4 Best Smartphones Under $600, According To Consumer Reports

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Although flagship smartphones are getting pricey as time goes by, you don't have to splurge $1,000+ on the latest model from Apple, Samsung, Google, or other major smartphone brands. The smartphone market is flooded with a plethora of options at different price points to give everyone a chance of owning a phone, regardless of their budget. The only catch is that you can't (and shouldn't) expect to get the best of the best if you're on a tight budget. 

Besides, when you're working with a limited budget of less than $600, you need to do your research well to make sure you're getting the best option. Buying flagships is easy: You simply pick the latest priciest model from any major brand, and you're good to go. Choosing the best phone under $600? Not so much. 

That's where a review site like Consumer Reports is essential for separating the wheat from the chaff. The best smartphones under $600 recommended by Consumer Reports include models from some of the major brands. As such, you'll undoubtedly find something from your favorite ecosystem with a great balance of specs that matter in everyday smartphone use.

Apple's iPhone 16e was released in early 2025 as the successor to the company's 2022 entry-level iPhone SE. The model features several key improvements that, despite a $170 price bump from its predecessor, still stands out as the best budget phone under $600. With the highest rating from Consumer Reports, the iPhone 16e has a 6.1-inch OLED display with 460 pixels per inch (ppi), HDR support, and a peak brightness of 1,200 nits. 

Under the hood, the iPhone 16e is powered by Apple's A18 chip, the same one powering the base iPhone 16. It might not be as powerful as the latest chips in the iPhone 17 series, but it provides enough power to run Apple Intelligence tasks. It has a single 48MP camera, which isn't as versatile as having a multi-camera setup, but Consumer Reports notes it's a pretty capable lens for shooting photos and videos. The team was also impressed by the phone's 37.5-hour battery life. 

And if you're worried about drops and a few splashes of water ruining the 16e, the phone went through testing by the team at Consumer Reports for both impacts and water, coming out without significant damage. You can pick up an iPhone 16e direct from Apple for $599.

Although Samsung releases many smartphones at different prices each year, its Galaxy FE series is the one you pick when you want near-flagship-level specs at a discount. As one of the best Samsung phones, the Galaxy S24 FE packs a punch. To start, it features a 6.7-inch OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, 1,900 nits peak brightness, and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ for protection. Consumer Reports describes the display as "high quality." 

The device has a triple rear-camera setup with a 50-megapixel main, 12-megapixel ultrawide, and an 8-megapixel telephoto camera. At its price, it doesn't rival its expensive siblings in photo and video quality, but the setup is fine for casual use. This phone comes with an Exynos 2400e chip, which you won't find among the fastest smartphone processors, but is quite capable for everyday tasks, and is one of the phone's core strengths. 

A 4,700 mAh battery powers the Galaxy S24 FE, which Consumer Reports found to offer up to 29 hours of screen time on a single charge. When you're out of battery juice, you can charge the device with a USB-C cable or wirelessly, as long as you have the right wireless charger. You can snag a Galaxy S24 FE from Amazon at $569.

The OnePlus 12R is another excellent budget phone under $600 that you can buy. Like the Galaxy S24 FE, it was also released in 2024, and offers good value for money. However, among all its specs, the most impressive one is the battery: It's powered by a 5,500 mAh battery, which offers 46 hours of screen time; on par with flagship phones, according to Consumer Reports' reviewers. That solid battery life is despite the fact that the OnePlus 12R has a 6.78-inch AMOLED display with almost all the bells and whistles of a flagship, like a dynamic refresh rate that ranges from as low as 1Hz to 120Hz, 4,500 nits peak brightness, and 450 ppi. 

The camera department includes a triple-rear camera setup (50-megapixel main, 16-megapixel ultrawide, and 2-megapixel macro) and a 16-megapixel selfie camera. However, only the rear setup is said to shoot "high-quality" images and videos. Consumer Reports also found the OnePlus 12R to be a dependable device in the long run, thanks to its tough build that withstood scratches, drops, and even water intrusion tests. 

Besides, OnePlus pledges to support the phone till February 2028; you won't miss out on important software and security updates anytime soon. Purchase the OnePlus 12R from Amazon for $569.20 with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Alternatively, you can get it directly from OnePlus for $499.99 in the base 8GB/128GB configuration, or $599.99 for twice the memory and storage. 

If you love Android, but prefer the simple experience offered by Google's Pixel phones, you can't go wrong with the Pixel 7 Pro. While this phone was released in October 2022, it was Google's flagship smartphone of the year. And with Google planning to support the device for a minimum of five years from the release date, it's still a solid budget phone, especially at its heavily discounted price in 2025. It has a 6.7-inch LTPO OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1,500 nits. 

The phone has a 5,000 mAh battery, which was found to provide a maximum screen time of 32 hours, according to Consumer Reports' reviewers. You can charge the Pixel 7 Pro via cable or wirelessly at up to 23W. For taking images and videos, there's a triple rear camera setup at your disposal with a 50-megapixel main, a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and a 48-megapixel telephoto with up to 5x optical zoom. 

Like other Pixel phones, the Pixel 7 Pro is powered by Google's Tensor chip under the hood, and on this model, it's the G2. Though it's a smartphone from 2022, you still enjoy some Pixel-exclusive perks found on newer models, like a free VPN. You can buy the Pixel 7 Pro from Amazon and Best Buy for $379.99.

This article summarizes the best phones priced at or under $600, as reviewed by Consumer Reports. The site's experts review each phone the same way based on metrics such as performance, camera quality, battery life, and durability (scratch, drop, and water resistance) to be as objective as possible.

For this article, we've only listed the top four devices based on their average rating of quality and reliability, from highest to lowest. The site's review for each smartphone is detailed, and always mentions anything that's outstanding or could be a deal-breaker. For this reason, if a phone has a poor software update policy or an excellent camera, it was included in our round-up if applicable.