When I bought my Galaxy S8+ in end October 2017 it was the most expensive phone I've ever purchased. It was valued around $880 equivalent in INR at the time but I only paid $500 owing to some cashback on my credit card and buy back offer on my S7 Edge from Samsung. It was a good deal and I went with it.

In my experience S8+ has been the best smartphone I've ever used. It has lasted travels across 16-17 countries, clicked thousands of photos, been dropped a few times but hasn't taken any damage (i've shitty slim case courtesy Samsung which I didn't replace this time), the build quality is great. Additionally, I've also recovered my investment on the phone ages ago.

But recently when I saw the prices for some of the new phones such as the Galaxy fold priced at $2000 which is a bit more than my Macbook Pro. I really think this is getting a bit ridiculous now if it wasn't already!

Source

I think a pair price for a good phone with all the features should be somewhere in the $500-$750 with the latter being top of the line stuff. Given how rapidly technology is changing, manufacturers aren't exactly looking to provide customers will long-term value.

Apple which dominated the smartphone scene once isn't quite up there, with many competitors flooding the market with top notch devices at more value for money pricing.

Infact, if it wasn't for the excellent ownership experience with the S8+ I would've probably moved to Apple or OnePlus. I'm hoping towards the end of this year the S10+ would be a proven phone with a heavy discount of some sort as I would like to upgrade to it at around that time.

Anyway, let's get back to the price and have a quick poll. How much are you willing to spend on a smartphone purchase in 2019 and how would you justify the expenditure if it's a really expensive unit?

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Upto $250/INR 17600 (41.67%) 5 / 12 Upto $500/INR 35200 (41.67%) 5 / 12 Upto $750/INR 52750 (8.33%) 1 / 12 I'm a whale and $2000 is peanuts to me (8.33%) 1 / 12