What are the best mid-range Xiaomi phones as of today?

In the previous ranking, we selected the best Xiaomi mid-range phones for you. Below we tell you what you should keep in mind when selecting the most suitable model for your needs.

With just 12 years in the mobile market, Xiaomi has managed to position itself as one of the brands that offer the best value for money. Part of its DNA includes creating smartphones with powerful specifications and attractive designs that meet the needs of users without having them spend a lot of money.

Although the goal of its first smartphones was to attack the high-end with this aggressive strategy, Xiaomi created the Redmi sub-brand that focused mainly on the mid-range to complement its mobile portfolio.

Thus, the best mid-range Xiaomi phones are in the Redmi and Redmi Note series, which over the years have adopted some of the features that were previously dedicated only to the high-end, such as OLED displays and dual or even triple main cameras.

Part of the success of the best mid-range Xiaomi phones lies in the selection of its components and materials. With them, the brand has achieved a very good balance between design, performance, attractive features, and price.

How to choose the best mid-range Xiaomi phone?

Brands are well aware that not all users can afford to spend a large amount of money to buy a phone and that not everyone needs the power, cameras, screens or materials included in high-end phones. Thus, they’ve designed smartphones with different features and specifications; so what used to be exclusive to those users who wanted productivity and had the budget to invest in a smartphone, is now available to everyone.

Thanks to technological advances and the massification of smartphones, lower-cost components have been developed. Together with the use of different materials, this resulted in the creation of mid and low-ranges, where you can find phones with an excellent balance between performance and price.

Here's a list of the factors you should pay attention to if you want one of the best mid-range Xiaomi mobiles.

Display

Currently, the best mid-range Xiaomi phones are equipped with OLED screens or their derivatives (Super AMOLED, AMOLED). These types of panels have several advantages, including the fact that they’re very thin and don’t need an LED panel to backlight them. This allows the smartphones that use them to have a slimmer design.

OLED screens are characterized by very vivid colors and virtually infinite contrasts. Additionally, most of them display at least one billion colors, offer refresh rates higher than the standard, and have certifications such as HDR, so the viewing experience is very pleasant for the user, especially in content that’s created with these technologies.

However, some of the best mid-range Xiaomi phones with better cost-benefit ratios still equip IPS LCD panels. Even though they don’t have such an impressive color display, they do offer good viewing angles and high refresh rates. They can also be certified with HDR and they have the advantage of being more affordable.

In terms of resolution, the best mid-range Xiaomi mobiles offer Full HD+ and it’s worth mentioning that few smartphones on the market, even if they’re high-end, exceed this specification in order to make battery power consumption more efficient.

Processor

For the performance section, it’s important to talk about the processor, a component that has advanced a lot in recent years not only in clock speed but also in its components. When talking about the processor, it’s no longer just about the CPU; manufacturers have developed a whole set of chips that they call chipset and that includes, in addition to the CPU, the graphics card (GPU), the image signal processor (ISP) and also the neural processor for the deployment of artificial intelligence and machine learning, among other elements.

Fortunately for users, this type of chipset is already equipped in the best mid-range Xiaomi mobiles. This doesn’t only offer good performance in terms of speed, but also improvements in the camera, and the display. The chipset also learns from users' routines to optimize the use of the smartphone.

Xiaomi works mainly with two chipset manufacturers: Qualcomm and MediaTek. Qualcomm provides Snapdragon 600 and 700 series processors for mid-range handsets, the former is used in more affordable devices and the latter in smartphones whose performance and features are closer to mid-range handsets. Of course, some of these processors already have connectivity to 5G networks.

MediaTek, on the other hand, has the Helio series chipsets that have different models and the most powerful ones can be found in affordable mid-range devices.

RAM memory

The RAM memory is the complement of the chipset when it comes to performance. A phone with a good combination of RAM and processor works fluidly, can open several applications at the same time, and runs more complex apps and more demanding graphic games.

On average, smartphones in this category have 6 GB of RAM and are ready to meet the regular needs of users. However, the best mid-range Xiaomi mobiles can have 8 GB or even 12 GB of RAM, and with these, you get very similar performance to that of a high-end smartphone. Of course, it’s worth clarifying that despite reaching that amount of RAM, they don’t use the latest generation of this component, in order to save costs.

For example, LPDDR 4 RAM offers about 4,200 Mbps speed, while LPDDR is up to 6,400 Mbps.

ROM memory

This is the space the phone has to store data, applications, photos, and videos. As with the RAM, there is an industry-standard for mid-range mobiles which is 128 GB of storage.

In the same way that happens with the RAM, the best mid-range Xiaomi phones offer more ROM memory. The most complete models have a storage capacity of up to 256 GB, which is more than enough to install numerous applications and save thousands of photos and videos.

It’s also important to note that the most recent generations of ROM memory are practically exclusive to high-end phones; so despite having 256 GB of storage, the best mid-range Xiaomi phones use UFS 2.2 memory, while the high-end ones use UFS 3.1. The UFS 3.1 is faster for both writing and reading data and this directly impacts the performance and fluidity of the mobile.

Camera

Undoubtedly, this is one of the most interesting topics when talking about mid-range smartphones. Not only because of the way the photographic section has advanced in this category but also because it’s a section that brands use to experiment and test new technologies before taking a chance on the high end.

The mid-range has served, for example, to test framing lenses. These lenses allow the user to bring the mobile camera about 3 or 4 centimeters from the object they want to capture, managing to catch details and textures that previously could only be seen with a professional camera and very specific optics.

The best mid-range Xiaomi phones already have a triple rear camera system with a main sensor of up to 200 megapixels. This is joined by an ultra-wide-angle lens and a macro lens, offering the users quality and great versatility for all kinds of shots.

As with other components of mid-range phones, there are technologies in the cameras that were previously exclusive to high-end phones and are now present in this category. Such is the case of the optical image stabilizer (OIS); it mechanically helps to ensure that photographs in low light conditions aren’t blurred and that videos are more stable and fluid.

Battery

Mid-range smartphones were among the first to implement higher-capacity batteries. One reason is that brands allowed themselves to create slightly larger and heavier designs, and the other is because the phones need to have more power as they don’t have processors with the level of energy efficiency compared to high-end mobiles.

The best mid-range Xiaomi phones have batteries whose capacity ranges from 4,000 to 5,000 mAh, which provide enough energy so that a regular user doesn’t need to connect the phone to the current.

Note that phones with newer generation processors (manufactured with 6 nm or 4 nm technology) and OLED technology displays are more efficient in battery power consumption.

Fast charging

For the most demanding users, whose routines cause higher battery consumption, brands have developed fast charging technologies that provide a good amount of energy just by connecting the phone to the power supply for a few minutes.

In the beginning, the standard charging power of all phones was 5 Watts. Nowadays, the best mid-range Xiaomi phones can reach fast charging up to 120 Watts, which can charge a 5,000 mAh battery from 1% to 100% in just 19 minutes.

And despite the more affordable models not being able to reach this charging power, they do have fast charging technology that can be 33 or 67 Watts. This manages to charge the battery of smartphones in 74 or less, depending on the capacity.

Security

Currently, the vast majority of phones have fingerprint sensors as their primary method of security. This type of sensor has improved a lot since its introduction in 2013, gaining ground in terms of accuracy and unlocking speed.

Generally, the best mid-range Xiaomi mobiles integrate this sensor in their frame (on the lock and unlock button) or on the rear casing of the smartphone. These locations are convenient for most users and allow them to unlock their devices quickly and naturally.

The most recent generations of fingerprint sensors were developed to be placed under the screen. There are two types: optical and ultrasonic. You can distinguish the former because they emit a flash of light when the user places his finger for reading. This type of sensor is also very accurate and fast and is a technology that has already moved from high-end phones to some mid-range models.

Where to buy the best mid-range Xiaomi mobiles?

AliExpress

One of the fastest-growing and most popular online stores is AliExpress. This Chinese e-commerce has an extensive catalog of products, including many phone models.

If you want to buy one of the best mid-range Xiaomi phones, AliExpress may be one of your best options. Xiaomi has an official presence through a dedicated store within this platform, so you can rest assured that your purchase is safe.

As part of its interface, when viewing a specific product, AliExpress offers information about the shipping service that will be used for your order, as well as the approximate number of days that it’ll take for you to receive your package.

Finally, AliExpress offers a buyer protection guarantee that you can use to request a refund if there’s an issue with your order. This guarantee extends up to 75 days after the purchase is made.