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Want to spend less on your next phone? Skip the top-of-the-line phones and check out these best Mid Range Smartphones. Mid-range phones usually have the best balance of price and performance. They have high-end features and powerful cameras, but they can cost as little as half as much as top flagships, or even less, by using cheaper materials or leaving out features like wireless charging and waterproofing.
There was a time when any smartphone other than a very expensive flagship model would be a letdown. Mid-range smartphone bingo was often marked by boring designs, poor build quality, and a slow, jerky experience. Here’s our guide to what to look for, along with our list of the best mid-range smartphones in 2023, which we keep updating.
Best Mid Range Smartphones
Google Pixel 6a
Features
The Pixel 6a is a great mid-range phone with a flagship-level processor, a truly great main camera, 5G connectivity, the latest version of Android, five years of security support, and a design that fits in your pocket. The biggest problems are that the phone charges slowly and gets hot while it’s charging, the back is made of plastic that’s easy to scratch.
The 60Hz display isn’t as good as other phones in the same price range. Still, this is a Pixel, which means it has the best Android experience and camera of any phone in this price range. The software is polished and the hardware feels high-end, which you won’t find on other brands.
Pros
- Top performance
- Guaranteed software updates
- Smaller size
- Outstanding camera
Cons
- Charges slow and hot
OnePlus Nord 2T
Features
A great follow-up to 2021’s best mid-range phone, with 80W fast charging, 5G, OnePlus’s Oxygen OS user experience, and a main camera that’s almost as good as a flagship model. Why wouldn’t you like it?
What the OnePlus Nord 2T really shows is that the company knows how to put the features that users want right now at the top of the list and put them in an attractive package with a good price. The Nord 2T doesn’t have top-of-the-line features like wireless charging and water resistance, but those are the only real trade-offs.
Pros
- Excellent software
- Strong main camera
- Super-fast charging
Cons
- Only 90Hz display
- Only 2 Android updates
iPhone SE 3
Features
Even though it looks a bit old, the iPhone SE 3 (2022) is Apple’s most affordable smartphone to date. Apple might want people to spend more on the iPhone 13, but the lower price of the iPhone SE 3 makes it a much better value, and your wallet will probably feel better as a result.
Even though it costs more than half as much as the iPhone 13, the iPhone SE 3 (2022) has the same fast A15 Bionic processor and a good camera as the iPhone 13. The only problem is that the battery life isn’t very long by today’s standards, but the fast 20W charging can fix that.
Pros
- Familiar design
- Incredibly powerful
Cons
- No Face ID
Xiaomi Poco X5 Pro
Features
The Xiaomi Poco X5 Pro is a great choice for buyers who want to spend as little as possible. Even though the brand isn’t as well-known in the UK as it is in other places, the Poco X5 Pro is a great deal. It even performs better than phones that cost twice or even three times as much.
The Poco X5 Pro is a great choice if you don’t want to spend more than £700 on the latest and greatest phone. It has a 6.67in Full HD AMOLED screen, a 5G-capable Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G chipset, a large 108MP camera sensor, and a long-lasting battery that can be charged quickly with a 67W charger.
Pros
- 120Hz AMOLED display
- 108Mp main camera
- Great value
- Thin and light
Cons
- Flimsy plastic rear cover
- Sub-par software
Motorola Moto G82
Features
The Moto G82 is a welcome reminder that Motorola knows how to make a well-priced all-rounder. It has a good balance between price and performance. It has a great OLED screen with a high refresh rate, a huge 5000mAh battery, and an optically stabilised 50MP main camera. All of these features are usually found in phones that cost a lot more.
It doesn’t have the most power for the money, and you can get more power for not much more money. But Motorola’s version of Android is a great example of how less is more. It doesn’t have a lot of extra features and runs quickly enough, and a 30W charger means it can be fully charged in an hour.
Pros
- Solid value for a 128GB phone w/ 5G
- Vibrant OLED display
- Stereo speakers
Cons
- Lacking in performance
Realme 9 Pro+
Features
Most people who look at this list will probably decide that the Realme 9 Pro+ is the best phone overall. Its main selling points are its 90Hz OLED screen and its best-in-class main camera, which can compete with the best flagship phones at any time of day or night.
It can even take HEIF 10-bit photos like the iPhone 13 Pro, which have smoother colour transitions and gradients and let editing experts do their thing. It also has a pretty good digital zoom, and its 8MP ultra-wide camera is just as good. As usual, the third macro camera isn’t good enough to use more than a few times for experimenting.
Pros
- Unmatched value
- Excellent battery life
- Cracking performance
Cons
- Bland design
- Bloatware
Realme GT 2 Pro
Features
The best mid-range phone you can buy right now is the Realme GT 2 Pro. It has everything we want in a phone at this price, and the only things it doesn’t have are luxuries that many people won’t miss. Importantly, it’s a fast, reliable phone.
Realme has promised three years of major Android updates, so you won’t have to buy a new phone for a while. Software support like this is pretty rare on Android, and many mid-range and cheap phones don’t come with any guarantees.
Pros
- Gorgeous display
- Flagship-grade performance
- Excellent battery life and fast charging
Cons
- Lacks a dedicated telephoto camera
- Paper-like design will divide opinion
Google Pixel 7
Features
If you’re looking for the best of what Google has to offer, you’ll be happy to find the excellent Pixel 7. Even so, this phone looks and feels like a high-end model, and its camera is so good that it can compete with the best flagship phones.
The 6.3-inch screen is also big enough to watch movies or play games, and one charge of the battery gave us enough power for a full day of heavy use. Some people didn’t like how slow it was to charge, but for the price, it’s hard to find anything better, especially since it comes with all of Google’s latest software smarts.
Pros
- Great camera
- Good screen
- Stylish design
Cons
- Few upgrades from the Pixel 6
- No telephoto camera
FAQs
Which is the No 1 smartphone?
Market trackers say that in Q4, Samsung beat out Xiaomi to become India’s most popular smartphone brand. Research from Canalys shows that India shipped 151.6 million smartphones in 2022, which is 6% less than in 2021.
Which budget phone has the best performance?
For people on a tight budget, the Samsung Galaxy A03s is the best phone on the market right now. The A03s can be bought for $160, or even less at some carrier stores, and it has good software, decent performance, and security updates that will be supported until the summer of 2026.
Which mobile is best for quality?
- Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G
- Google Pixel 7 Pro
- Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4
- iQOO 9T 5G
- OnePlus 10 Pro 5G
Which is the most trusted mobile brand?
We make a list of the best phone brands, including Samsung, Apple, Google, and maybe even some other brands you wouldn’t expect. We think that Samsung is the best phone brand for 2022. It makes great phones at a range of prices and has even gotten better at putting out software updates, which used to be a weak point.