Have we hit peak phone?

tombrr · 1 Jul 2017 at 20:56

I personally think that we have hit peak phone for the current state of tech.

I think the biggest thing that is holding up big innovations in the phone sector is the state of battery and display technologies, once we have paper thin batterys that can last for days and possibly flexible screens etc there will be a massive resurgance in unique and innovative phones, give it 5 years or so and I think we'll start seeing the next generation of phones which will make current flagship phones look like the first generation Nokias etc.

I've had my iPhone 6+ since it came out and it is still going strong, get at least 1 day charge with regular media usage etc but I am the getting the urge to upgrade but as many people have said the current offerings don't look very appealing.

sityeuropa · 2 Jul 2017 at 02:16

The S8 buttonless screen was worth the upgrade for me.

The cameras should always be getting better.
We still need 4K 60fps on phones, lighter thinner etc.

krooton · 2 Jul 2017 at 15:45

sityeuropa said:
We still need 4K 60fps on phones,

That just makes all the storage increases moot, haha.

sesevans · 3 Sep 2017 at 08:58

krooton said:
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

While I have read that overall demand for smartphones next year is expected to increase by approximately 3% globally, I see plenty of scope for innovation ahead.

As to hardware, some may like the idea of a foldable/bendable screen such that the phone folds into a tiny form factor and opens out into a larger form factor. I see other hardware developments ahead--in particular Artificial Intelligence built into hardware.

The processing chip that Huawei are set to unveil next month for their flagship device, the Mate 10, is expected to deliver faster processing and lower power consumption. But of particular interest I believe is its use of artificial-intelligence powered features such as instant image recognition.

Built into their phones, Huawei says: "AI can enable real-time language translation, heed voice commands, or take advantage of augmented reality, which overlays text, sounds, graphics and video on real-world images phone users see in front of them."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-hu...-it-says-can-beat-apple-samsung-idUKKCN1BD0SI

It will be interesting to compare Huawei's approach to what Google is doing with Google Lens, to be launched later this year and how much overlap will develop:

https://www.recode.net/2017/5/19/15666704/google-lens-key-example-ai-first-computer-vision

stoosh · 3 Sep 2017 at 18:35

@krooton I don't know if you've mentioned it already but do you mind if I ask what phone you're using?

krooton · 4 Sep 2017 at 09:06

stoosh said:
@krooton I don't know if you've mentioned it already but do you mind if I ask what phone you're using?

No worries, it's the ZUK Z2 Pro

Columbo · 4 Sep 2017 at 10:09

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.

stoosh · 4 Sep 2017 at 15:53

krooton said:
No worries, it's the ZUK Z2 Pro

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.

krooton · 4 Sep 2017 at 15:55

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.

But that isn't revolution, that is pure evolution. All the recent 'revolutions' have been niche and gimmicky.

krooton · 4 Sep 2017 at 15:59

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.

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.

stoosh · 6 Sep 2017 at 12:23

That's great that it runs well and uses Three 4G. As long as the phone is functional it's all good.

I agree with the odd bits of Chinese characters as minor as it seems it does get annoying as I had a Chinese phone and despite burying literally everything I couldn't get rid of the odd bits here and there.

The ZUK series are a decent alternative to the flagships you can't really go wrong with the phone as clearly evidenced by yourself.

Disco_P · 6 Sep 2017 at 18:46

Seriously considering a ZUK 2 as an upgrade to a Z5 compact.

krooton · 7 Sep 2017 at 10:24

Disco_P said:
Seriously considering a ZUK 2 as an upgrade to a Z5 compact.

At the price now they are a steal, I have no regrets at £350, now they are nearly £200!

Buffman · 8 Sep 2017 at 08:46

edscdk said:
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

I've got the note 4 too and only issue is having to change the battery once q day... Don't think id want another phone with a fixed battery as it would deteriorate (id have had to replace the note 4if battery was fixed).