From a basic calling-only phone, to storing your whole life on a device, phones have come a long way. Evolving from a bulky piece of technology to where it can fit the pockets of your pants and jeans. Nowadays, smartphones have transformed from being practical to following current trend. Just like how bell bottom jeans are coming back, these are some trends that most smartphones brand might adopt.
1. Secondary/Cover Display
Currently, some phones have a small secondary display that can show the time, new notifications, and other information while the phone is idle. This consumes less electricity than using the main display, and overall will save battery life.
2. Own/In-house Custom Chipset
It started with Apple and Samsung, who uses their own custom chipset for their smartphones. Samsung. Has many devices running on its Exynos platform while Apple has been using its own custom A-series processors for over a decade. Now, many brands are following in their footsteps in building their own chipset for their devices. Some notable brands that already have their own chipset or are in the process of building it are Huawei and Google. Huawei has been building its phone on the foundation of its own Kirin processors for years while Google has announced that it is working to develop its own custom processor chipsets for its devices. Last month, Google revealed that its Pixel 6 series smartphones, which will be powered by the company’s own in-house processor called Tensor.
3. Under Display Camera
Many smartphone brands, if not all have ditched the top notch on their display to try to achieve a full display. However, many phones, even with full display, the front camera are still visible. For years, smartphones manufacturers have tried to create a truly edge-to-edge display, and last year, the first under display camera smartphone was released. It is the ZTE Axon 20 5G. Vivo’s Apex 2020 concept phone has it, but that’s a concept phone and hasn’t been made available to buy for consumers. Under display camera might be something common in upcoming smartphones.
4. Larger Camera Sensor
Most smartphones’ selling point are their camera. Most people use it almost every day, to take pictures of notes, shopping mall parking lot or just to store create memories in general. Plus, it’s easier to carry compared to a traditional camera. However, higher megapixels do not translate to better picture, the camera sensor makes the difference. To understand this, we have to go back to the fundamental – light capture. A bigger sensor can take in more light than a small one, and more light produces better looking pictures. Nonetheless, sensor size isn’t everything to getting a good quality image. Computational photography and intelligent software play a part in helping to improve image quality. Huawei P40 series has the largest camera sensor, in comparison to Google Pixel 5 and iPhone 11. Yet, they have been regarded as some of the best camera phones of their generation.
5. Port-less/Wireless Smartphones
Back in 2019, Meizu and Vivo announced phones with no port. Everyone is no doubt in shock. Fast forward two years later, there is rumour that the new iPhone 13 could be port-less. So, have we arrived at an inevitable future where phones no longer have ports? Firstly, they remove the headphone jack (to be precise, most of the flagships), and many models now support eSIM, in an effort to completely ditch the SIM card slot. Now, most phones are getting ready to remove the charging port, which means that you would have to solely rely on wireless charging. And mind you, when you buy a new phone, wireless charging port does not come with the new phone. So, you would have to fork out extra to buy the wireless charging port. So it seems that if ever we would want to buy a new phone in the future, get a few hundred bucks ready for whatever accessories that you might need to purchase with the phone.