The Best Mobile Phones Under $100
With 5-star picture and sound, spectacular processing power, and two days of battery life, this smartphone offers outstanding value.
Google’s Android flagship proves you don’t have to break the bank for a premium smartphone experience. Boasting sleek design and impressive cameras, the Pixel is an outstanding handset.
OnePlus 11
OnePlus phones are among the finest Android smartphones on the market due to their impressive hardware specifications and affordable pricing. The OnePlus 11 stands out with impressive benchmark scores and excellent graphics performance (though it lacks hardware-accelerated ray tracing support for games that use it).
This phone boasts top-of-the-line cameras and fast charging speeds, making it the ideal choice for gamers, video enthusiasts, or anyone wanting a powerful smartphone without breaking their budget. Furthermore, OnePlus is committed to software updates – offering four years of major upgrades as well as five years of bi-monthly security patches.
The OnePlus 11 marks a welcome return to its roots as a flagship killer, even if some staple features such as wireless charging are missing and durability is compromised. Still, this excellent phone should appeal to those seeking an alternative to Samsung or Apple flagship smartphones without spending top dollar. OnePlus provides this phone with its signature 100W charger and basic protective case.
Samsung Galaxy S22
Even though it’s not Samsung’s flagship (that honor belongs to the S23 Ultra), the Galaxy S22 remains an excellent choice for anyone who’s searching for an easy, small, powerful phone that fits comfortably in one hand. Apple dominates six-inch flagships; the S22 stands up as a worthy alternative in this respect and feels premium as well.
Samsung’s 3.6-inch display may seem small by modern standards, but its rich contrast and colors make up for any smallness in size with outstanding contrast and brightness. You can opt for an LTPO panel to prolong battery life even further – and Samsung promises up to 24 hours of use with their 3,700mAh battery and fast charging capabilities.
Samsung’s 10MP selfie camera excels, not oversmoothing your features during video calls. Running Android 12 with Samsung’s One UI, they promise four years of updates – more than Google offers with its Pixel 6 series. Furthermore, availability is excellent with major carriers such as AT&T offering it and retailers like Amazon and Best Buy offering it frequently.
Oppo Find X5 Pro
Oppo’s latest flagship phone, the Find X5 Pro is the successor to 2021’s Find X3 Pro (as four is considered unlucky in China). Featuring sleek yet contemporary styling that only lets down by its camera bulge design; SuperVOOC fast wired charging technology as well as 50W wireless charging technology as well as powerful ColorOS software and impressive hardware specifications make up its feature set.
Under our standard battery rundown tests, the phone lasted an impressive 24hrs 3mins until power ran out – that’s quite an impressive figure given that its octa-core Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip and 12GB RAM make for such a large footprint.
It has a distinct design and some standout software features not found elsewhere, including an air gesture feature and Hasselblad-branded camera app with its signature XPan mode. Unfortunately, its camera falls short compared to that of rival phones like the OnePlus 11 or Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra; furthermore it’s more expensive and may not suit everyone.
Realme GT 2 Pro
The Realme GT 2 Pro may not compete directly with iPhones or OnePlus smartphones, but it packs many of their flagship features into an affordable package. It boasts an advanced processor and large battery capacity – ideal for gamers. Furthermore, its quality display and camera provide outstanding photography experiences.
The 6.7-inch LTPO2 AMOLED display offers stunning image quality with 120Hz refresh rate and 1400nit brightness, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus for added protection.
The metal frame on the GT 2 Pro has been painted matte and color-matched to its back panel for an elegant, premium aesthetic. It features high-grade haptics on its power button and volume rocker for more distinctive feedback, while its bottom edge hosts a USB-C port for data and charging as well as speaker and SIM tray functions. Unfortunately, however, there is no 3.5mm headphone jack or microSD card slot to expand storage capacity on this phone.