Are smartphones becoming too similar to one another?

[Fgtfv567]

So I've found this PCmag article which you can read here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2496664,00.asp

And it describes how a lot of phones these days are really similar to one another. Hell I think Linus mentioned in one of his videos, one of them about a 4K phone that downsamples to 1080p, think it was an Xperia phone...

I think I'd have to agree. I briefly thought about a modular phone like a Fairphone 2 or Project Ara and compared it to the S7. If the specs are the same, what else is really different besides the outwards design?

 

Anyway, do you think smartphones are becoming more similar to one another? What new features do you want to see out of MWC 2017? I'd like to see more modularity and water resistance

[PlayStation 2]

It's been like that since the iPhone 5s.

Almost everything is a carbon fucking clone of one another save for [insert arbitrary feature].

[EarthboundHero]

Only if you're looking at the shitty ones.

[JebKerman]

Convergent Evolution (of technology, it can be seen in consoles as well, trending towards PCs)

[thekeemo]

You were saying?

[Fgtfv567]

Just now, thekeemo said:

You were saying?

Besides the modular ones! I like them....

[MblaZe7run]

Smartphones are more a story of brand loyalty than the device itself imho. Sure, some of them have some slightly different specs, but across the board, 90% of them are the same. I've been noticing this since ~2012-13. The only phones that really seem significantly different to me are that of the Nexus lineup (simply because it's different manufacturers actually producing the phone). The OnePlus lineup looks so similar to the Sony Xperia line, Samsung's S7 looks so much like the iPhone 6/6s, Motorola reminds me of LG and HTC in many ways, etc. Nexus, again, seems to have the biggest variety simply due to the fact that they are made by a different manufacturer every year. Just my observations/thoughts though.

[Neroglance]

I agree I think they all are pretty much the same now with some slight tweaks every new phone such as maybe a faster processor better camera etc.   Last phone that really stood out to me was when Samsung did there first Note since that was different and it was a huge success and now there is a lot of phablets.

[FourCorners]

Since the days of the HTC One M7, I believe the evolution of smartphones have began to plateau.

For example, my sister's Nexus 5 was a flagship killer back when it was released at the end of 2013 and can still hold its own against today's flagships in terms of raw performance and not gimmicky "features" like heart rate monitors and fingerprint scanners.

 

However, smartphones with similar specs to the Nexus 5 like the Asus Zenfone, and many of chinese offerings from huawei and Xiaomi can be had for as cheap as the $200 range unlocked. So the tech has become cheaper.

 

As for the aesthetics of phones, I think what Fractal Josh says about designing computer cases can be applied here when he says that there are only so many things you can to to design a box that houses PC components. There are only so many things you can do to design a rectangle that has a touch screen on it.

 

To build and Android flagship for the past few years, you basically take the latest SOC from Qualcom; (820, 810,805,801, 800) choose a screen size, slap on sony's 13MP camera sensor on the back, put the lock and volume buttons in a different position from the other companies, screw up the stock android experience with slow and clunkly UI and add some bloatware, make the battery marginally bigger and then sell ot for $700+

 

I think the smartphone industry needs another iphone (like the original), something revolutionary rather than evolutionary like we've been seeing for the past few years. Not sure if it's going to be modular phones like the new LG G5, or a throw back like what Blackberry are trying to do, or even what the Windows phones are trying to do with merging the smartphone experience with the desktop.

 

tl;dr

the smartphones industry is getting stale