Akugami, as far as *not* including all that stuff, why not? I can understand not on every phone, but the whole thing with *smartphones* is that they are more or less little PCs in your pocket. Some people would probably prefer to not have to also carry a laptop when they have a device that could accomplish everything they need with just a couple extra ports.
Well. It's not that I'm saying don't have extra connectivity. It's just that I feel the space taken up by extra jacks could be better put to use by including a larger battery. It's a portable device and battery life is in many ways king. Space is at a premium on such a small device so a multi-function connector port makes more sense IMHO. These ports also add costs to the base device when it may not be used all of the time or not used at all by many people.
A high speed connector that can be used to replicate different jacks or connectors is my personal preference. You can configure the device with whatever you need, when you need it. Of course, this adds another accessory to carry which is a negative but you likely won't need to carry it all of the time.
An example is maybe an HDMI port so you can use the smart phone as a media playback device. Well, how often are you going to use that HDMI port? Some people won't even use it at all. Would you like all smart phones to have a FM transmitter even though it won't be used often or at all by most people? Again, people can buy and carry the accessories they need/want while the rest are free to not have to pay the costs of said accessories.
It'd be cool to have a smart phone that is as powerful as a i7 CPU but not if you can barely get an hour out of it. I just feel that today's high end smart phones are actually quite powerful and there remains a lot of untapped potential. Keep in mind I'm all for a more powerful smart phone, just not at the expense of battery life.
And as far as USB goes...hell, most of them already use the micro-USB connector for charge/sync. They can use that one for other devices anyways I would think.
I think micro-USB was based on USB 2.0 (of course I could be wrong) and there's nothing wrong with USB 2.0 but I'm not sure it's good enough for media playback over something like HDMI. Plus you'd still need USB to HDMI adapter.
But I think there might have been some confusion over my USB comment. I have nothing against using something like USB, just that if we have a USB port, we don't need another port like the iPod/iPhone port. I'd rather have one high speed connector, whatever it may be.
As far as features...companies should be bludgeoned if they don't include autofocus cameras with a flash. Grrr...
Agreed. Some features are really puzzling from an omissions standpoint. The flash LED's on some phones are actually quite bright and make decent emergency flashlights. I've actually used an older phone I used to have in dim light at times. For example, when troubleshooting a computer, some corners are pretty dark in a computer case.
I'll make my list fully knowing that some/all will be oppossed by some here:
1. Larger and higher resolution display. We are now up to 4.3 inches and within a couple years I think we'll see some pushing beyond 5 inches. There are quite a few here and of course the Apple fanboys are stuck at the "perfect" size of 3.6 inches but I think there will be a market for guys like me that will prefer something in the 5 inch range but with a resolution of, 1920x1080.
I dunno about larger...higher resolution definitely but 1920x1080 on a screen size of 5" or less might be overkill. I'd also say that at a certain point, screen sizes are going to become too large for a phone's footprint. IMHO, 5 inches is too big for a phone. I took a ruler out. Measured it against a couple of phones and it'll be too long, or too wide. I think 4.3 is about the maximum without the phone becoming too bulky in one form or another.
And I wouldn't just go throwing the fanboy comment around. You're just starting a road to negativity when there was none before. There are plenty of what I call "anti-fanboys" around that have a seemingly irrational hatred of certain companies. I'm not trying to call you out, just noting that lately it seems a lot of anti-(pick your company) comments when the conversations are relatively neutral have been creeping into the forums.
2. A package size that minimizes the bezel size to keep the physical size of the phone with a 5 inch screen to a minimum. However, I'd argue for a thicker and heavier package so that a nice big battery can be installed. A battery capable of running the phone full out all day and two or more days under normal use. Battery must be user replaceable and I'd look at a stock battery in the 3500mAHr range or over 12WHrs.
Pretty much every smart phone with a large screen that I've looked at has a very small bezel. Not sure how much smaller you can safely get as far as bezel size goes without a decrease in durability.
At this point, and with current battery tech and CPU, it's either gonna be power or battery life. Yes, you can add a huge battery but at a certain point it gets too bulky. I've seen some people with the iPhone battery pack/skins but they are bulky as hell and not something I want on my phone. It's a portable device that I can stick in my pocket. Not a laptop. I think better battery life is going to have to come from more efficient hardware rather than battery size itself. Battery tech seems to move at a glacial pace compared to other tech so there's not much hope from that department.
RAM sucks battery power and having more than you reasonably need in a portable device doesn't seem like a good idea because you're wasting power on something you don't need.
To be honest, with the current state of today's hardware, 512MB RAM seems adequate and 1GB is the most I can envision 99% of users currently needing. What you want to do is match all parts of the hardware and software. Considering some of the stuff that people use smart phones for today, I don't think 2GB RAM is needed yet. And I'm someone who has 8GB of RAM in his main gaming rig.
4. 16GB-64GB or built in storage AND an SD card slot. No, not a micro SD card slot but a full SD card slot. This phone is big enough to handle a full sized SD card. I'd also make sure the SD card was SDXC compliant to be able to handle upwards of 2TB SD cards.
I have no problem with an extra memory card slot. But it definitely should be micro. It's a portable device. Space is at a premium. What space is available should be devoted to a larger battery. Having a full sized SD card only takes up extra space that can be put to better use by increasing the battery size.
6. A camera of about 8MP with true HD video (1920x1080P). Another camera facing the user for video conferencing -- does not need to be more than 720P. It needs a true zoom lens of about 5X range and it must do macro well. Must also be able to focus and zoom while shooting video.
I think this one is going to remain a dream for quite a bit longer unless optical technologies changes substantially. You're going to hit a huge wall with the quality of the pictures taken by the lenses of cameras in a phone. The limited space available in a smart phone also limits the size of the camera's sensor further limiting quality. There is only so much you can reasonably do with consumer tech at this point and in the near future.
Increasing the resolution will not increase the quality. Don't fall for the megapixel myth. With the larger lens and sensors, a pocket camera that can take a 5 megapixel image will be better than an 8 or 10 megapixel image from a phone's camera. There are already a few phones with 8 megapixel cameras. However, the quality isn't much better than a top quality 5 megapixel camera phone.
7. Built in wireless charging loop/coil.
Definitely wholeheartedly agree with this.
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