The iPhone 16e is the cheapest model in Apple’s current lineup, but it’s not really a good value. If you’re willing to venture outside of Apple’s ecosystem, you can get so much more phone for your money.
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Pixel 8a
Let’s start with a phone that’s going to offer the closest thing to the iPhone experience. While virtually all Android phones are easy to pick up and start using these days, Google Pixel phones are even easier. The software is more flexible than Apple’s but not as complex (or empowering) as Samsung’s.
For $100 less than the iPhone 16e, the Pixel 8a will give you not one camera on the back but two. The main camera is 64MP, quite higher than Apple’s 48MP. The second camera is a 13MP ultrawide.
While the iPhone 16e may have a slightly higher-resolution display, I’d still choose the Pixel’s. It lacks the giant notch you find at the top of the iPhone 16e. With a refresh rate of 120Hz, the animations are much smoother than what Apple’s 60Hz can offer. Plus, it gets brighter in the sun, with 2000 nits of peak brightness, versus the iPhone 16’s 1200 nits.
And honestly, this isn’t a fair comparison. The iPhone 16e is hitting the market slightly ahead of the expected Pixel 9a. Yeah, I’m telling you, the year-old phone is already the better value.
Google Pixel 8a
$399 $499 Save
$100
The Google Pixel 8a is a mid-range smartphone powered by the Google Tensor G3 SoC. It starts at $499 and includes excellent camera features. It also has an all-day battery life, making it a great budget-friendly phone if you can find it on sale.
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OnePlus 13R
With a shared price tag of $600, the OnePlus 13R isn’t cheaper (at least not without factoring in trade-in deals), but it is hands down the best value if you’re looking for as much power as your budget can eke out. For $600, the 13R will offer you 12GB of RAM instead of the iPhone’s 8GB, and you get 256GB of storage instead of 128GB.
And what’s that on the back? That’s right. While Apple makes you pay top dollar for three rear-cameras, $600 will get you three cameras on the OnePlus 13R: a 50MP main camera, an 8MP ultrawide, and a 50MP telephoto. Those images will look nice on the larger 6.78-inch display (rather than the 16e’s 6.1 inches), and once you’ve drained the battery taking all those shots, the OnePlus 13R will charge much faster with 55W charging instead of 29W. And the battery inside? Yeah, it’s big.
OnePlus 13R
The OnePlus 13R is OnePlus’ mid-range smartphone of 2025, featuring the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage. The 6,000mAh battery delivers all-day, if not multi-day battery life, while the triple camera array features two 50MP sensors for the standard and 2X telephoto lenses alongside an 8MP ultra-wide sensor.
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Samsung Galaxy S24 FE
With an MSRP of $650, like various other Galaxy Phones, this model costs a little bit more than Apple’s. But you can bet money that whenever you’re reading this, the phone’s likely on sale.
The Galaxy S24 FE gives you twice the refresh rate, twice the wireless charging speeds, and three times the cameras. But I’m not going to focus on specs here. If you’re looking for power, stick with the OnePlus 13R.
Why go for the Galaxy S24 FE instead? It can do things you simply can’t do with an iPhone. This Galaxy phone supports Samsung DeX, meaning it’s capable of replacing a PC for certain types of tasks, but that’s only of the various great uses for Samsung DeX. You can turn this phone into a game console connected to your TV or plug in a pair of AR glasses.
Plus, while you may not have the convenience of an Apple Store, Samsung phones are the second easiest to get repaired at chains like UBreakIFix. They also offer an ecosystem as good as Apple’s.
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE
$500 $650 Save
$150
The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE (Fan Edition) is a more budget-friendly version of the company’s flagship smartphones. You lose the higher-resolution display and Snapdragon CPU, but you retain the primary rear camera.
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Nothing Phone 2a Plus
If you’re buying the iPhone 16e because you just want the cheapest decent phone you can get, don’t open your wallet just yet. The Nothing Phone 2a Plus will offer you more style and a great experience for $200 less.
Make no mistake, this isn’t a budget phone. You’re not getting the kind of slow experience you risk when you spend under $200. Nothing provides a large 120Hz 6.7-inch AMOLED display with 1300nits peak brightness. All three of those numbers are larger than that of the iPhone 16e’s. So is the 12GB of RAM, the 50W fast charging, and not-one-but-two 50MP rear cameras.
On top of all that, you get to play with Nothing’s fancy glyph lights, the kind of hardware gimmick I’d like to see more of.
1
Moto Razr 2024
Now let’s really have some fun. The Moto Razr offers a physical experience you genuinely can’t get from any Apple product. It’s a foldable that feels like your regular phone when open but shrinks down to half the size when closed.
Even compared to other flip-style foldables, the Moto Razr stands out. Its external cover screen isn’t limited to showing you the time or a handful of widgets. It can run most of the same apps you open on the internal screen. That makes this a small phone option for people who find that phones in general have gotten way too big.
With an MSRP of $699, the Razr is technically pricier than the iPhone 16e. But let’s be real—Motorola phones almost never sell for sticker price, even when brand new. This phone is so on sale, there’s a decent chance a carrier will give you one for free. And yes, for the most part, the Razr is packing better specs than the iPhone 16e, so don’t feel like you’re walking away from the deal with something cheap.
Motorola Razr (2024)
$500 $700 Save
$200
The Motorola Razr gives you new ways to interact, capture, and create. Featuring a larger external display, an upgraded folding mechanism, and powerful cameras, you can do it all without flipping the phone open.
Even if you want to stick with the iOS experience, you’re probably better off shopping for an older iPhone 15 or iPhone 14 than going with the 16e. You’ll get a more powerful phone with greater durability and built-in MagSafe. You’ll miss out on Apple Intelligence, but is that really so bad?
