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The biggest difference between budget and flagship is the camera, which is very important to a lot of people. There are a lot of people on hacker news (myself

The biggest difference between budget and flagship is the camera, which is very important to a lot of people. There are a lot of people on hacker news (myself included) who hardly ever use their phone cameras and tend to forget that this is such a critical feature to so many people. My personal reason for using flagship devices is simply because I use my phone an absurd amount. If you're using something for hours every day, marginal speed and quality of life improvements add up.

phjesusthatguy3 7y ago
I'm on a second-hand Oneplus One, and I use it for a TOTP client and Firefox. The camera sucks. It's much worse than the Epson digital camera I bought 18 years ago. That said, it suits my uses absurdly well. I have no reason to replace it.
davchana 7y ago
Well I used $200 Honor 7 for 3 years, most of the regular non vacation days I didn't carry my Canon Canera, but used Honor phone camera only. Then because of battery degradation, I bought $200 RealMe Pro 2, again using its camera & phone for a year now. Saw an ad for UMIDIGI S3 Pro for $249 with NFC on Amazon, but camera is literally shit, with photos having water drop patches, so returned it.
- hakfoo 7y ago
  Gotta say, that's been Umidigi's one weak point. I've got a F1 Play which hits most of my buttons-- cavernous battery, Micro-SD and 3.5mm sockets, and USB-C, but the camera has a distinct "We set the focus at one specific point about 2 metres away and nothing else is ever going to be sharp" compromise. I've tried Open Camera to no avail; perhaps it needs some sort of manual aperture control.
  - davchana 7y ago
    Yes, true that. I also used Open Camera too, focus was fine only if I breath in before pressing the shutter. Even then, there were marks on photo like wet water drops on a piece of paper.
- gjash 7y ago
  I have this Umidigi S3 Pro and it takes great pictures.
linuxftw 7y ago
Cameras are important to most people in the way that shoes are important to most people. You can take perfectly fine photos with budget phones. In any case, I have a lot of friends with phones much more expensive than mine. Their photos aren't that great.

phjesusthatguy3 7y ago

I'm on a second-hand Oneplus One, and I use it for a TOTP client and Firefox. The camera sucks. It's much worse than the Epson digital camera I bought 18 years ago. That said, it suits my uses absurdly well. I have no reason to replace it.

davchana 7y ago

Well I used $200 Honor 7 for 3 years, most of the regular non vacation days I didn't carry my Canon Canera, but used Honor phone camera only. Then because of battery degradation, I bought $200 RealMe Pro 2, again using its camera & phone for a year now. Saw an ad for UMIDIGI S3 Pro for $249 with NFC on Amazon, but camera is literally shit, with photos having water drop patches, so returned it.

hakfoo 7y ago
Gotta say, that's been Umidigi's one weak point. I've got a F1 Play which hits most of my buttons-- cavernous battery, Micro-SD and 3.5mm sockets, and USB-C, but the camera has a distinct "We set the focus at one specific point about 2 metres away and nothing else is ever going to be sharp" compromise. I've tried Open Camera to no avail; perhaps it needs some sort of manual aperture control.
- davchana 7y ago
  Yes, true that. I also used Open Camera too, focus was fine only if I breath in before pressing the shutter. Even then, there were marks on photo like wet water drops on a piece of paper.
gjash 7y ago
I have this Umidigi S3 Pro and it takes great pictures.

linuxftw 7y ago

Cameras are important to most people in the way that shoes are important to most people. You can take perfectly fine photos with budget phones. In any case, I have a lot of friends with phones much more expensive than mine. Their photos aren't that great.