Smartphones can end up costing an absolute fortune if you shop at the high end of the market. Phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro Max may well be marketed as the ultimate pocket companions, but at £1,249 and £999 respectively, you might understandably think that is far too much to ship on a phone.

Thankfully, many Android phone manufacturers understand this, meaning the budget phones on offer to UK buyers is better than ever. While you might be tempted to stick to the bestselling Samsung Galaxy range of devices, it’s well worth shopping around – you’ll find a surprising level of specs stuffed into even the cheapest smartphones in 2025.

That’s the case with the new Redmi 15C, a £149 Android phone just announced by Xiaomi. Redmi is Xiaomi’s sub-brand, offering beefed up specs in devices that don’t break the bank. When compared to the Samsung phone nearest in price, the £169 Galaxy A16, you’ll find a worthy competitor in the Redmi 15C that could tempt you to plump for the lesser-known brand.

The Redmi boasts a 6.9-inch LCD screen with 120Hz refresh rate, which makes it larger and smoother-scrolling than the Samsung’s 6.7-inch 90Hz panel. So if you spend a lot of time on social media or watching videos, the Redmi might serve you better, plus games, apps and text will scroll slicker thanks to the higher refresh rate.

However the A16’s screen is an OLED, which means colours will be a smidge better, especially black tones, and it could be more energy efficient.

If battery is your worry though, then the Redmi outguns the Galaxy with a whopping 6,000mAh cell. That’s much larger than the already-big 5,000mAh one you’ll find in the A16, and is larger than the 5,000mAh pack in the S25 Ultra – a phone that costs more than £1,000 more than the 15C. The Redmi phone also charges faster than the A16 with 33W wired speeds compared to 25W.

Both phones have dual-SIM slots so you can have two numbers if you want, plus both also offer microSD card support if you want to boost your internal storage. But the 15C already offers double the storage of the A16 with 256GB compared to 128GB, a big win for Redmi when it costs £20 less. That makes it even more galling that the new £999 Google Pixel 10 Pro only has 128GB.

Budget phones are not usually fully water and dust resistant, but the ratings of the two phones shows Redmi wins again. Its IP64 rating means it’s fully dust resistant and can survive water splashes, whereas the Galaxy’s IP54 rating means splashes are fine but it isn’t quite fully dustproof, which is another thing to consider.

Samsung can claim a small win in the camera specs with a 50MP main lens flanked by a 5MP ultrawide and 2MP macro. We’ve not tested this phone, but generally speaking the extra camera with low megapixel counts on budget phones aren’t up to much, so are unlikely to be of great quality.

The Redmi 15C has a 50MP main camera, matching Samsung, and leaves it at that. The phone looks like it has two lenses, but it’s just the one.

A final thing to note is both of these phones are only 4G compatible, and do not support 5G networks. But they’ll both still work just fine on all UK networks.

Xiaomi says the Redmi 15C will be available soon in four colours, Midnight Black, Mint Green, Moonlight Blue, and Twilight Orange, with 4 GB and 256 GB storage, priced at £149.