Microsoft has released a roundup of Xbox Game Studios games that are supported on Valve’s new Steam Deck but there are a handful of notable titles that aren’t supported, Halo Infinite among them.
In a post on Steam, Xbox Game Studios confirms that, alongside Halo Infinite, Gears 5, Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Microsoft Flight Simulator X also fall under the “unsupported” category for the Steam Deck.
The reason for this is given as simply being “due to anti-cheat” and it remains unclear whether there are plans to help these titles be supported further down the line. Microsoft also explains in the post that it’s up to individual development studios “how they fit Steam Deck integration for their games into their busy schedules” adding that “with a lot of great stuff already in the works some titles may take a little longer.”
The rest of the post is a little more positive for current and prospective Steam Deck owners, with a total of fourteen titles deemed either fully “Verified” or “Playable” on the Steam Deck, many of them popular releases.
Valve itself has previously said that its “standards for titles to get a Verified or a Playable rating are very high”, explaining that “If a game shows controller glyphs 99 per cent of the time but tells you to 'press F' sometimes during gameplay, that's Playable, not Verified. If 99 per cent of a game's functionality is accessible, but accessing one optional in-game minigame crashes, or one tutorial video doesn't render, that's Unsupported.
The eight Xbox Game Studios games listed as Verified for the Steam Deck are:
These 14 titles from Xbox Game Studios now join a list of more than a thousand games which have been flagged as Verified or Playable on Steam Deck. You can check out our full thoughts on Valve’s handheld in our full review.
Analysis: Sitting tight
Microsoft’s four unsupported games aren’t the only titles we’ve seen swerve the Steam Deck in recent weeks. Other third-party titles such as Fortnite and Destiny 2 are also still excluded from the Steam Deck system.
With regards to Destiny 2, developer Bungie has gone as far to say that the game "is not supported for play on the Steam Deck or on any system utilizing Steam Play's Proton unless Windows is installed and running" and that "players who attempt to launch Destiny 2 on the Steam Deck through SteamOS or Proton will be unable to enter the game and will be returned to their game library after a short time." Further to that, "players who are not accessing Destiny 2 through Windows and attempt to bypass the SteamOS/Proton incompatibility will be met with a game ban."
Of course, it’s still early days for Valve’s handheld. It’s become clear that there’s demand for the console but it could take some time for things to get moving and for its library to drastically expand and reflect the scale of Steam as a whole. Valve itself has said that “only after real customers get to interact do we start getting real feedback and real data. While we worked hard to build the Deck Verified program as it exists, we're excited that now we get to iterate based on how you're really interacting with it.”
The Steam Deck didn't have a big launch title—though Aperture Desk Job does an admirable job of introducing players to the hardware—but Valve is currently working on a few more of its own games. In a recent interview with Axios, Greg Coomer, a designer for Valve, revealed that “there are multiple games in development right now at Valve” and that he thinks “they're pretty exciting ones.” It's a case of 'watch this space'.
With the Apple March event in the rearview mirror, we're all still waiting on a new MacBook Air and new MacBook Pro 13-inch, and a new report says we might have to wait for a good while longer.
Many of us expected the two new MacBook models to make an appearance this week, so much so that the Mac Studio and Studio Display announcement caught a few of us by surprise. Unfortunately, a new report from 9to5Mac indicates that we might have to wait until later this year before we'll see the new devices.
According to unnamed sources, the new MacBooks will feature the rumored M2 system-on-a-chip (SoC), which is codenamed J413 and referred to internally as "Staten." According to those sources, the SoC is based on Apple's A15 Bionic chip that powers the iPhone 13, though, obviously, it would be a scaled-up version of that processor in order to power a full-sized computer rather than a mobile device.
These sources also indicate that the M2 will have the same 6-core CPU, but will have a slightly beefier 10-core GPU. That would give it two or three more GPU cores than the M1 (which comes in seven-core and eight-core GPU configurations) and there is no word yet on whether there would be an upgrade to the SoC's neural engine core count or any additional features it might introduce.
The report also says that the M2 Pro, M2 Max, and M2 Ultra are also in the works and that the M2 Ultra would have a massive 24-core CPU, but these are likely too far in the future for us to even begin to speculate on.
Analysis: take everything with a grain of salt
As this author noted earlier this week, unnamed source reporting isn't always wrong, but it's impossible to distinguish between what is speculation and what is actual fact and until you get an official confirmation, you need to treat everything with skepticism.
While there's no reason to doubt that 9to5Mac's sources are legit (they did break the news that the Mac Studio and Studio display were in the works), not all of the details in its exclusive were accurate. The Studio Display is not a 7K monitor but 5K, for example, and the Mac Studio and Studio Display weren't "in the works" with an eye towards a WWDC announcement, they were ready to go less than a week after the report was published.
So, in short, these reports can be more or less on target, but we can't know until we see it confirmed, and even then it might only be partially legit. The problem is, we can't say which parts will pan out, and this is especially true of historically tight-lipped Apple.
We've gotten contradictory reports on whether the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air will get a redesign, whether they'll feature an M2 chip, and honestly, the release date rumors have been all over the map. There's a reason nearly everyone this week expected a 13-inch MacBook Pro announcement, at the very least, but we didn't see one.
In the end, it's a fairly reasonable assumption that we will see a new MacBook Air at some point, possibly even this year. It's Apple's most popular computer, by far, and it is arguably the best laptop you can buy right now. We can't imagine a world where it is discontinued. But honestly, take even that assumption with a grain of salt.
If there's one thing we can definitively say about Apple it's that it loves making surprise announcements no one expected. It's a hell of a marketing strategy that's served it well in recent years, so we don't expect that to change any time soon.
With the arrival of a major deal with one of the world’s biggest Bitcoin mining companies, Intel's new ASIC chip already seems to be gaining traction.
US-based mining firm HIVE Blockchain has revealed that not only will it buy a bunch of next-generation Intel "BMZ2" Bonanza Mine ASICs, but will also work on integrating them into its custom-built mining equipment.
The mining company expects to begin deploying the new gear in the second half 2022. Once installed, it should increase HIVE's hashrate from 1.9 Exahash per second (Eh/s) to 3.8 Eh/s, which equates to a 95% increase.
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While Intel did not disclose exactly how many ASICs it will be selling to HIVE, performance data and unit cost information is available for BMZ2.
As reported by our sister site Tom’s Hardware, a single ASIC has a 135 TH/s performance and energy efficiency of 26 J/THs. One of these devices should set HIVE back around $5,600.
Knowing that HIVE expects to almost double its hash power, that brings the total number of BMZ2 devices to around 14,000, and the total hardware costs to just above $78 million.
Bitcoin is hailed as a transformative technology by many, but the issue of energy consumption and carbon footprint is something the network is having trouble shaking off.
Even though some believe the Bitcoin network's energy consumption is exaggerated, a more energy-efficient and better-performing device on the market is a welcome sight.
Intel, which steered clear of the cryptocurrency mining industry in its nascent years, now seems to have turned a corner, as demonstrated by the vigor with which it is pursuing this new line of ASICs.
Bitdefender has announced the launch of its new password manager which aims to simplify the creation and management of secure passwords across all of a user's online accounts on both desktop and mobile.
While the company is known for its antivirus software, its new Bitdefender Password Manager offering also includes a password generator to create and save unique, highly complex passwords for each online account. These passwords can then be accessed by using a single master password. Bitdefender Password Manager is also backed by strong end-to-end encryption along with simple set-up, easy installation and an intuitive user interface designed to be accessible to all.
Vice president of Bitdefender's consumer solutions division, Ciprian Istrate explained why the company decided to create its new password manager in a press release, saying:
“Cybercriminals rely on weak passwords to compromise accounts, steal user identities and profit from selling credentials on the dark web. Despite understanding the importance of strong passwords as a security best practice, the ease of memorizing a few passwords and reusing them everywhere outweighs increased security risk for most. We built Bitdefender Password Manager with this in mind, delivering what we believe is one of the best-in-class password protection without sacrificing user convenience.”
Bitdefender Password Manager
In addition to allowing users to store their passwords, Bitdefender Password Manager can also be used to manage and auto-fill payment data. All of this data is encrypted and decrypted locally and the account holder alone has access to the master password so that no third party has access to their financial information.
While there are mobile apps available for Android and iOS, Bitdefender has also created browser extensions for Windows and macOS that support a wide range of browsers including Chrome, Firefox and Edge with support for Safari launching soon.
If you already use another password manager like 1Password or LastPass, Bitdefender Password Manager allows you to easily import data and passwords from other platforms including browsers like Chrome and Firefox which have their own built-in password managers.
An annual subscription to Bitdefender Password Manager costs $29.99 per year but the company is currently offering an introductory discount where new customers can save 33 percent and pay $19.99 for the year or as little as $1.66 per month.
You can already play a pretty wide selection of PC games on the Steam Deck without issue, but now you can add a bunch of amazing Microsoft Studios PC games to the list.
Microsoft has just updated the status of a wide variety of its games to Steam Deck Verified, and several others to Playable. A game that's Verified on the new platform has been tested and confirmed to work extremely well on the hardware, as well as the Proton API that translates Windows 11 games to Steam Deck games.
Playable games, on the other hand, are known to work, but there might be some issues when you play them.
Big multiplayer heavy-hitters are still left out of the Steam Deck fun, however. Games like Gears 5, the Halo PC games and Microsoft Flight Simulator X are all listed as unsupported, likely due to the anti-cheat software that these titles use. But if you don't really like playing with other people anyway (we don't), there's still plenty of Microsoft games that are now verified.
Among the newly verified games are Deathloop, Psychonauts 2, and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. And games that are Playable but not quite Verified include Forza Horizon 5 and Fallout 4. The lovely folks over at The Verge went ahead and included a full list of the included games, so if you want to see whether your favorite game is included, we encourage you to check that out.
Analysis: the Steam Deck is gathering up support
One of the only major problems with buying a Steam Deck is that while it will support a wide variety of games on Steam, if you want to play games from other publishers and storefronts, you're going to have to wipe the thing and install Windows 11.
Luckily, Valve has recently released Windows drivers for the Steam Deck that allow you to do just that, but the more games that get natively supported for the SteamOS software - or at least the Proton translation API - the better.
Looking to try Windows on Deck? GPU, WiFi and Bluetooth Windows drivers for Steam Deck have just landed. More details and info here: https://t.co/JfuTkVCZ82 pic.twitter.com/kZIAC5RPd8March 10, 2022
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Because at the end of the day wiping your Steam Deck and installing Windows 11 is just a hassle that you shouldn't have to put yourself through to play games that should theoretically be compatible. Literally the only thing stopping the Steam Deck from running games on the Epic Games Store or titles that you picked up from GOG is OS compatibility.
Proton is generally pretty excellent at making most PC games work on the Steam Deck, but it's nonetheless part of the Steam software, so you can't really make it work on other storefronts - at least not without a Herculean effort.
It's nevertheless handy that the Steam Deck is open enough that you can install a different operating system to play a wider selection of games at all. It would have been just as easy for Valve to lock down the Steam Deck instead, forcing its users to use SteamOS, and by proxy, its storefront.
If you want to be sure your favorite PC game is supported, you could get a gaming laptop
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WhatsApp on Friday introduced a Web browser extension called Code Verify to let users confirm whether the WhatsApp Web version they are using on their system is authenticated. The messaging app has developed the extension in partnership with Cloudflare.
About half a decade ago, Roku introduced a feature called My Feed that allowed you to track when shows and movies hit your favorite streaming services. Now, Google TV has something similar… with a bit of a Google twist to it.
The feature is called Highlights, and it’s like a Google News feed for your favorite shows and movies. You’ll not only hear about which streaming service they’re coming to via news updates - but you’ll also be able to see behind-the-scenes clips, updates and more.
Should you find a new show or movie that you want to watch while browsing Highlights, you can save it to your Watchlist from the app and have it show up on your TV at home.
Highlights is available on the Google TV companion app on Android devices exclusively in the US - but there doesn’t seem to be anything preventing it from rolling out to iOS and other territories sometime down the road.
Analysis: The future of smart TVs is connected content
What makes the Roku comparison so interesting here is that Roku knew years ago that content - not app selection - was going to be key for the success of smart TV platforms.
By implementing My Feed, Roku allowed users to really keep tabs on shows and movies, keeping you connected to both the content and the platform at all times.
What Google is doing with Highlights feels like an advancement in that area. Highlights still lets you keep tabs on your content - but it does so by harnessing the power of Google News to show you what’s trending around that content.
Is a 24/7 tether to your favorite shows really healthy? Probably not. But hey, when you need your content fix, this is certainly one way of getting it.
It's been a long time coming but, finally, the first trailer for the Obi-Wan Kenobi TV show has landed online – and, based on what it showcases, you can color us extremely excited for its launch later this year.
Arriving hot on the heels of the show's first-look images, the Obi-Wan Kenobi teaser provides us with a bunch of official footage to pour over. Suffice to say, the next Star Wars TV series looks as thrilling, tense, drama-fuelled, and action-packed as we'd hoped.
Take a look at Obi-Wan's first trailer ahead of its May 25 launch on Disney Plus below:
The Obi-Wan Kenobi limited series sees Ewan McGregor reprise his role as the iconic Jedi knight 17 years after his last appearance in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The show picks up a decade after the events depicted in the prequel movie, with Obi-Wan living an isolated life on Tatooine as he watches over a young Luke Skywalker. Not only that, but he's clearly trying to keep a low profile so as not to draw the Empire's attention.
Before the teaser's arrival, we knew little of the show's plot. However, it seems as though Darth Sidious and Darth Vader, alongside the duo's Jedi-hunting Inquisitors, will be attempting to track Obi-Wan down. And, in what's likely to satisfy fans who had grown tired of seeing multiple Star Wars projects set entirely on Tatooine, it seems Obi-Wan's journey will take him off-world and to new as-yet-named locations.
We also know that McGregor will be joined by an all-star cast for the series' six-episode run. Hayden Christensen will reprise his role as Darth Vader from the Star Wars prequel film trilogy. Meanwhile, Moses Ingram (The Tragedy of Macbeth) will portray Reva, a force-sensitive Sith Inquisitor who seeks out reclusive Jedi for the burgeoning Empire. Finally, it seems that Indira Varma (Game of Thrones) will portray a Galactic Empire officer, though her name is yet to be revealed.
Kumail Nanjiani (Eternals), Sung Kang (F9), and Rupert Friend (The French Dispatch) are among the show's supporting cast. Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse are also returning to play Owen and Beru Lars, Luke's uncle and aunt.
Obi-Wan Kenobi will launch exclusively on Disney Plus on Wednesday, May 25.
Intel Raptor Lake is set to be the follow-up to Alder Lake, the architecture behind the Intel Core i9-12900K. And given that it’s following such a successful launch, all eyes will be on Intel to see if it can keep up the momentum – especially now that the Apple M1 Ultra is in play.
Intel hasn’t let too much leak about Raptor Lake, but we’ve heard a few little details that offer enough to get excited about. And the new chips may not be so far off, so we won’t be left waiting all that long to see what improvements Intel has in store for its next iteration of its big.LITTLE processor architecture.
Of course, we won’t really know anything about what Intel Raptor Lake processors will look like until Intel is ready to lift the veil. Until then, though, we’ll collect all the latest news and information and collect it here. So, be sure to keep this page bookmarked if you want to keep your eyes out for the next best processor.
Cut to the Chase
What is it? Intel’s next processor architecture
When is it out? Likely second half of 2022
What will it cost? TBD
Intel Raptor Lake release date
There have been some hints that Raptor Lake could arrive as soon as Q3 2022, particularly a cryptic tweet from leaker @momomo_us.
Intel has a roughly annual cadence with the release of Intel Core processor generations, and Alder Lake debuted in November of 2021. This would make a Q3 launch seem a bit on the early side. Then again, Alder Lake did come out just 6 months after Rocket Lake in early 2021.
So, it’s totally possible that Intel will still hit an October launch date. And we’ve even seen rumors that Intel’s next processors could hit the market as early as August 2022. Either way, it doesn’t look like we’ll be waiting long for Intel’s next processors.
(Image credit: Raja Moduri/Intel via Twitter)
Intel Raptor Lake price
We haven’t heard much with regard to pricing for Raptor Lake, but we also haven’t seen any monumental shifts in the pricing of CPUs (setting aside the mark-ups they’ve received from resellers when stock was scarce).
With that in mind, we’d expect Intel Raptor Lake processors to continue Alder Lake’s pricing scheme, or something similar.. For example, the Intel Core i3-12100 sells for $139 in the US and its flagship Core i9-12900K goes for $619 with additional models filling in at various prices between those two.
However, the way that Intel pricing works is that it sets a suggested price and then just lets retailers and partners price the processors, which is the price you’ll actually see on store shelves. Ultimately, it’ll likely depend on what the PC components market looks like when the Intel Core i9-13900K (assuming that’s what it’ll be called) comes out. If things keep going like they are now, Intel’s next processors could be a bit more expensive.
(Image credit: Intel)
Intel Raptor Lake specs
Raptor Lake should just be an iterative update to Alder Lake, continuing to come built on the Intel 7 (10nm Enhanced SuperFin) architecture, so we don’t expect any monumental changes between the two generations. But with some IPC (instructions per clock) gains, improved efficiency allowing for higher clock speeds, more cores on board, and other tweaks here and there, we could still be seeing chips that offer a healthy upgrade.
We have heard some rumors that suggest Intel’s planning Raptor Lake chips with up to 24 cores. That mystery chip has leaked multipletimes and is expected to be the Intel Core i9-13900K. Remember that Intel is using a big.LITTLE architecture now, though, so those 24 cores are believed to be divided up into eight performance cores with hyperthreading and 16 efficiency cores with a single thread each, netting the chip a total of 32 threads.
The Intel Core i9-12900 offers a similar setup but with just eight efficiency cores, so this Core i9-13900K wouldn’t be bringing a huge leap in performance cores. While the performance cores are believe to have a new design (“Raptor Cove”), the efficiency cores are expected to be the same seen in Alder Lake (“Gracemont”)
AMD still has an advantage when it comes to efficiency, as even Intel’s Alder Lake chips are more power-hungry than Zen 3 processors. Though Alder Lake made improvements in this area, it may be Raptor Lake that pushes things further forward. The new architecture is rumored to decrease the power consumption of the CPU by 20% to 25% by using a DLVR (digital linear voltage regulator) that would lower voltage used by the CPU. That improved efficiency could turn around and deliver a 7% increase in performance.
Intel may also be planning some big cache bumps for its next generation of processors. A leak from @OneRaichu on Twitter suggested there would be some Raptor Lake chips boasting a 68MB of total L2 and L3 cache. That’d be great news for gamers, as we’ve seen AMD make heavy use of large cache allocations on its Ryzen processors to deliver consistent performance. Alder Lake chips are already quite impressive, yet top out at 44MB of cache, so an increase of over 50% is nothing to overlook.
As far as platform goes, we’ve heard the Raptor Lake processors will continue using the LGA1700 socket introduced with Alder Lake, and filings with the SATA-IO industry standards committee suggest Raptor Lake chips will even be compatible with the 600-series chipsets on the motherboards made for Alder Lake, Tom’s Hardware reports. Alder Lake introduced support for PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 memory while maintaining compatibility with DDR4. It’s unlikely Raptor Lake could leap even further ahead to PCIe 6.0 as few products have even begun to take advantage of PCIe 4.0. We can expect some increases in the DDR5 and LPDDR5 speeds supported by Rocket Lake, though, and tech analyst Moore’s Law Is Dead suggests Raptor Lake will maintain backward compatibility with DDR4, which should help weather DDR5’s painfully high prices.
Robert Pattinson's first Dark Knight movie sees actor Barry Keoghan show up as a mysterious character. Let's break all the adventure's climactic moments down.
There's not a lot of difference between the best budget phones on this list and the top mobiles overall, as some affordable handsets are packed to the gills with great features and top performance to rival more expensive offerings.
Our guide is focused on phones that cost roughly £200 or less, and even within that price range you can get respectable power, huge batteries, FHD+ screens, quad-lens cameras and more.
Their overall specs and performance won’t be a match for pricier phones, but in some cases they’ll come surprisingly close, and some of these handsets actually offer better battery life than top-end phones.
The Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC is a prime example of how much you can get for little money. This currently tops our list of the best cheap phones thanks to its 120Hz refresh rate (which is a match for the Samsung Galaxy S21 and double what the iPhone 13 offers), plus its quad-lens camera and long-lasting battery.
But while that’s the cheap phone champion, there are loads of other excellent options too, and some might be a better fit for you. When making a decision you should consider which features matter most to you, as in most cases cheap phones won't excel in every area. So if you want a long-lasting phone then look to the battery size. Care about cameras? Take a look at the lens selection and megapixel count.
We've included a full specs list for each of our best cheap choices below, but we've also added an overview along with pros and cons, so you can look beyond the specs to see how each model performs in practice.
We’re constantly adding new phones to this list too, with the Realme 8, Realme 8 5G and Moto G50 all being recent additions. So if you don’t see something you like now, it’s worth checking back here often. Plus, we have guides to the best phones, best Android phones and best iPhones that may suit you.
But if you’re not on such a tight budget you could get something even better by stretching to a handset in one of our other smartphone guides below.
It's rare to get a 120Hz screen on a budget, but that's exactly what you get with the Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC. That can make interactions feel smoother, and its 6.67-inch 1080 x 2400 screen is large and fairly sharp too, as well as supporting HDR10.
And it's not just the screen that stands out, as the Poco X3 NFC also has a fairly powerful Snapdragon 732G chipset, which offers excellent gaming performance for the money. With a big 5,160mAh battery too (which we found offered up to two days of life with moderate use) this really is a remarkable cheap phone.
There are some compromises, most notably when it comes to the camera, which isn’t as good as some others at this end of the market, but for gaming, video, and most general use, the Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC is hard to beat without spending quite a bit more.
Motorola consistently makes some of the best cheap phones, and the Moto G9 Power is among its best affordable handsets yet, thanks in large part to its massive 6,000mAh battery. That’s far bigger than the batteries in most phones of any budget, and we found that it translates into almost two days of life with average use.
But the Moto G9 Power also has a similarly massive 6.8-inch screen, which – while only 720 x 1640 – means it’s great for watching movies on.
With expandable storage too, plus 20W fast charging and a triple-lens camera (led by a 64MP lens), there’s a lot to like here, though it’s a bit on the bulky side and only offers average performance. Still, there aren’t many powerful phones at this end of the market, so that’s not the biggest of issues.
Xiaomi is becoming a major player in affordable phones, and handsets like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S show why.
It has a big and long-lasting 5,020mAh battery, decent performance from its Snapdragon 720G chipset, and a great 6.67-inch 1080 x 2400 screen. You also get up to 128GB of storage, and a quad-lens camera, consisting of a 48MP primary sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide one, a 5MP macro one, and a 2MP depth one.
The Redmi Note 9S is a bit chunkier than we'd like and it lacks the showy 120Hz screen of its sibling the Poco X3 NFC, but it comes very close to matching that phone, and is similarly cheap. If you’re looking to game on a budget or just want a long-lasting battery and a big screen, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S is an excellent choice.
Xiaomi continues its reign of offering great budget phones with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11. The inexpensive phone isn't a good option if you want to take great photos but it looks pretty good. Its sleek design still offers room for a 6.43-inch AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1080 x 2400 and 1000 nits peak brightness. A 90Hz refresh rate further helps out for watching streamed movies.
Elsewhere, performance is a little sluggish with a Snapdragon 680 processor and a choice of 4GB or 6GB of RAM, but they're enough to get by and keep things ticking along nicely. It's only really 5G that you miss out on here. A decent 5,000mAh battery capacity means no need to find a charger throughout the day too.
The Realme 8 5G is one of the cheapest 5G phones available, and that alone would be enough to make it notable, but it has a few other things going for it too.
For one thing it has a large 5,000mAh battery, and in our review would sometimes finish a day with 50% battery left, meaning two days of life could just about be possible for lighter users.
The Realme 8 5G also has a 6.5-inch 1080 x 2400 screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, which is a solid – if unexceptional – selection of specs for the money. It gets plenty bright too, so you should have no problems with visibility on sunny days.
With a reasonable amount of power for the money as well, the Realme 8 5G is almost a strong all-rounder, but it’s let down slightly by its underwhelming triple-lens camera. Still, you can’t have everything at this price, and the Realme 8 5G has packed quite a lot in.
The Moto G50 ticks a lot of the same boxes as some other cheap 2021 phones – it includes 5G and a big (5,000mAh) battery, plus a 90Hz screen, but falls down a bit when it comes to the camera, as while this has a triple-lens camera, only the main 48MP one is really worth bothering with in our experience – and there’s no ultra-wide or telephoto.
Still, the battery life is good, the refresh rate makes interactions feel smooth, and this is one of the cheapest ways to get 5G.
It also has a decent size screen at 6.5 inches, though the resolution could be better at 720 x 1600. Performance is acceptable if unexceptional, and the Moto G50 as a whole is a sturdy, reliable smartphone companion – just perhaps not the most exciting one.
Oppo isn't a massive name in the west, but it has started selling phones here, and some of them – such as the Oppo A5 2020 – are well worth paying attention to.
This has a price that's the definition of budget, yet packs in a spacious, bright, and vibrant 6.5-inch 720 x 1600 screen, and a massive 5,000mAh battery, which in our tests lasted well over a day between charges.
It also sports a surprisingly expensive-looking (albeit plastic-clad) design, and a quad-lens camera. The actual performance of that camera isn't special, and nor is the middling Snapdragon 665 chipset, but for the money the Oppo A5 2020 makes some very smart compromises.
The Motorola One Macro is a great budget phone, but not for the reasons its name might make you think. Yes, it has a dedicated macro lens, but in our review we found both this and its 13MP main and 2MP depth sensors to perform poorly.
Rather, the Motorola One Macro is good in most other ways, from its decent 6.2-inch 720 x 1520 screen, to its durable design, and its 4,000mAh battery, which provides above average life.
If not for its cameras the Motorola One Macro would be a great budget all-rounder, as things stand it’s a great budget almost all-rounder, ideal for anyone who doesn’t care much about smartphone photography.
You might assume the Realme 8 was just a 4G version of the Realme 8 5G, but you’d be wrong. While its does indeed lack that speedy connectivity, it makes up for it in other ways, with better cameras, arguably a better screen, and a different chipset.
The phone has a 6.4-inch 1080 x 2400 Super AMOLED screen, which just has a standard 60Hz refresh rate but got nice and bright in our tests. It also has a quad-lens camera, with a 64MP main sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide snapper, a 2MP macro one and a 2MP depth sensor. It even has a fairly capable night mode, and the macro camera isn’t as worthless here as on some phones.
The performance from its MediaTek Helio G95 chipset is respectable too for what this phone costs, and it has a healthy 5,000mAh battery. The design is sure to be divisive, and the lack of 5G will be a deal-breaker for some, but for the most part the Realme 8 is a solid all-rounder.
We only include a phone on this list once we've fully reviewed it, so you can be assured that every entry has been tested in full.
That means we know exactly how each of these performs in reality - not just on paper, and we use that knowledge to rank them, while factoring in the all important price and value.
What should I look for when buying a cheap phone?
Cheap phones rarely have it all, so consider what you need most - be that camera quality, battery life, a sharp screen or whatever else. Then consider what you can most live without, and find a phone that best fits that balance.
What is the best cheap smartphone?
The best cheap smartphone regularly changes and is somewhat subjective, but our pick for the best cheap option is whatever's currently in the number one slot on the list above.
