This is tangential on the concept of "innovation in smartphones" but I feel like we're already at "peak phone" and people claiming some lack of innovation in smartphones kind of just want to see...
This is tangential on the concept of "innovation in smartphones" but I feel like we're already at "peak phone" and people claiming some lack of innovation in smartphones kind of just want to see something new for the sake of being new, instead of for the sake of being useful. Smartphones have all coalesced into 6" all-screen cuboids with better internals every year because that's what the public at large wants.
Innovation should be in screen technologies, battery technologies, silicon processes and fast charging at this point, which is what the industry is doing. I get that it's boring, but by far the most meaningful upgrade to my smartphone experience in the last decade is how fast the bloody things charge now. Everything else is a nicety. Face ID actually sucks and never should have existed, and is an "innovation for the sake of innovation" IMO
Not to denigrate this YouTuber or their skills at all. I'm sure it's a good video. Just that the title got me thinking about something.
Additionally, I think we went "past" peak smartphone because a lot of features that I personally care about (and lots of my friends also do) were deliberately removed from newer phones. We're...
Additionally, I think we went "past" peak smartphone because a lot of features that I personally care about (and lots of my friends also do) were deliberately removed from newer phones.
We're losing the headphone jack, removable SD cards, removable batteries and other features which we did not need to get rid of. There are plenty of amazing new developments, like hyper efficient OLED screens, but we could've kept them without ridding our phones of everything else.
My Moto G9 is so large it doesn't fit in some of my older jeans, and it "stabs" me in the thigh when sitting down or going up staircases, whilst I literally played tennis with my G3 in my pocket.
I really want phones to be smaller, with higher capacity batteries and more efficient screens, that's about it for me. Any efficiency benefits are incredibly welcome, and much like a car engine, we really need to iterate over the basics to extract efficiency out of them instead of focusing on new gizmos.
Most importantly, the software is actively getting worse, with Android hinting at getting rid of sideloading, and the OS in general getting less reliable and more resource intensive (A/B partitions come to mind). My alarm app stopped working for a good two weeks, and the whole OS seems to make directly accessing the filesystem as cumbersome as possible.
Could you explain why Face ID sucks in your opinion? For me it‘s feels extremely frictionless, I don‘t even notice the locking/unlocking process of my iPhone it‘s so quick. I also suspect Face ID...
Could you explain why Face ID sucks in your opinion? For me it‘s feels extremely frictionless, I don‘t even notice the locking/unlocking process of my iPhone it‘s so quick. I also suspect Face ID has made smartphones safer in general, because people are actually using it instead of having a phone that‘s not locked.
I don't really know, when I'm hugging a pillow in bed or whatever the phone's a nightmare to unlock. By contrast my Laptop and iPad Air's Touch ID works perfectly, faster, every time.
I don't really know, when I'm hugging a pillow in bed or whatever the phone's a nightmare to unlock. By contrast my Laptop and iPad Air's Touch ID works perfectly, faster, every time.
The advantage of Face ID over Touch ID is that it works with wet hands. I‘m often outside, or sailing, so that was a constant issue for me. Now with Face ID I have no issues. But I do see your...
The advantage of Face ID over Touch ID is that it works with wet hands. I‘m often outside, or sailing, so that was a constant issue for me. Now with Face ID I have no issues. But I do see your problem when having half the face buried in a cushion :)
It depends on what features are important to you. While I think phones with keyboard are aesthetically more appealing, it’s not necessary to return to this kind of design in order to do...
It depends on what features are important to you. While I think phones with keyboard are aesthetically more appealing, it’s not necessary to return to this kind of design in order to do innovation.
What I’d like to see is a more choice of smaller devices. My phone is literally a brick, it weighs a lot and it’s hard to use with one hand. Unfortunately, if people keep using the phone as a one-stop shop device that won’t change, because even if you are able to somehow reduce the size of batteries you still need large screens. So, personally an innovation would be making a modern phone intended to be used as a phone and not a small tablet.
Yeah, but not enough people bought the iPhone 12/13 mini or the ASUS ZenPhone 9. You're preaching to the choir about small phones here, it's just that there aren't enough of us by the looks of it....
Yeah, but not enough people bought the iPhone 12/13 mini or the ASUS ZenPhone 9. You're preaching to the choir about small phones here, it's just that there aren't enough of us by the looks of it. My perfect phone was the 2016 SE and I dream of a version of that with an up-to-date chip and USB-C. But it will never happen.
I want a phone that I can securely hold one-handed and touch every point of the screen (with the one hand), ideally while keeping the 6" screen. In practice, this means changing the shape of the...
I want a phone that I can securely hold one-handed and touch every point of the screen (with the one hand), ideally while keeping the 6" screen.
In practice, this means changing the shape of the device - maybe adding some sort of nubbin at the back I can hold, while I maneuvre my thumb to be able to tap the opposite side of the screen.
This has manifested in the accessories market as popsockets I agree, the trend towards larger phones is getting out of hand (ha!). Honestly, the pixel 4a is just a touch larger than I'd like, and...
maybe adding some sort of nubbin at the back I can hold,
This has manifested in the accessories market as popsockets
I agree, the trend towards larger phones is getting out of hand (ha!). Honestly, the pixel 4a is just a touch larger than I'd like, and it's about as large as I'll go. Really the only features I'd like that it's missing are dp-alt, bypass charging, and a replaceable battery. This trend towards bigger, then folding it so it's smaller but thicker, removing features because they need to be paper thin...
It all feels like that quote from Jurassic Park,
Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
Imo it’s the opposite. The large screen trend is very much driven by user preferences. It’s easy to see in the android landscape - the phones that sell well are the ones that are cheap and have...
Imo it’s the opposite. The large screen trend is very much driven by user preferences. It’s easy to see in the android landscape - the phones that sell well are the ones that are cheap and have large screens. That’s pretty much it.
On the other hand, experiments in small form factors do poorly, like the iPhone Mini.
90° circle segment shaped phone when I want da pizza slice phone now sorry. Not sure how technically feasible a quad circle display would be, but looking at smart watches we seem to have solved...
90° circle segment shaped phone when
I want da pizza slice phone now
sorry. Not sure how technically feasible a quad circle display would be, but looking at smart watches we seem to have solved circular smart devices nowadays? User experience could be rough, though, as the screen diagonal size is limited on accout of pythagoras - nevermind the GUI implications of a rounded corner screen
Some people, including me, think we need innovation in phone design. A month ago @CannibalisticApple posted a topic asking advice about designing a slide-out phone case with a keyboard and,...
Some people, including me, think we need innovation in phone design. A month ago @CannibalisticApple posted a topic asking advice about designing a slide-out phone case with a keyboard and, coincidentally, today this video was posted where a phone with this form factor was built starting from a broken Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. Personally, I don't really like the final product, but I've enjoyed the whole procedure!
I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed watching this video. It was very entertaining, and also I am blown away by how many separate domains you needed to be familiar with in order to complete...
I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed watching this video. It was very entertaining, and also I am blown away by how many separate domains you needed to be familiar with in order to complete this project. Also I was devastated when the keyboard cable was a little too short.
This is tangential on the concept of "innovation in smartphones" but I feel like we're already at "peak phone" and people claiming some lack of innovation in smartphones kind of just want to see something new for the sake of being new, instead of for the sake of being useful. Smartphones have all coalesced into 6" all-screen cuboids with better internals every year because that's what the public at large wants.
Innovation should be in screen technologies, battery technologies, silicon processes and fast charging at this point, which is what the industry is doing. I get that it's boring, but by far the most meaningful upgrade to my smartphone experience in the last decade is how fast the bloody things charge now. Everything else is a nicety. Face ID actually sucks and never should have existed, and is an "innovation for the sake of innovation" IMO
Not to denigrate this YouTuber or their skills at all. I'm sure it's a good video. Just that the title got me thinking about something.
Additionally, I think we went "past" peak smartphone because a lot of features that I personally care about (and lots of my friends also do) were deliberately removed from newer phones.
We're losing the headphone jack, removable SD cards, removable batteries and other features which we did not need to get rid of. There are plenty of amazing new developments, like hyper efficient OLED screens, but we could've kept them without ridding our phones of everything else.
My Moto G9 is so large it doesn't fit in some of my older jeans, and it "stabs" me in the thigh when sitting down or going up staircases, whilst I literally played tennis with my G3 in my pocket.
I really want phones to be smaller, with higher capacity batteries and more efficient screens, that's about it for me. Any efficiency benefits are incredibly welcome, and much like a car engine, we really need to iterate over the basics to extract efficiency out of them instead of focusing on new gizmos.
Most importantly, the software is actively getting worse, with Android hinting at getting rid of sideloading, and the OS in general getting less reliable and more resource intensive (A/B partitions come to mind). My alarm app stopped working for a good two weeks, and the whole OS seems to make directly accessing the filesystem as cumbersome as possible.
Could you explain why Face ID sucks in your opinion? For me it‘s feels extremely frictionless, I don‘t even notice the locking/unlocking process of my iPhone it‘s so quick. I also suspect Face ID has made smartphones safer in general, because people are actually using it instead of having a phone that‘s not locked.
I don't really know, when I'm hugging a pillow in bed or whatever the phone's a nightmare to unlock. By contrast my Laptop and iPad Air's Touch ID works perfectly, faster, every time.
The advantage of Face ID over Touch ID is that it works with wet hands. I‘m often outside, or sailing, so that was a constant issue for me. Now with Face ID I have no issues. But I do see your problem when having half the face buried in a cushion :)
Y'know what? Fair enough. I guess Face ID is indeed better if you go outside a lot. Doubly so in colder countries where you need gloves in the winter.
It depends on what features are important to you. While I think phones with keyboard are aesthetically more appealing, it’s not necessary to return to this kind of design in order to do innovation.
What I’d like to see is a more choice of smaller devices. My phone is literally a brick, it weighs a lot and it’s hard to use with one hand. Unfortunately, if people keep using the phone as a one-stop shop device that won’t change, because even if you are able to somehow reduce the size of batteries you still need large screens. So, personally an innovation would be making a modern phone intended to be used as a phone and not a small tablet.
Yeah, but not enough people bought the iPhone 12/13 mini or the ASUS ZenPhone 9. You're preaching to the choir about small phones here, it's just that there aren't enough of us by the looks of it. My perfect phone was the 2016 SE and I dream of a version of that with an up-to-date chip and USB-C. But it will never happen.
...plenty of people bought the iphone mini; it sold better than most android phones, it just didn't sell as well as most iphones...
I want a phone that I can securely hold one-handed and touch every point of the screen (with the one hand), ideally while keeping the 6" screen.
In practice, this means changing the shape of the device - maybe adding some sort of nubbin at the back I can hold, while I maneuvre my thumb to be able to tap the opposite side of the screen.
Isn’t that just a pop socket?
Or one of the cases with the little kickstand ring.
Which, I want a case anyway, so having it be part of that has always made sense to me.
Was about to say lol. A pop socket
This has manifested in the accessories market as popsockets
I agree, the trend towards larger phones is getting out of hand (ha!). Honestly, the pixel 4a is just a touch larger than I'd like, and it's about as large as I'll go. Really the only features I'd like that it's missing are dp-alt, bypass charging, and a replaceable battery. This trend towards bigger, then folding it so it's smaller but thicker, removing features because they need to be paper thin...
It all feels like that quote from Jurassic Park,
Imo it’s the opposite. The large screen trend is very much driven by user preferences. It’s easy to see in the android landscape - the phones that sell well are the ones that are cheap and have large screens. That’s pretty much it.
On the other hand, experiments in small form factors do poorly, like the iPhone Mini.
90° circle segment shaped phone when
I want da pizza slice phone now
sorry. Not sure how technically feasible a quad circle display would be, but looking at smart watches we seem to have solved circular smart devices nowadays? User experience could be rough, though, as the screen diagonal size is limited on accout of pythagoras - nevermind the GUI implications of a rounded
cornerscreenSome people, including me, think we need innovation in phone design. A month ago @CannibalisticApple posted a topic asking advice about designing a slide-out phone case with a keyboard and, coincidentally, today this video was posted where a phone with this form factor was built starting from a broken Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. Personally, I don't really like the final product, but I've enjoyed the whole procedure!
I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed watching this video. It was very entertaining, and also I am blown away by how many separate domains you needed to be familiar with in order to complete this project. Also I was devastated when the keyboard cable was a little too short.