Phones aren’t boring, it’s the fight that’s boring. If I were to pre-write stories for the next major phone launches, I might pass them more than halfway through. Samsung will make phones with more cameras and talk features that no one wants. Apple will make thinner phones with improved cameras and not enough features that everyone wants. The same boring battle, fought by the best phones every year.
I receive the review units and test them. I take hundreds of photos and find silly differences that only a reviewer who’s seen hundreds of photos of hundreds of smartphones would care to notice. I’m sure this coming year’s Samsung will zoom further and focus closer. Next year, Apple will focus faster and capture a wider dynamic range.
Do most people even know dynamic range when they see it? Was dynamic range missing in iPhone photos before? Why do Apple and Samsung constantly improve cameras over all other features?
Is this really a big improvement?
It’s not just the cameras, of course. There will also be new processors inside. The Galaxy S23 will probably ship with one of the first Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipsets, possibly with a better version thanks to the new friendship between Samsung and Qualcomm.
Apple will introduce its own new chipset, but the next iPhone 15 won’t understand. It will go to the iPhone 15 Pro, or possibly iPhone 15 Ultra, if history is our guide. iPhone 15 will likely use this year’s one A16 bionic chipset.
The next Qualcomm chip would offer a performance boost of around 30-40%. Is it a lot? It seems like a lot. It’s a two-digit amount. If I got a 30-40% pay raise, I’d be happy. Therefore, I should be pleased with a similar improvement in CPU performance in my phone.
Not really. In truth, this is not how the performance boost will appear in the real world. The difference will be negligible, at least compared to this year’s model. If you’re upgrading from a phone that’s two or three years old, the difference will be much more noticeable, and that’s fine. Most people keep their phone this long.
CPUs improve 30-40% a year, but that doesn’t make them exciting. Qualcomm can tell us about all the possibilities offered by the new Snapdragon platform. Until a manufacturer actually builds a phone that can do everything the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 can do, it’s just a search engine for a car, truck, or truck. a tank.
Here’s how Apple and Samsung can fight for me
I’m tired of the same old upgrades as I ask for the same old upgrades every year and haven’t gotten them. Here’s what I want, and I can’t believe it hasn’t been a top priority in the smartphone wars so far.
Better battery life. I don’t just want this on my phone, I want this on my tombstone. It’s been a constant theme in my review life, asking for better battery life. Battery technology is improving very slowly, so this will always be a difficult feature to provide. Yet recent innovations have moved power management in the wrong direction.
Instead of adding super bright screens that run twice as fast and draw countless amperage, make screens that are conservative and adapt better to save energy. Instead of making phones thinner, make batteries bigger. A few millimeters make a big difference in battery cell size.
I want improved durability. Corning’s recent innovations with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 are very exciting. A phone could theoretically survive being dropped onto a concrete sidewalk. The improvement in durability is more important than all the camera improvements made by Apple and Samsung.
My phone is the most expensive thing I could completely destroy in my bathroom. A drop on the tiles, or in the tub if I don’t have a water resistant device, would cost me hundreds of dollars. There is nothing else I own that carries such a risk.
I’m seriously clumsy. I’m taking the risk because a smartphone is a necessity, but there’s no reason my phone should break if I drop it. This is a deliberate design choice by the manufacturers. The devices are pretty and breakable. I would like to see improvements in durability before I have more zooms or a 30% faster processor inside.
Cameras are easy, batteries are hard
It’s no coincidence that Apple and Samsung keep fighting over and over again. It’s an easy fight. Camera sensors are getting better every year. Microprocessors will progress until manufacturing has reached its theoretical limits. Improvements in battery life, durable glass and materials, and other useful advancements are slower to appear and less appealing to tech enthusiasts.
We might have to wait for a breakthrough, but I’d like to see one of the two major manufacturers break the pattern this year and make the phone we want. Instead of focusing on the competition, I’d like to see Apple and Samsung focus on what would really benefit me as a customer.
- For the current winners of the smartphone wars, read the list of the best phones you can buy
