An increase in disposable income is driving growth in the global smartphone market and is shifting consumer preference towards affordable yet premium phones. According to an April 26 release by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, personal income in the United States increased by $122.0 billion in March 2024. Moreover, the disposable income, without accounting for the current taxes, also increased by $104 billion during the same month. According to a report by Mordor Intelligence, the global smartphone market had a volume of 1.51 billion units in 2024. The market volume is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.10% during the forecasted period to reach 1.89 billion units by 2029. In addition to the increase in disposable income, the advent of 5G technology and the incorporation of artificial intelligence in the latest smartphones are factors driving growth in the market. To read about the best phones you can look at the 20 Best Cheap Phones for 2024 and 10 Smartphones with the Best Cameras and Battery Life.
The Asia-Pacific region holds the largest market share due to its emerging telecommunication infrastructure and key players such as China and India. According to the Mobile Economy Asia Pacific Report 2023 by GSMA, the mobile technologies and services sector contributed around 5% to the overall GDP of the Asia Pacific region in 2022. In numbers, the mobile technologies services sector contributed approximately $810 billion to the economy. Moreover, in terms of mobile internet penetration China led the market in 2022 with a connection rate of 79%.
The incorporation of artificial intelligence has become a major factor contributing to market growth. QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) is a US-based company that specializes in the development of foundational technologies for wireless devices including smartphones. QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) is also one of the world’s largest suppliers of smartphone chips and has both Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (KRX:005930) as its major customers. On May 2, Reuters reported that QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) has outperformed Wall Street expectations of quarterly sales and adjusted profits due to increased sales of artificial intelligence chips in China. The company’s sales to the Chinese smartphone industry grew by 40% during the fiscal first half of 2024. Moreover, the company expects third-quarter 2024 sales of $9.2 billion and adjusted profits with midpoints of $2.25 per share, higher than Wall Street estimates of $9.05 billion in sales and $2.17 adjusted profits per share.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a leading smartphone manufacturing company renowned for its iPhones and innovative wearable technology products. On March 19, Reuters reported that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is in talks with Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) to build Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence engine in iPhones. The current negotiations under consideration are about licensing Gemini for certain new features in the iPhone's software. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has also held dialogues with OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, about using its model. However, no deals are expected until June 2024 as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) plans to hold its annual developers conference.
On May 2 Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced earnings for the fiscal second quarter of 2024. The company reported earnings per share of $1.53 ahead of market expectations by $0.02. The company’s revenue for the quarter amounted to $90.75 billion beating market consensus by $299.27 million. Here are some comments from Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) earnings call for Q2 2024:
More than half of the Fortune 100 companies have already bought Apple Vision Pro units and are exploring innovative ways to use it to do things that weren’t possible before, and this is just the beginning. Looking ahead, we’re getting ready for an exciting product announcement next week that we think our customers will love. And next month, we have our Worldwide Developers Conference, which has generated enormous enthusiasm from our developers. We can’t wait to reveal what we have in-store. We continue to feel very bullish about our opportunity in Generative AI. We are making significant investments, and we’re looking forward to sharing some very exciting things with our customers soon. We believe in the transformative power and promise of AI, and we believe we have advantages that will differentiate us in this new era, including Apple’s unique combination of seamless hardware, software and services integration, groundbreaking Apple’s silicon, with our industry-leading neural engines and our unwavering focus on privacy, which underpins everything we create.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (KRX:005930) is another leading smartphone manufacturing company. According to Counterpoint Research, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (KRX:005930) dethroned Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and became the top smartphone player globally by holding 20% of the shipment share during the fiscal first quarter of 2024. Moreover, on January 30, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (KRX:005930) announced the release of its Samsung Galaxy S24 series with a new Galaxy AI experience. The new Galaxy AI feature allows quick language translation of voice recordings and calls, text summaries, and AI image editing. The phone features a powerful 50MP camera powered with an AI zoom feature, an ultra slim bezel display of 6.2 inches with contrast boosters, and a strong all-day battery life. The transformative AI technology has boosted the sales for Galaxy S24 and registered a double-digit increase in pre-orders as compared to Galaxy S23. Moreover, approximately 65% of the pre-order customers have opted to buy the top inline Galaxy S24 Ultra.
With this context, let’s look at the luxury on a budget: 12 affordable smartphones with premium features.
Luxury on a Budget: 12 Affordable Smartphones with Premium Features
Our Methodology
To curate the list of luxury on a budget: 12 affordable smartphones with premium features we employed a consensus methodology. We consulted over 10 rankings to aggregate a list of the best affordable smartphones with premium features. We defined affordable smartphones as those between a price range of $200 to $700. To rank these phones we relied on the total number of reviews and average customer rating, sourced from BestBuy, Amazon, and Walmart. We selected the phones with at least 1000 reviews and an average rating of 4 or above across our sources. Moreover, we sourced the prices for each phone from Best Buy. Once we had the list of 12 affordable smartphones with premium features, we ranked them in ascending order of the total number of reviews, as our primary metric, and the average rating as our secondary metric.
Please note that the total number of reviews, the average rating, and the prices were recorded on May 4, 2024, and are subject to change over time.
Luxury on a Budget: 12 Affordable Smartphones with Premium Features
12. Google Pixel 8
Total Number of Reviews: 1,594
Average Rating: 4.45
Price: $549
Google Pixel 8 by Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is a new flagship phone powered by Google AI that allows real-time photo editing, translation services, and much more. Pixel 8 comes with a 50 MP rear camera and a 10.5 MP front camera with Auto HDR and panorama features. The phone has 2 variants differentiating based on the storage capacity of 128 GB and 256 GB. In addition to 8 GB RAM, the Pixel 8 has a nano-core CPU and a Google Tensor G3 chipset. The phone ranks 12th on our list of 12 affordable smartphones with premium features.
11. Motorola Edge+
Total Number of Reviews: 1,601
Average Rating: 4.40
Price: $600
If you are looking for luxury on a budget, the Motorola Edge+ by Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) ranks 11th on our list of 12 affordable smartphones with premium features. It is one of the fastest, loudest, and boldest smartphones by Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI). The phone features a powerful 108 MP rear camera, 12 GB RAM with Snapdragon 865 5G chipset, and a long-lasting 5000 mAh battery. Motorola Edge+ also has an under-the-screen fingerprint sensor, accelerometer, gyro, and proximity sensors for enhanced user experience.
10. OnePlus Nord N30
Total Number of Reviews: 1,654
Average Rating: 4.40
Price: $300
Nord N30 is a premium phone by OnePlus. The phone features a 108 MP camera with 3x lossless zooming capability, 5000 mAh battery with super fast 50W charging, Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chipset, 8 GB virtual RAM extension, and up to 1 TB expandable storage capacity. Nord N30 ranks as the 10th most affordable smartphone with premium features and is available for $300 at BestBuy.
9. Samsung Galaxy A54
Total Number of Reviews: 1,760
Average Rating: 4.30
Price: $450
Galaxy A54 by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (KRX:005930) ranks 9th on our list of 12 affordable smartphones with premium features. Galaxy A54 features a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED screen with a 1080 x 2340 pixels display, a 50 MP camera along with a 12 MP ultra-wide and 5 MP Macro camera on the back, and a powerful 32 MP selfie camera on the front. The phone comes in different variants ranging from 128 GB storage and 4 GB RAM to 256 GB storage and 8 GB RAM. Galaxy A54 delivers luxury on a budget and is available for $450 at BestBuy.
8. Motorola Edge
Total Number of Reviews: 1,958
Average Rating: 4.40
Price: $350
Belonging to the edge family of Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI), Motorola Edge offers luxury on a budget and ranks 8th on our list of 12 affordable smartphones with premium features. The phone features a sleek design, a 50 MP rear camera, a 4400 mAh battery with 68W turbocharging, and an immersive edgeless display of 6.6 inches. Motorola Edge is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7030 processor, 8 GB RAM, and an internal storage capacity of 256 GB.
7. Apple iPhone SE (3rd Generation)
Total Number of Reviews: 1,992
Average Rating: 4.25
Price: $430
iPhone SE (3rd Generation) by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) ranks as the 7th affordable smartphone with premium features. iPhone SE comes with a Retina HD display and a multi-touch 4.7-inch screen. The phone features a 12 MP main camera with digital zoom of up to 5x and 4k video recording. In terms of performance, the iPhone SE has an A15 Bionic chip, a 6-core CPU with 2 performance and 4 efficiency cores, and a 16-core Neural Engine and comes with 3 variants offering 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB storage capacity.
6. Motorola Moto G Power
Total Number of Reviews: 2,087
Average Rating: 4.23
Price: $300
Moto G Power by Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) offers luxury on a budget and ranks 6th on our list of 12 affordable smartphones with premium features. The phone features a 6.5-inch bezel-less display with 120 Hz refresh rate and full HD+ view. The long-lasting 5000 mAh battery provides power backup for up to 2 days and a MediaTek Dimensity 930 processor with 6 GB RAM offers premium performance. The Phone comes with a 50 MP rear camera with quad-pixel technology and incorporates security features such as a fingerprint sensor and face unlock.
