Features in a smartphone that makes it a flagship killer?

Folding glass. Solid state battery. Simplify durability by removing ports. Use smart materials instead of generic. Properly innovate camera by getting away from these 1.5 cm thick humps that gravely takes away from daily basic convenience and pocketability.

It’s not exactly a “feature” but whenever I hear flagship killer, first thing that comes on my mind is Price. I don’t really care about side by side processing power or battery performance between two phones, as long as the price is adequate.

Simple, really––flagship specs at an upper mid-range price.

I think it all comes down to the power of the chipset. Looking at a phone like the Motorola Edge 2025 I wanted to consider it as a flagship competitor but what throws it out of the competition is the Dimensity processor. Different odd shaped models of phone like the RAZR Ultra 2025 which I wouldn't normally count a folding phone as a "flagship phone" strictly because it is a new technology testing ground instead of being the primary competitor against the iPhone Pro Max ends up being Motorola's only entry into the flagship competition. For this reason I never really look at the Pixel Pro XL as a flagship phone because the Tensor is so weak. It all comes down to horsepower. With that said, it has to use a Snapdragon 8 Elite and undercut the price of the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It is the flagship to beat, essentially the benchmark everything is weighed against.

This is the one.

I dare argue it's not necessarily about the specs. We've seen plenty of smartphones with the latest-and-greatest processor that just fail to do it justice, be it because of thermals or software. Phones that make a compromise and take last year's flagship processor, polish the software, and give you an above decent camera for a very decent price - these are hard NOT to recommend.

Soooooooooo, a flagship then?

Nowadays, it would be the price :) Launch anything under $700 with decent hardware and it will slay!