13 years into the Smartphone Era13
It’s been over 13 years since the release of the initial iPhone, this tiny 3.5inch screen with 4 GB of base storage kicked off the beginning of the smartphone era. Year after year, our phones have advanced and evolved, sometimes we take for granted the amazing technology sitting in our pockets. The iterations of upgrades we’ve gotten used to have hindered our ability to see how far we’ve progressed. In this article we’ll go through some of the most significant improvements.
Displays
Capacitive multi-touch displays are possibly our simplest, most noticeable innovation. If you’ve ever used a resistive touch screen, you’d remember the frustrating lack of response to each touch and swipe, this was mainly because manufacturers believed a stylus was the best way to use a touch screen, resistive touch screen were inexpensive and with just a little stylus you could get very accurate clicks, but they just weren’t very sensitive for your fingers, as the years progressed people hated using a cumbersome stylus. It didn’t take long for capacitive screens to become the norm, manufacturers now had the ability to incorporate multi-touch technology, which is simply being able to register multiple points of touch at once, something resistive screens were not able to support.
Before the first iPhone release, the use of multi-touch technology in consumer technology was rare, multi-touch allowed for efficient on-screen keyboards, previously awkward to use due to key-rollover, it also allowed for many functions which are now omnipresent, such as pinch to zoom!
We’ve all noticed the change in display sizes, going from the 3.5inch iPhones to almost 8inch phablet screens, but they haven’t just doubled the inches, manufacturers like Samsung have spent billions of dollars on research and development to further screen color, pixel density, power efficiency and OLED technology, your smartphone screen although comparatively small, is probably the brightest, most color accurate display in your home.
Ease of access
Over the past 2–3 years, almost every smartphone released has some form of biometric unlock feature, typically a fingerprint sensor or facial recognition systems, although a passcode must be set in case these features fail. In 2016, Apple confirmed their device users unlock their phones on average 80 times per day. With a biometric system, it takes less than a second to unlock your device, while a passcode takes up to 2–3 seconds, this might not sound like a lot, but the 2 second difference over a period of a year accumulates to over 16 hours of just entering your passcode! As a Google Pixel 4 user, I only have a facial recognition unlock method and while wearing a mask, I’m forced to enter my passcode to unlock my phone, it’s only during this period that I’ve grown to appreciate the convenience of biometric unlocking methods.
Mobile Photography
Built-in cameras have been around since the early 2000s, it’d be quite hard to imagine going anywhere without having a camera ready at hand. In the early years the number of megapixels in a phone camera defined the quality of photos it could take, more was better, higher MP sensors gave you a sharper, clearer photo. The trend took a turn to instead improve sensor technology to allow capture of more light and accurate color, soon after, manufacturers introduced optical image stabilization, as it didn’t matter how much detail your sensor could capture if your photo turned out blurry from movement.
AI Photography, although relatively new, has enabled astonishing advancements in mobile photography, it allowed for better looking photos with similar camera hardware. The focus was on using computer based algorithms to adjust and highlight areas of a photo, sometimes done by bringing several photos of different exposures into a single photo, allowing all areas to be correctly exposed to better recreate the actual moment, although sometimes it can be overdone,
Creating unrealistic looking scenery.
Perhaps the most interesting ability of AI photography is that it’s able to recognize people and things, with that knowledge the algorithm can apply preset styles to best suit the recognized focus of the photo, fruits look brighter and more saturated, while people can have smoother skin.
Battery life
We’ve all had times where our device has run out of battery when we needed it, it’s a frustrating problem that still continues to happen, smartphone batteries typically last 1 day, or possibly 2 on bigger devices or for light users, which is similar to my Nokia N97 back in the day. It may seem like batteries have not improved, but we forget to factor in the huge increase in the time spent using the device, our hours spent on our phones have doubled in the past year. Also, phones with bigger, brighter screens and more powerful processors are lasting twice as long as they used to, but this hasn’t surpassed our demand, therefore it may seem like little improvement has been made.
In the past few years people wanted phones with bigger displays, this gave manufacturers opportunities to make bigger phones with bigger batteries, allowing for increased screen on time. The space an iPhone 5 battery occupies in the phone compared to Apple’s latest and greatest iPhone 11 Pro is really comparison of phones and oranges, by dramatically shrinking the motherboard down, Apple was able to fit a battery almost three times the size of its motherboard into the iPhone 11 Pro, giving it almost 2 days’ worth of battery life.
Where do we go from here?
Manufacturers are constantly testing the waters to see what works, but it appears we might be reaching a plateau in several departments. It feels as though there’s not much innovation and movement left in display and battery technology, we’ll most likely be seeing incremental improvements in these areas till the major breakthrough. The infamous transparent iPhone leaks shocked the world, it was everywhere, people started to believe it was true, the years went by and the crazy phone concepts disappeared, and we know the improvements won’t stop but it’s hard to predict what’s next. Manufacturers take risks each time they release a completely redesigned device with new technology, it’s unlikely we’ll be getting a holographic iPhone any time soon.
NOTES
(The camera technology grew gradually since the release of smartphones, mostly with incremental hardware upgrades, such as higher quality sensors, optical image stabilization) but one of the most notable improvements that took mobile photography to the next level has to be
AI Photography > Battery life, battery life had seen little improvement since the first introduction of smartphones, manufacturers were plagued with keeping the balance between power production and energy consumptions. Once phones started to grow in size, manufacturers had more room to play with and design bigger batteries, apple however took a different approach, they were able to shrink the motherboard of their flagship devices by a whopping 50%, thus allowing for a larger battery > Displays, let’s talk about possibly one of the least noticeable things by the majority of users, apart from the size difference, many average users probably haven’t noticed the incredible advancements in LCD and OLED technology, most newer high end phones will come with old displays, they’re produce sharper, deeper appearing colors,
Foldable> the foldable phone market has grown and is undoubtedly lead by Samsung’s flip series devices, with their advancements in flexible OLED displays, it had to happen.
Smart Watches > Apples series 4 watch released with esim capability, letting users leave their phones at home,
Manufacturers are constantly testing the waters to see what works, we have devices trying to fill gaps between categories, foldable devices are an attempt to give a larger more visual experience to use your smartphone, while trying to keep the size manageable, smart watches shrink everything down, keeping it ultra-portable so you barely notice it’s there, but they give you just enough to get through your day without having to take our your phone too often, but neither option offers advantages without any draw backs, ones less like a phone in functionality but smaller, one adds onto your phone experience slightly but also sacrifices portability, none of these offer a single all round solution, there is no direction, manufacturers don’t know what’s going to work next, advancements in hardware can be unpredictable. For those who are expecting a revolution like the first iPhone any time soon, you might be disappointed, I know I am.
With all these new gimmicks such as pop up cameras and edge to edge displays, it may feel like the pace of the smartphone evolution has kept growing, but the reality is, these are little improvements and flashy gimmicks are just manufacturers hiding the fact that we’ve reached a plateau
Effect of smart phone manufacturing on the environment — how many smart phones going to waste per year
Only 12.5% of ewaste is recycled! The according to the EPA, most ewaste is simply dumped.
On average, we use our smartphones for only 18 months despite having a useable lifespan of 3+ years
Some recycled phones are broken down into bare materials for reuse in the manufacturing of new electronics, but many are refurbished and resold to users in developing countries
One of the most positive facts about cell phone recycling concerns the impact they have in developing countries. People can buy recycled phones cheaper than they can buy a new phone, giving them a way to communicate. This is particularly important as many people in these countries don’t have landlines. In addition, recycled phones are used to transfer money and used in business, helping the economy.
How secure are your smartphones? Should you care? -Cloud storage
Why are smart phones getting bigger?
- 90s-2000s it was all about getting smaller, more compact, small was in fashion,
- Only two functions
- watch’s and smart phones becoming 1[]
