Expensive Android Phones: Hot take

dhruvtalksstech
Jan 24, 2023
5 min read

Android phones come in all shapes and sizes and prices. We often talk about the sort of Android phones which occupy most of the market. But today is going to be about the sort of Android phones which are not a necessity but a luxury. They are not needs but wants. It's for those of you who have extra cash lying around and don't care very much about the bang-for-buck proposition. It may even be important for you to have an expensive phone just because your job and societal profile require you to have the most expensive product.

I would generally define expensive Android phones as those above 50,000 Rs. In a world of phones costing as much as 200,000 Rs, 50,000Rs may not seem like a lot but I can assure you that it is indeed a lot of money to spend on glass and metal. People with money will always splurge on luxury. But in the realm of expensive phones, people mostly conjure up images of the iPhone. Mainly because the brand has associated itself with luxury, quality, and only making the finest products. Apple does not sell products; It sells the feeling of luxury.

Some expensive Android phone are generally worth the buck but others are not. This scenario is not just exclusive to Android phones. It is more widespread amongst iPhones. It is just the nature of expensive iPhones not to offer the most for their money. After a certain amount, say Rs. 50,000, you are paying for the luxury feeling of a phone and its brand image. Sort of like an expensive luxury car. You do not need a BMW 7 Series or a Mercedes S-class. A $50,000 C class is good enough and more. But if you have the money, then why not?

Expensive Android phones don't get as much attention as iPhones do for the following reasons:

i) 4 iPhones come out each year while 30 premium Androids come out at the same time making it harder to keep track of them

ii) Other brands are not as well-known as Apple is

iii) People don't trust a lot of Android phones because they appeal more to the enthusiast and are relatively unheard of most of the time

iv) It is difficult to convince people to pay so much money for a brand that isn't particularly known for its prestige and is instead known for making products at the lower level of the market

v) Android companies don't know how to advertise as well. Their keynotes, presentations, and ad videos are not as capturing. They are not able to convert a huge crowd into a fan following. People look at them as phones and not as a way of high-riding life.

All this does not mean that expensive Android phones aren't good. That is outrageous, to say the least. You can find phones that offer so much and are so competitively specked. You also have a whole host of brands and configurations to choose from - making it easier to find what you like and what suits your needs. Android smartphones have been getting increasing attention from tech reviewers on YouTube and different blogs.

You cannot possibly forget that a 50,000 Android offers more value than an equivalently priced iPhone. You can get a recent Android phone for this price but would have to resort to an old iPhone for the same amount of money. And as you know an iPhone that's too old is as good as a dump. To buy a nice recent phone, you are expected to have at least 60-65K.

I am personally not the biggest fan of expensive android phones. They are so similar in almost all aspects that it begs the question if my money was worth it. Earlier, cheap phones used to be the watered-down version of the flagship but nowadays it seems that flagships are based on cheap phones with a few extra gimmicks to make the tech column of the Wall Street Journal. They look damn similar, have the same OS, get almost the same number of years of software updates, suffer from the same issues of bloatware and malware, have hardware that's only a little bit superior, and have the same logo. I can't see any reason to buy an Android flagship.

Flagships also don't experiment as often as they used to it which was the whole point of the Android world. They have become boring - the S22 series and the new One Pluses of the world. Flagships may be a declining superpower but cheap phones are getting unbelievably good. I prefer Android phones only for the lower spectrum of the market. They have 90% of the features, offer everything you could require, and appear premium on the outside. They have become very capable and you won't be hanging to ask for more unless you were an extreme power user with the patience of a demon.

Another problem with flagship Androids in India is that when you are spending 70K+ on a phone, part of the reason you are spending this much amount is to show off the phone a bit. You may not acknowledge it but deep down, this feeling exists in all of us - myself included. So, an Android phone does not have the same prestige or luxurious image as that of an Apple product which is why they struggle in the Indian market. Chances are that if you are spending north of 100K on a phone, you are not even considering an S22 Ultra. You are not alone in this - same is the case with me.

There's also the obvious problem of Android not having the best quality but that is not frequently discussed. I feel that the problem lies in creating a product that feels good to touch and hold. Weight plays a big part in it. We may blame the 13 Pro Max for being too heavy but the truth is that weight is equivalent to premium feeling. I recently went to Croma to buy an electronic device and held a few expensive Samsungs, One Pluses, and Oppos. I could not help but think that they did not feel expensive in the hand. The S22 Ultra, for example, had a glass back but it actually felt a lot like plastic and an iPhone SE felt more premium to me. That's the fundamental problem with expensive Androids.

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