[Elfener]

Most phones that cost less than ~300 USD still have a headphone jack and microSD slot.

I've never understood spending more than that on a phone anyway, you can't exactly use all that processing power on a phone operating system. Unfortunately some of the bad features from expensive phones have been moving down to the cheaper ones, like the destroyed screen that's missing its corners and has a hole for the camera in it for some reason.

[hakfoo]

I just bought a newer phone and was surprised to see even the ~$200 Samsungs were lacking a headphone jack. That threw them right out of contention, so I ended up getting a 2024-model Motorola (the 2025s were $50 more and reviews said they offered no meaningful performance boost).

[lisbbb]

I get it, but the quality of headphones with cords has gotten so bad that the male jacks wouldn't last more than a few months. My son has gone through an untold number of corded headphones because his school iPad is too locked down to use bluetooth ones.

[Marsymars]

Budget phones are going to have different missing features for different people - for me the problem are that budget phones are all too large, full of software bloat, and receive poor software support.

[tayo42]

Are the cameras as good?

[dredmorbius]

If you're so concerned about camera quality ... buy a dedicated camera.

A 32 MP+ point-and-shoot starts at about $40, though goes up from there (to several thousand dollars for top models). As a bonus, it has an expected life far exceeding that of a smartphone.