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What do people buy $1000 smartphones for? For gaming I can get a pretty good gaming PC for that amount, or Xbox One X with a VR headset. I've never seen anybod

What do people buy $1000 smartphones for? For gaming I can get a pretty good gaming PC for that amount, or Xbox One X with a VR headset. I've never seen anybody do anything really cool with their phone - everyone browses the internet, checks the email, does chats/videochats, maps, take photos, and some silly mobile gaming. I do that all on my sub $200 phone.

tlholaday 9y ago
> What do people buy $1000 smartphones for? Consider the iPhone X a smartcamera instead of a smartphone. Consider the "portraits in low light" at the end of the side-by-side comparison section that Vanessa Hand Orellana and Lexy Savvides did for CNET here: https://www.cnet.com/news/iphone-x-vs-iphone-8-plus-is-the-camera-worth-the-money/ https://www.cnet.com/news/iphone-x-vs-iphone-8-plus-is-the-c...
- olegkikin 9y ago
  If I want a low-light camera, I will buy a DSLR/mirrorless, and no smartphone comes even close to something like Sony A7s (~$1100 used). I used to do commercial portrait photography, so I know. I also dislike the fake background blur / bokeh trend. I understand why the companies are doing it, but it's insanely hard to implement it right, and no phone has achieved it. Every time there's hair involved, they all fail.
  - piptastic 9y ago
    Maybe for a specific event, but carrying around a DSLR everywhere you go is no fun. For candid shots, or traveling without carrying around a backpack everywhere, a phone that can take amazing pictures is awesome.
  - valuearb 9y ago
    My DSLR is terrible at browsing the web and getting my emails. Don't get me started on trying to play angry birds on it.
dfabulich 9y ago
JS-heavy sites are night-and-day faster on iOS, thanks primarily to faster CPUs (which is mostly due to better L2/L3 caches). The iPhone X has 8MB of L2 cache; your sub $200 phone likely has no L2 at all. Even high end Android phones have, at most, 1MB of L2 cache. This shows up pretty clearly in Speedometer scores. https://browser.geekbench.com/ios-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/ios-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/android-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/android-benchmarks
- andrewmcwatters 9y ago
  As devices get faster, developers use more compute budget, leaving other devices in the dust. Developers write code against high-end devices.
  - walterbell 9y ago
    Not if their site needs a large audience, e.g. ecommerce.
    - ghettoimp 9y ago
      You would think so. But man, even sites like newegg and amazon would drag terribly on my old phone. And many news sites were sooo painful with all their ads.
- PacketPaul 9y ago
  Can you post a few links of websites that are painfully slow on low end machines? I would like to test with my Son’s $64 Android vs my iPhone X.
  - always_good 9y ago
    Try browsing the web on your son's phone at all. You'll find that just about every website is slower to begin with.
- pier25 9y ago
chrisper 9y ago
I used to like sub $200 phones as well. However, I prefer something more expensive for the better build quality. However, not $1000 more expensive.
Jonnax 9y ago
Because it's a nice device? Fast, sleek, good camera, stylish etc Why do people buy nice cars instead of the cheapest, most economical models?
- ex3ndr 9y ago
  To be honest more expensive car are miles ahead of a cheap one in many ways: usability, drive support systems, safety, etc. After owning fresh Mercedes C-Class i started to fear economical cars much much more than crazy BMW next to me since the last one is most likely will be able to stop in the case of emergency than a cheaper one.
- olegkikin 9y ago
  I understand it's "fast", but what do you use that speed for to justify spending so much more money? I understand if you're so wealthy, you're willing to pay $800 more to open Facebook a second faster than me, but I don't get why an average person would do something like that.
umanwizard 9y ago
I bought it because $1000 is not a large expense for me and I use my phone all day long so I prefer to have the nicest experience possible (for me that means the best iOS device, for someone else it might mean the best Android device on the market). For middle class people in the first world (and upper middle class people in China), spending $1000 every 1-3 years is not enough to make a meaningful dent on finances.
valuearb 9y ago
A phone is used hours every day. If you buy a $200 phone, it costs around 20 cents per hour of use. If you buy an iPhone X, it’s goung to cost around 50 cents per hour of use. The $20@ phone is worth zero on 2 years, the iphone will retain about half its value.
snuxoll 9y ago
Why does anybody buy an $800 graphics card when it will be obsolete in under two years? Because they plan on dealing with it being outpaced by newer hardware but not by enough to care about upgrading for a generation or two in most cases. This is why I’m still rocking my iPhone 7+, I don’t know if I’ll upgrade to the 9 when it comes out at this point because the phone still runs great - just like I plan on skipping Volta since I just bought a 1080 Ti and there’s not a game in the world that taxes it enough yet at 1440P.
- na85 9y ago
  And yet I'm still rocking my $350 Oneplus after two years. Future proofing and spending exorbitant amounts of money do not necessarily have to go hand in hand. It's ok to admit you spent the apple premium because you like apple phones.
- olegkikin 9y ago
  An $800 graphics card has an immediate use case: high FPS for games at high resolutions and high settings. Which is very important in competitive gaming, for instance. I don't see such a use case for a $1000 smartphone. What important task does it solve that a $300-400 phone doesn't? A slightly better camera, slightly smoother scrolling, slightly faster web page rendering. None of that impresses me in the slightest, these improvements are marginal.
  - snuxoll 9y ago
    Camera is hugely important to me, as is web browsing performance - the two tasks I use my phone most heavily for. In fact, these are the only two reasons I jumped from my iPhone 6+ to the 7+. You can find a decent phone for $400 these days, but there's always tradeoffs and I'm not willing to compromise (and to be honest, I have an investment in the Apple ecosystem, so unless I plan on figuring out an entirely new workflow there's not much choice for $400 phones right now).
    - olegkikin 9y ago
      That's what I don't get. Which websites are radically slower on iphone 6+ compared to 7+? And the camera - what use case are you talking about? Taking family photos to post on Facebook? If so, how is that "hugely important"? Taking professional photos?
wmil 9y ago
GearVR is really good for watching movies on flights.

tlholaday 9y ago

> What do people buy $1000 smartphones for? Consider the iPhone X a smartcamera instead of a smartphone. Consider the "portraits in low light" at the end of the side-by-side comparison section that Vanessa Hand Orellana and Lexy Savvides did for CNET here: https://www.cnet.com/news/iphone-x-vs-iphone-8-plus-is-the-camera-worth-the-money/ https://www.cnet.com/news/iphone-x-vs-iphone-8-plus-is-the-c...

olegkikin 9y ago
If I want a low-light camera, I will buy a DSLR/mirrorless, and no smartphone comes even close to something like Sony A7s (~$1100 used). I used to do commercial portrait photography, so I know. I also dislike the fake background blur / bokeh trend. I understand why the companies are doing it, but it's insanely hard to implement it right, and no phone has achieved it. Every time there's hair involved, they all fail.
- piptastic 9y ago
  Maybe for a specific event, but carrying around a DSLR everywhere you go is no fun. For candid shots, or traveling without carrying around a backpack everywhere, a phone that can take amazing pictures is awesome.
- valuearb 9y ago
  My DSLR is terrible at browsing the web and getting my emails. Don't get me started on trying to play angry birds on it.

dfabulich 9y ago

JS-heavy sites are night-and-day faster on iOS, thanks primarily to faster CPUs (which is mostly due to better L2/L3 caches). The iPhone X has 8MB of L2 cache; your sub $200 phone likely has no L2 at all. Even high end Android phones have, at most, 1MB of L2 cache. This shows up pretty clearly in Speedometer scores. https://browser.geekbench.com/ios-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/ios-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/android-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/android-benchmarks

andrewmcwatters 9y ago
As devices get faster, developers use more compute budget, leaving other devices in the dust. Developers write code against high-end devices.
- walterbell 9y ago
  Not if their site needs a large audience, e.g. ecommerce.
  - ghettoimp 9y ago
    You would think so. But man, even sites like newegg and amazon would drag terribly on my old phone. And many news sites were sooo painful with all their ads.
PacketPaul 9y ago
Can you post a few links of websites that are painfully slow on low end machines? I would like to test with my Son’s $64 Android vs my iPhone X.
- always_good 9y ago
  Try browsing the web on your son's phone at all. You'll find that just about every website is slower to begin with.
pier25 9y ago

chrisper 9y ago

I used to like sub $200 phones as well. However, I prefer something more expensive for the better build quality. However, not $1000 more expensive.

Jonnax 9y ago

Because it's a nice device? Fast, sleek, good camera, stylish etc Why do people buy nice cars instead of the cheapest, most economical models?

ex3ndr 9y ago
To be honest more expensive car are miles ahead of a cheap one in many ways: usability, drive support systems, safety, etc. After owning fresh Mercedes C-Class i started to fear economical cars much much more than crazy BMW next to me since the last one is most likely will be able to stop in the case of emergency than a cheaper one.
olegkikin 9y ago
I understand it's "fast", but what do you use that speed for to justify spending so much more money? I understand if you're so wealthy, you're willing to pay $800 more to open Facebook a second faster than me, but I don't get why an average person would do something like that.

umanwizard 9y ago

I bought it because $1000 is not a large expense for me and I use my phone all day long so I prefer to have the nicest experience possible (for me that means the best iOS device, for someone else it might mean the best Android device on the market). For middle class people in the first world (and upper middle class people in China), spending $1000 every 1-3 years is not enough to make a meaningful dent on finances.

valuearb 9y ago

A phone is used hours every day. If you buy a $200 phone, it costs around 20 cents per hour of use. If you buy an iPhone X, it’s goung to cost around 50 cents per hour of use. The $20@ phone is worth zero on 2 years, the iphone will retain about half its value.

snuxoll 9y ago

Why does anybody buy an $800 graphics card when it will be obsolete in under two years? Because they plan on dealing with it being outpaced by newer hardware but not by enough to care about upgrading for a generation or two in most cases. This is why I’m still rocking my iPhone 7+, I don’t know if I’ll upgrade to the 9 when it comes out at this point because the phone still runs great - just like I plan on skipping Volta since I just bought a 1080 Ti and there’s not a game in the world that taxes it enough yet at 1440P.

na85 9y ago
And yet I'm still rocking my $350 Oneplus after two years. Future proofing and spending exorbitant amounts of money do not necessarily have to go hand in hand. It's ok to admit you spent the apple premium because you like apple phones.
olegkikin 9y ago
An $800 graphics card has an immediate use case: high FPS for games at high resolutions and high settings. Which is very important in competitive gaming, for instance. I don't see such a use case for a $1000 smartphone. What important task does it solve that a $300-400 phone doesn't? A slightly better camera, slightly smoother scrolling, slightly faster web page rendering. None of that impresses me in the slightest, these improvements are marginal.
- snuxoll 9y ago
  Camera is hugely important to me, as is web browsing performance - the two tasks I use my phone most heavily for. In fact, these are the only two reasons I jumped from my iPhone 6+ to the 7+. You can find a decent phone for $400 these days, but there's always tradeoffs and I'm not willing to compromise (and to be honest, I have an investment in the Apple ecosystem, so unless I plan on figuring out an entirely new workflow there's not much choice for $400 phones right now).
  - olegkikin 9y ago
    That's what I don't get. Which websites are radically slower on iphone 6+ compared to 7+? And the camera - what use case are you talking about? Taking family photos to post on Facebook? If so, how is that "hugely important"? Taking professional photos?

wmil 9y ago

GearVR is really good for watching movies on flights.