GSMArena smartphone buyer's guide: July 2015

€200-€300

The midrange category is crowded as usual and some of the options here are quite popular. We've tested quite a few of them and you can easily check their pros and cons in our in-depth reviews. The list below includes some retired flagships, which still deliver quite a punch and imaging performance.

We kick off with the Meizu m1 note. If you live in Europe, you can get it for about €200, while those living in Asia can find it even cheaper. It has a 5.5" 1080p display, which uses an IGZO matrix, a type of LCD usually found on high-end devices, and a pixel density of over 400ppi, which was flagship grade a year ago.

The m1 note offers a 13MP/1080p main camera and a 5MP front facer. The Meizu m1 note is a dual-SIM device, but the second compartment doubles as a microSD slot. So if you need more than the base 16GB or 32GB storage you'll have to settle for only temporary dual-SIM use.

The growing popularity of the Android Lollipop-powered Alcatel Idol 3 duo is probably well deserved. The smaller Idol 3 (4.7) costs about €220 and comes with a 4.7" 720p IPS display plus Snapdragon 410 chip (quad-core CPU, 1.5GB RAM, LTE). The camera specs are solid with a 13MP/1080p main unit and a 5MP selfie cam.

Some extra €60 will get you the bigger Alcatel Idol 3 (5.5) with a 5.5" IPS 1080p display and a more powerful Snapdragon 615 chipset with an octa-core processor and 2GB of RAM. The main camera stays at 13MP, while the front facer is promoted to 8MP.

The BlackBerry Leap enters our guide for the first time, replacing the aging BlackBerry Z10. The Leap isn't a massive upgrade but hopes to to make a difference. The recently released device costs about €230 and ups the display to 5", keeping the resolution at 720p. The chipset remains the same too, a Snapdragon S4 Plus with a dual-core Krait, Adreno 225 GPU and 2GB of RAM. The camera combo is untouched as well: 8MP/1080p rear and 2MP front. The 16GB expandable storage and LTE connectivity are intact, too.

BlackBerry OS supports Android apps, you can use the Amazon App Store as well as a side-loaded Play Store.

The LG Optimus G Pro is frankly getting old, released early 2013, but that makes it pretty cheap - offering a good 5.5" 1080p screen, a Snapdragon 600 chipset (which compares quite favorably to S400 chips) and a 13MP camera with 1080p videos.

It was updated to Android 4.4 KitKat and that may be its last stop (at least officially). Also, supplies may be running low, but if you find one, it's a good value for money deal.

If the camera is the focus of your purchase, then you should check out the Lumia 830. Its price has settled at about €240, which sounds like a bargain for a 5" IPS 720p display, a quad-core processor, 16GB of storage, LTE connectivity and a premium 10MP ZEISS camera with optical image stabilization and some PureView tech.

The Lumia 830 has some metal on its body, aluminum trim on both the glass front and the polycarbonate back.

Another classic, the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact is small, metal-clad, water-proof and powerful.

Okay, the bezels around the 4.3" screen make it bigger than it needs to be, but the Snapdragon 800 chipset makes it more powerful than most phones so far. The 20.7MP camera is a serious contender too, it matches the Xperia Z3 for stills though it lacks the 2160p video option.

The camera is good enough to compete with the Lumia 830. The Xperia Z1 Compact will be updated to Android 5.0 Lollipop.

For a bit more cash you can have the full-size Sony Xperia Z1 too. It upgrades the screen to 5" 1080p and has a bigger battery but other than that both phones are equals.

The Xperia M4 Aqua can dive just as deep (and wards off dust better), plus it has a big 5" 720p screen. It is already on sale for about €250 and brings a 64-bit octa-core processor and Android 5.0 Lollipop. The camera department isn't quite as impressive, but still great with a 13MP/1080p main camera and 5MP/720p selfie camera.

The middle member of the Zenfone 2 trio, if available near you, sounds great on paper. The Asus Zenfone 2 ZE550ML uses a 5.5" 720p display, runs on a capable Intel Atom Z3560 with a quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM, there is 16GB expendable storage and LTE connectivity. The camera specs seem fine too: a 13MP/1080p rear and a 5MP selfie camera.

The handset runs on Android Lollipop, has a good looking Zen launcher and a selection of Asus pre-installed apps.

The retired flagships are becoming even more tempting and the 5.5" Oppo Find 7a is a good example. It has a 1080p screen and a Snapdragon 801 chipset with 2GB of RAM. It offers 2160p video recording and high-framerate modes like 1080p@60fps and 720p@120fps.

This phone is the hardware base for the OnePlus One. The offshoot company sold phones on an invite-only basis and while that's no longer the case, it has been plagued by some reliability issues. Not to mention the software drama with Cyanogen OS and the delay of the in-house Oxygen OS.

The LG G2 packs a bigger 5.2" screen in a smaller body than the Xperia Z1. Like it, the G2 has a Snapdragon 800 chipset and the Lollipop update is already rolling out. The 13MP/1080p camera boasts optical stabilization. One big drawback is that there's no microSD card slot and the base storage is 16GB, so we've picked the 32GB option. At least it leaves you some room for downloading games and movies.