Why spending $1,000+ on a phone isn't as crazy as it sounds
On Oct. 27, I joined millions of people worldwide in pre-ordering the iPhone X in the middle of the night. I went back to sleep after spending exactly $1,250.97 for the fully-loaded version, and I woke up the next day feeling completely unfazed by my purchase.
A thousand dollars is a lot of f*cking money to spend on a phone that will eventually get banged up and slow down after software updates. For most people, blowing that kind of money on a gadget is reckless and stupid. The money is better spent elsewhere.
But when you break down the value proposition the iPhone X and other $1,000 phones like it, including the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 -- and you consider how important these phones are to our everyday lives -- the price is suddenly not so ridiculous. I'm serious!
Price is all relative
Before launching into my list of reasons, I want to remind everyone that the best phones with cutting-edge features have never been cheap. Never.
There's always been a premium price tag attached to the most high-tech phones. It was the case for the BlackBerry 8900, Palm Treo, Motorola RAZR, Sony Ericsson K800i, the original iPhone, and most of the other legendary phones you can name.
Adjusted for inflation, $1,000 is par for the course for what a phone with vastly advanced features should cost. Who remembers how expensive the original iPhone was? Steve Jobs revealed it'd cost $399 (4GB) and $599 (8GB), and everyone flipped out. It was too much money! Apple lowered the price a few months after its launch, but only because wireless carriers helped subsidize the cost.
They masked the lower buy-in price for the device by overcharging customers with higher rates on their phone bills, charging for minutes, text messages, and data plans. Most people, particularly Americans, still don't understand how much phones really cost. The dismantling of phone contracts helped educate consumers on the true price, but many people are still as confused or ignorant as ever.
My point is, $399 was considered expensive when the original iPhone launched, and now it's practically considered budget or mid-range pricing. A thousand dollars for a phone sounds insane now, but it'll be normal when newer phones push into the $1,500 price range. Just you wait.
Besides, $1,000 for a phone is easier to stomach if you buy it with a monthly installment plan that splits the full cost into smaller payments.
Luxury feels
Beautiful as every 2017 flagship phone is -- I've tried pretty much all of them this year -- they don't compare to the glass and metal sandwich designs of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 or iPhone X.
They remind me of the iPhone 4. These new $1,000 phones feel expensive when you hold them. There's nothing wrong with a metal phone, but now that everyone's figured out the metal unibody phone, it's lost all of its pizazz. It's generic and common.
When you hold and touch your phone all day long (anywhere between 150 to 3,000 times, according to some studies), it should feel nice.
I'm not expecting everyone to agree with me, I appreciate the iPhone X and Note 8 more than I have with any other phone because they're both so delicate. It's like wearing a luxury mechanical watch or driving an exotic car. It costs a fortune to purchase and repair, but you love it more and more every day because you respect the craftsmanship that went into building it.
Since I've bought my iPhone X, I haven't thrown it on my sofa so that it could bounce onto the floor. I respect and care for it like I would a diamond ring because I understand it's monetary value.
Cutting-edge tech before everyone else
Arguably, the biggest reason why phones became boring in the last few years was because the key technologies that were revolutionary when they launched (i.e fingerprint sensors, dual cameras, etc.) trickled down to cheaper devices so quickly.
That's just how technology works. Someone releases a breakthrough new feature and the rest of the industry copies it overnight.
Buying the iPhone X or Note 8 means you get first dibs on the latest state-of-the-art technologies. You get the brightest and clearest OLED displays. You get facial recognition and iris scanning that's faster and more secure than cheaper phones because they leverage sophisticated cameras and sensors and artificial intelligence that smaller companies don't have the resources for.
You get the best dual camera setups that shoot professional-quality photos and videos -- stuff that's so good that most people really don't need to own a standalone camera anymore.
The features in these phones aren't merely good enough. They're so far ahead of phones that don't have them or have inferior implementations that it's not even funny.
Convenience is everything
At the end of the day, your phone is a tool. And for a digital journalist like myself, I need a tool that lasts all day and is reliable in all situations.
I'd rather carry a phone with the best cameras to a work event than lug around a DSLR. I appreciate a phone with a big screen that I can actually hold and use with one hand. I love that they're powerhouses for shooting and editing 4K video. And yes, I even like having the S Pen stylus on the Galaxy Note 8 because it's so damn precise.
And though it's completely unnecessary, I love being able to drop my phone on a wireless charger at work or at home instead of needing to plug fiddle with a cable and plug it in.
Yes, there are cheaper phones that do some of these things, but I've found them to usually come with compromised experiences. Maybe it's just me, but I look at all the little things, like how the volume of your alarm clock lowers when you look at it on the iPhone X, and I see delightful value that add up into an experience that's worth my money.
With such frequent release cycles for phones nowadays, it's easy to get caught up chasing the next model.
Buying an iPhone X or Note 8 makes you understand the value of your device every single time you pick it up.
You just spent a boatload of money on your phone so maybe start using it to its fullest capabilities instead of just for Instagram and Twitter. Once you do, you'll understand why $1,000 isn't as crazy as it sounds.
Raymond Wong is Mashable's Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and analyzes the tech industry. Raymond's also a bit of a camera geek, gamer, and fine chocolate lover. Before arriving at Mashable, he was the Deputy Editor of NBC Universal's tech publication DVICE. His writing has appeared on G4TV, BGR, Yahoo and Ubergizmo, to name a few. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @raywongy or Instagram @sourlemons.
