What do we expect from iPhone 15 and Galaxy S24?

iPhone 15 and Galaxy S24 phones are going to be introduced in the coming months, but these days the most criticism of smartphones is that their form factor has entered a period of relative stagnation, and on the other hand, the supply of flagship phones is decreasing every year. Now the question that arises is why?

In answer to this question, some might say that we have reached the pinnacle of what can be expected from an ideal smartphone. In fact, there seems to be no room for meaningful improvement in smartphones.

So we’ve reached a point where we want more from a smartphone than an edge-to-edge display with ultra-thin bezels, a sleek design, and powerful internal hardware. Here we’re going to talk about why we should expect more from the current smartphone form factors, with the iPhone 15 and Galaxy S24 coming this year and everyone expecting these phones to deliver something different.

What is the purpose of today’s modern flagship phones?

Smartphones are undoubtedly among the most important technologies that a person can have and rely on in their life. Smartphones do not have a single use, but can be used for different purposes. But the thing is that they are not perfect in any part. Herein lies the main problem with smartphones, and especially flagship models: they want to give the impression of doing everything perfectly, giving the illusion that they are successful at everything. In fact, it can be said that this is the view of most smartphone manufacturers.

But the fact is that every smartphone, regardless of its price, has some shortcomings and no smartphone is 100% perfect. So users try to accept these deficiencies as a normal thing.

However, there is nothing out of the ordinary about a phone that shatters on a single drop. This is really a conscious choice by the manufacturer to care about the durability of the phone. This is something that is as important as the hardware of the phone, and we must say that making a strong and durable phone does not require very advanced technology.

The same is true for battery life. Today, smartphone manufacturers have pretty much come to the conclusion that good battery life should be measured in hours, not days. So while it is possible to design a smartphone with a one-week battery life, no company does it. Why?

Phone design: what manufacturers care about

In general, smartphones have stagnated and the main reason is that manufacturers have decided to improve only those parameters that are important to them, while ignoring others. This is where the concept of diminishing returns comes into play.

In simpler terms, increasing the consumption of anything leads to a decrease in relative satisfaction with it. For example, if you are thirsty and drink a glass of water, you will get more satisfaction from quenching your thirst. But after the first glass, you’ll feel less pleasure with each sip. Because of this, you won’t feel any pleasure in the third or fourth glass.

This is what happened in the design of most smartphones. Yes, these phones perform great and their GHz numbers are truly stunning, but the question is, how much of a super powerful chip does the average user really need? Is battery life so unimportant that we sacrifice a few nanoseconds of speed?

Fortunately, the “bigger is better” philosophy seems to have been abandoned in some aspects of smartphone design. But despite this, we see that in many aspects this philosophy still stands and the interest in big numbers is still alive. It’s not bad to know that Apple in the past years was obsessed with making their phones as thin and light as possible, regardless of other design aspects; But this eventually led to the iPhone 6 and one of the biggest scandals in smartphone history, Bendgate.

Of course, Apple realized its mistake and immediately started using stronger materials in its phones to solve the existing concerns about the durability of its phones. Now it has reached a point where Apple has taken a completely different approach, so that the iPhone 14 Pro is heavier and bulkier than its previous model. Apple has actually decided that it can achieve something else by abandoning its previous obsession with thin iPhones.

Of course, this does not mean that a phone should look like a brick, but manufacturers can find a middle ground in the design of their phones. However, flagship phones do not go in such a direction.

Phone design: what customers want

Would you like your smartphone to have 20% less power but be able to use it for a whole day without running out of battery? Are you willing to sacrifice the quality of the camera for less protrusion of the camera on the back panel of the phone? These are important questions that no one asks themselves. Worse, no manufacturer gives the consumer the power to make their own decisions.

Perhaps the reason why many people are unhappy with the current “perfect phone” formula and are bored with current smartphone design is that most phones compete in the same category. In most cases, the only real difference between the phones is their price and spec numbers. Therefore, in order to change the current situation, we must allow the design of smartphones to be done based on the opinions of users, not what the manufacturing companies want.

This can partially solve the problem of stagnation of smartphones. There are still many aspects that can be improved, and it’s not just about upgrading processor cores and the number of megapixels, etc.

So in response to the question, what is the real solution? We can say that it is by understanding the limitations of the smartphone industry that we can achieve real progress. Until the rules of the game change, smartphone design will continue to be repetitive.

Source: PhoneArena