Smartphone trends for 2016
2015 was a good year for smartphones. Chock-full of innovation, several new features and a way better price to performance ratio.
More 2K & 4K Screens
2015 was the year of 1080p full HD screens on phones. Barely a couple of years ago, 1080p screens on TVs were the norm and now the same number of pixels are being crammed into many phone displays. A handful of flagships were also given quad HD or 2K screens. This translates into a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels and very high pixel densities. Some of the phones with 2K displays this year include the Galaxy S6 (the entire range), Note 5, Nexus 6P, HTC One M9+ and LG G4. And Sony was the only one to go for serious overkill with a 4K screen on the Xperia Z5 Premium. This phone has a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels and a density of 806ppi. To put that into perspective, Apple's latest iPhone 6S plus has less than half the pixel density at 401ppi.
3 & 4GB RAM To Be The New Standard
The RAM in the phone plays a large part in making everything run smoothly, especially with a lot of apps running in the background.There was a time when you had to constantly clean up the RAM, force quit background apps and run cleaner apps to get the phone running smoothly. This stopped when 3GB RAM became common. There were many flagships with 4GB RAM this year and this trend will continue. In addition, new flagships will most likely have the faster DDR4 RAM -after all, it's the combination of adequate RAM and high speed that make all the difference. And finally, there will be the odd phone maker who wants to stand out from the crowd with a 5 or 6GB RAM phone.
More Fingerprint Scanners on Sub-10k Phones
Fingerprint scanners are a great way to secure your phone -there's no need to remember long passwords or complicated unlock patterns. The prints are saved on the device itself so security is not compromised.
Most of them now work quite fast (read & unlock in under a second) and the added advantage is that thanks to the ability to register multiple fingers, you can have multiple users for the same device. This year, we saw fingerprint scanners make their way to sub Rs 10k phones -the CoolPad Note 3, for example. At Rs 8,999 this phone was real value.
We'll see more of the same next year -a lot more phones with fingerprint scanners in the sub Rs 10k price range.
The Race for Thinner Bezels
Bezels are the black borders around the screen. Typically, cheaper devices tend to have larger bezels but we've been seeing them get thinner than ever this year. Part of the reason that the Galaxy Note 5 looks so great is because of the super-thin bezel.
It's not just expensive phones either -the Qiku Q Terra showed us that a Rs 20k phone can have thin bezels too. Apart from looking really cool, there are other advantages to having ultra-thin bezels. A thin bezel reduces the overall size of the phone which makes it easier to hold. There are a couple of disadvantages: accidental touch when you finger creeps close to the edge and vulnerability to breakage.
32GB Will Be The New Base Variant
Storage is becoming cheaper by the year while storage needs are growing exponentially. On a phone with 16GB internal storage, you typically get about 12GB free which gets filled up within a few months of usage. On flagship devices where you end up paying premium prices, getting only 16GB storage seems like a rip-off. This year, we saw brands like Samsung, Sony and LG offer flagships with 32GB as the base storage instead of 16GB. Even Indian brand Yu launched its flagship Yutopia with a 32GB storage variant. In 2016, we expect more brands (including Apple) to take this route offering either 32 or 64GB base storage instead of the paltry 16GB.
USB Type-C Will Be The New Standard
USB Type-C adoption has already started with smartphones by OnePlus, Google Nexus and Gionee already available with the Type-C port.USB Type-C has multiple advantages over the current microUSB port: it is reversible, offers faster charging and is compatible with fast USB 3.0 speed data transfers. Apple has used USB Type-C ports in its Macbook and there are chances that the next iPhoneiPad will use it too. This would mean that USB Type-C will become the new standard for USB across all smartphones.
All The Camera Innovations
2015 saw international as well as Indian brands offering unique camera propositions.
Cameras with dual lenses, phase detection autofocus, a front selfie flash and laser auto focus were launched by various brands to en tice customers. Camera quality also improved dramatically with some flagships offering images comparable to point and shoot cameras.
Going ahead, we expect that optical image stabilisation not remain the preserve of premium flagship phones anymore. (see the Rs 20k HTC Desire 828 which already has OIS). Along the same lines, Laser autofocus is also expected to become a common feature, just like an LED flash is now. Camera megapixel count will continue to increase and we are expecting dual lens adoption to rise in 2016 because its an easy way out to better quality and effects.
Universal Fast Charging Solutions
When it comes to charging, you need to understand that the charging speed depends on how many amperes your charger can output. A 2 Amp charger is capable of charging your phone almost twice as fast than a 1Amp charger. However, most chargers that come with smartphones today are rated at 1Amp output. Considering that many of us end up doing a partial charge twice in a day, we expect that in 2016, manufacturers will start bundling 2Amp chargers and other fast chargers by default for fast charging. USB Type-C adoption also plays an important part here as fast charging is one of its default features
2015 was a good year for smartphones. Chock-full of innovation, several new features and a way better price to performance ratio.
More 2K & 4K Screens
2015 was the year of 1080p full HD screens on phones. Barely a couple of years ago, 1080p screens on TVs were the norm and now the same number of pixels are being crammed into many phone displays. A handful of flagships were also given quad HD or 2K screens. This translates into a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels and very high pixel densities. Some of the phones with 2K displays this year include the Galaxy S6 (the entire range), Note 5, Nexus 6P, HTC One M9+ and LG G4. And Sony was the only one to go for serious overkill with a 4K screen on the Xperia Z5 Premium. This phone has a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels and a density of 806ppi. To put that into perspective, Apple's latest iPhone 6S plus has less than half the pixel density at 401ppi.
3 & 4GB RAM To Be The New Standard
The RAM in the phone plays a large part in making everything run smoothly, especially with a lot of apps running in the background.There was a time when you had to constantly clean up the RAM, force quit background apps and run cleaner apps to get the phone running smoothly. This stopped when 3GB RAM became common. There were many flagships with 4GB RAM this year and this trend will continue. In addition, new flagships will most likely have the faster DDR4 RAM -after all, it's the combination of adequate RAM and high speed that make all the difference. And finally, there will be the odd phone maker who wants to stand out from the crowd with a 5 or 6GB RAM phone.
More Fingerprint Scanners on Sub-10k Phones
Fingerprint scanners are a great way to secure your phone -there's no need to remember long passwords or complicated unlock patterns. The prints are saved on the device itself so security is not compromised.
Most of them now work quite fast (read & unlock in under a second) and the added advantage is that thanks to the ability to register multiple fingers, you can have multiple users for the same device. This year, we saw fingerprint scanners make their way to sub Rs 10k phones -the CoolPad Note 3, for example. At Rs 8,999 this phone was real value.
We'll see more of the same next year -a lot more phones with fingerprint scanners in the sub Rs 10k price range.
The Race for Thinner Bezels
Bezels are the black borders around the screen. Typically, cheaper devices tend to have larger bezels but we've been seeing them get thinner than ever this year. Part of the reason that the Galaxy Note 5 looks so great is because of the super-thin bezel.
It's not just expensive phones either -the Qiku Q Terra showed us that a Rs 20k phone can have thin bezels too. Apart from looking really cool, there are other advantages to having ultra-thin bezels. A thin bezel reduces the overall size of the phone which makes it easier to hold. There are a couple of disadvantages: accidental touch when you finger creeps close to the edge and vulnerability to breakage.
32GB Will Be The New Base Variant
Storage is becoming cheaper by the year while storage needs are growing exponentially. On a phone with 16GB internal storage, you typically get about 12GB free which gets filled up within a few months of usage. On flagship devices where you end up paying premium prices, getting only 16GB storage seems like a rip-off. This year, we saw brands like Samsung, Sony and LG offer flagships with 32GB as the base storage instead of 16GB. Even Indian brand Yu launched its flagship Yutopia with a 32GB storage variant. In 2016, we expect more brands (including Apple) to take this route offering either 32 or 64GB base storage instead of the paltry 16GB.
USB Type-C Will Be The New Standard
USB Type-C adoption has already started with smartphones by OnePlus, Google Nexus and Gionee already available with the Type-C port.USB Type-C has multiple advantages over the current microUSB port: it is reversible, offers faster charging and is compatible with fast USB 3.0 speed data transfers. Apple has used USB Type-C ports in its Macbook and there are chances that the next iPhoneiPad will use it too. This would mean that USB Type-C will become the new standard for USB across all smartphones.
All The Camera Innovations
2015 saw international as well as Indian brands offering unique camera propositions.
Cameras with dual lenses, phase detection autofocus, a front selfie flash and laser auto focus were launched by various brands to en tice customers. Camera quality also improved dramatically with some flagships offering images comparable to point and shoot cameras.
Going ahead, we expect that optical image stabilisation not remain the preserve of premium flagship phones anymore. (see the Rs 20k HTC Desire 828 which already has OIS). Along the same lines, Laser autofocus is also expected to become a common feature, just like an LED flash is now. Camera megapixel count will continue to increase and we are expecting dual lens adoption to rise in 2016 because its an easy way out to better quality and effects.
Universal Fast Charging Solutions
When it comes to charging, you need to understand that the charging speed depends on how many amperes your charger can output. A 2 Amp charger is capable of charging your phone almost twice as fast than a 1Amp charger. However, most chargers that come with smartphones today are rated at 1Amp output. Considering that many of us end up doing a partial charge twice in a day, we expect that in 2016, manufacturers will start bundling 2Amp chargers and other fast chargers by default for fast charging. USB Type-C adoption also plays an important part here as fast charging is one of its default features
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