I’ve bought people very nice phones for under $400 multiple times. Recently.
Flagship phones are grossly overpriced. The midrange is super nice and usable these days, though. It’s a side advantage of phone tech standardizing so much. And as you said, being a necessity for daily life it’s probably okay to spend at least a few hundred on one you’re going to use for several years.
Is this going to be another “the US has weird ideas about consumer goods” thread? Because it kinda sounds like one.
I just bought a new phone (originally released in May 2023) for $170. I’ve used it for 3 days now and it works perfectly. My old phone lasted ~3-4 years and cost a similar price.
I stopped buying “flagship” phones years ago and it’s been great. Midrange phones are absolutely the phones people should be buying.
I also get the bells and whistles that are often missing from premium phones. I have an SD card slot for expandable storage and I have a headphone jack.
Oh, man, I switched from Samsung to Sony because they still do all those midrange phone features in a flagship container.
I’d have gone full midrange, but I hang around mobile developers a lot and I was already getting crap for being on a four year old flagship (that was still in working order and I still use for other stuff). Now my Xperia is a conversation starter in those circles, for some reason and I still get to add storage and use my headphones and my screen has no holes in it.
I’ve bought people very nice phones for under $400 multiple times. Recently.
Flagship phones are grossly overpriced. The midrange is super nice and usable these days, though. It’s a side advantage of phone tech standardizing so much. And as you said, being a necessity for daily life it’s probably okay to spend at least a few hundred on one you’re going to use for several years.
Is this going to be another “the US has weird ideas about consumer goods” thread? Because it kinda sounds like one.
I just bought a new phone (originally released in May 2023) for $170. I’ve used it for 3 days now and it works perfectly. My old phone lasted ~3-4 years and cost a similar price.
I stopped buying “flagship” phones years ago and it’s been great. Midrange phones are absolutely the phones people should be buying.
I also get the bells and whistles that are often missing from premium phones. I have an SD card slot for expandable storage and I have a headphone jack.
Oh, man, I switched from Samsung to Sony because they still do all those midrange phone features in a flagship container.
I’d have gone full midrange, but I hang around mobile developers a lot and I was already getting crap for being on a four year old flagship (that was still in working order and I still use for other stuff). Now my Xperia is a conversation starter in those circles, for some reason and I still get to add storage and use my headphones and my screen has no holes in it.