Have we hit peak phone?

krooton

krooton

krooton

Caporegime
Joined
9 May 2004
Posts
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Location
Leafy outskirts of London
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
 
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.
 
R3X said:
The one thing that gets me though is you have so many new £200-300 mobile phones yet their cameras recording ability can't compete with older Samsung and Iphone models from 2-3 years ago ?

They really are behind in technology, maybe one day they will product a phone around £200 with good battery and a good camera !

The Lenova P200 is closest I have seen but not the best camera video quality, just waiting on the nokias.
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It's not actually the hardware that is a problem, many of them have the same or similar lenses/sensors as the big boys, but the big boys have invested huge amounts in to integration of that hardware with the software.

The smaller players just don't have the software know-how or funding to match them, even though the physical hardware is on par. Certainly helps having a dedicated digital camera division like Samsung do as well.
 
ebilcake said:
In most cases its a hardware limitation, software is important of course, but this will only help so much with a mid ranged camera.

OnePlus 5 for example is a mid range camera, will never be as good as the cameras in last years flagship devices, nevermind this year.

They can only do so much with software.

It's one of the more important things to consider when buying a phone, software can be updated, hardware can't.
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Dunno how much things have changed, but when the alt-flagship chinese phones first got big, part of their sales tactic was highlighting that they were using the same sensors and lenses as the much more expensive big brand flagships.

This made sense given that there are only really a handful of manufacturers of those items, and they aren't expensive in the grand scheme of things.

It was the extra work that Samsung/Apple/Nokia put in to getting the most out of the hardware (with the software) that gave them the edge. Kinda like how crappy drivers can make even great hardware suck.
 
Glaucus said:
5" phone and a 10" tablet in one, would be the one I want.

flexible screens paired with flexible batteries would also make smart watches far more comfortable and allow bigger screens.
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As awesome as that would be, I can't see how they could keep the correct aspect ratio.

Current rectangular screens would fold out in to a more square shape, which is ok for websites, but naff for videos.
 
Amp34 said:
I wouldn't say so. Most people with a more modern iPhone (I.e. One with a fingerprint reader) will be using the fingerprint reader dozens of times a day - accessing the device, banking (great for transfers as you don't need a card reader) and a variety of other apps that have taken advantage of the fingerprint reader. Instead of having to remember half a dozen or more passwords and the code for the phone you can use your finger.
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Using something that is there isn't exactly the same as that function as being a requirement. I don't think many people would not get a phone because it lacks a fingerprint reader, most iphone users would have bought an iphone regardless ;)

Still, those that do get a minute amount of convenience, it's not exactly a game-changer in terms of usability.

Also, my £350 faux-flagship has a fingerprint reader. And heart-rate monitor, and uv sensor, and possibly some more functions I don't need or know about :p
 
Columbo said:
No we havent hit peak phone because all the mainstream manufacturers are still putting poxy 3000mah batteries in their flagship handsets.
5000mah should be the standard in a 5.5" phone but they would rather plough money into making them thinner and charging faster.

The screens are getting bigger as edgeless displays arrive yet for some reason the batteries are not, SOC efficiency is fine and dandy but with all the "advances" that each new set has made pretty much every handset should be on 2 day battery life by now and we are nowehere near that as standard.

As a guy that flies and travels with work constantly, having babysit the life of my phone and ensuring I have a fully charged battery back with me grows tiresome.
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But that isn't revolution, that is pure evolution. All the recent 'revolutions' have been niche and gimmicky.
 
stoosh said:
Thanks Mate that's a quality phone. How are you finding the UI? I was tempted to get my hands on the Pro a little while back.
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Perfectly functional, but I'm not a power user in UI terms. I have all my apps, they run fast. I have loads of storage. It can use Three's 4G band. And I couldn't never go back to a non-OLED screen.

The only vague annoyances I have are the chinese characters under my weather widget that can't be removed, and that Poweramp control is a bit hit and miss in the notification bar. I could fix these both with a custom ROM, but I can't be bothered with all that these days, the phone does 99% of what I want brilliantly, and fast-charge is great.
 
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