OPINION: An enormous Pixel leak this week showcased an official-looking video seemingly displaying off a new temperature sensor inside the upcoming Google Pixel 8 Professional. If true, it’s an indication that we’ve hit peak smartphone, with producers now trying to incorporate – let’s be trustworthy – a gimmick on a flagship telephone to assist increase gross sales.
The idea, if true, makes use of a brand new sensor on the rear of the smartphone to check your temperature, just by holding it in opposition to your temple for a number of seconds. There’s a leaked video on Twitter that showcases the rumoured temperature sensor should you’re interested by this explicit function.
Sure, it seems cool, however how useful will that be in each day use? I stay unconvinced. In truth, I’d argue that the rumoured improve is a far cry from what I’d contemplate the glory days of smartphone improvement within the late 2000s and 2010s.
That is the interval that not solely noticed the unique iPhone remodel into the favored smartphone we all know at the moment, but it surely was a time when year-on-year modifications have been vital and noticed a real increase to the general consumer expertise, be it vastly improved shows, higher processing tech, bigger batteries or extra.
A comparability between smartphones obtainable in 2010 and people in the marketplace in 2019 reveals vital developments, such because the shift from low-resolution LCD to high-definition OLED shows and the transition from fundamental single-core chips to highly effective multi-core processors. Within the 2020s, although, I really feel like we’re shedding a little bit of that spark, with new smartphones more and more wanting and performing equally to their predecessors.
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I ought to observe that this logic doesn’t apply to foldable smartphones. In contrast to conventional units, foldables are experiencing substantial year-on-year developments harking back to the smartphone trade within the 2010s, be it vital enhancements to hinge tech or foldable shows, which makes them really feel like worthy upgrades. Elsewhere although? I’m not so positive.
Take the not too long ago introduced Sony Xperia 1 V for instance; whereas it’s nonetheless very a lot a flagship smartphone, it seems and performs very similar to its predecessor except for a barely higher digital camera and barely quicker processor. It’s not precisely sufficient to fill your abdomen with butterflies, is it?
That’s why corporations like Google are scrambling to incorporate tech just like the temperature sensor inside their flagship smartphones – merely to do one thing a bit of totally different and stand out from the competitors. However fairly than implementing gimmicks that’ll not often be utilized in on a regular basis use, I’d desire genuinely useful options that’ll enhance my day-to-day expertise.
If producers can’t ship genuinely useful options, it begs the query: have we reached peak smartphone? The reply would possibly very properly be sure.
After all, telephones will proceed to get quicker, extra environment friendly and extra succesful over time, however I feel transformative year-on-year upgrades will develop into extra of a rarity within the smartphone trade at massive. This pattern may end in a stagnant market the place shoppers not really feel the necessity to improve their smartphones as incessantly as earlier than.
The query arises: if the smartphone market stagnates, what’s going to emerge as its substitute? AR glasses? Smartwatches? Elon Musk’s NuraLink? The approaching years of the 2020s will undoubtedly be intriguing for the smartphone market, and solely time will inform what lies forward.
What would you like from a brand new smartphone whenever you’re on the hunt for an improve? Do you care about big leaps in tech or do you merely need one thing that works? Let me know on Twitter.
