Tech Op-Ed: Do We Need More Gimmicks?
Cameras. Touchscreens. NFC. Fingerprint sensors. Quad HD Displays. And many more. Phone features have seen massive leaps and bounds in terms of advancement, and some may say that current smartphones have all the features you may need. The only real advancements we see nowadays among smartphones is that every variant comes out with a slightly different core chip, some minor adjustments software wise, and a touch up here and there. Occasionally something comes that rocks the boat, like when the iPhone X came out with the bezel-less displays and Face ID, both of which are in my opinion, quite frivolous and frankly unnecessary. Sure, the bezel-less display looks cool, and the facial recognition is a nice gimmick to have, but how practical are they? Don’t we have fingerprint scanning which is insanely quick AND secure to boot? Do we really need another slower biometric scanner? Another new fad that seems to have popped up in the latest crop of phones is super slow motion, which was started by the Xperia XZ Premium. How many times has anyone ever needed to use that for more than entertainment?
It is not that I am against cool features, I’m all for it. It is when these features are what developers aim to progress instead of the core functionalities that it gets rather annoying. Better batteries and sharper cameras would be much appreciated, instead of an animated emoji of my face I’m never going to use. The focus has shifted to have something that always makes the product stand out, with the next new gimmick. Is this the new way to go? If a phone is truly good in every aspect, the crowds will come flocking to you. Despite what it seems, I’m still a fan of new features. It’s true that they have come up with quite a few innovations that have proved to be ground-breaking, like dual cameras and fingerprint sensors. Perhaps many saw those as frivolous in the beginning and changed their mind later on. I’m hoping that’s the case for me as well. Prove me wrong, smartphones. Prove me wrong.
