Cheap cell phones

Kent German, Senior Editor October 28, 2008

Though no one loves cell phone contracts, signing one can knock a lot of money off the price of your cell phone. These service rebates can be enough to make a fancy smartphone affordable or make a simple phone free. CNET has picked a few cheap cell phones that will be easy on your wallet.

Verizon's Samsung Knack SCH-U310 is a great handset for anyone new to cell phones. It has a simple, easy-to-use design and it offers great call quality. It's a cheap $39 with service. The Samsung SCH-U430 and SPH-M220 are both functional cell phones for making calls. They're not perfect, but they do their primary job well. Verizon's SCH-U430 is free with service and Sprint's SPH-M220 is an inexpensive $29. The Sony Ericsson TM506 is one of T-Mobile's first 3G phones while the RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, also for T-Mobile, is the first BlackBerry flip phone. Both are expensive phones, but service contracts can knock them down to the more budget-friendly prices of $49 for the TM506 and $49 for the BlackBerry 8220. Finally, there's the Pantech Matrix for AT&T. With a dual slider design and a full keyboard, it's a pricey phone, but you can get it for as cheap as $80 with service.