Don't buy a budget Android phone in 2026 — 4 reasons to get an old flagship instead

As a result of what is now known as RAMageddon and the resulting chip shortage caused by chip makers and RAM manufacturers selling all their processing power to AI companies, we’re seeing significant price increases in the smartphone world.

New flagship models launch at higher prices and with less RAM than the previous generation, while current smartphones are seeing their prices rise. The Galaxy A-Series and the Pixel 10a price hikes are just a few examples, as phones have seen their prices go up or their specs slashed (effectively the same thing) in recent weeks in response to market demand.

When buying phones in that price bracket, getting the most bang for your buck is key, but if the price goes up by $100, you might be better off looking at other phones on the used or second-hand market. Specifically, older flagship models from a year or two ago like the Samsung Galaxy S24 or Galaxy S25 and the Google Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro, especially when compared to the aforementioned newer mid-range phones.

The price is often right

The number one reason, of course, is price. When shopping in the mid-range, what you’re looking for is, as I said, bang for your buck. At first, you might think that, depending on which phones you’re looking at, you might not save as much money as you expect. An old flagship is still a flagship device, and as such, you could spend just as much as, or a little less than, the equivalent midranger.

That’s not exactly true, especially with the price rises. As the Google Pixel 10a is now $599, for example, looking at a phone like the Pixel 9 Pro on a second-hand retailer like Back Market shows prices between $454 and $652, depending on condition and storage.

When the price was $499, the Pixel 10a would be a no-brainer. With the pricing now starting at $599, paying $50 extra for a phone that’s much better in every single way is the no-brainer. 

Fit and finish is going to be far better

The next reason to purchase a used flagship over a cheaper newer phone is quite simply the build and design. Flagships, no matter the era, are built with top-of-the-line materials and engineering that means they overshadow cheaper phones in fit and finish.

Phones like the Samsung Galaxy S24 and S24 Ultra, as well as the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro, are constructed from titanium or aluminum and feature Gorilla Glass Victus screens. They are durable and well put together, feeling expensive in your hand. And sure, you might just slap a case on them, but you don’t need to, and they’ll take a beating just as well anyway because they are built to last.

Cheaper phones might have similar appearances at first glance but swap out an aluminum frame for a plastic one to save on costs, as several Motorola phones do, or drop Gorilla Glass on the back for polycarbonate, as the Pixel 10a does. If you value the way your phone feels in your hand or pocket, or even just want it to last longer, you’ll like the premium feel of a flagship compared to the less substantial feel of midrangers.

Yearly upgrades aren’t compelling anymore

Let’s say you’ve got your eye on a midranger like the Samsung Galaxy A57 that comes with a durable body that can take a beating from current flagships at first glance. There’s another reason to consider spending that money on an older flagship: older flagships and newer flagships are quite similar. There’s been quite a lot of discussion that the Samsung Galaxy S Ultra line has merely been a series of refreshes of older models over the past five generations, and there’s some truth to that.

The generational leaps we started with in the 2010s are no longer the norm, and an older flagship from a year or two ago is just as good as a current flagship. If you’re buying a Pixel 9 Pro XL, you might be hard-pressed to tell the difference from a Pixel 10 Pro XL. You might miss features like HiLight or Magic Cue, but your mileage may vary on how much they’re worth.

You might notice a drop in RAM due to the RAMageddon crisis. In some phones like the Motorola Edge 70, you’ll find a drop in base storage instead. Jumping to an older flagship means you sidestep both of these issues while keeping a base quality that’s nearly equivalent to current flagship models. As a side note, you’ll also get to keep flagship-quality camera optics, which are among the first things to be downgraded on midrange phones as companies cut costs to reach price points, even as flagship chips creep into lower-priced phones.

You can sell it when you’re done

Finally, a used Android flagship phone can still retain much of its value in the second-hand market should you want to sell it later. Though Apple’s iPhone remains the gold standard when you think of smartphones that hold their value after sale, Android flagship phones do surprisingly well in the used market, as evidenced by the prices they command.

A used Android phone can be sold for more than an equivalently priced mid-range Android phone a couple of years down the line simply because more people will want to buy a Pixel 10 Pro XL or a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra over whatever midrange options exist.

Battery longevity and long-term updates might pose a problem

No matter how good the deal is on a used phone, you’re often rolling the dice with those batteries. Batteries are a constantly degrading part of the phone that affect its day-to-day use. For Pixels, this is hard-baked into the software: when you reach 80% of battery capacity, limitations kick in, affecting how much the phone can charge — and with those slow charging speeds, you’re in for a ride. Replacing a phone battery will sort all this, of course, but that adds roughly $100 to your phone purchase depending on the brand or where you’re buying it from, and it could eat up those cost savings quickly.

That being said, assuming you’re able to find an older flagship that fits your price range and the battery’s up to par, you could still fall short in the updates department. To illustrate, Google, Samsung, and most major companies offer up to seven years of updates. This means your phone will receive new features for up to seven years after its launch.

While buying a used phone means you’re getting a somewhat truncated timeline, the more important point is that these phones tend to stop receiving major features well before that. New features like Rambler, Pixel Journal, and Create Your Widget will debut on new smartphones, but you won’t get them on older ones. The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, despite still being supported, don’t have access to Google’s Journal app for no discernible reason.

You’ll still get most features in feature drops, mind you, and Google’s Pixel September Feature Drop has something for nearly all supported Pixels (and Harry Potter fans, for some reason), so it may not be an issue for you in practice.

You should probably buy the older flagship anyway

At the end of the day, used flagships do edge out older midrange phones quite a bit. The price might be high, but depending on where you shop and your tolerance for older devices, you might still save money on newer midrange models. At the same time, the battery might be a problem, and replacing it might add costs to your purchase.

On a side note, while writing this article, I took a break to buy a used Pixel 9 Pro XL on a whim for £500. The Pixel 9 Pro XL runs fine, feels great in the hand, and has all the useful Android 17 features. The battery capacity is 88%, so if I want to use it full-time, I’d have to get to the shop to replace it, but it didn’t slow me down when I used it all day.

I also picked up a Pixel 9a earlier in the year but sold it because I didn’t like the size, the fit and finish, or the battery longevity. In my experience, I’d recommend buying the older flagship. And now that the prices are going up, that recommendation is going up just as well.