With recent rumours suggesting that the new Samsung Galaxy S4 may contain ‘eye scroll’ technology, it got me questioning whether smartphones are simply too smart? Do we really get the full use out of our phones? Plus, are all these features worth the loss of battery life?
Personally, I hardly use any of the features on offer on my 8X – I have my social media apps, use the music player, email and messaging apps, but I know I’ve hardly touched the surface with what I can do with the phone: I only discovered Wallet the other day!
I will admit that I use my Nexus 7 for a lot more: I work from it and use it a lot more for apps and editing, so I feel like I get slightly more use out of that, but still I know I could do a lot more with it and my tech in general – I don’t even have my 8X hooked up to my Xbox account.
I’m sure I’m not alone in this, so I posed the question to Twitter and had some great replies with most people feeling the same way. Even Rachid, who I like to think of as an Android Guru, was sure there’s more he could do with his phone:
@lauralouise90 They aren’t smart, they allow us to be smart ;P I get a hell of a lot out of mine….
— Rachid (@le3ky) March 6, 2013
@lauralouise90 …but I reckon I’m still barely touching the boundary
— Rachid (@le3ky) March 6, 2013
So if even the smartest of users feel they aren’t even touching the boundary with features on phones, do we need more fancy features that either don’t get used or eat up all our battery life?
As Rachid said, phones allow us to be smart; however the problem with having such a smart phone is that the battery life drains super fast. You’re lucky to get a full day with most smartphones; half a day is a bonus if you frequently use them – therefore why can’t the battery life of phones match their brains?
I’d happily give up some of the features on my 8X in exchange for a better battery; after all the main reason for having a phone is to communicate with people – all the added extras are just a bonus.
So here’s my message to the phone giants: Focus less on the fancy faddy features and increase the battery life!
Completely agree. Without a doubt tech has improved but battery tech hasn’t. The next company to bring out a phone with guaranteed excellent battery life for heavy users could be onto a winner!
Bloomin’ right, more battery life please. Just had to buy an extended battery for my Daughters SGS2, it wasn’t lasting more than 10 hours, she is a heavy user though. My Xperia Ray isn’t too bad, could be better though, I use it for texting, the odd voice call, checking twitter, checking train times for my commute and it’ll be getting close to flat before I get home if I didn’t charge it at work. The wifes iPhone 4s will last a day with about the same useage as my phone, you add listening to music and surfing the web and it’ll need charging in the middle of the day. I am all for adding features, the obsession with making phones as slim as possible is that cause. Make em 2-3mm thicker and I’ll bet battery life would be increased by at least 30%.
I also agree. I would much rather have a bit chunky phone but be able to use it all day.I am hoping Google’s Xphone has one of Motorola’s megga batteries in it
Galaxy note 2 is perfect for this.
CPU’s and Displays are getting more battery efficient at fast rates, so you probably think that giving up on some software features will save you lots of battery, right? LoL