I’ll never forget when Nokia launched the N95 in 2007. For 600 EUR, or roughly $785, you could buy yourself a phone with a 2.6 inch QVGA (320 x 240 pixel) screen, WiFi, GPS, and a 5 megapixel camera. Those features were unheard of at the time.
Let’s take a look at a phone Huawei just launched in the UK called the G510. It’s 130 GBP, which is $200. That gets you a 4.5 inch FWVGA (854 x 480 pixel) display, dual core 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor, 5 megapixel camera, GPS, NFC, and a 1,750 mAh battery.
Sure, the G510 probably doesn’t feel very solid, but you know what? It doesn’t matter. In the span of six years the phone industry has managed to produce an amazing product for seemingly little money. I mean, $200 is practically a quarter of $785, and that’s completely ignoring inflation.