With smartphones being an essential part of our daily lives, manufacturers are constantly competing to win new customers to their brand with standout designs, features and capabilities. To help cut through all the tech terminology and complicated jargon, we’ve put together the top new features to look out for to help make the decision about your next new smartphone much easier.

Design

One thing that easily differentiates one device from another is design. Smartphone manufacturers know how personal a device can be and that it will be something customers have on-hand 24 hours a day. Would you prefer a device that's thin and light and easy to fit in your pocket or are you after a device that’s more rugged and can handle day-to-day wear and tear?

Colour is also important for customers and there are usually several choices for each device. The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE, for instance, has four colours to choose from including graphite, white, olive, and lavender. You could be using your next smartphone for years, so it's important for you to be happy with the look, design and colour.

Screen Size and Resolution

One of the most recent trends in smartphone designs is increasing the screen size for better viewing of apps and videos.

The most obvious feature of a smartphone is its screen, and the most recent industry trend is offering larger display sizes. We use our smartphones in so many ways, whether it’s for using apps, creating or consuming content, accessing information and communicating, so it’s important to have enough room to do all of that comfortably while on the go.

The quality of screens has also improved to full high definition and beyond, so the viewing experience has become first-class. One of the latest features to look for is adaptive refresh rate, which can examine what you’re doing on the device and adjust the refresh rate – how many times per second the display can draw a new image – to match. That means all your videos and games will look crisp and smooth. 

Larger screens also make it easier to multitask and help us enjoy our content even more. This demand has even spurred brand new technology such as folding displays, as seen with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, which has a regular 6.2-inch screen on the front but opens to reveal a large 7.6-inch display. With that, you can run several apps at once or enjoy your content on a grander scale.

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Camera

Impressive camera features like digital zoom and 4K video are becoming increasingly popular in newer smartphone models.

A phone’s camera is probably the feature that sells the device. Customers don't buy smartphones because they make great phone calls; they buy them because they take great photos and videos. The camera system is the tentpole feature of the smartphone and one of the most attractive attributes for customers. 

The good news? Camera quality is constantly improving. And it’s not just the sheer number of megapixels that provides better images and videos, but other features like optical and digital zoom and various modes for capturing stunning portraits or shooting 4K video. Some smartphone cameras also offer time-lapse and slow-motion so users can get even more creative with their content. 

The Google Pixel 6 smartphone has a triple camera system with an impressive 50-megapixel main camera and can shoot 4K video at up to 60 frames per second. It also has a feature called Magic Eraser, which can easily remove unwanted objects (or people!) from your images.

Performance

Essentially, smartphones are small computers that can fit in our pockets. They use similar processors to offer the slick and smooth performance customers are looking for and these processors can range from dual-core and quad-core all the way up to octa-core – to put it simply, the more cores the better. The good processors can not only provide fast and snappy performance when using and switching between apps, but also create a power efficiency so your battery lasts longer as well.

Included Apps and User Interface

A sleek and simple user interface is the preference of choice for users to navigate their devices.

Each smartphone, no matter what operating system (iOS or Android), has a user interface – a layer of software that allows users to navigate the device. And with this user interface are several included apps, including a web browser, photo gallery, clock, camera app and much more. The best user interface is one that offers the cleanest, simplest operation and navigation (having lots of handy apps included is also a bonus).

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5G Network

The 5G network is increasing its footprint week after week. Having a 5G device means a customer has access to these speedier networks to stream and download content faster. The other advantage of 5G is greater capacity, so more users can access a single 5G cell tower without it dropping out (which would likely happen if a lot of people access the same 4G tower). The best example of this can be seen at a sporting event in a large crowd. 4G users would find it hard to send a text message or access data but the 5G network offers a lot more bandwidth and capacity. Both the Google Pixel 6 and the Samsung Galaxy S21 offer 5G connectivity.

Memory and Storage

Usually, a smartphone with more internal memory costs more. Having more internal memory means you can store more pictures, videos, apps and other files without the need to access them from the cloud. Many smartphones also have a memory card slot that allows users to expand the device’s capacity with a Micro SD card. That gives you more room for storage and an easy way to transfer data from one phone to another if you need to switch devices, or when it’s time to upgrade.

Security

Smartphone features such as basic fingerprint sensors or facial recognition are essential for security.

Our smartphones contain a lot of sensitive information such as our digital wallets and banking apps, so it’s crucial to have strong security. At the very least, most smartphones have a fingerprint sensor so they can be unlocked in a second with a single press of a finger. Others also offer face unlock – facial recognition technology – so users can unlock their device just by looking at it.

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