How often have you been surprised lately that a new smartphone costs more than a thousand dollars? It seems to me not. Especially against the backdrop of foldable smartphones that cost more than two thousand dollars. Sometimes one gets the impression that they are needed for this, so that we say: “Aaaa … Well, so one and a half thousand is not so expensive. We must take ”. However, this picture is not normal. Especially against the backdrop of what awaits the global economy in the coming years due to the pandemic. The sales of flagships can be very much reduced. The question is, what then should producers do for whom this is an important source of income. But let them worry about themselves. I'm worried about how long it will continue that the flagships cost more than a thousand dollars. Or will the price for them continue to grow?
How expensive he is …
Most expensive phone
The most expensive mass-market phone right now is the $ 1,400 Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. We can say that the first mass-produced smartphones with a four-digit price tag appeared in 2018. It has long been a rule of good manners to chase Apple and offer expensive models. Now other manufacturers have caught up with Apple, which is only happy with this state of affairs. It allows her to earn more, because they still come to her for top-end smartphones.
If the first one iPhone cost 300-400 dollars, then after a few years the versions with the maximum memory broke through the thousandth mark, but these were models with a huge amount of memory (at that time). So much is being asked now for the base Samsung Galaxy S20 Pro, Huawei P40 Pro and Samsung Galaxy Note 10. Even the mainstay of price humanity – OnePlus – will cost almost a thousand dollars this year.
We used to worry about the difference in price between good devices when it was $ 100. For example, smartphones such as the Google Pixel 3 XL for $ 900, LG V40 for the same money and the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 for $ 1000 came out in 2018. This difference could be explained by the S-pen stylus and some other things. Now Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra costs $ 1,400 and how to explain to the user why it is better than the same Google Pixel 4 XL?
How expensive phones differ from cheap ones
Let's remember how the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra or Huawei P40 Pro Plus for $ 1,400 differs from something for $ 1,000 (decide for yourself what to choose, it will be more interesting). By and large, the only difference will be in the 100x zoom function (optical only 4x) and 5G. And then, fifth-generation networks are supported by much cheaper models.
It turns out that earlier for $ 100 on top we received something more than now for $ 200-600. Of course, there is such a feature of technologies that at a level close to the maximum, each next improvement step is more difficult than the previous one. But there must be boundaries.
The Google Pixel 4 XL costs almost half the price of the Galaxy S20 Ultra, but it's not twice as bad.
Adding more fuel to the fire is that manufacturers don't want you to buy low-cost smartphones. Therefore, for example, Samsung did not develop the idea of the Galaxy S10e, and raised the price of other models by about $ 100. If you want – buy. Against this backdrop, Huawei, OPPO, OnePlus and Apple don't want to miss out on profits. You can put up a smartphone for $ 100-200 cheaper, but this is unlikely to affect demand if the price is
principle so high. As a result, the number of sales will be about the same. It is better then to earn extra $ 100-200 from each device.
That's when the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic come around and people start buying much less expensive things, then they will have to make drastic decisions. Perhaps, in this regard, Google will perform best of all if they ditch the flagship processor in the Google Pixel 5.
This is the answer to the question when smartphones at $ 1,000+ will run out. Technologies from flagships are descending to state employees faster than they appear. Considering that the speed of appearance is decreasing, and the speed of “descent” does not think to decrease, soon the proportions will become generally disadvantageous for the flagships.
And also, remembering the conversation that smartphones with folding screens should become cheaper in a couple of years, I would like to remind you that the Galaxy S20 Ultra is now worth $ 20 more than the folding Galaxy Z Flip. That is, conventional monoblocks are already more expensive than “revolutionary” devices. I have nothing more to add here.
What can you buy instead of a premium phone
Let's think about what you can buy if you have saved up money for a top flagship, but after reading my indignation above, you changed your mind about parting with this amount.
For convenience, let's translate the cost of the phone from dollars to rubles. The jump in the exchange rate does not count, since everything has risen in price approximately the same and the difference of 5-10 percent will not solve anything for us.
So, for 103,000 rubles (about the cost of the Galaxy S20 Ultra), you can buy a top-end Samsung TV with a diagonal of 55 inches and all the features that there is.
Staged and watched your favorite TV shows during self-isolation.
You can buy a new MacBook Air from the officials or even a MacBook Pro from the “sero”. Also on Honor P Smart Z with an outgoing camera will remain.
Great laptop for every day.
You can buy a VR headset HTC Vive and upgrade your computer to return. Or buy a PS4 Pro with VR bundle and last year's Huawei P30 Pro. And if you don't need a smartphone, then a large TV set for the console and a couple of games.
A toy, but worthy.
There are a lot of options. Everyone will choose something for themselves and it will not be a smartphone that you can lose and which will depreciate one and a half times in six months. Well, he would still work so that the drool would flow. No, except for a couple of functions, it will not differ in anything from cheaper devices. I myself am for good phones, but sometimes it is already too much.
Is it worth buying an expensive phone
How much a person can and wants to give for a smartphone is his own business. For some it is a means of communication, for others – a functional gadget, for others – show-off. If we break down the price by these categories, I would call it “up to $ 500”, “$ 500-1000”, “more than $ 1000”, respectively.
Now further price increases do not justify the result. Let the camera have a little more zoom, and the memory will not be 256 GB, but 512 GB – this is still not worth $ 400. You can argue in the comments or in our Telegram chat, but for me this is an axiom. Optical zoom in expensive devices is cool, but it is not yet big enough to be considered a killer feature. The rest is just tinsel. The camera iPhone 11 for 60,000 rubles will be no worse than the Galaxy S20 Ultra camera. There are even cheaper smartphones with great cameras.
I must admit that I myself use a smartphone for more than a thousand dollars, but there was a long history behind this. Now I would buy the same model, but in the basic version. This is exactly 1,000, not 1,300 dollars. Here is the optimal choice for someone who is chasing technology, not seconds at the finish line.