Are flagships worth the money?

[king_e]

With cheaper phones like the Oneplus X, or Moto Style becoming exceedingly good and accessible, do the flagship phones of today have the right to command such high price tags? With what does the extra 200-300$ entail the buyer? Is it a better option to purchase a budget phone, and what are you giving up if you do buy a cheap phone?

I'm curious to hear your opinions/experiences regarding this topic.

 

[mayconvert]

note 5 is worth every penny. Does things no other phone can do.

http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...t-detailed-video-ever-about-our-note-5-a.html

watch the video in that thread. Best phone ever made and that comes from someone that works at apple.

 

[T48]

With cheaper phones like the Oneplus X, or Moto Style becoming exceedingly good and accessible, do the flagship phones of today have the right to command such high price tags? With what does the extra 200-300$ entail the buyer? Is it a better option to purchase a budget phone, and what are you giving up if you do buy a cheap phone?

I'm curious to hear your opinions/experiences regarding this topic.

It may also depend upon how long you keep a device. Are you looking at keeping something until it dies 3/4/5 years later or until a few months later when something new comes out? Given as diverse as the smartphone market is, not thinking there will be a single fit everyone sort of answer.

At $600-$800 for a device, my mind set becomes make it last. Others see it as an opportunity to sell in a few months for the next latest thing while the value is still there.

 

[king_e]

It may also depend upon how long you keep a device. Are you looking at keeping something until it dies 3/4/5 years later or until a few months later when something new comes out? Given as diverse as the smartphone market is, not thinking there will be a single fit everyone sort of answer.

At $600-$800 for a device, my mind set becomes make it last. Others see it as an opportunity to sell in a few months for the next latest thing while the value is still there.

I've been running my IPhone 5S for just short of two years (22 months). The phone itself is in great condition, but the degrading battery (Which wasn't great in the first place) and 16GB worth of storage is really pushing me towards an upgrade. And also because shiny new devices are tempting . I could always replace the battery for around 100$ and get another year or so out of it, but the latter two problems would still be present. I don't use my phone for anything intensive, so I don't need the latest and fastest processor. But I refuse to pay top dollar for something that would cause a downgrade from my current device (I.e. Fingerprint scanner, battery life). So maybe a mid-range or budget phone would be best?

 

[T48]

Am probably the wrong person to answer in comparison to others I see on the forum.

But am still using a Galaxy S3 that was bought new June 2012. It is still on the original battery. I had an S6 Active this summer & it was nice. But ultimately sold it within a couple weeks. Work was slow & made $100 selling it. Which was great timing as the S6A retail price dropped $100 a few weeks later.

If my S3 failed to work tomorrow, would be looking at the Blackberry Priv(pending reviews), Samsung S6A or Note 5. My mindset is buy quality brand name items up front. Everytime I have saved a few dollars at the beginning, it has cost me more later. That may not apply to phones for other people & have read stories of people buying the best & the unit failed within a couple weeks/months etc. But you have to buy what unit hits the must haves for you. With the S6A, the IP68 rating meant more to me than a finger print scanner & was worth the trade off. For you the f.s. is one of your key items. So maybe make a checklist of your must haves device wise(battery life, wireless fast charging, camera, f.s.,) & see where the price point lands after that?

 

[patfactorx]

Moto X is an amazing value right now

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[bembol]

Only you can answer that question.

It's the same as is it worth paying $300 for jeans when $50 works.

 

[GeorgeAdams]

Not in my opinion

 

[Aquila]

This year's flagships, the Moto X Style, Nexus 6P and possibly the LG G4 are absolutely worth the money - but they're also hundreds cheaper than the Note 5 and iPhone, which are in no way worth the premium they charge over the other devices. The 6P is arguably the best device available at any price, but starts at $500. $400-500 is pretty close to the right price range for a base model flagship, though the 6P does go all the way up to $650 for the highest storage option.

It's interesting to see the X Style on the list of "budget" devices - the G is their budget device, and it's like $180 or so. The Play is their mid-range device at around $300 and the Style is their flagship, sitting at $400.

 

[DeniseFigueiredo]

well it depends on user experience but for me it's definitely worth it esp w/ the Note 5.

 

[dpham00]

Are flagships worth the money? That's always been the question. And today, there isn't as much of a difference between a $350 and a $700 smartphone as technology has greatly improved, in addition, the competition is much stiffer. Say in 2012, a $350 phone would give you a pretty sub-par experience. Today, a $350 phone gives close to the experience of a $700 phone. But make no mistakes, corners were cut on the $350 phone. I don't see any $350 phone that gives you the premium experience the aspects:

-Performance
-Battery Life
-Camera in ALL situations, ease of use, ease of activation, time to shot, etc.
-Build Quality
-Ease of usage/how it holds in the hand
-Display (Accuracy and maximum brightness)
-Software refinement
-Fast charging
-Fast Wireless charging
-Fingerprint scanner
-Added features (S-Pen, Stereo speakers, active display, etc)
-Design aspects (location of power button, volume button, fingerprint scanner, ports, etc)

Even a premium phone like the Note 5 doesn't have stereo speakers or an active display. But I think that the Note 5 comes as close as possible to all the criteria above for me. Of course, it depends on your needs and requirements, you can rate certain criteria much higher. ALso, for reference, for 2015 devices, I have used the S6 Edge, S6 Edge Plus, Moto E 2nd gen, Note 5, LG G4 (Both international h815 and Verizon), Droid Turbo 2, Zenfone 2 64/4, and iPhone 6S Plus. And personally, I can say that the Note line is the best for me. Even using other devices, I always went back to my Note 4, and subsequently my Note 5.


With that said, I am also quite impressed with the Verizon Moto E 2nd Gen, which will be $10 next week at Best Buy (no contract pricing). This is quite a steal, imo, and the performance isn't that far off from my Droid Turbo 2, in my usage. Yes, the Turbo 2 is better, BUT certainly not 60x better. Likewise, the MXPE is certainly better, BUT not 40x better. To be fair, the $10 is a Black Friday deal, however, it has dropped to the $20-40 range a number of times. Of course, the Moto E 2nd gen is lacking a number of features, BUT, if you don't care for the added features, then it isn't worth it to pay more. Which comes to my point - yeah the Note 5 costs close to double the MXPE - and for some it is worth the added cost, for others it isn't.

Promotions
Also, as alluded to above, the carrier phones will have more promotions, especially Verizon. I mention Verizon as they sell the vast majority of their high end phones Factory Sim Unlocked. Of course, their Androids do come with quite a bit of bloat - and for some people, they don't mind paying a lot more for no bloat, but if cost is the primary concern, for example, you could have gotten the Note 5 for $233 and the G4 for FREE, after the various promotions running around. Of course, it requires a bit of work to get that pricing. This, compared to the MXPE, or Oneplus X....I don't think that these devices will have a major sale anytime soon.

 

[mohit9206]

If you're rich then yeah they're worth the money. If you're broke, a $100 phone will still be able to do 90% of the things flagship phones can do. Since I'm broke, my Moto E 1st gen does everything i need it to do.

 

[dpham00]

If you're rich then yeah they're worth the money. If you're broke, a $100 phone will still be able to do 90% of the things flagship phones can do. Since I'm broke, my Moto E 1st gen does everything i need it to do.

Depends on how you define rich. A $600 smartphone is about 0.5% of the median household income in California, assuming that you keep it for 2 years. I chose California because it is by far the most populous state.

 

[finbaar]

As long as you avoid Samsung then flagships can be worth it.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Li Le1]

I tried Xiao Mi Note, not bad

 

[Kojote1980]

I just try to bring this discussion a bit on another side. Promoting something to become a "flagship" is something which the user pays at the end. I am into technical gadgets and goodies since ages and you seriously pay for the advertising at the end. Certainly "flagships" usually have great technical aspects, but no names can do the same. After all a "no name" can get a flagship too one day - which then will result into higher prices. It's the old game of request and demand.

 

[gordie3131]

If you want to keep a phone in less than a year, then phones like OnePlus X is the better options. however, if you want to keep a phone for a long time, then you should probably go with flagships, such as S6, M9