Ask HN: Do you really need a $1000 phone?

I've been pretty happy with my Moto G5+ 4/64 GB, except for a few things:

Updates: Its lesser powered successor, the Moto G6 (no + in the U.S.) runs Android 8. The G5+ certainly could. Moto's X4 has the same 630 CPU along with a GB less RAM and, I've read, will be advanced to Pie. The G5+ could be, if Moto chose to do so.

Camera. Take one of these "budget" models, and add $50 or even $100 to the price to put in a top-notch camera. I'd buy it. I don't need CPU "up the wazoo", nor a super-whatever bezel-less display (a good IPS is enough, for me); however, I would like to take really good pictures. (Really good, less the "AI" stuff -- and its cost -- that I'm not asking for; rather, top notch optics and sensor.)

I really don't need, nor even want, a $1000 phone. Only, the manufacturers refuse to make some modest upgrades to the lower tier models -- because money, I guess.

It also, in my opinion, reflects the lack of real competition in this space. In a truly competitive market, I believe my "market segment" would be found to be far from trivial and so worth pursuing.

Hell, with a generation older CPU and such tech (I don't know about cameras), all the tech is well known, has stable drivers and all, and is probably more easily supported. Should be a no-brainer, at this point -- except, well, money.

P.S. I haven't had the models in-hand, to compare, but putting together all I've read on them, I gather that both the G6 and the X4 have worse cameras than the G5+ . The G5+ camera isn't bad, but it doesn't perform nearly as well -- in detail, low-light, and some edge cases -- as the top-tier cameras -- even those of a generation or two ago.

When I bought my current phone (an iPhone 5) I paid $700 and half-jokingly told the sales clerk that would be the last phone I ever bought. That might not end up being literally true, but I just blew this year's new toy budget on a banjo instead, so I guess I can wait a little longer.

Don't tell people how to spend their money. Need isn't an issue here, people who have $1000 can spend it on whatever they want whether or not they "need" it.

$1000 is a lot for a phone, but for a device people use so often is it too much? I'm not so sure.

The more relevant question isn't whether or not a $1000 phone is "worth the cost" (or "needed"), but whether or not the overall prices of Apple's phone lineups make sense. Given their sales figures over the years it's hard to say that they are overcharging for their phones, even now.

$1k cars are just $2k cars with dirty interiors and $2k cars are just $4k cars with one or two current problems. ¯\_ツ_/¯

I work for BigCo make almost six figures (real dollars in a moderate cost of living area, not SV funny money dollars) so it's not like I couldn't afford better if I wanted. I do all my own work so maintenance is basically free. I have other things I'd rather spend my money on.

I'm probably gonna buy a small pickup this January (when everyone else is short on cash from all the traveling and gift buying they did in November/December) because I want a middle ground between the wagons and the full-size truck. I might buy a minivan if I can find an Aerostar with a manual transmission.

I would spend $1k on a phone the size of the SE with a headphone jack, fingerprint unlock, 3-day battery life, a camera like the ones on the new iPhones, and internals robust enough to last 8-10 years.