Many considered 2018 as a watershed year for smartphone technology. While 2017 introduced features like the taller 18:9 displays, dual cameras and the likes, most presumed 2018 will be spent in consolidating the features and the technology. But boy, were we in for a big surprise! Right down from display notches, to triple and four-camera setups, and even mechanised sliders housing the cameras, we saw it all. Whether we loved them or hated them is besides the point, these are the features that were much in demand among smartphone users. However, 2018 will soon be behind us, and a new year will bring in new possibilities. With technology always evolving, these are the smartphone features and technology we believe will trend in 2019
Long rumoured, much anticipated, 2019 will finally be the year when foldable phones become a reality. Samsung has all but confirmed it will launch a phone that can be opened up into a tablet and folded back to resemble a phone. Foldable phones will bring dual displays with dual batteries, and blur the line between an out-and-out tablet and a smartphone. While that certainly sounds very futuristic, it remains to be seen just how usable these foldable phones will be. The first generation of foldable phones might not live up to the hype created by the companies, but we hear even LG, Huawei and other Chinese brands are also working on their own take of a phone that folds unto itself.
If you had been paying attention to the recent developments in smartphone tech, 5G is a term you must have heard. The next generation wireless technology is slated to offer faster speeds, better coverage with ultra-low latencies. And smartphones coming out in 2019 (at least, some of them) will have the ability to leverage the next-gen speed. The 5G-ready phones will have a dedicated 5G model along with a revamped antenna design along with faster processors. Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo, Huawei and other major smartphone manufacturers will all have a 5G-enabled smartphone in 2019. However, the 5G-ready phones may not be made available globally since 5G itself will roll out on to select markets like US, UK, Europe, South Korea, Japan, China and Australia in 2019.
2018 was when dual-cameras became so commonplace that established players like Samsung and Huawei came out with triple and quad-camera smartphones. These were mostly one-off devices, but in 2019 we expect to see more than two cameras as a rule in smartphones in 2019. Dual cameras allowed phone makers to offer features like portrait mode, but with a triple or quad-camera setup, smartphone makers can offer not only a depth sensor, but also a wide-angle, monochrome and a tele-photo lens in the same device. Heck, there is a rumoured Nokia phone that will reportedly have five cameras on the back. What will be interesting to see next year though, is whether Google finally decides to use more than one camera on the back of the Pixel phone due out in 2019.
The notch became mainstream in the first half of 2018 when every other phone except from Samsung came with a wide cut-out in the display. While the notch was unanimously hated by most reviewers, it became common enough for OEMs to work on changing it. The resulting flux gave birth to the water-drop notch like in the OnePlus 6T. In 2019, we expect the cut-out to become even smaller as indicated by the Samsung Galaxy A8s where it’s as small as a punch-hole placed on the top left corner of the display. With OEMs gunning for edge-to-edge displays, this could be the best solution on offer in 2019.
Early this year at both CES and MWC, we saw near-finished modules of in-display fingerprint sensor in action. Soon enough, Chinese OEMs like Vivo, Oppo, OnePlus, Xiaomi and Huawei adopted the technology. Even with facial recognition becoming popular among Android phones in 2018, fingerprint sensors remain the most secure biometric authentication in smartphones. With the upcoming Snapdragon 855 coming with support baked in for ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor, we expect a lot more flagships to remove the physical fingerprint sensor and integrate it in the display itself.
Time of Flight cameras will be Android’s answer to Apple’s TruDepth camera. The depth-sensing camera technology relies on the time taken by a beam of infra-red light to hit an object and come back. Based on that, it calculates over 30,000 points of a person’s face to securely unlock a smartphone and to apply advanced beauty filters to photos. TOF cameras will also have applications in the field of augmented reality with phones like the Samsung Galaxy S10 rumoured to sport AR-enabled TOF cameras on the front.
2018 saw a lot of phones with gradient colour finishes based on glass and other materials. However, the glass used wasn’t quite as strong as the ones made by Corning for the display. That could change in 2019 as Corning announced the Gorilla Glass 6 that can be used both on the front and the back. On the back, OEMs can have a choice of offering textured finishes thanks to the new technology Gorilla Glass 6 brings to the table. What’s more, it will be more durable than any other rear glass panel so far.
The stupidest smartphone feature of 2018 might just become a trend in 2019 if the race to put bezel-less displays on phones become any stronger. Earlier this month, Vivo revealed a version of its flagship smartphone called NEX that has two displays on the body. The idea was to remove the front-camera without compromising the selfie-centric capabilities and the only reason for a second display to be there is to use the rear camera to take selfies. Talk about creating more problems while solving one, and Vivo is not the only phone to do so. A recently announced Meizu phone also did the same, and if the trend keeps getting stronger, we might just see more phones with two displays in 2019 as well.