Journalists are present at all the presentations of the flagships and have the opportunity to personally get acquainted with the new product. Users, however, have to draw conclusions about the presented devices exclusively from hearsay. And it can be difficult to understand how this or that function works and how much they need it at all
Foreword
Memories are unreliable. It always seems that the sun used to shine brighter, the grass was greener, and mobile technology is much more interesting. And yet, if you remember the era of Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones, it seems to me that much more people followed the new products. The question of which phone is more interesting, a new one or one that came out two years ago, was not even raised. Of course, the new one is better, there's nothing to even think about.
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Nostalgia for phones gone |
But now it is not at all obvious. When a new model differs from last year's only in a number of minor improvements, but costs twice as much, most buyers won't even want to figure out what exactly the difference is. Looks the same, works the same, what else do you need? You can look at the Galaxy line, or at iPhone, the picture is about the same everywhere – old models are sold just with a bang, and they are also bought by those who theoretically could choose a new product for themselves. But he just does not understand what the point is.
Flagship version 2.0
Opening the review of last year's and current flagships, a potential buyer sees almost the same text. Any review of any flagship for many years already begins with the words that it is fast and that there are no slowdowns on it at all. At the same time, it is usually noted that there is definitely progress compared to last year's model, although how one 'complete absence of lags' may be preferable to another 'complete absence of lags' is often not very clear.
The screen is described in the same way, usually in a new one, and last year's review will say that it is 'best in its class' or at least 'at the level of competitors'. It is understood that progress does not stand still and over the last year these very 'competitors' have become steeper, but how can the reader evaluate this? Well, yes, a different resolution. It was FullHD – it became 2K. But for most people, all this is the same abstraction as the number of operations performed per second by the processor. This is what 128×128 is and even what 800×600 is, everyone understood very well, but it’s difficult for me to imagine what this “2K” looks like. The screen is like a screen, what else can you see there? Not the same pixel size. About all sorts of abstruse things like 'sRGB coverage', 'average color temperature', 'maximum white contrast' and incomprehensible graphics, I will not even remember, for a simple buyer all this brings one melancholy. It used to be somehow simpler, AMOLED – it's bright and very cool, period. Well, or 'bright and not cool', that's how anyone.
Battery life? It's not even interesting to read about it, and it is clear that the energy saving modes have become even more economical, an extra pair of cores once again increased the energy efficiency of the new processor, the proprietary shell is even more optimized for modern hardware … and the smartphone lived on one charge for a day, and lives. Previously, one could at least enjoy a more capacious battery (unlike other things, this parameter lends itself at least to a direct comparison), but the problem is that recently it may be even smaller in a new smartphone than in an old one. Moreover, it is believed that all this is for our own good. Does the reader then have an incentive to run after the novelty? I doubt it …
Sound, camera, video quality? The only flagship that really had some kind of breakthrough was HTC One (M9). Simply because a normal camera module was finally installed there, stopping telling tales about the bright (literally and figuratively) future of UltraPixel. Now you can compare the price of the old and new versions of the flagship HTC and calculate the price of one megapixel. And then just buy a normal camera for this money, which will certainly shoot much better.
At the end of each review there is a bunch of screenshots of the current version of the proprietary shell with a long list of incomprehensible 'how-to-tricks', which are not so easy to delve into even for people with experience. All sorts of 'the most-convenient-ways-of-launching-cameras-without-a-camera-buttons' and other similar things, where innovation sits on innovation and drives innovation. And they still look like a mockery. All that remains is, restraining the attack of yawning, to proceed to the conclusion, in which it will once again turn out that the device has no problems with the quality of communication and, in general, everything is at the level. And to understand that any desire to overpay an extra couple of tens of thousands of rubles for a new version of the smartphone has disappeared completely.
Technical evolution
Is everything really that sad and the new smartphones are no different from the old ones? This is not entirely true. Yes, nothing revolutionary has happened here for many years, and even last year's iPhone have stopped turning into a pumpkin. Nevertheless, engineers of large companies are not paid for beautiful eyes, improvements and various useful 'chips' are almost always present in the new version of the flagship. Especially if you update your smartphone after a generation. But for a buyer who has never held this smartphone in his hands, it is very difficult to understand what and how it works and what is hidden behind the phrases “even more convenient” and “even better”. A special thank you should be said for this aggressive advertising, which taught not to pay any attention to such phrases at all. And any statements of journalists should be taken with hostility. Somewhere this is true, somewhere not, it's hard to say without a smartphone in hand.
It turns out an interesting situation – it is not enough for the manufacturer to improve the last year's smartphone, he still needs to somehow convey the essence of the improvements to the buyer. Who, firstly, by definition, is rather lazy and does not burn with desire to understand all sorts of technical subtleties, and secondly, has long lost the habit of taking anything on faith. In fact, there are two options – either to impress with something at the presentation of the flagship, bringing the fans to the state of 'shut up and take my money', or to show on your fingers that all these beautiful words really have some kind of practical meaning. Most manufacturers have recently experienced big problems with the first method. By the time of the official presentation about the flagship, everything is already known about what is possible and what is not, it is completely uninteresting to watch broadcasts or wait midnight for the first reviews of the new product. The bright show turned into a boring report, interesting primarily to geeks and journalists. Alas, Steve Jobs with his 'One More Thing' is no more, and no special effects and no live orchestra can replace this.
Of course, it would be much better to demonstrate the features of a smartphone to each potential buyer personally, in deed, and not in words, showing what's what. But, of course, this is a utopia. Although some steps are being taken in this direction – mono-brand stores and zones in large shopping centers with open displays and specially trained consultants are opening, local presentations are being held, and so on. In very rare cases, even a kind of 'test drives' are arranged, when the user can return a smartphone he did not like to the store without any questions. True, here it is not far to the other extreme – if everyone is offered to watch a movie just released for two weeks for free in a cinema, then this will not greatly contribute to the sale of his DVD discs.
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Friday column number 52. Mobile phone test drive |
And, nevertheless, there is a way out. True, at the moment it is more theoretical than practical. You just need to give the user the opportunity to evaluate the new features of the newly released flagship on their old smartphone.
Galaxy S6 edge + Experience
Samsung has been trying to do something similar recently. And even if it turns out rather clumsy, the idea itself looks interesting.
We are talking about applications of the 'Galaxy Experience' series that anyone can install on their smartphone. For example, recently released the Galaxy S6 edge + Experience application, which demonstrates the capabilities of the new flagship. You can install it from Google Play, the minimum system requirements are Android 4.1, a resolution of at least 720 × 1280, a processor with a frequency of 1.4 GHz or higher and 1 GB of RAM. Although why such difficulties, it is not clear, in fact, before us is just a simple interactive presentation.
The application interface consists of four screens: Ergonomic & Beautiful Design, Immersive Entertainment, Fast Wired / Wireless Charging, Accessories. They are scrolled with a horizontal swipe. Each screen contains a couple of thematic 'chips', which are simply talked about at first, and then allowed to test on a smartphone model. Is it difficult to evaluate the design of a novelty from photographs? Spin the 3D model or try on a pair of branded covers. Want to know what a curved screen does? Try using shortcut icons or the new status bar. Don't you understand what lies behind the phrase 'quality selfie'? See how easy it is to adjust skin tone or eye size with just a couple of sliders. Not sure what 'HDR' means? Try taking a shot of a virtual city with and without it and see what the difference is between them. Doubt fast charging is of any use? Evaluate her work with a live example.
