This article is 6 years old. I wonder how much smaller the difference between a $100 Android and a $1300 iPhone (or Android flagship) is now? Especially if you were to choose a Chinese brand like Oppo instead. I guess the $100 display and camera will be massively better than 6 years ago, while the top end will have had only incremental changes.
Why not just a $100 iPhone? That's about what I paid for my brand new iPhone SE2 from a budget pre-paid carrier a few years ago... right now you can get a brand new SE3 on the TracFone website for $189. Spec wise it's basically an iPhone 13 and is still a fast modern phone that is sold new and is expected to get updates for about 9 more years.<p>Personally the cost isn't an issue but I prefer the SE2/SE3 design to the flagship phones- you get nearly all of the performance but in a smaller, lighter, more durable body, and with a physical button and a fingerprint sensor.
I skimmed it without even realizing the date of the article. It's remarkable how even content on dated tech like this still feels fresh due to the same underlying problems.
while someone writes an updated version of this, my observations for the past 6 years on both fronts:<p>- the superficial feature gaps are lower than ever, and some aspects being better for the budget side (e.g. iphone 16 still with 60Hz display vs 90hz on a redmi a3)<p>- the flexibility with ios is reaching a tipping point (usb-c, altstore in the EU, etc.). meanwhile android ad revenue approaches are getting more egregious by the quarter.<p>- the repair ecosystem for iphones are (arguably) consistently better than budget android phones now. components would still cost a new budget android to change, however.<p>- iphones maintain their resale values, although refurbished marketplace is partially to blame for the continued success recently.<p>for basic use, now more than ever phones can last you for several years, provided the one you use serves your needs <i>today</i>. obviously, a 10x more expensive phone will not last you proportionally longer.
I am typing this on a €100 that I use daily. Whenever I need a phone I typically buy whatever Xiaomi released in my price range the previous months. I mostly end up with a Poco (I loved the Poco X3). Currently using a budget Redmi device.
This article was written in 2018... Android one is long dead, now the owners of inexpensive Android phones again have to guarantee that they will ever receive security fixes or updates.