Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “A preview of what future phones could look like 🔮”.
Foreign shows like Mobile World Congress. There are loads of devices that you might not want to buy and use yourself, but which have that one amazing new feature that you just wish you could get your hands on. For example, at CES 2018 we put our finger on the first under display fingerprint sensor on a Vivo Flagship and then mwc 2019. We saw the most rear cameras we’d ever seen on a smartphone with the Nokia 9.. So here are some of the coolest Phone features. We’Ve seen at mwc 2023, but we hope will become mainstream in just a few years time. The first phone I want to talk about is the Nokia G22, and that’s because the work for hmd, which is the company that currently owns the rights to produce Nokia branded handsets, has done to make it easier to repair. It’S partnered with the repair specialist that iFixit to sell spare parts for the phone for five years after its release and they’re, also going to be repair Guides Online for carrying out common repairs like replacing a broken screen dead battery or dodgy charging port. Now, thankfully, that’s not particularly unusual in 2023, both Samsung and Google have also partnered with iFixit to sell replacement parts for their phones, and even Apple has launched a self-service repair program of its own. But what’s more interesting is that hmd has consulted with iFix on the actual design of the device to make it more repairable in the first place, making spare parts easily available is one thing, but actually doing the repairs is a whole nother kettle of fish.
So I wanted to try replacing the Nokia g22s battery for myself now full disclosure – I didn’t go into the repair process completely blind hmd’s, Adam Ferguson had already given me a for a demonstration of the process of replacing the phone’s battery, and I had a team of Ifix employees standing just feet away from me, who I could tell were just waiting to offer. The advice Adam gave me a neat overview of what’s involved in the repair process and to hmd’s credit. I was able to successfully swap out the battery, and that was in a noisy Convention Center, while also trying my best to show off the process to camera.
There was no need to apply a heated pad to the phone to melt away. Any adhesive, like with recent Samsung and Google devices, because the phone was held together with simple plastic clips, and I didn’t have to use a suction cup to delicately get the phone open. Once inside there were just two screws to undo compared to the half a dozen or more you’ll encounter in some other handsets.
Yes, there were two fairly delicate ribbon cables to remove, but that was the trickiest part of the job. Now some of the more experienced repairers in the stands were getting a little bit competitive. There was talk of being able to do the repair in under five minutes or under three minutes, but for me as a first timer on camera, it was closer to seven. But honestly, speed isn’t really the point here. The point is that me as someone that has never done this sort of repair before found the whole process, pretty approachable and it’s something that I’d rather recommend that other people try for themselves.
It feels like a really positive step forward. Now I don’t want to claim it was a perfect experience. Obviously, if hmd had used a fully removable battery like what fairphone uses, it would have been a far simpler process, but hmd says it’s gone with this approach. To allow it to offer a bigger battery in a thinner phone, both Adam and I also managed to rip off one of the tabs.
You used to pull the battery out of its housing, which did make the process a little bit more tricky, but hey. We got the job done and finally, over on the software side, it would be great to see hmd offer more than just two years of Android updates and three years of security updates with the phone. So it’s not just the hardware you can keep and span for years to come. I think hmd has achieved something really impressive with the Nokia G22 and I can’t help but hope that more manufacturers take note charger now over an iPhone land charging speeds with planner hovering around the 20 to 30 watt Mark.
But in the world of Android, things are starting to get truly wild. The latest company to take a shot of the fast charging Crown is real me. It’S real me GT3 is getting an international launch at NWC Barcelona this week and it can fast charge at 240. Watts now roaming has almost immediately been overtaken by redmi, which announced its own 300 watt. Proof of concept fast charging device this week, but realme’s device is actually getting a widespread International release. So we’re going to focus on that one for the time being, those 240 Watts translate into some truly bananas charging speed for every says, it’s enough to fully charge the phone’s 4600 milliamp hour battery in just nine and a half minutes flat. Okay, so I know the idea of a phone that fully charges in under 10 minutes kind of sounds like Overkill, especially in an era where people like to keep things simple by just charging their phone overnight. But hear me out what. If the 240 watt fast charging was only for emergencies, what if most the time you use the same old basic 5 watt power, adapter you’ve been using for years, but then say you forget to charge your phone overnight and you’ve got a flight or you’re on an Important work call and your phone goes dead, and you know that just 30 seconds of charge with the 240 watt charger can give you an extra two hours of talk time and that’s a true stat. By the way I mean nine and a half minutes is like put the phone on charge.
Get in the shower come out, it’s already fully charged now. I know plenty of people have legitimate concerns about the kinds of impact. These kind of fast charging speeds will have the longevity of their devices, but really at least it’s playing with the gt3’s battery should maintain about 80 of its charging levels, even after 1600 charging Cycles, which at one charge a day, works out to a little over four Years of use, but again these are lab tests and I entirely understand if people are still skeptical about real world durability, I mean hell. I don’t even know if I’d use this fast charge attack every single day, but as a backup feature to use the emergencies. I’M really into the idea of more phones having access to these ridiculously quick kinds of fast charging speeds I’ll continue to charge my phone overnight. Thank you very much, but I wouldn’t say no to an emergency 240 watt boost just in case and who knows how much faster charging speeds are going to get next year.
Let’S talk cameras, and now you can’t talk about cameras around NWC 2023. Without discussing this, the xiaomi 13 Pro, which got its International launch at this year’s, show now our Samsung made a big deal about the Galaxy s23 Ultra just 200 megapixel main camera xiaomi is taking a slightly different approach, so no the xiaomi 13 Pro doesn’t have the Highest resolution – camera sensor in the world at 50, megapixels, it’s imx989 Sony sensor, almost sounds kind of unremarkable at first glance, but what’s special about it is its size. It’S a one inch type sensor, which might not literally mean that it measures one inch corner to corner, but nevertheless that means it’s a lot larger than most other smartphone camera sensors. All else being equal, bigger sensors need bigger pixels, which leaves you with a camera.
That’S better at Gathering light, bigger sensors can also lead to a shallower depth of field, so it’s slightly easier to get nice blurry backgrounds. In your photographs now I have spent far too little time taking photos with the xiaomi 13 Pro to offer any kind of conclusive thought about how good this phone’s camera is, but the photos I’ve taken on it so far. I’Ve really liked daylight shots, look crisp and clean and night shots. Just look really nice and natural.
It almost looks like something: you’d normally expect to have come out of a standalone camera. I’Ve included some comparison, shots of the iPhone 14 pro. Just to give you an idea of how it Compares now, the xiaomi 13 Pro is far from the first smartphones, with included a one inch type sensor. Panasonic made one years ago, vivo’s recent X90 Pro came equipped with one and even xiaomi itself used Sony sensor.
In last year’s 4, Less Ultra, but the 13 Pro feels significant, because it’s a regular looking mainstream phone from a brand that’s become pretty popular in a lot of countries outside of the US, and it’s not exclusive to the Chinese market, like the 12s Ultra in recent Years, the story of smartphone photography has been the story of computational Photography. It’S about using powerful processors to overcome the limitations of smartphones, comparatively small camera sensors, but the xiaomi 13 pro has me excited for a future where smartphones offer the benefits of both powerful camera software and Hardware alike, and I really hope the rest of the industry is Paying attention, finally, I just want to take a moment to recognize that 2023 might be the year we actually start seeing some serious foldable competition internationally Samsung has been releasing its z-fold and Z foot devices for years, but outside of China, it’s been running more or less Unopposed safely occasional release from Motorola or Huawei, but this year it feels like there’s a shift up just prior to the show. Oppo will help. The international launchers find N2 flick and in honor announced the magic vs foldable at the show itself.
There was also the announcement that OnePlus plans to really supported on the second half of this year and, of course, there are early concept devices from the likes of Motorola. I don’t think any of these announcements Herald the imminent arrival of foldables into the mainstream, but they certainly suggest the market is heating up and more devices means more pricing and functionality. Competition with the find N2 flip offer made a serious case for bigger cover, displays that are good for more than just checking notifications and with the magic BS, that’s thinner and rated to survive more folding Cycles than Samsung z-fold 4..
The competition has been a long time coming and I am glad to see it finally arrive whether it’s repairable devices faster charging, bigger camera, sensors or more affordable competition. I think there’s a lot of cool stuff on the way for future smartphones and a lot of it has a potential to become staple features from the years ahead. I just hope these features will actually become available to devices that are widely sold in the US.
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