The Death of Competitive Mid-range Android Devices

I recently posited the following on Twitter:

With the Nexus line gone, and the OnePlus 5 projected to go up in price, is the competitive mid-range phone dead?

— Phil Angeles (@Flippin_Eh) May 25, 2017

I think back to when I had first dove into the Android ecosystem 6 years ago.  I'd never owned anything close to a smartphone before, save for a BlackBerry for work (but that doesn't count).  The closest thing I had to it was an iPod Touch.  I could have easily stuck with IOS, but was turned off by the closed nature of the system.  At least a BlackBerry offered flexibility, but I wanted something more.  My brother had already started dipping his toes into Android, and I figured I'd do the same.  To be fair, the first Android device I played around with was some no-name Chinese tablet, running what I can only assume was "Donut", or "Eclair".

I did my research, and had settled on the Google Nexus S.  The thing that attracted me was that Google offered a bare-bones, pure Android experience... just the thing to jump into when you've had absolutely no real experience.  The other key was the price.  I believe I'd picked up the device for around $400US.  This trend continued with their Nexus line of phones, and a couple of years later, I upgraded to the Nexus 5... a phone I continue to use to this day.  It's a phone that truly epitomized the competitive mid-range device (reasonably priced that could hold its own against other phones twice the price).

Others have tried their best to be as competitive as the Nexus line of phones, and certainly the one that has found success is from OnePlus.  Their reputation, based on their tagline "Never Settle" has carried them through 4 devices over the last 3 years, with the 3T as their reigning champion.  Despite the folding of Cyanogen, they've persevered with their current flavor of Android (Oxygen OS), offering not just a pure Android experience, but a fully customizable operating system.

But now it seems the winds have changed.  Google has killed off its Nexus line of phones with the introduction of the Pixel late last year.  It's a true flagship device that's attached with a premium price tag.  I guess aside from the specs, unlimited full-size photo backup to the cloud and 24/7 support direct from the device doesn't come cheap.  With the OnePlus, recent speculation has their OnePlus 5 priced at $650US.

I suppose to truly stay relevant, you have to go big or go home with your improvements.  Perhaps at the same time, you're also trusting your customer's loyalty to buy in (pun intended) to your product, despite these changes.  I'd love to upgrade to a Pixel or OnePlus, but I can't justify dropping that much coin... at least not at this time.  I could always stick to the current Pixel or OP3T when the eventual Pixel 2 or OP5 do release.  Sticking to trailing edge tech isn't necessarily a bad thing, but that's another discussion for another time.