Flagship Smartphones and the Addiction to Overkill

Mid-range phones are getting better and better, but continue to lose the battle of perception

The way that we as a society approach buying smartphones is kind of weird. If you were to buy a chocolate bar, no one would blink an eye if you decided to buy a Hershey’s bar as opposed to buying a bar of Ghirardelli because it was cheaper and you rationalized that chocolate is chocolate. In the phone world, especially here in the United States, there is a certain level of shame that is associated with spending less on a phone.

This happens in both the iPhone and Android worlds. I have had situations where a friend or colleague gave me the side-eye for using a device that they feel is inferior. I was once using an iPhone SE and while it was on the table someone commented why I would still be using an iPhone with a home button. On the Android side, I have used mid-range phones such as A-Series Pixel phones and mid-range HTC phones which have often been met by skepticism by people that carry flagship Galaxy S phones.

For years, we have been trained that only the top-of-the-line phone is acceptable. And for a while that was true, but these days mid-range and low-end phones have become more than simply usable. Yet, the perception remains to be high-end or nothing which is telling of the very fractured nature of the…