Buying a new smartphone doesn’t have to mean spending a fortune on the latest flagship. Today’s mid-range models often offer premium styling and plenty of CPU power, while keeping most of the key perks like long battery life, solid cameras and a high-quality display.
For power users, however, a flagship remains the best option. These phones offer cutting-edge features and longer software support.
OnePlus 13R
A premium look and feel make this a great option for gamers or anyone wanting a big screen, long battery life and good point-and-shoot photography. It undercuts the price of core flagships and offers solid performance backed by OxygenOS 15 and four years of updates.
The phone is IP65 rated, which means it’s resistant to splashes and light dust exposure. OnePlus also includes an 80W charger, documentation and a SIM tray ejector in the box.
The 13R has a proprietary alert slider, which is useful for toggling between silent, vibration and ring modes. However, the power button and volume keys are placed a bit too high up on the left edge for my liking. Also, the software bloat feels a bit excessive. This is especially true for the ‘Pro Gamer’ feature which channels all of your GPU power to games.
Samsung Galaxy A56
Whether you’re a parent capturing family memories or a hobbyist hiker looking for that summit selfie, a good smartphone camera is a must. Samsung’s Galaxy A56 nails this crucial aspect – and also looks good, feels nice in the hand and packs a punchy battery.
It has a 6.7-inch FHD display, with slimmer bezels than the Galaxy A36 and A26. It’s not the best on the market, but it’s a solid offering.
Samsung has stepped up its software support for this model, promising six years of Android OS and One UI updates. Last year’s model only got four, so this is a welcome improvement. The 5,000mAh battery can also easily see you through an entire day and night.
Honor Magic 7 Lite
The Magic 7 Lite doesn’t play it safe with a high-end chipset or tons of pre-installed bloatware and is still a bargain at PS399. The large 6.78-inch OLED curved display boasts a 120Hz refresh rate for crisp images, while the main rear camera delivers 108Mp ultra-sensing capabilities for impressive detail.
The Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chip isn’t the fastest around, but it does the job and handles everyday tasks and light gaming quite well. It also supports a slick MagicOS 8 operating system and a hefty 512GB of storage (UK variant).
I played a few rounds of Genshin Impact on it with medium settings, which ran smoothly and didn’t eat too much into the battery. A 6,600mAh battery powers the phone, backed up by a 66W HONOR SuperCharge fast charger.
Motorola Edge 50 Pro
The Motorola Edge 50 Pro is a strong contender in the midrange smartphone market. It has a premium design, triple-lens camera, silky screen and fast charging in a slim silhouette with excellent durability and waterproofing.
It also supports the latest wireless audio codecs such as aptX Adaptive and LHDC V5. Its impressive battery life can last for over 30 hours when using video playback.
It runs on Android 14 with Motorola’s Hello UI that adds some colour without cluttering up the basic OS. The company promises three years of operating system updates and four years of quarterly security patches for this phone. It also has a great selection of gesture controls that allow users to control the device with hand gestures and facial expressions.
Red Magic 8 Pro
The Red Magic 8 Pro offers a lot for its $649 (£579)/$799 (£709) price tag. It features Snapdragon’s latest processor, has plenty of storage and RAM, and a bright 6.8-inch 120Hz AMOLED display.
Its ICE 11 cooling system is another standout feature, using an extra layer of graphene under the screen, a vapor chamber heat dissipation plate, a high-speed turbofan, and more to keep things cool.
There’s a lot to like, but the Red Magic 8 Pro isn’t without its shortcomings. Nubia hasn’t guaranteed any sort of software updates beyond two years, which is a shame considering other phones in this price range typically get four or more. The cameras are also a bit below par, with the 50MP primary camera and 8MP ultrawide / 2MP macro sensors struggling to compete with other flagships.
Google Pixel 7a
With the Pixel 7a, Google is further narrowing the gap between its budget and flagship Pixel phones. This latest entry features a 6.1-inch screen and a metal camera bar that looks just like its pricier sibling. The main difference is a new 90Hz refresh rate, which should make scrolling and video games more smooth.
Other notable upgrades include an improved version of Google’s home-brewed Tensor G2 chip, more RAM (8GB vs. 6GB), and better cameras that trounce many phones twice the price. You also get the best Android experience, with five years of security updates and a built-in VPN.
Previous Pixel A models skimped on wireless charging, but the 7a finally offers it. It’s a bit slower than the 20-watt offering on the Pixel 7, but few users will notice.
Moto G Power 2025
The 2025 is a major upgrade from its predecessor, with a dual IP68/IP69 rating that will hold up to a dunk in water and withstand high-pressure jets. That’s a big win over most phones in this price range that lack an IP rating altogether.
Motorola also promised two years of major OS upgrades and bimonthly security patches, which is better than the single-year guarantee it offers on most Moto G phones. I’d like to see the update window extend a bit further into the future, but it’s an improvement over the previous phone’s single-year promise.
The underlying hardware is still pretty limited, though. On our tests, the Moto G Power 2025 scored just 795 in the Geekbench single-core test and 2,095 in the multi-core test — a clear step down from the 2024 model. It also struggled to render graphics in intensive games such as Honkai Star Rail, displaying stuttering and choppiness on occasion.
