Smartphones - Do You Get What You Pay For?

The smartphone market offers customers various types of units that range from £50 Rook to £24,000 Vertu Red Gold Black DLC. But are they worth it?

17:42 04 August 2015

The 2015 smartphone market has definitely a device that suit every wallet. For those who can shell out £24,000, Vertu Red Gold Black DLC might be perfect. It features super-robust sapphire display screen and 64GB of internal memory. It also has a 13 megapixel camera and 300 hours standby battery life. But is it worth the money?

 

CSS Insight analyst, Ben Wood, said: "I think £200 is a lot of money for a phone now," he told the BBC.

 

"We have reached a point in smartphone evolution where devices have become 'good enough'.

"There are degrees of cheap. If you are not fussy about brand, an Android device is now very easily available indeed.

 

"You can get a decent camera, you can get good performance and a decent processor."

 

At the other end of the market is the Rook that is priced at just £49. It runs on the Android operating system, has a 5 megapixel camera, and up to 400 hours of stand-by battery life. It also has just 8GB memory.

 

Ben Wood said: "I would be nervous about buying a device with less than 8GB memory - my experience is once you've installed a few apps you soon run out.”

 

"You are getting very basic functionality."

 

Meanwhile, Apple remains to be the leader in this industry, selling 47.5 million iPhones between April and June 2015 alone. Despite the huge price tag, consumer seems not to mind.

 

"People who have an iPhone are in love with the Apple experience," said Mr Wood.

 

"People who have gone from iPhone to Android find it a difficult experience," Mr Wood added.

"I've always said the iPhone is like the Hotel California of smartphones - once you're in it's difficult to leave."