If you’re anything like me (or anybody that
works at PhoneDog for that matter), you’re always on the hunt for new
rumors, leaks, and deets of new devices and gadgets. We’re talking
camera, processor, memory, RAM, design, size; after all, these are the
components that make the phone’s experience, right? Right! So of course
we’re going to get jazzed about whatever new features we can find out
about.
With that being said, lately I’ve noticed that
some of the things that people get really “jazzed” about are really...
pointless? Mundane, maybe? Or maybe they’re just boring and repetitive.
It always seems like the same ol’ things are always trying to one-up
each other with each new release. I’ve mentioned before that I thought
that innovation had taken a significantly slower pace
in the industry since the earlier smartphone days where manufacturers
were “experimenting” with the best fitting form, but still. Some of
these features that are making headlines for smartphones are really not
all that headline-worthy at all (in my humble opinion).
With that being said, here are my top pointless features that we tend to get excited about:
Thinness
I get it. Being fit and thin is the way to be -
when it comes to people and getting healthy. Smartphones? Not so much.
Personally, I don’t see the lure in having the thinnest smartphone. It
will make the phone feel very light (and in turn, possibly “cheap”);
being as thin (or nearly as thin) as paper makes it more susceptible to
falling through cracks, nooks, crannies, and other hard-to-reach places;
and let’s not forget that being so thin, at least with the materials we
currently have available to us, makes these important little gadgets
very easy to break! No more accidentally sitting on your phone when it’s
in your back pocket, or you could be looking at some bad news bears.
Does it look nice? Yes, I suppose it does. But is it worth making the phone itself more vulnerable? Not in my opinion.
Screen Resolution
Sometimes I feel like screen resolution has
really gone overboard on just how finely tuned they are these days.
After a certain point, nobody can tell how sharp the images are, except
for maybe the occasional superhero with super vision. But for the
average consumer? It’s a bunch of pretty numbers on a page that doesn’t
do a whole lot for us. I don’t care if we have 4698348x8157732
resolution one day; my eyes haven’t complained about resolution since
the introduction of Apple’s Retina Display. It’s cool that we can make
it happen, but it’s not exactly necessary on smartphone screens.
Removable Battery
I feel like removable batteries deserve a spot
on the list, but not because it’s ridiculous that we get excited about
it - it’s ridiculous that we have to get excited about it. The
non-removable battery movement is at fault of the manufacturer. Anybody
who has ever dealt with any electronic gadget that uses batteries - ever
- knows that there have been several occasions where simply taking the
battery out and putting it back in has fixed whatever mysterious issue
the gadget was having in the first place. I’ve even had this magical
trick work recently on a Wii U gamepad that was acting unruly.
It’s less of a hassle to get a replacement
battery, should you need one, if you can just purchase the replacement
battery yourself and do the “dirty work” on your own time.
There’s no need for anybody to have to send their phone in to a company
or make a special appointment to have the battery checked out when it’s
entirely possible for us plebs who don’t work for the company to slip
off a back cover and replace the battery - you know, without having to
whip out our skills from whooping your older brother’s butt in Operation when you were kids.
Honorable Mention: Biggest phone
I think a lot of you might have seen this
coming, but I do feel that, to an extent, the “biggest phone”
competition has really hit its limit. If you go any bigger at this
point, you are making tablets with phone capabilities, not smartphones.
However, I do know that a lot of people are super excited about huge
smartphones, so I decided to make this an honorable mention because it
seems like a personal vendetta rather than a true annoyance amongst the
good people of the mobile industry.
These are just some of the pointless features
that stick out in my head when they start to make headlines, but I’m
sure you readers have more that you feel are pointless as well! So,
readers, when it comes to “pointless” features that often get played up,
which ones stick out the most to you?
Images via Seattle Times, Softpedia
0 comments:
Post a Comment