Debate: Are smartphones today boring? Why?

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Mirabee
Mirabee
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago
↵jasonlee81 said:

Who cares really, I need my phone to be practical and reliable not funky designed and wacky, you simply cannot do much with a flat slab of all screen, back in the day when you had a small screen and a physical keyboard you could go crazy with designs and they were superb, they also cost a fraction of the cost of todays devices.

But now outside of a folding/flip/rolling display you cant physically do much apart from lights, funky pattern frame and colour schemes, almost all upgrades have to be internal, but again, phones have levelled off with what components you can actually fit in side.


Everything else that has been removed makes no odds, headphone jack in 2023? not needed, power adaptor or cable? not needed, expandable storage? nice and handy but portable storage is cheaper and faster and more secure.


I would argue that all modern phones be sold WITH a screen protector and a protective case, or at the very least offered free of charge, I am way more likely to need that then a charger.


Having said all that, lack of competition is also allowing companies to get lazy, and the worst of these culprits was apple, they like to say they set trends, fine, they removed the jack so other companies realised they could cash in, they removed the charger, other companies followed, they charged insane amounts for their iphones....you get the drift, they were also the first company to refresh the iphone 6 series what 4 times? so other companies followed, and boom, now we have very small iterative gains year on year.

I share your sentiment. It's difficult not to ponder which party bears more responsibility: the company that consistently produces incremental updates without significant technological advancements, or the consumers who continue to purchase their products, thereby supporting and perpetuating the company's approach.

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propov
propov
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago

Since Nokia and Htc aren't here yes all others are too boring. Nothing Phone is a little shine but just a little. Now the design is so so screen on the front and glass or "premium" plastic on the back. A little bit design intrigues with camera Island and that's all. But the design followed the function. Ok. That's the one and only solution these days. But what happens with the UI. There is a lot of space to improvement. Touch Flo and Touch Flo 3D were unique. Since then around 20 years ago nothing new or even a little bit different.

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propov
propov
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago

Im a Fold owner but Im not so happy and inspired with it. It is just practical and heavy and bulky but is not beautiful or exciting.

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Drivefast71
Drivefast71
Arena Apprentice
• 1y agoedited

I'm a big fan of minimal bezels and UDC. HATE hole punch. I'm using the Axon 40 Ultra and I don't think it's boring at all. I love the look. But what really makes it stand out, as someone else mentioned, it what you customize it to be. I use Nova Launcher and Kustom Widget. I have tons of designs. Star Trek, WinAmp-style, etc. Dozens of them. I can have a new phone every day of the week. None of which resemble stock android even remotely. I tried to add a dropbox link to my current home screen. No idea if it worked. Hahahhaha! Nope. Doesn't seem to have added the link. Sorry.

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domfonusr
domfonusr
Arena Master
• 1y ago

Yes, they are boring... but consumers and designers alike are walled into the status quo because it just works as is. I miss the days of the old Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, HTC, and so many others who did innovative things with unique designs over the span of a good decade or so... but those days are past. Almost everybody essentially agrees now that the iPhone form factor is where it is at, and little can be done to change that, aside from foldables which cost a whole bunch more. It isn't all bad, but it isn't all that great, either.

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trakk8
trakk8
Arena Master
• 1y ago
↵Mirabee said:

I share your sentiment. It's difficult not to ponder which party bears more responsibility: the company that consistently produces incremental updates without significant technological advancements, or the consumers who continue to purchase their products, thereby supporting and perpetuating the company's approach.

This compared to last year the rate in growth of iPhone revenue slowed down faster than previous. People bought fewer iphones. Granted, it could be because of general inflation or incremental updates. Or both.

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Mariyan Slavov
Mariyan Slavov
Phonearena team
Original poster
• 1y ago
↵domfonusr said:

Yes, they are boring... but consumers and designers alike are walled into the status quo because it just works as is. I miss the days of the old Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, HTC, and so many others who did innovative things with unique designs over the span of a good decade or so... but those days are past. Almost everybody essentially agrees now that the iPhone form factor is where it is at, and little can be done to change that, aside from foldables which cost a whole bunch more. It isn't all bad, but it isn't all that great, either.

LG tried a new thing with the Wing, so it's not completely stale. Yeah, I know, LG is out but still, there are things to try out :) Motorola is working on a vertical rollable, as well. It might take some time but rollable design could break the "rectangular slab" status quo.

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Mariyan Slavov
Mariyan Slavov
Phonearena team
Original poster
• 1y ago
↵propov said:

Since Nokia and Htc aren't here yes all others are too boring. Nothing Phone is a little shine but just a little. Now the design is so so screen on the front and glass or "premium" plastic on the back. A little bit design intrigues with camera Island and that's all. But the design followed the function. Ok. That's the one and only solution these days. But what happens with the UI. There is a lot of space to improvement. Touch Flo and Touch Flo 3D were unique. Since then around 20 years ago nothing new or even a little bit different.

Wouldn't it be great if we were able to control our phones with our eyes, something similar to the Vision Pro tech? Other gesture interfaces failed miserably in the past but if done right, it would take us to the next level - a.k.a. not having to touch your screen all the time! :))

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Teh_catasstrophy
Teh_catasstrophy
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago
↵MariyanSlavov said:

LG tried a new thing with the Wing, so it's not completely stale. Yeah, I know, LG is out but still, there are things to try out :) Motorola is working on a vertical rollable, as well. It might take some time but rollable design could break the "rectangular slab" status quo.

I'd love to see how and what way they'll shape and address ingress type protection. Because I'd gladly take a rollable phone over a folding display.

I find it a bit more practical, hopefully the display motor/display release catch doesn't fail prematurely.

(Not sure if this has been a topic of discussion yet) - >Another thing to add would be how device makers have their display adoption handle temperature change, like being in a warm room and then going outside in winter time.

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p51d007
p51d007
Arena Master
• 1y ago

Are phones boring? LOL

It's a rectangular slab of glass, metal and plastic.

Don't know about you, but if they went back to a plastic back cover, wouldn't bother me a bit. Considering the price of these "slim, sexy, colorful" things, who doesn't keep them in a protective case? Heck, how many new phones, when introduced, do they ever tell you how well it works AS A PHONE. No, it's all about the color, how slim, sexy it is, how slim the bezels are bla bla bla. IT'S A PHONE!

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