Last year's flagship vs this year's midrange?

[mohit9206]

Say one cannot afford current year's flagship smartphone. So if you had to choose between last year's flagship phone or this year's midrange considering both are available at similar price which one would you buy?
I can give some examples like Galaxy S5 vs Galaxy A5/A7, Xperia Z1/Z2 vs Xperia M4/C4, LG G3 vs G4S/Beat, etc.
One can see its always a better deal to go with last years flagship smartphone because almost always you will get better specs not to mention midrange phones do not receive much in the way of software upgrades while flagships are supported on average for atleast 2 years. However this only applies to popular brands as other less popular brands offer flagship specs at the price popular brands offer their midrange phones.

 

[SpookDroid]

I'd still go for last year's flagship. G3 VS G4S is still better. Note 4 VS any Samsung mid-ranger is still better. And then, like you say, there are updates. Any SPECIFIC ones you're looking at? Maybe we can get actual opinions from people who've used both...

 

[syspry]

Year old flagships are always better than current mid ranges. But you're going to be hard pressed to find a year old flagship for $300 and under without finding one second hand in online classifieds

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

We'd usually pick last year's flagship because they often still pack better hardware and usually more software features.

Of course, if we have to break the norm and go for a phone from another manufacturer, then the ASUS Zenfone 2 ZE551ML 64GB seems to be the one phone everyone talks about that's as powerful as a 2014 flagship benchmark-wise and with the price-tag that puts most midrangers to shame with the performance.

 

[Issac_Jong]

I think even the G2, released the year before last year, is still better than most mid-range smartphones released in 2015, especially when it comes to the display, camera and overall performance.