iPhone 5s

[GWestphal]

Screen will likely remain unchanged for 2-3 years. Incell, retina, in the 4" version.

Processor may see a boost to a quad core A6X.

Boost in number of GPU cores to 4.

NFC perhaps

2GB RAM maybe

Increase in size maybe 32GB for lowest size.

Better cameras, fix light leak purple blob artifacts.

iOS overhaul, hopefully.

Biometric security, finger print scanner

Liquid metal in more places

I feel like smartphones have hit a plateau where they can do almost every thing we've imagined they can do. We need some new breakthrough, because at this point it is just bumps to performance. We need something dramatic in terms of software or hardware.

 

[boomhower]

Really? We need this thread already? Since they are going to recycle the hardware for the most part they have better do that long overdue OS overhaul. I would like to see fingerprint scanner implemented with Apple level reliability. Couldn't care less about NFC. Don't see the purple getting any better unless they go a completely different dirrection on the camera. No liquid metal until the 6. 32GB should be the base but Apple is to greedy, they keep that extra $5 on base phone and a whole lot more people spend the extra hundred to go to 32GB than would to go from 32->64. RAM will stay the same, they are always tight on ram and don't see it getting bumped already.

 

[GWestphal]

What is interesting is the the microkernel design of iOS can cope with so much less memory than that of Android. I don't really understand how that works, since it should require more to deal with the penalty for inter-process communication.

You're probably right though, 1 GB for 5s unless Sammy's are all supporting 3 or 4 GB by that time. Then we might see 2GB.

I would be interesting if we started seeing memristor tech and the merger of RAM and NAND into one physical hardware object.

Offline siri would be pretty sweet. offline maps.

 

[JAG87]

I feel like smartphones have hit a plateau.

The energizer bunny disagrees with you.

 

[Kaido]

I think they'll improve the storage speed (the 5 is the same slow speed for saving edited pictures in photo applications) and maybe boost it up to 128-gigs. And possibly go with a widescreen camera to watch the wider iPhone screen.

 

[GWestphal]

@Kaido,

Have any Droids started using faster than single channel NAND? As far as I know all smartphones use 1 or at most 2 chips, so ~30-60MB max throughput, right? (maybe more I can't recall single channel speeds off the top of my head)

 

[GWestphal]

Once we hit >4GB RAM on cell phones they are going to have to go 64-bit CPUs, no?

 

[Kaido]

@Kaido,

Have any Droids started using faster than single channel NAND? As far as I know all smartphones use 1 or at most 2 chips, so ~30-60MB max throughput, right? (maybe more I can't recall single channel speeds off the top of my head)

I don't know, but I did see an article that Samsung is starting to produce 128gb chips for mobile devices:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/18/samsung-memory-storage/

That's probably my biggest complaint right now...saving is sloooooow. And as a result, Lightning is currently USB 2.0 and you're still stuck exporting to your computer at the same slow speed (takes an hour+ sometimes for all my 1080p video & 8-megapixel stills from my 4S, also USB 2.0).

 

[GWestphal]

You and your 1080p, I still rock a 3gs! The problem is that it requires multiple chips to make anything more than USB2.0 speeds and unless the PCB increases in size significantly I don't see where an additional chip can fit. I personally wouldn't care if it was thicker and heavier if it could do 200MB/s.

Looks like Micron/Elpida's Wide IO and 3D chip stacking could come into play. That might be able to get multiple channels into a single package to really move some bits around. Combining that with Sammy's eMMC NAND would be epic at 140 MB/s/channel. I could envision ~500MB/s read/writes that would be 10x faster than current and able to utilize USB3.0.

Being a PCB noob, all the non BGA chip space on the iPhone 5 PCB or really any PCB is filled with little resistors and other passive components, why aren't those on chip or can chips only have transistors?

 

[dagamer34]

Screen will likely remain unchanged for 2-3 years. Incell, retina, in the 4" version.

Processor may see a boost to a quad core A6X.

Boost in number of GPU cores to 4.

NFC perhaps

2GB RAM maybe

Increase in size maybe 32GB for lowest size.

Better cameras, fix light leak purple blob artifacts.

iOS overhaul, hopefully.

Biometric security, finger print scanner

Liquid metal in more places

I feel like smartphones have hit a plateau where they can do almost every thing we've imagined they can do. We need some new breakthrough, because at this point it is just bumps to performance. We need something dramatic in terms of software or hardware.

CPU: Either stick with current clocks, bump them up a bit, or switch to A15/A7 this year, with a further refined custom core the year after that.
GPU: PowerVR 6 series (core configuration unknown, but not really important).
RAM: 2GB RAM is possible, just depends on whatever the iPad 4 has.
NFC: I don't see this happening until 2014. If Apple wanted NFC, they wouldn't have designed the case with the back made out of metal, that much is obvious.
Camera: OIS if possible in such a small package, otherwise small minor improvements. (Note, the purple glare is the reason why dSLR lenses have lens hoods. Just avoid shooting that way).
Design: maintained for another year, small improvements the year after.
iOS: Either it significantly gets better next year, or I wonder what the hell Scott Forstall is paid to do.

I suppose biometrics could be used to make sure credit card data in the secure element in NFC is rather locked down, but we are getting into the wishful thinking stage at that point.

 

[RampantAndroid]

I think they'll improve the storage speed (the 5 is the same slow speed for saving edited pictures in photo applications) and maybe boost it up to 128-gigs. And possibly go with a widescreen camera to watch the wider iPhone screen.

You do realize that wide angle cameras have a bit of distortion on the edges? Believe me, you don't want one on your phone. You can correct the photo reasonably well, but that's processing needed which means slower image saves.

 

[Aikouka]

Why are you ignoring the iPad? I have a feeling that the next iPad will probably see the next upgrade. Well, let me rephrase that. It will most likely have the same CPU as the A6 (possibly clocked up a little bit), but a better GPU. At worst, they will create an A6X with 6 GPUs. Similar to the change from the A5 and A5X, which saw a change from 2 GPUs to 4 GPUs.