The Samsung Galaxy S9 is Likely to be Super Expensive

It looks like the notch isn’t the only iPhone X feature that’s enticing enough to steal. Apple’s mind-blowing $999 price point has kicked off a disturbing trend of high-priced flagships. Just a few short years ago, you could expect to pay half that for a new flagship smartphone. While nobody has matched Apple’s price just yet (not counting limited edition diamond-encrusted tomfoolery), the Samsung Galaxy S9 might be the first phone to do so.

According to a few early reports, the Galaxy S9 could cost anywhere from $875 to just over a thousand dollars, the latter of which putting it over the iPhone X’s starting price. The two biggest smartphone brands in the world offering thousand-dollar smartphones is bad news any way you slice it. These are the trendsetters (seriously, the notch-offs are insane), and they’re opening the floodgates to some seriously expensive phones.

This is undoubtedly bad news for consumers, because although not every smartphone is going to cost a grand, they will start rolling out close to that, which is expensive enough. It’s not necessarily great news for companies either. They’re making more money off of each unit, but as evidenced by the iPhone X sales, they’re also selling less units. The trend of buying into each new upgrade is already heavily scrutinized, and sending smartphone prices through the roof isn’t doing the practice any favors.

Hopefully the reports are wrong and the Galaxy S9 will come in at a reasonable price, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.