Best Budget Chinese Phones 2021: Cheap Chinese Phone Reviews

The Poco X3 Pro is a phone designed for Android gamers or power users on a budget, though it might also appeal to those who want to go big on specs in order to futureproof their phone.

If pure performance isn’t your priority, then you can find phones that are slimmer and lighter, with better camera performance, for around the same price.

What you won’t find is any phone that can match this pound for pound right now. This is near-flagship processing power in one of the cheapest phones on the market, and it’s almost ludicrous that Xiaomi has pulled it off.

Read our full Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro review

The Redmi Note 10 Pro is one of the best budget phones you can buy, with Xiaomi delivering exceptional value for money.

Highlights here start with the stunning screen offering AMOLED technology and a 120Hz refresh rate, and continue with an excellent set of cameras. The headline is a 108Mp whopper which is backed up by a reasonable ultra-wide and a surprisingly decent telemacro.

There are smaller delights too such as the inclusion of a headphone jack, Arc fingerprint scanner, stereo speakers and even an IR blaster. Battery life is also strong (Xiaomi includes a 33W charger in the box), and core specs are decent with a Snapdragon 732G ensuring smooth performance.

Our only real gripe is a lack of support for 5G.

Read our full Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro review

The Poco X3 isn’t perfect. The big battery makes it bulky, we don’t love the aesthetic, and not everyone will find MIUI 12 immediately intuitive. For the most part these are small complaints though, especially when stacked up against the X3’s myriad strengths: strong specs, an excellent camera, a beautiful display, and absolutely fantastic battery life.

The fact that you can get all of that for under £200 is almost unbelievable, and makes the Poco X3 a shoo-in for the best budget phone of the year.

Read our full Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC review

An outstanding follow-up to 2020’s best mid-range phone, with great performance, 5G, OnePlus’s signature Oxygen OS user experience, and a near-flagship main camera. What’s not to love?

What the OnePlus Nord 2 really demonstrates is the company’s ability to prioritise the features that users are looking for right now and wrapping them up in an attractive package with a compelling price point.

The Nord 2 misses out on flagship niceties like wireless charging and waterproofing, but those are really the only compromises made here.

Read our full OnePlus Nord 2 review

While the standard 4G-only Mi 11 Lite is already an impressive feat of engineering, thanks to its slim profile, the fact that this 5G equivalent isn’t really any thicker, larger or heavier, despite delivering even more power, is an impressive achievement in and of itself. It packs in more than just faster cellular connectivity, too, with a superior chipset and a few other extras that collectively render it a more powerful and competitive mid-range entry.

Mi 11 Lite 5G offers up a pleasingly well-rounded experience and heaps of performance for the price. However, it does occupy a crowded mid-range space, where devices are vying for interest based on standout features, without demanding flagship prices.

As such, if you’re looking for the thinnest phone worth buying right now, this is it. If that waistline isn’t one of the biggest driving forces behind your purchasing decision, though, there are a number of competitors for around the same money that will also fit the bill.

Read our full Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G review

On first impressions, despite its standing as the lowliest member of the Mi 11 family, are that the Mi 11 Lite ‘wows’ with its wafer-thin form. Dig a little deeper and you realise it’s also imbued with a stunning display, capable internals and a feature-packed user experience.

If design isn’t at the top of your list of priorities in a new phone, your money will likely go further elsewhere (although you’re still likely to find something suitable within the Xiaomi catalogue), however, the Mi 11 Lite delivers a pleasingly well-rounded experience for the price, complete with a few unique touches.

Read our full Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite review

The original Nord was a category defining device, and the Nord CE doesn’t quite pull off the same trick. Compromises on the camera and build quality – as well as odd choices like ditching the Alert Slider – make the Nord CE stand out less. This feels typical of the price range, and much closer to the competition.

Still, a solid mid-range chipset, a slim build, and excellent battery life and charging chops are enough to ensure that the Nord CE is still a strong option for budget buyers. It’s also one the cheaper phones around with 5G support included, and OxygenOS alone is enough to give it an edge over the competition.

While the Nord excelled, the Nord CE is instead a capable all-rounder. Other phones out there will trump it on specific specs, but few at this price can deliver such a strong overall package.

Read our full OnePlus Nord CE 5G review

As with the Pro model, Realme had to choose carefully about what to cull and what to keep in order to have the Realme X50 5G stand out from the crowd and still have it remain as affordable as it has.

Against similarly-priced rivals, like the Moto G 5G Plus, Xiaomi’s Poco X3 NFC and OnePlus Nord, it beats them out on one or more areas, and while it might not offer as well-rounded a package as pricier alternatives using the same chip, there’s little that can compete when it comes to that all-important price/performance balancing act.

Read our full Realme X50 5G review

The Poco F3 is a cracking mid-range phone. Stellar hardware is led by Qualcomm’s 5G-enabled Snapdragon 870 chipset, which delivers excellent performance across the board.

That extends to gaming, where the 120Hz OLED display comes into its own. However, that high refresh rate does hit battery life, especially when you’re working with a smaller capacity than the Poco X3 Pro. The software is also still an acquired taste, despite big steps forward for MIUI in recent years.

A premium design and solid set of cameras make for an excellent smartphone experience, but the strength of the competition makes it more difficult to recommend.

Read our full Xiaomi Poco F3 review

This is the first Redmi Note phone that is just good enough. At times one needs to question the reason for its existence since there are other great Redmi Note 10 models that can provide everything this phone can in a more capable package.

That being said it comes with its own set of strengths – its battery life is definitely superior to its other Redmi Note 10 cousins and its new blue colour is very attractive.

But at a budget price, it just about makes the cut, as spending slightly more will get you a better screen and camera combination in a knockout package that too from the house Xiaomi.

Read our full Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S review

The Realme 8 Pro is a device seemingly centred around raising the profile of the company’s camera credentials. Based on the rest of the spec sheet, it’s a reworking of last year’s Realme 7 Pro with a thinner, more lightweight build, slower charging and the same underlying components – save for that all-important camera.

In practice, it achieves its intended purpose and happens to be a well-balanced affordable mid-ranger in the process, with a killer feature that sets itself apart from the rest of Realme’s line-up. Just as Xiaomi is a keen rival of Oppo in the wider mobile market, however, so too is the company’s Redmi line against Realme in the mid-range and affordable spaces.

The price/camera performance proposition of the Realme 8 Pro is undeniably strong but Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 10 Pro just pipped it to the post, hitting the market only a few weeks earlier. It totes a superior processor, higher refresh rate AMOLED display and the same Samsung-supplied 108Mp camera sensor, all for the same price as the Realme.

Read our full Realme 8 Pro review

Xiaomi delivers once again with the Redmi Note 9T. Not only does it offer 5G on a budget, but it also gives fast performance, an impressive battery life and a clear and crisp display.

It’s not all positive – the rear design isn’t anything that impressive, the 60Hz refresh rate is low and the side-mounted fingerprint sensor is rather glitchy. In addition, the camera isn’t the best when zooming, and textures are a little soft in portrait mode. In general, there are better budget options out there – though they are without 5G. 

Nonetheless, if you want to jump aboard the 5G train without dropping a whole lot of cash on a phone, the Redmi Note 9T is absolutely one to consider.

Read our full Xiaomi Redmi Note 9T review

The Xiaomi Poco M3 Pro 5G is, on paper, an exceptionally well-rounded budget smartphone. It offers a big 1080p screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, a 48Mp camera, a big battery and more for a price that won’t break the bank.

It is unfortunate then that its software is something of a let down. While some may be able to live with MIUI, the bloated interface and feature overload need significant work before becoming something worth of recommendation.

But if you can put up with the software, this is a device that will likely meet all of your needs and then some, if never quite trumping the competition in any significant way.

Read our full Xiaomi Poco M3 Pro 5G review

The Realme 8 is a solid, if unremarkable, budget buy.

For the price you’re getting a dependable main camera, strong battery life, and OLED screen, all backed up by a smooth software experience that prioritises ease-of-use.

Similarly priced rivals might beat the Realme 8 on one or two specs, and particularly you may feel that it’s worth investing in a 5G model at this point.

But you’ll find a welcome balance of features here that should suit most users more or less, making the Realme 8 a jack-of-all-trades.

Read our full Realme 8 review