Best mid-range phones to buy 2021

Some phones offer premium features at much more affordable price points. Here’s our pick of the best mid-range handsets you can buy.

By Jason Murdock

Published: Thursday, 19 August 2021 at 12:00 am

The term “flagship killer” is often used to describe a phone with high-end features and a more affordable price point. That may well be a cliché in 2021 – but it’s undeniable that many mid-range handsets are more than up to the fight.

Yes, the days of having to pay £1,000 outright for a premium smartphone are gone. Tech has moved at a blistering pace, and you can easily get high-resolution screens, lengthy battery life and next-generation connectivity for half that price.

In terms of what top-line specs are now on offer, the mid-range smartphones that are the best today are essentially just the flagship phones of the (very recent) past.

What was once the domain of top-tier devices – OLED displays, high refresh rates and 5G chips – are now available not only on the devices that make up our best smartphone list but even the ones that fall into the best budget smartphone territory.

Sitting in between those two extremes are the mid-rangers, all-rounders that give off a premium-like experience for much less upfront cost. This is a vast category that’s surprisingly complex. It’s broad and can arguably contain phones priced anywhere between the £250 and £600 mark, typically when bought outright and unlocked.

Jump to:

How to choose the best mid-range phone

Luckily, due to the broad mid-range category, there’s a lot of options for both brand and budget. Here are some tips on how to choose the right model for you.

Shop around: Leading tech giants including Apple, Google, and Samsung each offer their own affordable phones, including the Pixel 4a and iPhone SE (2020), so it’s not the case you will have to settle for a “lesser” brand. But there are plenty more phone makers in this space that shouldn’t be overlooked – namely Xiaomi, Oppo, Realme and OnePlus. They all have great phones.

Compromise: When it comes to choosing the right mid-range phone, the key will be to compromise. Understand that you can’t have every premium feature in the one package – that’s a luxury for the top-end handsets – but instead, focus on exactly what you need the phone for. Is it a two-day battery life? Top camera lenses? High-refresh rate display? That will narrow down your options significantly and help tailor which smartphones are actually relevant.

Read reviews: While the spec sheet for a phone will tell you everything you need to know about screen size, camera specs, storage options, battery life and processor – expert reviewers will give you an honest view of how the handset performs in the real world. Here at RadioTimes.com, we get hands-on time with a lot of the new phones – most recently in our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 review – but we also compile in-depth lists that will help you to make a buying decision, including our best 5G phone, best Android phone and best camera phone.

Still unsure which model to go for? Don’t worry – we have got you covered. Our expert reviewers have tested a variety of handsets in this popular category – at a range of prices. So here are the best mid-range smartphones that you can buy in 2021.