2021 should be getting back to basics and making foldables more durable and affordable. I'm glad most companies are ditching the 5-6 cameras in favour of 2-3 quality sensors + making phones thinner and lighter again. Not to mention, the cut in price along with extended software support (any QC high end will get 3 major updates) My Xperia 1 II got Android 11 last week and it's super-refined. From animations and transitions down to the battery care it's what Android 10 should have been 2 years ago really.
I don't care about thinner and lighter and I don't know anyone else who does either. I DO care about battery life and so does everyone I know. And if a little more thickness gives me more battery, that's what I want.
Thinner doesn't matter agreed, but after using a phone at 150g and not the 200g that is usual for high-end phones, I am not likely to go back to a heavier phone.
I'm using Aquos Zero2 that's extremely lightweight 141g, larger screen, high-end spec, and reasonably thin. I love it except battery hours (still acceptable for me). 5G movement may work bad to make ligher smartphone.
That's great for you. Has complaining about it worked in the past 13 years? You're screaming into a vacuum. They'll continue to find other ways to cell phones and do whatever they want, and screw the consumer.
Dive years ago, I would have agreed. Most phones were 7-8 mm thin and there was a race to have the thinnest. Today we are back at 9mm + 1-2 mm camera bump and we have 5000 mAh batteries. I don't need better batteries. Just need to get over a day with a good reserve. But I would like a 8mm maximum and smaller camera bump. Together with the large dimensions it's getting very heavy as well.
iPhone 11 Pro Max user here, and I would DEFINITELY trade in some battery life for a little bit more ergonomic device. The thing is just too big, too heavy and too thick. I’m glad Apple reduced the battery size and made the phone significantly thinner (although bigger and heavier) with the iPhone 12 Pro Max. I’m kinda regretting not getting an 11 Pro, as the battery life of the 11 Pro Max is overkill for me.
I couldn't agree more. It's a shame that MMwave and 120Hz are going the extra mile to wreck any battery life gains. Hopefully they'll continue to be settings exposed to the user.
When you shake it all out and consider actual camera results (that are flagship) and the flagship Android software experience, it's Pixel 4a 5G @ $499 for the win.
My 3 pet peeves got unadressed though: 1- not easy to perform basic maintenance, ie change the battery and screen. Screws are not Sci-Fi tech ! (I blame mostly Apple) 2- Ever longer and narrower screens, as if anything above 16:9 had any use case. Not videos. Not reading. Not maps. Not games. Not Office. Instagram I guess ? That's a lot of us suffering for one measly use case. 3- there are still phones with non-flat screens, no SD slot, no jack, only 1 SIM slot or a shared SIM/SD slot. Especially at the high end: good, this kills any desire I had to move back upmarket.
You can rightly blame Apple. And if other companies start mandating that parts be flashed a certain code before installation using a tool only available to themselves, you can blame Apple again.
Apple doesn’t tell other vendors what to do. Every vendor is responsible for their own decisions. If they’re all visionless, spineless followers who do what their bean counters tell them to, then they each should be seen as accountable for their decisions.
- Marketing is Paramount (many companies deciding to expend more focus on marketing, such as buying reviews, making shiny renders, confusing ads, or heaps of buzzwords. Even if it comes at the expense of the phone capability and experience) - Increased Cost (many price rises are just following iPhone X/Max, and aren't really justified) - Reduced Serviceablity (curved front and back, using glass, getting heavier, means durability is down. Locking down parts is horrendous) - Audio compromised (no front-firing stereo loudspeakers, no headphone jack, BT in-ear sets pushed down consumers throat) - Loss of features (microSD, DualSIM, LED light, IrDa blaster.... they're a niche now) - Larger and larger sizes (what is deemed "medium" now is about equal to what was deemed "large" only a few years ago. There are no small flagships outside Sony/Apple) - Battery Life taken back (loss of User Removable Battery for sealed batteries, compromised made to make phones waterproof but most phones aren't and don't have an IP68 rating, capacities took a long time to progress, extra efficiency gains show very little effect in real-world use, new-generation software possible culprit) - Software still abandoned (Apple is gold standard. Google fluctuates, Samsung's improving, but most phones still get left behind in terms of security, features, etc) - Cameras are sticking point (one large sensor will beat many small sensors, but that sucks for marketing. Sensor sizes have started to go up finally. And computational photography has matured. However, many mid-range phones are still following trends instead of good photo performance)
....these trends are a fantastic thing for companies, not for consumers, as it means youre more likely to buy, spend more money upfront, forced to buy more accessories, more money on servicing, and need to upgrade sooner.
I think we peaked in 2014-2016 (Samsung Note4, iPhone 6S+, Samsung S7+). The only solace is this year's excellent duo from Sony in the 1.2 and 5.2, which really is a "no compromise" experience. The area they did compromise in was Marketing, and that continues to hurt their profitablity... so this could be a one-off.
People get too wrapped up in the specs, especially in forums like this. Take the camera for example. Yes, bigger sensors are better, but at the end of the day, the total camera system is what gets measured, not just the sensor. The quality of the lenses, the quality of the ISP and the computational photography capabilities, etc. all play a big part in this.
For years, many of us have known that things like microSD cards and IrDA blasters were rather useless in reality. The spec counters will fight this until their dying breath, there are good reasons to get rid of these "features".
I do agree with your point about how medium sized phones today are what the big phones were previously. In order to cram in larger batteries, more cameras, etc. vendors have had to go this route. For me, the pendulum is starting to swing the other way. I don't like a big phone in my pocket. I may go for something like the iPhone 12 mini next time.
> the total camera system is what gets measured, not just the sensor I'd like to believe that, but low quality oversharpened crap still dominates. Look at Apple, they still bake aggressive NR and sharpening into their so-called "ProRAW". That goes against both "Pro" and "RAW". Going high on the sensor size and pixel pitch almost certainly guarantees that the image quality goes in the right direction, tricks like "Nonacell" can't be relied on and are only somewhat useful in generating oversharpened crap. And Google, Pixel 3 was the height of Pixel's image quality on automatic settings, it regressed from there to push for stronger automatic HDR at the expense of resolution.
>like microSD cards and IrDA blasters were rather useless in reality The point is they're good to have, cost almost nothing to retain, and their removal only benefits the manufacturer. Moreover people who pay more deserve more functions. This should stand within a certain category of products. There are no "good reasons" to remove them in flagships except for profit and that alone. Currently, consumers are basically deprived of the smartphone equivalent of the laptop workstation, the closest would be the LG V series(just discontinued, we'll have to see what follows) and Asus ROGP series.
Andrei, whenever you have a chance, I'd appreciate a reasonably deep dive into the differences in onboard storage tech and the impact on a phone's speed, response in daily use etc. I believe Apple is still the only phone maker that uses NVMe storage, while all Androids seem to use some version of UFS. Why is that, and how much faster is NVMe if used in smartphones (assuming it still is)? Thanks!
Larger camera sensors, 5G and 120Hz screens have all been good, meaningful upgrades.
For 2021, I would really like for even larger sensors. Can they reach the golden 1" sensor size?
I hope they keep 120Hz screens and not go higher than that. Screen sample rates should increase though; the higher, the better. And flat, go back to FLAT screens!
If the new 5G chips are more battery efficient that'll be great!
Other than that I don't really know what they could bring that would be innovative and compelling people to upgrade. I don't care about under-the-screen front cameras at all personally. I am only interested in bigger camera sensors.
"5G!! We don't need no stinkin 5G!" You really should have delineated two simple facts: 1 - mmWave 5G, the only real 5G, exists essentially nowhere 2 - what is advertised as '5G' is not much more than LTE
That phone vendors are conspiring with carriers to dupe the sheep is bad enough. For you to not call them out for it... isn't that your job?
Calling mmWave real 5G is complete nonsense. Sub-6 is of magnitudes more important to the increase in spectrum and bandwidth, and has significant benefits over LTE.
mmWave will always remain a niche due to how it works.
I think most people assume mmWave *is* 5G because they marketed 5G using *big numbers* because it sells. Except mmWave is required for those big numbers. From what ive read the sub6 changes mainly benefit carrying capacity and customer load issues. So while yes, it will improve speed and consistency for people in dense environments, it won't necessarily improve their top end speed and isn't as easily marketable as showing a speed test window and saying "wow! GIGS!!!"
Which never made much sense to me anyway. I am a massive abuser of bandwidth on my PC and have GB fiber at home, but on my phone ive never wished I had more bandwidth.
lmao?Sub-6 increases spectrum by eating into the previous 2G spectrum(which provides a low bandwidth with high penetration), otherwise it uses the nearly the exact same spectrum as LTE, at nearly the exact same bandwidth
No. Most of the world is getting a new large chunk of never used before spectrum in the 3.5GHz range for sub-6. I'm aware the US frequencies are a fragmented shit-show, and probably the root reason why mmWave is marketed more. The rest of the world are getting gigabit speeds on sub-6.
Ok, I'm not aware of all the world's bands but it's been tested that on identical bands 5G is generally no faster yet less power efficient than LTE(not to mention new patent royalties). There's no technical barrier to LTE using a wider range of sub-6 bands in the first place, LTE could also reach gigabit speeds with CA. It's only with the most recent mmWave tests(a month or so ago?) that 5G has actually reached speeds unobtainable with LTE. Regarding consumer experience, the world's fastest LTE, SK's, is nearly the same speed as SK's 5G, while being more stable.
In theory, I agree with you Andrei. However, in practice, FunBunny2 is correct. In most cases, Sub-6 5G is no better than the LTE I previously had. The only advantage so far has been from a marketing perspective. Maybe that's a different story on other carriers, but on AT&T there is no real difference at this point. We've all been told how important 5G is, yet in practice it's pretty much the same. mmWave 5G is the only version where people would be able to perceive a difference and as others have mentioned that's pretty much non-existent for most.
Ironically... My Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G gets about 84Mbps on 4G and around 110Mbps on 5G. Considering data caps are counted in only "10's" of Gigabytes here, I don't think the difference in bandwidth is even worth mentioning at this stage considering you can blow your entire cap in just a few minuets even on 4G.
To be fair though... Australia's 4G network easily outclasses most other Nations anyway, same went for our 3G networks, not just in terms of bandwidth but how extensive the networks are in terms of land coverage.
Your data must be very expensive with such high speeds serving such few people across such a wide land area. I don't envy you with my ~$3/mo plan with unlimited dedicated data toward a few commonly used apps and otherwise 1GB included. It's usually enough and excess data is cheap too.
Until I get a phone that has 48 hour battery life the way I use it OR swappable batteries, I won't be happy. Abandoning replaceable batteries and the headphone jack were two of the things that were in the top 5 of my list needed in a phone. The other thing is the size of phones has gotten ridiculously big. I'm an old dude with horrible eyesite too and I still want a flagship performing 4-4.5 inch phone, and if you are going to go bigger, use every bit of extra space to pack it with a battery please.
Well, to be fair, last year brought us some battery phones with monstrous capacity, like the Samsung's 7000mAh M51...of course the price of it being it's monstrous size, but that's another topic.
Swapable batteries kind of exist in form of battery cases, but then again, you cannot escape the question of size.
Nice! I need to research more. I am rarely encouraged when the CPU is listed only as "Octa-Core", but hopefully I will find good news. I also have been using T-Mobile since 2003 and have been very happy. Need to check what bands it supports. The only real caveat is the size. 6.3" is way too big for me. I'm still using my 5.4" LG G5 which fits in my pocket and I can use one handed, and while I can swap batteries, they are hard to get and don't last long. I've just been making it work until I find another that calls my name.
Ahhh, just read the camera kind of sucks and batteries are impossible to find in the USA. Imported from Europe they'll be close to $50. I'm not surprised. The niche products always seem to have expensive accessories.
Why do you keep saying "the sibling Pixel 4a 5G features the same camera setup"? I already pointed out in previous article on the Pixel 5 that the Pixel 5 has TWO back cameras whereas the Pixel 4a has ONE.
Realistically, it never was. I think this was a good move for Google to stop pretending the Pixel was a flagship device and accept its middle tier status. This seems like a more honest approach for the product.
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tkSteveFOX - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
2021 should be getting back to basics and making foldables more durable and affordable.I'm glad most companies are ditching the 5-6 cameras in favour of 2-3 quality sensors + making phones thinner and lighter again.
Not to mention, the cut in price along with extended software support (any QC high end will get 3 major updates)
My Xperia 1 II got Android 11 last week and it's super-refined. From animations and transitions down to the battery care it's what Android 10 should have been 2 years ago really.
pjcamp - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
I don't care about thinner and lighter and I don't know anyone else who does either. I DO care about battery life and so does everyone I know. And if a little more thickness gives me more battery, that's what I want.Sharken03 - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
Thinner doesn't matter agreed, but after using a phone at 150g and not the 200g that is usual for high-end phones, I am not likely to go back to a heavier phone.hnlog - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
I'm using Aquos Zero2 that's extremely lightweight 141g, larger screen, high-end spec, and reasonably thin. I love it except battery hours (still acceptable for me). 5G movement may work bad to make ligher smartphone.flyingpants265 - Thursday, December 31, 2020 - link
That's great for you. Has complaining about it worked in the past 13 years? You're screaming into a vacuum. They'll continue to find other ways to cell phones and do whatever they want, and screw the consumer.KarlKastor - Saturday, January 2, 2021 - link
Dive years ago, I would have agreed. Most phones were 7-8 mm thin and there was a race to have the thinnest.Today we are back at 9mm + 1-2 mm camera bump and we have 5000 mAh batteries.
I don't need better batteries. Just need to get over a day with a good reserve.
But I would like a 8mm maximum and smaller camera bump.
Together with the large dimensions it's getting very heavy as well.
caribbeanblue - Thursday, January 7, 2021 - link
iPhone 11 Pro Max user here, and I would DEFINITELY trade in some battery life for a little bit more ergonomic device. The thing is just too big, too heavy and too thick. I’m glad Apple reduced the battery size and made the phone significantly thinner (although bigger and heavier) with the iPhone 12 Pro Max. I’m kinda regretting not getting an 11 Pro, as the battery life of the 11 Pro Max is overkill for me.Great_Scott - Sunday, January 3, 2021 - link
I couldn't agree more. It's a shame that MMwave and 120Hz are going the extra mile to wreck any battery life gains. Hopefully they'll continue to be settings exposed to the user.zanon - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
Thanks for the overview of the year! Small typo, page 1:>"the new humongous 1/1.33” bests in some flagships"
I assume you meant "beasts"? Though they may indeed be bests too ;)
jospoortvliet - Wednesday, December 30, 2020 - link
A trend i think was overlooked is the rise (return) of plastic instead of glass backs. Good trend if you ask me ;-)nedjinski - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
When you shake it all out and consider actual camera results (that are flagship) and the flagship Android software experience, it's Pixel 4a 5G @ $499 for the win.StormyParis - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
My 3 pet peeves got unadressed though:1- not easy to perform basic maintenance, ie change the battery and screen. Screws are not Sci-Fi tech ! (I blame mostly Apple)
2- Ever longer and narrower screens, as if anything above 16:9 had any use case. Not videos. Not reading. Not maps. Not games. Not Office. Instagram I guess ? That's a lot of us suffering for one measly use case.
3- there are still phones with non-flat screens, no SD slot, no jack, only 1 SIM slot or a shared SIM/SD slot. Especially at the high end: good, this kills any desire I had to move back upmarket.
s.yu - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
You can rightly blame Apple. And if other companies start mandating that parts be flashed a certain code before installation using a tool only available to themselves, you can blame Apple again.willis936 - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
Apple doesn’t tell other vendors what to do. Every vendor is responsible for their own decisions. If they’re all visionless, spineless followers who do what their bean counters tell them to, then they each should be seen as accountable for their decisions.s.yu - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
...So in other words, Apple is the master prophet of bean counters.Kangal - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
Negative Trends I've observed in the industry:- Marketing is Paramount (many companies deciding to expend more focus on marketing, such as buying reviews, making shiny renders, confusing ads, or heaps of buzzwords. Even if it comes at the expense of the phone capability and experience)
- Increased Cost (many price rises are just following iPhone X/Max, and aren't really justified)
- Reduced Serviceablity (curved front and back, using glass, getting heavier, means durability is down. Locking down parts is horrendous)
- Audio compromised (no front-firing stereo loudspeakers, no headphone jack, BT in-ear sets pushed down consumers throat)
- Loss of features (microSD, DualSIM, LED light, IrDa blaster.... they're a niche now)
- Larger and larger sizes (what is deemed "medium" now is about equal to what was deemed "large" only a few years ago. There are no small flagships outside Sony/Apple)
- Battery Life taken back (loss of User Removable Battery for sealed batteries, compromised made to make phones waterproof but most phones aren't and don't have an IP68 rating, capacities took a long time to progress, extra efficiency gains show very little effect in real-world use, new-generation software possible culprit)
- Software still abandoned (Apple is gold standard. Google fluctuates, Samsung's improving, but most phones still get left behind in terms of security, features, etc)
- Cameras are sticking point (one large sensor will beat many small sensors, but that sucks for marketing. Sensor sizes have started to go up finally. And computational photography has matured. However, many mid-range phones are still following trends instead of good photo performance)
....these trends are a fantastic thing for companies, not for consumers, as it means youre more likely to buy, spend more money upfront, forced to buy more accessories, more money on servicing, and need to upgrade sooner.
I think we peaked in 2014-2016 (Samsung Note4, iPhone 6S+, Samsung S7+). The only solace is this year's excellent duo from Sony in the 1.2 and 5.2, which really is a "no compromise" experience. The area they did compromise in was Marketing, and that continues to hurt their profitablity... so this could be a one-off.
s.yu - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
Good points.BedfordTim - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
Well put.techconc - Wednesday, December 30, 2020 - link
People get too wrapped up in the specs, especially in forums like this. Take the camera for example. Yes, bigger sensors are better, but at the end of the day, the total camera system is what gets measured, not just the sensor. The quality of the lenses, the quality of the ISP and the computational photography capabilities, etc. all play a big part in this.For years, many of us have known that things like microSD cards and IrDA blasters were rather useless in reality. The spec counters will fight this until their dying breath, there are good reasons to get rid of these "features".
I do agree with your point about how medium sized phones today are what the big phones were previously. In order to cram in larger batteries, more cameras, etc. vendors have had to go this route. For me, the pendulum is starting to swing the other way. I don't like a big phone in my pocket. I may go for something like the iPhone 12 mini next time.
s.yu - Saturday, January 2, 2021 - link
> the total camera system is what gets measured, not just the sensorI'd like to believe that, but low quality oversharpened crap still dominates. Look at Apple, they still bake aggressive NR and sharpening into their so-called "ProRAW". That goes against both "Pro" and "RAW". Going high on the sensor size and pixel pitch almost certainly guarantees that the image quality goes in the right direction, tricks like "Nonacell" can't be relied on and are only somewhat useful in generating oversharpened crap.
And Google, Pixel 3 was the height of Pixel's image quality on automatic settings, it regressed from there to push for stronger automatic HDR at the expense of resolution.
>like microSD cards and IrDA blasters were rather useless in reality
The point is they're good to have, cost almost nothing to retain, and their removal only benefits the manufacturer. Moreover people who pay more deserve more functions. This should stand within a certain category of products. There are no "good reasons" to remove them in flagships except for profit and that alone. Currently, consumers are basically deprived of the smartphone equivalent of the laptop workstation, the closest would be the LG V series(just discontinued, we'll have to see what follows) and Asus ROGP series.
Revv233 - Saturday, January 2, 2021 - link
Love my "small" sony 5.2First no compromise since galaxy S9.
Wish it had S9 camera though.
iphonebestgamephone - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
The wider aspect ratio has been helpful for games, more space for all the onscreen buttons and ui elements, along with the wider view. Also movies.iphonebestgamephone - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
Oh, it also makes split screen experience better.iphonebestgamephone - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
Its even been useful for some excel docs, now that i remember.eastcoast_pete - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
Andrei, whenever you have a chance, I'd appreciate a reasonably deep dive into the differences in onboard storage tech and the impact on a phone's speed, response in daily use etc. I believe Apple is still the only phone maker that uses NVMe storage, while all Androids seem to use some version of UFS. Why is that, and how much faster is NVMe if used in smartphones (assuming it still is)? Thanks!RSAUser - Saturday, January 2, 2021 - link
UFS 3.0 and iPhone Nvme are about matched with UFS3.0 usually being slightly faster sequentially, and then UFS 3.1 being a good 10 faster on average.The difference really isn't that much though, both are plenty fast.
Do note it's not Nvme on iPhone, it's the mobile version which caps at 1.1GBps.
Cod3rror - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
Larger camera sensors, 5G and 120Hz screens have all been good, meaningful upgrades.For 2021, I would really like for even larger sensors. Can they reach the golden 1" sensor size?
I hope they keep 120Hz screens and not go higher than that. Screen sample rates should increase though; the higher, the better. And flat, go back to FLAT screens!
If the new 5G chips are more battery efficient that'll be great!
Other than that I don't really know what they could bring that would be innovative and compelling people to upgrade. I don't care about under-the-screen front cameras at all personally. I am only interested in bigger camera sensors.
FunBunny2 - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
"5G!! We don't need no stinkin 5G!" You really should have delineated two simple facts:1 - mmWave 5G, the only real 5G, exists essentially nowhere
2 - what is advertised as '5G' is not much more than LTE
That phone vendors are conspiring with carriers to dupe the sheep is bad enough. For you to not call them out for it... isn't that your job?
Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
Calling mmWave real 5G is complete nonsense. Sub-6 is of magnitudes more important to the increase in spectrum and bandwidth, and has significant benefits over LTE.mmWave will always remain a niche due to how it works.
Bp_968 - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
I think most people assume mmWave *is* 5G because they marketed 5G using *big numbers* because it sells. Except mmWave is required for those big numbers. From what ive read the sub6 changes mainly benefit carrying capacity and customer load issues. So while yes, it will improve speed and consistency for people in dense environments, it won't necessarily improve their top end speed and isn't as easily marketable as showing a speed test window and saying "wow! GIGS!!!"Which never made much sense to me anyway. I am a massive abuser of bandwidth on my PC and have GB fiber at home, but on my phone ive never wished I had more bandwidth.
s.yu - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
lmao?Sub-6 increases spectrum by eating into the previous 2G spectrum(which provides a low bandwidth with high penetration), otherwise it uses the nearly the exact same spectrum as LTE, at nearly the exact same bandwidthAndrei Frumusanu - Wednesday, December 30, 2020 - link
No. Most of the world is getting a new large chunk of never used before spectrum in the 3.5GHz range for sub-6. I'm aware the US frequencies are a fragmented shit-show, and probably the root reason why mmWave is marketed more. The rest of the world are getting gigabit speeds on sub-6.s.yu - Saturday, January 2, 2021 - link
Ok, I'm not aware of all the world's bands but it's been tested that on identical bands 5G is generally no faster yet less power efficient than LTE(not to mention new patent royalties). There's no technical barrier to LTE using a wider range of sub-6 bands in the first place, LTE could also reach gigabit speeds with CA. It's only with the most recent mmWave tests(a month or so ago?) that 5G has actually reached speeds unobtainable with LTE. Regarding consumer experience, the world's fastest LTE, SK's, is nearly the same speed as SK's 5G, while being more stable.techconc - Wednesday, December 30, 2020 - link
In theory, I agree with you Andrei. However, in practice, FunBunny2 is correct. In most cases, Sub-6 5G is no better than the LTE I previously had. The only advantage so far has been from a marketing perspective. Maybe that's a different story on other carriers, but on AT&T there is no real difference at this point. We've all been told how important 5G is, yet in practice it's pretty much the same. mmWave 5G is the only version where people would be able to perceive a difference and as others have mentioned that's pretty much non-existent for most.Andrei Frumusanu - Wednesday, December 30, 2020 - link
Again, that's an US issue. The rest of the world is getting large amounts of new spectrum in sub-6 with large speed increases.StevoLincolnite - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
Ironically... My Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G gets about 84Mbps on 4G and around 110Mbps on 5G.Considering data caps are counted in only "10's" of Gigabytes here, I don't think the difference in bandwidth is even worth mentioning at this stage considering you can blow your entire cap in just a few minuets even on 4G.
To be fair though... Australia's 4G network easily outclasses most other Nations anyway, same went for our 3G networks, not just in terms of bandwidth but how extensive the networks are in terms of land coverage.
s.yu - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
Your data must be very expensive with such high speeds serving such few people across such a wide land area. I don't envy you with my ~$3/mo plan with unlimited dedicated data toward a few commonly used apps and otherwise 1GB included. It's usually enough and excess data is cheap too.Ptosio - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
The only trend I care for in 2021: mini versions of flagships.Current phones are already well above "good enough": but what for, if I cannot hold them in my hand?
pandemonium - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link
Big sensor section needs mention of the 1/1.2" in the 808 Pureview. It still takes pretty great photos, even being 8 years old now.And they say Nokia doesn't invent any more...they were ahead of the curve on that one by at least a decade. :P
s.yu - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
Sadly the Nokia responsible for the 808 is not the current Nokia(HMD), with Microsoft in between.jmunjr - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
Until I get a phone that has 48 hour battery life the way I use it OR swappable batteries, I won't be happy. Abandoning replaceable batteries and the headphone jack were two of the things that were in the top 5 of my list needed in a phone. The other thing is the size of phones has gotten ridiculously big. I'm an old dude with horrible eyesite too and I still want a flagship performing 4-4.5 inch phone, and if you are going to go bigger, use every bit of extra space to pack it with a battery please.mkaibear - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
iPhone se and audiomod battery case?Ok, 4.7" screen but gives you a headphone jack and 2 day battery life.
s.yu - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
Wow, ugly but practical. The functions are just what I'm looking for, just so ugly...and only available for a few Apple models.Ptosio - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
Well, to be fair, last year brought us some battery phones with monstrous capacity, like the Samsung's 7000mAh M51...of course the price of it being it's monstrous size, but that's another topic.Swapable batteries kind of exist in form of battery cases, but then again, you cannot escape the question of size.
FenCPH - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
'Swappable batteries Kind of exist 'In reality this exists in
Xcover pro.
Great phone I been using all year.
FenCPH - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
Xcover projmunjr - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
Nice! I need to research more. I am rarely encouraged when the CPU is listed only as "Octa-Core", but hopefully I will find good news. I also have been using T-Mobile since 2003 and have been very happy. Need to check what bands it supports. The only real caveat is the size. 6.3" is way too big for me. I'm still using my 5.4" LG G5 which fits in my pocket and I can use one handed, and while I can swap batteries, they are hard to get and don't last long. I've just been making it work until I find another that calls my name.jmunjr - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
Ahhh, just read the camera kind of sucks and batteries are impossible to find in the USA. Imported from Europe they'll be close to $50. I'm not surprised. The niche products always seem to have expensive accessories.BedfordTim - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
A P30Pro will get you the battery life. 4 days in power save mode, but it is large. It is one of the best phones I have had.Samuel Vimes - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
Why do you keep saying "the sibling Pixel 4a 5G features the same camera setup"?I already pointed out in previous article on the Pixel 5 that the Pixel 5 has TWO back cameras whereas the Pixel 4a has ONE.
Samuel Vimes - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
Never mind, I mixed up Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 4a non-5G, my bad.Guru0027 - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
mediatek positioning itself above Qualcomm is the biggest news of 2020iphonebestgamephone - Tuesday, December 29, 2020 - link
True, mediatek monopoly coming.zeeBomb - Wednesday, December 30, 2020 - link
Andrei MVP for saving the smartphone reviews on anandtech. Been a fan ever since the Exynos 7420 :)OliverFFF - Wednesday, December 30, 2020 - link
Good review of the year. It's so convenient to have all info in one placetechconc - Wednesday, December 30, 2020 - link
"The Pixel is no longer a Flagship"Realistically, it never was. I think this was a good move for Google to stop pretending the Pixel was a flagship device and accept its middle tier status. This seems like a more honest approach for the product.