Are new mid-range smartphones a better value than old flagships?

 

What are old flagship and new mid-range smartphones?

When a company like Samsung or Huawei present their smartphones to the world yearly they announce two categories of smartphones. High end AKA flagship and mid-range. Every year the technology gets better and phones come with better software and better hardware but phones like the Samsung galaxy S7 still have a much better chipset, display and camera than most of the latest mid range phones and have almost the same price but has a micro USB instead of the type C which is the industry standard now a days hence no fast charging and has older software.

Then there are the mid range phones by flagship companies which contain mid range cameras, old chipsets, good screens but mostly of  lower refresh rate like 60Hz but have the latest software and most of the latest mid range phones even support fast charging. For example Samsung galaxy A50 or A51 or huawei P40 lite are some mid range phones by flagship companies.

But there are also some mid range phones made by relatively small companies like Realme, Redmi or Infinix. These mid range smartphones are even less expensive than mid range phones from Samsung or huawei and come with extra features like more cameras or a higher refresh rate screen like in Realme 6.

Which Phone should you buy?

Now that we have a little bit knowledge about flagship and mid-range smartphone we have a basic idea of how to spend our money. So to understand which is the best category of phones from which we should buy our phones we have to understand a term known as 'Price over Performance'.

Price over performance basically means a gadget which provides better features and performance than most other gadgets in the same price point with little to no compromise.

Let me give you a little price over performance comparison in smartphones.

Redmi Note 9s is a 250$ smartphone having an LCD display, 6GB RAM, Quad camera setup and Snapdragon 720g chipset

Samsung galaxy A51 is also a 250$ smartphone having an AMOLED display, 6GB RAM, Quad camera setup and a Snapdragon 665 chipset

Samsung galaxy S7 can also be bought at about 250$ AMOLED display, 4GB RAM, a single camera and a Snapdragon 820 chipset.

Now this comparison gives us a fair bit of idea of what is actually meant by price over performance and difference between certain phones from certain companies. Here we can see that Redmi Note 9s has a better chipset at the same price as Samsung A51 and thus will give a better perfromance. Although Samsung A51 has an AMOLED display, most people prefer a better chipset over a better display.

If you want a higher refresh rate display instead of a better chipset or a better looking display then there are phones like Realme 6 available at the same price point.

 

Then by looking at the specs and price of Samsung galaxy S7 we can clearly see that it has the best chipset among all of these and also an AMOLED display but a single camera no fast charging and a micro USB port while all the others have a USB C port.

I really hope that this comparison gives you a better idea of smartphone pricing and smartphone features and the term 'Price over Performance'.

Conclusion:

In the end it basically all comes down to personal preference. If software and things like fast charging are not a big concern for you then old flagships are the way to go for you. If one of these things is a factor then latest mid range phones should be your focus and if brand value matters to you then mid range phones by Samsung or huawei or even Apple are for you.

If none of these thing matter to you and you only need a phone that does all the things, take relatively better pictures than companies like Redmi, Realme, Infinix and techno are making very good mid range phones that you can get for even less than 200$.