The definitively best smartphones for every budget in 2020

The Android ecosystem is bewilderingly rich with great choices, so let us lay out the field so you can discover which meets your needs and can find a phone that you'll really love!

As cliché as it is to say, there has never been a better time to buy a smartphone at any price-point; but the market is so rich with options that it can be rightly bewildering to determine what will suit your needs best.

Well fear not!

We've done the hard work finding every device worthy of your hard-earned cash across all price points, from the $100 budget kings to the $1000 feature-beasts, so you can find your perfect smartphone.

As an Australian myself, I've compiled a list with prices in both the US and Australia and made sure that the options provided at each tier are the best available – don't worry! I've done the hard work so you don't have to!

Budget: $100US/$100AU

There is surprisingly quite the field of smartphones in this most budget of categories, but the golden rule is do not buy an Android Go phone. The ‘Go' version of Android exists only to grace underpowered devices with legitimacy and should be avoided like the plague, an unfortunate discovery I made when I reviewed the Nokia 1 Plus.

Unfortunately, there are no standout devices below the $100 bracket and I can only recommend you select the smartphone you like the design of most which offers at least 2GB of RAM and 16GB of ROM.

There is, however, one absolute standout ageing flagship that can often be found around this price-point, and you can find it on our guide to the best budget smartphones…

Uber-budget: $120US/$160AU

The Redmi 8A

For this bracket just above the $100 cut, though, a great if not mind-blowing option exists sporting a mammoth 5000mAh battery and flagship-tier IMX363 camera sensor; Xiaomi's Redmi 8A. With the aforementioned standout features and otherwise appreciable HD+ IPS display, Snapdragon 439, and at least a year of updates, Redmi's latest super-budget endeavour is a phone even I could happily use – get the 3GB RAM model.

There aren't really any other phones I could recommend in this bracket as all others are either quite old, or just plain uncompetitive with the Redmi 8A.

Value: $160US/$240AU

The Redmi Note 8

At this price range we start finding devices which ape flagships in many ways and features, though still with clear cutbacks of course, and yet again Xiaomi has managed to snatch the overall victory from the competition from the likes of Samsung and Huawei with the Redmi Note 8.

With a great near-bezelless 1080p+ IPS display, a powerful and versatile suite of cameras, the respectable 14nm Snapdragon 665 chip, an attractive design, and the powerful though contentious MI UI Android skin, Xiaomi has delivered an excellent smartphone for everday users in the Redmi Note 8, offering more than even other cutthroat Chinese counterparts.

Xiaomi has recently launched the Redmi Note 9s, but it is in a higher price bracket and there is currently no cheaper non-s model.

The Galaxy M30s, in India

There is one other excellent smartphone in roughly this price bracket, though it can be very difficult to find outside of the Indian market – Samsung's Galaxy M30s; with its standout near-bezelless 1080p sAMOLED display, an excellent and versatile suite of cameras, the efficient and respectable 12nm Exynos 7611 chip, a lovely design, and the now-enjoyable One UI Android skin, Samsung finally exited the poor-budget offerings of Samsung's heritage earlier this year. If you can find it, it is an excellent contender.

Discount flagship: $220US/$300AU

The LG V35

Despite there being no enticing mid-range smartphone to bridge the gap between the previous and following price categories, there does in fact exist one ageing yet still excellent flagship at a now unbeatable price with LG's V35.

Launched as a refreshed V30 with the then-new, now-older but still plenty powerful Snapdragon 845, the LG V35 features a gorgeous near-bezelless yet protrusionless display and design, a duo of prominent if not top-tier cameras, and excellent battery life, LG may have missed the mark with the software but at such a discounted price brand new, the V35 is a smartphone absolutely worthy of consideration.

Value Flagship: $270US/$400AU

The Xiaomi Mi 9T aka Redmi K20

Ah, my favourite category of smartphone, the ‘value flagship', describing those phones typically manufactured by Chinese companies which attempt to throw everything one expects from a flagship into the wonderful midrange price bracket; and at the moment there is one phone which rules the roost in my opinion… Xiaomi's Mi 9T, aka Redmi's K20.

With a flagship-grade bezelless and notchless 1080p sAMOLED with only the tiniest of chin bezels, the trifecta of an ultrawide, standard, and 2x zoom camera system on the rear and a pop-up front camera (even if none are quite as good as those on, say, the actual flagship Galaxy S10+), Qualcomm's excellent Snapdragon 730 which is on par with 2018's flagship Snapdragon  845, plenty of good storage and niceties like an in-display fingerprint sensor and headphone jack, the K20/Mi 9T really does offer everything one needs in a phone, though its Mi UI Android skin is not the most popular (though not bad IMO). A truly excellent phone, no hold barred.

Software-focused Midranger: $350US

The Pixel 3a

Here we have a category that would need not exist due to the excellence of the cheaper Mi 9T which is in many ways superior and could serve many users better, except for the fact that this price bracket has recently received a phone which, while perhaps not excelling in all areas, does indeed pack a power-punch when it comes to software support and camera quality; Google's Pixel 3a.

Google, and it's Pixel 3a do bear faults, but with a good-quality (if chunkily-bezelled) 1080p+ AMOLED display, durable and attractive plastic chassis, extremely powerful if inversatile camera, worthy battery life, and superb (by Android standards) software support, Google's Pixel 3a is a great deal for those who value swift updates on an unfettered Android experience, particularly in the US as its quite expensive elsewhere, including Australia.

Discounted Flagship: $500US/$750AU

The Samsung Galaxy S10e

Due to the sheer value and quality of the previous selections, there is presently a dearth of enticing upgrades until we reach the domain of legitimate flagships, and at the lowest end of that top-range smartphone field we find Samsung's all-around excellent Galaxy S10e.

Though a little over a year on since its release now, the S10e remains an excellent smartphone at a compelling price point; with a gorgeous and nearly-bezelless 1080p+ sAMOLED display sporting a single camera cutout, Qualcomm's 2019 flagchip Snapdragon 855 or Exynos 9820, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of ROM standard, class-leading standard and ultrawide cameras, and all the little extras of water and dust resistance and an SD slot and the like, Samsung's Galaxy S10e was always a great phone, but it is now also a great deal.

Flagship: $900US/$1400AU

The OnePlus 8 Pro

Their prices have kept catching up with the big boys and now they have truly met the astronomical price mark, but Oppo-owned OnePlus has apparently managed to finally craft their own true flagship with almost all the bells and whistles one expect of a full-priced flagship in the OnePlus 8 Pro.

Just launched with the latest Snapdragon 865 and 5G, 8GB+ of RAM and 128GB+ of ROM, a wonderful premium design, a suite of purportedly truly-flagship cameras, swift and stockish software with reasonable update support, and sporting the industry's first 120hz at 1440p bezelless SAMOLED display (one-upping Samsung who limited their S20-series with software for some reason), OnePlus' first truly-premium and by far most expensive phone yet – at $900 base – is undoubtedly a flagship worthy of the title, though it may be too large for most people's hands.

The OnePlus 8 Pro should suite just about anybody's needs, but if you want the best smartphone overall…

Uber-flagship: $1200US/$1500AU

The Galaxy S20+

There are many other excellent super-flagships out there from the likes of Huawei, Oppo, and many others, but our overall winner of best current flagship smartphone is Samsung's Galaxy S20+, and not its bigger and far more expensive Galaxy S20 Ultra brethren – hear me out:

• The S20+ sports a pretty wonderful design (though some like me may not be partial to the rectangular camera bump) crafted of the highest quality materials.
• The S20+ sports the highest quality display out there with miniscule bezels, a tiny centred camera cutout, and an improved curved edge which no longer triggers accidental touches, though Samsung annoyingly currently prevents viewing the full glory of the display by limiting it to 120hz or 1440p – hopefully a fact they will change in the near future.
• The S20+ has the best camera suite currently available with: a massively improved 12MP with larger sensor primary camera which greatly improves light performance without making the focus range too shallow or sacrificing proper dual-pixel auto-focus unlike the S20 Ultra Ultrawide; a 64MP telephoto zoom camera; and another good-quality 12MP ultrawide sensor. Altogether I believe the S20+ to offer the best combined photo- and video-graphic capabilities in a phone, not sacrificing certain features for the larger sensor like the S20 Ultra does, but nonetheless utilising the best quality sensors. The S20+ also sports one of the industry's best selfie-cams.
• The S20+ has Samsung's One UI, an Android skin which launched out of Samsung's much-derided software skins of the past to be a fan favourite with some excellent usability design choices, awesome addons like ‘Goodlock' for in-depth customisation beyond Samsung's already decent theming engine, and it looks like Samsung may be hitting a stride with reasonable software update cycles now; win-win-win!
• The S20+ also comes standard with the latest and by far greatest Snapdragon 865 chipset (or inferior Exynos 990 in international markets, avoid it if you can), 8GB of RAM and 128GB of uber-fast UFS3.0 ROM with expandable storage for up to an extra 2TB; an excellent set of base specs which should be enough for all but the highest of power-users.
• The S20+ has a beefy and reasonably long-lasting 4500mAh battery with reasonable, if not exemplary, 25W fast charging paired with 15W wireless fast charging.
• The S20+ it has tonnes of extra little features like IP68 water and dust resistance, excellent stereo speakers, an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner under the display, industry-sanctioned Knox security, and quite a bit more.

It is true that the aforementioned OnePlus 8 Pro does indeed offer almost everything the S20+ does at a somewhat lower price, and I think that phone would be the better choice for many, but if you are seeking the better device overall and don't mind paying a bit extra, the S20+ is overall the superior device, I believe.

The S20 Ultra also exists, of course, however multiple issues with the primary camera due to its huge size and ridiculous pixel count steers me away from it and I would avoid it even if I could afford it – its very few extras over the S20+ are immaterial, and especially not worth the poor autofocus in my opinion.

And so with that most ultimate of recommendations, this guide is complete for now – but the industry is ever-shifting and with devices releasing every few weeks there may well be new category-winners in the very near future, which you can of course trust we will relay to you!

I hope you found this guide useful in navigating the smartphone field!