I have been following the smartphone industry very closely for over a decade and going through the phone specifications and features is my favorite past time apart from work. I always like to experiment with various features, specs and over the years I have developed certain requirements that I want from my phone considering we spend 5 of our 24 hours on average on Phones in 2020.
This article clearly mentions the increasing time spent on Phones year on year.
How my smartphone ownership history has shaped the opinion in me
Before I talk about an Ideal smart phone, I want to talk about the various smartphones I have owned and how they developed the need for smartphone in a particular Niche. Few of the Phones that I remember owning have all made me long for features that are particularly important to me.
1. Nokia e52 -
This was back in the era when smartphones didn’t gain prominence and qwerty phones were the in thing. Learning – Phone should be Reliable and fast. A clean UI like the Symbian was essential for it
2. Nokia Lumia 510
Inspite of many of my colleagues vouching against Windows, I decided to try it out and to my surprise it was a fresh face apart from the Android vs Windows war out there. Learning – Always experiment and do not listen to the masses.
3. Nokia e63
I was in love with Nokia E series Business Phones and how quick they performed. Just before the touch screens took over, this was my last chance to own a qwerty phone
4. Moto E
This was one of the key phones that taught me the importance of a vibrant display even though it was a budget phone. Due to the clean UI and display, had this for couple of years
5. Redmi 2
It taught me how bad the software experience can be with a bad UI. Sold it off soon
6. Oneplus X
It was a beautiful phone with a gorgeous AMOLED display and perfectly fitted my hand. It had Snapdragon 801 so I was getting a Flagship level performance and good cameras. This was the phone that transformed the smartphone experience for me and I decided I will never get anything less than flagship processor anymore
7. iPhone SE
Another wonderful phone with a flagship processor of its time. It showed me what a good camera and experience looks like. Instead of all the secondary info on Apple, I personally learned what the hype is all about and here started my love for short screen phones. Although amazing as it was, it taught me how bad all iphone batteries were and this is the only reason that made me stay away from iphones till date
8. Oneplus 6t
I’d still call this one of the biggest mistakes I made. The oneplus 6t not only had slow camera click compared to the iphone, it was so wide and uncomfortable to hold. This is when I realized Oneplus has just lost the mobile space that they built using the Oneplus 1
9. Poco F1
After hearing lots of good things about this phone and a flagship processor, got this second hand for half the price. Since then I have been using this phone for 3 years and it has never showed any signs of slowing down. The flagship processor of 2018 is still running like a beast in 2020. The size of the phone as well which I thought was quite big, is actually okay considering today’s standards.
The settlement for the Most Ideal Compromise - Requirements I seek
Given this history, my requirements of a phone have been shaped quite clear across 8 areas:
A flagship processor
Since 2015, I have always been using flagships and cannot compromise on performance. Even when I use any midranger, I can easily identify the performance lags. Hence my options are now limited to Snapdragon 888 and Apple A14. But since I compromise on Battery and charging in Apple, that is out of question. A notable introduction is Snapdragon 780g which is a 5nm processor but I will need to use it find out if its worth downgrading in 2021. And with flagship processors, hope they don’t cut corners by atleast having LPDDR5 Ram and UFS 3.1 storage. There is no meaning to a flagship if it doesn’t have these. (One of the reasons I didn’t like the iQOO7)
A small Phone –
Indian average palm size is 18 cm and breadth is 11 cm. Check out this interesting study - https://openaccesspub.org/ijha/article/989#:~:text=coefficient%20was%20calculated.-,Results,9.83%20cm%20on%20left%20side.
Considering this, the ideal phone size is somewhere between 5.8 to 6.2 inches and the enter of gravity closer to the intersection of diagonals. However what we see in the market is far from this. All the budget phones as a standard have 6.67 inch and smart phone companies have taken it upon them to not size the flagships below that size! This analogy is kind of ridiculous.
A light weight –
Another thing that manufacturers have absolutely forgotten about is the Phone weight. In a quest to increase the battery capacity, phones have become 200+ gms which have been tough to hold and operate. Further, from my ownership of Oneplus 6T, their center of gravity is so off, that it increases the chance of dropping the phone. More work needs to happen in the phone industry to make the phones thinner and lighter so that it makes the whole using experience better
A flagship killer budget –
Poco F1 was a legendary phone because it cut corners at the right areas where Indians are interested in. It gave the best performance, great battery, a decent display, decent camera, decent UI better than MIUI and a plastic back for 20k.
Okay to be a Plastic back –
Now many people considered the plastic back of the Poco F1 as a negative thing. I don’t understand why phone manufacturing companies listen to these influencers when they can clearly see the success of the plastic back Poco F1 for themselves. I use my phone rough and I realized that glass back is not really my thing. Plus 100% of the times I have a Case on. Then why would I care about glass back or wireless charging? I wish more flagship phones would make their prices cheaper by cutting corners in a plastic back rather than investing huge amounts in glass back panels.
An average Battery with above average Charging –
Battery is an area which will increase the phone’s weight. For me, the weight is more important than battery so I am okay with the minimum standard around 4000mah+ with a 50+ Watt Fast charging. We all know that manufacturers do certain software optimizations to improve the battery life anyway
A decent Dual camera –
All we need is a good main camera and a good wide angle camera. I don’t think smartphones can take good telephoto or need a depth camera at all. Moreover, the Wide angle camera can double as a Macro camera as well if the sensor size is fairly large. If you do want to cut costs, please stop spending dollars on post-processing because 90% of users install GCAM mod in their non pixel phones so why bother anyway. I use the Parrot GCAM 7 with custom settings in my Poco F1 and the shots make even flagship phone user raise eyebrows
UI –
In android, it doesn’t matter much these days because the Launchers have come a long way now. My personal favorite is the Smart Launcher 5 which gives a cleaner than stock experience which is stable and reliable.
Upcoming Smartphones in India that I am excited about in June 2021 onwards
1. Realme GT -
This one ticks 6 out of 8 boxes for me and the ones it misses out are at a lesser priority. Some key features that I liked in this phone:
Snapdragon 888 with no compromise on RAM or storage type
At 6.43 inch, much smaller than all the other competitors
Light weight at 180-190 gms
Not a Flagship Killer budget but much cheaper than competition
65W fast charging
3.5mm Slot is a good add on
When the phone launched in March 2021, there was a lot of hype that it may land on the Indian shores by April end or May 1st week. Thanks to Corona, Realme anniversary event on May 4th has been postponed and we have no news of this phone anymore. All the talk of Realme GT is not shadowed by Realme GT Neo which has a lesser Dimensity 1200. The problem with Realme is that all its phones are so budget oriented, they never launch any flagship material in India. They have this notion that they can only play the numbers game and not make any money in the premium segment. They need to learn from what Poco F1 did and start their legacy with the Realme GT in India. However, I am not sure who is the right decision maker whom I have to convince for this
2. Mi 11 Lite 5g
Another phone that ticks 6 out of 8 boxes. Unfortunately, the box that it misses out is on processor which it has a 5nm Snapdragon 780g. From the limited amount of information I have heard of it, it is very snappy and making me consider this phone in case the Realme GT never makes it to Indian shores.
Here are some key features I’m excited about:
Slimmest and Lightest phone in the world. At 159g and 6.81mm thickness, it surely hits the sweet spot in the phone handling experience.
Another winning point is its 6.55 inch display with HDR10+ and Dolby vision
It manages to tick all other boxes with the battery, 3.5mm jack , beautiful colors
However, there are 2 key things that can make this phone absolute dealbreaker:
The price. It is priced higher than the mi11x in India which has a much better processor. For Xiaomi, they have to price it between this as it makes no sense to choose this over mi11x
The hardware. When you pay a heft 30K+, you expect a flagship grade performance. The only exception to this was the Oneplus Nord which had a 25k+ Snapdragon 765g soec and worked in India because of its Brand value. Now with the recent success of mi 11 Ultra, people are associating Xiaomi as a player in premium phone market and they need to use this card to play the performance hardware right.
3. Pixel 5a
As with all ‘a’ series Pixel phones, this will be a cheaper version of the otherwise super expensive Pixel 6 that misses out on Snapdragon 888 (Its rumored that it will have 870). If we are compromising on the processor, better to go for world’s best Camera phone right! Its rumored that Pixel 5a will have the Snapdragon 765g which is same as the Oneplus Nord. Now the Oneplus Nord was an Amazing phone with the size, performance, battery etc. The only thing it sucked was the cameras and Pixel 5a if can fill that void, it will be a unmatchable value proposition even with a compromise in the processor
4. Samsung S21 FE
Samsung always releases its Fan Edition with Snapdragon processors at much cheaper price compared to their main phones while missing out on Wireless charging. I feel if the S21 FE is powered by Snapdragon 888 and offered at 50K, it will not only make it better than the S21 series but also start competing with names like iQOO Legend, mi11X Pro and Oneplus 9 Pro. Sure there are some compromise on the UI as I hate the way One UI is but thats something we can definitely live with
5. iQOO 7 Legend
This BMW edition is consistently ranking in the top spot of the Antutu Ratings so I can rest assure its a super fast phone. However, there are compromises as its not exactly a budget phone. The 12/256 version will cost 41K which is quite a lot. Moreover, the UI is so confusing from iQOO giving tons of customization and confusing the user.
Concluding Thoughts
Both the Smartphone and Automobile industry in India is just playing with Customer foolishness I believe. Both do not get their flagships in India. Both feel that Indians are all about cheap things only. Finally, both think that when they find something selling, its just easier to cash in the same old tech and platform till they extract every penny out of it! Its time as learned consumers, we be aware of this and start demanding more for the more money we spend and not accept or live with the compromises they force us to do.
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