Best midrange all-rounders 2023 - buyer’s guide

The €200 Redmi Note 12 5G is a great all-rounder with little to complain about. It has a solid OLED panel, decent battery life, although we expected more, competitive fast charging, a dependable main camera and a dedicated microSD card slot.

The exclusion of the stereo speakers from last year is a misstep as well the unimpressive battery life. But it’s still one of the best offers in this price backet and we do recommend it.

The Poco M5s is an excellent all-around phone for its nearly entry-level pricing - splash-resistant design, AMOLED screen with high brightness, gaming-friendly chipset, versatile camera, and a large battery with fast charging.

There are some nice perks like stereo speakers, audio jack, IR blaster, FM radio, 3.5mm jack. And we were surprised by its good selfies and selfie portraits; even expensive Xiaomi phones cannot match these features. All these niceties for around €200 make the M5s a killer offer.

Of course, the Poco M5s is not perfect - it offers poor photo quality, and the 60Hz refresh rate for the display may be dealbreakers for many. If we have to be honest - we can live with 60Hz - no need for an unnecessary strain on the hardware and the battery life, even if the Poco M5s can handle it..

But in spite of these two imperfections, we still recommend the Poco M5s for being one of the most feature-rich smartphones within its price bracket. It just has a specs sheet that's really hard to beat, and, at the end of the day, it's a solid and reliable phone.

The €160 Redmi 10 (2022) is another affordable smartphone worthy of your attention. It’s built around a 6.5” 1080p LCD screen of 90Hz refresh rate and runs on the adequate though Helio G88 chipset that could lead do some UI lag.

The Redmi 10 (2022) is the same phone as the original Redmi 10 with the only difference being the now hybrid dual-SIM/microSD slot.

The Redmi 10 (2022) has a versatile four-camera setup with a 50MP primary, an 8MP ultrawide, 2MP macro and a 2MP depth cams. It also offers stereo speakers, one large battery and many connectivity features.

While the Redmi 10 (2022) is not the fastest phone, it will offer a decent performance and reliable display, battery life, speakers, and camera performance. And that’s plenty enough.

The Moto G31 costs about €160 and it’s quite a reasonable offer right now. It has a water-repellent design and packs a 6.4” AMOLED screen, a versatile triple camera, a large battery, and manny fan-favorite features like an audio jack and a microSD expansion.

The G31 runs on clean Android 11, which many people prefer over skinned versions such as MIUI or Realme UI.

The G31 is one of the few phones with a 60Hz display and its chipset while enough for day-today operations, may still lead to lag and stutter across UI and games.

Even with these omissions, the Moto G31 remains a solid offer for its all-round feature set and we do recommend it.

The Samsung Galaxy A24 4G is a solid offer and has a nicely rounded specs sheet for its €200 asking price. We did like the 90Hz AMOLED screen - it turned out smooth, color-accurate, and quite bright. And the clean, no-nonsense design could be a potential showstopper for some, too.

The Galaxy A24 4G offers outstanding battery life, and its charging speed is adequate for its price range. The battery, coupled with the energy-saving chipset, could be a real treat for many users who value longer runtimes on a single charge.

The Galaxy A24 also surprised us with a good photo and video quality from the main and selfie camera, while its ultrawide and macro shooters turned out to be more of a gimmick rather than a useful feature.

What we missed on this phone is 5G connectivity and basic ingress protection. The single speaker is notably quiet and has unimpressive sound quality, too, and the phone is a bit sluggish, maybe due to its 4GB RAM. Still, at that price point, we really can't expect more, and we think Samsung has put everything that's possible at €200 into the A24 4G model.

The Realme Narzo 50 is quite the deal in India, currently retailing at about INR 14,000. It has a good 120Hz LCD screen, an adequate Helio G96 chipset, and a 50MP primary camera.

The Narzo 50 is also likable for its stylish design, large battery and fast 33W charging.

This Realme has no splash protection, no ultrawide camera, and no stereo speakers, though on that price we’d say it offers enough.

The €160 Realme 8i is quite an interesting smartphone with an incredibly adaptive 6.6" 120Hz LCD and a good enough Helio G96 chipset. It aced our battery life test, and we were impressed with its camera performance even if it lacks an ultrawide camera. Lag-free gaming is possible, too, you just need to lower the graphics settings and resolution.

The Realme 8i is affordable and it has some omissions like splash resistance and stereo speakers. There is no ultrawide camera, too. But it's still a good smartphone with thoughtfully picked features for this price and it gets our recommendation.

The Moto G72 makes a pretty compelling case for itself. For starters, it's got a display that wouldn't be out of place on the phone twice its €240 price. Next up, it has battery life to spare and charges quickly. And the pictures you can get out of its cameras are pretty solid for its class too.

Also going for it, the G72's lightweight body is a strong selling point, and it gets high marks for its audio chops. Motorola's software package that marries a Pixel look with extra in-house features is easy to like too.

Less exciting is the dated OS version, and the planned Android 13 update can't come soon enough. It's not going to bring 4K video recording or 5G connectivity, though, so if either is important for you, the Moto G72 is obviously a no-go. If, however, you're not big on video capture and you can leave the next-gen connectivity for your next phone, this Moto has a lot going for it.

The €220 Realme 8 impressed us with its long battery life and fast charging and that's why we've put it on our battery champs list. But it's also one particularly good all-round offer with a decent Super AMOLED screen and a capable Helio G95 chip, which does well for games. It also offers speedy charging, NFC, a 3.5mm jack, a dedicated microSD slot, and even FM radio.

Its camera setup may be packing four shooters, but the photo quality of the main and ultrawide shooters was rather uninspiring. The videos turned out nice, though, selfies, too.

The Realme 8 isn't the best phone, but it's cheap, it aced our battery life test, and it offers more than enough for its price.

The €230 (or cheaper) Realme 9 impressed us with incredibly long battery life. The Realme 9 offers a likable 90Hz OLED screen, can charge fast, and its main camera is dependable and offers solid photo quality and great 3x lossless-like zoom.

The Realme 9 has a weak chipset, though, there is no ingress protection, no stereo speakers, no 5G either. It is an obvious downgrade from the Realme 8, too. But as far as battery life, screen and camera are concerned, it can do a solid job.

Motorola has this cool offer if you like the clean no-nonsense Android experience – the Moto G62 5G. For €200 you will get a splash-proofed body with 6.5” 120Hz LCD and decent performance thanks to the Snapdragon 480+ 5G chipset.

The Moto G62 5G also offers the usual triple-camera for the midrange that includes a 50MP primary, an 8MP ultrawide and a 2MP macro shooters. There are also stereo speakers, 128GB base storage with microSD expansion, and a large 5,000mAh battery for long-lasting Android experience.

The Mogo G62 is cheap enough and that’s why we can forgive the weak GPU performance, the sluggish 15W charging and the lack of 4K video capturing.

We weren't strictly fans of the Galaxy A53 as a follow-up to the A52s, so we weren't recommending it left and right. The Galaxy A54 addresses one of the major shortcomings of A53 - the chipset, and now the new model is easier to praise.

The €360 Galaxy A54 is a very enticing package - an IP67-rated Gorilla Glass 5 sandwich with a great 120Hz Super AMOLED screen, excellent battery life, snappy performance, latest Android with long-term software support, reliable versatile camera setup with OIS and particularly nice selfies - there's little to dislike about the A54.

One of those things is the lack of a charger in the box - the phone supports up to 25W fast charging, but the charger is sold separately. Somewhat iffy video recording results are also a bit of a letdown, but hardly a deal breaking offense either.

The €250 Redmi Note 12 Pro is a solid offer, one that brings a lot of meaningful updates over the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G. The new model offers one of the best OLED screens in this price bracket - it's quite bright, offers more than a billion colors, and supports Dolby Vision.

The new Dimensity 1080 chipset isn't a major update over the Dimensity 920 from last year, but it still provides enough punch and offers smooth and stable gaming. The camera experience and quality are consistently good across the board and we have no complains whatsoever.

The things that weren't perfect on the Note 12 Pro are the average standby performance that affected the battery life, the retired microSD slot, and the lack of electronic stabilization for the 4K video capturing. The older Android 12 is somewhat a bummer, too, as the promise of two major OS updates now seems even less enticing.

Still, the Redmi Note 12 Pro is a very well-geared smartphone for its starting price of €250 and it should be in your shorlist.

The €280 Galaxy A34 is an excellent mid-ranger. It is not too dissimilar from its predecessor, which is not a bad thing. Certain staples of the model are here to stay, like the IP67 ingress protection rating, the stereo speakers and the large battery. The A34 has, however, grown considerably this year. Its new 6.6-inch display is now bigger than both its predecessor and the Galaxy A54. The new display is 120Hz as well, which is a nice little upgrade over last year's 90Hz.

In our review, we found the Galaxy A34 to have excellent maximum brightness – a great display upgrade over its predecessor and almost a match for the more expensive Galaxy A5, sans for HDR capabilities. The A34 also has excellent battery life with 133 hours of endurance in our proprietary test. The chipset choice on the Galaxy A34 is also working in its favor. While the new Samsung Exynos 1380 does manage to offer a bit higher performance in the A54, the Dimensity 1080 inside the Galaxy A34 holds its own. Plus, it offers great power efficiency, contributing towards the excellent battery life of the A34. The A34 also rocks the latest Android 13 and One UI 5.1 combo, chock full of extra features.

The Realme 9 Pro+ offers many competitive features and is a worthy upgrade over the Realme 7 Pro and 8 Pro. We liked its 90Hz OLED and the Dimensity 920 5G chipset delivers reliable performance. Then the battery life and the fast charging turned out good, not to mention the loud stereo speakers. The triple rear camera turned out a really good surprise with excellent quality and reliable performance. And the showstopper design surely helps its case.

The phone is not perfect, of course. It omits any sort of ingress protection, the microSD slot is gone, and the disappointing ultrawide video capturing won’t change. But if you like its unique design and the specs suit you best, you won’t be disappointed by this Realme 9 Pro+ for sure.

The OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G is an interesting mid-ranger with 5G, a good screen, snappy OS and a large enough battery with nicely fast charging at that. Its design is really good looking, too.

The Nord CE 2 runs on the decent Dimensity 900 chipset with 5G capabilities and it offers all sorts of connectivity options. Its triple camera meets the mid-range standards, too, with a 64MP primary, an 8MP ultrawide and a 2MP macro shooters.

The Nord CE 2 5G is priced at €300 and with that good screen, fluid Oxygen OS and 65W fast cahrging – it sure deserves a chance.

The Samsung Galaxy A33 5G is another excellent offer priced at about €270. The phone offers a smooth 90Hz OLED screen of traditionally great quality, while its Exynos 1280 chipset delivers more than satisfying performance for this price range and play games rather well.

In our review we found the Galaxy A33 to be quite good when it comes to battery life, camera quality, speakers. We were even surprised by the 2x lossless zoom that wasn’t even advertised.

Sure, the Galaxy A33 5G is not the fastest phone and many competitors offer 120Hz displays vs. 90Hz on the A33. But this Galaxy is fully waterproofed, and with all the other good qualities, it deserves to be considered and better – even purchased.

The Realme 9 Pro price varies between €250 and €300 and it deserves a recommendation for its smooth 120Hz display, fast enough Snapdragon 695 5G chipset, and good camera quality.

The Realme 9 Pro also impressed us with excellent battery life, fast enough charging speed, and excellent software with Android 12 and Realme UI 3. It may lack ingress protection and stereo speakers, and the LCD panel may not be everyone’s favorite (undeserved), but it’s still a very good offer for its price and it has earned a mention on our shortlist.

The Poco X5 Pro 5G is an eye-catcher, but not as flashy as the previous models. It offers one excellent OLED with fast 120Hz refresh rate, up to 900nits brightness, and HDR10 and Dolby Vision certifications. Then come the excellent Dolby Atmos speakers, which are a nice complement to the Dolby screen. And we did appreciate the long battery life and the fast charging.

The most welcome upgrade is the new chipset, of course. The Snapdragon 778G is one of the reasons why the Galaxy A52s became so popular in our conclusions and we suspect that the Poco X5 Pro is going on the same path. If only the Pocos were IP67-rated like the Galaxy, but we guess it'll still do alright with the unofficial IP53 rating.

The camera department stays the same as on the Poco X4 Pro, and so is the photo quality. But the new chipset allows for 4K video recording, and it's rather great. Another good news here.

There were a few things that bothered us, though none of them is really a deal-breaker, at least for us. First, the microSD slot has been retired, though the base model now has doubled storage capacity at 128GB. Then there is the gone FM radio. Still, the Poco X5 Pro 5G is a properly good sequel with minor shortcomings and that's why it gets our recommendation. It's one of the best phones in its price bracket and its specs sheet and the consistently good real-life performance will easily sway most of the potential buyers.

The Realme 10 Pro+ is one of the few mid-rangers that has quite a few upgrades over the previous model. The 10 Pro+ brought us a larger OLED screen with a higher 120Hz refresh rate, more colors (10-bit depth), improved brightness and HDR10+ certification.

We also appreciated the improved chipset, even if the differences between the Dimensity 1080 and 920 are small. But the newer chip and the newer Android 13+Realme UI 4 software suite are probably responsible for the outstanding battery life the 10 Pro+ achieved on our battery life test. Oh, and we cannot but appreciate the slightly faster charging.

The new Realme 10 Pro+ turned out good enough for multimedia and gaming thanks to its great screen and adequate performance. But we also found it to be a good cameraphone, as it consistently delivered great photos and videos with its primary and ultrawide cameras. On the other hand, don't expect good selfies with this one.

Overall, we do recommend exploring the Realme 10 Pro+ if it ticks the right boxes for you. It's a great phone for its money and delivers solid performance across the board.

Motorola has this cool offer for India – the Moto G82 that’s available for INR 22,000 (€300 in Europe). It is a splash-proofed smartphone with a 120Hz AMOLED screen and a decent performance with the Snapdragon 695 5G chipset. The no-nonsense Android experience is a big plus, too.

The Moto G82 5G also offers the usual triple camera for the midrange that includes a 50MP primary with OIS, an 8MP ultrawide and a 2MP macro shooters. The camera quality is unsatisfactory, though. There are also good stereo speakers, 128GB base storage with microSD expansion and a large 5,000mAh battery with superb battery life.

The Moto G82 is affordable and that’s why we can forgive the subpar camera quality, the lack of 4K video capturing and the missing Ready For desktop-like capabilities.

The €340 OnePlus Nord 2T packs a 90Hz AMOLED screen, powerful Dimensity 1300 5G chip, stereo speakers, and promising cameras. It also blazing-fast charging and fluid Oxygen launcher on top of Android 12.

The OnePlus Nord 2T is a minor refresh over the Nord 2 – there is 80W fast charging, up from 65W, and a newer Dimensity 1300 SoC. The D1300 model is the same as the Dimensity 1200 within the Nord 2, with the only novelty being the MediaTek’s HyperEngine 5.0 support, which should improve gaming performance.

The Nord 2T is a powerful smartphone with many premium features. And because of its more than reasonable price, it deserves a spot on our shortlist here.

The Poco X4 Pro 5G is not really a sequel to any old Poco but a rebranded Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G (the global one). What makes it such a great offer for India is the low price – it often sells for about INR 19,000 or €280 in Europe. The phone offers a large OLED panel of excellent quality – it has 120Hz refresh rate, 1080p resolution, and we found it to feature great color accuracy. The performance is good, too.

The Poco X4 Pro 5G camera quality is not up to par, unfortunately. But it does excel in battery life and charging. Plus, it also comes with stereo speakers, a 3.5mm jack, IR blaster, FM radio.

Finally, the Poco X4 Pro 5G is IP53-rated for splash resistance and we liked its dual-glass design.

The Poco F4 is a minor refresh over the F3 model with Dolby Vision support for its 120Hz OLED, better cooling system for the Snapdragon 870 5G chipset, improved 64MP primary camera with OIS, and faster 67W charging. And it is still the best pick in this category.

The most evident change is the design, of course, which has gone from curved towards flat shape. It is still IP53-rated, as usual.

The Poco F4 has an excellent all-round package, just like the previous models. It offers stereo speakers, fast 67W charging for its large battery with good endurance rating, a dependable triple-camera setup with improved quality, and the latest MIUI 13.

The Poco F4 costs about €400, which is an incredibly competitive tag and we can see it purchased over a few flagships.

The €350 Poco X4 GT has an excellent 144Hz Dolby Vision LCD screen and offers outstanding performance and stability. The phone also impresses with great camera quality, good speakers, and excellent battery life.

The Poco X4 GT Pro also may have lost some features since its predecessor – IP53 splash protection and GG Victus, but it surely offers more than enough to be an excellent choice and we do recommend it for its great bang for buck ratio.

The €399 Redmi Note 12 Pro+ is a great midrange smartphone with a catchy IP53-rated glass body and one excellent Dolby Vision display with 120Hz refresh rate and 10-bit color depth. We do appreciate the good sustained performance across the board, too.

The Redmi Note 12 Pro+ impressed us with photo and video quality from its 200MP primary, and even its basic 8MP ultrawide camera turned out to be one solid performer. Selfies aren't bad either. All of these mean the Note 12 Pro+ can be considered as a good cameraphone on a budget.

And let's not forget the loud enough Dolby Atmos speakers and the impressively fast 120W wired charging.

The Redmi Note 12 Pro+ has a couple of weak points, of course. Xiaomi has retired the microSD expansion for this generation, and the chipset of choice could have been, say, the faster Dimensity 1300 instead of the 1080 model. We didn't like the dip in standby performance and the speaker quality since the Redmi Note 11 Pro+.

All things considered, the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ offers a lot of bang for its buck, inflation adjusted obviously, and any Redmi fan would be happy with this smartphone.

The Realme GT Neo 3T is pretty much the same phone as the Poco F4, but from another maker. If you fancy Realme over Xiaomi, the Neo 3T offers similar 120Hz AMOLED, the same Snapdragon 870 5G chipset, same triple-camera setup (sans OIS), and you will get an even better battery life with faster 80W charging.

The Realme GT Neo 3T costs as much as a mid-ranger at €430, so some cuts had to be made. There is no ingress protection for starters. You will not find a zoom camera, while photo and video quality isn’t the best of the bunch. But we can very much live with these omissions on that price.

The iQOO Neo 6 is an India-exclusive phone on a very tempting price, that offers a beautiful design and a solid and lightweight build. The most notable features of the Neo 6 are its excellent 120Hz HDR10 AMOLED screen and the lovely performance with excellent stability courtesy of the Snapdragon 870 5G chip.

The Neo 6 speakers turned out loud, though the quality was a mixed bag. The battery life was also pretty good, but the standby performance was rather mediocre. The cameras are reliable, but they save a bit overprocessed photos, which may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Overall, we’ve put the iQOO Neo 6 on our shortlist for it is an excellent device for gaming and multimedia, and it is priced just right. It will do the job as a cameraphone, too, though if the photo quality is a priority, the competition has better offers for that.

The €400 Xperia 10 IV may not make sense at first, but just hear us out. This Sony packs an average 60Hz OLED and even more average Snapdragon 695 5G platform. But it is one of the few phones to offer IP68-rated ingress protection and a premim triple camera that includes a dedicated 2x telephoto on top of the 12MP OIS primary.

The Xperia 10 IV also wowed us with its battery life – it aced all tests, including standby.

So, you can see there are a lot of surprises in this Sony even if its chipset is not up to par. And for all the nice things we discovered within, we are recommending the Xperia 10 IV.

The Realme GT Neo2 is still available in Europe and its price has fallen down to €340 or so across various retailers. The GT Neo2 has a flagship 120Hz OLED screen, one of the fastest chips - the Snapdragon 870 5G, great triple-camera on the back, stereo speakers, and super-fast charging for the 5,000mAh battery - it goes from flat to full in 32 minutes!

The Realme GT Neo2 excels at everything - gaming, multimedia, camera experience, battery life and fluid Android OS with Realme UI. If you don't mind not having ingress protection and the 60fps cap for games, this Realme GT Neo2 is an excellent offer even if there is a newer Realme GT Neo 3T, which is pretty much the same phone, but more expensive.

The €470 Nothing Phone (1) impresses with its design and see-through back, and the Glyph UI is more than just a gimmick if you give it a chance. The OLED display is of excellent quality, and once you start using that snappy Android on it, we are sure you will love it just as we did.

The Nothing Phone (1) also offers gaming-friendly performance and great stability, and we found its camera department to be of premium quality.

We would have appreciated complete water protection instead of basic splash resistance. There is no charger in the box, and the speaker performance is not exactly up to par.

Still, we do recommend the Nothing Phone (1) for its uniqueness, speed, and camera as they come at a competitive price.

The €450 Xiaomi 12 Lite is a lightweight device with an incredible OLED panel with 12-bit color depth, 120Hz refresh, and Dolby Vision support. The Snapdragon 778G 5G chipset is more than capable to handle even HFR games.

The Xiaomi 12 Lite also impressed us with its great photographic skills, selfies included. We enjoyed its speakers, too, and the fast charging solution turned out really competitive and useful.

This Lite model shares the flagship display with the standard Xiaomi 12, which is nice considering its price. But it also excelled in everything else and for that, we do recommend it if you are looking for a smartphone priced around the €400-€450 mark.

The biggest letdown on the Xiaomi 12 Lite is the lack of ingress protection, though the phone is probably IP53-rated as the rest of Xiaomi phones, it’s just not mentioned officially.