What is up with smartphone trends?

Over the past few years, it has felt like the smartphone market has been totally oversaturated with devices. With phones from hundreds of different manufacturers releasing every month, it’s hard for companies to find a gap in the market. However, instead of trying to innovate to try and find and fill that gap, they are still continuing on the old screen-battery-processor cycle. o.5cm less bezel and half an hour’s more battery life for just £200 more!

I mean, once you reach a certain point is there really much more you can do with a phone? Turns out, many companies actually think so. Take Samsung, for example, with their Galaxy Fold. Although I do applaud them for at least trying to innovate (*cough* Apple), they definitely rushed out the device, which is what lead to it having so many issues.

What I’m really trying to say here is that rather than trying to deliver a quality, useful product, companies are instead trying to rush out an innovative product with this awesome new feature that totally isn’t just a gimmick. As well as rushing out products, manufacturers now also seem to be developing a knack for copying ideas.

Who in the world saw that when a big company releases a phone that removes features, like the headphone jack, and then sees all the backlash it recieves, then proceeds to mock it, and then decides that it would be a good idea to do the exact same thing? Google, that’s who. Same thing with the notch. Sorry Google, it looked horrible.

And then we had the whole pop-out camera phase. In an effort to ditch the bezel and make an all-screen phone, we saw companies like Vivo and even Samsung making phones that had cameras slide or pop out from the top of the device. Not only would this be a nightmare for case makers, but it also raises durability and waterproofing concerns. Plus, who even uses the selfie camera any more? How about we just ditch it, claim it’s a ‘feature’ and sell it for £2000? Excellent. Let’s call it the iPhone XSDDH+-.

I think we need to remember that at the end of the day, phones are just tools to help us get along with our daily lives, connect with our friends, family and the world, watch videos, and maybe even the occasional movie on. I get it. You want a device that does everything. But I guess we’ll just have to wait for now. Your wallet will thank you.