As soon as we traverse into the Smartphone arena, the first thing you’ll see is the perennial discussion of budget compared to flagship phones. In smartphones terms, the flagship is a high-value phone that a specific company offers, packing powerful features, the newest software, and avant-garde design. On the other hand, a number of phones widely referred to as low end or budget phones offer the user a relatively gratifying experience at far less cost then their high end counterparts. In this article we will be trying to explain the differences between the budget and flagship phones, their pros and cons, and whether there is any huge gap between such devices or not.
What is the meaning of a budget and a flagship phone?
So let’s start off, with an understanding of what it is when we talk about budget and flagship phones.
Low cost Smartphones as the name suggests are normally mid-rangers that sell for quite low price but come armed with reasonable features and capabilities. Most of them might come with a dual core or quad core processor, with RAM that ranges from 2 GB to 4 GB and screen resolution of 720p or 1080p. As for the camera technologies, these phones’ rear-shooting camera resolutions are normally ranging at 8-12MP. It is usually produced with the average non-removable battery, of the capacity, which varies from 2500 mAh to 3000 mAh, and the average amount of built-in memory which may be from 16 to 64 GB. Xiaomi Redmi Note 10, Realme 8 phone and Motorola Moto G power phone are some of the best budget phones.
In contrast, a flagship is the state of the art smartphone which can provide the user with the best in terms of operating parameters that is available from a certain manufacturer. These phones have more cores the latest processors stark from Qualcomm snapdragon 888 up to Apple’s A-14 bionic, faster RAM from 6GB up to 16GB, and advanced camerawork from single to multiple lenses and high Megapixels from 12 MP up to 108 MP. Some of the latest display tech available to flagship phones is OLED, high refresh rates and high dynamic range. They are also packed with massive batteries: 4000mAh or above and boast higher storage options: 128GB to 512 GB. Smartphone giants in today’s market include Samsung, Apple, and OnePlus; there current top of the line models include Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max, and OnePlus 9 Pro respectively.
Performance
And when considering the capabilities of a budget and a flagship smartphone, there are differences. The top-tier mobile phones are likely to feature higher and capable processors that will ensure that the performance of the devices is smooth more so in aspect to handling multiple cores thus the rates of processing apps are higher. More RAM also comes in to play here, and with this, the terminal can multitask, and in general, be more efficient.
For instance, the OnePlus 9 Pro model features Snapdragon 888 and 8 GB RAM, and Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 featuring MediaTek Helio G95 and 6 GB RAM. Furthermore, these two phones differ in their general performance (they are faster multitasking).
But, most of required areas by modern society are done perfectly on low end phones such as browsing the web, email apps and social networks apps. This also makes them able to run heavy processes such as gaming, as long as the game is supported by mid level devices.
Camera Quality
Camera performance is amongst the most important things that has to be considered while selecting the mobile phone. The best smartphone camera hardware, algorithms and pixels to work with, the top tier smartphone. Most of these phones come with more than one camera: wide, ultra-wide, macro, telephoto lenses enhancing the flexibility of the phone.
This also packs improved low light and image processing, additional features including HDR and support for RAW images and better video stabilization. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has a quad camera module which includes a driver lens of 108MP, optical 3x and 10x zoom and 100x digital Space Zoom.
However, budget phones’ photographic performance, though not as stunning as its flagship phone counterparts, is good enough for its picture quality. They normally come with one or two cameras the main camera which is from 8 to 64MP. Consumer grade lenses have less of these features and the light performance may not be as good, but are fine if you use it all the time.
Display and Design
OLED panels have become the typical flagship phone staple but they’re high in resolution, refresh rate, and HDR support. They have slim borders, are more stylish and with the latest trends.
Unlike the budget smartphone, the LCD or IPS display on the budget smartphone has lesser pixel density, and slower refresh rate. It usually has a relatively big bezel and designs are much older than the ones on newer models. However, this does not mean that such devices lacks style; many models of cheap phones have rather beautiful designs with different colored schemes and some modern elements.
Battery Life
Battery life is another important consideration when looking for a phone and flag ships phones often have a better battery life compared to phones in the low end market. Most of them have higher battery capacity, which ranges from 4000mAh and above and better power optimization. This helps them to power more hours, several hours more than a day, especially if frequently used.
While in a budget phone manufacturers set battery capacities low, ranging between 2500mAh to 3000mAh, and have poor power management. This leads to shorter battery stand by time, which in some phones can go for a day or less with fairly heavy usage. However, there’s a good news to this; some of the budget phones like the Motorola Moto G power have big battery sizes that can last upto 48 hours with minimum usage.
Software and Updates
Consequently, flagship phones run the latest version of the operating system and have such a long period of software and security being updated as well. This makes some extent that the phone itself and the applications it runs is protected and it can run for many hours as it can.
While there is nothing wrong with using a cheap Android phone and most of them do come with helpful software, one thing that’s noticeable is that cheap phones are normally associated with old software and this means that most of the time, the phones do not get to be updated with new software as often as you would expect them to be, or at all. This means that the phone can become obsolete much faster, and then have security flaws.
Conclusion
The differences between 2020 mid range, and high end smartphones are stark in case of system performance, camera or display, battery capacity and build quality, as well as OS and updates. These are the first in a series of products with the ability to perform complex tasks as well as using the latest technologies in smartphone production. Some of them possess more efficient processing cores, superior symmetric multiprocessing, advanced digicamera, higher resolution, longer duration battery, and less questionable system support.
But still the phones with low prices are suitable for users who are ready to have less good, but still comfortable use of the phone. They provide fair performance for generic operations, the camera is quite reasonable, and each router tends to come with a bigger battery. Some of them may not boast of some of the best features you find in today’s highly stylized and expensive smartphones but they will suffice for most users.
Finally, one’s need, pocket size and preference plays a big role in deciding if a budget phone or a high end phone should be chosen. A flagship phone will serve you right if you need performance off the roof and the most recent features. And if you are in search of a phone with relatively lower price but not wanting to compromise much of the feel of a phone, a budget phone is well suitable for your type.
