Until recently, it was easy to tell lower-cost smartphones from their premium brethren without even turning them on or handling them. All you had to do was look at the size. A 5-in. display? Obviously lower-cost. A 6-in. display? Okay, now you’re talking flagship.

Once that was settled, you could pretty much figure that that the other specs would follow suit, including the type of processor, the phone’s build (plastic vs. metal), its display quality (HD vs. AMOLED), etc.

Motorola was one of the main architects of this: For example, last year’s version of its well-made but relatively lower-end Moto G had a 5-in. display and started at a very reasonable price of $180. On the upper end of the feature-set range, the Moto X Pure came with an impressive 5.7-in. Quad HD display and ran about $400.

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