The best phone possible
In the last couple of months, we’ve seen the release of many new devices. Plenty of brand name phones have been released and my opinion is that none of them was fully embraced by the community. This is what prompted me to think of what a smartphone should be and feel like in order to satisfy the majority of customers.
This in mind, let me give an overview of the features and specs I feel people demand at this point.
Hardware and memory
When it comes to the chipset, there are several possibilities. Some manufacturers build in-house chipsets, and so we get Apple’s A series, Samsung’s Exynos, Huawei’s Kirin and so on, however in the Android world, the overall consensus is that Qualcomm builds extremely good chipsets. Since they are not affiliated with any particular brand, I’ll assume that our ideal phone should run on a Snapdragon chipset.
As of right now, Snapdragon 845 is their best option, however, it is a 10nm chipset in the day and age of 7nm. Qualcomm plans to build a 7nm chipset themselves, so we will wait for the Snapdragon 855 for our ideal phone. It will be plenty fast, yet power saving.
That being said, I feel that this is the platform we should go with – Snapdragon 855.
Fast processors heat up when you put them to heavy use, so liquid cooling has to be here – no other cooling means are acceptable.
Now, let’s move over to memory. We can agree on “the more – the merrier” here, and there’s nothing much to be said. Smartphones even nowadays have stepped into 10GB RAM realm (Xiaomi Black Shark Helo, Xiaomi Mi Mix 3, Huawei Mate 20 Pro etc.) so our ideal smartphone should have at least that much, if not more. Let’s however stay with 10GB, because we don’t want to be too outrageous.
On the other hand, there’s storage. We need to have, once again, as much as possible, and as we’ve witnessed, there are phones out there with 512GB of storage, so that’s what we need to opt for also. However, that’s not enough, we need a microSD card to expand our storage close to infinity, so our ideal phone will support expansions up to another 512GB, which will total to 1TB. Nothing unheard of since the Galaxy Note 9 already has this feature.
Water and dust proofing goes without saying, we need to be able to drop this masterpiece into a body of water for some time and still be able to use it normally.
So there we have it, on the inside there is a Snapdragon 855, paired with 10GB RAM and 512GB + 512GB storage. Jolly good!
Display
Moving on to what you really see – the display. We are not going to settle for anything short of the very best, and the best display as of right now is a combination of several existing ones. It needs to be OLED, it needs to have off the charts high resolution but it also needs to sit in the hand nicely. Screen to body ratio needs to be as big as possible. What pops to my mind here is the display of the Mi Mix 3 in terms of size and screen to body and aspect ratio with 4K resolution and pixel density of well over 700 PPI. With such a display, I’m sure no one would be able to complain about pizelization, since there’s no way to see individual pixels. Another something we absolutely need is the 120 Hz display we could see in the Razer Phone 2.
It needs to be plenty bright as well, and Super Bright display implemented into the LG G7 ThinQ pops to mind. Brightness of up to 1000 nits should satisfy all users.
We must not forget HDR10/Dobly Vision support, wide color gamut etc. Also the display needs to be protected by whatever the latest generation of Gorilla Glass is. Since we’re waiting for Snapdragon 855, we might as well wait for the Gorilla Glass 6.
Design
Gorilla Glass on the front panel brings me to think about the general design and the back panel too. We need the back panel to support several things, so we must have it be made of glass, either Gorilla Glass 6 or ceramic, or something else. Also we need it to be beautiful, colorful and in general to feel nice. It also needs to be protected so as not to break no matter what you do to it.
Frame of the phone needs to be built of some very hard metal, so as not to bend when we sit on our phone, because this happens more often than we care to admit. So, stainless steel, some very hard aluminum or something similar.
The back panel needs to be flush, one continuous sheet of material, whatever we choose. However we need to have cutouts for the camera, which brings us to the next point.
Camera
Same as with RAM, “the more – the merrier”. We must have 4, even 5 camera sensors on the back, by why stop there? RGB, telephoto, wide-angle, B&W, standard zoom, low light, depth-of-field sensors, we need to have them all! No matter what we do with photos, no matter how we take them, where and in what conditions, we need them to be perfect, crystal clear with no noise and with phenomenal colors. That’s why all these sensors absolutely need to be here, and they need to be the best possible with as high resolution as possible. Since this is my own opinion of an ideal phone, let’s say 20 megapixels would be fine for all of them.
There we have it, 7 x 20 megapixel camera with variable aperture, of course, but not as the one made by Samsung that can only switch between two apertures – no, no, we need it truly variable. AI capability is a must, and I feel as if I shouldn’t even talk about it.
On the front panel we also need to have several of these sensors, but for our gorgeous faces, only 20 megapixels won’t suffice. Since there’s not too much room on the front panel because of the display, I propose a modular front facing camera setup (put it somewhere engineers!), where users would be able to choose 2 out of a number of different sensors. Let’s say, 40 megapixels would be enough.
Video recording wise, we obviously need to be able to record 4K videos at 60fps but also super slow motion at 960fps at the same resolution.
Connectivity
Connectivity wise, we need to have everything. All possible communication options need to be implemented, even if there is no way possible to use all the features. That’s why we need 5G connectivity, crazy fast Wi-Fi modems, Bluetooth, NFC, and all your standard frequency options. FM radio? Of course you must have it! How else would you listen to radio if you so choose?
It feels redundant to say that we absolutely must have a 3.5mm audio port. Why not two though? Some people, like DJs, or very in-love couples, may have a use of two such ports, so let’s have two.
Wireless charging is a must, however not only that puny phone-on-the-pad wireless charging, where you have to place your phone on a charger. No, no, we demand the engineers come up with a way to truly, really transfer energy wirelessly so we can watch movies while we try to go to sleep. We don’t want any cables to hinder us trying to get as comfortable as possible, so we absolutely need this feature. Not only wireless charging, we need the levitating electro-magnetic stand for our phone because who in their right mind wants to hold their phone when they’re watching movies trying to fall asleep? No, we need it to levitate, charge at the same time and play whatever movie we want on that smooth, crisp display it has.
Battery
All this needs to be powered somehow, so let’s have a 10000 mAh battery inside. Some Chinese manufacturers have managed to put this huge battery inside, so why can’t out ideal beast have it as well. Let’s also put fast 40W wireless charging capability in it. It’s not enough that it charges while it levitates, it also needs to do so very quickly.
Conclusion
All this, you’ll agree has to come with a steep price, but no, we don’t want to pay outrageous amounts of money for a smartphone! We do want it to almost cook us lunch, but it costs how much? More than 300e? Blasphemy! I’m not paying that much for a smartphone!
There it is. This is what what I want. I want it all, and I want it now, and I want it (almost) for free! Because that’s the way it should be!
Or is it?