Well, this may quickly become a philosophical question. Or a financial question. Or however you may put it. But I am not talking Donald Trump or beggars, I am talking the average Western European customer. This is not a very new discussion, but it seems that what started with the Nokia 8800 (still have to say: beautiful but useless) is now becoming more and more general. Yes, phones learn to do more and more, but they also become more expensive year by year.

The point is: No simple phone is worth that much money. To make a phone call you can use almost any device that starts at about 20 Euros (or maybe 30 USD). It may make sense to certain people to put jewellery like Svarovski on the phone, but this does not make the phone any better. And, keep in mind: If you paint a pig, it’s still a pig. (Same applies to perfume, but that is another topic).

So to get status symbols out of the discussion, it makes sense to look at features only. And again: Are they worth it? Putting everything into one box may make the box better, but I have to be honest: I still use my iPod although I have a Walkman phone. I also still use my digital camera in many occasions. I even do not intend to buy a phone with built in GPS right now.

Why? Because most of the built in cameras are way worse than what you get in a phone: No optical zoom, one very simple lense, yeah great 5-MP-snapshot. Good for ebay-product pictures, but that is about it. Musicplayer in a phone? Nice idea, actually the only idea that I would buy right now. But only in a phone with a 3.5mm jack. The rest is useless. Last on the list: GPS. Forget about navigation, it may work, yes, but be honest: Don’t you ever use your phone in your car? Never do phone calls? 90 percent of all people do it, and don’t tell me you are the exception. GPS is a nice add on, use it for geotagging but not for navigation.

So basically what I am saying is that most of the features built in do not yet replace other devices. So do I say they are not worth 600 Euros? No, this is not my point of view. Why? Because there is another perspective to it. Actually the same that applies to mattresses: Something you use ten, twelve or even more hours a day should be a good investment. You drive five minutes to work? Buy a Smart. You watch one hour of tv a day? No need to invest money into a 50“ plasma. But if you use your smartphone that often, you should spend money on it.

Hey, modern smartphones cannot completely replace your notebook, but they are close. And maybe we will not need notebooks in the nearby future anymore. So what I am saying is: If you use it often, depend on it and love it, go buy a phone that has it all. If you just want to send sms, save the money on your life. But make priorities. And don’t try to impress people. That is so 1980ies.