Not everyone can afford a flagship phone like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra or iPhone 13 Pro, but the good news is that plenty of cheaper devices offer an excellent experience all the same.
You might also like
Mid-range phones tend to offer the best balance of price and performance, packing high-end features you won’t find in the cheapest phones on the market while still sometimes costing half the price of top flagships, or even less.
We define a mid-range phone as one that costs between £250/$350 (the higher limit of our even cheaper budget phones chart) and £600/$850, on a SIM-free basis – perfect to pair with a SIM-only plan.
You’ll find anything more expensive than that in our general best smartphone ranking, which tends to focus on flagship fare, along with our pick of the best Android phones.
Phones from the likes of Realme, Xiaomi, and Poco are prime choices, but note that many of these don’t release in the US and Canada, where OnePlus, Motorola, and Google are better buys. Read past our rundown for more mid-range phone buying advice.
Best mid-range phone 2022
1. OnePlus Nord 2T – Best overall
Pros
Excellent software
Strong main camera
Super-fast charging
Cons
Only 90Hz display
Only 2 Android updates
An outstanding follow-up to 2021’s best mid-range phone, with 80W fast charging, 5G, OnePlus’s signature Oxygen OS user experience, and a near-flagship main camera. What’s not to love?
What the OnePlus Nord 2T really demonstrates is the company’s ability to prioritise the features that users are looking for right now and wrapping them up in an attractive package with a compelling price point.
The Nord 2T misses out on flagship niceties like wireless charging and waterproofing, but those are really the only compromises made here.
There’s also the
OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G available, which delivers a stripped-back version for a slightly lower price.
Read our full
OnePlus Nord 2T review
2. Poco X4 Pro 5G – Best budget option
Pros
120Hz AMOLED display
108Mp main camera
Attractive design
Cons
Middling MIUI software
Plastic body
The Poco X4 Pro 5G is only just expensive enough to count as a mid-ranger in our books, but that just means it offers pretty exceptional value.
The 6.67in, 120Hz AMOLED display is essentially flagship-level, and it’s matched by a slick, elegant design elsewhere. Even the camera impresses, with a surprisingly solid 108Mp sensor for the main shooter – though the accompanying ultrawide and macro cameras aren’t as impressive.
It’s all made of plastic, so doesn’t feel too premium, and we don’t love the MIUI software running on here (shared by all Xiaomi, Poco, and Redmi phones). But overall this is an excellent package for the price.
Read our full
Poco X4 Pro 5G review
3. Google Pixel 6 – Best camera
Pros
Excellent software
Great cameras
IP68 rating
Cons
Only 90Hz display
Divisive design
Slow charging
The Pixel 6 is an eye-catching phone for a few reasons. For one, the price impresses, with what’s essentially a flagship phone clearly undercutting what you’d expect to be the rivals from Apple and Samsung.
There’s the design too though. Dominated by a jutting camera bar, the Pixel 6 doesn’t look like anything else on the market – well, except its
Pixel 6 Pro big brother – and the aesthetic is nothing if not divisive. It’s pretty big and heavy too, so won’t suit anyone hoping for a small phone.
What you do get is one of the best cameras around at this price, with an exceptional main lens backed up by an equally strong ultrawide. Both benefit from a few clever AI tricks delivered by Google’s new in-house Tensor chip and can take a few shots that no other phone can.
The only real downsides are a screen that’s 90Hz rather than 120Hz, and relatively slow 30W charging – with no charger included in the box either.
Read our full
Google Pixel 6 review
4. Realme GT 2 – Best cheap flagship
Pros
65W charging
120Hz AMOLED display
Good main camera
Cons
Basic secondary cameras
Plastic build
The Realme GT 2 is a gentle follow-up to last year’s GT, and doesn’t tweak the specs too much – but to be honest, that’s no bad thing.
Last year’s Snapdragon 888 makes a return as the chipset, but it’s still plenty powerful. A 120Hz AMOLED display, big battery, and excellent 65W fast charging round out the strong spec sheet.
It’s built out of plastic, which some don’t mind but others might find holds it back from feeling like a flagship, but the biggest downside is that the strong main camera isn’t well supported by the secondary lenses.
Read our full
Realme GT 2 review
5. Moto G200 – Best value specs
Pros
Flagship specs
144Hz display
108Mp camera
Cons
LCD screen
Only one OS update confirmed
Plain, plastic design
The Moto G200 is the most powerful Motorola phone around right now, which makes the affordable price tag all the more impressive.
The Snapdragon 888+ chipset is blisteringly fast, as is the 144Hz refresh rate display – though it’s admittedly only LCD, not OLED. That makes this a great phone for gamers and the performance-obsessed, but less so for Instagram and Netflix sessions.
A big 5000mAh battery and 33W wired charging are decent too, as is the 108Mp main camera – though the ultrawide leaves a little more to be desired.
Read our full
Motorola Moto G200 review
6. Red Magic 7 – Best for gaming
Pros
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
Fast charging
165Hz refresh rate display
Cons
Bulky build
Limited battery life
Gamer aesthetic
Nubia’s Red Magic 7 manages the trick of delivering the top-tier specs demanded by a gaming phone without breaking out of the mid-range pricing bracket.
The 165Hz refresh rate is the fastest around right now – besting even the priciest gaming phones around – and you also get a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset combined with up to 18GB of RAM and 256GB storage. You’ll also get 65W fast charging for the 4500mAh battery, though thanks to all the power here this runs out a little faster than we’d like.
Like most gaming phones the camera is a little lacklustre, and the design is…specific. But if that’s what you’re looking for, the Red Magic 7 is hard to beat on value right now.
Read our full
Nubia Red Magic 7 review
7. Realme GT Neo 3 – Best for fast charging
Pros
Astonishing 150W fast charging
Excellent performance
Snazzy design
Cons
Feels a little cheap
Basic ultrawide camera
No wireless charging
The Realme GT Neo 3 is all about speed – what, the racing stripes didn’t give it away?
That’s none more true than in the headline spec: 150W wired charging. That’s fast enough to deliver a full charge in less than 15 minutes, and restore half the battery in just five. And if somehow that doesn’t appeal, there’s always the slower 80W model to consider – with a bigger battery to boot.
The Dimensity 8100 chipset delivers blistering performance for the price too, helped by a smooth 120Hz AMOLED display. And the 50Mp OIS main camera holds its own as well, though the basic ultrawide and macro lenses are probably the phone’s big weak spot.
Read our full
Realme GT Neo 3 review
8. Realme 9 Pro+ – Best battery
Pros
Two-day battery life
Solid 50Mp main camera
Colour-changing design
Cons
Other camera lenses disappoint
Average performance
The Realme 9 Pro+ is the top phone in Realme’s budget 9 series.
It boasts a 120Hz display and 50Mp main camera – though the other lenses alongside do slightly disappoint.
60W fast charging impresses, but we really love the fact that the battery can last a full two days.
This doesn’t feel as premium or polished as some other phones on this list, but the colour-changing body design is certainly unique – and you can’t knock this phone for value.
Read our full
Realme 9 Pro+ review
9. Asus ZenFone 8 – Best compact phone
Pros
Compact build
Snapdragon 888
IP68 waterproofing
Cons
Plain design
Weak battery life
Like the Realme GT, the Asus ZenFone 8 is in many ways a proper flagship phone – it’s simply one that’s been priced aggressively enough to make the cut in our mid-range chart.
You get flagship features like a Snapdragon 888 chipset, fast RAM, and even an IP68 water-resistance rating – though there’s still no wireless charging, sadly.
It’s also lightweight and compact, with a 5.9in display and weighing just 169g, making it one of the smallest Android phones around – though sadly this does come with an inevitable compromise on battery life.
We much prefer the ZenFone 8 to the more expensive
ZenFone 8 Flip, though that phone does boast a neat flipping camera module.
Read our full
Asus ZenFone 8 review
10. Samsung Galaxy A53 – Best for Software Support
Pros
Stylish design
IP67 rating
Impressive cameras
Excellent software support
Cons
Extremely sluggish performance
Slow charging
No charger included
The Galaxy A53 5G is Samsung’s main mid-ranger right now, and it’s clearly pitched to rival Apple’s iPhone SE.
Like that phone it’s impressively affordable despite offering flagship features like an IP67 rating, OIS main camera, and brilliant long-term software support – Samsung is promising to keep the phone updated for at least four years.
There’s a downside though: while Apple packed the SE with a high-end chipset and compromised on the design, Samsung opted for a supremely slick design & display but cut corners on the chipset. The result is that the Galaxy A53 is pretty slow to use – it won’t be a problem if your needs are basic, but gamers and power users had better look elsewhere.
Read our full
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G review
Specs to look for in a mid-range phone
It’s difficult to define a mid-range phone by its specification, hence why we’ve opted for a price bracket instead.
Some mid-range phones will take the all-round good-value approach, with capable specs in each area; others will focus on a key trait, such as the camera or display, and promise flagship-rivalling capabilities in that one aspect; others still used to be those flagships, so will offer fantastic specs at a brilliant price, but may be running on slightly older hardware.
One common element is that you’ll likely have to give up on nice-to-haves like wireless charging or a waterproof rating – these still tend to be reserved for the most expensive phones on the market, though a few mid-range devices do offer one or the other.
Chinese phones are a great choice in the mid-range market because they often balance very good specifications with a lower price than you’d expect – but sadly few go on sale in the US. You may have heard of Xiaomi, Realme, and OnePlus offering staggering value, but there are plenty of other less well-known Chinese manufacturers that can also offer a very good deal.
Note that there is one mid-range iPhone on the market – the 2022 iPhone SE – but we don’t think it offers great value compared to Android rivals. Consider it if you know you need an iPhone, but otherwise steer clear.
We also haven’t included Google’s affordable Pixel 5a – mostly because it’s only available in the US and Japan, and as a result we haven’t been able to review it yet. Luckily, the regular Pixel 6 is actually cheap enough to make the cut, and we’re expecting a wider release for the upcoming Pixel 6a.
Try to remember that it’s not always about specs either. We’ve hit something of a ceiling when it comes to smartphone tech anyway, so although these phones may not be as fast as your average flagship, they are almost certainly fast enough for most users. Go for a phone that balances value, performance, features and design in a way that appeals to you and your needs.
Related stories for further reading
