reading to find out more, along with sample photos from all the phones featured…

We spend many hours testing every product we recommend, in detail, in a variety of situations and shooting scenarios, and only use experts for our reviews, so you can be sure that you’re getting the best products. Find out more about our expert writers.

Specifications at a glance:

Google has long been in the habit of bringing out budget versions of its flagship phones, and the Pixel 8a is the latest in the line-up. A slimmed-down version of the Pixel 8, this phone packs a dual-camera setup that’s largely unchanged from the previous Pixel 7a. The upgrades and differences are largely internal, as the Pixel 8a inherits the latest AI tech. Users of the Pixel 8a now have Best Take, Magic Editor, and Audio Magic Eraser to play with, in addition to the more conventional photographic modes that have appeared on previous generations, such as Night Sight and long exposure.

The cameras themselves are a 64MP wide-angle f/1.9 main camera, which produces 16MP images via pixel binning, and a 13MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera with fixed focus. Fairly standard stuff, but as we found in our review, it results in images of consistently high quality, with a pleasing level of detail and punchy colours. The various shooting modes on the camera app work well, and if you have access to a decent smartphone support like a mini-tripod, you can take advantage of highly specialised modes like the astrophotography function, which captures an exposure of up to 2.5 minutes.

Having taken hundreds of photos with both camera modules, we can say that results are (as expected) much more consistent from the main camera. The ultra-wide module does produce noticeably more noise, especially evident when you inspect your images up close. However, we like the fact that you can switch on raw shooting, and our tests of 4K video produced consistently fine results (albeit with some wind noise intermittently a factor).

Honestly, the main rival to the Google Pixel 8a is likely to be another Google phone – if you don’t care about the AI features then the Pixel 7a is going to deliver much the same hardware for a cheaper price. However, with its price still temptingly low, we can safely say that the Google Pixel 8a is the best budget camera phone on the market, and you will not be disappointed with the results it produces.

Read our full Google Pixel 8a review.

Specifications at a glance:

This guide used to be Android-only, as that was pretty much the only game in town when it came to cheap phones. However, the iPhone 12 (which only came out in 2020) has seen its refurbished price fall down to around $250/£250 recently, and that means it more than qualifies to make this list. If you don’t have much to spare for a new camera phone but can’t bear the thought of being without iOS – well, fret not!

For your money, you get a highly capable dual-camera setup, consisting of a 12MP f/1.6 wide-angle camera and a 12MP f/2.4 ultra-wide camera. The latter is fixed-focus, so can’t be used for close-ups, and there’s no optical zoom or telephoto module to speak of. If you’ve used a more modern phone it’ll undoubtedly feel a little old school, but the good news is that the pictures the iPhone 12 produces still look great. Colour reproduction is excellent, lovely and punchy. Exposures are accurate, and the camera automatically uses multi-shot composition to achieve a wide dynamic range. Long story short, the images are more than adequate for a phone at this price.

While there isn’t a dedicated macro mode, you can get decent close-up results just with the main camera. There’s portrait mode for blurring the background, a night mode that automatically kicks in when it gets dark, and exposure compensation controls for tweaking the settings to your liking. All good stuff.

The iPhone 12 may feel unavoidably dated nowadays in terms of its hardware. However, it’s still receiving software updates and it’s still got that inimitable iPhone smoothness of operation. For this price, it’s a bargain as far as we’re concerned – and well worth the consideration of anyone on the hunt for a great, cheap camera phone. Video quality is good too, with effective image stabilisation, and 4K video recording.

Read our full iPhone 12 review

Specifications at a glance:

It’s a truism in tech that yesterday’s flagship is this year’s bargain, and so it goes with the Samsung Galaxy S22. It was never a hugely expensive phone (by smartphone standards at least), originally retailing at $799 / £769, but given that it can now be picked up for about $449 / £449, that’s quite a substantial saving.

The Galaxy S22 was the entry-level model, not a million miles away in features from mid-range phones like the Galaxy A54, listed below. So it doesn’t get the headline-grabbing 108MP or 200MP main cameras of its flagship siblings like the S22 Ultra or S23 Ultra, but it still has a more-than-respectable 50MP main camera that benefits from optical stabilisation. This sits alongside a 12MP ultra-wide-angle, as well as a 10MP 3x telephoto camera that’s stabilised (and is a good deal more welcome than a rubbishy little macro camera).

As befitting a flagship phone, the Galaxy S22 also feels premium in the hand and has all the quality-of-life features you’d expect from such a device. Wireless charging, an in-screen fingerprint reader –Samsung even chucks in IP68 waterproofing, meaning it can even survive being submerged in water (though, as ever, we’re not recommending you test this too enthusiastically).

The imaging performance of the Galaxy S22 is consistently impressive, delivering punchy colours and good consistency between the different camera modules. There’s no dedicated macro mode as the ultra-wide-angle camera is fixed focus (you’ll have to pay for an Ultra model for that kind of luxury), but telephoto performance is generally very good as long as there’s sufficient light. You can even record 8K video at 24p if that’s something you’re interested in; though in truth, most people will probably be just fine with the excellent 4K, which is also available on the selfie camera.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S22 review.

Specifications at a glance:

The Motorola Edge 50 Neo’s camera system is mostly the same as the Motorola Edge 40 Neo’s. It has a 50MP main camera with OIS and f/1.8 aperture, a 13MP ultrawide camera with f/2.2 aperture, and a 32MP selfie camera on the front with an f/2.4 aperture. However, the 50 Neo gains a 10MP telephoto camera with OIS, a f/2.0 aperture, 3x optical zoom and 30x superzoom.

Like the Neo 40, the phone is a capable performer in low light, and the phone is an impressive option when shooting portraits, with 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm options available. The ultra-wide camera, a 13MP unit, is less good, producing images that lack detail.

The 32MP selfie camera does a good enough job, although it doesn’t feature autofocus, and the phone also produces decent-looking 4K video.

The Motorola Edge 50 Neo offers a capable imaging package for a very tempting price, in a range of stylish colours. Having taken it for a test drive, we can definitely recommend the phone for budget-conscious smartphone shooters. If you like the look of the recently announced flagship Motorola Edge 50 Ultra but find it to be a little out of your budget, this is definitely a solid alternative.

Read our full Motorola Edge 50 Neo review.

Specifications at a glance:

One of Samsung’s most affordable phones, the Galaxy A35 can also be found on offer quite frequently, with prices slashed down to around the $300 / £300 mark. That’s a seriously cheap price for a smartphone with a triple-camera setup, and particularly one that bears the Samsung name. It’s got a 50MP f/1.8 wide-angle main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera, a fixed-focus 5MP macro camera, and of course, a front-facing selfie camera, which offers 13MP of resolution and an f/2.2 aperture.

For the most part, these modules deliver credible results. In our review, we found that the Galaxy A35 was capable of producing punchy images with great colours and detail, just as we’ve come to expect from Samsung. It does best in sunny conditions, and unsurprisingly, you’ll get the best results from the 50MP main camera, which bins pixels to produce 12MP images. You can shoot with the full resolution if you want, but realistically there’s not much reason to do so.

The ultra-wide camera performs well too, producing images which are almost on par with those of the main camera. The 5MP macro camera is fairly run-of-the-mill – we generally prefer the telephoto modules that commonly appear in newer phones nowadays, though the cuts had to come somewhere, naturally. The Galaxy A35 isn’t particularly strong in low light, even with the dedicated Night Mode, so if this is a priority for you, it might be worth looking elsewhere.

The Samsung Galaxy A35 isn’t a showy phone, and it’s unlikely to wow you. But with a solid camera setup, a generally sized screen, an intuitive camera app and generous battery life, it ticks all the boxes you’re likely to want from a budget phone, and it’s hard to ask for more than that.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy A35 review.

Specifications at a glance:

You may well not have come across the Infinix Zero 30 5G before, but it’s a super-cheap phone with a pretty impressive camera setup – especially if you like taking selfies. The front-facing camera is a 50MP module with an f/2.45 aperture and even phase-detection autofocus (PDAF). It puts out glorious 12MP images, though you can use the full 50MP resolution if you want, and offers a useful LED flash if you need a touch more light. It can also be used to capture 4K 60p video.

On the other side, things are also impressive. The main module is a 108MP wide-angle that uses 9-in-1 pixel binning to produce 11.8MP images. One thing we particularly like here is that one of the lens elements is glass rather than plastic, improving quality and light-gathering ability, also helped by a generous aperture of f/1.65. Here once again there is PDAF, and you can also crop in significantly with the 3x lossless zoom to simulate telephoto reach.

Alongside it is a 13MP ultra-wide-angle camera, with autofocus – this powers the macro mode. There’s also a 2.4MP “depth” camera to help with portrait mode.

The Infinix Zero 30 5G really is impressive for its price, but the catch is that it’s only available in certain territories. If you can get it, the phone is definitely worth considering – we came away pretty impressed following our review, with the camera(s) capturing natural-looking results in a wide variety of shooting situations.

Read our full Infinix Zero 30 5G review

Specifications at a glance:

The latest and best in Samsung’s Galaxy A line of budget-friendly smartphones, the Samsung Galxy A55 is not a terribly flashy phone. It doesn’t have the AI wizardry of the latest Galaxy S handsets – however, as you’d expect, it’s available at a much cheaper price. The RRP about the phone is £439 (it’s not currently available in the US) and regular offers and discounts mean it’s often practically even cheaper than that. And the good news is that you still get a highly capable camera phone for the money.

The triple-camera setup on the Galaxy A55 is fairly standard for a phone of this type, and isn’t changed much from the previous Galaxy A54. The main event, and one you’ll spend most of your time using, is the 50MP f/1.8 wide-angle main camera with optical stabilisation; this camera outputs images at 12MP with pixel binning, and the level of quality is consistently good, with pleasing detail. There’s also a 12MP ultra-wide camera, which does a commendable job of matching it for detail and colour reproduction. Then there’s also the 5MP macro camera with fixed focus, which is… okay at best. We would have preferred a telephoto module with a decent bit of power behind it; though of course, this would have added to the cost.

The phone is pleasant to use – it’s got that Samsung smoothness in its operation and interface. The photo app is intuitive and comes with packed with fun shooting modes, as well as manual mode to give you full settings control. The display offers a refresh rate of 120Hz (pretty good) and a peak brightness of 1,000 nits (less so). We appreciate the generous battery with 5000mAh capacity, though a wireless charging option would have been nice.

The Samsung Galaxy A55 is not any kind of wheel reinvention from the previous model in the series, but it’s another solid mid-range camera phone that does a consistently good job of capturing quality images and videos. Plus, the aforementioned frequent discounts mean you stand a decent chance of picking it up for a bargain price.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy A55 review.

Specifications at a glance:

Even though this is a reasonably mid-priced phone, the Honor 90 still manages to pack in a 200MP main camera, with a 1/1.4 inch sensor that’s upgraded in size compared to the previous version. Elsewhere on the phone, you’ve got an ultra-wide 12MP module with a 16mm equivalent lens, and a 2MP ‘depth’ camera that’s intended for creating images with a shallow depth of field (a.k.a. Portrait Mode). All this adds up to a pretty impressive package for a smartphone at this price – which varies depending on whether you want 256GB or 512GB of storage.

In our full review, we found the Honor 90 to be a pleasant and capable camera phone that was able to cope with a wide variety of shooting situations. It can’t shoot 8K video and 4K tops out at 30fps, but it’s only a small percentage of users who are going to be bothered about that. Realistically, the bigger omission for most people is going to be the lack of a telephoto camera, reducing your options when shooting at a distance. Most of the specialist modes are decent enough, though we found the close-up SuperMacro mode to be fairly lacklustre, resulting in an undesirable loss of image detail.

The display on the Honor 90 is gorgeous, and we came away pretty impressed by how long the battery was capable of holding up. It produces consistently attractive images too, especially when you stick with the main camera module. For this price, it’s an excellent phone all-around.

Read our full Honor 90 review.

Specifications at a glance:

The Xiaomi 12T Pro’s 200MP resolution is not all it seems, since it uses pixel binning (combining the signals from several pixels) to produce a default resolution of just 12.5MP in most modes. There is a 50MP UltraHD mode which is usable in good light but the 200MP mode is very poor.

The ultra-wide camera is just 8MP, and the macro camera seems pretty pointless with just 2 megapixels. You do get a variety of ‘long exposure’ modes.

4K video can be recorded at 60fps or 30fps, with the option of 8K capture, and high-speed video at up to 1920fps at reduced resolution.

The case of the Xiaomi 12T Pro is quite slim but the camera array stands proud on the back and the main camera sticks out still further, so it wobbles a little when laid flat. It does charge extremely fast, though only via the supplied 120W charger and cable.

Image quality from the main camera is good, but the ultra-wide and macro cameras are less impressive. The 200MP sensor seems more of a marketing gimmick than a practical tool.

Read our full Xiaomi 12T Pro Review

Specifications at a glance:

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro + 5G, at the top of the list for Xiaomi’s mid-range Redmi series is one of the cheapest smartphones with a 200MP camera, which gives the best results and while nowhere near what you’d get from a real camera with a high resolution sensor, as long as you treat the camera as a 12.5MP camera you should be pleased with the results. The 8MP ultra-wide camera is capable but image quality is poor, particularly towards the corners of the frame. The 2MP macro camera is quite frankly terrible.

If you want a budget smartphone with a large 120Hz screen, 120W charging, and a headphone socket, and aren’t really too concerned about the camera features, then this is a phone that could be for you.

Read our full Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G Review.

Specifications at a glance:

With the Pixel 7, Google has wisely concentrated on a good 50MP main camera and a decent 12MP ultra-wide camera, and not tried to add in a third ‘macro’ camera. The cameras are mounted in the Pixel’s controversial (design-wise) ‘camera bar’. The Pixel 7 has a slightly smaller screen and body compared to the previous Pixel 6, together with an improved 10.8MP front-facing ‘selfie’ camera.

The Pixel 7 lacks the telephoto camera of the Pixel 7 Pro and has to make do with a ‘Digital Super Res’ zoom that offers up to 8x magnification but is best at the default setting of 2x.

The Pixel 7’s 6.3-inch OLED screen is great, and this phone has an IP68 rating which indicates it’s waterproof down to 1.5m depth for 30mins. This phone does feel very well made. The image quality from the main camera is good, as is the ultra-wide camera, though there is some distortion. The selfie camera is fixed-focus, however, and the lack of a macro mode on this phone could prove a drawback.

Read our full Google Pixel 7 Review

Specifications at a glance:

With a whopping 5110mAh (5500mAh for US customers) battery the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite sports the longest battery life on our list. As a matter of fact it would rival some of the best flagship camera phones in this aspect. However there’s a catch, it only has one camera backed by a 50MP sensor. But don’t let this put you off, it is a simple set up ,but that’s not always a bad thing.

If you are a casual shooter and want a hassle-free camera the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite might just be the one for you. In good light it produces images with nicely saturated colours and good level of detail. There’s a portrait mode on the main camera as well as on the selfie-camera, with a shallow depth of field effect. There is a 2x sensor crop option for zooming and a 10x digital zoom, however the latter is best avoided. Even though it lacks a dedicated macro mode, you can get reasonably close and fill the frame with some subjects.

The Full HD video created by it has decent colours, detail and is reasonably stable too. At 6.7”, the CE4 Lite is on the larger side, but surprisingly despite the low cost, the OLED display is actually pretty good – especially when it comes to brightness. It is rated as IP54, which should see it resist dust fairly well, as well as splashes and so on.

Read our full OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite review.

Specifications at a glance:

The Google Pixel 7a is Google’s previous generation of entry-level smartphone, and represented a significant update to the cameras on the phone compared to what came before. With a new 64MP wide-angle camera, a 13MP ultra-wide-angle camera, plus an updated 13MP selfie camera, all three cameras are capable of recording 4K video. You’ll also find that the phone has even more photography features than the cheaper Pixel 6a, including Motion Blur, which is great for creative shots of light painting, light trails, and smooth waterfalls.

The Google Pixel 7a may not have a telephoto camera, but at this price point very few budget camera phones do. To make up for this the phone uses Super Resolution Zoom, which gives reasonably good 2x zoom photos. You can use up to 8x zoom, but the results aren’t as good. Another nice feature of the Pixel 7a is the fact that the main camera can actually give pretty good close-up performance, even though it doesn’t have a dedicated “macro” mode.

Google is clearly committed to rolling out its AI-powered editing tools and has recently made them free for anyone to use as long as they have a Google Photos account. You don’t even need a Google-made phone for this; it’ll work fine on iPhone and any other Android device.

Read our full Google Pixel 7a review

Specifications at a glance:

The Reno10 features a triple-lens set-up with good overall picture quality, ColorOs 13.1 operating system (android 13) and a large 5000mAh battery that provides super-fast charging (67W). The main 64 MP camera performs best with a good amount of detail and well-saturated colours. The 2x telephoto also gives great results, the weakest 8MP ultrawide camera presents acceptable quality especially if you’ll only view images on your phone.

Night and Portrait modes work well but there is no dedicated macro mode. Instead, there is a Pro mode which allows you to control ISO, shutter speed and exposure compensation, making it more enticing for photographers, although there is still no option to shoot in raw format.

4K video recording now seems to become standard in the budget range, but with the Reno10 it only goes up to 30fps. The ‘Super Steady’ stabilisation is a welcome new addition available in Full HD video mode. The 6.7–inch AMOLED screen has a relatively low 2412 x 1080 pixel resolution and no extra protection such as Gorilla Glass.

Despite a few flaws, the Reno 10 is a good all-rounder that won’t set you back a fortune and delivers fine results.

Read our full OPPO Reno10 review here.

We’ll concentrate on the photography features, and these centre around the phone’s camera array. These days, even budget camera phones come with more than one camera, each with its own sensor.

Typically, the main camera will have the best sensor and widest-aperture lens, but you can also expect to get an ultra-wide camera too. These typically have a lower resolution, however, and don’t usually match the main camera for quality, though they will be fine for most users. You may also get a ‘macro’ camera for ultra-close-ups, though in this price range, they sometimes have very low resolution and are not necessarily worth having. If you’re keen on close-ups, take a look at our Top Macro Photography Tips.

What you tend not to get even in the best budget and mid-range camera phones is a telephoto camera. Instead, you have to rely on a digital zoom, which will be effective but won’t provide the same quality.

It’s also worth checking out the front ‘selfie’ camera. The specs vary, and if you film or photograph yourself a lot, a front camera with a good sensor and autofocus (not all have autofocus) is definitely worth having.

Don’t be too swayed by the camera resolution. The best budget camera phones may have ‘resolutions’ of 50MP, 108MP or 200MP, but this doesn’t mean the same as it would in a regular camera. These resolutions are ‘pixel-binned’ down to around 12 megapixels for actual shooting, and while there are modes that use the full resolution, the quality can be quite disappointing.

Otherwise, look out for the general features like the size of the screen, whether the phone uses toughened ‘Gorilla Glass’ or plastic, and how much memory and/or storage comes with the phone.

Lastly, camera phones will often come with an IP rating that tells you how resistant it is to dust and moisture. IP64, for example, means the phone is resistant to splashes, while IP68 means the phone can withstand full immersion in water for a limited time.

Looking specifically to shoot video? Then check out our guide to the best smartphones for video.

We review budget smartphones from the perspective of choosing a smartphone for its photography and camera performance, so we test every phone by looking at what it offers in terms of the cameras and what features are included for photography and video, and how it performs in real world use in a variety of different shooting situations.

We test each camera on the phone, whether that’s the ultra-wide angle, the main camera, telephoto camera(s) if available, and selfie camera, and use the phone for photography in a range of lighting conditions, including low-light, where camera phones can struggle. We also look at specialist shooting modes on offer, whether that’s the portrait modes or AI features, as well as look at how good the overall phone is, in terms of battery life, screen, build quality and value for money.

Article: Rod Lawton, with contributions from Joshua Waller and Jon Stapley. *Prices correct at time of publication but may change without notice.

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I've been taking pictures since the 1980s and I've been writing about cameras, lenses, accessories and photo editing since the dawn of digital imaging. I've done stints as a technique editor, reviews editor and online channel editor. I'm currently an independent photography journalist and content creator. I cover everything from smartphone photography through hybrid mirrorless cameras to medium format.