Last week, Samsung officially announced the Galaxy Note 8, and the device is exactly what we expected it to be: A powerful, high-end smartphone with a big display and an S Pen. Yes, it is similar to the Galaxy S8+, but that's not a bad thing. A friend of mine said the Galaxy Note 8 looks like a "more beautiful" Galaxy S8+, which doesn't really make any sense to me, but he's a fan and that's all that matters.
The other thing that Samsung did was also confirm that smartphones are getting more expensive.
Which isn't too surprising. We've been watching it happen. There's already a Galaxy S8 variant out there that breaks the $1,000 barrier. And even before the Galaxy Note 8 launched with its ~$940 price tag, the rumor mill has been painting a pretty clear picture that the next flagship iPhone will be priced somewhere around the same ballpark.
Indeed, the latest rumor pointed to the iPhone 8, or whatever Apple calls it, costing $999 out of the gate. Depending on storage options that means there could be a variant that costs $1,199. That's not exactly cheap, to say the least. But it appears to be the trend. Motorola's latest flagship phone was pointed out for its price tag, too.
This has always sort of felt inevitable, honestly. As companies have made better phones and the technology has improved, raising prices were always possible. At the same time, and basically on the same side of the coin, is the fact that smartphones have proven their worth and are vital to people's lives. Companies know they can charge more, so why not, right?
The best part of all this is the fact that the mid-range market has improved drastically. Companies have shown that they can create powerful devices that don't fit into the high-end demographic, but are certainly worth paying attention to. This is where the fact that technology has improved so much is great. We can get high definition displays, ridiculously fast processors, great cameras, and so on and so forth without having to break the bank account.
Sure, OnePlus hiked their prices a bit this year, but, still, it isn't anything similar to what Samsung and Apple and others are doing.
So here's my question to you. Are these raising prices pushing you towards mid-range smartphones? Or are you okay with the price tags going up? Let me know!
