The £500-£600 price band

Dirk Diggler · 20 Sep 2017 at 16:32

Apple and Google have officially raised the bar in terms of price, and I have no intention of going to £1k for a phone. I have no idea how anyone can justify the hike, and it's little wonder to me that the UK is heading for another debt crisis.

For those who are intent on sticking to the "old" high end price bracket, where do you see your money being spent? What handset will you be going for in this new age of taking a mortgage out to buy a phone? Obviously this is an Android choice only, so what's on offer? I paid £540 for my current 32GB Pixel and would like to invest roughly the same amount when I upgrade, which looks like it'll be next year.

Anyone done any research into best value for money at this price point?

**Edit**

I like to buy my handset outright and maintain a SIM only plan, and it's actually a total PITA trying to get phones listed by cost as all the retailers list them by monthly contract cost, which can be subsidised in all sorts of hidden ways. Would be good to have a resource of actual handset costs?

Nexus18 · 20 Sep 2017 at 16:53

Probably GS 8 will get my money instead of the new pixel's, not stock android so no guaranteed or fast updates but for about £500, the overall package is decent.

Saying that if I could get the current pixel for £300-350 any time soon, that would be good enough till next year or so.

Dirk Diggler · 20 Sep 2017 at 16:55

Nexus18 said:
Probably GS 8 will get my money instead of the new pixel's, not stock android so no guaranteed or fast updates but for about £500, the overall package is decent.

Saying that if I could get the current pixel for £300-350 any time soon, that would be good enough till next year or so.

I'm sure CPW had the original Pixel at £350 as recently as last week, so keep an eye out.

sesevans · 20 Sep 2017 at 17:14

Nexus18 said:
Probably GS 8 will get my money instead of the new pixel's, not stock android so no guaranteed or fast updates but for about £500, the overall package is decent.

Saying that if I could get the current pixel for £300-350 any time soon, that would be good enough till next year or so.

The Verge had a comment earlier on the price of admission going up in an article "We are the ones making the iPhone and Pixel more expensive". They say that "differentiation now costs more so phones cost more."
For example (some UK and some US prices):
The Huawei P9 cost £ 449 in the UK in 2016 but this year's P10 starts at £ 569, up 26%.
The OnePlus 3 was $ 399 in 2016 while the OnePlus 5 starts at $ 479, up 20%.
The Galaxy Note 7 was $ 849 in 2016 but the Note 8 costs $ 930 at a minimum (+10%).
The iPhone 7 Plus of 2016 ranged in price from $ 769 to $ 969 and now the iPhone X starts at $ 999, up 30%.
The Pixel of 2016 was $ 769 or $ 869, depending on memory storage and this week's leak suggests the 2017 edition will be more expensive at $ 849 and $949, up 10%.

For example, that hard-to-manufacture OLED display with reduced bezels clearly costs more when Samsung sells it to Apple or Google. To push people to spend more, a strong brand is essential. Apple clearly has a very loyal following. Samsung too. Google's is clearly growing.

Interesting prediction from The Verge: "Google will still have struggles to sate an even higher demand for its new Pixel generation this year, higher prices be damned."

Dirk Diggler · 20 Sep 2017 at 17:18

@Nexus18 Actually, CPW aren't doing a Pixel any more and have heavy reduction on remaining XL stock. 32GB Black for £449. Not sure if that's any use to you?

Nexus18 · 20 Sep 2017 at 18:42

String said:
I'm sure CPW had the original Pixel at £350 as recently as last week, so keep an eye out.

Thanks for the heads up but pixel XL is too large for my pockets!

Plus, rather get it from google or amazon for the better CS. CPW are terrible

I would hold on to my n5x for a bit longer as it is doing the job fine but don't want to be stuck with a ticking time bomb (inevitable bootloop)

FishLicker · 20 Sep 2017 at 21:15

I think the future for those who refuse to part with more than the previous high end devices are either going to have to content themselves with one of the Chinese phones, or my most likely choice which will be either end of life / second hand flagships (say 12 months old) such as the PXL above.

cu3ed · 21 Sep 2017 at 10:31

LG V30 most likely...have a V20 and really like using it so should be a step up though losing the IR blaster...that I do use daily.

Though, saying that, ill wait as LG prices usually drop off quite quickly.

Also, I see a HUGE opportunity for Nokia 9 here, prices being jacked up for no real reason, if Nokia can keep teh regular high end price, and get the Nokia 9 out with decent high end specs etc, that would tempt me away.

Cleisthenes · 21 Sep 2017 at 10:58

cu3ed said:
LG V30 most likely...have a V20 and really like using it so should be a step up though losing the IR blaster...that I do use daily.

Though, saying that, ill wait as LG prices usually drop off quite quickly.

Also, I see a HUGE opportunity for Nokia 9 here, prices being jacked up for no real reason, if Nokia can keep teh regular high end price, and get the Nokia 9 out with decent high end specs etc, that would tempt me away.

It's a definitely a good opportunity for Nokia to get some market share back. I'd certainly consider one of their phones if they did a One Plus and offered a great phone for a more realistic price.

biron_w · 21 Sep 2017 at 11:03

Cleisthenes said:
It's a definitely a good opportunity for Nokia to get some market share back. I'd certainly consider one of there phones if they did a One Plus and offered a great phone for a more realistic price.

£499 for the Nokia 8 is a pretty good price IMO.

Dirk Diggler · 20 Oct 2017 at 05:16

FishLicker said:
I think the future for those who refuse to part with more than the previous high end devices are either going to have to content themselves with one of the Chinese phones, or my most likely choice which will be either end of life / second hand flagships (say 12 months old) such as the PXL above.

This is exactly what I ended up doing this year; Pixel XL for £399 from CPW. Someone mentioned poor CS from CPW, but with the Pixel the warranty is direct with Google so no issues there.

I could sell this on after a year, with the second hand buyer getting the remaining year's warranty with the phone, and then get myself another flagship that's a year old for half the original price.

Hardware advances from year to year are becoming miniscule and judging by the early reviews of the Pixel 2 XL, I may actually have ended up with a better phone here!

Tunney · 20 Oct 2017 at 07:36

String said:
Obviously this is an Android choice only, so what's on offer?

It doesn't have to be. Apple sell three phones (SE, 6S and 7) all in the region of £500.

FishLicker · 20 Oct 2017 at 11:07

String said:
This is exactly what I ended up doing this year; Pixel XL for £399 from CPW. Someone mentioned poor CS from CPW, but with the Pixel the warranty is direct with Google so no issues there.

I could sell this on after a year, with the second hand buyer getting the remaining year's warranty with the phone, and then get myself another flagship that's a year old for half the original price.

Hardware advances from year to year are becoming miniscule and judging by the early reviews of the Pixel 2 XL, I may actually have ended up with a better phone here!

Must admit I fancied the Pixel XL 2, and my finger was hovering over the buy button, but then I read about the screen issues. Some people are now trying to downplay this. Well, I'm sorry but for £800 that doesn't really wash does it? You probably made the right move. I do fancy a pure Google device, always liked them, but in reality, I've Google-fied my S7 Edge anyway, so it looks and works basically the same - I know it wont be as fast but its not exactly slow either, and I bet it has a better screen still than the PXL2

Rimsy · 20 Oct 2017 at 12:12

The HTC U11 is in my opinion by far the best sub £600 phone.. really puzzled why its not more popular! Had mine since June and its been utterly brilliant

FishLicker · 20 Oct 2017 at 12:33

Rimsy said:
The HTC U11 is in my opinion by far the best sub £600 phone.. really puzzled why its not more popular! Had mine since June and its been utterly brilliant

HTC seem to be one of these companies that QUIETLY get on with making very decent phones, then failing to market them in any meaningful way despite them being actually pretty good. I'm not a fan of the Sense interface still though - its light enough so it's by all accounts very quick still but aesthetically its not so good. Can you theme it these days to look stock?

Rimsy · 20 Oct 2017 at 21:13

FishLicker said:
HTC seem to be one of these companies that QUIETLY get on with making very decent phones, then failing to market them in any meaningful way despite them being actually pretty good. I'm not a fan of the Sense interface still though - its light enough so it's by all accounts very quick still but aesthetically its not so good. Can you theme it these days to look stock?

Coming from a nexus 6p to a U11 the difference in the settings screen is negligible. I ran Nova Launcher on both anyway but the U11 feels pretty damn close to stock.
Just dissapointed they have jumped on the utterly pointless 18:9 bandwagon with the U11plus but I guess everyone needs a long phone these days....

Dandle · 22 Oct 2017 at 22:17

I am in the market for a new phone around the same price. I was looking at the HTC U11 128/6gb ram which should keep it snappy. That can be had for £580 of the HTC site if you join their club. The only thing that stopped me was the Nov2 announcement for the U11 plus which hopefully won't be that much more.