What's next for smartphone design?

09 September 2018
As manufacturers strive towards smartphones with all screen displays, we look at how manufacturers are differentiating themselves to pull away from the pack.

Sort by:

  • S
  • S6 User
  • nw}
  • 13 Sep 2018

What's next for smartphone design?

Foldable/ rollable, notchless, bezelless if you like, but definitely military grade drop proof from 6', scratch proof (but not affecting the drop proof), you can always replace a screen saver but it's expensive to replace the screen + digitiser.
Going forward surely it's possible to replace just the screen glass & not also the digitiser.

Repairable friendly/ replaceable parts, why should a whole phone be unusable when only 1 component needed replacing.
Manufacturers should be forced to do this, I know many do this already with replaceable modules etc.

Handsets to last 10 years or more, especially with the prices nowadays.

Manufacturers, O.S. support to provide initially 3 major O.S updates increasing to 5 or more.
Security updates from manufacturers, O.S. providers & chipmakers initially 5 years increasing to 10 years.

Mobile phones should now be 100h GSMA Rated, increasing to 200h going forward, currently I see especially HTC & LG with great phones let down by this aspect.

    • S
    • S6 User
    • nFX
    • 11 Sep 2018

    macky2green, 10 Sep 2018I love Apple iPhone 6's (Xiaomi Mi A1) design overall. All... moreThe Galaxy S10 is rumoured to have a 5.8" flat screen.

      • S
      • S6 User
      • mqx
      • 11 Sep 2018

      mark, 10 Sep 2018they can do what ever they want to do in the design of phon... moreAnyone that knows anything knows that Samsung makes the best screens in the business.

      I've been using my S6 loads for nearly 3 & a 1/2 years now, mainly for playing Chess on my Super AMOLED screen, if there was an issue then surely I would experience an imprint or an impression of a chessboard, but I don't.

      Apple wouldn't've bought their screens from Samsung for their flagship iP X if their was a problem.

        • S
        • S6 User
        • mqx
        • 11 Sep 2018

        AnonD-784107, 09 Sep 2018totally agree dude. he was a mesia a true genius. his think... moreYeah it's a shame that Andy Rubin is no longer @ Android, it would've been interesting to see what the Android O.S. would've been like if it wasn't sold to Google.
        Maybe he could help with Fuchia O.S..

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • LaT
          • 11 Sep 2018

          Bob, 10 Sep 2018To be fair, nanotech and body worn/installed communications... moreLets wait.. i sence terminate AI is coming..

            They could come out with a notchless 16:9 phone. What once was old becomes new.

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • thf
              • 11 Sep 2018

              Notch in Top Bottom Left and Right....

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • M6S
                • 11 Sep 2018

                3.5mm audio jacks!

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • wuq
                  • 11 Sep 2018

                  I just hope for the end of the "bigger screen thinner body" craze. I want the phones to become comfortable to use again.

                    • A
                    • AJ_74
                    • IYp
                    • 10 Sep 2018

                    The first picture in the article sums up the current state of smartphone design. No phones in that picture are designed well. Instead, each one uses gimmick and/or derivative design elements instead of perfecting a tried-and-true formula.

                    Aren't we past curved displays yet, Samsung? They suck. They make your phone less durable and introduce a ton of glare and distortion where you don't want any. The best anyone can say about them is that they make the phone easier to grip. You mean, easier to grip until you put a case on it???

                    Then there's the display notch; literally the most useless and counterproductive thing you can put on a smartphone. It only exists because Essential needed a way to differentiate their phone from the pack. Then Apple saw it, panicked, rushed out an entirely new breed of iPhone incorporating an even bigger notch (as if somehow bigger was better in this case) and, as per usual, every other manufacturer scrambled to copycat it. Now we're seeing "teardrop" notches being touted as the next big thing. Are you fucking serious? ESSENTIAL PHONE CIRCA MID-2017!!!

                    And what fucking good is having a screen go all the way to the top edge of the phone if you're going to put a chin on the bottom? Or having rounded corners on top but not the bottom? Or having corners rounded to a different degree on top vs. the bottom? FFS, symmetry is Good Design-101!

                    Lastly, the new narrow-aspect ratio displays... WTF are you people smoking? 16:9 became the standard because it's the best combination of width and height in both portrait and landscape. What good does having your display be narrower in portrait mode do you? Sure, you might see more of a web page top-to-bottom, but who cares when finger scrolling is so fucking easy? Compared to a 16:9 display with the same diagonal measurement, your screen content is MUCH smaller in both portrait and landscape. When you compare my 5.9" 16:9 Huawei Mate 10 side-by-side with my wife's 6.3" 18.5:9 Galaxy Note 8, my screen appears significantly larger than hers because shit on my screen IS larger. Nobody notices the extra length top-to-bottom (or side-to-side in landscape) because "big" actually means bigger and not "more". It would take an 18.5:9 phone of ridiculous length to equal the Mate 10 in terms of the appearance of "largeness". The phone would almost be as long as my size 11 shoe (stick that in your pocket and brag).

                    Bottom line: Smartphone design is an absolute mess right now, having peaked with the Huawei Mate 10 in the phablet arena and the now very old LG G2 in the standard. (in my not-so-humble opinion). The only modern phone even remotely getting it right is the Meizu 16/16+. Sure, it's got the rounded corners and narrow-aspect ratio display, but at least it's symmetrical, has no idiotic notch or curved display edges and a great screen-to-body ratio. If I ever have to upgrade my Mate 10 and we haven't returned to the sane days of flat, rectangular 16:9 notchless displays, the Meizu 16+ might just be ticket, even if by then it is a few years old.

                      • B
                      • Bob
                      • mx%
                      • 10 Sep 2018

                      gam30to, 10 Sep 2018Wow you sounded like you know the future of technology or s... moreTo be fair, nanotech and body worn/installed communications is actually a really good shout in terms of future smartphone design. Nanotech is very likely to explode in its applications in the next 10 years, and smartphones would be the perfect opportunity to make it more mainstream.
                      AI is already being used as a feature, and will only continue to increase in its integration as phones are constantly becoming more and more like life assistants, rather than just a means of communication.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • LEi
                        • 10 Sep 2018

                        Honestly it's kinda difficult to predict where smartphones will go next. After all, 10 years ago I doubt anyone would've expected the future phones to go BIGGER instead of smaller.

                          • J
                          • Jimbob of Jonestown
                          • xLj
                          • 10 Sep 2018

                          I'm looking forward to a bright, innovative future with a headphone jack and notch-less display. We should have the necessary tech pretty soon.

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • 39x
                            • 10 Sep 2018

                            Future smartphone sadly won't support encryption, as a result "Five eyes nation" will force companies to comply all those measures. This means the government will have backdoor access to users encrypted data such as calls, messages and apps. This can force companies to build a spyware chip into their phones, which will allow "Five eyes nation" to track our communication data, making it impossible to encrypt our device, though we might use encrypted apps to protect our data there's a backdoor that will allow government to access our data regardless. Now we cannot trust government with our data, as a result this is a global threat and will violate our privacy..

                              • g
                              • gam30to
                              • RXg
                              • 10 Sep 2018

                              Alien , 10 Sep 2018In 10-15 years we won't carry our smartphones with us, they... moreWow you sounded like you know the future of technology or something. We all know technology is going to be nano blah blah so stop your foolishness right now and get on with the program, ur just acting like a fool right now thinking you an predict the future. There are millions of articles about this when you google.

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • tNw
                                • 10 Sep 2018

                                Alien , 10 Sep 2018In 10-15 years we won't carry our smartphones with us, they... moreShame your future technology does not include a spellchecker for your communicator.

                                  • ?
                                  • Anonymous
                                  • 6p$
                                  • 10 Sep 2018

                                  mark, 10 Sep 2018they can do what ever they want to do in the design of phon... moreNever seen samsung made oled burn in. But, I've seen many sony lcds burn in including my bravia TV.

                                    Bring back the Nokia Communicator with the latest Android, touchscreen, IP68, etc.

                                      I love Apple iPhone 6's (Xiaomi Mi A1) design overall. All aluminum. Bezels are fine.

                                      I hate Samsung's curved edges. Though I'm using a Galaxy S7 Edge, just because of that built-in 128GB (plus another 128GB microSD). If not for it's memory capacity, I'd go with the Galaxy A8+ (2018). Samsung, make a flagship with a flat screen. Thank you.

                                        • A
                                        • Alien
                                        • 3RM
                                        • 10 Sep 2018

                                        In 10-15 years we won't carry our smartphones with us, they'll be INSIDE us. Nanotechnology is the future like it or not.
                                        They're building extraordinary things that way, things that can build themselves, and now with AI, we can build things we would have never thought about.
                                        I saw a documentary about AI that helped build the best car chassis in the world.
                                        Also, in the near future, people will be payed NOT to work.
                                        Just Google it if you don't believe me.
                                        Embrace the future! Stop living in the past!