Huawei launched its flagship Huawei P40 series earlier this year in March. The devices launched with the company’s custom Android skin — EMUI 10 — based on Android 10. However, due to the trade ban imposed on the company by the U.S. government, the smartphones shipped with Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) and the Huawei AppGallery instead of Google Mobile Services and the Google Play Store. As an alternative to the Google Assistant, Huawei also announced its own Celia voice assistant at the launch but the devices did not ship with the new voice assistant when they initially went on sale.
Now, it seems like the Celia assistant will soon be added to the Huawei P40 series as the latest EMUI 10.1.0.121 update has started rolling out globally and it includes a new “Huawei Assistant” top-level setting with references to Celia. Currently, all of the options in this “Huawei Assistant” settings page go to existing settings for features like HiVision. But we believe a future update should bring support for the Celia voice assistant. The update, which weighs in at 1.14GB, also includes improvements for the camera and display, along with the Android security patches for April 2020.
For the unaware, the Celia voice assistant can be summoned with the command “Hey Celia”, or by holding the power button for a second. Celia can help you with regular daily tasks, such as initiating phone calls and texts, setting up calendar appointments and reminders, start voice recording, translate sentences, play music, videos, toggle device settings and flashlight, and of course, search for information such as sports, weather, and more. Celia is also compatible with HiVision AI Lens and AI touch-shopping. At the Huawei P40 series launch, the company had revealed that Celia would be released in the UK, France, Spain, Chile, Mexico, and Columbia with support for three languages, including English (UK), French, and Spanish. To learn more about Huawei’s Celia voice assistant and its features, you can visit the official product page by following this link.
It’s also worth noting that the Celia voice assistant will be rolled out to more Huawei and Honor devices with the EMUI 10.1 update. As per the EMUI 10.1 update roadmap shared by the company earlier this year, users should start receiving the update on supported devices in the following months.
Realme recently completed two years as an independent brand. Since its spin-off from OPPO, the company has aggressively launched new devices every month and this has allowed it to break its way into the top five smartphone brands in India. The company’s objective, however, is to be a tech lifestyle brand and this is why it is launching a new smartphone series for Gen-Z in India. The new Realme Narzo series includes two new phones – Narzo 10 and 10A – powered by MediaTek G series chipsets and focus on photography.
While Realme was supposed to launch these devices in March, the launch was delayed due to the COVID-19 lockdown in India. Both of these devices are rebranded versions of previously launched Realme devices with certain aesthetic changes.
Realme Narzo 10
The Realme Narzo 10 is the superior of the two models launching today. It is, in fact, a rebranded Realme 6i, which has already been launched in Europe. The phone is powered by the MediaTek Helio G80 chipset with a 4GB LPDDR4X RAM. It comes with a 128GB eMMC storage which can be further expanded with a microSD card for which the Realme Narzo 10 has a dedicated slot.
The Narzo 10 features a 6.5-inch HD+ display with Gorilla Glass on top. Realme did not specify the version of the Gorilla Glass protection. The back of the Realme Narzo 10 is made of polycarbonate with a satiny finish identical to the Realme X Master Edition. The phone comes in two colors called, That White and That Green.
When it comes to the cameras, the Realme Narzo 10 features a quad camera setup on the back comprising a 48MP primary sensor, an 8MP ultrawide sensor, a 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro camera. On the front, there’s a 16MP selfie camera.
In terms of the battery capacity, the Narzo 10 comes with a 5,000mAh battery along with support for 18W fast charging via the USB-C port.
In terms of software, the phone is running the company’s custom skin Realme UI which is based on Android 10.
Realme Narzo 10A
The younger sibling, Narzo 10A, also comes with a 6.5-inch HD+ display with Gorilla Glass 3 on top. This one is the rebranded version of the Thai variant of the Realme C3, which differs from the Indian Realme C3 (gaming review) and was launched in Thailand back in February. Realme has made changes to the back design of the SKU and the Realme Narzo 10A comes with a scratch-resistant polycarbonate body with a large Realme logo. The Realme Narzo 10A comes in two color variants – So White and So Blue.
The Narzo 10A features triple cameras including a 12MP primary camera, 2MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, there’s a 5MP selfie camera.
The phone comes with MediaTek Helio G70 chipset with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. It features a 5,000mAh battery but you may be limited to 10W charging via the microUSB port.
On the software front, the Realme Narzo 10A will also be running on Realme UI based on Android 10.
Realme Narzo 10 and Narzo 10A Specifications
Specification
Narzo 10
Narzo 10A
Dimension & Weight
164.4 x 75.4 x 9 mm
199g
164.4 x 75.0 x 8.95 mm
195g
Display
6.5″ IPS LCD
1600 x 720
Gorilla Glass
6.5″ IPS LCD
1600 x 720
Gorilla Glass 3
Security
Rear fingerprint sensor
Software-based face recognition
Rear fingerprint sensor
Software-based face recognition
System-on-Chip
MediaTek Helio G80
Mali-G52 GPU
MediaTek Helio G70
Mali-G52 GPU
RAM
4GB LPDD4X
3GB LPDDR4X
Storage
128GB eMMC
32GB eMMC
Battery & Charging
5,000 mAh
18W Fast Wired Charging
5,000 mAh
10W charging
Rear Camera
48MP Wide, f/1.8, 6P lens
8MP Ultra-Wide, 119°, f/2.25
2MP f/2.4 Macro Camera
2MP f/2.4 Depth Sensor
12MP Wide, f/1.8
2MP f/2.4 Macro Camera
2MP f/2.4 Depth Sensor
Front Camera
16MP
5MP
Software Version
Realme UI based on Android 10
Realme UI based on Android 10
Connectivity
4G LTE
2.4GHz Wi-Fi
USB Type-C
Bluetooth v5.0
4G LTE
2.4GHz Wi-Fi
microUSB
Bluetooth v5.0
Audio
Colors
That White, That Green
So White, So Blue
Pricing & Availability
The Realme Narzo 10 is priced at ₹11,999 in India while the Narzo 10 will be sold for ₹8,499. The former goes on first sale on May 18th while the 10A will be available for the first sale on May 22nd. Both of these devices will be available via Flipkart and Realme’s own online store.
Samsung kicked off its Android 10 update rollout with the Galaxy S10 series in October last year. The company then went on to update its other premium phones including the Galaxy Note 10, Galaxy S9 series, Galaxy Note 9 series. Samsung even released a roadmap detailing various mid-range and budget smartphones it had planned to update to One UI 2.0. As per the update roadmap, the company has been busy rolling out the Android 10 update to its mid-range and entry-level smartphones since the start of the year. Samsung recently rolled out One UI 2.0 with Android 10 to the Galaxy A10, Galaxy A20e, and Galaxy Xcover 4s. Now, the budget Galaxy A20 and Galaxy A20s have also joined the list.
The Galaxy A20 started receiving its One UI 2.0 update late last month and since then, the update has gone live in multiple countries including Russia, Vietnam, Chile, and the Philippines. The following Galaxy A20 variants are currently receiving update:
SM-A205F
SM-A205FN
SM-A205G
SM-A205GN
SM-A205YN
The Galaxy A20s is also getting the One UI 2.0 based Android 10 update in select markets. The update has gone live in Russia, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates and should be coming to more regions in the following weeks.
In terms of new features, the update brings along all the standard Android 10 goodies such as the system-wide dark mode, new navigation gestures, new Digital Wellbeing tools with parental controls as well as One UI 2.0 specific changes such as the revamped camera app, new One-Handed mode, redesigned icons, updated Samsung apps and much more. Along with the expected jump to Android 10, the update also includes the April 2020 security patches.
Notably, Indian owners of the Galaxy A20/A20s will have to wait for some time to get the update as Samsung has paused the One UI 2.0 rollout in India due to COVID 19.
At the Snapdragon Tech Summit in December last year, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 765 and Snapdragon 765G chipsets, alongside its flagship Snapdragon 865 SoC. The premium mid-range chips were manufactured on a 7nm EUV process from Samsung and were the first SoCs from the company to feature an integrated 5G modem (the Snapdragon X52). Much like the Snapdragon 730G from last year, the Snapdragon 765G was a gaming variant of the Snapdragon 765, featuring a slightly overclocked “prime” CPU code (@2.4GHz vs. 2.3GHz), a marginally overclocked GPU (15% speed binned Adreno 620), and support for some of the company’s Snapdragon Elite gaming features. Now, in a bid to offer even better performance in the mid-range segment, Qualcomm has announced the new Snapdragon 768G chipset.
The Snapdragon 768G is a direct successor to the Snapdragon 765G from last year and features the same architecture with some major performance improvements. Due to the fact that it’s based on the same architecture, the Snapdragon 768G is both pin and software compatible with the Snapdragon 765 and 765G, meaning that OEMs will be able to easily swap out the older chips in existing models with the new chip for a significant performance bump. Compared to the Snapdragon 765G, the new Snapdragon 768G offers the following improvements:
The Kryo 475 CPU “Prime: core has been overclocked to 2.8GHz (up from 2.4GHz)
The Adreno 620 GPU offers a 15% performance increase
Support for Adreno Updateable GPU Drivers
Support for Bluetooth version 5.2 (vs. Bluetooth 5.0 on the older chips)
We first heard about the new SoC earlier this month in a teaser for Xiaomi’s upcoming Redmi K30 5G “Speed Edition” and we can now confirm that it will be the first commercial device based on the new Snapdragon 768G mobile platform. The device is expected to feature support for dual-mode 5G (SA/NSA), a 120Hz high refresh rate display, and up to a 64MP primary camera.
In a press release regarding the Snapdragon 768G launch, Qualcomm also revealed that more than 375 5G devices have been announced or an in development with the company’s 5G mobile platforms. Out of these, more than 280 devices are based on Qualcomm’s second-generation 5G solutions, including the Snapdragon 765, Snapdragon 768G, and Snapdragon 865.
Live wallpapers have been available in Android since Eclair 2.1. In the past, live wallpapers mostly engaged hardcore users and theming enthusiasts because of hardware limitations of phones, high battery consumption due to a constantly animated background, and lackluster animations. However, with the advancements in smartphone hardware, the feature has attracted several more DIY enthusiasts who like to use ports of live wallpapers from phones like the Google Pixel 3 or the Pixel 4. Recently, Xiaomi took the same approach as Google has been taking since the OG Pixel and added two live “Super” wallpapers with an aerial view (with four different scenes) of the Earth and Mars in MIUI 12 (our hands-on). The wallpapers were very well received due to the popularity and the reach of the brand, as compared to Google.
Xiaomi’s “Super” wallpapers can also be installed on any Xiaomi or non-Xiaomi device. But if you find the availability of just four vistas limiting, we have Metropolis – an app that offers more than 100 different panoramas from different cities. The Metropolis app has been built upon the Unity 3D engine, which also drives popular mobile and desktop games.
The cities available in Metropolis are primarily from North America and Europe. The app includes noted landmarks such as the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Paris Las Vegas, and Bordeaux Cathedral. The live wallpapers in the app also support horizontal scrolling as you move from one page to another on the homescreen.
With the latest update, the developer has also added the zoom-in effects similar to Xiaomi’s Super Wallpapers. You can enable or disable the effect from the Settings. If you desire, you can also change the animation speed, the level of zoom, the parallax effect, and the speed of horizontal panning.
Metropolis Live Wallpaper Giveaway – 50 free unlock codes
Out of the 100+ scenes in the Metropolis Live Wallpaper app, nearly 50 are available free of cost while for the rest, you must watch an advertisement to unlock the wallpaper. There’s a paid version of the app which costs ₹250 (~$3.30) in which you’ll not have to bear with any ads.
The developer of the app, Justin Fincher, is giving away 50 free vouchers for anyone who wants to grab the Pro version of the app.
The process is simple – we’ll post the unlock codes in two sets of 25 each in the comments below. To unlock the app, you can go to Play Store, find Payment Methods in the sidebar, and then tap on Redeem. Here you can add the coupon code to Redeem the Pro version of Metropolis. Alternatively, you can go to the app’s settings and tap on “Get Pro” to avail the coupon directly.
We’re posting the first set of 25 codes in the comments and will be posting the other set tomorrow (Monday) morning around 9 a.m. Eastern Time. The developer has posted 50 additional codes in the XDA Forums thread linked below so make sure you check that out too.
In the early days of Android, smartphone wars amongst OEMs were solely about the spec sheet. Big numbers, fast numbers, many numbers — it was all a race to the top. The idea of a flagship was to throw as many things as you could together and present it to the consumer at a price that gave you a decent margin to operate. An attempt was made to undercut the next competitor, but not necessarily always, as flagships were not supposed to be price-conscious. These were the finest and the most important smartphones amongst the whole lineup, and OEMs were mighty proud of them.
Flagship Killers
Some of this pride was attacked in 2014 when OnePlus announced the OnePlus One. For just $299 / ₹21,999 for the base 16GB model, the OnePlus One offered a lot of the big numbers that competing flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S5, costing $599 / ₹51,500 off-contract, provided. There were a few compromises along the way, notably in the build, the camera and the display, but performance on this $299 phone was considered to be even better than that of the $599 phone. Thus was born the “Flagship Killer”, a term the community gave to the OnePlus One, for it was a phone that took away the shine from competing flagships. You no longer needed to pay top dollar just to get the best in terms of performance. Facilitated by the top of the line SoC and complementing RAM and storage technologies, the OnePlus One was a runaway success.
OnePlus came out with several phones after the OnePlus One, but there was a general price creep over the generations. This gradual bumping up of the price tag faded the allure off the Flagship Killer title, and somewhere along the way, OnePlus smartphones could no longer do complete justice to the Flagship Killer legacy of the OnePlus One.
A spiritual successor to the title came to us from a different OEM in 2018. POCO, a Xiaomi sub-brand back then, entered the Indian market with the POCO F1. The POCO F1 built upon the same principles that the OnePlus One had adopted — fast performance, but a mediocre display, a mediocre camera (but maybe not so mediocre after all), and a less-appealing build. The company and the audience embraced these compromises in lieu of getting flagship performance at a fraction of the flagship price. The POCO F1 started off at a price tag of ₹20,999 in India (~$380 equivalent in Europe), which was a fraction of the OnePlus 6‘s ₹34,999 / $529 launch price tag, and less than half of the Samsung Galaxy S9‘s ₹57,900 / $720 launch price tag.
Whether it be the OnePlus One or the POCO F1, the idea behind the “Flagship Killer” remained the same — provide the best, top-of-the-line SoC (usually from Qualcomm), complement it with other key advancements in RAM and storage technology, sprinkle it with a few other niceties as far as the budget allows, and deliver it at an affordable price tag of $300-$400 — that is a fraction of the price of other conventional and “premium” flagships. Flagship killers thus democratized flagship performance, a feature that used to remain exclusive to premium flagships, as they lowered the bar of affordability. For users that preferred function over form, flagship killers provided the best bang for their buck.
Make no mistakes — flagship killers were not perfect and they had their own compromises — but the judgment on these compromises was not as harsh, as their affordable price tag shielded them from direct harsh criticism when compared against premium flagships. In the price bracket of $300-$400, you really couldn’t complain a lot if you still got the best Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC onboard.
Flagships in 2020
While the definition of a flagship has remained somewhat constant over the years, the price envelope has continued to expand. $600 used to be enough for a flagship once upon a time, but constant tech innovation and increased consumer expectations have led us to this point where premium flagships cost as much as $1,400. Much of this price increase is because of more expensive build materials, much better displays, much better and even more cameras, and an increased focus on the cohesive smartphone ecosystem experience. But, in 2020, there is one particular component that has introduced a larger than usual bump in pricing YoY, and which might just be the reason why the Flagship Killer concept dies this year.
It’s the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 is the current flagship SoC from Qualcomm, incorporating all the latest and greatest in mobile chip technologies. Over the Snapdragon 855, the Snapdragon 865 boasts of 25% faster raw CPU performance, 20% faster graphics rendering, better sustained performance, 2x increase in AI performance, support for LPDDR5 memory, support for display with QHD+ resolution at 144Hz refresh rate, support for 8K @ 30fps videos, 4K HDR videos, support for processing images up to 200MP in size, and processing 64MP images with Zero Shutter Lag, and support for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1. That’s a long list of new features, but it isn’t uncommon to see such additions on a YoY basis. This is a flagship SoC after all, and it needs to stay a step ahead of the flagships themselves.
What is uncommon, however, is the jump up to 5G network technology as a mandatory upgrade, and we see it in the form of the Snapdragon X55 modem support. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 does not include any modem, not even one for LTE, which breaks away from the convention of recent years from Qualcomm.
Image Credit: ArsTechnica
As a result, as ArsTechnica points out, every phone company that intends to build a flagship with the Snapdragon 865 also absolutely needs to purchase the 5G-enabled Snapdragon X55 modem as well, as there is no integrated 4G modem to fall back on to keep things cheap. But just including the X55 modem does not guarantee full spectrum 5G access either. The Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF system includes compatible hardware modules for sub-6GHz 5G. For mmWave, you also need to purchase Qualcomm’s QTM525 or QTM527 antennae, likely in the multiples to keep things running seamlessly across phone orientations. The result is that phone OEMs have to purchase several new and expensive components to purposefully deliver on the new marketing buzzword of 5G.
As ArsTechnica also noted in their article, 5G will raise prices of the phones by approximately $200-$300. This price increase was mentioned in the context of Snapdragon 855-based 5G phones from OnePlus (the OnePlus 7T Pro 5G, as it would turn out). But with mandatory 5G in 2020, the same situation is seen across the entire current generation of Snapdragon 865 5G flagships.
Snapdragon 865 with mandatory 5G spells doom for Flagship Killers
There are multiple examples at this point, and the general trend has been the same — the Snapdragon 865 with 5G is expensive, and phones will get unusually more expensive compared to their predecessors.
The outlier here is the iQOO 3, but it is an exception because of two reasons: one, it is the cheapest Snapdragon 865 device in the market right, and two, it is the only one that comes in a 4G-only variant as well. The iQOO 3 5G costs ₹44,990 (~$589) [launch price: ₹46,990 (~$615)], while the base 4G variant costs ₹34,990 (~$459) [launch price: ₹38,990 (~$512)]. The iQOO 3 managed to undercut the Realme X50 Pro in India at launch, but it could only do so by decoupling 5G away from the flagship experience. We aren’t sure how iQOO managed to pull off a further price cut — it goes against all the indicators in the Indian market, as we all were bracing for more expensive smartphones because of GST changes, but iQOO went the other way somehow. And we aren’t sure how iQOO managed to decouple 5G away from the Snapdragon 865 either — the iQOO 3 4G could possibly have 5G bands software-disabled using tools provided by Qualcomm — but we could not locate any concrete information to explain the phone and its 5G-less variant.
From a 5G plus Snapdragon 865 perspective, the argument continues to stand: Qualcomm’s latest SoC and the accompanying 5G hardware makes flagships more expensive than ever before, with a steep price jump. The blame also rests on the Snapdragon 865 by itself, as Qualcomm is selling this SoC to OEMs at a much higher price than its previous flagship chips. As POCO’s GM Mr. C. Manmohan mentioned in an interview with Android Authority:
Chipsets right now, all 800-series chipsets, are extremely expensive. And [the Snapdragon 865], being the first 5G generation, is just a lot more expensive. The 855 was launched with a higher price point and we expected that also to undergo some depreciation. But 865 has launched extremely high and now the transition from 4G to 5G is happening across the board. So the depreciation the 855 should have seen did not happen.
The same report cites various sources and gives us a rough estimate of the price per chip. The Snapdragon 845 reportedly cost manufacturers around $45 plus an additional licensing fee per chip. The Snapdragon 855 and Snapdragon 855+ cost $53 plus an additional licensing fee per chip. This price increase not only affected the price of the flagships released in 2019, but it also continues to affect the viability of flagship killers into 2020 as the chip has not depreciated as much as previous trends. Xiaomi’s CEO Mr. Lei Jun had commented that the Snapdragon 865 cost them about $70 on the Mi 10 — making it one of the biggest jumps in cost in recent times and one that directly contributes to a steep rise in flagship pricing. A teardown analysis of the Mi 10 from TechInsights pitches the SoC to be $81, while the modem costs another $26.50, and the RF component costs $33.50, equalling a cool $141. While this is an estimate from a teardown and can miss out on the benefits derived from factors-of-scale, it does make one point clear — the Snapdragon 865 is expensive, with a price increase greater than previous flagship SoCs.
A teardown cost analysis of the Xiaomi Mi 10 from TechInsights
Not only is the Snapdragon 865 more expensive, but it also requires other components and other changes that further drive up the cost. The discrete 5G modem and the additional multiple antennae require more space inside the phone. As a result, the phone body gets larger, the display gets larger, the battery gets larger, and OEMs have been throwing in larger and more camera sensors into the mix too, to make the most out of the situation. All of these cost money, and the consumer has to pay for it.
Snapdragon 865 and Qualcomm’s monopoly in the upper end of the SoC market has forced “premium flagships” to evolve into “ultra-premium flagships”. OEMs are also incorporating more advancements in the display and camera segments, which exerts further pressure on this forced evolution. A price increase in this “luxury” segment is easier to digest keeping in mind that the target audience for these ultra-premium phones has a higher propensity to spend.
What isn’t easy to digest is the doom that the Snapdragon 865 spells out for Flagship Killers, as it hungrily devours the ~$400 budget as espoused in the community definition. There is just not enough budget left over for other components even if an OEM were to stick to a middling-quality level.
5G in no-5G Land
What makes matters even worse is the fact that 5G comes with its own limitations. The technology still has a long way to go before it matures and sees widespread adoption, and this is in the context of developed markets that have already jumped onto the train.
There are still others that have not even taken the first steps to 5G yet. Case in point — India, one of the biggest smartphone markets in the world, but one that has yet to even begin spectrum auctions for 5G, leave alone rolling out consumer infrastructure, and making 5G economically available to a population that loves its cheap and abundant 4G. Spectrum auctions were expected to be conducted in April 2020, but the poor health of the country’s telecom industry and the COVID-19 pandemic has put this on the back burner for the foreseeable future.
For India, mandatory 5G with the Snapdragon 865 was expected to make smartphones prohibitively expensive. But to bring some solace, the current releases are just mildly expensive and not prohibitively so. The OnePlus 8 series, with 5G support, launched in India lower than it did in the rest of the world. A similar story exists with the Realme X50 Pro 5G and the iQOO 3 5G.
The lower cost of these phones could be for the fact that they are missing out on incorporating support for all 5G bands and restricting themselves to just a handful of probable ones, and thus, saving themselves on certification costs for the market. But we believe there is a catch here that OEMs have not entirely been transparent about. While these phones support 5G, they may not reallysupport 5G in India. As the spectrum has not yet been auctioned in the country yet, certifying authorities should not have the mandate available to them to certify phones for usage in these scenarios, logically speaking. Certificates are issued after testing the equipment for safety by authorities such as Telecommunication Engineering Centre, and one can only wonder how phones already released would have been tested for safety on a spectrum that is not yet available for use in the country. So while you may have a “5G-ready” phone that is being marketed as being “future proof”, its acceptance on the 5G network is very likely subject to subsequent regulatory approval when the network finally becomes available. Our knowledge on this particular context is admittedly limited, so we have reached out to a few stakeholders to learn more about this issue — we’ll amend the article when/if we get more clarity on this point.
Even if you presume that all is rosy on the certification end, consumers in India can realistically see 5G on their smartphone not earlier than 2022. Such an estimate is also an optimistic one, one that presumes that all the expensively-priced spectrum is scooped up in the first auction (and does not necessitate multiple auction rounds as companies decide to stay away due to high prices), with other presumptions such as minimal economic fallout to the telecom sector despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and a swift end and recovery from the pandemic induced lockdown measures. By 2022, the Snapdragon 865 would be 2 years old, and the shiny smartphone in your hands will not be as shiny anymore. If you could afford an expensive smartphone with the foresight to use expensive 5G on it two years later, you may be in a good position to buy a more rounded and polished product for 5G use in 2022, too. Do you really need to buy a 5G-(probably)-ready flagship right now in 2020 though?
The overall industry-wide push for 5G also needs a mention over here as a factor that is driving up costs prematurely. Carriers in 5G-markets have begun aggressively marketing 5G, which makes consumers want 5G on their phones. This then stimulates OEMs to incorporate 5G on their phones and market 5G further, even in markets where the infrastructure is not in place. Having a 5G-enabled phone will then increase the priority of having a 5G infrastructure in that market, and so goes the cycle. Qualcomm is a piece in this bigger puzzle and the push is indeed industry-wide.
For now, no-5G in India will add to the frustration of losing out on a Flagship Killer. Developing markets are the prime targets for this product category, as users over here often prioritize the deal which gets them the most bang for their buck. Adding unusable and not-future-friendly 5G on a Flagship Killer burdens it with dead weight, one that pushes it outside of its budget for no apparent benefit in the present or the future. To this, remember that the Snapdragon 865 was already pretty expensive, so there was not enough headroom to play with, either.
Adding unusable and not-future-friendly 5G on a Flagship Killer burdens it with dead weight, one that pushes it outside of its budget for no apparent benefit in the present or the future.
The Snapdragon 865 with its mandatory 5G requirement, is thus, the end of the $400 Flagship Killer, for better or for worse. What makes a flagship is what kills the flagship killer, this year.
The idea of a flagship killer stays alive — but the price envelope is forced to change
While we were discussing this opinion piece, an interesting counter-opinion came to light. As Pranob brought up in our discussion, the flagship killer may not necessarily be dead yet. The primary definition of the “flagship killer” is to offer flagship performance at a fraction of the flagship price. But since the very price definition of a flagship has expanded with the introduction of ultra-premium flagships, it is only fair that the price definition of a flagship killer is also expanded.
Consequently, since what was once sold for $700 is now being sold for $1400, one can no longer expect that what once cost $400 remains at that price point while still offering some of the best features present in the industry. It is only natural that flagship killers also seek a price hike — not necessarily out of a desire to expand their profit margins, but out of a need to maintain it. Flagship killers, aka the phones with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC but with other compromises, should now be expected around the $800 price ballpark — and we do have a few examples of the same currently existing in the industry.
The arguments of future-proofing also come back into play here with the inclusion of mandatory 5G. People who buy a Flagship Killer are unlikely to have a high budget to purchase a new phone every year, or even every two or three years. These value chasers are much more likely to use their phone for a longer time duration as long as it happily functions and serves their need. There is a lower likelihood of them splurging money on a new phone, just because a shiny new phone exists. For these individuals, having a phone with 5G (mandatory or otherwise) gives their phone enough of a future-proofing coat to be on top of their needs for a longer time duration. Such an argument may not necessarily apply to regions where 5G does not exist, like India, but it does extend to other regions where 5G is seeing a gradual rollout.
There is also a point to be made about flagship killers being dead only temporarily. 2020 can be considered as the first year where 5G truly goes mainstream on smartphones, so there is bound to be a larger capital overhead to bear per smartphone. We can expect the costs to go down with the next generation, as there is a valid possibility that the next Qualcomm flagship could integrate the next Qualcomm 5G modem and lower down the costs from current levels. There is no guarantee that the benefits will be passed onto the consumers — they could be absorbed to cover the advancements in other pieces of technology in the phone, such as further display enhancements, better build materials, and so on.
Another argument comes up in that the entire price increase on flagships cannot simply be attributed to the Snapdragon 865, or to 5G for that matter. Smartphones this year have made great strides in terms of display and camera technology. We are getting features such as 10-bit 120Hz color-accurate displays with headlining technologies such as MEMC and dedicated display processors. For cameras, we are seeing quad and even penta camera setups, with bigger sensors all through and even further additions in the form of a periscope zoom lens. All of these features require a tremendous amount of R&D to be made possible, and this is recouped through added costs on the smartphone. Since these have become the norm on flagships, what we expect out of a flagship killer also rises up by a bit — a 60Hz FHD+ display and dual-camera setup may no longer cut it for a phone to be called a flagship killer. This change in consumer expectation is not triggering a corresponding change in price expectation, and that is its own problem.
Concluding Note
Even after such a long-winded essay, I have remained undecided either way. Mandatory 5G through the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 does hurt the wallet, a lot, especially in the times of COVID-19 and the economic uncertainties a pandemic brings along. The traditional price envelope of a flagship killer is no longer viable without “downgrading” (used very loosely here) to an “inferior” SoC like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 or the Snapdragon 730. This means we may no longer see a repeat of the insane value proposition of the OnePlus One and the POCO F1. And that’s something that I will sorely miss.
On the other hand, innovations in technology need capital investments to move forward. If the very price definition of a flagship changes, there will invariably be an increase in what “half of a flagship price” would be. Price creep and consumer expectation force flagship killers to become the very thing they sought out to kill — a flagship.
“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain”
What do you think is the future of the Flagship Killer? Should 5G be a mandatory inclusion in smartphones in 2020? Should 5G be a mandatory inclusion for Flagship Killers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Want a chance to win the new Microsoft Surface Go 2? The new super portable Surface tablet is designed for business and casual users. Powered by Windows 10, you can use the signature Surface Pen to get the full Surface experience in a more compact form. Now you can win one for yourself by filling out the form above.
We thank Huawei for sponsoring this post. Our sponsors help us pay for the many costs associated with running XDA, including server costs, full time developers, news writers, and much more. While you might see sponsored content (which will always be labeled as such) alongside Portal content, the Portal team is in no way responsible for these posts. Sponsored content, advertising and XDA Depot are managed by a separate team entirely. XDA will never compromise its journalistic integrity by accepting money to write favorably about a company, or alter our opinions or views in any way. Our opinion cannot be bought.
(Free+, Google Play) →
