{"id":99150,"date":"2018-06-04T20:43:35","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T20:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=99150"},"modified":"2025-07-01T23:27:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T06:27:06","slug":"do-you-need-a-flagship-smartphone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/do-you-need-a-flagship-smartphone\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you need a flagship smartphone?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smartphone envy. It\u2019s a real bummer. Is it your fault? No. The tech giants pumping out new models every year spend <\/span>millions<\/span><\/i> of dollars <\/span>convincing<\/span><\/i> you you need one. Their so-called \u201cflagships\u201d are meant to be the best of the best \u2013 peerless, perfect, and luxurious \u2013 and with a price to match. <\/span><\/p>\n

But if we disregard the frills, bells, and whistles \u2013 animated emojis, for example \u2013 just how important is face-tracking? How necessary is a fingerprint reader? How much screen space do you really need? How important are aesthetics for something that spends most of its time hidden in the palm of your hand?<\/span><\/p>\n

As the race towards bezel-less screens, thin-as-paper bodies, and novel but (mostly) pointless features continues, I can\u2019t help feeling we\u2019re being sold a lie. Let\u2019s face it: technology is cheap. You can buy a smartphone for <\/span>under $200<\/span><\/a> that does most of what a $1000 flagship can do, so why waste the extra cash? Wouldn\u2019t you rather take the cheaper phone and go on vacation instead? <\/span><\/p>\n

Certain things are important, however. A good camera, fast operation, and pretty screen are usually what sets good phones apart from bad ones. So, let\u2019s take a look at these features, and then you can decide if you need to bleed your bank account dry or can simply buy a cheaper brand and pocket the extra cash.<\/span><\/p>\n

\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

Six app settings that are devouring your mobile data<\/p>\r\n Find out Now<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

Camera<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Where do you view your photos? Online? On your phone? Unless you\u2019re blowing up photos to hang on the wall, the number of megapixels isn\u2019t important. The sub-$200 Honor 7X has 16MP, which is more than enough for printing (and more than iPhone X\u2019s 12MP).<\/span><\/p>\n

When and where do you take photos? If during the day, or with flash, your camera\u2019s <\/span>aperture<\/span><\/a> needs to be around f2.2, like in most sub-$200 phones. But for low light shots you need a \u201cbrighter\u201d aperture of around f1.8 to avoid \u201cnoise\u201d \u2013 a kind of grainy effect caused when the sensor\u2019s sensitivity increases to capture more light. The flagships win for low-light photography, but you need to do a lot of it to make the extra spend worthwhile. Or <\/span>just reduce noise using image processing software<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

One other aspect where flagships shine is in Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS). This helps to counter unwanted camera shake that can cause blurry photos (when holding it in your hand, for example). Not all cheaper models have this, but unless you\u2019re shooting in low light or have particularly shaky hands, you\u2019ll still get great photos. <\/span><\/p>\n

Screen<\/b><\/h2>\n

High Definition screens are the norm nowadays, and the Honor 7X even has an 18:9 edge-to-edge display despite its sub-$200 price. Nevertheless, the brightness, colors, and viewing angles will vary depending on the screen technology, with OLED being the choice of flagships, and LCD being the choice of cheaper phones. <\/span><\/p>\n

So is OLED better than LCD? Not always. While colors and blacks might be punchier, <\/span>OLED uses more power than LCD<\/span><\/a>, meaning batteries might not last as long. And as Google quickly discovered with their flagship (the Google Pixel 2), \u201cburn-in\u201d can be a problem<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

And as for screen size, you can get any size you want for under $200. Most phones tend towards bigger screens nowadays, and you definitely DON\u2019T need a flagship phone for a five- or six-inch screen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of us are happy to have LCD TV screens at home that are much bigger than our smartphones, so is it worth spending more for OLED? Probably not.<\/p>\n

\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

The 5 best smartphones for under $200<\/p>\r\n Find out now<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

Speed<\/b><\/h2>\n

The speed of your smartphone is determined by three things: processor, RAM, and Operating System (OS). Processors and RAM are cheap as chips nowadays, so you\u2019ll find fast octa-core processors and 2GB+ RAM in most sub-$200 smartphones. <\/span><\/p>\n

Operating Systems are a bit different. iOS on iPhone and Android on Google work so well because the hardware and software are designed by the same people. There\u2019s no such thing as a sub-$200 iPhone, and outside of Google\u2019s own hardware, Android\u2019s stability varies \u2013 probably because other manufacturers like to tinker with it. <\/span><\/p>\n

But as Android is always improving with each release, performance issues are less common. And it\u2019s not worth spending hundreds more when flagships themselves can suffer performance issues \u2013 <\/span>some of which are <\/span>intentional<\/span><\/i><\/a> (I\u2019m looking at you, Apple). <\/span><\/p>\n

It’s easy to buy into premium branding and forget that your smartphone is just cheap components assembled into something useful. For some people, that\u2019s okay. There\u2019s nothing wrong with liking nice things, whether that\u2019s the satisfaction of owning a flagship phone, or the extra novelty that makes it more\u00a0fun. But for everyone else, there\u2019s plenty of choice at a fraction of the cost.<\/span><\/p>\n

\r\n

More Softonic Articles<\/p>\r\n

\r\n \r\n
\r\n
\r\n
<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

5 tips to prevent security issues with your phone<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n \r\n

\r\n
\r\n
<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

8 tricks to strengthen your WhatsApp security<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n

\r\n \r\n
\r\n
\r\n
<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

7 mistakes that put your internet security at risk<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n \r\n

\r\n
\r\n
<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

8 tricks to boost your security on Google Chrome<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smartphone envy. It\u2019s a real bummer. Is it your fault? No. The tech giants pumping out new models every year spend millions of dollars convincing you you need one. Their so-called \u201cflagships\u201d are meant to be the best of the best \u2013 peerless, perfect, and luxurious \u2013 and with a price to match. But if … Continue reading “Do you need a flagship smartphone?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9103,"featured_media":101455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[],"tags":[1032,1033],"usertag":[781],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-99150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-gadgets","tag-shopping","usertag-purchaser"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327917,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99150\/revisions\/327917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99150"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=99150"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=99150"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=99150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}