The Collapse of Mid-Range Smartphones (indiadispatch.com) 107
An anonymous reader shares a report: The global smartphone market is splitting into two distinct segments, with the mid-range segment seeing its market share plummet from 35% in 2021 to a projected 23% by 2027, according to an analysis of data compiled by Goldman Sachs.
The collapse of the mid-range segment -- $200-600 -- marks a stark reversal from 2021-22, when it held a steady 35% market share.
"While mid-end segment used to provide balance between outstanding specifications and high performance-cost ratio, the demand has been declining due to the lack of revolutionary technology upgrades and a more conservative consumption of middle class amid macro challenges," the analysts wrote in a note reviewed by India Dispatch.
The collapse of the mid-range segment -- $200-600 -- marks a stark reversal from 2021-22, when it held a steady 35% market share.
"While mid-end segment used to provide balance between outstanding specifications and high performance-cost ratio, the demand has been declining due to the lack of revolutionary technology upgrades and a more conservative consumption of middle class amid macro challenges," the analysts wrote in a note reviewed by India Dispatch.
"Lack of revolutionary" what? (Score:5, Insightful)
The last "revolutionary upgrade" I've ever seen is Samsung bringing back the proper pen, after that imbecile from Apple removed it in favor of your oily fingers. That was like 10 years ago.
Re:"Lack of revolutionary" what? (Score:4, Informative)
Indeed. Smartphones aren't changing much between generations.
So, if you have $200 to spend, it's better to get a top-of-the-line refurb from a few years ago than a brand-new midrange phone.
That's why the middle of the market is hollowing out.
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Indeed. Smartphones aren't changing much between generations.
So, if you have $200 to spend, it's better to get a top-of-the-line refurb from a few years ago than a brand-new midrange phone.
That's why the middle of the market is hollowing out.
If you only have $200 to spend, then you ARE the middle of the market from a price perspective. I’m not sure what we’re defining as a “hollowing out” here. Does it matter what brand that $200-600 spend is?
I get the point TFS is trying to make. Naturally I wonder if we’re warping the shit out of statistics to make it.
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Indeed. Smartphones aren't changing much between generations.
So, if you have $200 to spend, it's better to get a top-of-the-line refurb from a few years ago than a brand-new midrange phone.
That's why the middle of the market is hollowing out.
If you only have $200 to spend, then you ARE the middle of the market from a price perspective. I’m not sure what we’re defining as a “hollowing out” here. Does it matter what brand that $200-600 spend is?
I get the point TFS is trying to make. Naturally I wonder if we’re warping the shit out of statistics to make it.
You're in the middle of the market on price, but if you're not buying a new phone with that money, you're not in the market they're talking about.
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If you only have $200 to spend, then you ARE the middle of the market from a price perspective. I’m not sure what we’re defining as a “hollowing out” here. Does it matter what brand that $200-600 spend is?
I get the point TFS is trying to make. Naturally I wonder if we’re warping the shit out of statistics to make it.
You're in the middle of the market on price, but if you're not buying a new phone with that money, you're not in the market they're talking about.
Perhaps we reflect on exactly how warped the re-branded definition of secondhand is these days. As a popular example, [cell_provider} promotion offering a free iPhone with new service, with that “brand new” hardware being several models/years old already. Are we really calling a shrink-wrapped iPhone 2022 model being sold in 2025 as the primary market? I can find refurbished hardware newer than that.
What kind of warped-statistics car market would we find if we’re selling “brand ne
Last year's model on $1 plus 2 year subscription (Score:3)
We waited until the national cellular carrier had the near top-end model from 18 months earlier for $1 with a 2 year cell phone subscription to get new phones.
They were clearing out the last of those older models. A good deal considering that the subscription was the same price and we were replacing 5 year old phones.
Going forward, we're going to look for replacement phones on clearance with subscription once the current phone is 4 or more years old.
The last two phones I had could have gone another year or
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A refurb phone may be a good choice for a smart person but they will never get a significant market share due to limited supply.
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The telecoms here in Canada often offer what is more like a lease, buy it for X a month and send it back after a year or something. I've only glanced at the offers. Would create quite a few used 1-2 year old phones.
This time when I needed a phone, looked for a refurbished phone for around C$200 and bought a 2022 Edge, just over a year old when I got it and much happier with it then my previous cheap phones.
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Look who's calling someone an imbecile!
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This FP branch seems to have twisted the entire discussion in Samsung's direction and even though my current smartphone is a Samsung I don't know what the FP was talking about. Sounds like the stylus approach from the Palm days? My Palm OS device was another one of the few times when I was mostly satisfied with a device, though mine was actually a Palm clone from another maker... I remember learning most of Graffiti during a 10-minute walk one morning.
I generally buy near the low end, but this Galaxy was mo
Re: "Lack of revolutionary" what? (Score:2)
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Also, a lot of the formerly high-end features are now coming to the low end phones. For example, Moto G, $160, now has face ID and fingerprint unlock, wireless charging and NFC. Until the current generation, you had to go with a mid-tier phone to get those features.
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Yes. And this tech trickle-down has also made a lot of useful modules accessible and low cost outside the smartphone world as well, which is also great.
Samsung stopped selling mid-range in the US (Score:5, Interesting)
Samsung currently doesn't sell their mid-range A55 phone in the US.
The conventional wisdom on that is that they don't want to cannibalize their "flagship" phones.
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The other wisdom is that the midrange is seeing less and less of a point. Midrange used to be important for people who wanted a functional phone but didn't want to buy a flagship phone with the entry level phones being slow and underpowered to the point of frustration. That's not really the case anymore.
The Galaxy A35 entry level phone which is available in the USA has better performance and specs than my Galaxy A72 midrange phone which does a perfectly adequate job. If it died now that's probably what I'd
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There are higher-end features I'd like, mainly Dex, but I'm not paying $500+ for a phone. I have the money, I'm just not doing it.
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but I'm not paying $500+ for a phone. I have the money, I'm just not doing it.
It is funny how people strangely don't want to invest in a device that dominates their life. Maybe yours doesn't, but if you want to know why countless people would not just pay $500+ for a phone, but $1000+ then this story here on page 2 of Slashdot should be insightful https://mobile.slashdot.org/st... [slashdot.org]
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If the phone's cameras aren't good enough I'd have to get something like a Sony RX100 VII anyway. That costs as much as a high-end phone too and is less convenient to use. Underspending on what I take 90% of my photos and 100% of my videos on would be false economics. To me the best value is in buying the best phone available and keeping it for as long as feasible.
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Speaking of wisdom; it's best to avoid phones with pre-installed and unremovable bloat, such as Bixby (or whatever that thing was called).
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Samsung currently doesn't sell their mid-range A55 phone in the US
Samsung offers so many models that you can just pick one and label it as mid-range. Their SXX phones (sans Plus, sans Ultra) essentially *are* their mid-range phones. They list them for $800 but they are frequently discounted. (I think I paid $350 for my S23 through Google Fi?)
Add to that the previous generation with plenty of updates left on the commitment, as well as their FE models, and you've got a ton of "mid-range" Samsung options.
Re: Samsung stopped selling mid-range in the US (Score:2)
Is this trend parallel to the collapse of the middle class? There are lots of low income folks that can afford simple or old phones, and folks with enough cash to pay for pricey phones, but fewer people in between.
Re: Samsung stopped selling mid-range in the US (Score:2)
I'd avoid Samsung because they adds a new level of tracking, so now you are tracked by both Google and Samsung if you get a Samsung phone.
Mid-range? (Score:5, Insightful)
When I was looking for a replacement phone last year, 300 euro was called a budget price.
It's ridiculous anyway how fast money loses its value, and people lose their sense of value.
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and people lose their sense of value.
300EUR is incredible value for a device which dominates and controls people's lives. For most people it'll be the most important piece of electronics they own. Phones aren't what they were 20 years ago and their importance (and their capabilities) are reflected in the price.
Also I'm not sure where you're looking but I see budget priced phones for 200EUR in one of the most expensive countries for consumer products in Europe. So look harder if you can't afford 300EUR.
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Larger camera humps and better processing for RAWs is where all of the value of new phones has come from for me. I hope they double, triple or quadruple the camera hump sizes again to fit in bigger sensors and longer faster lenses.
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When I was looking for a replacement phone last year, 300 euro was called a budget price.
It's ridiculous anyway how fast money loses its value, and people lose their sense of value.
Depends on what country you live in, when I last looked for a phone mid range was around £250 which is about 300 EUR. I got a mid range Nokia (X30) for £220 and £44 of that went to HM government.
Cheap phones are around £100-150.
Inflation, which has been pretty bad of late is going to push the mid range market closer towards the 400 Pound/Euro mark but for that price you should still be able to get a decent handset with Gorilla Glass on it.
I think the problem is, in the US fe
Massive value to price ratio (Score:2)
You literally touch your iPhone more times per day than your wife. You spend more time concentrating on it than your wife. These things are part of your life. Paying less than a dollar a day for a fondle slab you will have a few years is good value. You'd have to be nuts not to buy the top of the line when it's so cheap and such high interactivity in your life. I'd like to say that wasn't true but sadly(?) it is.
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It's worth it, for a phone that will last you a lifetime.
Low end (Score:4, Interesting)
Low end, by most standards for me, £100 is a better investment and replace it every two years. Never seen much advantage with the mega expensive or mid range.
Why replace it every 2 years? (Score:4, Insightful)
You clearly don't need bleeding edge performance so why not keep it until it breaks or apps no longer works? My samsung is 2 years old and for me its barely run in. My last phone I kept using for 11 years!
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The transition to 5G kind of got me - the 4G phone might work fine, except they've shut down so many 4G radios that I needed an updated phone to be able to make calls reliably.
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My almost-8 year old Samsung S-8 still works fine, I see no reason to replace it. Maybe if I were to get into photography I'd buy a new one with a better camera, but this one does fine for what I use it for. I did run into one app which won't work on it because of its age (OfferUp), but since I didn't really want to put that on my phone anyway I'm even happier.
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Suppose I could add that I'm typing this on a 10+ year old laptop, and the only reason I'm about to replace it is because the power supply is finally failing.
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why not keep it until it breaks or apps no longer work?
That usually takes 2-3 years
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Re: Why replace it every 2 years? (Score:2, Informative)
Two factors.
1. Batteries are designed to wear out and starting to swell.
2. OS updates no longer arrives and causes some id and banking apps to stop working 'for security reasons'.
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> You clearly don't need bleeding edge performance
Who does? If that level of compute is required, isn't it time to use a device with a keyboard and a reasonable monitor ~A4 or more in size?
When low end (Score:5, Insightful)
is good enough, then the mid range has to suffer, the reason, phones are not so different anymore between the price segments and face it fast enough for your basic needs the difference often often is just in camera and branding and some speed, and many people do not care about branding!
It used to be different, if you did not buy high end then there were vital features missing or the speed not enough, but then the high end price became mid range and now high end often is more expensive than a notebook computer, and what you got in mid range quality a few years ago now is low range and the gap between high end and low end often is just price and a few minor things!
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Yep, the low end spec has caught up with the middle range spec. Same will happen to high-end spec phones as the cost of developing new features increasingly outstrips consumer willingness to buy.
Phones are on an inexorable path toward commodification.
Re:When low end (Score:4, Insightful)
For me, the things that seem to be missing with low-end phones are wireless charging and the ability to use an e-sim.
For the high end, the thing that's missing is the ability to use a microSD card, which is a much cheaper way to add extra storage than buying the manufacturer's higher-storage models.
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I understand why a carrier wants to use eSIMs, and why a manufacturer would. But what's the consumer advantage?
I like being able to switch phones without contacting my carrier.
You can simply get another eSIM from another carrier and add that in addition to an existing one. To do that with traditional SIMs, you need a phone that has two SIM slots, and then you are still limited to two. But yes, eSIMs make switching phones harder.
Re: When low end (Score:2)
If you travel internationally, getting an eSIM is much more convenient than a physical SIM. I have spent a lot of time with vendors at the airport over the years. Many made mistakes or lied about the capabilities of the plans they were selling. eSIM is just much easier. And at the end kf the trip, I can delete it.
One downside is that my S22 ultra can only have one eSIM active and one physical SIM simultaneously, but not 2 eSIMs.
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For me, the things that seem to be missing with low-end phones are wireless charging and the ability to use an e-sim.
As for wireless charging: Magnetically coupled wires are nearly as good.
As for e-sim: You can now buy SIM cards that store multiple eSIMs. They cost about 25 US$. I bought such a card but I am waiting for my first eSIM to actually be sent to me, so I don't know whether that solution is good.
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Moto G, $160, now has wireless charging and can use an e-sim, in addition to NFC.
Most peoples needs were met years ago (Score:5, Insightful)
A modern low end phone would performance wise blow apples top end offerings from only 6 or 7 years ago out the water. There's very little the vast majority of people need the performance of current mid or high end phones for, and if they do buy one its usually for fashion and/or bragging rights, not what it can actually do.
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Its actually the opposite. Low end devices have low end chips that, generally, are very sub-par.
The best approach is to always just buy a 1 or 2 year old flagship device and then paying for a new battery. You are then getting top-tier performance and features at a huge discount, because phones are like cars and lose 50% of their sticker value in year 1.
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"Low end devices have low end chips that, generally, are very sub-par."
Have you heard of Moores Law?
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Moore's Law routinely gets canceled out by Wirth's Law, in which operating system updates and application updates require more CPU cycles and more bytes of memory to complete tasks.
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Its actually the opposite. Low end devices have low end chips that, generally, are very sub-par.
Years ago I started with a phone for 700 EUR, but every time I bought a new one I spent less than for the previous one. I didn't notice a decline in functionality. My current one was 200 EUR and it is just fine. Yes, it might be much worse than a high end phone for 1500 EUR, but I just don't want to spend that much money for functionality that I apparently don't need.
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It means the categories are misdefined. It matters what the customers think, not what the pollsters think.
"...but then the high end price became mid range...and what you got in mid range quality a few years ago now is low range and the gap between high end and low end often is just price and a few minor things!"
and there it is.
Breakable (Score:5, Interesting)
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And 90% of the difference in cameras is not the sensor, there's only a handful of those on the market in the end.
Install the Google PXL version of the camera app and you'll regain most if not all of the camera quality basically instantly because you'll get the properly massaged sensor output instead of the raw bits that the OEM vendor camera app spits out.
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A connoisseur! Photography is all about what the software massages, right? And lenses don't matter. ;)
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There are physical limits to what a 5mm lens can do. If you are going to be picky about your pictures, you buy a real 35mm camera. A phone is for snapshots. There are also corrections for the physical characteristics of the sensor that can be applied. A good camera app has a profile for the sensor and knows how to get the most out of it and correct for its quirks.
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Install the Google PXL version of the camera app and you'll regain most if not all of the camera quality basically instantly because you'll get the properly massaged sensor output instead of the raw bits that the OEM vendor camera app spits out.
Google constantly nags me to "back up" my photos every time I use any of their apps. I don't think they are so desperate to get their hands on all of my pictures and exif data out of some feeling of charity. I want google in my life less, not more.
I will continue to back up my photos by popping out the SD card and making a copy. Even though every revision of Android tries to make that harder.
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"I'd much rather spend $400 cdn on something I'm going to lose or break than $1500 cdn. "
How old are you? Teenagers lose and break phones, adults don't.
"...has a two day battery and expandable storage and even a headphone port."
Damn, recycling a troll from over 5 years ago. So it's a senility issue, grandpa?
Re: Breakable (Score:2)
As for the headphone port, it's just nice to know I can plug the phone into a stereo and be able to hear the sound fr
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How old are you? Teenagers lose and break phones, adults don't.
Yes, they absolutely do. Have you spent much time with adults?
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Apparently you're not a klutz, like some of us. You apparently don't do much physical work, either. I can't count the number of times I've dropped this phone or how many times it fell off or got knocked off the table/ladder/rock/truck bed. To be truthful I'm much more impressed with the resilience of the Otter Box case my niece gave me than almost anything else I own.
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How old are you? Teenagers lose and break phones, adults don't.
I'm pretty sure I've never seen an iPhone with an uncracked screen.
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Why are you so sure you're going to lose or break your phone? Weren't you also the person who said the USB-C ports keep failing? I was joking preciously when I said it's a phone and shouldn't be swung around by the cord but now I'm wondering if you are actually doing just that.
It takes a bit of effort to break a phone. It takes a FUCKTON of effort to break it in a way that it can't be simply repaired (if you throw out your phone because of a cracked screen then please go into the bathroom, look into the mir
Re: Breakable (Score:2)
To replace it, I still wanted a stylus but didn'
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Sales not use has collapsed (Score:3)
Marketing people are only interested is sales of new bling. Other than show-offs (look how rich I am) most people only replace a 'phone when their current one is no longer up to the job and so are content to keep one that is several years old. The same is true with a lot of consumer goods, once products mature people run them for longer.
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Marketing people are only interested is sales of new bling. Other than show-offs (look how rich I am) most people only replace a 'phone when their current one is no longer up to the job and so are content to keep one that is several years old. The same is true with a lot of consumer goods, once products mature people run them for longer.
+1 for using the apostrophe! Don't mind me, I'll just get on the 'bus and go home now :-)
Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 4G (Score:2)
Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 4G (256GB + 8GB) Factory Global Unlocked 6.67" 108MP Pro Triple Camera
I bought it for $300 in 2023 and it is the best damn phone I've ever had in my entire life, so went ahead and immediately bougth a second one that I never use and keep unopened. I plan on using these for the next 4-5 years.
MicroSD with a 1 TB card in it.
Headphone jack that I use every day.
It's far better than any of the high priced phones I've ever seen, which have none o fhtat. And the 108 MP camera is amazing!
What I want (Score:1)
My 2022 Moto G Sylus 5G 256/6 (yes, all that has to be said) is a great phone but the battery is messed up.
I would pay for more software updates.
Apple is a company to not do business with, they are horrible.
Samsung has ok phones but they have garbage apps stuck with it.
Motorola has usable software.
They don't have a lot of margin on this phone.
I want to pay $200 and have lots of storage.
I want reliable phone calls.
So many of the other features really don't matter.
I really want the f(x)tech one with a keybo
Smaller is better (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't like big phones.
My iPhone 13 mini is a bit large, but it's the best thing available.
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I came here to say something similar. I presently use an iPhone mini. I'm not sure what I'll do when I have to replace it. I like the smaller size due to its pocketability, but it still has the processing guts of its larger siblings. (As such, it was a bit cheaper than the regular or Max versions, although that didn't guide my decision to buy.) If I wanted a fucking tablet pressed to my ear, I'd get one. I
Re: Smaller is better (Score:2)
Buying mid-range doesn't make sense (Score:2)
It is far more economical to buy a flaghship device that is 1 or 2 years old and replace the battery in it, than to buy a brand new mid-range device. The older-but-flagship device will perform far better than the mid-range one.
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I was about to post just this. I'm still on oneplus 6T. Bought it from a fashion-conscious student nerd who was trading up to his 2 year replacement cycle of flagship device, he had 8T in hand as we were checking that device works as expected outside his apartment.
It's approaching on its 4th year in my use now. It's still faster than mid range phones of today (though it has worse camera, those took a leap around 3 years ago when multi-camera setups became a norm). And it just works.
The only problem is batte
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Same. Some eBay sellers even do the battery pre-sales.
I just got a $200 Pixel 7 with a new battery for a household member, preselected for not having a locked bootloader.
One must be pretty rich to not care about the $400+ in mystery value between that and a new flagship.
What about Motorola? (Score:1)
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What don't you like about the 6a? I'm still using a Pixel 4a, it's been a perfect phone. No issues, great camera. Replaced the battery myself a few months ago.
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Dumb question: Why actually BUYS their cell phones (Score:5, Informative)
Usually, (at least in the US) the cell phone provider offers you a "free" cell phone when you sign up for a 2 or 3 year contract or payment plan. It used to be that they gave you the device up front, but now they give you a "trade in credit" for your old phone instead. Either way, there is usually a loophole in the contract that insures that you pay dearly for that "free" phone if you leave the contract early.
The big US telcos like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile usually offer you a higher end device like an iPhone 16 Pro if you sign up for their overpriced "premium" data plan, and the cheaper networks that resell service like Straight Talk and Boost Mobile usually offer you a cheap cell phone like a Samsung Galaxy A15 if you sign up for the crummy cheap data plan with low data caps.
That's probably why mid priced cell phones are disappearing.... the providers aren't offering those models for "free" and people are usually just taking the devices that the providers want them to take.
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I buy straight from China; more phone for less money, and my service contract doesn't include hidden phone financing that keeps going even after the phone's cost has been recovered.
Re: Dumb question: Why actually BUYS their cell ph (Score:2)
Who buys their phones? Sometimes I do!
In the UK, when I want/need to replace the old one I spend some time comparing the 2 year deals vs buying just the hardware.
At present, my £6/month contract + £300 for Samsung hardware -£100 for selling on ebay the previous Samsung was a better deal than what the telco offered.
When the next upgrade comes along the situation may be different, who knows?
As for buying 2 year old flagship and a new battery, looks like a good idea but has
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2 year contracts that included the hardware in the monthly service payment are not new! That used to be the only way you could buy mobile phones. Until a decade ago, when things opened up and mid-tier unlocked phones became an option. Let's not go back to forced contracts, shall we.
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Usually, (at least in the US) the cell phone provider offers you a "free" cell phone when you sign up for a 2 or 3 year contract or payment plan. It used to be that they gave you the device up front, but now they give you a "trade in credit" for your old phone instead. Either way, there is usually a loophole in the contract that insures that you pay dearly for that "free" phone if you leave the contract early.
Not sure about what is available for you, but when you do the math here of phone included plans vs SIM only plans you are "paying dearly" for that "free" phone regardless of when you leave the contract.
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EVERYBODY buys their cell phones. The carriers aren't handing out phones for free. They just make you THINK you get a free phone.
If you bring your own device (say, a $160 Moto G), you can sign up for Boost Mobile (or any other prepaid cell provider) for about $20 a month. The service from these providers is just as good, sometimes better than, the big carriers.
'Stark Reversal' - Hyperbole much? (Score:2)
Previously the market held steady, now it's predicted to decline - not a "stark reversal". Not even a reversal. Hyperbole much?
For the chronically over-caffeinated headline writers out there:
- a reversal is when your bank account was going up, but then you got a girlfriend (or boyfriend) and now it's going down
- stark means (s)he likes silk and champagne while you've been living a life of polyester and beer
Here's the caffeine-free version: "...marks a SIGNIFICANT CHANGE from
Software Problem. (Score:3)
What seems a much more likely candidate is the close tying of software to hardware in phones. Aside from some hobbyist hackery on a modest scale(which bootloader locking and enthusiasm for attestation-backed OS environments has not been making any easier); basically every handset is doomed to live with whatever the vendor decides to ship. Vendors seem to have used this to basically hollow out the midrange. Sure; they'll still sell you something that has a SoC a couple of SKUs lower than their 'flagship' and slightly fewer of the trendy design mistakes that they reserve for flagship models, maybe LCD rather than OLED; but it'll have the short support window and ghastly ramming of adware more or less identical to their cheapest, nastiest, product; and only incrementally better than the most mysterious aliexpress models where preloaded malware and literally zero updates are the norm.
It's a sharp contrast from the computer market; where high, low, and midrange are essentially identical in software terms; and where something between 'low' and 'midrange' absolutely dominates the market in terms of volume.
I can only assume that handset vendors see this difference as a virtue; since it's largely within their power to fix and since it's definitely better for margins if 'midrange' is actively unappealing even if you don't care about, and probably wouldn't notice without benchmarking, the incremental differences in performance.
You don't need to spend much nowadays... (Score:2)
10 years ago, you did have to spend a decent amount of money to get a good phone, but a sub-$200 phone nowadays is usually performs "good enough" (especially if you buy a mid-range phone second-hand at that price) that there's no point in spending more than $200 really
What I'm more concerned about is that "full screen" phones (i.e. no notch/cutout/teardrop in the screen and no large bezel) have been very scarce since 2020 - they seem to be limited to high-end gaming phones (e.g. the Red Magic 10 Pro - too e
Upgrades missing... (Score:2)
I am totally happy with my older phone...except: the manufacturer stopped issuing updates. Honestly, it is outrageous that an expensive piece of kit stops even getting updates after only a couple of years.
Obviously, the manufacturers do this to encourage people buying new phones. However, much like "right to repair" laws, governments need to require reasonable periods of support. At *least* 5 years. And, as with all the IoT crap: when the manufacturer stops support, they should be required to open-source a
Old phones are mid-range phone (Score:2)
Midrange. (Score:1)
alternative viepoint (Score:2)
https://www.theguardian.com/li... [theguardian.com]
No reason to pay more (Score:2)
But for most people in most situations, a low-end smartphone will do everything they need. I'm using a Samsung S9 at the moment and it was probably refurbished (or on clearance sale) when I got it around four years ago. It still runs great and easily does everything I want and it's super quick.
During the Boxing Day sales I received a message from my p