Are flagship phones still worth their price?

It seemed like only a few years ago that in order for one to get top-of-the-line specs and features, you'd have to really break the bank [see: P30,000-P40,000] to get it. Big time manufacturers like Samsung, Sony, LG, and HTC have made a lucrative business out of selling what they term as the best of the best, with various selling points: larger HD screens, more memory, higher processor, more processor cores, long battery life, better camera, etc. From hardware specs, to unique, although sometimes gimmicky features, manufacturers seem to keep on putting every bell and whistle in the book everytime a flagship is announced.

For the past year or so, though, local brands and manufacturers like Asus, Huawei, and ZTE have tilted the landscape quite a bit, by offering either a "close enough" experience to just flat out flagship experience for a fraction of the cost. From Cherry Mobile offering an annual iteration of their Flare series to myPhone countering with their Rio line, more and more people are getting the opportunity to have a great Android experience. 

For me, it started when Asus released their first Zenfone line which was received warmly and was given glowing reviews by most users. Now, even an international brand is starting the trend, and raises the question: Why break your budget when you can get this for something that would not dent your budget as much?

The Asus Zenfone 5 changed a lot of perception about mid-range priced smartphones.

This year, the argument is even more heated as other manufacturers like OnePlus, Asus, and Huawei upped their game. Even the local brands, which used to lord the budget smartphone market are in for a fight, and it seems to me that they are responding with enticing offers of their own.

As of today, Cherry Mobile has done a Lazada-exclusive release of the Cubix Cube, which I think is the cheapest smartphone in the market to sport an octa-core processor AND 2GB of RAM for only P4,490. Partner that with a discount code from Lazada [which depending on the date, may range from 200 to 500 pesos], and you can get this as low as P4,000. Really good deal, if you're not too brand conscious. Of course, there are caveats like a relatively small battery, and/or camera performance which is passable, but not eye popping. Then again, for the price, it's a tempting option.

Lazada-exclusive offer from Cherry Mobile

New brands such as SKK, Firefly and the like are releasing their own models to take their share of the smartphone market. Here are some phones which are worth a peep. Some have already been released, while some are just on the to-be-released phase, which should be within the next month or two.

SKK Lynx
Cherry Mobile Flare X
Firefly Allure 64 LTE
myPhone Rio 2
Huawei Honor 4X
Asus Zenfone 2

Surely, some of these phones don't have some "flagship exclusive" features like fingerprint readers, NFC, 4K video recording and display, but then again, these are mostly add-ons which you can live without for the most part [and even some of these features are now offered by these other brands].

Final Thoughts

While I think that flagship phones are still here to stay, with all the reveal events, press conferences, and the hype trains to ride along with, but the average joe should not feel too left out as more and more well-specced phones enter the market to grab their share of the smartphone pie. 

There is also the question of durability and quality control on these other local brands, which scares off some potential buyers. That's up to these brands to improve on, with their repair lead times, and after sales service, but for the actual devices themselves, they are looking pretty good and have caught up quite nicely with the top-tier counterparts.