"Make me like an Apple." Worst Trends Mobile World Congress 2018

The other day there was an exhibition MWC-2018, where smartphone manufacturers showed their latest news. It was a lot of cool. Nokia shook old times with the phone from the Matrix, AI in smartphones reached a new level and learned to drive cars, and Google for the first time united companies under the wing of Android One to better deal with vulnerabilities of the Meltdown and Specter levels. We already wrote about these and other positive signals in the previous article. But not everything was so rosy and caramel in the world of smartphones. Some things shown by companies do not add optimism about the future. Something in general is beyond good and evil.

1. "Leaving" cameras

Remember how you once had to pull the antenna out of the phone to call? I stuck it out, talked, then thrust it back ... So, now some manufacturers want to do the same, only with a camera! Wanted to take a selfie? Be kind, work! And people are happy about it - hurray, the screen now occupies not 88%, but 92% of the frontal panel!

One of the most prominent smartphones of this type was the Vivo Apex concept. Two months ago, the same Chinese company showed the world's first smartphone with a fingerprint scanner built right into the screen, ahead of Samsung and Apple. Now she offers a device with a sliding self-camera. If you need to make a beautiful self-portrait, it pops out from above, a la periscope, and takes a picture. As a result, there is no need to allocate space under the camera in front, and the screen can be made even more. Other companies have shown similar smartphones with “periscopes”, it is expected that they will come out this year.

The lens, of course, is so protected from debris in your pockets. Keys and coins will not scratch it (a scratch on the lens is worse than a scratch on the screen). But on the sliding module you have to spend valuable space in the smartphone, plus there is a mass of unnecessary elements, threatening to break. One day the camera will refuse to leave or drive in. But for the sake of a couple of extra pixels on the screen, some users, according to manufacturers, are willing to suffer.

And with this idea not only designers of smartphones are played. Crawling out the camera will be in the second Huawei laptop - MateBook X Pro. There it will be located below, on the keyboard, between the F6 and F7 keys. Alex Exler writes about his experience with the MateBook X Pro at the MWC 2018 conference:

I checked how it will look like during video calls - and it looks like I thought. The view is very unfortunate, obviously I don’t want to use such a camera. I understand that they wanted to make the display frame as small as possible and the display as thin as possible, but personally I would prefer a normal thickness and a regular frame, but for the camera to be on top, rather than look at my nose from the keyboard.

2. Mini-Jack is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

Will the trend with the cameras continue - time will tell. But what is definitely not to stop - is the disappearance of ports for headphones. Soon they will not be at all in new smartphones. The technology is considered obsolete, it is over 50 years old, and most companies, following the example of Apple, leave only the USB connector as output. If you do not have wireless headphones - your problems. Buy AirPods, friends.

Apple, of course, was not the first company to invent a mini-jack. The Oppo Finder smartphone, for example, was released in June of 2012 - complete with micro-USB-powered headphones. But it was Apple that brought the trend to the mainstream. Oppo had to stop producing its smartphone a year later due to weak sales. And Apple can withstand criticism and insist. She will not return to the mini-jack. Well, since it is now possible - the rest of the companies are there too. This year, Nokia, Sony and dozens of others showed their new flagships without a mini-jack at the exhibition. They hope that the improved Bluetooth audio codecs and the distribution of wireless headphones will help replace the simple and convenient old 3.5-mm port.

The reasons for switching are actually obvious. No need to buy a component - savings. No need to drill a hole in the case - also beneficial. And most importantly - in the smartphone is released a place that can be filled with something else useful. An analog mini jack occupies as much volume as a camera module. This is one of the largest components in the modern device. We live during the miniaturization, all manufacturers and users together decided that the less - the better. Each component, preferably, should have several functions. The headphone port serves only one task, so we started on it first. In the future, it is likely that micro-USB will also be removed: both charging and data transfer will be wireless.

By removing the mini-jack, you can immediately cut a millimeter of body thickness, and this gives you a reason to shout that you have “the thinnest smartphone!”. Plus, without an extra hole, the device becomes more waterproof. That is, as you can see, in principle, nothing bad in that some devices go out without a mini-jack, of course, no. No one forces us to buy them, and they have their advantages. But the problem is that soon only such devices will remain on the market. Almost all manufacturers on the MWC-2018 have moved together in this direction. Experts predict that in two years the headphone port will remain only for niche or most budget devices.

There are already so few options for those who like to listen on the wire among new devices. And by 2020, if your smartphone breaks, wired headphones will have to throw with him for the company.

So far, only Samsung and LG have not succumbed to the trend of large companies. Their latest flagships still have a mini jack.

3. Copy the recess on the iPhone X

The most shameful trend that simply kills faith in humanity. How many smartphones can you recall with a cutout on top of the screen until September 2017? About zero, right? And now - they are everywhere, there are dozens of them! More than half of the flagships, without batting an eye, dressed in a new design. And this is despite the fact that at the time of release almost everyone - both experts and users - agreed that this “clipping” is the worst design element of the new Apple smartphone. But who cares? "Yablochniki" did, it means, we should rather be!

Representatives of the Chinese Oukitel in personal conversations boasted to visitors of the exhibition that they were the first to copy the design of the new iPhone. Their smartphone is called U18, and costs only $ 160. What is characteristic of all devices of this company, its battery is much larger than that of the original.

Another Chinese firm went further, and made a 2-in-1. The Leagoo S9 has Apple's top clipping, and the model name comes from the new Samsung smartphone. The company, like Oukitel, also states that it has the first device with a recess on Android.

Do you want "like Apple" not only externally, but inside? Please: Blackview A30, also from China. So far not in production, only its prototype was shown at the exhibition. But by the middle of the year, it will be possible to take a device that cannot be distinguished from the iPhone X from a distance (a full plastic case will come out near it). Plus with iOS reskin, "strained" on Android. Price promise generally ridiculous, $ 40.

Hangar18 from Croatia showed Noa N10. Like the iPhone X, with the same “eyebrow” and even with a dual camera at the back. True, their smartphone has a 6.2-inch display instead of the 5.8-inch, and inside it is the eighth Android. The device will cost 300 euros, that is almost three times cheaper than the original.

The rest of this year, unfortunately, went quite respected Asus. So what happened inside them is unclear. Maybe they are tired of releasing normal devices, and get a relatively modest profit. Judging by the statements , in 2017 they had $ 4– $ 10 million per quarter - two to three times less than in all previous years. And, apparently, someone at the top decided that it was time to change something. And look, see how Apple has arrived! Maybe she knows something!

And now the whole Asus strategy for the MWC-2018 is built around the fact that "we now have like Apple." It is their smartphone is on the title picture. They just took their (quite good) device - and nailed an iPhone X recess to it. That's the whole innovation. If you put two smartphones nearby, an ordinary person will not figure out which one is. But Asus will help you make a choice: they have a notch a couple of millimeters thinner than a certain "fruit phone X" (this is from their slide at the exhibition). So, the screen turned out to do a little more. He now occupies 90% of the front panel, not 86%. Success! In addition, Zenfone 5 goes almost half the price, and it has a 3.5mm port.

On charges of plagiarism, the head of marketing for Asus, Marcel Campos, stated:

Someone says we copy Apple. But we can not dismiss what users want. We must follow the trends.

Maybe it's true that they blow an elephant out of a fly? To whom does this protrusion interfere, in fact? And Apple itself “borrows” from anywhere! And if the idea is good - so the technology can quickly spread around the market!

The only problem is that all the “undercut” of copies is strictly cosmetic. They have no functional need. Apple had to make such a ledge to fit the Face ID system used to scan the face of the owner of the smartphone. The above smartphones do not have this technology. Moreover: their software is not even adapted. The icons in the status bar do not fit on the screen or overlap the cutout.

Some copies for greater similarity also tried to make a rounded screen around the edges. And here is the same problem. In Croatian Noa N10, the clock in the upper right corner is not fully visible, they go beyond the edge. The same story with Ulefone, Doogee and many others.

LG did not show its flagship to the general public, but those who were behind closed doors confirm: the LG G7 will also be a copy of the iPhone X. They are going to release it in June. LG usually tried to present its smartphone on the MWC at the same time as Samsung, but this year it had to take a time out. They say that it is to work on the firmware, and, among other things, eliminate the "cutting off" of the text and pictures on the upper edge.

Huawei promised to launch its flagship, the P20, in late March. It will also look like an iPhone X, both in front and behind. Only the ledge will make a little smaller, and the frame will be thicker from the bottom.

What can I say, never before has this “licking” in the world of smartphones been so obvious and so cynical. And this is despite the fact that sales of the iPhone X so far, according to rumors, have not justified themselves. Apple sold half as many devices as it had expected - 20 million instead of 50 million. Because of this, Samsung has problems : the contract company produces displays for the iPhone, and is forced to cut production. But such signals, apparently, came too late. Designers and marketers of manufacturers have already managed to make Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V.

To whom how, and we would like to see diversity. So that everyone can choose a smartphone for themselves, even if he wants, say, a powerful device with a 4.5-inch screen. For companies to form their own design style, which is of interest to a separate audience. But, apparently, most manufacturers have decided in unison that it is easier to copy Apple. Thank you at least that Samsung and Sony had something different in terms of design this year.

The update of March 8: Apple itself, according to media reports , now plans in 2019 to abandon the "monobrow", recognizing the element as unsuccessful.

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