10'

What’s Going To Be The Next Big Feature?

AndiMarch 9, 2017

Ever since the very start of the Chinese phone industry smartphone makers have worked on devices to bring them the latest ‘must have’ features, but what is the next must have we’re going to see?

Back in the early days of the Chinese phone industry it was really quite easy for a smartphone maker to jump in to the market and generate hype by having the newest features available.

More Cores

The first Chinese phone ‘Arms Race’ was the number of cores of smartphone would have. I still remember the excitement when Chinese phone makers made the first dual core phones, then quad-cores, and things really kicked off when Zopo launched the worlds first 8 core phone!

Higher Resolution

After HD displays, Chinese brands raced to get FHD panels and some brands even moved up to 2K, but now that all seems to have cooled down.

Larger Battery

Battery sizes were once very small and it wasn’t that long ago when a ‘big battery phone’ packed a 3000mAh battery. 3000mAh is now pretty standard and it is very common to find phones with 4000mAh batteries too, but it doesn’t seem likely that we’ll see a reassurance of 10,000mAh phones in the near future.

Gizchina News of the week

Join GizChina on Telegram

Fast Charging

Fast Charging was one a dream of every smartphone owner, but now this is once again a feature we see on most phones and fast charging is getting faster all the time!

Fingerprint Scanners

Fingerprint scanners are on every phone now from super budget phones to top of the range handsets, in fact it now seems rather odd to see a smartphone without this security feature.

Dual Cameras

Image credit: Phone Arena

Even the iPhone 7Plus has dual cameras so we know that they must be pretty common already (Apple are always way behind what the Chinese phone market at doing). Dual rear cameras are now found on budget phones, and we are now beginning to start seeing dual cameras on the front of phones too. Perhaps dual front and rear is the next must have?

What Will The Next Big Thing Be?

So we’ve seen alot of features spring up and now become standard on Chinese Android smartphones, but what could possibly be the next big thing? What features do you think we are going to see crop up on smartphones in the near future? Let us know what you hope to see/expect to see on phones in the comments below.

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

About the author
Andi

Assefa Hanson
March 9, 2017
Boy i hope it is bigger or rather new battery technolgy maybe the next big thing will be drone phones haha

MattD
March 9, 2017
If you things are getting a little boring, then you’re right. Right now, there’s not a single real “new” thing going on. There will be a race for 3-borderless phones in the near future, and edges sides too. Until it gets common, and people realize cons are far more than pros for those things, so it won’t be a thing for your daily average phone launch.
So what we’ll going to see rather new ways to trying and improve what already exists… in particular, bigger brands will try to push fast charging further and further, since battery life is something we all come short in a way or another, but big sissies out there say 30 extra grams are more than what they can handle (try and hold something heavy on daily basis for once), so there won’t be much phones with a bigger battery anytime soon… funny enough, phones these days weight much more because of metal builds, because “bigger batteries are too much heavy, but I love the feeling of scratching metal with my new nail varnish”.
Truth is: the only thing that haven’t seen a single step foward in years are batteries, unlike the other components. There’s where we need new technologies. But finding new things there costs far more than just putting a faster charging (which is not good for the phone, but who cares?!).

Augmented reality stuff! Infra red cameras etc.
Hardware firewall of sorts, more security!
Xiaolu
March 9, 2017
Hey Andi, that OPPO optical ZOOM is quite nice 😉
But I’d definitely wouldn’t jump to the nearest shop to but any phone now. Not excited at all. Modular phones are the next big thing. But a standard is needed, and nice (free, as in freedom) software with real convergence features. That’d be the real deal. Pair that with a battery you could properly call with that name (lasting a minimum of 12 hrs OsT) and you’ll have it all.

goodwill
March 10, 2017
Tbh, we need a breakthrough in our battery technology. It’s limiting the devices it’s powering. Granite is the next best thing but it’s still a rather expensive material to produce. They have to start commercializing it.

Pierre
March 10, 2017
This isn’t new, but I think we will–or should–see a democratisation of the stylus in phones. It won’t be just the Galaxy Note anymore.
This is mainly being pushed by the success of Surface and Surface-like 2 in 1s. Even Chromebooks are getting in on the stylus trend.
Phones are next, whether first with the expected “Surface phone” or a Chinese brand.
And before anyone knocks styluses on phones: the phones have gotten big enough for them. You don’t know how useful they can be til you’ve tried them.
- Rob
  March 10, 2017
  I have to disagree. I’ve owned a galaxy note with a stylus and after about 2 days I stopped using it. I’ve also had a few 2 in 1’s with sylus support and again don’t use the function. I think it’s quite specific to certain tasks and not that useful to most people so hope we don’t start seeing them as it will add a little bulk and weight to a phone that’s not really needed. If you really want a stylus go buy a note….
- goodwill
  March 10, 2017
  I don’t think so tho. This can be a subjective matter but safe to say generally, not many can be borthered with using a stylus on a smartphone. I’ve met many phone enthusiast whom are just indifferent. There’s a reason why stylus phones are kept to the minumum. Perhaps on a tablet platform but not on smartphones.

10basetom
March 10, 2017
You forgot to mention “bezel-less” — that was the next big thing for awhile, and it kinda still is. Anyway, the next next big thing might be 18:9 (or 2:1) ratio phones.
- goodwill
  March 10, 2017
  I agree with bazel-less but due to the survival concern of the display on a bazel-less phone on a drop from a pocket height, I’d still prefer some thickness tho.
amirexpressir
March 12, 2017
car and etc…. everyone will have it home to buy the model and create it at his home(of course with much mature technology rather than used today),of course playing right songs that its user has loved to listen when it detect a bad mood/happy, i a asic…the phone AI, will be a companion & best friend like many of us wanted.
as for camera, i believe a “smart” rotation 360(no software//manual-creating panaroma will be needed) will be used with night-vision and realtime-recording anything unusual so the user won’t miss anyone and probably NFC-connected that people with this feature-on,could identify most important thing about one another {name,age,etc they define} (to bring the world closer)… there would be a mechanism that just like cats, it won’t fall with its front but back if dropped, the 2 screen(like yota,siswoo,…) will be common from front-to-back with no bezel at sides(rotatory display)(2 styles:one tradition{front sharp and back e-ink} or new which is a continuous display and which side user knock-on will be turned on(or detect a face looking straight while it’s sleep).
just like some little medical phone devices,there could be gadgets to connect to analyze your blood in 10-20min at home to get your common lab answers.
i believe that phones will become like watch ,locked to your wrist and by clicking a button,it will be a flat smartphone and vise versa
well,…. i hope to see lots of these before 2020,but anyway,thanks to all engendering working behind-scene of brands name each step the technology had advance to what we see today.