OPINION: The mid-range smartphone market hasn’t all the time been profitable. Very similar to funds telephones, mid-range smartphones have been uncared for within the late 2010s, with most manufacturers focusing as a substitute on all-singing, all-dancing flagships – however issues have modified up to now few years.
Because the years go by, smartphone know-how that was as soon as flagship-exclusive turns into extra reasonably priced, ultimately reaching extra reasonably priced telephones. It’s known as the trickle-down impact.
However lately, that trickle has changed into a downpour, to the purpose the place the greatest mid-range smartphones are simply as tempting, if no more so, than the greatest flagship telephones. There’s an abundance of choices that price lower than £600/$600 with tech that may’ve been flagship-level simply a few years in the past.
That’s utterly at odds with the flagship smartphone market, which has stagnated up to now few years whereas prices proceed to balloon. You solely want to take a look at the four-figure price ticket for the Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely and iPhone 16 Professional Max to see what I imply.
The massive three
Let’s begin with the large three names within the smartphone world: Apple, Samsung, and Google. All three have now launched their respective mid-rangers, the iPhone 16e, Samsung Galaxy A56 5G, and Google Pixel 9a.
These are tempting smartphones from standard manufacturers that folks know and love.
The £499 Samsung Galaxy A56 5G has a premium glass and metallic construct not too dissimilar to the Galaxy S25, together with a triple digicam setup and AI smarts, whereas the £499 Pixel 9a shares many traits, together with display, processor, and an industry-leading 7 years of OS upgrades, with the flagship Pixel 9.
The £599 iPhone 16e may not attain the identical lofty heights within the {hardware} division with a single digicam and a 60Hz display, however it does provide flagship-level efficiency in addition to full Apple Intelligence assist through the A18 chipset – the identical as that throughout the iPhone 16.
These are all nice smartphones with loads of strengths, however I’d argue that they’re not fairly nearly as good as they might be – just because the makers don’t need the extra reasonably priced mid-rangers to compete with their costlier flagship smartphones.
That’s not precisely ideally suited for customers, however my inner-capitalist understands.
The actually 2025 thrilling mid-rangers
Fortunately, different producers focus completely on extra reasonably priced smartphones. With out worrying about cannibalising costlier options, we’re seeing true innovation and bang for our buck right here.
Take Nothing, for instance. The London-based startup has by no means launched a smartphone that prices greater than £579/$599, and even then, the corporate has but to launch a follow-up to 2023’s top-end Nothing Telephone 2.
As an alternative, the corporate launched the much more reasonably priced Nothing Telephone 2a assortment in 2024. Whereas many anticipated Nothing to comply with up with a extra succesful Nothing Telephone 3 in early 2025, we have been handled as a substitute to a follow-up to the funds cellphone assortment within the type of the Nothing Telephone 3a and Nothing Telephone 3a Professional.
Nothing known as the Telephone 2a its hottest cellphone ever, and it’s clearly anticipating to money in on the identical stage of hype with the Telephone 3a assortment. As such, all of its efforts have gone into crafting two smartphones that provide unimaginable worth for cash with out the fear of cannibalising a high-end various.
The Nothing Telephone 3a could price simply £329, however provides a triple digicam setup together with an OIS-enabled 50MP major digicam, 50MP 2x telephoto digicam and an 8MP ultrawide, with a equally high-res 32MP digicam on the entrance.
It additionally packs a 6.8-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh charge and a peak brightness of 3000 nits that may simply compete with that of the iPhone 16 and Google Pixel 9. And, with a 5000mAh battery and 50W quick charging, it’ll go from flat to full sooner than equally priced options.
It’s the same story with the Nothing Telephone 3a Professional. Regardless of the mid-range price ticket, it provides a equally high-spec setup, although with a extra superior periscope digicam instead of the common mannequin’s 2x telephoto lens. It’s uncommon to see a telephoto lens at this value level, and the variety of mid-rangers with full periscope lenses is vanishingly small.
Nothing is however a single instance of producers completely specializing in the mid-range market with exceptionally well-specced smartphones that may simply compete with smartphones which might be double the price.
We’ve additionally seen spectacular choices from Chinese language producers like Poco in latest months, notably the Poco X7 Professional. Once more, regardless of costing a fraction of the value of a flagship at £349, it provides the extremely highly effective MediaTek Dimensity 8400-Extremely, an even bigger 6000mAh battery than the Galaxy S25 Extremely, and sooner 90W wired charging in addition.
There’s additionally full IP68 mud and water resistance – once more, the identical as you’ll discover on flagships – and a 6.7-inch 1.5K 120Hz AMOLED display. Yep, all of that, for simply £349.
I can’t think about Google, Samsung, or Apple launching one thing like that at this value level with out utterly cannibalising flagship gross sales, are you able to?
No matter which producer it’s coming from, the reality can’t be denied: the 2025 mid-range smartphone market is extra aggressive and extra tempting than ever, and will sign a shift in focus from smartphone producers going ahead.
