Technologies

Best Phones Under $500 for 2022: Feature-Packed, Low Prices

The best phones under $500 still have many of the newer features that you’re looking for.

The best phones under $500 really don’t sacrifice much in comparison to devices with much higher prices. Even better, there’s a lot of competition in this midrange space, making phones in this price range the first you should consider if you’re ready to upgrade or looking for a holiday gift. These phones typically cost between $400 and $500 while offering features like high refresh rate screens, 5G and photography processing software. But prepare for some tradeoffs, such as lower-quality cameras or an older processor.

Even at their lower prices, the best phones under $500 may hit most of the features on your checklist. Looking for a big 6.5-inch screen? Many of these phones have that, or there are also smaller displays if that’s your preference. Need a great camera? You’ll find that in most of these picks. Most of these phones don’t skimp on software updates either, with their makers promising at minimum three years of security updates.

There are some compromises made to keep costs low, and each company takes a different approach to make these cuts less noticeable. Apple’s iPhone SE and Google’s Pixel 6A, for instance, have a smaller screen and older camera setup, yet include new processors and software from these companies. Samsung’s Galaxy A53 has a spacious screen and impressive battery life, although it runs on a less powerful processor than the Galaxy S22. And the Moto G Stylus 5G takes nice photos, provides a roomy 256GB of space and throws in a stylus, but Motorola doesn’t provide software support for as long as its competitors.

Photography and video in particular are areas where these phones priced under $500 take a noticeable hit in comparison to their more expensive counterparts, but photo-processing software should help pick up some of the slack. For instance, while the iPhone SE has a single 12-megapixel camera that does not support night photography, its A15 Bionic chip does allow for Apple’s Deep Fusion processing. It’s a similar situation for the Pixel 6A, which uses a 12-megapixel main camera and a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera, yet can enhance those photos with processing powered by the phone’s Tensor chip.

You can see the pros and cons of each of these phones below, with more details available in our full reviews.

Best phones under $500

How we test phones

CNET tests phones by using them daily and comparing them with competing phones to assess their value. We consider a variety of factors, such as the phone’s screen, cameras, battery life, software, performance, features and ease of use.

For low-priced phones, we make sure these devices consistently work well when used in a number of situations. This includes many day-to-day activities like reading the news, listening to music, watching videos, texting, playing games and multitasking.

We test phone cameras in a range of environments, taking test photos outdoors in the daytime and nighttime, and indoors in darker settings. We use cameras in active environments, like a concert or a sports game, and with a variety of subjects including people, objects and pets. We also test available camera settings, especially those that are rarer in these price ranges such as Night mode and Portrait mode.

These anecdotal phone experiences are also combined with benchmark tests such as Geekbench performance testing and battery testing. We monitor battery life in two ways: By seeing how much power is typically left after a day of normal usage and by seeing how much battery is depleted during a more intensive hour with the phone. For the latter test, we’ll check how the phone’s battery holds up to a series of video calls, gaming, video streaming and web browsing.

Phones under $500 FAQs

Phones under $500 comparison

More phone advice

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for June 9, #463

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 463 for June 9.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Todays NYT Strands puzzle features a bunch of mysterious words. Some are a bit difficult to unscramble so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: What you see isn’t what you get

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Hiding in plain sight

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

CALL, CALLS, FALL, FALLS, SAME, SEAM, LAND, ROSE, COVE, CANE, CANES, FLUME, FLUMES, DIGS, MEAL, COLA, CARD, CASE

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

MASK, CLOAK, COVER, FACADE, DISGUISE, CAMOUFLAGE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is FALSEFRONT. To find it, start with the F that’s two rows over from the far left and two letters down. Wind around into a question mark.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for June 9, #729

Here are some hints and the answers for Connections for June 9, No. 729.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Do you play the NYT Spelling Bee? If you do, you should be able to ace the purple category in today’s NYT Connections puzzle. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Control-C.

Green group hint: Don’t wait till the last minute.

Blue group hint: Pals to plan a heist.

Purple group hint: Think another NYT online game.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Keyboard shortcut commands.

Green group: Secure in advance.

Blue group: Crime organization.

Purple group: Spellling Bee ranks minus a letter.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is keyboard shortcut commands. The four answers are paste, print, quit and save.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is secure in advance. The four answers are book, order, request and reserve.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is crime organization. The four answers are crew, family, ring and syndicate.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is Spelling Bee ranks minus a letter. The four answers are genus, goo, mazing and slid. (Genius, good, amazing and solid.)

Technologies

I Made Google Translate My Default on iPhone Before a Trip and It Saved Me More Than Once

Google Translate supports far more languages than Apple’s app, and it’s easy to make the switch.

If you’re traveling overseas this summer, the Google Translate app can come in handy to quickly translate a road sign or conversation. The latest Google Translate update allows you to pick the app as your default translation app for Apple iPhones and iPads running iOS and iPadOS 18.4 and later. Previously, you were limited to the built-in Apple option.

Google began leveraging AI to boost Google Translate’s offerings, adding 110 languages last year to increase its total support for 249 languages. Compare that to Apple Translate, which supports 19 languages. Neither Google nor Apple responded to a request for comment.

Both apps offer voice and text translation, including a camera feature that lets you instantly translate by pointing your camera at text. Both also allow you to use translation features without an internet connection, which can come in particularly handy when traveling to more remote locations.

After using both, I found that the Google Translate picked up speech a little quicker so I didn’t have to constantly repeat myself, and the audio pronunciations were a little easier to understand than on Apple Translate. I switched to Google Translate as the default on my iPhone, and here’s how you can, too.