This phone was 1k subsidized in the early 2000s.
The price of phones have really increased too much considering how much hardware has advanced.
The average "free" Android device cost $350-$600.
Premium devices have always cost $749 and above.
Nothing new, just how we pay for them.
Exactly, those subsidized phones were always over $600, but the carrier paid the bulk of it and we as consumers, just paid the $200 or less... And as was said earlier phone costs have been increasing by at least $50 for a while, but recently they've jumped a little more than that..
Samsung like Apple is testing where the line is. Apple found out the hard way where it was. But Samsung is hoping to fare a bot better by offering 3 different tiers of the same phone and each tier basically has 2 options. So instead of Apples 2 phones, and eventual 3 Samsung is givimg consumers 6 to choose from.
Amd these "smartphones" are so far beyond what they were 10 or even 5 years ago... 5 yrs ago the top of the line phone was as good as a middle of the line 6 yr old laptop....
Now though, these phones now are poised to be current gen high middle tier gaming laptops...they can play VR and 4K and have tons of ram..... Hell with the right peripherals / software you could do anything a laptop can... In addition to make calls, take DSLR quality pics and all the phone isb your laptop can't do....
With that said, I'll probably get the regular S10, that plus is not my lane / speed