Are flagship phones worth buying? New survey yields a resounding 'no'

Flagship Android phones pack the best hardware and features, such as cutting-edge processors, wireless charging support, and great cameras. The biggest drawback to these phones is that they’re extremely expensive, though.

Colleague Andrew Grush recently bought a Samsung Galaxy S25 FE for his daughter, and he realized he didn’t actually need a full-blown flagship phone. We included a poll in his article, asking readers whether high-end phones were worth buying. Well, the results are in, and here’s what you told us.

This was a massively popular poll, as over 18,800 votes were counted as of writing. There was a runaway winner, as 66.5% of respondents said flagship phones weren’t worth buying at all.

Reader tkmosin93 summarized their experience going from a budget phone to a high-end device:

Yep wasn’t any difference between my 2022 moto stylus and my 2025 pixel 9 except for 300$ in price. Both took pictures, both did all the daily activities. One drained more of my wallet. The only noticeable difference was the quality of pictures at night. As viewable Aurora is rare where I live it wasn’t really worth $300. Something the moto had going for it was the easy access to the flashlight.

Meanwhile, user countryboy65453 revealed why he doesn’t opt for flagships:

I’ve never bought a flagship and I cannot make myself pay $1,000 for one. My 2024 Moto Edge does everything I need it to, has 68 W wired and 15 W wireless charging, and a 5000 mAh battery. I know, there’s a trade off when it comes to the number of Android OS updates, but it’s something I can live with. I paid $120 for it new so the updates, or lack there of, are worth the trade off.

Either way, it’s clear that most polled readers think mid-range phones are good enough for their needs over flagships. I don’t blame them, as many cheaper phones still offer features like OLED screens, fast charging, durable designs, and smooth performance. And we’ve also seen these phones gaining lengthy update commitments in the last couple of years.

Just under 20% of respondents said that flagship phones were still worth buying, though. We’re not surprised to see flagship fans in this poll, given the enthusiast nature of our audience. Nevertheless, there are still valid reasons to buy a high-end phone.

Reader stolerikoo’s comment suggests that buying a high-end phone is ideal if you hold onto your device for ages:

I always invest in flagship phones, but I only upgrade every three to four years.

User lennonhorrocks5pe also reveals their reason for buying a flagship device:

I crawled up the phone ladder starting with budget phones, then going into midrangers and now into the lower end of flagships (s25 base). I crawled up, not because I wanted a more expensive phone, but because I was annoyed with my cheaper phones not coping with the demand I put on them and not running smooth enough for my liking, this was without even experiencing a better phone, I had nothing to compare the phone with but the cheaper and worse phone I was using prior. The first time I was content with my phone was when I got a flagship, because that was the first time my phone worked how I wanted it to work

Otherwise, ~8% of polled readers voted for “Other/Unsure.” Finally, just under 6% of respondents said flagship phones weren’t worth it, but that they still bought them anyway.

User SYN Tagonn reveals that the S Pen is practically the only reason why they buy Ultra phones:

I can’t go with lower end models not that they’re bad it’s just I want the S-Pen and only the Galaxy Ultra phones get that… However if you’re one that don’t care for the S-Pen I’d definitely recommend the FE devices from Samsung as they’re great. My brother had a S21 FE but just recently upgraded his to the S25 Plus as the S25 FE wasn’t out at the time he was upgrading.

In any event, it’s clear that most polled readers don’t think flagship phones are worth the cost in 2026. This suggests that mid-range phones are in a great place today. However, it also suggests that manufacturers need to offer more features to make high-end phones worthwhile.