On Affordable Smartphones: Iterative Improvements Over Time Depend on the Flagship

It’s been hard this week to look anywhere in the technosphere and not see an article proclaiming the death of the Flagship. Fueling these thoughts are years of declining profits and device sales from some of the worlds largest phone manufacturers.

The fuel seems to have been resparked when Apple not only posted a lower quarterly growth for the iPhone, but advised it will continue to decline through the next quarter. It’s hard not to get caught up in this though, mid-ranged phones have gotten really good. Just a few years ago if you wanted a phone that was not horrible and $400 or below, you would have to settle with a prior years flagship. Last year though, we saw the rise of the sub $400 capable phone with excellent devices like the Idol 3,  ZenFone 2 and the One Plus brand. There is no denying that you can get a great phone without spending over $400, but they will never replace the proper flagship, nor should they.

The Acer C710 was a decent Chromebook, but has an awful TFT panel, physical hard disk and cheap plastic construction

When Google introduced the Chromebook Pixel it was regarded as being comically expensive for a device that can only surf the internet. You could go and get a Chromebook that delivered the Chrome OS experience without spending over $300, and in some cases less than $200. So why would Google introduce and then release a sequel device that boiled down to just being a $1,000+ web window? To answer that one only has to look at the shift in Chromebooks over the past few years. TFT displays, actual hard disks, and crappily built plastic bodies used to make up almost all Chromebooks. However, contrast that to the Chromebook market today. Chromebooks are available at almost any price point with higher resolution displays, proper desktop class processors, and better high quality plastic or metal construction. In many cases the quality device you can buy for $250 today far surpasses what you could find just a few years ago for the same price.

Likewise, Microsoft has demonstrated a similar strategy with their Surface line. By putting out premium products at a premium price the result was having OEM partners raise the quality of their devices across their various price points. Similarities can be drawn between the PC and Chromebook markets and the mobile phone space. Profits, technological advances, and process refinements made on these premium flagship models help in making mid-range ones better. It can sometimes be difficult to see that the road to the betterment of mid-range devices was created by the flagships so many people are seemingly trying to bury.

I recently picked up a Nexus 5X after I cracked the AMOLED panel on my Nexus 6. In the 8+ years I have had a smartphone this is the first one I have purchased that was not a proper “flagship” tier device and I’ve learned a number of things. The 5X is a great phone, but it has its compromises, and for a device that cost $379 at launch these compromises are some that many people just don’t want, nor have to make. It’s not just the 5X that makes these compromises, devices like the One Plus Two are famous for the compromises they made to hit a specific price point. While the performance, display, camera, audio quality and battery are good, flagships like the HTC 10, Galaxy S7 or Nexus 6P do it even better, in some cases even far better. Likewise, quality dual stereo speakers, dedicated powered amps, waterproofing and modularity are all features that generally can only be found on flagships; the premium price allows OEMs to do more, whether that involves refined quality or bleeding-edge features.

However, not everyone can afford a premium smartphone, tablet or laptop and everyone loves to save money where they can. This makes these affordably priced phones appealing, especially when they are fully capable of doing almost everything a flagship can as far as the Android UX goes. So did I just make the argument that we don’t need the flagship device and the mid-range ones can reign supreme? No, in fact I am making the opposite argument.

While mid-range phones can be really good, it is only due to the refinements made by prior premium ones. The amazing quality of the screen on the Galaxy S7, the feel of its premium construction (with a degree of flawlessness that affordable flagships like the Mi5 simply can’t match), and the flawlessly fast and reliable camera are all things that no mid-tier phone can match — not yet, at least. The refinements made to screen technology, improvements in things like waterproofing techniques, and the faster, better cameras and processors will find their ways into mid-range devices making them even better. If we want the trend of outstanding affordable phones to continue, we better also hope that the flagship phone gets even more premium as well.

Saying that days of flagships are numbered or over is both short sighted and is just plain wrong. Affordably-priced phones need the premium flagship phone today, as they always have.