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MagyarThe Best Smartphones for Less Than 160 Euros
The flagship smartphones from the established manufacturers always get the most attention. However, not everyone is willing to pay 500 Euros or more. Many people are actually looking for suitable smartphones in the inexpensive entry-level segment, and the price is obviously one major factor. There is no doubt that on paper the specifications reveal significant differences compared to the super smartphones, especially in terms of performance, display and picture quality of the integrated cameras. However, this does not mean that you cannot be happy with an inexpensive smartphone if you have moderate expectations. We list the best smartphones with a current street price of less than 160 USD/Euros that have been reviewed by Notebookcheck over the last 14 months (if the device is still available). The following rankings might be interesting as well:
The Best Cheap Smartphones
Pos. | Datum | Bew. | Bild | Modell | Dicke | Gewicht | SBR | Größe | Auflösung | OS | Preis ab |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 01/2021 | 78 % |  | Xiaomi Poco M3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 Qualcomm Adreno 610 4 GB Memory, 128 GB | 9.6 mm | 198 g | 83 % | 6.53" | 2340x1080 | Android 10 | |
| 2 | 09/2020 | 78 % |  | Xiaomi Redmi 9 Mediatek Helio G80 ARM Mali-G52 MP2 3 GB Memory, 32 GB eMMC | 9.1 mm | 198 g | 83.2 % | 6.53" | 2340x1080 | Android 10 | |
| 3 | 02/2021 Neu | 77 % |  | realme 7i Mediatek Helio G85 ARM Mali-G52 MP2 4 GB Memory, 64 GB eMMC | 9.8 mm | 208 g | 83 % | 6.50" | 1600x720 | Android 10 | |
| 4 | 01/2021 | 77 % |  | OnePlus Nord N100 Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 Qualcomm Adreno 610 4 GB Memory, 64 GB UFS 2.1 | 8.5 mm | 188 g | 81 % | 6.52" | 1600x720 | Android 10 | |
| 5 | 08/2020 | 77 % |  | Honor 9X Lite HiSilicon Kirin 710 ARM Mali-G51 MP4 4 GB Memory, 128 GB eMMC | 7.8 mm | 188 g | 84 % | 6.50" | 2340x1080 | Android 9.0 Pie | |
| 6 | 06/2020 | 77 % |  | realme C3 Mediatek Helio G70 ARM Mali-G52 MP2 3 GB Memory, 32 GB eMMC | 8.95 mm | 195 g | 83 % | 6.50" | 1600x720 | Android 10 | |
| 7 | 05/2020 | 77 % |  | Motorola Moto G8 Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 Qualcomm Adreno 610 4 GB Memory, 64 GB eMMC | 9 mm | 188 g | 82 % | 6.40" | 1560x720 | Android 10 | |
| 8 | 08/2020 | 76 % |  | Samsung Galaxy A21s Samsung Exynos 850 ARM Mali-G52 MP1 3 GB Memory, 32 GB eMMC | 8.9 mm | 192 g | 82.8 % | 6.50" | 1600x720 | Android 10 | |
| 9 | 12/2020 | 76 % |  | Nokia 3.4 Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 Qualcomm Adreno 610 3 GB Memory, 64 GB eMMC | 8.7 mm | 180 g | 82 % | 6.39" | 1560x720 | Android 10 | |
| 10 | 09/2020 | 76 % |  | LG K51S Mediatek Helio P35 MT6765 PowerVR GE8320 3 GB Memory, 64 GB eMMC | 8.2 mm | 195 g | 79 % | 6.55" | 1600x720 | Android 9.0 Pie |
The table above contains an overview over the best smartphones for less than 160 Euros reviewed by Notebookcheck over the course of the past 12 months as well as still relevant and available older products. In cases of identical score the more recent device is listed first. All prices in above table and price comparisons are updated daily and can thus differ.
Editors' Comments
This month we see the realme 7i enter on third place. The Moto E7 Plus, Galaxy A12, and Gigaset GS3 missed the threshold required to make this list.
1st – Xiaomi Poco M3
The Poco M3 features a 6.53-inch large IPS display running at a native resolution of 2340 x 1080. It is powered by a solid and adequately fast Qualcomm mid-range SoC with access to 4 GB of RAM. The lower-tier model comes with 64 GB of UFS 2.1 storage, the higher-tier with 128 GB of UFS 2.2 storage. Both models can be further expanded via microSD. Other features include an IR blaster, an FM radio tuner, and last but not least a headphone jack.
In our review, its 6,000 mAh battery made for great battery life, and we found no major issues with the M3. With that said its camera was not perfect and the display was as good or bad as expected of its class. The device also lacks support for NFC.
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2nd – Xiaomi Redmi 9
The Redmi 9 features a 6.53-inch IPS display and is powered by a MediaTek midrange SoC. The two available SKUs differ in RAM and storage size with the lower-tier model offering 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage and the upper-tier 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. The quad-camera includes an additional ultra-wide-angle lens as well as a macro lens for improved versatility.
It offers a long battery life thanks to its large battery, and even includes an audio jack and NFC despite its low price. The FHD+ panel is adequately bright, and the only downside worth mentioning is the somewhat poor mono speaker.
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3rd – realme 7i
The realme 7i offers a 6.5-inch large IPS display running 60 Hz and a native resolution of 1600 x 720 pixels. Accordingly, when looking at it up close you can easily make out individual pixels. A Helio G85 paired with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of microSD-expandable internal storage ensures a decent level of performance. The phone features an audio jack, fast ac Wi-Fi, and a long battery life thanks to its giant battery. NFC is not available.
The main 48 MP camera is supported by an ultra-wide angle as well as a macro lens. In our review, the display turned out to be somewhat low in contrast but high in brightness.
The realme 7i is available on Amazon as well as various other retailers.
4th – OnePlus Nord N100
The OnePlus Nord N100 is the cheapest smartphone by the Chinese manufacturer to date. It features a 6.52-inch large IPS running which may only support a rather meager HD resolution but with a 90 Hz refresh rate in return. The Qualcomm entry-level SoC makes for decent overall system performance, and its 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage are typical for its class. Keep in mind that the flash chips used by OnePlus support the fast UFS 2.1 standard. MicroSD expansion is supported, and a headphone jack is available as well.
Battery life was pretty decent overall. Unfortunately, the phone lacks a DRM certification as well as support for NFC.
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5th – Honor 9X Lite
The Honor 9X Lite is a well-made update to last year’s model. Unfortunately, it has to make do without various improvements due to the ongoing trade war between the United States and China in order to continue offering Google’s services. Among others, these include the aging SoC as well as the fairly old version of Android, version 9, that Honor is shipping the device with. To make matters worse Honor has not yet officially announced whether or not the Lite 9X is going to receive a major update.
These issues aside the 9X Lite offers a color-accurate display, plenty of storage space, and a decent dual-camera.
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6th - realme c3
The realme C3 comes with a 6.5-inch large IPS display running at HD resolution. It is powered by a brand-new MediaTek mid-range SoC and 3 GB of RAM, and features a total of 32 GB of internal storage. The large 5,000 mAh battery made up for its shortcomings in the triple-camera department.
Visually, we liked the device a lot despite its all-plastic case, and it also comes with a fingerprint reader. Considering its low price, the realme C3 offers a lot for its money.
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7th – Motorola Moto G8
The Motorola Moto G8 offers a great overall package. It combines a 6.4-inch HD IPS display with a Snapdragon 665, 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of storage, and a large and long-lasting 4,000 mAh battery. The cameras worked well and produced decent images, and the camera offers an ultra-wide angle and a macro lens.
Considering its low price, the G8 is a decent overall package without major weaknesses.
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8th – Samsung Galaxy A21s
The Samsung Galaxy A21s offers a 6.5-inch PLS display running at a fairly low HD+ resolution. With 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage it is equipped adequately. It is furthermore powered by a Samsung octa-core SoC and features a decent quad-camera with ultra-wide-angle lens, macro lens, and depth-of-field sensor. It also comes with an audio jack as well as FM radio.
Its highlight is without a doubt the 5,000 mAh battery that makes for excellent battery life. It also offers fast Wi-Fi and a somewhat decent speaker. In return, its GPS capabilities are lacking.
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9th – Nokia 3.4
The Nokia 3.4 is a comparatively compact smartphone available in three stylish colors. Its 6.39-inch IPS display runs at a native HD resolution, and an up-to-date entry-level Qualcomm SoC paired with 3 GB of RAM and either 32 or 64 GB of internal storage ensure decent system performance. With that said Nokia failed to utilize the SoC to its full potential as it only supports Wi-Fi 4, LTE Cat. 4 and Bluetooth 4.2. In return, the Nokia 3.4 is part of Google’s Android One program to ensure two years of major and three years of security updates.
The smartphone left an overall decent impression during everyday use safe for its camera that did not perform to our full satisfaction.
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10th – LG K51S
The LG K51S is a colorful entry-level smartphone with a large display and battery. Its 6.55-inch IPS display only supports HD resolution resulting in a fairly low pixel density. Its Helio P35 SoC may not be the latest SoC available but it is still fast enough as long as you keep your expectations in check.
Its RAM and storage capacities of 3 and 64 GB, respectively, are decent. The latter is user-expandable, and the device also supports NFC and comes with a headphone jack.
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Best Budget Smartphones in Comparison
Test Results
| Xiaomi Poco M3 Adreno 610, SD 662, 128 GB UFS 2.2 Flash | Xiaomi Redmi 9 Mali-G52 MP2, Helio G80, 32 GB eMMC Flash | realme 7i Mali-G52 MP2, Helio G85, 64 GB eMMC Flash | OnePlus Nord N100 Adreno 610, SD 460, 64 GB UFS 2.1 Flash | Honor 9X Lite Mali-G51 MP4, Kirin 710, 128 GB eMMC Flash | realme C3 Mali-G52 MP2, Helio G70, 32 GB eMMC Flash | Motorola Moto G8 Adreno 610, SD 665, 64 GB eMMC Flash | Samsung Galaxy A21s Mali-G52 MP2, Exynos 850, 32 GB eMMC Flash | Nokia 3.4 Adreno 610, SD 460, 64 GB eMMC Flash | LG K51S PowerVR GE8320, Helio P35 MT6765, 64 GB eMMC Flash | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Response Times | ||||||||||
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 44 (20.4, 23.6) | 46 (25, 21) | 40 (19, 21) | 46 (23, 23) | 36 (17, 19) | 52.8 (23.6, 29.2) | 46 (23, 23) | 44 (19, 25) | 46 (25, 21) | 42 (23, 19) |
| Response Time Black / White * | 28 (13.2, 14.8) | 24 (13, 11) | 30 (13, 17) | 24 (11, 13) | 18 (7, 11) | 21.6 (6.8, 14.8) | 28 (11, 17) | 24 (13, 11) | 30 (13, 17) | 28 (15, 13) |
| PWM Frequency | 892.9 (3) | 500 (15) | 925.9 (25) | 625 | 500 (10) | 961.5 (20) | ||||
| Screen | ||||||||||
| Brightness middle | 465 | 476 | 597 | 474 | 435 | 531 | 504 | 540 | 440 | 407 |
| Brightness | 428 | 436 | 569 | 456 | 422 | 492 | 452 | 509 | 417 | 393 |
| Brightness Distribution | 89 | 86 | 91 | 86 | 93 | 88 | 83 | 91 | 91 | 95 |
| Black Level * | 0.21 | 0.67 | 0.74 | 0.35 | 0.77 | 0.26 | 0.28 | 0.36 | 0.4 | 0.53 |
| Contrast | 2214 | 710 | 807 | 1354 | 565 | 2042 | 1800 | 1500 | 1100 | 768 |
| Colorchecker DeltaE2000 * | 1.7 | 3.51 | 5.47 | 2.7 | 3.31 | 6.1 | 3.84 | 6.58 | 4.77 | 4.17 |
| Colorchecker DeltaE2000 max. * | 3.5 | 9.38 | 12.11 | 4.89 | 6.8 | 11.6 | 6.1 | 11.55 | 8.85 | 8.28 |
| Greyscale DeltaE2000 * | 2.4 | 1.5 | 6.9 | 1.9 | 3.2 | 7.4 | 2.7 | 6.4 | 5.7 | 3.8 |
| Gamma | 2.16 102% | 2.166 102% | 2.363 93% | 2.31 95% | 2.3 96% | 2.14 103% | 2.235 98% | 2.206 100% | 2.156 102% | 2.235 98% |
| CCT | 6664 98% | 6485 100% | 8091 80% | 6430 101% | 6894 94% | 8028 81% | 7125 91% | 8482 77% | 7660 85% | 7227 90% |
| Heat | ||||||||||
| Maximum Upper Side * | 37.5 | 43.9 | 42.6 | 41.2 | 44.6 | 37.6 | 41.2 | 39.1 | 43.2 | 38.3 |
| Maximum Bottom * | 32.9 | 44.8 | 39.6 | 40.2 | 43.2 | 37.3 | 41.6 | 41.3 | 41.6 | 38.1 |
| Idle Upper Side * | 30.3 | 31.8 | 33.7 | 30.2 | 33.6 | 30.5 | 30.7 | 33.3 | 27.8 | 28.4 |
| Idle Bottom * | 25.8 | 32.1 | 31.9 | 29.8 | 34.2 | 29.8 | 30.6 | 34.4 | 26.3 | 27.9 |
| Battery Runtime | ||||||||||
| Reader / Idle | 2756 | 2337 | 2513 | 1953 | 2009 | |||||
| WiFi v1.3 | 1249 | 804 | 1307 | 1149 | 793 | 1371 | 988 | 943 | 843 | 803 |
| Load | 404 | 289 | 267 | 276 | 287 | |||||
| Power Consumption | ||||||||||
| Idle Minimum * | 0.5 | 1.4 | 0.56 | 0.44 | 1.3 | 1.5 | ||||
| Idle Average * | 1.84 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.65 | 2 | 2.1 | ||||
| Idle Maximum * | 1.87 | 2.1 | 2.3 | 1.69 | 2.8 | 2.9 | ||||
| Load Average * | 3.99 | 5.7 | 3.9 | 3.81 | 3.9 | 4.6 | ||||
| Load Maximum * | 6.01 | 8.5 | 5.6 | 6.22 | 7.2 | 6.6 |
* ... smaller is better
Benchmarks
| PCMark for Android - Work 2.0 performance score (sort by value) | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Xiaomi Redmi 9 | |
| realme 7i | |
| OnePlus Nord N100 | |
| Honor 9X Lite | |
| realme C3 | |
| Motorola Moto G8 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A21s | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| LG K51S | |
| 3DMark | |
| 2560x1440 Sling Shot OpenGL ES 3.0 Physics (sort by value) | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| realme 7i | |
| OnePlus Nord N100 | |
| Honor 9X Lite | |
| realme C3 | |
| Motorola Moto G8 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A21s | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| LG K51S | |
| 2560x1440 Sling Shot OpenGL ES 3.0 Graphics (sort by value) | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| realme 7i | |
| OnePlus Nord N100 | |
| Honor 9X Lite | |
| realme C3 | |
| Motorola Moto G8 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A21s | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| LG K51S | |
| 2560x1440 Sling Shot OpenGL ES 3.0 (sort by value) | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| realme 7i | |
| OnePlus Nord N100 | |
| Honor 9X Lite | |
| realme C3 | |
| Motorola Moto G8 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A21s | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| LG K51S | |
| GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7 | |
| 1920x1080 T-Rex HD Offscreen C24Z16 (sort by value) | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| OnePlus Nord N100 | |
| realme C3 | |
| Motorola Moto G8 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A21s | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| T-Rex HD Onscreen C24Z16 (sort by value) | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| OnePlus Nord N100 | |
| realme C3 | |
| Motorola Moto G8 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A21s | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| GFXBench 3.0 | |
| off screen Manhattan Offscreen OGL (sort by value) | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| OnePlus Nord N100 | |
| realme C3 | |
| realme C3 | |
| Motorola Moto G8 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A21s | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| on screen Manhattan Onscreen OGL (sort by value) | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| OnePlus Nord N100 | |
| realme C3 | |
| Motorola Moto G8 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A21s | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| AnTuTu v8 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| OnePlus Nord N100 | |
| realme C3 | |
| Motorola Moto G8 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A21s | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| WebXPRT 3 - --- (sort by value) | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Xiaomi Redmi 9 | |
| OnePlus Nord N100 | |
| realme C3 | |
| Motorola Moto G8 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A21s | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| Networking | |
| iperf3 Client (receive) TCP 1 m 4M x10 (sort by value) | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Xiaomi Redmi 9 | |
| realme 7i | |
| OnePlus Nord N100 | |
| Honor 9X Lite | |
| realme C3 | |
| Motorola Moto G8 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A21s | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| LG K51S | |
| iperf3 Client (transmit) TCP 1 m 4M x10 (sort by value) | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Xiaomi Redmi 9 | |
| realme 7i | |
| OnePlus Nord N100 | |
| Honor 9X Lite | |
| realme C3 | |
| Motorola Moto G8 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A21s | |
| Nokia 3.4 | |
| LG K51S | |
| PUBG Mobile - HD (sort by value) | |
| Xiaomi Redmi 9 | |
| realme C3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A21s | |
