Debate: Are smartphones today boring? Why?

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

Everyone will buy this Uber smartphone and it will be the end for hundreds of thousands of people in the industry, from designers and PRs to factory workers all the way up to high management stuff (I won't feel sorry about the latter). :)) But yeah, the same reason applies to the question, "Why don't we have cars that last 100 years?" We could have unbreakable stuff but the economy will fail miserably :))

I don’t disagree but thing is that we buy products we don’t need them! And plus the planet is dying but every year you see new phones new graphic cards motherboards etc..they could release products once every two three years and it would worth the upgrade

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Crispin_Gatieza
Crispin_Gatieza
Arena Master
• 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 agree with 99% of your points, except price. In 2008 I bought a factory unlocked Palm Treo Pro and it was $700. Carriers subsidized phones heavily back then so it felt like they were cheaper. The OG Razr V3 was $500 FFS!

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

I agree with 99% of your points, except price. In 2008 I bought a factory unlocked Palm Treo Pro and it was $700. Carriers subsidized phones heavily back then so it felt like they were cheaper. The OG Razr V3 was $500 FFS!

I am talking about buying phones outright and also in the UK, I cant speak for the USA though, and they were not subsidised, they were considerably cheaper.

I could buy a flagship phone on a weeks wages (Albeit I would have nothing left that week 😂) where as today a flagship phone can easily cost a month or more wages depending on the configuration.

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

So you think it's better to make piles of trash and use up the planets resources because "the economy will fail"? How about the planet failing?

Of course not. If it were up to me, I'd slowly steer away from this disposable reality. Humanity should focus more on services, interactions, art, and culture as economic drivers and leave the material stuff, well, not behind, but at the lower base of the pyramid, where it actually belongs.

We're just stuck at "owning stuff" at the moment, not sure if it's an easy thing to change; after all, it's evolutionary-driven, but I hope things will slowly start to change.

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

Just get a case of whatever material you want. Changing the design of the back is not what I would call innovation anyway.

After something reaches perfection, there is no more way to make it better, you'll only make it worse.

How about manufacturers offering the option to sell you a phone made of whatever material you want? I'm sure it's not a hard thing to do. Motorola had something similar years ago. Then glass-back lovers can have their fragile art pieces, and us practical folks won't have to buy cases.

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highwaysnobbery
highwaysnobbery
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago

I used to upgrade as often as I could, every year in some instances. Now there is almost zero reason to do so. I have held onto a Pixel 6 Pro longer than any phone I've owned, including iPhones, Motos, and Galaxys. I don't think they've peaked but it's definitely leveled off. The hardware does everything I need it to in a time fashion and has done so for several years now. As for the design, all I require is the screen be legible with my bad eyes. The rest is hidden by a case so I simply don't care.

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• 1y ago

I totally agree I mean I typically don't break my phones requiring a new one to be purchased I get a new phone when a new system comes out or brand new company I have you know ulefone and umidigi. And purchase them both simply because they were cool and something new to learn and something new to play with but you're right everything does look the same however my umidigi is a rugged phone first one I've ever owned pretty cool heats up too much Don't really recommend it but anyways that's neither here nor there lol

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

Of course not. If it were up to me, I'd slowly steer away from this disposable reality. Humanity should focus more on services, interactions, art, and culture as economic drivers and leave the material stuff, well, not behind, but at the lower base of the pyramid, where it actually belongs.

We're just stuck at "owning stuff" at the moment, not sure if it's an easy thing to change; after all, it's evolutionary-driven, but I hope things will slowly start to change.

Russia just invented a battery that can last 10 years without charging! They are too big for a phone but could power a car.

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

Russia just invented a battery that can last 10 years without charging! They are too big for a phone but could power a car.

What's the power source? I hope not plutonium :))

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Smarf
Smarf
Arena Apprentice
• 1y ago

I'm 39. As i get older, I'm caring less about tech. I use to be so enthusiastic about all of it. Then I started to notice feelings of anxiety, tension, and boredom. I spent some time visiting family in Central America. Connection was poor so after a couple of days I didn't even bother trying to play with my phone. I was no longer mindlessly browsing, swiping up and down reading posts and articles with no real value. No more mindless youtube videos. I felt better. When the fam got together to watch a movie, they pulled out an old VCR and we watched Jurassic Park on VHS. No netflix, no hulu or disney +. Was it 4K? lol of course not..but nobody gave a s**t. Made me realize that so many of the features these companies boast about having, or that consumers brag or get excited about...are easily forgettable. 12mp camera vs 48mp camera? I don't really give a s**t anymore. 120hz refresh rate over 90hz? I literally never thought about it until the companies brought it up.


We aren't advancing, and neither is our technology. These devices are distractions to keep us numb. Stop convincing yourself that you need a smartwatch to keep track of how many steps you take or if you, "had a good night's sleep". Just take a walk more often cause you want to. Go to bed earlier if you feel tired.


The phones and smartwatches and earbuds are no longer the products. They are the monitoring devices manufactured to control the real products...us.

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