Smartphones remain at the centre of the technological revolution, but hardly any manufacturer tries to experiment out anything. One company does a thing, and the other blindly follow, be it a notch or some camera setup.
But 2018 was different, we got to see some exciting phones this year.
From in-display fingerprint sensors to superfast charging batteries to 5G to foldable displays, it’s been a year of innovative technologies. Let’s take a short ride into this year’s top smartphone innovations.
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Foldable Phones
Finally, foldable phones came into existence in 2018. No, it was not Samsung to bring it first, but a Chinese startup Royole beat the Korean giant to launch a foldable screen called FlexPai. The 7.8-inch foldable tablet-phone is still the first foldable device in the world, with a mass availability expected by mid-2019.
In-Display Fingerprint Sensor
A technology extinct till last year, Chinese smartphone company Vivo unveiled the first smartphone with an in-display fingerprint sensor. Currently, top smartphone companies like Huawei, Oppo, Meizu, Xiaomi and OnePlus uses an in-display fingerprint sensing technology.
10GB & 12GB RAM
Xiaomi became the first smartphone company in the world to use 10GB of RAM. Mi MIX 3 is the first commercial smartphone to use 10GB of RAM, followed by OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition. Recently Lenovo Z5 Pro was confirmed with 12GB of RAM and Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip.
5G Technology
5G network infrastructure is still in the early stages of development. While phone makers have already started to implement 5G, flagship phones in 2019 are expected to come with the latest communication technology.
Google Duplex
Well, you doubted AI would soon take over human jobs? Soon it’s going to be a reality. Google Duplex has been one of the biggest technological innovations ever. Duplex uses a human-sounding voice with the most possible natural intonation to have a natural conversation in real time. Soon smartphones will have it and call centers will be run by robots.
3D Displays
The much anticipated Red Hydrogen One became the first smartphone in the world to come with a 3D holographic display. From the lensmaker RED, the Holographic display phone became a first of its kind where the screen has a native 3D content displayed without the need of any 3D glasses.
In-Display Cameras
Every smartphone company has tried hard to get rid of that notch. While some had a pop-up selfie camera, and some had sliders, but the latest is a punch hole. Huawei launched the world’s first punch-hole in-display camera phone Nova 4 with the first 48MP Sony IMX 586 sensor. Soon Samsung will launch its in-display camera phone, Galaxy A8s.
Quad Camera Setups
After two and three cameras, we are soon about to enter an era of quad camera setups. After Samsung unveiled the first smartphone with four cameras, Galaxy A9, smartphone companies are expected to join the four-camera bandwagon soon. Huawei has already launched a four-camera phone Nova 4, with P30 Pro being rumored to sport a similar setup.
Reverse Wireless Charging
Huawei Mate 20 Pro was launched
with a special technology called reverse wireless charging. A trend soon expected on other flagship devices, where a user can charge a smartphone with wireless charging even upside down. Devices supporting wireless charging can be charged from the Mate 20 Pro wirelessly.
Customizable Processors
The Asus ROG Phone is the first smartphone in the world where you can customize a processor to run overclocked. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 on ROG phone can offer clock speeds upto 2.96 GHz. We may see such phones in the future, especially gaming phones where the processing power can be controlled to offer improved gaming and CPU intensive performance.