Smartphone Design Plateaued in 2024

Sorry to be that man. Smartphone innovation has stagnated in favor of adopting synthetic intelligence. Samsung, Google, and Apple made AI the first advertising focus of every flagship telephone in 2024. It wasn’t about svelte {hardware} or the smartphone’s capability to function a strong each day computing gadget. It was about making ready customers for the AI onslaught that may inevitably pressure them to replace their telephones to keep away from being siloed.

This yr was marred by gimmicky characteristic add-ons and the rationalization that you simply’ll want a brand new smartphone to be appropriate with what’s to come back if you wish to be on the identical web page as everybody else. Design-wise, that produced a batch of telephones that didn’t transfer the needle. The Galaxy S24 Ultra appears to be like similar to the Galaxy S23 Ultra however with extra sq. edges. Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro doesn’t look all that completely different from the iPhone 15 Pro—you’ll be able to’t even inform them aside from the bottom. As for the Google Pixel 9 Pro, it has a revamped digicam bar on the again. Nonetheless, now it simply appears to be like just like the iPhone from the entrance, and every little thing else concerning the Pixel lineup prioritizes Gemini over anything.

I’m down for the thought of AI accurately clocking in, whether or not I’m attempting to open up an app to get work completed or disappear into doom-scrolling. However what can be the price of prioritizing AI-enhanced efficiency over every little thing else? Can smartphones keep skinny if energy consumption is the precedence? Gained’t they must make concessions for greater batteries and extra parts as AI turns into the primary energy draw? These are all questions floating round as we exit the yr into 2025.

The Meteoric Rise of AI

Samsung began 2024 proper out of the gate with Galaxy AI. It already did a few of what Google’s Gemini presupposed to do, besides this time, it additionally had a novel new characteristic to debut alongside: Circle to Search, which turned the perfect factor to occur to Android this yr, even earlier than Android 15 went into developer preview. Samsung and Google mixed forces for the Galaxy S24 launch occasion to maintain the messaging honed, stating that Android would grow to be a vessel for all that was taking place with AI behind the scenes.

Google adopted, peppering the yr with prolific Pixel Drops that enabled options like Circle to Search, Name Display screen, and, most lately, Gemini extensions. When its developer convention rolled round within the spring, it was obvious that the Android platform’s trajectory centered primarily on AI. Android was now not the primary occasion; as an alternative, it was centered on explaining how Gemini would enhance the consumer expertise. Probably the most vital indicator of this for me was after I booted up the Gemini beta and set it as my telephone’s default assistant. It broke a few of my Google Assistant-enabled {hardware}, just like the Roav Bolt, which I take advantage of to command my telephone hands-free whereas driving. Fortunately, no matter Google has completed within the background since then has fastened it, although I needed to wait half the yr for Gemini to roll out absolutely. It was a harrowing reminder of what occurs when the corporate behind your smartphone platform all of a sudden takes a left flip towards one thing new.

A few of us had hoped that Apple can be the one to carry out on AI. Sometimes, Apple will take what Google does and “neg” it, then clarify the way it’s not potential as a result of it will destroy the integrity of its product. However Cupertino shocked us with Apple Intelligence at WWDC, asserting that it was including AI to its platforms and doing it in probably the most Apple method: fully rebranding what everybody else is doing and presenting it as a one-of-a-kind, bespoke new know-how, regardless that it nonetheless requires some assist from ChatGPT to deal with extra subtle instructions. A minimum of the corporate stays attribute about it. On account of the identify “Apple Intelligence,” the fashion information requires that I spell it out from time to time when referring to it, which helps me keep away from the overuse of “AI.” It’s not synthetic intelligence; it’s Apple’s intelligence.

The Price of Picture Technology

Now, it’s months in spite of everything the brand new smartphones have debuted for the most recent era. We’re caught with a wealth of premium gadgets from Samsung, Google, and Apple, all centered on promoting us this new method of predictive computing. Every platform additionally has a picture rendering app for producing photos: Picture Playground on iOS and Pixel Studio on Pixel gadgets. Thanks, I suppose, however that is hardly what folks thought of once they requested for assist with pictures. As an alternative, I’d hoped to have higher lenses added to the again of those gadgets since they already price upwards of a mid-tier digital digicam. I used to be even prepared to eschew thinness, figuring out the {hardware} needed to get thicker if I wished a bigger display screen. As an alternative, I received a generative AI suite that makes my pictures appear like a Hallmark movie poster.

I’m not saying the cameras didn’t enhance on Samsung, Google, and Apple’s gadgets. That occurs yearly with each new smartphone; every little thing will get a little bit higher. However this time, all three appear wholly depending on AI performing the magic to make the image. The Pixel’s whole digicam system is predicated on the premise that AI can routinely do what you’ll have tried in an modifying suite. Apple employs algorithms to make sure that any time you press the iPhone 16’s new Digital camera Management button, the photograph doesn’t blur.

Right here’s the Catch-22 of picture era on the telephone on this AI-forward period. Whereas AI and algorithms may help with battery administration, like lowering background processes and routinely optimizing settings primarily based on what’s taking place on display screen, producing photos inside the apps takes up those self same assets, even when pulling from the cloud. A smartphone additionally wants a whopping quantity of reminiscence to carry out these duties. That’s why we now see telephones bundled with 16GB of RAM as the usual, together with the Pixel 9 Pro. All that additional {hardware} to energy AI will finally improve manufacturing prices. We’re already seeing greater value tags on iPhones and Android gadgets. It’s not simply the financial system. 

That’s to not say that subsequent yr’s telephones can be bulbous and cumbersome. They’ll doubtless nonetheless arrive in the identical tempered glass chassis they got here on this yr. They’ll all have large, brilliant shows with excessive refresh charges and saturated colours. They’ll nonetheless match into males’s pockets. They might even be thinner than they had been subsequent yr, no less than in response to rumors concerning the iPhone 17 and the Galaxy S25 Extremely. There’s even speak that Samsung’s foldables would possibly get greater to cater to a distinct crowd. What can be attention-grabbing to see is how every producer manages the calls for of balancing what the trade says is crucial for competitors and what customers need for utility. It doesn’t make the AI value it if it means piping-hot smartphones that peter out midway by way of the day.