[SmartCat]

I have an Apple iPhone 8 plus that was originally launched in 2017 and it was priced at Rs. 73,000. I also happen to have the 2023 Samsung Galaxy M13 5G priced at a modest Rs. 12,000.

It should be interesting to compare this old flagship smartphone with the latest entry-level smartphone to see how quickly smartphone technology has progressed. Eyeing that iPhone 15 Pro Max or Samsung S23 Ultra or Google Pixel 8 Pro? You will now get a rough idea about when you will get the same features & functionality in an entry-level phone!

LOOKS & DESIGN:

iPhone 8+ still feels like a premium phone despite its age. Unlike the plastic build of M13, the iPhone 8+ sports a glass back and metal frame. So when it comes to in-hand feel, 6 year old flagship is miles ahead of the latest entry level smartphone. Despite glass/metal, the iPhone 8+ does not feel bulky in the pocket because iPhone 8+ body has more width but is not as tall as M13.



Note that unlike the spider eyes-like cameras that adorn the latest smartphones, both iPhone 8+ and M13 sport just two cameras.

SCREEN/DISPLAY:

Bargain basement M13 outguns the 6 year old iPhone 8+ in the screen/display department. M13 sports a 6.5 inch LCD display with 90 Hz refresh rate while iPhone 8+ makes do with 5.5 inch LCD display with 60 Hz refresh rate. The higher refresh rate & adequate processing power/RAM means scrolling experience in the M13 is noticeably smoother than that of iPhone 8+.



Specs sheet suggest that iPhone 8+ has higher resolution & pixel density, but I don't see much difference when browsing or watching videos or playing games. But once it gets dark, the M13 screen feels duller than that of iPhone 8+. However that's because iPhone 8+ has a much better 'auto brightness' adjuster, while M13 has a less smart/quick 'auto brightness' mode.

PROCESSING POWER & GAMING:

For daily use tasks, M13's processing power & RAM (4 GB or 6 GB) is more than adequate. I would say it matches the daily use experience of the iPhone 8+ in terms of app opening speed/multi tasking etc. However, when it comes to gaming, M13 sees an ocassional lag/stutter, especially when there are flashes or explosions in that game. Eg: Fruit Ninja



It is surprising that iPhone 8+ manages to run some of the latest "timepass" games smoothly even after all these years. I haven't bothered to compare graphics heavy games because all of us at home are just casual gamers.

FEATURES & BATTERY:

Some features that are available on iPhone 8+ are missing in M13 and vice versa. For eg, iPhone 8+ is equipped with wireless charging and a snappy fingerprint sensor on the home button . Meanwhile, the M13 is 5G enabled and is equipped with face recognition. Although, the M13 too has side button fingerprint sensor, it is not as quick or reliable as iPhone 8's. Both my phones have 64 GB storage. But higher storage options were/are available for both the phones.



When it comes to battery, almost all entry level phones score well over flagship phones, and that's what makes them a good backup phone. And M13 with its 5000 mAh battery is no exception. With our kind of usage, the M13 needs to be charged once in 2 days. Meanwhile, the iPhone 8+ with its 2700 mAh battery needs to be plugged in everyday. However, since this is an old phone, it might have seen some battery degradation (battery health is 84%).

CAMERAS/PHOTOGRAPHY:

When it comes to cameras, entry level phones have come a long way. When there is adequate sunlight, the photos come out OK. Even indoors where there is less sunlight, the photo quality is not-too-bad. However, the color reproduction is a bit dull. Here are a few M13 sample pics:







Now let's look at the same photos taken on iPhone 8+. The colors are more punchy and vivid. The gap between M13 & iphone 8+ widens for portrait/close-up or night photos:







Although iPhone 8+ pics look nicer, I'd say both iPhone 8+ and M13 do not accurately reproduce the actual environment/lighting in the photos, as seen from our eyes. Modern 20k to 30k midrange smartphones are significantly better in photography.

[germin]

I would go with less than 5 years. Both phones have their own merits. I am going through a similar situation right now. I upgraded from a 5 year old LG V30+ to a Pixel 7 this January. 2 weeks back the Pixel stated having some display issues and I took it to the Pixel service center. The team at the service center informed me that the phone needs to be shipped to Noida, fixed there and then shipped back to you, this entire process takes about 30 days (and they do not provide a spare/backup phone for this period ). Thankfully I had retained my LG for nostalgic reasons and I switched back to it.
Below are my observations

• Display - The older flagship phones have good even great displays but they lack the high refresh rates which the newer flagships or even the entry level phones have, this boosts the user experience and the overall fluidity of the phone by a lot.
• Camera - The entry level cameras take pretty respectable pictures these days in good lighting conditions but there is no comparison for pictures taken at night. Although the camera hardware does play a major role in the pictures, these days it is a lot of software processing and AI that enhance the pictures taken from smartphones and I think we will soon get these in the newer entry level phones.
• Battery - This is where the entry level or any new smartphone will trump the older ones, better capacity and better battery health.
• Performance - iOS phones get updates for longer compared to android ones and the older android versions do show their age. I get to check multiple old android phones as a part of my work, and anything with android OS version lower than 11 has poor performance. The software becomes slow, loses out on latest software features etc.
• Build - This is where the entry level smartphones are not able to match the older flagships. The materials used in flagships are top notch (if you don't use a case), they are much better put together and have better hardware components (speakers, fingerprint sensors)

[Kosfactor]

Samsung in particular makes poor entry level phones and their midrange phones aren't good value either. Redmi as well as other brands have good VFM phones that not only perform well but lasts a long time.

I say this because we bought great many of them for the senior citizens, they all work well despite these phones being used from morning to evening for content consumption.

Even the entry level phone buyer now demands a massive screen and big battery for content consumption, Camera isn't a deal breaker although most of them are now decent enough for the intended use case.

[GTO]

The smartphone upgrades every year now are incremental at best. While the higher-end smartphones have reached their peak (somewhat), phones at the lower end are becoming better & better every year.

One thing for sure = the world is holding onto their smartphones longer than ever due to this trend. I'm using a 2021 Flip3 and see absolutely no reason to upgrade. It's good looking & performs similarly to when it was new. Globally too, the trend is of most users retaining their phones for long.

This is unlike the early smartphone years where upgrades were mandatory every 1 - 2 years, as phones became sluggish and there were big strides in battery + performance + camera every year.

Ditto with laptops. Ditto with cars. Ditto with TVs.

[ramnaresh_2000]

Good comparison. I always prefer buying last years flagship devices this year during sale period. I got a good deal on my Samsung Note 20 Ultra, bought it 2 years back on Amazon sale. Exchanged my Oneplus 6 for 9k exchange value, some 4k exchange bonus, some 3-4k discount on my HDFC card. Total was less than 65k (launch price was 1,04,999/-). Reason why I went with Note 20 Ultra

• 120 Hertz QHD 6.9" screen with HDR10+ support
• Wireless charging
• Reverse wireless charging
• S-pen (unique feature to Note series)
• Flagship camera with best zoom
• Best in class software experience (one UI is still the best non ios software after Nothing OS)
• Currently running on Android 13, and will get 1 more year of security updates
• Came with charger
• Came with Type C headphones
• NFC with Samsung pay and Knox security
• Premium glass build
• Metal frame
• Supports expandable memory card upto 512 GB
• Gorilla glass (front and back)
• IP68 waterproof rating
• UFS 3.0 support
• Inbuilt fingerprint sensor

Cons:

• Exynos 990 chipset
• No more OS upgrades, it will not get Android 14
• Only 25 watts fast charging support
• Only 1 sim supports 5G, the other is 4G
• Battery life is supbar from day 1, have to charge twice a day
• Not LTPO panel
• No headphone jack

I did not go with current year flagship from companies like iQoo or Redmi or Vivo or Oppo or Realme, which had newer chipset from Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 but, subpar software experience and some cost cuttings in other areas.

I am fully satisfied with my purchase. It takes one of the best photos in night mode and 0.5x zoom. It still has the premium build feeling, only issue is battery degradation, need to change the battery soon.

Buying a last year flagship smartphone is like buying a hardly used luxury car. You enjoy the luxury features, your wallet is happy.

Some sample clicks which I took recently.

[Sedate driver]

Originally Posted by GTO

One thing for sure = the world is holding onto their smartphones longer than ever due to this trend. I'm using a 2021 Flip3 and see absolutely no reason to upgrade. It's good looking & performs similarly to when it was new. Globally too, the trend is of most users retaining their phones for long.

This is unlike the early smartphone years where upgrades were mandatory every 1 - 2 years, as phones became sluggish and there were big strides in battery + performance + camera every year.

Ditto with laptops. Ditto with cars. Ditto with TVs.

Well said. I use a Oneplus 7t Pro launched in 2019 and purchased in 2020 which is still working as new. No lag or battery issues. Battery still lasts for 1 day with heavy usage. Basically the advantages of getting a flagship phone at high prices does not justify the incremental upgrades over the past phones. It is always better to buy a phone launched 1-2 years back with almost all the features present in newly launched flagship phones.

[RD410]

Samsung is still not there, but other players like Nokia, Oppo, Vivo, Poco, etc have cracked the 'premium build' aspect for phones under ₹20k. Some of the latest budget phones from these brands give really solid & premium in - hand feel. Samsung rules in terms of display. Even the PLS LCD, IPS LCD and TFT displays on their budget offerings feel superior to other brand phones twice or thrice the price.

[shancz]

Voted for more than 7 years.

Reasons :
- Having a good quality camera lens requires a relatively expensive hardware and then goes the software processing on top which will be guarded by the manufacturers for their flagships anyway. Hence I don't see that happening anytime soon.
The cost of chipsets, memory, storage etc. has dropped in magnitudes but I doubt if the cost of high quality camera lenses follows the same trajectory. It would come down based on demand but I don't think it will follow the trend of the electronics.

- The entry level features are dictated more by the market wants which have consistently been larger screens, larger battery, higher resolution cameras(for some reason) and a variety of filter and editing options. Unless this changes and people actually move away from the "number" of pixels to the quality of lens, this isn't changing.

- The idea that Apple/Google would introduce entry level phones doesn't make sense as they've positioned themselves as and in the premium segment. Samsung plays a larger audience but their different series clearly separate the segments.


At present I am happily using a combo of Pixel 2 and 3, both more than 6 years old and have no performance issues apart from the lower battery backup owing to slim design and capacity.

[charanreddy]

Interms of generational changes, an average mid budget phone is good for 2 years, post which expectations go up and the phone is considered not up to the mark. The build quality also deteriorates with usage. This is based on multiple personal and family non iPhone experiences including LG Nexus 4, one plus 5 T, Samsung budget phone and most recently oppo .

For the iPhone, more recent models can serve for 3 - 4 years for sure due to good build quality and hardware software co-design. My company iPhone 11 was going strong at 2.5 yrs and I could have continued for 1.5 yrs more.
My current iPhone 13 Pro Max is at ~ 2 years and going really strong. I don’t see a replacement need in the next 2 years.

So to answer the question a current mid budget phone is equalent of 2 yr old gen iPhone while a basic budget phone is equal to 4 yr old gen iPhone .

[boniver]

I've just started using a brand new 2018 Samsung Note 9 as my primary device. My other phone is a 2018 OnePlus 6T that I use for navigation on my bike. I upgraded from a new iPhone 13 Mini that I couldn't tolerate for more than 6 months.

[Aviator_guy]

I am still using 2020 samsung s20 and find no compelling reason to upgrade, except battery life (which is issue with most Samsung phones).

[subie_socal]

I'm using a now 4 yr old Redmi K20 Pro (Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro in some markets). It was a value flagship at that time, and purely bought it for specs and custom rom support (which seems to be bleak in as HyperOS has added many restrictions in terms of bootloader unlocking). While many of my friends have upgraded 2 or even 3 phones in this same timeframe, I'm quite happy with my phone. Infact , I ditched my plans to upgrade and changed the battery. This extends atleast an year and a half or two for usability.

For smartphone or any electronic device to last long time, it should have quality build and internal components. Unfortunately, after COVID the quality of components have taken a nosedive and Indian market models are facing quality issues (due to favoring local vendors for components like motherboard).

Some features have trickled down to affordable segment like OIS on cameras, Wireless charging (in select phones), faster storage (an important component in ensuring sustained performance of the phone).

One thing that has changed in last 5 years is that, budget phones have become usable for atleast minumum 3 years. Same couldn't be said for earlier phones.

[Amrit@wheels]

Going with a previous year flagship is my approach to buying smartphones. Eagerly waiting for Oneplus 12 to launch so that I can bag the 11 for a juicy price. Also, the Nothing Phone 2a has caught my attention.

[AJ56]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

I have an Apple iPhone 8 plus that was originally launched in 2017 and it was priced at Rs. 73,000. I also happen to have the 2023 Samsung Galaxy M13 5G priced at a modest Rs. 12,000.

It should be interesting to compare this old flagship smartphone with the latest entry-level smartphone to see how quickly smartphone technology has progressed.

Some good points, but iPhone 8 Plus wasn’t a flagship back in 2017, it was the iPhone X. Now after 5 years you can get iPhone X’s for around the same price (10-12k if not less) than a new entry level android phone.

Also, functions and features are about half of the entire phone experience. The other half is the build quality, materials used and fit and finish. Just like with cars. No way one can replicate things like stainless steel or how solid a device feels compared with the cheap phones, even a decade from now this won’t change.

While X just lost support with iOS 17, if looking for the best value, buying 1 year old flagship iPhones at half the price is the way to go assuming one is ok with a used device.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by AJ56

Some good points, but iPhone 8 Plus wasn’t a flagship back in 2017, it was the iPhone X.

I made an error on the other end too. M13 5G was launched in 2022 and not in 2023 as I originally assumed. One error cancels out the other. Because 2023 and now 2024 entry level phones might have even more significant improvements in display, features, performance & camera quality, and can probably match the iPhone X experience.

Also, functions and features are about half of the entire phone experience. The other half is the build quality, materials used and fit and finish. Just like with cars. No way one can replicate things like stainless steel or how solid a device feels compared with the cheap phones, even a decade from now this won’t change.

But once we put a case on, which majority of us would do, the in-hand feel of a phone goes out of the equation.

Now after 5 years you can get iPhone X’s for around the same price (10-12k if not less) than a new entry level android phone. While X just lost support with iOS 17, if looking for the best value, buying 1 year old flagship iPhones at half the price is the way to go assuming one is ok with a used device.

No contest actually. That's why we have option 4 in the poll.