From 256GB of base storage to more natural-looking photos, there are loads of items on our 2024 smartphone wishlist.
2023 was a pretty good year for smartphones. There was no shortage of quality Android phones on offer, from Google and Samsung to OnePlus and Xiaomi. And it also seemed like a big year for non-Samsung foldable phones too.
Now that 2023 is pretty much in the books, I’ve got a lot of items on my 2024 smartphone wishlist. So join me as I detail what I’d like to see from phones next year.Sustained performance over peak numbers
Qualcomm and MediaTek’s newly-announced flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Dimensity 9300 processors are expected to power plenty of high-end phones in 2024. And both of these chipsets are touting big performance and efficiency gains on paper. That’s all well and good, but I really want smartphone makers to use these new chips to improve sustained performance.
In our GPU stress tests, we found that several Android phones with 2023’s best chipsets saw major performance drops. These tests suggested that tasks like long gaming sessions would be a major challenge for consistent performance and heat dissipation. There were exceptions, like the Xiaomi 13 Pro, which had conservative peak numbers but emphasized sustained performance.
So we hope more manufacturers follow this path of chasing long-term performance rather than peak figures. After all, who cares if an Android phone has Apple-beating performance if this horsepower is only available for two minutes before considerably dropping?More natural-looking photos
Many smartphone manufacturers have delivered oversaturated, over-sharpened photos for years now, as they leaned on software to cope with tiny camera sensors. But the best camera phones on the market now pack large sensors and loads of processing power.
Some brands now offer a natural color option for more realistic hues, with Google, Sony, and Xiaomi arguably leading the way in this regard. I’d really like to see more companies offering photos with less sharpening and more natural colors too. Better yet, offer two color profiles that the user can choose on the fly. That way everyone can be happy with the way their photos turn out.Phones that charge in less than an hour
I switched from the HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro to the Pixel 7 Pro as my personal phone last year, and the most excruciating change has been the Pixel’s ridiculously long charging times.
