In the world of consumer products, general logic would dictate that across a range of devices, from expensive flagship units to reasonably priced products, one would expect the latter to sell better than the former.
Higher-priced products are usually seen as aspirational and attention grabbing, serving more a means to attract people to buy from the range rather than snap up the highest-end model. Take car maker Porsche, for example: the 911 is its iconic sports car, but in 2024 the brand sold more of its cheaper Cayenne and Macan models. Same for Tesla: its Model Y sells a lot more than its flagship Model S.
But in the world of phones, this trend seems to be bucked. According to Counterpoint Research, the best-selling phone of the second quarter of 2025 is the iPhone 16, followed by the iPhone 16 Pro Max and iPhone 16 Pro, which cumulatively sold more than the standard 16. And the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is the best-selling model in the Galaxy S25 family despite its big price and big size.
It’s odd, as while we’ve had those models on our best phones list, I think the TechRadar phones team and I would probably recommend the cheaper models as the phones most suited for both people. Yet the sales figures don’t appear to bear that out.
And I suspect the same will be the case this year, as when I conducted a reader poll on what iPhone 17 model people actually purchased, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max cumulatively took up 50% of the vote, with an even split between them.
This isn’t hugely surprising, as speaking anecdotal I see more people with Pro iPhone than their standard stablemates, even if those people seem to not be creative professional who need a trio of rear cameras for content production, or mobile gamers who want the power of the Pro-grade A-series chip; I could be generalizing here but I’ve been writing about phones for years so have a gut instinct for this.
Maybe this is down to the fact that once one spends, say, more than $700 / £700 on a smartphone, it’s not overly painful to push a little bit more to get a full-fat flagship model. Or that Apple and Samsung have done such a good job at showcasing their high-end phones that people don’t just aspire to get them but actually buy them. After all, a phone is probably one of the most used devices you have these days, so getting the best you can afford might make sense.
But I want some more context, so use the poll above to tell me what the most important aspect of an iPhone Pro is that makes you choose it over the standard models. And if I’ve missed anything here, please let me know in the comments below.
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