5 Reasons to Choose a Mid-Range Smartphone over a Flagship Phone

With manufacturers like Samsung and Apple leading the charge with their premium smartphones, everyone wants the latest and the best models out there. These two aren’t the only smartphone manufacturers either, just the biggest two. There are tons of others like OnePlus, HTC, LG, et al, and each has its own flagship models as well. But the price is always a huge constraint for most of us average folks trying to get by. If I’m saving up for a new home with smart decisions like Spectrum Specials, it wouldn’t be smart at all for me to buy a thousand-plus-dollar smartphone. In fact, for most of us, a mid-range phone may prove to be a much smarter decision. Read on to find out how.

Flagships Cost More and Sell For Much Less

Flagship phones are among the most expensive devices one can ever buy. Premium devices like the latest iPhone or the Galaxy Note will routinely cost well over $1,000. This in itself should be daunting to a lot of people, but these phones continue to expand their customer base every year. But not all of those customers have a thousand dollars to spare each year for a new phone. That means many opt for phone plans tied in with their desired smartphone. The financing, plus the provider’s own service bills, can often prove to be a much larger sum than you were willing to consider for the phone in real terms.

Moreover, you could put yourself in unnecessary debt, for a piece of hardware that is guaranteed to become obsolete in a year, when the newer model launches. Compared to what you paid for the phone, selling it will not give you much to go on if you’re considering another upgrade. This situation seems almost absurd, especially when you could easily avoid all that complication with a good mid-range phone.

Mid-Range Phones Have Almost Identical Features

In the earlier days of smartphones, premium phones would often include the best features and extras. To maintain the desirability of their flagship models, manufacturers would often make these features exclusive only to their best offerings. Even today, the best flagship model from Samsung will have better features and performance than a mid-range Samsung phone. The thing is, the difference between flagship and mid-range features is considerably smaller now. Most phones will run on the same OS, have most of the features a flagship will, including many that are exclusive to the manufacturer. Sure, the flagship may have a slightly better screen or slightly more RAM. But you’ll be paying an extra several hundred dollars for a small improvement in your user experience. 

Premium Materials aren’t Restricted to Flagships

One of the reasons mid-range phones earned such a bad reputation was the use of cheaper materials. Smartphone manufacturing wasn’t as efficient back then, and manufacturers will still trying out ways to minimize production costs. As a result, cheaper phones would often have clunky plastic bodies that looked nothing like their premium versions. So naturally, when a consumer would look at a flagship model, the difference in quality would be immediately obvious even before holding the phone.

With more efficient and streamlined production smartphone manufacturers have now started using better materials for their mid-range models as well. From metal to glass-sandwich to Kevlar, a mid-range phone has a much better feel today than it did just 5 years ago. 

Mid-Range Cameras are Still Quite Good

Cameras are a huge reason smartphones became so popular, and they have only continued to improve. Part of the allure of a brand-new flagship model is a top-of-the-line camera with all the exciting new features. And yes, these cameras will usually be better than lower-tier models. However, even a mid-range phone today has a camera that is several times better than a flagship just three years ago. With AI, AR, time-lapse, gesture-activation, high-res video, HDR, and many more features now standard in mid-range phones, you can still take pretty good selfies and recordings.