Top 5 Best Smartphones under $500



In the recent years smartphones have become extremely competitive in the mid-range market, with so many choices anyone can get confused over which phone to buy and which phone to skip, there are many choices but only some of them are truly value for money, that will last a long time and give you the bang for your buck.Today we are going to be looking at the best phones under $500 in terms of camera, gaming, battery, fast charging and many other things, we will show you the best phones in each category and also a phone that is best in all of them.

1. Samsung Galaxy A53 - Best overall



 Specifications:

Memory and Storage

4gb RAM + 128gb Storage 

Chipset

Exynos 1280 soc / Octa-Core

GPU

Mali-G68 MC4

Display 

6.5 Inches / Super Amoled / 120hz

Display Resolution

1080 x 2400 Pixels (~404 PPI)

Display Protection

Corning Gorilla Glass 5

Rear Cameras

64mp(main) + 12mp(ultrawide) + 5mp(macro) + 5mp(depth)

Front Camera

32mp 

Battery

5000 mAh / 7-8 hours of continuous usage

Charging

33W Fast charging

Pros

  1. Amazing Cameras 
  2. Excellent Battery
  3. Amazing Display and Protection

Cons

  1. Mediocre Chipset

Samsung’s Galaxy A53 is an amazing phone with one of the best cameras on any $500 phone. If you consume a lot of media then this phone is for you as it has one of the best displays on a phone with a Super Amoled screen with smooth 120hz refresh rate and it features a massive 5000 mAh battery which means you can use it continuously for 7-8 hours, the only down point it has is that Samsung's Exynos Chipsets are not as powerful as the snapdragon chipset which samsung sells in the US and they are shown to have a lot of heating issues when faced with heavy tasks such as gaming.

2. Iphone 11 - Best for Iphone lovers



Specifications:

Memory and Storage

4gb RAM + 64gb Storage

Chipset

A13 (7nm)

GPU

Apple GPU (4-core graphics)

Display 

6.1 inches / IPS LCD 

Display Resolution

828 x 1792 Pixels (~324 PPI)

Display Protection

Scratch-resistant Glass

Rear Cameras

12mp(main) + 12mp(ultra wide)

Front Camera

12mp

Battery

3110 mAh / 5-6 hours of continuous usage

Charging

Supports 18W Fast charging


Pros

  1. High performance chipset
  2. Amazing cameras
  3. 4 years of software update

Cons

  1. Small battery
  2. 5 Watt Charger in the box

With the release of the latest Iphone 14 series the price of Iphone 11 has gone down which means you can get this phone for under $500 now, it is 3 years old now but still it is an amazing overall phone with its powerful processor it can still play power intensive games like PUBG and Fortnite with ease and its cameras still compete with the phones in range of $500 and apple also provides 4 years of software updates which means it has the latest software IOS 15 and it will also receive all the major updates until september 2023 it is an amazing phone under $500 for gaming and cameras, although its battery will get you through normal day-to-day use but with heavy usage it will not last an entire day.


3. Pixel 6A - Best Cameras


Specifications :

Memory and Storage

6gb RAM + 128gb Storage

Chipset

Google Tensor (5nm)

GPU

Mali-G78 MP20

Display

6.1 Inches / OLED

Display Resolution 

1080 x 2400 (429 PPI)

Display Protection 

Gorilla Glass 3

Rear Cameras 

12mp(main) + 12mp(ultra wide)

Front Cameras

8mp

Battery

4410 mAh / 6-7 hours of continuous usage 

Charging 

18 Watt Fast charger

Pros:

  1. Amazing cameras
  2. Powerful processor
  3. 4 years of major software support

Cons:

  1. Only 60 Hz display in $500

Pixel 6A is from the Google's latest pixel 6 series it is an amazing phone with high performance chipset and an amazing set of cameras. As it is developed by google it has one of the best software in a smartphone its amazing image recognition and image processing software gives it the ability to recognize the objects in a photo far better than any other competitor and capture beautiful and realistic shots, while it captures one of the best photos it lacks in video as google pixel phones process the image a lot to make it smoother and sharp the image processing does not quite work as effectively on the videos.

4. Oneplus 8T - Best for Gaming



Specifications:

Memory and Storage 

8gb RAM + 128gb Storage

Chipset

Qualcomm Snapdragon 865(7nm+)

GPU

Adreno 650

Display

6.6 Inches / Fluid Amoled / 120 Hz

Display Resolution 

1080 x 2400 pixels (~402 PPI)

Display Protection 

Gorilla Glass 5

Rear Cameras

48mp(main) + 16mp(ultra wide) + 5mp(macro) + 2mp(depth)

Front Cameras

16mp

Battery

4500 mAh / 6-7 hours of continuous usage 

Charging

65W Fast charging 

Pros

  1. Flagship chipset
  2. Extremely fast charging
  3. Top tier display 

Cons

  1. Mediocre Cameras 

OnePlus 8T is THE choice when gaming it has an amazing flagship chipset with high level performance which means excellent gaming experience and to improve the experience further it comes with a Fluid Amoled 120Hz display for media consumption it has a decent battery of 4500mAh battery with a fast 65W charging which can charge your phone from 0 to 100 in just 39 minutes, the one and only caveat is that it has mediocre cameras with 48mp sensor while in this price range phones usually come with 64mp or even 108mp cameras, but if you are a gamer who wants consistent high performance gameplay this phone is for you.

5. Galaxy S20 Fe - For media consumers 



Specifications: 

Memory and Storage 

8gb RAM + 128gb Storage

Chipset

Exynos 990(7nm+)

GPU

Mali-G77 MP11

Display 

6.5 inches / Super Amoled / 120Hz

Display Resolution 

1440 x 2400 (~431 PPI)

Display Protection 

Gorilla Glass 3 

Rear Cameras

12mp(main) + 12mp(ultra wide) + 8mp(telephoto)

Front Cameras 

32mp 

Battery 

4500 mAh / 6-7 hours of continuous usage 

Charging 

15W fast charging

Pros

  • Amazing display with high resolution

  • High quality selfie camera

Cons

  • Mediocre rear cameras

Buying Guide

Buying a phone can be very confusing, as you have to keep many things in mind such as processor, Display, cameras, Battery and many more but if you know what to look for then you can easily tell which phone is the best for you and which phones to avoid so now we will be looking at the key things to consider before buying any phone.


  1. Processor/Chipset: One of the most important thing to look for before buying a phone is its processor it will tell how well the phone will perform over a long period of time and in gaming, if the processor is bad a phone can start to lag after just some time of using it, there are processors of many types and different price segment offers different processors so it is very difficult to say which is the best as some processor value battery efficiency and some value performance but the brands that are usually the best are Snapdragon, Exynos, apple's A series, mediatek these are the brands which have amazing processor and you should keep them in mind before buying a phone.


  1. Cameras: Cameras are also the most important aspect of a phone, A good camera depends upon many things such as sensor, aperture, megapixels and many more but many brands do not reveal which sensor they are using so one thing that may give an idea of how good the camera is its megapixel(mp) you should see how much megapixels a camera has in the $500 range most phones come with 64mp or more megapixels so that is a important factor that can tell how good a camera is.


  1. Battery: Battery is core important thing of your smartphone you should always check how much battery capacity a phone has before buying battery is counted in the unit mAh which stands for milliampere hours the higher the mAh the bigger and long-lasting the battery, in phones you should check if there is at least 4000mAh of battery any lower than that the battery may not last as long as you would please.


  1. Display: Display is also an important factor in a phone, the things you should consider in a phone's display are it's resolution and protection in the range of $500 the display resolution should at least be 1080 x 2400 pixels, the resolution is the thing that will dictate how clear and sharp the display will be it is an important factor to consider, the other thing is display protection it is the built-in glass in the phone to protect it from breaking, the best is gorilla glass it is one of the toughest glass when buying a phone you should see if the phone has at least gorilla glass 3 if not it may break easily if it was ever dropped.