Best entry-level smartphones 2023 - buyer’s guide

Xiaomi has struck a pretty nice balance with last year's Redmi Note 12 4G. The handset has an excellent display, long battery life, sufficiently fast charging, adequate performance, the latest MIUI + Android combo (unlike its siblings) and, although largely unimpressive camera performance, it's still rather decent for the price bracket.

We wish more work went toward optimizing the dedicated Night mode. We also wonder why Xiaomi removed the stereo speakers and the NFC. That last bit may be a deal-breaker for some of you who use the phone for contactless payments.

Still, no other smartphone can offer such feature-rich package at about €150 and that's why the Redmi Note 12 4G is our top pick for the entry-level class.

The €110 Moto G14 is a great pick for the entry-level category just because it has a ton of features for its low price. The G14 packs a 1080p LCD screen, adequate performance for the price with high-performance CPU cores. There is also a good dual-camera setup, and a large 5,000mAh battery with 15W charging.

The Moto G14 comes with clean Android 13, which is always a nice thing to have. And there are also NFC, microSD expansion, stereo speakers, audio jack. In fact, it is among the best phones in this category with the only cons being the lack of an ultrawide-angle camera and a high refresh rate for the screen.

The €130 Moto G23 is for those who want to have an ultrawide camera and a bit faster performance. The G23 packs a 90Hz HD LCD screen, a versatile triple-camera setup, and a large 5,000mAh battery with fast 30W charging.

The Moto G23 comes with clean Android 13, there are NFC, microSD expansion, audio jack and powerful stereo speakers. The lower screen resolution is the only thing that is unimpressive on the Moto G23, but coupled with the good chip, it should deliver quite smooth performance.

The Realme C35 costs about €140. The phone has a large 1080p screen, a triple-camera on the back, a 5,000mAh battery and runs on Android 11 with realme UI 2.0.

The Realme C35 has a good chipset with adequate processor but weak graphics.

The Realme C35 is good for calls and social networks and will probably last you for days on those. And it has a fingerprint scanner. It's an ideal first smartphone for students or seniors, but not the best daily driver for busier lifestyles.

Samsung has put in some extra effort to update the Galaxy A05s this year. We appreciate the move to FullHD+ for the display resolution, the noticeably higher 128GB onboard storage (though still eMMC), the higher resolution and 1080p selfie camera, and the move to 25W charging. All of these are valuable and noteworthy upgrades over the Galaxy A04s.

While technically, the Snapdragon 680 chipset also falls in the upgrades column; we can't say we appreciate its inclusion on a 2023 phone, especially not in combination with eMMC storage. The reality is that the Galaxy A05s is just slow in a noticeable manner. Even the "Core" version of One UI struggles to deliver smooth animations and transitions. To be clear, it never actually stutters, but it is not an overly pleasant experience, only made worse by the sluggish pixel response times of the display. We don't appreciate the lack of display refresh rate settings or color settings either.

The dedicated microSD card slot and 3.5mm audio jack are both nice-to-haves. Overall, it is a solid Samsung offer even if sluggish at times and will serve well those, who wans to buy a basic yet reliable daily driver.

The €80 Moto E22 is an easy to recommend phone for its relatively solid package – there is a large 90Hz LCD, stereo speakers, a 4,020mAh battery, water-repellent coating, and even NFC for the 3/32 variant.

The Moto E22 packs a 3.5mm headphone jack and there's also wireless FM radio. You also get a side-mounted fingerprint scanner.

The phone offers rather slow chipset, but it could be the right fit for those looking for an affordable daily driver.

The Redmi 13C (also available as Poco C65) is riddled with ups and downs, as one can expect. It is a solid and well-made phone with Gorilla Glass on the front and practically no flex or hollowness, but it also lacks any formal ingress protection, not even a basic one, and its design is a bit plain.

The display offers a smooth 90Hz refresh rate, which works well enough and gets decently bright for an LCD. However, pixel response times are not perfect, leading to ghosting and smearing, and high refresh rate gaming is a no-go. Battery life on the C65 is rather good, but charging is quite slow. MIUI 14 looks great and is feature-rich, but it stutters and slows down on the C65 due to the meager Helio G85 chipset. The latter is also responsible for the 1080p video capture resolution on the camera, which is otherwise surprisingly decent for a budget device.

It is a decent enough device. Its biggest weakness, in our opinion, is the poor performance afforded by the Helio G85 chipset. Other than that, it has almost no glaring flaws, and even the performance is pretty hard to complain about at this price point.