Buying a new phone can be an exciting activity, but more often than not you pretty much add a weight to your ankle by signing on for another couple of years of overpriced phone plans, so we thought we’d look in a different direction this time, namely to the 10 best unlocked smartphones under $200.
I don’t know about you, but when the time comes to buy a new phone because the old one was dropped by the kid until it shattered, or the battery life pretty much transforms your smartphone into a landline, research is quite enjoyable and exciting. Who doesn’t like looking at the newest phones on the market, checking specs and seeing just how much better they are than your old phone, right? Because you know that even a couple of years difference between release dates can make a huge difference with the technological advancements nowadays.
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But the nicer phones are always expensive and that’s ok, it’s normal. So what you’re left with if your pockets don’t go too deep or you just refuse to pay a lot of money on a new phone is to either pick from the lower range or tie yourself down with a new contract. Since that second option is not what we’re interested in right now, we thought we’d see just which are the best smartphones without a contract. We even checked our own list of the 7 Best Smartphones Under $200 to see if we get any doubles. For our list today, however, we checked multiple sites that offer phone reviews and made a list of the smartphones that showed up the most. Then we checked the prices on Amazon and came up with the final list of the 10 best unlocked smartphones under $200.
10. ASUS ZenFone 3 Laser
Price – $180
Released just a few months ago, the ASUS ZenFone 3 Laser is one of the best cheap phones out there. Featuring a 5.5-inch display, this is a massive phone. The display has a 1080 x 1920 pixels resolution, and it is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
The phone is dual SIM so you might find it particularly useful if you’re using more than one number, so you don’t carry around a lot of devices. The heart of this device is a Snapdragon 430 chipset, mixed with an octa-core CPU.
The 13 MP camera offers photos that you can pride yourself with and those selfies are going to turn out great thanks to the 8 MP front camera. There is also plenty of space to store them all since the internal memory is 32 GB, which can be expanded even more with the help of a microSD of up to 256 GB.
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9. Sony Xperia M2
Price – $150 (For Purple version)
Released in 2014, the Sony Xperia M2 comes with preinstalled Android. You can buy it both with Jelly Bean and KitKat installed, depending on when your particular phone came out of the assembly line. There’s also a planned upgrade to Lollipop, but there’s no specific timeline for that.
The device weighs a mere 5.22 oz and comes with a 4.8-inch screen with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The phone features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset and a quad-core 1.2 GHz CPU. The phone comes with an internal memory of 8 GB, but it can be expanded with a microSD of up to 32 GB via a dedicated slot.
The camera has 8MP that should do a decent job at capturing your dearest moments. Sure, it doesn’t compare to high-end smartphones, but you’re not paying for one either. This is also a dual phone, so you can add two SIM cards and handle calls on both of them.
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8. Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
Price – $150
Released in the summer of 2015, the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua which ranks 8th on our list of best unlocked smartphones under $200, comes with Android OS Lollipop which can be upgraded to Marshmallow if you so desire. The device is pretty light, weighing 4.8 oz, even though ti has a rather large 5-inch screen. While there’s no Gorilla Glass on this device, Sony does mention that it has a scratch-resistant screen, if that offers any comfort.
The Xperia M4 Aqua features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset and an octa-core CPU. There are 8GB of internal space open for your needs, although there’s also a 16GB version available for purchase. Through a dedicated slot, however, you can expand the phone’s memory with up to 256 GB! This certainly isn’t something you see every day.
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7. Lenovo K3 Note
Price – $124
The K3 Note was released in March 2015, and it’s a rather popular device. Despite being a Note device, with a 5.5-inch display, the K3 only weighs 5.29 oz. To top things off, we should mention that this is a dual-SIM smartphone that can handle calls on both numbers.
The smartphone comes with Android Lollipop installed and it is easily upgradable to Marshmallow should you wish so. The device features a MediaTek MT6752 chipset and an octa-core 1.7 GHz Cortez CPU. The phone has an internal memory of 16GB, but it can be extended with up to 32GB via a dedicated microSD slot. The phone’s primary camera has 13 MP, while the secondary one barely reaches 5 MP, which might be ok for your every day selfies.
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6. LG G3 Beat
Price – $110
The LG G3 S, also known as Beat, was released in late summer 2014. Despite the fact that it has been around for a while, it has been quite popular. It features a 5-inch screen with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The capacitive touchscreen has a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels, and it allows multitouch.
The G3 Beat comes with Android OS, KitKat, that’s upgradable to Lollipop should you so desire. Under the hood, the smartphone features a Snapdragon 400 chipset and a quad-core 1.2 GHz CPU. The phone’s internal memory is a mere 8GB, but it can be expanded to up to 64 GB with the help of a microSD.
The camera isn’t the bragging point of this smartphone since the primary one is just 8 MP with a laser autofocus and a LED flash, while your selfie camera is of 1.3 MP.
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5. Huawei SnapTo
Price – $110
We are continuing our list of best unlocked smartphones under $200 with the Huawei SnapTo which was released in April 2015, and it comes with Android KitKat installed. The device has a 5-inch screen with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. Under the hood, the SnapTo has Snapdragon 400 chipset and a quad-core 1.2 GHz CPU.
The phone’s internal memory is of only 8 GB, but it can be expanded to up to 32 GB with a microSD card. This can be great if you plan on taking a lot of photos, even though the camera isn’t all too great, with only 5 MP. The front camera which you’ll be using to snap all those selfies measures 2 MP.
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4. Microsoft Lumia 550
Price – $105
Next up is the only non-Android phone on our list of best unlocked smartphones under $200, the Microsoft Lumia 550. As you know, the Lumia phones come with Microsoft Windows, in this instance, 10. If the Windows Store doesn’t scare you, then this is a pretty decent phone. It comes with a 4.7-inch display with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels.
The phone features 8 GB internal memory that can be extended with up to a whopping 256 GB via a microSD. The Lumia 550 can’t really brag about its camera, however, since it barely gets to 5 MP, which gets you some acceptable pictures. The front camera has 2 MP, so your selfie game won’t be too great either.
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3. Moto E 2nd Gen
Price – $100
The Motorola Moto E second generation ranks 3rd on our list of best unlocked smartphones under $200. It was released in February 2015, and it has remained popular ever since, particularly thanks to its low price. The device runs Android Lollipop, and there’s a planned upgrade to Marshmallow coming up.
The smartphone has a 4.5-inch display, which is great if you’re not into the large screen phones that are so popular nowadays. The resolution is 540 x 960 pixels, which is a bit low, but the screen is at least protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 with an oleophobic coating.
Under the hood, this Motorola smartphone comes with a Snapdragon 200 chipset and a quad-core 1.2 GHz CPU. There’s an internal memory of 8 GB available, as well as a dedicated slot where you can add an extra 32 GB microSD card.
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2. Huawei Honor 5X
Price – $160
The Huawei Honor 5X ranks second on our list of best unlocked smartphones under $200. It was released a little over a year ago, and it’s still one of the best out there for the under $200 range. The 5.5-inch display of the phone has a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels, which is a pretty good way to start. The phone feature 16 GB internal memory, which can be extended with a massive 256 GB via microSD. The heart of this phone is the Snapdragon 616 chipset, complete with an octa-core CPU.
The Honor 5X also comes with a more than decent camera of 13 MP and a front camera of 5 MP for all those great selfies you plan on taking. This is also a dual-SIM phone, so you might find it even more appealing.
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1. Moto G4
Price – $150
The Moto G 4G ranks first on our list of best unlocked smartphones under $200. It is a really good phone. It comes with Android Marshmallow installed, which, of course, features all the goodies from Google. There is also a really good camera of 13 MP with dual-LED flash and autofocus, as well as a 5MP front camera. Of course, these are upgrades that are expected of a phone that was released earlier this year.
The screen measures 5.5 inches, so it’s a pretty large phone, with a 1080 x 1920 pixels resolutions and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. Under the hood, there’s a Snapdragon 617 chipset and an octa-core CPU.
That being said, these have been the 10 best unlocked smartphones under $200.
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