A unconfined smartphone doesn’t have to forfeit a fortune. Years of commoditization have brought features once sectional to high-end devices – including big batteries, multi-camera arrays and upper refresh rate displays – lanugo to their increasingly affordable siblings. As one of Engadget’s resident mobile geeks, I’ve reviewed dozens of midrange devices. So I’m here to help you icon out what features to prioritize when trying to find the weightier midrange phone for less than $600.
Engadget's picks
Best midrange Android phone: Google Pixel 6a
Best (and only) iPhone under $600: Apple iPhone SE
Midrange phone with the weightier screen: Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
Ultra-budget option: OnePlus Nord N200 5G
What is a midrange phone, anyway?
While the term shows up commonly in wares and videos, there isn’t an agreed-upon definition for “midrange” vastitude a phone that isn’t a flagship or an entry-level option. For this guide, our recommendations for the weightier phone in this category forfeit between $400 and $600. Any less and you should expect significant compromises. If your upkeep is higher, though, you should consider flagships like the Apple iPhone 13 and Samsung Galaxy S22.
What factors should you consider when ownership a midrange smartphone?
Buying a new device can be intimidating, but a few questions can help guide you through the process. First: what platform do you want to use? If the wordplay is iOS, that narrows your options lanugo to exactly one phone. (Thankfully, it’s great.) And if you’re an Android fan, there’s no shortage of compelling options. Both platforms have their strengths, so you shouldn’t rule either out.
Obviously, moreover consider how much you’re well-appointed spending. Plane spending $100 increasingly can get you a dramatically largest product. And manufacturers tend to support their increasingly expensive devices for longer. It’s definitely worth ownership something toward the top limit of what you can afford.
Having an idea of your priorities will help inform your budget. Do you want a long shower life? Do you value speedy performance whilom all else? Or would you like the weightier possible cameras? While they protract to modernize every year, midrange phones still involve some compromises, and knowing what’s important to you will make choosing one easier.
Lastly, pay sustentation to wireless bands and network compatibility. If you don’t want to worry well-nigh that, your weightier bet is to buy directly from your carrier. To make things easier, all the phones we recommend are uniform with every major US wireless provider and can be purchased unlocked.
What won’t you get from a midrange smartphone?
Every year, the line between midrange and flagship phones gets blurrier as increasingly upmarket features trickle down. When we first published this guide in 2020, it was difficult to find $500 devices with waterproofing or 5G. Now, the biggest thing you might miss out on is wireless charging. Just remember to upkeep for a power connector too – many companies have stopped including them. Performance has improved in recent years, but can still be hit or miss as most midrange phones use slower processors that can struggle with multitasking. Thankfully, their cameras have improved dramatically, and you can typically expect at least a dual-lens system on most handsets unelevated $600.
The weightier midrange Android phone: Pixel 6a
There’s a lot to like well-nigh Google's Pixel 6a. For one, it features the weightier cameras at this price. It may not have as many lenses as some of the other options on this list, but thanks to Google’s expertise in computational photography, the 6a delivers pictures that are on par with phones that forfeit hundreds more. Nighttime photos in particular are stellar thanks in part to Night Sight, which helps patina up dim environments and bring out increasingly detail.
The Google Pixel 6a has a few other things going for it. Thanks to its large shower and efficient chipset, you won’t have to worry well-nigh running out of juice. It lasted just over 19 hours in our shower testing, and Google's Tensor chipset allows the 6a to run very similarly to the flagship Pixel 6 and 6 Pro handsets. And those who plan to hang on to their smartphone for as long as possible will fathom that Google plans to support the 6a with software updates for the next five years.
In wing to its solid shower life and performance, the Google Pixel 6a plane has some wide features you may not expect to see on a midrange phone. Its diamond looks very similar to the flagship models with the striking camera bar on the handset's rear top half, and it has a 2,400 x 1,080 resolution OLED touchscreen with an under-display fingerprint sensor. You'll only get a refresh rate of 60Hz on the 6a, but that's a small sacrifice to make when you're getting a number of other features at a killer price.
Buy Pixel 6a at Wren - $449The weightier (and only) iPhone under $600: iPhone SE
If you can get past its dated diamond and small 5.4-inch display, the Apple iPhone SE is the fastest phone you can buy for less than $600. No other device on this list has a processor that comes tropical to the SE’s A15 Bionic. What’s more, you can expect World to support the 2022 model for years to come. The visitor is only just ending support for the first-generation SE without six years. The visitor hasn’t said how long it intends to replenish the latest SE with new software, but it’s likely to support the device for a similar length of time.
For all its strengths, the iPhone SE is held when by a dated display. Not only is the SE’s screen small and slow, but it moreover uses an IPS panel instead of an OLED, meaning it can’t unhook deep blacks. Additionally, that screen is surrounded by some of the largest bezels you’ll find on a modern phone. That’s not surprising. The SE uses the diamond of the iPhone 6, which will be a decade old in two years. And if the SE looks dated now, it will only finger increasingly tired in a few years.
Shop iPhone SE at AppleThe midrange phone with the weightier screen: Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
For the weightier possible exhibit at this price, squint no remoter than Samsung’s $450 Galaxy A53 5G. It features a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED exhibit that is platonic for watching TV shows and movies. Plus the 120Hz panel is the fastest on this list. Other standout features include a 5,000mAh shower and versatile camera system. The A53’s three cameras may not unhook photos with the same detail and natural colors as the Pixel 6a, but it can capture worthier scenes with its two wide-angle lenses.
Like the other Android smartphones on this list, the Samsung Galaxy A53 isn’t the fastest performer. At best, Samsung’s Exynos 1280 is a lateral move from the Snapdragon 750G found in the Galaxy A52 5G. And though the A53 is $50 cheaper than its predecessor, it no longer comes with a power connector and headphone jack, so the difference may not end up stuff much.
Buy Galaxy A53 5G at Samsung - $450An ultra-budget 5G option: OnePlus Nord N200 5G
If you only have virtually $200 to spend on your next phone, you could do a lot worse than the OnePlus Nord N200 To start, it features a big 5,000mAh shower that will hands last you a full day. The N200 moreover has a 90Hz exhibit and 5G connectivity, which are tricky to find at this price. Weightier of all, it doesn’t squint like a unseemly phone.
But the N200 is moreover a good tableau of why you should spend increasingly if you can. It's the slowest device on this list, due to its Snapdragon 480 chipset and paltry 4GB of RAM. Its triple main camera system is serviceable during the day but struggles in low light and doesn’t offer much versatility vastitude a disappointing macro lens. OnePlus moreover doesn’t plan to update the phone vastitude the soon-to-be-outdated Android 12. In short, the N200 is unlikely to last you as long as any of the other recommendations on this list.
Buy OnePlus Nord N200 at Wren - $240Chris Velazco unsalaried to this report.