Smartphones are boring! There, I’ve said it. For the past five years, no – scratch that, for the past ten years smartphones have evolved very little, both design-wise and feature-wise. Yeah, everything got better, that’s true but the core function of the phone remains pretty much the same. One of my colleagues said the other day that the design of the smartphone is so perfect that it doesn’t need to change. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. I really doubt it, given the rate of technological progress we’re currently at.
But let’s not lament the stale design and boring features of the modern phone. There are some crazy phone concepts some of which are already patented and others even dwell in labs, waiting patiently to conquer the world. Let’s check them out instead and see what the future of the phone looks like. Sure, it’s massive speculation and there’s no guarantee that any of these cool designs will see the light of day but the science-fiction fan in me wants to speculate and dream. Leaving the overly dramatic introduction behind us, let’s dive in.
Yeah, I feel that we need to address this one first. Flexible screens were meant to fuel the next phone revolution and give us crazy phones with crazy shapes and features. What flexible screens actually did was produce overpriced and underperforming hinge phones with the same boring rectangular design. Don’t get me wrong, I still think that flexible screens will play a major role in the phones of the future, just not in their current iteration.
Let’s start small. This design is actually in production, although there’s much to be desired from its execution. The ZTE Nubia alpha made its debut in 2019 with a 4-inch flexible screen that allowed users to seamlessly transform the gadget from a wristband to a very strange elongated phone (sort of). It’s a cool concept and kudos to ZTE for having the balls to put it in production but it wasn’t very good, to be honest.
There are other similar concepts all over the web and of course the patent offices. If done right, I really think that this could offer an alternative to the conventional smartphone. A hybrid between a smartwatch and a smartphone, this design bears some potential. Imagine wearing your phone on the wrist instead of in your pocket – all notifications will be right in front of you, all the features will be there (unlike regular smartwatches), and when somebody calls, you’ll be able to just unwrap the thing and use it next to your ear like a normal smartphone.
Probability to see this design in reality: Moderate to High
Probability to see this design in reality: Low
Probability to see this design in reality: Moderate
Furthermore, this design is not only plausible but it actually made it into a working prototype in 2018. The MagicScroll phone is a brainchild of Researchers from Queen’s University in Ontario. This prototype device is similar to a parchment scroll and features a 7.5-inch, flexible, 2160 x 1920, OLED display, and a 3D-printed cylindrical body. As a matter of fact, LG has already patented a similar design and trademarked it, so the probability rating for this one is high.
Probability to see this design in reality: Moderate to High
When I was a kid I thought that by the year 2000 we would all have a cyborg-like vision. You know, like the Terminator from the classic movie franchise. Wouldn’t it be cool to ditch the phone altogether and replace it with a smart contact lens? Sounds like science fiction, right? Well, not entirely because researchers at Ghent University in Belgium have demonstrated a working prototype of a smart lens display back in 2014!
Meanwhile, Google managed to put a camera in a contact lens the same year, when trying to find an evolution path for its Google Glass (now pretty much scraped) project. Actually, bionic contact lenses have been in development since the 90s, and various labs have come with prototypes and even tested them on rabbits (the bunnies are okay, don’t worry). So, this technology is not as far-fetched as it might seem. Will we see smart lenses that are able to replace our smartphones in the next 5 years or so? Probably not. But, let’s say, ten years from now, who knows?
Probability to see this design in reality: Low to Moderate
Source: Phonearena
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