What is a Flagship? Let's explore this particular Smartphone Lexicon.

Definitely, when watching or scrolling through the ads by phone companies or siting in a launch event you can't help but notice how they use the word "flagship" repeatedly. Now, this is actually a bit of a confusing word in smartphone terminology, because what might be a flagship to one company might just be different to another company. And also experts seem to differ on what a Flagship really is. Today, we'll explore the characteristics of a flagship and what features can make a phone a flagship. But first, some history.

1.0: History of the word "Flagship":

According to Wikipedia, A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the first, largest, armed, or best known.

The Sao Martino was the Spanish Amarda's Flagship in 1580

Over the years, the term "flagship" has become a metaphor used in industries such as broadcasting, automobiles, education, technology, airlines, and retail to refer to their highest profile or most expensive products and locations.

With that said, we can now move onto the various definitions of the term "flagship".


2.0: A Flagship is the best phone a Smartphone company has to offer:

A basic streamline definition of a flagship certainly means the top device that spawns from an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer). It's basically a continual series or lines (like the Samsung galaxy line and the xiaomi Mi Mix series) and gets better with every subsequent release. Smartphone companies surely try to show off these flagships, as they can be seen on international events like the world mobile Congress and so on. But the best means the best, like there can only be first, second or third right? But Samsung has two supposed flagship lines, the galaxy and the note. Same for Xiaomi (Mi mix and mi) and OnePlus with a "t" depicting a better model. So are the two phones their respective flagships?

2.1: Flagships are phones with the most marketing attention from an OEM:


A good way to spot a flagship is the commercial appeal it has or the fact that the producer will show the features off at any given opportunity. Large launch events, hundreds of ads, paying celebrities to use them, large billboards, You name it. Additionally, a flagship can be said to be found or released in a lot of global markets, some of which some lines from the OEM itself doesn't reach.


2.2: A Flagship is a Phone using the flagship chipsets from Qualcomm and Mediatek:


Both Qualcomm and Mediatek are processor developers, and they have a robust range of chipsets for every smartphone tier, which include Flagships. For example, Qualcomm has their "800" series ( 865, 855 plus), and Mediatek has their dimensity chipset. These chipsets are not gimmicks by any chance, as they churn out a large amount of processing power not found at found at any true of smartphones. Any phone using these high end chipsets can be deemed a Flagship by industry standards. But sometimes we see phones using Mediatek helio p35 branded as flagships. What can we say of that?

2.3: A Flagship combines a lot of "Flagship features" in one piece:

There are some industry leading features that experts and critics deem flagship grade. Reason being they aren't mostly found in the budget and mid range sectors but are predominant in the high end/flagship range. Any prospective buyer that wishes to use these features might need look at flagships. For example, some flagship features we have today are: 5g, wireless charging, stereo speakers, high quality screens (Super Amoled and 2k/4k resolution), forming gorilla glass, IP rating, high refresh rates, Perfect cameras (ultra wide,telephoto lens) and so on. A balanced combination of these features can be called a flagship. Although some of these features will eventually trickle down to mid range and budget phones. It is up to OEMs to create more "flagship features" successively to separate the boys from men.


2.4: A flagship is a phone that can compare with Apple's iPhone:

Apple has a particular phone line, and that's it's iPhone. The iPhone is actually a flagship in nature, because it combines lots of features and has a commercial appeal only found in few phones. Any phone that can match the iPhone in cameras or processing power can be deemed a flagship.


2.5: flagships are phones with more reviews or attention than others:

Flagships are the most reviewed phones, basically because they launch with some cool features lots of people want to try out. They also send review units to reviewers and YouTubers to try out their products. Even benchmark and ranking websites and corporations like DxO mark and Notebook check usually review and test flagships first.

2.6: Flagships are like leaders of the pack:

Flagships can be said to be the leaders of the other range of products from an OEM in a release calendar. Just as a fleet has main ship and it's followers, a flagship too does this accordingly. For this flagships are released early in the first quarter or at the last quarter. A common tactic is to use the flagship to spearhead an opening in the market and after positive reception, they release other products.


2.7: Flagships have the highest level of support from the producer:

Flagships can be said to be known from the fact that they boast the highest level of support, be it Android updates, OS updates, latest security patches, repair and warranty. The other phones in the lower spectrum must wait their turn.

2.8: Flagships are the most expensive from a producer:

Entry level phones are cheap, so is budget phones and a little cheaper than mid range, but nowhere close to Flagships. Any phone crossing the 600$ mark must be a flagship in any sense.


3.0 Universally accepted: A flagship is the best from an OEM.

You give your best if you want the best results, so smartphone companies give their best to yield profit and revenue too.

4.0: "Flagship Killers":

While a Flagship product refers to the absolute best a manufacturer can give, A Flagship killer is a product of a manufacturer that has most of the features of other flagships but at a lesser price.

For example the Samsung galaxy s20 Ultra is the current Flagship of Samsung at a starting price of about 1400 dollars (500,000 Naira).

The iPhone 11 Pro Max starts at 1100 dollars(450,000 dollars).

The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro

While the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro with almost similar specifications was launched at 716 dollars (260,000 Naira).

This solidly makes the mi 10 pro a flagship killer to the galaxy s20 ultra and iPhone 11 pro Max.

Do you have another definition to the word Flagship? or you don't agree with some of the points raised in the article? let's meet in the comment section.