A subsampling receiver (50, 50', 50'') for converting an RF signal to baseband is disclosed. The subsampling receiver (50, 50', 50'') may be implemented into a wireless communications device (40), such as a wireless telephone handset. In one disclosed embodiment, the receiver (50) includes a sample and hold circuit (80) that samples a bandpass filtered input modulated signal at the subsampling frequency (f.sub.s) that is well below the RF carrier frequency but twice the bandwidth (BW) of the payload; the sampled signal is digitized, and applied to two digital mixers (85I, 85Q) to produce in-phase and quadrature components (I,Q) of the payload. In another embodiment, the receiver (50') includes two sample and hold circuits (96I, 96Q) to sample the filtered signal at different phases of the sampling frequency, to produce the in-phase and quadrature digital components. In a third embodiment, the receiver (50'') includes an analog mixer (116) to downconvert the RF input to an intermediate frequency, prior to digitization and digital mixing at quadrature phase.