Looking for a cheap and good quality phone? You can’t miss Chinese phones, Chinese cellphone manufacturers have a remarkable progress in recent years. Just years ago, they are copy learners of Apple, Samsung and Nokia, and stand for cheap price and low quality. However, now they are main players of the market, brands like Huawei and oppo have repleased high-end models which are even as good as iphone, and in low-end market, they have more advantage and are going to rule the sub-market in years, just look at their popularity in Africa, and you will know the power of Chinese phones. Aliexpress main be the best online platform to buy cheap Chinese phones. You can find all models here, there are lots of phones under 100$ which are so cheap that thousands of orders are taken there, if you have better request in quality and brand, you can try some models which are a little more expensive, most of them are under 250$.We believe you can try both of them, just keep in mind the advantage and disadvantage of both side.
Keys of buying cellphone online
1 Stores: As it cost more to buy a cellphone online than buying socks online, we shall be more careful to choose stores. Mostly there are more than 20 sellers to sell the same model we want, it’s much better to choose a store which more people choose, we can tell a store’s reputation by its age, positive feedback and followers quickly, to learn more, we can read bad buyer reviews of the store to know some trouble we may encounter.
2 Model selection: I know there are a lot of features of a phone which seem all important to you, however, to find a perfect phone with your budget, you have to give up some request and focus on what you mainly need. Try to focus on the primary use you wanted, if you like games, focus on CPU, RAM and battery; if you like read, focus on screen size and resolution, or maybe a phone with good camera can fit your social need. Try to find out a main character of each models and you can quickly find out your perfect ones, it’s not quite wise to compare hardware features one by one, as now hardware of almost every phone can satisfy your normal need. When narrowed your list to 2-3 models, you can have a careful comparison of their features in order to buy the most substantial model, however, don’t get too deep, hardware features are just some cold numbers, the using experience actually doesn’t have much connect to them, just look at iphone, it doesn’t have the best features, but it’s experience is exordinary. Sometimes, a great system can do much more than a large ROM.
3 Guarantee: No one actually looks forward to after-sale service, bad things just happen here and there, a good store and a trustworthy brand can save you a lot of worry, that’s why we recommended you to a model of the brands we listed.
Super Cheap phone brands which are popular on Aliexpress but have few popularity in China
There are some super cheap phone models on Aliexpress which are mostly under 100$, their price is absolutely tempting and their cost-performance is suprising. However, is there any cheap and fine poduct with good quality and great features in the world? The fact is, most of these brands on Aliexpress have no reputation in China and we can’t see any of their models sold in any market in China, so the after-sale service and quality garantee are not as good as brands we introduced in the next section. Anyway, those super cheap phone models have large sales number on Aliexpress, and it’s Ok to try some of the best-selling models, according to thousands of buyer’s reviews, we can pick out the most trust-orthy brands in price range within 100$, and it’s our primary choice if we just want to buy a phone with 100$ or less.
Best selling models of these brands which are within 100$
| Model | Features | Price | Orders |
| UMIDIGI A5 PRO | OS: Stock Android 9.0 CPU: MTK, Helio P23, 4xCortex-A53, 2.0GHz & 4xCortex-A53, 1.5GHz SIM Card:Dual Nano SIM Display: 6.3″ Incell 19:9 Waterdrop Full Screen FHD+Display RAM: 4GB Front camera: 16MP ROM: 32GB Rear camera: 16MP+8MP+5MP Battery: 4150mAh Other Feature: Global Version,Dual 4G LTE , OTG, FHD+1080 x 2280,10W EU Fast Charge , Face Unlock, Frigerprint |
99$ | 25k |
| Umidigi A3 Pro | OS: Stock Android 9.0 CPU: MT6739 Quad core 1.5GHz SIM Card: 2 Nano SIM Card +TF Card(Triple Slots) Display: 5.7″ 19:9 HD+Notch Display RAM: 3GB Front camera: 8MP, F2.0 aperture ROM: 16/32GB Rear camera: 12MP + 5MP, F2.0 aperture,Dual Flash light Battery: 3300mAh Other Feature: Global Bands, Dual 4G VoLTE,Face Unlock,Back Touch ID,Triple Slots |
80$ | 5k |
| DOOGEE Y8 | OS: Android 9.0 CPU: MTK6739 Quad-Core up to 1.5GHz Resolution: 600×1280 Pixels Display: 6.1 inch 19:9 Waterdrop Screen RAM: 3GB Front camera:5.0MP F2.2,80*wide ROM: 16GB(External Memory up to 128GB) Rear camera: 8.0MP+5.0MP F/2.2 LED Flash Battery: 3400mAh(EU Standard) Slot: Dual SIM Cards Standby |
80$ | 10k |
| DOOGEE Y8c | OS: Android 8.1 CPU: MTK6580 Quad-Core Cortex A7 1.3GHz Resolution: 600×1280 Pixels Display: 6.1 inch 600*1280 HD 19:9 Multi-touch LTPS Display RAM: 1GB Front camera:5.0MP F2.2,80°wide-angle ROM: 16GB(External Memory up to 128GB) Rear camera: 8.0MP+5.0MP F/2.2 80°wide-angle LED Flash Battery: 3400mAh(EU Standard) Slot: Dual Nano SIM Cards or Nano SIM+TF Card |
60$ | 18k |
| Blackview A60 | OS: Android 8.1 Oreo (GO editaion) CPU: MT6580A/WA, 4X Cortex-A7 , 4*1.3GHz SIM: 2 Nano SIM (Or 1 Nano + 1 TF) Battery: 4080mAh Memory: 1GB RAM + 16GB ROM 3G spec: 850/900/1900/2100 GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 Display: 6.1inch 1280*600 pixels, 19.2:9 Front Camera: 5.0MP Rear Camera: 13.0MP | 56$ | 34k |
| Blackview A20 | OS: Android GO CPU: MTK6580M Quad Core, 1.3GHz SIM: 2 Nano SIM (Or 1 Nano + 1 TF) Battery: 3000mAh Memory: 1GB + 8GB 2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz 2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz Display: 5.5inch 480*960 pixels, 18:9 Camera: 2.0MP + 5.0MP | 46$ | 12k |
| Vernee Mix 2 | OS: Android 7.0 CPU: MTK6757CD Resolution: 2160x 1080 Pixels Display: 6.0inch RAM: 4GB Front camera: 8.0MP ROM: 64GB Rear camera: 13.0+5.0MP Battery: 4200mAh Slot: 2 x SIM slot SIM Card: Dual SIM dual standby. 1 Nano SIM card + 1 Nano SIM card GPS,18:9 Screen,dual rear cameras |
88$ | 26k |
| Ulefone Note 7 | OS: Android 8.1 Go Display Size: 6.1 ROM: 16G SIM Card Quantity: 2 SIM Card Display Resolution: 1280*600 CPU : MTK MT6580 Quad Core Front Camera: 5MP Rear Camera : 8MP Camera Type: 3 Back & 1 Front Cameras Battery Capacity(mAh): 3500 | 50$ | 28k |
| OUKITEL C12 | OS:Android 8.1 CPU: MT6580 Quad Core1.3GHz SIM:(2 * nano cards or 1 nano card +1TF card Cellular: GSM/WCDMA Screen:6.18 inch 960*480 pixels RAM:2GB ROM: 16GB Front Camera: 5.0MP Back Camera:8.0MP+2.0MP Dual Cameras Battery Capacity(mAh): 3300mAh | 60$ | 23k |
Famous Chinese phone brands
The following brands we introduced are brands which have great reputations in China, if you pick products of these brands, you can have 100% after sale service and quality guarantee. Cheap models of these brands are about 150-300$.
There is actually no need to introduce Xiaomi anymore, after its success in low and mid-end cellphone market in China, Xiaomi quickly extends its business territory to international market and gains great financial return. Xiaomi’s products are famous for good quality and relatively low price, although in China Xiaomi has a reputation of losers’ products due to its low price, its compatibility of quality, hardware and low price makes it popular for years.
Honor is a sub-brand of Huawei, as Huawei is trying to push its top series such P series and Mate series into high-end market, it creates Honor for mid-price products to compete with Xiaomi. Honor is a little more expensive than Xiaomi in similar features, however, according to the reputation of Chinese users, Honor is has more advantage in hardware quality.
Lenovo is a famous global PC manufacturer in the world, its effort in expending cellphone markets starts years ago, however, it failed the fierce war against top players such as Xiaomi, Huawei and Vivo, and are forced to survive in Low-end market. The products of Lenovo have good quality just like its PC products, however, the features and cost-performance of Lenovo is not its advantage.
Vivo is aiming at younger group, its appearance and fashion features are its main advantage, also its AI camera can easily provide cool instgram style photos just with a click. However, if you are chasing for good cost-performance in hardware features, Vivo is not your brand.
Actually, Vivo, oppo, oneplus and realme have the same backstage boss, and this may explain why the models of these brands are so similar. Oneplus is kind of a international version of Oppo, however, it changed its sales strategy and focused on cost-performance and hardware features. Now oneplus already has its 7th model and gained good reputation in Europe and America, the only problem is its high price.
Nubia is a sub-brand of ZTE, just like Lenovo, Nubia is the ambition of ZTE for high-end market, however, it failed quickly and gradually shifted its products into mid and low market. It’s not as famous as Xiaomi and Honor, however some of its models have great cost-performance and can be a good choice of some buyers who wants to have more features with less money.
Best cheap phone models of these brands
We picked out the models with best cost-performance, some of them are released in 2018 or earlier, so they may don’t have some cool recent features such as water drop screen and built-in fingeprint unlock, but if you want to spend least money for quality and garantee of reliable phone manufacturers, these models are your best choice.
| Model | Features | Price |
| Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 | CPU: Snapdragon 660 AIE Storage: 4GB RAM + 64GB ROM Screen: 6.3-inch 2340 x 1080 FHD+ 19.5:9 screen Camera: 48.0MP + 5.0MP dual rear camera, 13.0MP front camera Battery: 4000mAh System: MIUI 10 Card Slot: Nano-SIM x 1 + Nano-SIM x 1 |
174$ |
| Xiaomi Redmi 7 | CPU:Snapdragon 632 Octa Core CPU Screen:6.26-inch 1520x720p HD+ 19:9 Full Screen RAM+ROM: 3GB + 32GB Camera:12MP+2MP AI Dual Rear Cameras, 8MP Front Camera Battery:3900mAh OS : MIUI Bluetooth,GPS,OTG,Fingerprint ID | 122$ |
| Huawe Honor 8X | ROM: 64GB RAM: 4G Operation System: Android8.1Display Size: 6.5 Display Resolution: 2340×1080 Water Drop Screen Front Camera Pixel: 16MP Rear Camera Pixel: 20MP Battery Capacity(mAh): 3750 | 150-270$ |
| Lenovo K5 Pro | ROM: 64GB RAM: 6G Display Size: 5.99 Display Resolution: 2160×1080 Display Proportions: 18:9 CPU Model: Qualcomm Qualcomm Model: Snapdragon 636 Front Camera Pixel: 16MP Rear Camera: 16.0+5.0MP Battery Capacity(mAh): 4050mAh | 142$ |
| vivo U1 | ROM: 32G RAM: 3G CPU : Qualcomm Snapdragon439 Octa Core Screen:capacitive screen, 6.2inch 1440×720 RAM+ROM:3G +32G / 3G+64G/ 4G+64G Camera:Rear Camera 13.0MP+2.0MP, Front camera:8.0MP Battery:4030mAh OS:Andriod One | 120-170$ |
| OnePlus 7 | CPU:Snapdragon 855 Octa Core,7nm, Up to 2.84GHz Screen:6.41-inch, optic AMOLED Screen OS:OxygenOS based on Android 9 RAM+ROM:8GB/12GB RAM + 256GB ROM Camera:48MP Cameras,Support 3x optical zoom Battery : 3700 mAh Dash Charge Game Turbo／GPU Turbo In-display Fingerprint Sensor ; Face Unlock | 443$ |
| Nubia V18 | OS : nubia UI 5.1(based on android 7.1) CPU: Snapdragon 625 Octa Core Screen Size: 6.01 inch 2160*1080 pixels FHD Storage: 4GB RAM 64GB ROM Front Camera: 8.0MP Dual Rear Camera:13.0MP Battery: 4000mAh SIM Card: Dual SIM, Dual Standby |
114-124$ |
Stores you can pick
Normally, the product price of unofficial stores has an obvious advantage campared with official stores. For phones it may be about 20-50$, so it’s better to buy a phone from unofficial stores for price advantage. The only problem is the service and garantee of the stores. We have picked out several stores witch have good reputation and thousands of followers, and checked the buyer reviews carefully, you can trust these stores.
Fantacy technology/Xiaomi mi store/Hong Kong Goldway/Vstar technology industry Co Ltd/Shenzhen Pophong store/Asia-Pacific D C technology Co. Ltd/RTDC store/Lenovo Aliexpress store/King top store/Shenzhen toptech store/