New and exciting?

[Hadron]

I've seen it said a few times today that the latest phone releases contain nothing new and exciting. Which I think is quite true, but equally is the way things have been for a while. So a question: what, that is technically feasible, would qualify as "new and exciting"?

That the manufacturers don't know is obvious. "Air gestures" being resurrected by more than one manufacturer, even though the idea has been done before and resulted in a collective shrug, is one example. The folding screen was supposed to do this, but the public beta devices shown so far have if anything damped down any excitement, and clearly aren't going to be anything more than a niche for the time being (I personally suspect that a better use of such technology is as an ancilliary display that can be used with a phone rather than integrated into a handset). And does anyone other than Google get excited about integrating Assistant with more features?

So, the question: is there anything they could do that would generate some real excitement? Or have we just reached the limits of the smartphone concept?

 

[NightAngel79]

I've seen it said a few times today that the latest phone releases contain nothing new and exciting. Which I think is quite true, but equally is the way things have been for a while. So a question: what, that is technically feasible, would qualify as "new and exciting"?

That the manufacturers don't know is obvious. "Air gestures" being resurrected by more than one manufacturer, even though the idea has been done before and resulted in a collective shrug, is one example. The folding screen was supposed to do this, but the public beta devices shown so far have if anything damped down any excitement, and clearly aren't going to be anything more than a niche for the time being (I personally suspect that a better use of such technology is as an ancilliary display that can be used with a phone rather than integrated into a handset). And does anyone other than Google get excited about integrating Assistant with more features?

So, the question: is there anything they could do that would generate some real excitement? Or have we just reached the limits of the smartphone concept?

I think we are getting to the limits. Even the folding phone barely made waves, and waves only cause the launch didn't go well.

 

[Deleted User]

So, the question: is there anything they could do that would generate some real excitement? Or have we just reached the limits of the smartphone concept?

If I could answer that I'd probably be a very rich man
I think that smartphones have indeed run out of steam, and there's not much more that can be done with them.
We need another creative genius to come along and show us all the way forward.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

Folders coming back seems inovative to me.
It might work again!

 

[Deleted User]

A glass bar that you can drop, has no slot for a lanyard by default , that can only be manipulated by touch and swipe input on websites in particular that are still loading , will hopefully reach the end of the road.

Bring back the addition of ergonomic buttons, 3 or 5 way scroll wheels and many more physical input methods and keep the current quality screens like the Note 10+ in a protected format.

OK I want my Sony Ericsson P910i back with its perfect little stylus for typing - updated enormously of course.

I got a lot of hate elsewhere about 4 or 5 years ago, from people saying flat glass screens are the bees knees, but that may be changing.

Rant over. Back to the actual topic the OP meant to discuss

 

[Hadron]

Folders coming back seems inovative to me.
It might work again!

Leaving aside the hardware problems the current designs have, it seems to me that "folding phone" limits the potential of flexible screen technology: the fact that it has to fold into something you can hold and use as a phone constraints what it can fold out into.

The Galaxy Fold gives you a thick handset with a somewhat rubbish screen in phone mode, which unfolds into a small, squarish tablet. The tablet mode looks more usable of the two: the phone mode is distincly unimpressive. A second-generation device might have a better phone display, and maybe with a smaller bending radius you can make the folded form less awkward, but it will always be a thick phone that unfolds into a small tablet. There's no way round that, because one dimension is limited by the height of the "phone" and the other by the width when folded.

The Huawei device is less awkward because the design accomodates the bending radius better. But it's still a thick phone that becomes a small tablet, and the flexible display is unprotected.

Or there's Moto's rumoured approach. But while that's perhaps most appealing, it's basically just a conventional smartphone that's easier to fit in the pocket because you can make it less tall by folding. And conversely it's short and thick when folded. So this approach doesn't give you the option of such a large display when unfolded (because the width is the same folded and unfolded).

This is why I wonder whether an ancilliary display might not be a better use of this technology: a display that can be folded up for portability, and used in conjunction with a phone, but isn't constrained by having to fit in a phone form factor.

 

[mikedt]

I thought motorised popup selfie cameras to avoid notched and punch-hole screens was going to be a thing with more manufacturers. So far only Vivo and Oneplus have those. Or Honor with their Magic sliding format phone, again to not have notches or punch-hole screens