How much you should invest in a smartphone?

Today we have smartphones ranging from less than 6000 to lakhs and crore (I am talking about special edition smartphones). Companies like OnePlus which started with $299 (~₹18,300 considering price of a dollar ₹61 in April 2014) is expected to launch OnePlus 7 Pro 5G in India for $850 (~₹61,000). I’ll tell you some pitfalls that I see many youngsters doing when they are buying the smartphones and I don’t want to get too technical but I’ll give you a rough idea.

If you know a little of finance, smartphones when you buy these are called “depreciable assets” that means with time they will lose money and you know that if you’re buying an Android phone, let’s say you buy the latest Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus (Ceramic White, 12GB RAM, 1TB Storage) the best just after a year if you try to sell it that the value that you would get is low so again. I would say the amount of money, let’s say if your smartphone is about ₹50,000, after it here if you try to sell it in the aftermarket these days with an Android phone hardly you’ll get about fifteen-twenty thousand if you are lucky because many of these vendors after sometimes (after 6-8 months) we have sales where they reduce the price drastically and because of that, the second-hand market value just goes crazy so you lose a lot of money. Think of these smartphones as a tool that will depreciate over repeatedly it depends how much of a duration that you lose your smartphone but typically, I would say for most users might use it. If you are their aggressive user, about a year but most users will easily be able to use their smartphones for about one. I have about two years that’s the sweet spot. iPhone, I would say they wear easily about two and a half to three years, they can go but again they depreciate so the typical life we are looking at is about one and a half to two years.

I would say now in 2019 the mid-range smartphones have become so good that around the price point of 15,000 you are getting great phones. It’s not like you have to spend 50-60-70-80 thousand to get a good phone, now in fact in terms of battery life the best battery life we get is with mid-range Android phones and also the cameras have now become very good. I would say as a numb if you buy in a smartphone just for your basic need, you need the smartphone for taking calls, doing your daily work, some photographs, and stuff you need to spend more than around 15,000 plus or minus five-six percent because the prices change.

Now, if you are spending for example now, we have a lot of phones Android flagships costing 50-60-70-80 thousand, you are just paying for the brand and this is very particular in India. I’ve seen many people buy flashy iPhone, the top-end just for the brand image and I feel that it’s sad because I see many youngsters or people who have just taken jobs, buying smartphones almost three times their salary and if you do that it is stupid and if you are falling into this trap because most of the vendors’ e-commerce companies give you options of buying these expensive smartphones on an EMI and you get easy instant approval and but I would say never buy a smartphone on EMI. Look at the full price, if you’re not comfortable paying the full price of the smartphone then that smartphone is not for you because it’s a depreciating.

Let’s say you take it on an EMI for about a year or eight months. What is the value of the damn phone after eight or twelve months? Almost nothing! So, you are just burning up money just for that brand image or whatever you don’t need a smartphone over 15,000 for your basic needs. It’s not like if you buy a regular mid-range phone or a fancy flagship phone, the other party, a boss would sound sweet or your girlfriend will sound a lot sweeter! It will be the same experience and almost 90% of the experience is normal texting, email replying to people, talking to everything is almost the same because the general mid-range smartphones have become so good.

Yes, I agree, in certain areas, the flashes are still better but I would say don’t buy it on EMI if the price whatever that price might be 40,000 50,000 70,000 or a lakh. If you are okay paying that full amount then you can afford it if you’re not then you can’t afford that smartphone don’t bite on EMI and get into that stupid trap. I see many people falling into that trap so don’t do that buy it on the full price that way that means you can afford it and again instead of buying very expensive smartphones, for youngsters, this advice is to go with the mid-range smartphone and that excess money that you have maybe let say you’re buying a mid-range phone for 15 or 17 thousand and that exists money that is leftover.

You’re going for an iPhone that 16 70,000 pay that up for your bike loan or a car loan or any other thing instead of putting that money in a depreciating asset like a smartphone, the smartphone has to be one of the most depreciating asset that you can ever buy and you have to constantly keep buying it again and again for example via give an example of a bike or a car for example if your bike am buying a bike at least in the last four five-six years and it is a useful thing for you to move from A to B and that way.

I won’t have spent over thirty thousand rupees. I know it’s a depreciating asset instead of that I would put money in something rather more useful - GeekyRanjit, Tech Reviewer”