Peak Phone

Author
Discussion

chow pan toon

12,356 posts

236 months

Tuesday 16th January 2018
quotequote all
Rawwr said:
chow pan toon said:
I've got the S7 Edge as well and am seeing no urgent need to change it. I might be tempted if the S9 comes with a fingerprint reader under the display but I'll probably sit this round out otherwise and I've upgraded frequently before now.
It'd take a lot more than that for me to change, I just don't know what it would be. Then again, I also use a Lumia 920, which is still going strong smile
I miss my 930 frown

AmitG

3,272 posts

159 months

Tuesday 16th January 2018
quotequote all
chow pan toon said:
Rawwr said:
It'd take a lot more than that for me to change, I just don't know what it would be. Then again, I also use a Lumia 920, which is still going strong smile
I miss my 930 frown
Long time Nokia/Lumia user here smile

I think the lines between devices are getting blurred. A large phone is basically a small tablet, a tablet can replace a desktop and so on. IMHO we need to stop thinking about "phones" and start thinking about mobile computers that happen to support telephony.

I reckon that the next step will be a phone that can go into a docking station and turn into a desktop, seamlessly. So you go round all day doing emails, texts, whatever, you come home and dock it and everything works in desktop mode, while it's charging. All your data is there. Same apps and everything.

It's partly there at the moment with cloud, but the apps are all different between e.g. Apple phone and Apple desktop. One app does not run everywhere. And not everything syncs. Google has zero presence on the desktop, although they are trying to muscle in with Chrome and ChromeOS.

Interestingly, there is only one major tech company that is realistically close to this, and it's the one that currently has almost zero presence in mobile.


doosht

200 posts

155 months

Tuesday 16th January 2018
quotequote all
All you need for Android is a Samsung Note 4. All you need for Apple/iOS is an iPhone 5S.

I think the only real motivator to upgrade for me would be a major leap in battery life.

Yipper

5,964 posts

89 months

Tuesday 16th January 2018
quotequote all

alorotom

11,908 posts

186 months

Tuesday 16th January 2018
quotequote all
I had an iPhone SE and thought I was pretty much done and then tried and X and was amazed at the difference in speed, screen quality, size and pretty much the whole package so picked one up.

My X lasts 2 days easy (taken off charge at 7am this morning and used throughout the day plus connected to my Apple Watch S3 and AirPods and still has 78% left after 13hrs)

My Apple Watch S3 Cellular lasts over 2days (taken off charge at 7am and 13hrs on is at 90%)

I am excited for flexible and foldable devices which is the next big thing for me

bloomen

6,852 posts

158 months

Tuesday 16th January 2018
quotequote all
My phone is 2-3 years old. There's nothing out there I can detect at present that would make my life any better.

Durability, battery life and form factor is the stuff that really needs addressing still hasn't really started to be addressed.

Most phones are still large, vulnerable, ludicrously power hungry slabs.

Oakey

27,523 posts

215 months

Tuesday 16th January 2018
quotequote all
AmitG said:
Long time Nokia/Lumia user here smile

I think the lines between devices are getting blurred. A large phone is basically a small tablet, a tablet can replace a desktop and so on. IMHO we need to stop thinking about "phones" and start thinking about mobile computers that happen to support telephony.

I reckon that the next step will be a phone that can go into a docking station and turn into a desktop, seamlessly. So you go round all day doing emails, texts, whatever, you come home and dock it and everything works in desktop mode, while it's charging. All your data is there. Same apps and everything.

It's partly there at the moment with cloud, but the apps are all different between e.g. Apple phone and Apple desktop. One app does not run everywhere. And not everything syncs. Google has zero presence on the desktop, although they are trying to muscle in with Chrome and ChromeOS.

Interestingly, there is only one major tech company that is realistically close to this, and it's the one that currently has almost zero presence in mobile.
Haven't you just described Surface Phone?

jimmyjimjim

7,329 posts

237 months

Tuesday 16th January 2018
quotequote all
Oakey said:
AmitG said:
Long time Nokia/Lumia user here smile

I think the lines between devices are getting blurred. A large phone is basically a small tablet, a tablet can replace a desktop and so on. IMHO we need to stop thinking about "phones" and start thinking about mobile computers that happen to support telephony.

I reckon that the next step will be a phone that can go into a docking station and turn into a desktop, seamlessly. So you go round all day doing emails, texts, whatever, you come home and dock it and everything works in desktop mode, while it's charging. All your data is there. Same apps and everything.

It's partly there at the moment with cloud, but the apps are all different between e.g. Apple phone and Apple desktop. One app does not run everywhere. And not everything syncs. Google has zero presence on the desktop, although they are trying to muscle in with Chrome and ChromeOS.

Interestingly, there is only one major tech company that is realistically close to this, and it's the one that currently has almost zero presence in mobile.
Haven't you just described Surface Phone?
Or Samsung Dex.


vindaloo79

959 posts

79 months

Tuesday 16th January 2018
quotequote all
I think Phones will replace laptops for most people and allow bluetooth peripherals and connect to your monitor. They seem to be powerful enough now really to do most word processor and spreadsheet tasks.

Apart from Needing VMs and playing games I could almost get by day to day with one.

AmitG

3,272 posts

159 months

Tuesday 16th January 2018
quotequote all
Oakey said:
Haven't you just described Surface Phone?
Yep.

Well, Surface Phone may or may not exist...and if it does exist, and if MS actually decide to release it, I reckon it will not be called Surface Phone.


toohuge

3,430 posts

215 months

Wednesday 17th January 2018
quotequote all
AmitG said:
Oakey said:
Haven't you just described Surface Phone?
Yep.

Well, Surface Phone may or may not exist...and if it does exist, and if MS actually decide to release it, I reckon it will not be called Surface Phone.
Microsoft already released something a while back on windows phone with a Nokia handset iirc. You could buy a docking station that offered a full hdmi output and usb connectivity etc. to turn your phone into a desktop.

I thought it was brilliant. That’s where the future is imo.

HTP99

22,443 posts

139 months

Wednesday 17th January 2018
quotequote all
toohuge said:
AmitG said:
Oakey said:
Haven't you just described Surface Phone?
Yep.

Well, Surface Phone may or may not exist...and if it does exist, and if MS actually decide to release it, I reckon it will not be called Surface Phone.
Microsoft already released something a while back on windows phone with a Nokia handset iirc. You could buy a docking station that offered a full hdmi output and usb connectivity etc. to turn your phone into a desktop.

I thought it was brilliant. That’s where the future is imo.
Continuum.

ZesPak

24,421 posts

195 months

Wednesday 17th January 2018
quotequote all
alorotom said:
I had an iPhone SE and thought I was pretty much done and then tried and X and was amazed at the difference in speed, screen quality, size and pretty much the whole package so picked one up.
The iPhone SE was an old and frankly mediocre screen when it came out tbh.
The Note 4 the OP described has the same basic screen specs as the current Note 8, same goes for size.

steveatesh

4,893 posts

163 months

Wednesday 17th January 2018
quotequote all
jimmyjimjim said:
Oakey said:
AmitG said:
Long time Nokia/Lumia user here smile

I think the lines between devices are getting blurred. A large phone is basically a small tablet, a tablet can replace a desktop and so on. IMHO we need to stop thinking about "phones" and start thinking about mobile computers that happen to support telephony.

I reckon that the next step will be a phone that can go into a docking station and turn into a desktop, seamlessly. So you go round all day doing emails, texts, whatever, you come home and dock it and everything works in desktop mode, while it's charging. All your data is there. Same apps and everything.

It's partly there at the moment with cloud, but the apps are all different between e.g. Apple phone and Apple desktop. One app does not run everywhere. And not everything syncs. Google has zero presence on the desktop, although they are trying to muscle in with Chrome and ChromeOS.

Interestingly, there is only one major tech company that is realistically close to this, and it's the one that currently has almost zero presence in mobile.
Haven't you just described Surface Phone?
Or Samsung Dex.
I agree. I read an article just last week that suggested this is the direction Apple are going in as they are moving development of iOS and MacOS towards convergence.

Probably aw years away but the direction of travel is there.


Herbs

4,912 posts

228 months

Wednesday 17th January 2018
quotequote all
I agree with the sentiment although we are a little way off yet. The big things coming out will be

1) Wearables - proper wrist mounted phones with wrap around screens with bluetooth wireless earpieces.
2) Foldable screens - clamshells if you like which will allow phone to go small again but will open up with a much larger screen
across both internal faces.
3) Holograms/3D different manufacturers are taking different routes here but the Microsoft hololens route is the most exciting one
imo
4) Full PC phones - we are seeing already with the samsung Dex but a proper fully functioning laptop/phone will be the next really
big shift as it will change how we live and work.

AmitG

3,272 posts

159 months

Wednesday 17th January 2018
quotequote all
As others have said, the "phone as desktop" thing has already been attempted.

Microsoft had Continuum - bring your phone home, dock it, and use it as a desktop. I thought it was brilliant and I was really disappointed when they stopped developing it.

They've now changed tack, and have an arguably better solution - which is to get full Windows 10 (not a cut down version) running on ARM-based devices, including the ability to run Intel applications (the x86 to ARM translator is a seriously cool piece of technology). So go on the move and you have full Windows 10, dock and you have full Windows 10. Same apps, same data, same everything. And you can run all your existing apps - they don't need to be specially written.

Samsung are developing DEX, and doing it pretty fast. Some home users might use it, but corporates won't. I had a beer with someone from Microsoft and they said that one of the biggest frustrations in Microsoft is that they are just too slow in bringing things to market and in following through on products. They led the market with Continuum but then switched strategies and in the meantime Samsung caught up. They had a decent chunk of the phone market but again switched strategies and abandoned it. They are developing cool new UI frameworks but large parts of Windows are still using the old stuff.

It wil be fascinating to compare the different approaches. I reckon that when it comes to the future of mobile, Microsoft - whom everyone has written off in this space - is the one to watch.


Oakey

27,523 posts

215 months

Wednesday 17th January 2018
quotequote all
The problem is that MS are behind it so, like everything else, they'll get bored within about 6 months and bin it off like everything else. I'm still amazed that the Band 2 lasted all of about 5 minutes.

I'm half expecting them to announce the death of Hololens any time now!

ZesPak

24,421 posts

195 months

Wednesday 17th January 2018
quotequote all
Oakey said:
The problem is that MS are behind it so, like everything else, they'll get bored within about 6 months and bin it off like everything else. I'm still amazed that the Band 2 lasted all of about 5 minutes.

I'm half expecting them to announce the death of Hololens any time now!
That's a bit of a broad statement, don't a lot of tech companies do this? How many products have google cancelled? The Glasses, even in the same space...

A lot of it is throwing a lot against the wall and see what sticks.

Oakey

27,523 posts

215 months

Wednesday 17th January 2018
quotequote all
Kinect - dead

Windows Phone - dead

Band 2 - Lasted 11 months, dead!

Windows RT - dead

Surface - Rumours it's being killed off

Don't get me wrong, I like MS stuff but I've had my fingers burnt too many times to the point where I'm sceptical. I bought into Windows Phone then had to put up with them binning it off for Windows Phone 8 (and the hardware not being updateable) then went through it all again when I upgraded to a Windows Phone 8 handset only to later find that wouldn't be updateable to Windows Phone 10.

Herbs

4,912 posts

228 months

Wednesday 17th January 2018
quotequote all
Oakey said:
Kinect - dead

Windows Phone - dead

Band 2 - Lasted 11 months, dead!

Windows RT - dead

Surface - Rumours it's being killed off

Don't get me wrong, I like MS stuff but I've had my fingers burnt too many times to the point where I'm sceptical. I bought into Windows Phone then had to put up with them binning it off for Windows Phone 8 (and the hardware not being updateable) then went through it all again when I upgraded to a Windows Phone 8 handset only to later find that wouldn't be updateable to Windows Phone 10.
They need to follows SEGA's lead and stick to software - a Microsoft/Samsung collaborated phone could be very special.