Is the age of the flagship over?

[slackerinabox]

I had a samsung galaxy s7 edge for a while under it hit the pavement the other week. Instead of paying the $250 sprint wanted for a repair I picked up a mid-range HTC one a9 for $140 used, and honestly can't tell the difference. Photo quality aside, it's just as speedy and useful of a device.

Now this thing was midrange last year and is probably considered low end now - is it going to become increasingly difficult for flagships to stand out these days? Are we pretty close to when flagship specs are about bragging rights more than anything?

 

[tsupersonic]

I'd say yeah we've been in that period for a while now. I only bought my 6P for camera, updates/"stock" Android, quick charge, front speakers, and an AMOLED display 1440p. This was $449 last year. I had a Moto G 3rd gen before that, and it worked for most of my needs. The processing side of the phone was fine, but it lacked other features like a good camera, fast updates, quick charge, and an AMOLED display /high resolution, but it was $219.

I am slowly beginning to learn a major downside to modern phones is having a non-removable battery. My Nexus 6P is a fantastic phone, but the battery life is just garbage. I'd love to replace the battery, but I'm not willing to pay for it or do it myself. If the 6P had a removable battery, this would've been a non-issue. I would've also loved to upgrade the capacity to something a bit higher. Unfortunately, it's hard/becoming harder to get a modern flagship/mid-end phone with a removable battery.

 

[Rifter]

Its all about what you do with your phone. I think the camera is worth it, i think the water proof rating is worth it. I also consider the top end SOC worth it as i game alot on my phone.

But if you dont take pics, or play new cutting edge games. And mainly just surf the net and use social media and use the phone as a phone then for sure its a waste of money for a top tier phone, any sub $200 phone can handle that fine.

Also you may think its just as speedy for what you do, but its got alot less CPU power and about 1/4 the GPU power of a s7. If you use any apps that push the CPU or GPU you are going to notice a significant difference with the s7.

 

[Red Storm]

My smartphone is my primary computing device, it needs to be a flagship. There are too many concessions for lower end phones for my liking. "Camera isn't as good" is one example, to some that's something they're willing to give up, but for me, my smartphone is my only camera, so it has to be very good at that too (especially having a one year old).

There will always be flagship phones. Lately what we have seen is lower end phones gain nice specs that normally are reserved for flagships.

 

[sweenish]

The short and long answers are "No."

 

[slackerinabox]

Are their any games out there that really use that extra horsepower? I get what you're saying - want best of the best, get a flagship. But with good enough phones changing the definition of 'good enough' every few months, I suspect it's just a matter of time before one manufacturer gets all of the pieces right - at that point samsung must be terrified. I sincerely do not see a difference between my mid range snapdragon 617 and the 820 on my old s7. In fact, the HTC feels a little snappier.

 

[Yakk]

Sometimes tech developments stall, and then speed up again.

Have to time your purchases right. Chinese companies are also up to full speed copy mode, so tier one manufacturers have to be especially vigilant. I personally don't care if people call what I have a flagship product or not, it is mostly just marketing buzzwords after all.

 

[Raduque]

I have a Motorola G4 Plus, Galaxy Note 4, LG Tribute HD and Galaxy S7 edge. In regular usage (phone, text, internet) they are pretty much indistinguishable. I could easily find myself living with a cheaper device, if more of them supported Verizon.

 

[Oyeve]

The note 7 was the only phone in years that really stood out. It's a shame it went doa.

 

[jhansman]

Manufacturers (read Apple & Samsung) are so involved in the game of one upmanship now that neither can just stop; both (along with LG, Motorola, HTC, etc.) will have to have a flagship phone to convince the buying public that they are the maker to go with. As noted, if Samsung hadn't blown it with the Note 7, they'd pretty much own the smartphone market now, with Apple playing catch up. I just got the GS7 Edge,and while I'm still learning it, I am very impressed. That said, I can see how it will likely be my last phone. Seriously, how much more can they pack into these gizmos? To call them "cell phones" or even "mobile devices" now does not begin to describe their capabilities. And don't forget the carriers-they need sexy hardware to keep consumers in their storefronts.

 

[crashtech]

Last year's flagships suit me well, so I'd hope that the age of the flagship is not over for those who enjoy such things. Same thing with new cars, those who like to spend extra money for new, do, then the rest of us get older cars to drive with less steep depreciation curves.

 

[dark zero]

Sadly after seeing the prices of the current chinese phones with flagship features, I see that the age of the Flagship is about to end unless something unique comes and maintain it.

 

[Oyeve]

The s8 looks promising if the leaks are true.

 

[Roland00Address]

For Android I would argue the answer is yes. Flagships may not be in their retirement years, but they are getting near it.

iPhones due to lots of things are at the "middle age marker" the time will come for the flagships of apple to fall to the wayside and being in their retirement years, but it will be several more years.

 

[biostud]

It depends on usage.

I think I can live with my recently bought lumia 950 for $250 for a long time, since i mostly use it for music, web browsing, mobile payment, and occasionly some photo.

It has removable battery and expandable storage for my FLAC files, and a Sabre 9018 dac is on its way in the mail.

What more do I need?

 

[Oyeve]

I found my old galaxy s1 yesterday and booted it up. It's useless now and there is no google play store on it. I bet all of our current phones will end up like it in a few years. Couldn't even browse the web on it as the browser is so outdated.

 

[imported_jjj]

It only appears over because phones have stopped evolving but it's not.

On the CPU side it is kinda over as perf has hit good enough with A72 at decent clocks in upper mid range.
GPUs have ample room, display res some room but that's debatable. Cameras got a bit stuck and breakthroughs are needed.Connectivity pushes forward.
Design has stagnated and often went backwards but we should see substantial steps forward this year.

The biggest deal will be foldable displays that enable the phone to turn into a small tablet, After that, doesn't matter as glasses start to take over.

 

[WhiteNoise]

Flagship models are here to stay and for a good reason. That said I usually run a flagship phone myself BUT I buy it new when the next flagship releases and I always save some money this way. Example: When the iphone 7 released I walked in and bought an iphone 6S Plus. Saved a few bucks and I'm happy.

 

[zCypher]

I don't know. 5+ years ago I got a Samsung Galaxy S2 and even at that time, I found that was more than good enough. The camera was great, it did everything I needed and more. Samsung's Touchwiz UI was awful of course but that's kind of an isolated thing. Overall it was a great device.

Since that time I've had the original Galaxy Note, then the Galaxy S4, then the OnePlus One and now the OnePlus 3T. The Note was pretty disappointing in terms of performance, it was a significant step down from the Galaxy S2. The S4 was a significant improvement from that, and the OnePlus One was quite a bit better yet. The 3T fills in where the original OnePlus was lacking (camera performance) and is basically vastly superior in every respect. I can't think of a single bad thing to say about this device, it's by far the best one I've owned to date.

My experience has been that we're still making progress and there's still a lot more yet to be made, who knows what's to come. But having said that, there has definitely been growth in the mid-range segment, where OnePlus has certainly had a part to play. The "non-flagship" devices have reached a point where they're good enough for most things. That's not to say that flagships don't have their place and value though.

The difference from one device to the next is much more negligible if you are comparing between devices that were released within 6mo-1year of each other. This isn't all too surprising to me though.

 

[Zaap]

For me, no. Far from it.

After the whole Note 7 crash and burn I delved into the world of 'supposedly just as good as a flagship, but super cheap!' phones. It was the perfect time for it, having just lost the use of what I considered far and away the best phone ever, and wanting something cheap as I waited out the Note 8 etc...

Meh.

Sorry, but everything I looked into was for me way too much of a compromise. Not as good to terrible screens. Too many cut corners and missing features I actually prefer and like. Yes, I want an SD card if possible. No, I don't want black borders of any noticeable size around my screen. No thanks to a just so-so camera. Yes, I want wireless charging and other things that make Android's top end more useful.

No, I don't want someone's version of an iPhone (or an iPhone) I want a top of the line Android flagship.

The phones that were so cheap in price as to be almost disposable weren't as good as the Note 4 I already have. But I wanted what I consider an upgrade to that.

The kicker: the phones that actually do measure up to me... end up costing nearly as much as any other flagship, or enough that it's just not worth it vs. missing features.

End of the day, for me the S7E was the only thing I'd really be happy with vs. just keeping my Note 4, and anything that *really* (not squint and pretend, but *really*) came close was too expensive to justify not just getting the S7E.

So... No.

 

[lothar]

Is the age of the flagship over?

Hell to the no it's not.
Last year's flagship > this year's mid-range device.

That has always been the case and will continue to be the case.

My smartphone is my primary computing device, it needs to be a flagship. There are too many concessions for lower end phones for my liking. "Camera isn't as good" is one example, to some that's something they're willing to give up, but for me, my smartphone is my only camera, so it has to be very good at that too (especially having a one year old).

There will always be flagship phones. Lately what we have seen is lower end phones gain nice specs that normally are reserved for flagships.

Amen. I can't see myself picking up a Moto G and expect that to last 2 years.
There are people out there that change their phones more often than they change their underwear. For those people, buying/upgrading a mid-range device every 6-12 months may suit them, but not for me.

It's a bit like paying $200 for the latest iPhone model with contract vs buying a 2 year old iPhone model or an iPhone SE model that for $0 with contract.
Over 24 months, that $200 difference is insignificant and amounts to only $8 per month. In the mean time, you get to enjoy a top of the line phone.

 

[mrochester]

I think Android flagships are definitely over. Apple is safe because they offer something different so can charge a premium for it. Android OEMs have no such luxury.

 

[Oyeve]

I'm still rocking my note 7. So I don't feel like I'm missing out.

 

[tsupersonic]

I think Android flagships are definitely over. Apple is safe because they offer something different so can charge a premium for it. Android OEMs have no such luxury.

I think the only Android manufacturer that can pull it off is Samsung with the Galaxy/Note flagships. IMO Apple doesn't really offer anything flagship worthy or as you call it "luxury."

 

[shortylickens]

Much like desktops, we are getting to the point where we dont need a super high end system to get most tasks done.
You can edit HD video on a medium-grade phone. What more do you need?