Is the smartphone market really at the end of the line
Apple has once again demonstrated that the smartphone market is overcrowded and lacking in innovation with the introduction of the new iPhones. With a few exceptional cases, the situation doesn’t significantly improve if we look at the Android world. How much has technology changed in the last few years? In spite of the limited novelty, why have prices increased? Is purchasing a top of the line still worthwhile? In the following post, I tried to address some of those questions.
Is the smartphone market really at the end of the line
The new iPhones are aesthetically identical to their predecessors, with just minor changes made to the body and no new, distinct functionality.
The price is the only significant difference, coming in at close to 2000 euros for the top-of-the-line model (512 GB iPhone Xs Max).
How does the Galaxy S9 compare? How much does it actually differ from a S8? Little.
The list of examples is endless…
Identify the variations.
The increase in computing power of ARM SoCs has slowed down more and more in favour of the optimisation of the production process and, consequently, energy saving since the introduction of the Snapdragon 820 in 2016, which fixed the serious thermal issues of the Snapdragon 810 and the poor optimisation of the 808.
At the same time, it is clearly obvious that incredibly powerful SoCs do not offer any actual advantages for the typical user’s daily use of the device.
This is demonstrated by the influx of ” mid-range ” devices. You won’t have any issues or annoyances when using any Huawei / Honor smartphone with SoC Kirin 6XX or items that mount the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 series.
How many of you use your cellphones to play sophisticated games or to edit films and photos? I imagine very little.
If IP68-certified smartphones were already widely available in 2016 (such as the Samsung S7 or different Sony handsets), 2017 was the year of 18:9 and frame optimisation.
Smaller and more ergonomic devices have been made possible by disproportionally increasing the vertical resolution and minimising the bezels, but a 16:9 display may still be utilised without any issues and is frequently even more pleasant and acceptable for the majority of web content.
With or without notch?
The notch comes next. It was originally made available by Apple on the iPhone X in 2017 due to technical restrictions. However, even in the Android universe, a technology that was intended to remain exclusive has become a mainstay.
The notch is a feature that almost always causes issues with Android devices, unlike the iPhone where it was employed for what might be considered technological reasons.
In many Android devices with notches, mistakes in the management of alerts and odd “cutting” are the norm. Even the most recent Xiaomi models no longer display any notification icons.
Nearly only Samsung has so far resisted the notch trend, but other manufacturers may follow Apple’s lead if the notch continues to appear on other products.
Over time, cameras have become more efficient without compromising the quality of the images they create.
Only Huawei has been able to make sense of multi-camera setups, which on 90% of handsets are essentially useless.
Honorable mention should also go to Google, which showed with the Pixels how software is frequently more important than the number of rooms.
So, it may be claimed that, save for a few unusual instances, the rise in sensors and megapixels is purely a marketing issue.
increased quality as a result of more sensors? Virtually only Huawei and Leica have been successful together.
However, let's continue to discuss something that is related to cameras: artificial intelligence.
Is AI really a feature that may justify the purchase of a new smartphone despite being present everywhere and having a SoC that is specifically developed for it?
If it is accurate that, as previously said, Google and its photographic application are able to successfully use the contribution of software (and AI is nothing more than software applied to a task), it does not imply that this type of activity requires tremendous computation. Google’s camera
For medium to low range compatible devices, the app can also be installed informally without facing any evident issues.
The usage of AI then frequently contributes to overly saturated and unrealistic photos, to the point where Honor’s most recent devices now let you turn it off in post-production.
Although AI is not just used to enhance photographs, its use in other contexts (such as voice assistants) is still in its infancy.
You may use HDR + with the Google Camera app and its several portings.
Even when it comes to operating systems and graphical user interfaces, evolution cannot be discussed.
For the past ten years, iOS has essentially not changed. Although while Google has worked to standardise and streamline the look of Android and has just recently introduced a few minor advancements with Pie, the interfaces used by the majority of manufacturers are not significantly different from those from a few years ago.
What type of evolution, then, has taken place over time? hardly anything. It was preferable to concentrate on the improvement of already existing technology in the lack of true advances.
Someone has made an effort to advance. With its Find X, Oppo in particular has quickly entered the market with fingerprint readers built into the screen and retractable cameras to avoid the notch. With its Mi Mix series, Xiaomi also maintains its “visionary” status.
The motorised and retractable camera from Oppo.
On the other hand, the major producers appear to have chosen a different course. Both Samsung and Apple give the sense of seeking to make their top of the line increasingly associated with the luxury market.
By investing in the newest flagships, you may be guaranteed to spend a lot of money, ignore some technological advancements, and hold a stylish device in your hands.
Everything about it tries to be a status symbol, from the materials to the design to the incredibly sophisticated design. These seem to be the updated priorities that help to partially explain price rises.
Is the iPhone X series or a top-of-the-line gadget still worthwhile to purchase? Sure, if you’re more interested in finding these things than actual news. Alternatively, it would be wiser to cut back on spending or wait for the top of the range price to drop. By the way, you might be able to locate a decent offer on a S8 or an iPhone X right now!
