Figures as published (July 31, 2026). Prices written in the article text are our catalog's figures when it was written, and prices move — each phone's current price and its status (observed with a date, or an estimate) are on its page and in the “Phones mentioned” cards below, and any device or brand count above belongs to that date.
Everyone senses that flagship prices fall over time, but few know by how much, or in which year the biggest loss actually happens. We took the median starting price of every flagship in our database grouped by release year, and a very clear curve emerged — one that changes how you think about both buying and selling.
The curve in numbers
Median starting price of flagships by release year: - 2026 models — JOD 649 (11 devices) - 2025 models — JOD 589 (75 devices) - 2024 models — JOD 524 (56 devices) - 2023 models — JOD 382 (10 devices)
Read the steps one at a time. From 2026 to 2025 the drop is only JOD 60, or 9 percent. From 2025 to 2024 it is JOD 65, or 11 percent. So far the decline is gentle. But from 2024 to 2023 the drop jumps to JOD 142 in a single step, or 27 percent — more than the two preceding years combined. The cumulative result: a three-year-old flagship settles at JOD 382 against JOD 649 for this year's, a loss of JOD 267, or 41 percent.
Why the third year is the turning point
Through the first two years a phone is still treated as relatively new: the chip is still fast, updates keep arriving, and demand in the local market stays strong. That is why the price only trickles downward. In the third year three pressures land at once — two newer chip generations have arrived, the battery starts showing its age, and the update ceiling comes into view. At that point the price does not slide, it breaks.
There is a second layer worth noting: within a single model, the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive configuration is larger than the gap of a full year. The Galaxy S26 Ultra starts at JOD 719 and reaches JOD 1234, and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 runs from JOD 1099 to JOD 1499. Choosing a storage tier costs you more than waiting an entire year saves you. And when you look at the rest of the 2026 line — the Xiaomi 17 Ultra at JOD 1145, the Xiaomi 17T Pro at JOD 699 and the Galaxy Z Flip 8 at JOD 649 — you can see why the median alone never tells the whole story.
When to buy and when to sell
- Best time to buy: a three-year-old device. By that point it has shed 41 percent of its value in your favour, and the steepest single drop (27 percent) is already behind it.
- Weakest deal: waiting a single year. A 9 percent decline in exchange for a full year of the phone's life and update window is not worth the wait — either buy new, or wait considerably longer.
- Best time to sell: before your phone turns two. It still holds roughly 80 percent of this year's generation price, and after that it enters the 27 percent stage.
- Watch the storage tier when buying: the spread within a single model can reach JOD 515, as it does on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, far more than anything waiting will save you.
One caveat stated plainly: these are median figures across different devices by release year, not a tracking of one phone's price over time, and all of them are starting prices for the cheapest configuration. The 2023 sample is also small (10 devices) and 2026 is not finished yet (11 devices), so treat both ends with caution. The overall pattern, though, is consistent: a slow decline through the first two years, accelerating sharply in the third.
What this analysis is based on
The figures here are computed from the Phones JO catalog itself — specifications taken from manufacturers’ official announcements, and prices from dated observation runs of OpenSooq listings for new units. This is not rewritten from other sites, and we have not tested the phones ourselves. Our method in detail ›
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