Have we hit peak phone?

krooton

krooton

krooton

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I've been a phone nut for pretty much my whole adult life.

I would keep abreast of all the developments going on, got a new phone every year, and was generally a bit ahead of the curve before smartphones were really a thing.

I was re-encoding videos to watch on my MPX200 back in 2004, and people on the tube/train were often surprised to see someone watching tv shows on their phone.

Now I have a semi-flagship from 2016 (Snapdragon 820, OLED screen, 128GB ROM, 6GB RAM) and see absolutely no reason to upgrade. The only thing my phone lacks is an amazing camera, but it does the job and I have a proper camera when needed.

I look at all the new and upcoming stuff, and it's all just more of the same, and incremental improvements. Curved glass, dual cameras, modular phones, that's about all the innovation I can come up with, and none of it is really meaningful.

Have we hit peak when it comes to phones? What more could we possibly expect?

Probably just more Snapchat filters :D
 
i still use a samsung toco lite thats about 8 years old.

personally i have no need for a mobile phone... free calls from the house, consoles and pc for gaming and social media etc.

ofc its a dif story with the children who have iphone 7s ( why anyone would want those i will never know as they are massively overpriced and underspecced ) and samsungs etc.

the only nice phone that i have seen that could tempt me into getting one is my friends xiaomi mi mix or something similair. feels like a real qualiy item however at £400+ absolutely no chance.
 
It's getting to be less about CPU/RAM and more about the other stuff. Fingerprint/Iris recognition, and camera. Software too, of I wasn't running a custom ROM, my S7 would never see the S8 apps.
 
iamthenugget said:
i still use a samsung toco lite thats about 8 years old.

personally i have no need for a mobile phone... free calls from the house, consoles and pc for gaming and social media etc.

ofc its a dif story with the children who have iphone 7s ( why anyone would want those i will never know as they are massively overpriced and underspecced ) and samsungs etc.

the only nice phone that i have seen that could tempt me into getting one is my friends xiaomi mi mix or something similair. feels like a real qualiy item however at £400+ absolutely no chance.
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What do you do if you're out of the house and need to make a call?

e: :o didn't see the Tocco Lite bit
 
Woden said:
It's getting to be less about CPU/RAM and more about the other stuff. Fingerprint/Iris recognition, and camera. Software too, of I wasn't running a custom ROM, my S7 would never see the S8 apps.
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Fingerprint/eye scanners are still niche in terms of both desire and application, but I definitely agree that it is more about the software now. My phone can do all the software I want, perhaps that is why I have no want to upgrade.

But given that software isn't really limited by phone hardware beyond games, what purpose do £500+ flagships actually serve?

All I really want is waterproofing, but not willing to spend double my current phone cost just to get it.
 
iamthenugget said:
i still use a samsung toco lite thats about 8 years old.
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Urgh. Had one of those and it was the worst phone I've ever owned.

I'm no phone nut (using a 2 year old Sony Xperia Z1 Compact), but a bad phone is a bad phone - and that one was awful.

On topic: personally, I'm more than happy with the aforementioned Z1C. Does all I need it to and will probably keep it for at least another year. Don't see any gain from a newer phone. Especially as most options are massive (prefer small)
 
Cleisthenes said:
Lucky kids if their old man won't spend £400 on a phone for himself but will spend £700 on one for the kids :p
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£700:eek: more like £300 2nd hand with about £150 back on her iphone 6 for her birthday.

mind u phone tec has never been my thing so even if i can afford to buy a phone for myself at that price i would chose not too.

its a bit awkward when 3 guys you play online with all chat via telegram etc on the phone apps and you cant
 
iamthenugget said:
£700:eek: more like £300 2nd hand with about £150 back on her iphone 6 for her birthday.

mind u phone tec has never been my thing so even if i can afford to buy a phone for myself at that price i would chose not too.

its a bit awkward when 3 guys you play online with all chat via telegram etc on the phone apps and you cant
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If I were to go back to a non-smart phone (I'd love to) then I'd immediately have barely any contact with my various groups of friends. Whether it's group facebook chats or whatsapp, I very rarely text any more.
 
The thing that annoys me, is that nobody makes regular size phones with decent specs anymore, if you want high end you HAVE to go with a plusphone or phablet.

When my 2010 Nokia Lumia 920 died back in 2014 the only phone on the market with comparable specs was the Sony Xperia Z3 compact so I had to buy that (don't regret it, great phone), it's now 2017 and there isn't a normal sized phone out that is a worthwhile upgrade from the Z3 compact, even Sony's Z5 compact and X compact are glorified sidegrades (and even miss decent features).

/sigh
 
I think the biggest issue is software. Everyone has been obsessed with hardware specs so the manufacturers cater for that. I get the feeling that is becoming less and less.
Now people realise the importance of software reliability. They are behind, but hopefully over the next few years it will be better.
 
I really can't see where they can go next with smartphones in their current format to be honest.

I'm really happy with my s8, but is it a game changer compared to my previous s6? Nope, not really.

You can now buy an outstanding mid range smartphone for about 200 that will do most of the things the flagships can.

I can't see me replacing the s8 for a few years. It's just too expensive changing phones every year or so just for a few new gimmicks.
 
Ruggedness and battery life.

Battery needs to be about software and hardware efficiency, but I think we'll see solar powered phones soon enough.

I can also see them becoming even more integrated into payments and ID. Eventually replacing passports and licences.
 
Most manufacturers seem to be focusing their efforts on Cameras now. Hopefully better batteries will be something of a target in future. The OS is sound, phone hardware is already silly fast and we haven't really storage issues anymore. I am hoping that more phones get camera quality as good as Google's solution with the Pixel and 6P, this is why I'll struggle to move on once my 6P bites the dust - the low light shots it throws out are often stunning.
 
Thing is, no mobile phone camera is ever going to be better than a dedicated camera. So if you really care about the best quality pictures then you will use your dedicated camera.

As long as a phone camera is half decent for the odd quick snap then that's all that matters in my mind.

Not quite sure why people are so obsessed with smart phone cameras?
 
Well DSLRs are quite impractical for day to day life and people like taking pictures, it's innately human. Why not want better from phone cameras?

I've taken some pictures with an old Sony Ericsson 5MP camera what walk all over 13MP cameras of today. Low light handling is a particular bug bear of mine
 
I'm still on my note 4, nothing looks like a big upgrade... I might be tempted if someone brought out a phone the same with 2/3x the battery life
 
d_brennen said:
Well DSLRs are quite impractical for day to day life and people like taking pictures, it's innately human. Why not want better from phone cameras?

I've taken some pictures with an old Sony Ericsson 5MP camera what walk all over 13MP cameras of today. Low light handling is a particular bug bear of mine
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Get mirrorless then. My SONY A7r2 with my Batis 25mm f2.0 lens is easy to carry day to day. I can get an even smaller lens if i want to or even a smaller mirorrless camera like a olympus.

Also my cameras can connect to my phone and i can upload it to social media.
 
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