growing number of us, the answers to those
questions are no.
Apple and Samsung are well aware of this
shift of course. Samsung has been making
budget and mid-range phones for years, and
last year introduced the smaller, more
affordable Samsung Galaxy S10e alongside
the rest of the flagship Galaxy S10 range.
Apple has its own smaller, more affordable
handset with the iPhone SE too – a phone
that first appeared in 2016 and got a refresh
earlier in 2020.
It’s no coincidence that today iPhones
and Galaxy phones cover a bigger range of
price points than ever before, because
Apple and Samsung know full well that
flagships just don’t hold the same appeal any
more. Saving a few extra seconds on game
loading times and squeezing a few more
pixels into the display resolution aren’t
worth the price premium for most people
picking up a new handset.MID-RANGE VALUE
It goes without saying that customers
always prefer to spend as little as possible if
they can, but there’s a balance to be struck:
from hotel rooms to motor vehicles, keeping
to the tightest of budgets isn’t always
advisable. It’s exactly the same with
smartphones, where there’s a sliding scale –
the more you pay, the better the phone
you’re going to end up with.
What’s helped to cause the mid-range
boom is that you can now get an awful lot of
phone for not much money at all. By using
slightly older or slightly inferior
components, manufacturers are able to put
together handsets that are almost as good as
the flagships but that cost significantly less,
with competition from Chinese
manufacturers like Xiaomi and OnePlus
putting even more pressure on prices.This is happening across all the key areas
you would weigh up when you think about
buying a new phone – the speed of the
handset, the quality of the photos it can
take, the amount of time you get between
battery charges, the size and aesthetics of
the screen, and so on. The rapid pace of
smartphone innovation has meant that the
very best phones are more than a lot of
people need, which means an opportunity
further down the ladder.
Some compromises have to be made in
order to hit a lower price point, as you
would expect. Mid-range phones often do
without full IP68 waterproofing, for
example, or don’t support wireless charging- optional extras that are nice to have but
that aren’t really essential when it comes to
day-to-day smartphone use. The materials
are often cheaper too, whether it’s a display
that’s slightly less tough and resistant to
scratches, or a plastic backing on a phone
rather than glass.
Even in terms of the design and feel of the
phones though, mid-rangers are now able to
do very passable impressions of the big-
name flagships – squint your eyes and you
probably wouldn’t be able to tell the
difference. When it comes time to upgrade
your phone, you’ll have to decide what’s
most important to you in terms of what you
really need and what you can live without.
You can now get
an awful lot of
phone for not
much money at all
The top three...
AFFORDABLE
FLAGSHIP
PHONES
This lot are between mid-
ranger and flagship, offering
more premium features at a
still reasonable priceSAMSUNG GALAXY S20
Samsung launched three Galaxy S phones in
2020 – this is the most affordable. It’s smaller
than the S20 Plus and the S20 Ultra, and has
a slightly inferior camera, but also shares a
lot of the same internal components.
From £799, samsung.comONEPLUS 8 PRO
While the Nord has been grabbing the
headlines lately, the OnePlus 8 Pro is an
even better phone – albeit a pricier one. It
has a faster processor, a bigger screen, a
better camera and wireless charging.
From £799, oneplus.comAPPLE iPHONE 11
7KHOHDVWH[SHQVLYH L3KRQHćDJVKLS
without the extra cameras of the Pro and
Pro Max models, but with plenty of power
and polish nevertheless. Watch out for even
better deals on this Apple phone once the
iPhone 12 has been revealed.
From £729, apple.com01
02
03
48 T3 OCTOBER 2020The complete guide to...