These are the best mid-range smartphones and affordable flagships right now, from Google to Samsung
Not everyone can afford a flagship phone like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra or iPhone 14 Pro Max, but plenty of cheaper devices offer an excellent experience all the same.
Mid-range phones usually offer the best balance of price and performance, packing in high-end features and powerful cameras while still sometimes costing half the price of top flagships, or even less – usually by using cheaper materials or omitting luxury features like wireless charging and waterproofing.
We define a mid-range phone as one that costs between $350/£250 (the higher limit of our even cheaper budget phones chart) and $850/£600 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 OnePlus, Motorola, and Google are all great buys, and if you live outside north America you may find you have even more options from brands like Realme, Xiaomi, and Poco. Every phone in this list is available in either the US or UK, but not every model is available in both. Read past our rundown for more mid-range phone buying advice. Best mid-range phone 2023
1. Google Pixel 6a – Best overall
Pros
Top performance
Smaller size
Outstanding camera
Guaranteed software updates
Cons
Rear plastic scratches easily
Charges slow and hot
Only 60Hz display
The Pixel 6a is a superb mid-range phone with a flagship-level processor, truly outstanding main camera, 5G connectivity, the latest version of Android, five years of security support, and a pocket-friendly design.
The big downsides are the slow charging speeds on a phone that charges hot, the easily scratched rear plastic material, and the 60Hz display lagging behind similarly priced phones.
Yet, this is a Pixel, which means it has a superlative Android experience and camera with a software polish and premium hardware feel you won’t find on other brands in this price range.
2. OnePlus Nord 2T – The close second
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.
3. Google Pixel 7 – Best camera
Pros
Excellent software
Great cameras
IP68 rating
Cons
Only 90Hz display
Divisive design
Slow charging
Arguably the toughest competition for the Pixel 6a is the fact that you don’t have to spend that much more to get the Pixel 7, which is just cheap to enough to sneak into our mid-range chart, despite really being a flagship phone.
That extra expenditure gets you one of the best cameras around at this price, with an exceptional main lens backed up by an equally strong ultrawide.
