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in a worldwide market with dozens of Android smartphones you may find it challenging to find the very best budget device with so many options all claiming to offer the best bang for your buck it can be pretty overwhelming to try to find the best of the bunch we've taken all of the work out of that though with the selection of the best budget devices on the market today this is Bailey Stein with Android authority and these are the best budget smartphones you can buy for under $200 the best all-around cheap smartphone you can buy right now is the Asus zenfone 2 now the zenfone 2 did receive quite a bit of hype when it was announced back at CES 2015 for being the first smartphone with 4 gigabytes of RAM but there's much more to the story Asus is top offering does feature a 2.3 gigahertz quad-core processor 4 gigabytes of RAM and 64 gigabytes of storage but it also costs $300 just as they did in 2014 Asus also wanted to target the budget smartphone market the base model does n phone - sold in the US has a 1.8 gigahertz quad-core processor kiyo gigabytes of RAM and 16 gigabytes of storage for $1.99 you still get a very powerful phone with some mid to high-end specifications the zenfone 2 7 CH 1080p display looks excellent although it may be a bit too large for some users however the phone's curved design makes one-handed use easier and the rear facing volume keys are an excellent departure from the norm placed on the very top the power button is difficult to reach and press but the phone does support double tap to wake despite the zenfone 2 being made completely a plastic it still feels nice and solid in the hand the base model is plenty fast with the Intel Z 3560 1.8 gig or its quad core processor and gaming performance with the power vrg 6430 is very difficult to match at this price point into two ranks the phone's performance just below the Samsung Galaxy s5 a phone that launched last year for $600 locked needless to say the zenfone 2 is one of the faster Android phones available despite having a lower price even if 16 gigabytes doesn't sound like enough space asus has you covered with micro SD card expansion up 64 gigabytes the 13 megapixel camera is pretty good for the price and the phone's 3000 milliamp battery will get most users through a full day of use with an upwards to 3 to 4 hours of screen on time the zenfone 2 does ship with Android 5.0 lollipop and Asus is Zen UI which some users may dislike a lot of the changes made in Zen UI do improve the user experience though and many of the UI elements are close to stock Android the best part about the software experience though is Asus its commitment to frequent firmware updates asus has shown us in the past that they are willing to keep their devices up to date as the zenfone 5 went from Android 4.2 jelly bean to Android 4.4 KitKat to Android 5.0 lollipop and if they continue the running trend for the zenfone 2 the overall experience will only get better if you're in North America you can use the zenfone 2 to receive 4G LTE on AT&T and t-mobile in the United States and Rogers Wireless in Canada few unlocked phones support both AT&T and t-mobile 4G LTE let alone devices that cost under $200 finally it does have dual SIM support meaning that you can use two carriers at once although only one SIM card can be used for 4G LTE for less than $200 you really can't go wrong with the ESEs anthem - but what if you're looking for something smaller or want a stock android experience the motorola moto g second generation may be a good choice then for 180 dollars with a 5-inch 720p display that looks nearly as good as the zenfone 2 's one-handed use is much easier with the Moto G the phone has a really nice design although it doesn't feel as solid in terms of build quality as the zenfone 2 or even our third pick you don't have to deal with an oddly position power button though which will likely appeal to users who prefer a power button over double tap to wake the front speakers on the Moto G are also superior to the Asus zenfone 2 s single rear speaker although the quality of the output is about the same the Moto G has the advantage of having stereo speakers facing towards the user which does make the audio sound better while using the phone unfortunately the Moto G isn't nearly as fast as the zenfone 2 but it's still usable the power efficiency dragan 400 quad-core processor clocked at 1.2 gigahertz is enough for basic tasks but the one gigabyte of ram makes the moto g feel sluggish at times like fleece stock Android manages the low amount of RAM well but it still can be a problem one opening more than a few apps at once the jump from 1 to 2 gigabytes of RAM is a major one at least right now and that's where I think the zenfone 2 really has the edge over the Moto G the Moto G does include 8 gigabytes of internal storage which can be expanded up to 64 gigabytes via microSD they megapixel camera isn't very good but the 2070 Milley have battery will get most light users through a full day with up to two and a half to 3 hours of screen on time one obvious advantage of the Moto G 2nd generation is that it ships with stock Android Motorola has updated it from Android 4.4 KitKat to Android 5.0 lollipop and it can be expected that they will continue to update the phone for a little bit longer if you're a fan of stock Android you may want to seriously consider this phone over the other options the Moto G unfortunately does not support 4G LTE networks at least in the u.s. it doesn't that means you'll only receive up to HSPA+ or 4G speeds which is essentially glorified 3G the good news is is that the u.s. metal is unlocked and does support both AT&T and t-mobile so you aren't tied to a single carrier if 4G LTE isn't available where you live and you really just want to stack experience or you prefer to have a smaller device the Moto G 2nd generation is a good choice for 180 dollars I do have one more recommendation though for users who want to try something a little different that recommendation comes from none other than Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi the xiaomi redmi 2 is an excellent choice for users wanting to experience me UI and all that Xiaomi has to offer while still keeping a tight budget availability is going to be the bottleneck here although you can buy the redmi 2 from official resellers like I buy gal importing the redmi 2 does slightly inflate the price but it's still the cheapest phone on our list now there are two models of the redmi 2 and a few variations based on intended carrier support the base model of the redmi 2 has one gigabyte of RAM and eight gigabytes of internal store grunts for about $150 on import the price may be attractive but you should really instead consider the redmi 2 Pro which has two gigabytes of RAM and 16 gigabytes of internal storage the redmi 2 pro does cost a bit more at about 170 dollars but that's going to be $20 well spent for virtually all users in the head the redmi 2 feels surprisingly solid and very comfortable the 4.7 inch 720p sharp auo display looks pretty good with quality coming really close to that at the Moto G and viewing angles being just as good or slightly better even than those found on the zenfone 2 the rear speaker on the red meat who does seem to be louder than the speakers on both the zenfone 2 and Moto G although the Moto G still has the least amount of audio Distortion when it comes to performance the base metal redmi 2 is slightly faster than the Moto G both the bass and pro models of the redmi 2 have 1.2 gigahertz Snapdragon 410 quad-core processors which is a slight improvement over the Snapdragon 400 the pro model should be faster and much better with multitasking however since it has two gigabytes of RAM instead of just one gig me UI isn't as good as memory management as stock Android though and I found myself running into issues more frequently than I did on the Moto Qi at least with the one gigabyte variant if you get the 2 gigabyte model though the performance should be better than the Moto G but unfortunately still inferior to the zenfone 2 4 months although the redmi 2 does have microSD card support up to 64 gigabytes me why does not allow apps to be moved or installed onto the microSD card the redmi 2's 8 megapixel camera is pretty good and the 2200 milliamp removable battery in the red meat you should get most users through a full day of use with roughly 3 hours of screen on time depending on your usage the redmi 2 runs shelley's fork of android me UI 6 over Android 4.4 KitKat Mui is a pretty heavy Android skin and it has been criticized for taking some inspiration from a certain fruity tech company but the experience is truly unique and different compared to stock Android Xiaomi does release occasional updates for the redmi 2 and if you flash the developer rom you can even receive an update every Friday Xiaomi is known to be pretty optimistic on the timelines but hopefully we'll see an Android 5.0 lollipop update within the next six months unfortunately for the redmi 2 the zenfone 2 and Moto G are likely to receive Android updates much faster than the redmi 2 while the redmi 2 is slightly better than the Moto G overall in terms of hardware availability is a major challenge with the redmi - you can't officially buy the phone in the United States meaning that you'll have to import it importing won't get you the standard one year warranty that many people expect the model is available for import are not intended for the US market either meaning that carrier sport isn't always what you may expect like the zenfone 2 the redmi 2 does have dual SIM card support unlike the Moto G which supports both AT&T and t-mobile HSPA+ or 4G the redmi 2 has limited support for US carriers depending on the specific variant there is a variant that supports WCDMA 850 1920 100 megahertz which is fully compatible with AT&T and partially compatible with t-mobile depending on your specific coverage area I wouldn't recommend buying the redmi 2 unless you're on ET or an ATM BNL and even then please make sure to confirm that you're getting the right variant I like to think of the redmi 2 as being the option for users wanting something different it's a great phone but it is difficult to get and carrier support can be a bit complicated so there you have it my top three picks for the best budget smartphones under $200 there are other options available of course but I tried to keep this list exclusive to the phones with the absolute best value each and every user has different needs so it's important to evaluate what you want before jumping in and making a purchase thank you for watching this video and please make sure to give it a thumbs up below if you found it helpful or informative also please make sure to subscribe to the channel if you'd like to see more content and feel free to leave a comment below finally be sure to visit the Android Authority website for additional coverage is we are 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