It is time for another phone revolution

02 January 2022
The smartphone is dead! The bar form factor has reached its peak a while ago and now we've come to a standstill.

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  • P
  • Panos
  • xDu
  • 02 Jan 2022

Maybe a future with no phones at all and discover something completely new that will replace everything...

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • vGG
    • 02 Jan 2022

    KondriX, 02 Jan 2022A small bezel of course is hundred times better. And you ha... moreTrue. Massive respect to Sony for keeping phones real and classy

      I Love this article. Made my day. Thank you. I totally agree with you,I think we have relaxed and stopped dreaming. Every smartphone is the same now ( More than one back camera) it's exhausting to look at. I hear of iPhone this and that and so on. I look inside and they're pretty much the same thing. Where are we really going? Seems they're all afraid of improving battery power. Batteries that last a month or even a 3 months. That would be a killer tho😂🤧🤧

        • S
        • Sam
        • fCZ
        • 02 Jan 2022

        I won't mind if a phone can also be used as a projector. That will be a competition between phone and t.v..lol

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • 6c6
          • 02 Jan 2022

          For phone revolution, I'm still waiting for graphene battery, mini LED, and invisible front camera.

            • S
            • Sunil
            • rK$
            • 02 Jan 2022

            Seems like the author of this article has never used/heard about Blackberry. Didn't mention about the most productive & efficient handheld device which revolutionised the professionals' life.

              • F
              • Freddie
              • ftK
              • 02 Jan 2022

              It will take a giant leap to revolutionise the present form factor. All I see is continued tweaking of internal components.
              My desire for the next generation of phones is that of a more fluid/seamless interaction and interconnectivity between devices of different ecosystem/manufacturers.

                I also think there should be a new universal OS for phones, tablets and PCs. A new UI, a new way of interaction and a new way of doing things. But this is not gonna happen anytime soon as people tend to learn the steps of something in a software, not the tools in it.

                  KondriX, 02 Jan 2022Kaloyan you are right 1000%!!! As I said earlier, the mobil... moreTruth

                    I will buy any new shape which don't compromise battery capacity. When it comes to battery reasonable isn't enough we need extraordinary endurance. If that so Any shape any crazy idea will go with me

                      • F
                      • Freddie
                      • ftK
                      • 02 Jan 2022

                      It will take a giant leap to revolutionise the present form factor. All I see is continued tweaking of internal components.
                      My desire for the next generation of phones is that of a more fluid/seamless interaction and interconnectivity between devices of different ecosystem/manufacturers.

                        There was a time when I used to change phones multiple times a year. For the last 3 years, I'm using a single phone because I didn't find anything attractive so far. Diversity is dead and so is originality. People are okay with cancer trends that remove features and cause more inconveniences, but not okay with new ideas having minor flaws. A number of good companies went down with their original and interesting ideas only because of our hatred and traditional expectations.

                        So yes, we're the problem. All of us. Only we can change it, because we're also the change.

                          • t
                          • truthsayer320
                          • X03
                          • 02 Jan 2022

                          As much as I hate the current Apple, and never ever have been a part of the Steve Jobs cult. One thing the late man was profoundly able to do was to take tech. that people derided as geeky, niche or downright stupid, and show the world how usable it could be.
                          We just don't have that sort of conviction in any of the board rooms running these tech giants anymore, all of them combined don't have the courage to say to the shareholders " This is the future because we will make it the future", they're all stuck in a loop of design-by-feedback, and that only gets you iterations, not true innovations.

                            I agree with the sentiments of most of the commenters here.

                            What can come next are:
                            (listed from easiest to accomplish to hardest)
                            - A new smartphone that has all the advantages of the latest luxury options, but none of their disadvantages (they re-add: SIM card tray, microSD slot, Headphone Jack, IrDa Blaster, Active Pen support, Unlockable Bootloader, Flat and Durable design).

                            - More environmentally friendly (it is completely fixable, modular and uses ethically sourced labour and parts, and does all of this without any drawbacks, Eg FrameWorks).

                            - A smartphone with a much larger camera sensor, and has the option for the user to replace the lenses (ie Fish-eye, Macro, Ultrawide, Regular Zoom, Ultra Zoom) just like on a DSLR.

                            - A new material is found, where we can have flexible glass that is as durable as the plastic on 2012 phones. And we adopt the design of the Huawei Mate Fold X. It needs to be a large phone/phablet that is pocketable, but can be folded out to make for a nice small tablet experience (better productivity and consumption comfort). It does all of this without being less durable than a standard phone, like a Samsung S10+.

                            - Phones with a more advanced wireless solution. So that it can act as a server, and become a powerful cloud solution for your smart-watch and smart-glasses. Want better AR implementation? Instead of a hot processor and thick battery on your glasses, it merely has a thin battery, small camera, full display, and streams everything from your pocket.

                            - We discover how to bend light. Suddenly holograms become a reality. We get rid of our gadgets completely. Now we have two bracelets on each hand, and a little light from inside our wrists shines the hologram into our palms. We can watch true-3D movies, games, and other tasks. And it acts as a smartwatch at the same time.

                            - The Matrix.
                            It's all Ones and Zeros anyway. Or chemicals in the brain. We implant a chip into our mind, and we enter the Metaverse. Now YOU are the phone. Until the machine uprising, life is going to be so cool in the year 2222. Can't wait.

                              What we need most urgently is a drastically new design guidelines for the UI (being Android, Ios or something completely new).
                              As phablets gets huger and huger, it has become impossible to use them one hand operated,
                              We need a UI where the interaction part can be limited to part of the screen, while still using the full screen to display stuff. (Yes yes, I know there are modes that shrink the display area to just part of the screen, that is a poor workaround for a fundamental flaw). Obviously this would be a drastic thing as almost all known apps has to be redesigned for that.
                              An intermediate model for backwards compatibility could be an eye-tracker cursor.

                              On the hardware end there are still dinosaurs like me, that prefer typing on real keyboards over the fake ones. So for me e.g. the Pro1, Astro or even Titan Pocket are far better choices than any bar-phones out there. BUT I'm NOT saying that this goes for anyone. I mainly use my phone for sms&email, so a keyboard really matters for me. It is much a matter of the usage pattern of each individual if the benefits outweigh the extra weight and thickness or not.
                              To each their own.

                              What we really lack is VARIETY, different users, different usage patterns, different wishes and needs, and hence different devices.... and the best way to get that I believe is modularity.

                              I wish for a base phone with a detachable back-battery-package, so you could have different sizes of these, e.g. a tiny one for an ultra-slim device for the dinner jacket, a big one for the long weekend hike, and some in between for daily usage.

                              And a different back-option could be a keyboard slider. For the tiny niche that still want those. Optimally have them both in landscape and portrait. (like the FxTec Pro1 and the BB Priv)

                              Let these backs be simple stable bases, so we can reuse them when we get a new phone-part.
                              Motorola tried something along these lines with the Z series, but their phone part was a full phone, so made the combos clumsy.

                              We HAD the different backs! E.g. way back in 2003(!) with the Samsung s300, that I had with three different battery-sizes.

                              The driving factor away from all this is planned obsolescence! If they can get people to buy a hard to repair device that only is good for a few years, and then throw it away, they will sell much more of their junk bar-phones, than back when the batteries was easily swapped so we could have spares, and replace worn batteries when we gave the old phone to someone when we bought a new one. Back then I bought at the least one phone a year, and gave the old one away...

                                PartTimePhoner, 02 Jan 2022What should replace the punch hole camera?There's no need ro replace it, but it shouldn't exist in the first place. Phone manufacturers are just lazy. They put the front camera inside a hole in the screen and call it innovation. While they can do a bit more R&D and have something great and clever like Meizu with their Meizu 16 series. Perhaps tech like that would cost more but why not? People are happy to pay 10-15k of dollar for a phone with less choice of features (no 3.5mm jack, no microsd slot, closed OS, less screen estate because of notch or punch hole, etc). Add a bit more price won't hurt those people.

                                  Kaloyan you are right 1000%!!! As I said earlier, the mobile community took a wrong direction in the last few years. They are REMOVING essential features like microSD, 3.5mm jack, sealed batteries, xenon flash, no chargers and instead are adding gimmicks like punch-holes, virtual RAM, 2Mp cameras and others while the prices are going up every year. They are improving the speed but the phones are already fast enough to not make a difference. And ironically, there are people who still defend all these companies for their shady work.

                                    PartTimePhoner, 02 Jan 2022What should replace the punch hole camera?A small bezel of course is hundred times better. And you have the space for stereo speakers, led notification light and many more. Look at the Sony, just a clean display without interruptions.

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • uH%
                                      • 02 Jan 2022

                                      Poor software development.

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • uED
                                        • 02 Jan 2022

                                        They'll be back with physical qwerty that closed by a flap again 😂