Top Cell Phones 2023

Loaded with handy features and priced at just $400, the TCL 10 5G UW shines in a sea of midrange 5G smartphones.

Huawei’s P20 Lite is a good mid range smartphone. We like how lightweight and elegant it is, and has a very similar premium design to its more expensive P20 siblings. Plus, thanks to its facial recognition feature you can unlock the phone in an instant, another example of a high end feature making its way into the mid-range.

The Moto X is a very solid Android smartphone. The slick, uncluttered Android makes it feel like a Google Nexus smartphone, but it is let down by a camera and battery life that aren’t as good as competitors. The lack of an SD card slot is also disappointing, and means even the 32GB version can get cramped with games, photos, videos and music.

While the Samsung Galaxy A02s is a solid entry-level device with a good battery life, it has some difficulties with its WLAN module.

The Motorola One 5G Ace handles most basic tasks well, but its low-quality cameras and outdated OS mean the Google Pixel 4a 5G is a better value.

The $450 TCL 10 Pro offers solid performance and battery life, along with an attractive design and a beautiful display that can easily hold their own against much more expensive Android flagships.

At $400, Samsung's Galaxy A51 has a gorgeous display, good cameras, and a battery that will easily get you through the day, but it can use a boost in the processor department.

So, what do we think of the Huawei Nova? While it’s good on paper, it’s slightly underwhelming in real life. The processor isn’t quite as quick as the competition, the graphical capabilities aren’t great and the quality of low-light photography is less than expected, even for a mid-range smartphone. What is good is the design – it’s sleek, gorgeous and is extremely comfortable to use, and definitely doesn’t look like a ~£300 smartphone. While it’ll suffice for the likes of Facebook, Snapchat and managing email, we wouldn’t recommend it for high-end gaming or for use as a replacement DSLR. With companies like OnePlus dominating the mid-range scene with high-end internals, it makes it hard to recommend the fairly average Huawei Nova.

The Poco X5 5G is far from the best phone on the market, but it’s also far lower than flagship phones in price. There’s almost no way to get a phone that checks all the boxes for only a little over $200, but the X5 checks a lot of the right ones. It runs smooth enough, long enough. It feels good in the hand. And what it may lack in camera quality it more than makes up for in display quality. Where most $200 phones may serve best for the basics, the Poco X5 5G is ready to go beyond.

Cheaper than the Doogee V Max but also a slightly less impressive solution in comparison. The S100 Pro is a mid-priced option for those that need extended battery life, but won’t need 5G or 4K video.