If you’re looking for a smartphone that brings you as close to the flagship experience as possible without dropping flagship smartphone levels of cash, the Xiaomi 14T Pro is your best option.

The 6.67-inch CrystalRes AMOLED screen is a treat for the eyes with its pixel-packed 1.5K resolution and 144Hz refresh rate, offering superb visuals with inky blacks and vibrant colours helped by support for 12-bit colour depth that makes it fantastic for both binging movies and gaming.

The latter is certainly possible with the 14T Pro, sporting MediaTek’s top-end 2024 chipset, the Dimensity 9300+, with benchmark results competing, if not beating, much of the flagship competition. That’s paired with 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage.

Camera performance is also a treat, sporting a 50MP main, 50MP ultrawide and a 12MP 2.6x telephoto, sharing the main camera with the flagship Xiaomi 14. Its Leica-powered shots look detailed and vibrant, with solid low-light performance to boot.

Throw in a 5000mAh battery that’ll last all day and support for super-fast 120W fast charging that delivers a full charge in 23 minutes and you’ve got a solid all-rounder that’s easy to recommend to most.

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The OnePlus 13R is a solid attempt at a mid-range smartphone that manages to stand out in a busy market with a smattering of genuinely high-end tech.

The display is one of the main reasons to opt for the phone. While the 6.78-inch AMOLED screen isn’t quite as pixel-packed as the flagship OnePlus 13, it boasts the same 120Hz refresh rate and, rather importantly, LTPO 4.1 tech.

Along with the OnePlus 13, it’s one of the first phones on the market to sport the tech, which allows the phone to adjust the refresh rate as you scroll. This means that the screen feels super responsive in use and, crucially, it’s way more battery-friendly.

That also means that, combined with a sizeable 6000mAh silicon carbon battery that’s larger than any other phone in our chart, the OnePlus 13R has superb battery life, easily able to last a day if not two depending on what you’re up to. Even then, with 80W SuperVOOC charging it’ll get a full charge in 52 minutes.

It’s also a decent performer with the 2024 flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, especially when coupled with OnePlus’ various software and hardware optimisations and upgraded cooling mechanisms. It’ll leave practically any other mid-ranger in the dust, both in benchmarks and real-world use.

Elsewhere, it has a solid 50MP primary and 2x telephoto cameras, though the 8MP ultrawide isn’t quite as exciting. It also won’t get as many updates as the Pixel 8a, capping out at four OS upgrades and six years of security patches.

Google’s mid-range ‘a’ series has long dominated when it comes to camera performance, and this year’s Pixel 9a is here to pick up that mantle. 

Sporting a refreshed 48MP camera with a larger sensor than that of the 8a, the main lens does an admirable job in practically any lighting condition. Images are always packed with light and detail, with way more accurate colours than other mid-rangers, especially when it comes to skin tones. 

That said, Google is losing ground to the Nothing Phone 3a Pro and its dedicated periscope lens, with the 9a still relying on Google’s AI-powered Super Res Zoom, but it does a decent enough job when you want to close the gap.

There’s also a 13MP ultrawide lens that, while not as performant as the main lens, is great at capturing scenic vistas during the day. 

It’s not just a great camera phone of course; the Pixel 9a sports its own unique look for the first time, ditching the iconic camera bar for a near-flush camera housing, and it’s powered by the same Tensor G4 chipset as the flagship too. 

Throw in an AI-infused stock Android 15 experience with seven years of OS upgrades, all-day battery life and a solid 6.3-inch screen, and it becomes hard to resist. 

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The Nothing Phone 3a Pro is the latest mid-ranger from startup Nothing, and it comes with quite the surprising feature considering its £449 price point: a 3x periscope camera. All other zoom lenses at a similar price point are fixed telephoto snappers locked at 2x, whereas the 3a Pro’s OIS-enabled snapper can deliver rich and sharp images at the 10x mark and beyond.

The primary 50MP camera also delivers performance above what you’d expect for the price, utilising Google’s Ultra XDR magic to boost the dynamic range of shots to deliver stunningly rich and vibrant results. However, it’s let down by a weak 8MP ultrawide that can’t quite match the performance of the other lenses.

It’s not just a great camera phone, either; it’s also one of the more unique-looking phones on the market. Its transparent glass rear shows stylised cables and other internal components, along with Nothing’s signature Glyph LED tech. That look also translates to the software in the form of the heavily stylised Nothing OS 3.1.

What it isn’t, however, is a powerhouse. The Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 is fine for day-to-day tasks and closely mirrors the performance of the year-old Samsung Galaxy A55 5G, but it’s left behind by the Pixel 8a and Poco X7 Pro.

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If you’re after the best performance possible without spending flagship prices, look no further than the Poco F7 Ultra. 

The Poco F-series has always led the way in performance in the mid-range space, but this year’s Ultra model takes things a step further with the inclusion of the Snapdragon 8 Elite. That’s the most powerful chipset on the market at the moment, and the chipset of choice for practically every flagship Android phone on the market.

As such, the Poco F7 Ultra can handle practically anything you can throw at it, delivering faster speeds and better gaming performance than any other phone mentioned in our chart in both benchmark tests and real-world use. If you’re a keen mobile gamer wanting to get the most out of your smartphone, this should be of serious consideration.

It’s not just a powerhouse either; it sports a 6.7-inch 120Hz AMOLED screen with a pixel-packed WQHD+ resolution – the same as the top-end Galaxy S25 Ultra – and a 5300mAh battery that’ll keep you going all day without much complaint. 

If you want a super-fast phone for as little money as possible, the Poco F7 Ultra is the phone to go for. 

The Honor 200 Pro may be one of the pricier phones on our list at £699, but if you want a top-notch viewing experience, it may well be worth the upfront investment.

The Honor 200 Pro sports a 6.8-inch curved OLED screen that’s larger than much of the competition, but it’s not just a big-screen device.

It comes with a pixel-packed 1.2K resolution, a maximum brightness of 4000nits and even supports blazing-fast 3840Hz PWM Dimming that bests some of the priciest smartphones around. There are also a number of features aimed at reducing blue light to keep your peepers fresh, and the whole experience is highly customisable too.

Elsewhere, the Honor 200 Pro boasts an impressive camera experience headed by a 50MP f/1.9 main camera with a large 1/1.3-inch sensor, but the 50MP 2.5x telephoto is most interesting. That’s because Honor worked with famed French photography house Studio Harcourt to bring its unique portrait style to the Honor 200 Pro using AI to deliver some of the best Portrait mode results around.

It’s also a powerhouse with the Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 and 12GB of RAM that can handle basically anything you can throw at it, and with a 5200mAh silicon-carbon battery, it has no issue lasting a day or two on a single charge. Combined with 66W fast charging, it’ll regain a full charge in under an hour, achieving 70% in half an hour.

The only hurdle is the software experience, with Honor’s MagicOS 8.0 based on Android 14 deviating quite far from the stock Android experience. It’s arguably closer to iOS 17 than stock Android with elements that mimic iOS, from Dynamic Island-esque controls to a split notification centre and quick control panel.

That’s great for those leaving team iPhone, but it’s a massive learning curve for other Android users.

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Until recently, the iPhone 15 sat as our go-to Apple recommendation within this list, sitting right at the ceiling of our cut-off point with a price tag of £699/$699. However, with the iPhone 16e now on the market, Apple finally has a handset that fits more in line with the pricing of most mid-range phones.

While the iPhone 16e doesn’t topple the likes of the Pixel 8a on smartphone photography, or the OnePlus 13R where the display is concerned, its value proposition lies in giving you a high-end iOS experience at a price that’s much cheaper (£200/$200 to be exact) than the iPhone 16.

Despite being the cheapest option in the iPhone 16 range, the 16e still boasts the same A18 Bionic chipset as the standard 16 and the iPhone 16 Plus, so you’re not missing out in terms of day to day performance. Apps load quickly, Apple Arcade titles run beautifully and more. Plus, you’ve got access to Apple Intelligence.

While Apple’s take on AI isn’t worth the upgrade alone at the time of writing, we no doubt anticipate that it’ll be at the heart of Apple’s software strategy in the near future, and the iPhone 16e should get access to those same updates as soon as they become available.

In the here and now though, the iPhone 16e’s allure is still in the sleek nature of iOS and apps like Apple News and Apple TV which are very accessible, beautifully designed and feature-rich. There’s also an abundance of helpful widgets that you can add to your homescreen, and the seamless way in which iPhones interact with other Apple devices is unparalleled in the Android space.

Where the iPhone 16e does suffer is in all of the things it’s missing, including MagSafe compatibility, a second rear-facing camera and Apple’s Dynamic Island, all of which can be found on the iPhone 15 which in turn can be found for not that much more if you know where to look.

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Some mid-range phones can feel a little bit cheap in the hand – often down to the use of materials like plastic over the metal and glass alternative usually found on truly high-end phones – but Samsung’s Galaxy A56 5G is the polar opposite.

Much like the flagship Galaxy S25, the Galaxy A56 is made from an aluminium frame and a glass rear, instantly making it feel more premium in the hand than the likes of the Nothing Phone 3a Pro and Google Pixel 9a. 

It’s also impressively slim, measuring in at an increasingly rare 7.4mm thick despite housing a 6.7-inch screen and a large 5000mAh battery that makes it feel great to use, especially combined with the device’s flat edges. 

It’s not just a looker either; the 6.7-inch AMOLED screen is a treat for the eyes, with much slimmer bezels than the competing Pixel 9a, and even with the same triple camera setup as the Galaxy A55, it’s still surprisingly solid in the camera department. 

It’s powered by the mid-range Exynos 1580 that, while not in the same league as the Snapdragon 8 Elite of the Poco F7 Ultra, provides solid everyday performance. That’s backed up by OneUI 7, Samsung’s spin on Android 15, with a 5000mAh battery that won’t struggle to last all day on a charge. 

It’s a solid all-rounder with a premium design that won’t disappoint. 

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Editor’s note: Motorola has released the newer Edge 60 Pro, and we’re currently evaluating the smartphone for consideration in our chart.

Despite the Pro branding, the Edge 50 Pro is Motorola’s latest mid-ranger to hit the market, sporting a sleek, svelte design, an impressive screen, solid performance and some of the fastest charging we’ve seen at any price point that makes it one to consider.

First off, the Edge 50 Pro looks the part with a choice between vegan leather and marble rears, complete with vibrant colour options including a particularly attractive shade of Lavender to choose from. It’s also thin and lightweight at 8.2mm and 186g respectively, and when combined with a slightly curved screen, it feels great in the hand.

The 6.7-inch display is another standout feature, with OLED screen tech, a rapid 144Hz refresh rate that’s ideal for gaming and a maximum brightness of 2000nits. Combined with a 1.2K resolution, the screen experience is crisp, bright and vibrant, ideal for binging Netflix on the go.

Despite its mid-range price tag, the Edge 50 Pro is one of few mid-rangers to sport a dedicated 3x telephoto lens alongside its 50MP main and 13MP lenses. The main camera is identical to the Motorola Edge 40, which is to say that it remains an impressive snapper with a large 1/1.55-inch sensor and f/1.4 aperture, but the addition of a 10MP telephoto means you can get closer to the action than ever before.

For us though, the real highlight of the Motorola Edge 50 Pro is the charging experience. Not only does it support 125W fast charging tech, but you’ll get a 125W fast charger in the box – and you can’t say that about many flagships, let alone mid-rangers. With tests showing a full recharge takes just 19 minutes, it’s one of the fastest-charging phones on the market at any price point.

The only real weak point of the Edge 50 Pro is the performance, utilising the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset present in phones that cost £100 less. It’s more than enough for everyday use when paired with 12GB of RAM, but you’ll really notice the lack of graphical grunt when playing games.