Besides design, specs and street cred, there is another important variable to explore while choosing a phone – value retention. What good is the snazzy flagship you paid close to a grand for, if a few months after its introduction it would have become an upper midranger, and, more importantly, lost a whole midrange price tag in value?

This is why we were curious to follow if last year’s flagships are aging gracefully. After all, 2017 was the year when average phone prices hit a record, and there’s never been such a price jump year-on-year, thanks mainly to “1K” phones like the iPhone X and Note 8, but also to other high-ends that saw a price boost compared to their predecessors, and the trend seems likely to continue this year.

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