The invention of a Mobile replaced lots of daily gadgets we use. Clocks, Radio, Calendar, Alarms, Torch lights, Timers and Landline phones too. The mobile phone did not retain its top position even for a decade. Smartphones came into picture replacing mobile phones, camera, recorder and with the internet connection reduced the need of Computers and Laptops. There are cool gadgets on the market and makes human life easier by many means.
The price tag is what everyone worried about buying gadgets. Now the market has numerous collections from different brands. The Top 5 Gadgets on the market are Smartphones, Tablets and iPads, Laptops, Cameras and SmartTV and Watch mobiles.
Smartphones, Tablets and iPads
This handy Cool Stuff engages every person in the home with the features it possesses. Clocks to music system come in a smartPhone. A home with a single wifi connection can manage all the stuff. The Tablets and iPads are the best buddies to children. It lets adults stay in touch with their loved ones through social media. Even Banking is made easy through this gadgets. The online shopping brings the shop to home. GPS in the Smartphones replaces the maps and helps to show the way. They hold applications which are useful in daily lives. News across the globes reaches to sight within seconds.
Laptops are the modern replacements for the computer. The Laptops are more attractive to people because of mobility. Laptops can be carried along to different places. The Laptops are even made weightless. The Laptops exist in a various range of price based on the specifications. Various online stores are available which gives dealings on the occasions. The High specification laptop is available with EMI options. The Credit cards allow EMI without interests in case of buying a laptop. So it is not hard to own a Laptop which is an essential gadget to students and Office people.
Still Cameras and Handycams
The Social media allows to share our life events and travel moments to the friends. This fact drives everyone to own a still Camera or a Handycam. The ladies are fond of posting selfie pictures. They often look into notifications to check the number of likes received. The people who have kids in the home are fond of making videos about the activities of their little ones. There are Smart cameras which directly connects to the social networks and let you share what you click.
Smart TV
It is smart when a gadget performs more than its purpose. The TV with the regular programs helps to stay connected with friends. It let you snap between programs and youtube. Allows a video call through the Skype can be termed as Smart TV for sure. These are the next version of the TV that people started replacing with their old ones.
SmartWatch Mobile
The SmartWatch mobile was a hit last year. People started buying it as crazy as they bought Smartphones. The rates are starting from Rs.2000. Tie around the hand. The watch dial shows a clock when it slide open shows a keypad. It comes along with earphone and mike which help you maintain privacy.
These gadgets play a big hit in the market. They are affordable to all set of people with proper planning.
It is the time when we leave behind our past, groom our memories, cultivate the best of it and store the most vivid one somewhere in the vast archive of our brain. The good, the bad or the worst, everything that happened there in 2015 was special; not only because we get to learn something from it, but we do know exactly what we have there for us. Nothing in this world can change what has happened in 2015, and what it had to offer, especially in the smartphone industry. From incredible Nexus (6P and 5X) devices, LG G4, Samsung Galaxy S6 (which is somewhere between the line), Apple iPhone 6S (Plus) to Amazon Fire; every one of them contributed in the composition of smartphone’s advancement and disappointments in 2015.
With my belly still full of festive foods, I am here to list down 5 worst smartphones of 2015 that attracted some buzz over the internet but surprisingly failed to actually deliver what they promised.
HTC One M9
HTC One Series (Especially 2013 Lineup) introduced itself as a new hope for the smartphone industry, and an escape from the boring rectangular bar-like design offered by iPhone and Samsung flagships. The HTC One M7 was an immediate hit, praised by millions of users. The trend was passed on to the next iteration of the smartphone (M8), which was another success. However, the company soon witnessed a downfall in their sales chart of HTC One M9 in 2015. So, where they went wrong?
Most of the smartphones of 2015 were widely affected by the bug in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, which was responsible for uncomfortably overheating the devices. It would further throttle the processing power once the temperature rises, and would continue to do so until the temperature would fall down again. Coupled with poor battery performance, surprisingly drastic rear UltraPixel Camera, slow charging, random restarts and other software bugs; HTC One M9 was one of the worst smartphones of 2015.
LG G Flex 2
The Original LG G Flex promised us a curved smartphone with some amazing technology. The year 2013 was one of the most important milestones in Tech history, giving us a glimpse of future tech as we see them today. LG, Samsung and other big names jumped into the experiments to bend the smartphone displays to the extent that we could fold/unfold it like a newspaper; a vision which still seems too far away to be fetched. LG G Flex, however, came up with a curved display, which was unique and new innovation at the time. There’s no surprise that this piece of tech was hugely adapted, and became a topic of buzz.
LG G Flex 2 was supposed to be the most innovative smartphone of the year, with some top notch specifications and technology that deemed as a non-achievable future tech. However, this phone turned out to be just an upgrade from the previous version which was whipped by Snapdragon 810’s performance and heating issues. LG did try to bring some new tech onboard; such as gimmick self-heal back cover, which didn’t work as expected. At the end owners complained that they had to replace the back cover just as they would usually do on other smartphones once its surface has unbearable scratches.
Some even claimed that the lack of removable battery and fingerprint scanner actually made this phone worse than the original.
Blackberry Passport
Blackberry Passport lives with the motto of “Work Wide,” that being said, the smartphone is specially designed with enterprise workflow in the mind. The wide screen surprisingly makes it very easy to read emails, e-books and surf through the internet (especially heavy websites as desktop mode). The high-end specifications that offer great performance, coupled with 3,450 mAh battery that lasts for an entire day, makes it an ideal business companion. However, things get little outside of the comfort zone if you try to use it for another purpose, such as watching videos on the go. It is very subjective opinion, but I hardly believe that we have moved past the physical keyboard adaptation. It was actually very trendy and advantageous over the resistive touch screen keyboards in the past, but capacitive display, SwiftKey gesture, and the bigger screen has left those days into the dust. The fact that this smartphone weighs 194g, which makes it really uncomfortable to operate with a single hand when coupled with the wide display. All these advantages and radical issues make ‘Blackberry Passport’ best and worst blackberry smartphone of 2015 at the same time.
Asus Zenfone 2 Laser (ZE550KL)
Asus Zenfone 2 Laser has some of the worst ‘specification’ and ‘value for money’ ratios than any other smartphone that was released last year. Asus tend to confuse the consumers with their iterative naming style, a trend that has been followed by many top brands, such as Samsung Galaxy series, HTC One Series, Sony Z series, LG G series and so on. There is only one way to eliminate the confusion, i.e. looking up the information about any specific smartphone based on their model number before purchase. We reviewed the Asus Zenfone 2 Laser (ZE550KL) last year, and our first impression concluded with this device sorted out as ‘0’ (zero) value for money.
Amazon Fire
Launched in September 2015, the Amazon Fire was Amazon’s attempt to offer a successive version of their budget tablet lineup. These tablets are highly modified to provide a specific environment for eBook readers, and, in turn, builds an exclusive user base on this idea. The Tablet has mediocre specifications which result in series of performance issues and bugs. It is true that you can’t expect much from an eBook reading device that costs only $50 but, shouldn’t it, at least, iron out minor bugs? The design feels cheap. Performance is slow if many apps are open in the background and when downloading. The display has a low resolution and touchscreen response can be sluggish. Gaming performance for large games is slow and the graphics can experience frame rate drops.
The words got out that there is no way these bugs are worth being included in our already cluttered life, and, as a result, consumers started shifting to next best thing. Amazon got desperate to keep up their annual sales report, which resulted in them to re-launch these tablets with ‘Buy 5 get 1 free’ pack.
The phone is not overpriced, but it certainly is not worth the money.
Did I miss something? List down your own list of 5 worst smartphones of 2015 in comments below.
The mobile industry is highly competitive and as a result, mobile manufacturers are pushed to be more creative, more innovative and fit more features in each and every year. This creates a fast moving industry that sees the huge change over short periods of time. As a result it can be hard to accurately predict what may be coming to the mobile industry next, but I can think of at least 5 features that smartphones either deserve or could be getting within the next few years.
I’d like to talk a little about these features and why I think they could be making their way into smartphones of the near future.
Foldable or Curved Displays
This is an area that both LG and Samsung are dabbling in a little bit with some of their smartphones, but so far we haven’t seen too much of a productive reason to have a curved display. I strongly believe that a number of manufacturers are working behind the scenes to develop folding displays, and most importantly trying to find a way to make foldable or curved displays useful for consumers.
A lot of features for smartphones are often seen gimmicky – manufacturers may try to be innovative and it ends up not working out for them. Take 3D smartphone displays for example.
I do, however, think that foldable displays could open up opportunities for larger devices, making them more portable and easier to carry throughout the day.
I couldn’t estimate when foldable displays may make it into the public domain, but as it stands right now, curved edged displays are already being used and Samsung has shown their interest in working on folding displays.
10-Core Processors
I personally think that 10 core processors could be a possibility for flagship devices. It isn’t just about putting as many numbers as possible into a smartphone to impress buyers, either. Whilst multi-core processing to this degree may not be as viable on a desktop PC, it works well on smartphones, and SoC’s with processors with eight or even ten cores could be beneficial for performance.
The idea behind a multi-core setup is that it provides the smartphone plenty of ‘utility’ Using a big.LITTLE array, or something similar, would allow a smartphone to pick and choose between various levels of performance. A ten core processor could be split into one dual core and two quad cores. The dual core could be used for when idle, or for very low resource tasks, whilst the first quad core could be used for standard browsing through the operating system. The final quad core could be used for intensive work such as video processing or playing games. Being able to swap out between either of these processors can help reduce power consumption, therefore increasing a smartphone’s battery life, which brings me onto my next point…
New Battery Technology
Whilst batteries in smartphones have been increasing in capacity over the last few years, the increase in battery capacity is very slow, and it’s being overtaken by display size and display resolution improvements, negating any real benefit of having a large battery.
Perhaps in five years time it may be standard to see 4,000mAh batteries in lithium-ion powered smartphones, but there are alternatives. There is currently plenty of research being done into alternative battery mediums.
We’re looking at the potential for super fast charging aluminum graphite batteries in the near future, or potentially batteries that run on water or even a battery that can harness power from a human’s skin.
There’s plenty of space for innovation in the battery department and I feel like smartphone manufacturers will soon have to look outside of the box instead of slowly improving battery capacity for the lithium-ion solution they’re currently relying on.
Even Better Cameras
This is one area that we’re likely to see improvements on in the very near future, and by that I’m talking within the next three years. Sony has already put a huge amount of effort into their smartphone camera sensors and a lot of their profit is coming in through sensor sales to other smartphone manufacturers. As the leading smartphone camera provider in the industry, Sony are looking to put more research into their work to improve smartphone cameras. As a result, this will directly improve the camera quality for any smartphones manufactured by companies buying from Samsung and will indirectly push other camera manufacturers to work harder to keep up with the competition.
Branding and Design Improvements
This is largely based around speculation on my part, but I think it’s a valuable insight that deserves a listen. Samsung took a brave approach this year by completely revamping their smartphone designs and it has paid off incredibly well for them. The new Galaxy lineup has been received positively by critics and consumers and it’s going to mark a new start for branding and design improvements in the mobile industry.
As Samsung is setting the bar for high-quality smartphone design, other manufacturers are going to be pushed to reconsider their own designs. I doubt we’ll see a complete overhaul from Apple, but I would not be surprised at all if Apple reworks their next smartphone lineups to ensure the iPhone looks even sleeker and slimmer than the Galaxy S lineup.
I think this will result in a wave of new work done towards smartphone design and branding that all manufacturers will take part in. Manufacturers want to hold onto their customers, but more importantly they don’t want their competitors taking their customers away from them.
Creating a strong smartphone flagship lineup in years following 2015 could be more about the actual design, appearance and branding than it’s ever been before.
What do you expect to see from smartphones in the near future?
No matter what a manufacturer does, it’s hard to create a smartphone that is 100% perfect. Sacrifices are sometimes made to fit in with certain budgets or to better serve a growing audience. I still, however, think that there are a few areas that most manufacturers need to improve on for the sake of their consumers.
Lack of Support for Power Users
If we focus solely on Android for a second, there was a time where it felt like almost every smartphone had a microSD storage slot and a removable battery. Fast forward to today and far fewer devices now support such features designed to help power users get through their day. Even Samsung, a manufacturer that has always stuck to using removable batteries and including microSD storage, has now moved away from these features in their latest smartphones.
For the average smartphone user this isn’t too much of an issue – most smartphone batteries can just about manage to get through a day’s worth of moderate use on one charge and internal memory is less of an issue now that streaming services like Spotify exist for a smartphone user’s music collection.
With that being said, power users and phone geeks do make up a large audience for many smartphone manufacturers and they’re currently being left out in the dark. As it stands right now, more third party equipment that supports external battery, portable charging and additional storage on the go is becoming more popular.
Ideally though, it would be nice for manufacturers themselves to offer affordable battery case packs, portable charging stations or other mobile equipment to help power users on the go.
Over saturated Smartphone Releases
I personally don’t feel like this is something that needs to change, but I do believe there is something that could be done to make it less complex for consumers. Currently, many manufacturers release a number of smartphones each year – a recent trend has pushed manufacturers to not only release multiple smartphones, but multiple devices within their ‘flagship lineup.
For example, Samsung now has the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge. LG has the LG G4, but an LG G4 Stylus is coming, along with an LG G4c. Even Apple, that used to be renowned for focusing on simplicity and ease for the sake of the customers is expected to release three flagships this year; the iPhone 6S, the iPhone 6C and the iPhone 6S Plus.
For the most part, one device stands out as the ‘main’ device and this usually gets all of the marketing buzz. The LG G4, the Galaxy S6 and the iPhone 6S would be the prime examples here. Consumers may be a little confused when they see other variants as well – perhaps manufacturers should work on marketing and advertising campaigns that shows off their whole flagship lineup and points out the benefits and drawbacks of each.
HD Displays and Battery Life
Having a nice, crisp display on your smartphone is nice, but many manufacturers are looking at pushing for 2K or even 4K displays on their flagships. Considering that most households don’t own 4K TVs yet, it seems like an odd path for the mobile industry to take. The problem with higher resolution displays isn’t about not needing it though, it’s down to the way smartphone displays draw power. Simply put, the more pixels a smartphone has to display, the more battery life it’s going to take.
Battery saving features are becoming more advanced both hardware and software side, but an improvement in battery capacity should be a manufacturer’s first concerns before increasing the resolution by thousands of pixels. That’s my two cents on the topic, but other opinions may vary.
Doesn’t Have to Be About Innovation
It’s always great to be excited about new features and functions of a brand new smartphone, and it obviously helps out manufacturers with their marketing campaign, but innovation doesn’t have to be touted every step of the way. Manufacturers should leave the buzz words and hype for real, innovative changes and admit to consumers that sometimes their latest smartphone isn’t always as out of this world as they make it out to be. With that being said, new smartphones are always going to offer a considerable improvement in performance from their predecessors – that should be enough of a reason for consumers to upgrade.
The Blur Between Price Points
It’s great to see that smartphone manufacturers are releasing various devices to fit the needs for all audiences and countries, but I personally think manufacturers should make it clearer when a device falls into the flagship, mid range or low end price categories. It would be nice if consumers knew that the devices they purchase could offer the best experience for their budget without being confused about how they would compare to other similar priced smartphones, sometimes from the same manufacturers.
