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This year's Snapdragon 7+ could get a flagship-tier upgrade
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 architecture may be coming to midrange devices
One of the best reasons to reach deeper into your wallet for a higher-tier flagship phone is for its performance specs. If you’re willing to pay for it, you can get a device with a more powerful processor, which is why manufacturers offer it as an alternative to midrange options. However, it seems that a key CPU update could change what the more budget-friendly options have to offer. According to a leak, a Snapdragon upgrade could bring midrange phones up to speed — literally.
Samsung details Exynos 1280, promises better mid-range phones
More flagship features are coming to affordable phones
Samsung has been making Exynos chipsets for years, some of which have been successful and others not so much. It toyed with making custom ARM CPU cores for about four years, but it dropped that fantasy in 2020 with the release of the flagship Exynos 980. There haven't been any mid-range Exynos parts in the last two years, leaving cheaper Samsung phones without a modern in-house option. That changed a few weeks back with the announcement of the Exynos 1280, but only now has Samsung explained what makes this mobile chipset special.
Samsung Galaxy A52 long-term review: Regular phone
'Mid-range' is getting to be so good it needs fewer and fewer qualifications
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Samsung's A-series phones have become a known quantity: they're good, moderately priced devices, targeted at folks who might not care what processor their phone has or even know what RAM is. But as the delta between mid-range and flagship shrinks, less-expensive options like the Galaxy A52 are getting better and better — you don't have to give up nearly as much to save some money as you used to. The A52 is so solid, in fact, that I wouldn't mind using it full time — if it weren't for a couple sore spots, anyway.
Time for a smartphone diet: An ode to Lite phones
The concept of flagship for less isn't new, but it's taking off only now
The commotion in the smartphone market lately hasn’t been quite like it used to be. We’re seeing some major activity outside the usual launch seasons, non-flagships are creating headlines more often, consumers have started to look for options beyond the upper tier, and companies, too, are making mid-range models that we can actually recommend. All these are signs that the smartphone industry has graduated to a stage where even cheaper phones can make sense for consumers without degrading their overall experience.
Is it too late to buy the Samsung Galaxy A71?
Its biggest contenders are Samsung’s own Galaxy A phones from 2021
Despite spoiling other budget camera phones for many of us, the Pixel 4a is still an enthusiast phone for the most part. Samsung’s trusted Galaxy mid-rangers, on the other hand, enjoy far greater mainstream appeal and have a better chance at selling like hotcakes — something we felt strongly about last year’s Galaxy A71. The well-rounded package it offered made that phone a no-brainer for just about anybody looking for a decent phone on a budget. But in 2021, with newer Galaxy A models out, does the year-old Galaxy A71 still look like a sensible choice?It’s crucial for a mid-tier phone to strike the right balance between flagship-class features and price, and the Galaxy A71 was pretty much spot-on in its approach. From top to bottom, Samsung gave the phone what it needed to appeal to a large section of the consumer base. This kind of implementation can easily make the A71 come off as a jack-of-all-trades, but the fact is that it also masters a few specific aspects, especially among its class of phones.
While high-end smartphones may be getting more expensive, a lot of average consumers could do just fine with a mid-range phone. The Moto X4 is one such device, and the 32GB/3GB RAM variant is currently on sale from $140 at multiple retailers.