Phones Anybody else feel 2015 the worst year for smartphones?

[rpetunderclass]

- HTC One M9 and Z4 pretty much DOA due to Snapdragon 810

- Galaxy S6 nerfed/unaddressed ram issues

- One Plus 2 Nerfed/Fail

- Note 5 nerfed/unaddressed ram issues

- iPhone 6s pretty much same as the 6, not really worth upgrading in my opinion, sounds like what the original 6 should of been.

Only really good phone that has my interest is the Moto X Pure.

 

[Zwhaler]

What phone do you have, or 2015 phone for that matter? Admittedly, I didn't find the Note5 worth upgrading to over the 4... but I went with the S6 edge+ and it is fantastic. RAM "issues" almost aren't worth mentioning from the perspective of ownership, if it annoyed me more than 5% I might bother complaining. Battery life is good too. It was expensive though...

 

[Savor]

I wouldn't say worst since phones technically do improve every year. But the most uninteresting year for smartphones? Yes. Nothing excites me. Might easily be the most boring smartphone year since 2006.

I say only the S6 edge piqued me this year and even that has flaws. The rest including the recently announced 6s/6s Plus is just more of the same. I started following PhoneScoop back in Jan 2004 but my #1 phone site has always been GSM Arena. I don't use Facebook so GSM Arena was probably my most visited site next to ESPN for NBA news for the past 10 years. But I probably checked on phone news this year with the least amount since 2006 and don't miss it at all. I haven't seen much Josh Vergara or Michael Fisher videos. I adore their reviews, but quite frankly, I haven't cared what they reviewed this year.

My interest is in movies as of late with video games as a secondary. Both mediums have always been my love since I was a kid. All six of the summer movies I've seen this year didn't disappoint me. I have more anticipation for the next Star Wars and MCU films than I do with the next smartphone announcement. And at least video game console or handheld can last beyond 3-5 years compared to a smartphone.

I love music too. All genres. But I will say most songs after a few listens bores me now. Not just the newer ones but older ones too. I rarely use headphones now. Smartphones is heading to the territory of boredom to me. As of now, my interests are like this -

Movies/TV shows
Video games
NBA news (my LA Clippers)
Technology news/smartphones
Books
Music
Some horse racing news

It shuffles from time to time depending on my mood. I already had my fill with sex, travel, and drugs, so I don't list those. You can tell I am more into movies as I post alot more in the movie threads in the Community section. I visit this section alot less because there really is nothing interesting to check on or to talk about. 4K display, Note5, OnePlus 2, next Nexus phones, etc all a big whoop de doo to me.

 

[Savor]

I wouldn't say worst since phones technically do improve every year. But the most uninteresting year for smartphones? Yes. Nothing excites me. Might easily be the most boring smartphone year since 2006.

I say only the S6 edge piqued me this year and even that has flaws. The rest including the recently announced 6s/6s Plus is just more of the same. I started following PhoneScoop back in Jan 2004 but my #1 phone site has always been GSM Arena. I don't use Facebook so GSM Arena was probably my most visited site next to ESPN for NBA news for the past 10 years. But I probably checked on phone news this year with the least amount since 2006 and don't miss it at all. I haven't seen much Josh Vergara or Michael Fisher videos. I adore their reviews, but quite frankly, I haven't cared what they reviewed this year.

My interest is in movies as of late with video games as a secondary. Both mediums have always been my love since I was a kid. All six of the summer movies I've seen this year didn't disappoint me. I have more anticipation for the next Star Wars and MCU films than I do with the next smartphone announcement. And at least video game console or handheld can last beyond 3-5 years compared to a smartphone.

I love music too. All genres. But I will say most songs after a few listens bores me now. Not just the newer ones but older ones too. I rarely use headphones now. Smartphones is heading to the territory of boredom to me. As of now, my interests are like this -

Movies/TV shows
Video games
NBA news (my LA Clippers)
Technology news/smartphones
Books
Music
Some horse racing news

It shuffles from time to time depending on my mood. I already had my fill with sex, travel, and drugs, so I don't list those. You can tell I am more into movies as I post alot more in the movie threads in the Community section. I visit this section alot less because there really is nothing interesting to check on or to talk about. 4K display, Note5, OnePlus 2, next Nexus phones, etc all a big whoop de doo to me.

 

[Blujelly]

I'm 50/50 on this I can see were your coming from but I think some of the improvements made across the board has been good. I just think its coming to a point of what can you add or do next?

yes you can increase the batter life, camera and processor but to the general public is this good enough? Even for tech minded people is this enough? I think its going to be harder to please the recent years of what we have.

Until something ground breaking happens and can be used for the smart phone world.

 

[The Game 161]

People need to understand how hard it is to improve an already great product

Improving

Camera
Chip
A feature here and there

Is all you can do every year...it's getting harder and harder to make things so much better

 

[GadgetSN]

2015 has been the best year for smartphones. This is because there are now actually more real alternatives to the iPhone. Before this year it was only the iPhone or Sony Z3.

Now you have the Samsung edge/dge plus and Note 5 on top of the Z5.

As for the other brands.......pah!

At the end of the day all phones will work the same way as the last phone. The only main improvements will be aesthetic design and less laggyness from Samsung.

 

[ozaz]

I wouldn't say worst since phones technically do improve every year. But the most uninteresting year for smartphones? Yes. Nothing excites me. Might easily be the most boring smartphone year since 2006.

I would agree. My issue is there is not enough choice, particularly in screen size.

Many companies (e.g. OnePlus, Motorola) are releasing their high-end phones in only 5.5-5.7" size and ignoring 5".
Even those companies that make approx 5" flagships are all creeping upward to 5.2-5.3".
This homogenisation is getting boring to me.

Also the lack of options for high end phones with either removable or very large battery is a concern.

 

[kettle]

People need to understand how hard it is to improve an already great product

Improving

Camera
Chip
A feature here and there

Is all you can do every year...it's getting harder and harder to make things so much better

I would agree. My issue is there is not enough choice, particularly in screen size.

Many companies (e.g. OnePlus, Motorola) are releasing their high-end phones in only 5.5-5.7" size and ignoring 5".
Even those companies that make approx 5" flagships are all creeping upward to 5.2-5.3".
This homogenisation is getting boring to me.

Also the lack of options for high end phones with either removable or very large battery is a concern.

Yes, I agree. Understanding when improvements are just protected gimmicks (subsidised by lack of alternative) that wouldn't shine quite so brightly, in terms of sales, if there were a solid, less 'new & amazing' choice

- for example - a 4.7-5" iPhone which was actually slightly thicker to allow the practical niceties of fast brain, great storage and a super accommodating battery life (it wouldn't have to bend either). (Sales & Marketing would weep into their designer coffee and flatten each other's iClocks with sad faces)

still using a 4 with iOS6 - because I don't feel there's a new one for me (I would happily buy a factory fresh 4)

 

[JaySoul]

I don't think 2015 has been a bad year at all.

There have been issues, but there are always issues every year. No phone is perfect.

 

[I7guy]

Yes, I agree. Understanding when improvements are just protected gimmicks (subsidised by lack of alternative) that wouldn't shine quite so brightly, in terms of sales, if there were a solid, less 'new & amazing' choice

- for example - a 4.7-5" iPhone which was actually slightly thicker to allow the practical niceties of fast brain, great storage and a super accommodating battery life (it wouldn't have to bend either). (Sales & Marketing would weep into their designer coffee and flatten each other's iClocks with sad faces)

still using a 4 with iOS6 - because I don't feel there's a new one for me (I would happily buy a factory fresh 4)

To your point I know people happily using 10 year old flip phones and would buy another if they could.

For the rest of us there are amazing choices in 2015; including the just announced apple products, of which I can't get my hands on a new 64gb 6s.

 

[I7guy]

I wouldn't say worst since phones technically do improve every year. But the most uninteresting year for smartphones? Yes. Nothing excites me. Might easily be the most boring smartphone year since 2006.

I say only the S6 edge piqued me this year and even that has flaws. The rest including the recently announced 6s/6s Plus is just more of the same. I started following PhoneScoop back in Jan 2004 but my #1 phone site has always been GSM Arena. I don't use Facebook so GSM Arena was probably my most visited site next to ESPN for NBA news for the past 10 years. But I probably checked on phone news this year with the least amount since 2006 and don't miss it at all. I haven't seen much Josh Vergara or Michael Fisher videos. I adore their reviews, but quite frankly, I haven't cared what they reviewed this year.

My interest is in movies as of late with video games as a secondary. Both mediums have always been my love since I was a kid. All six of the summer movies I've seen this year didn't disappoint me. I have more anticipation for the next Star Wars and MCU films than I do with the next smartphone announcement. And at least video game console or handheld can last beyond 3-5 years compared to a smartphone.

I love music too. All genres. But I will say most songs after a few listens bores me now. Not just the newer ones but older ones too. I rarely use headphones now. Smartphones is heading to the territory of boredom to me. As of now, my interests are like this -

Movies/TV shows
Video games
NBA news (my LA Clippers)
Technology news/smartphones
Books
Music
Some horse racing news

It shuffles from time to time depending on my mood. I already had my fill with sex, travel, and drugs, so I don't list those. You can tell I am more into movies as I post alot more in the movie threads in the Community section. I visit this section alot less because there really is nothing interesting to check on or to talk about. 4K display, Note5, OnePlus 2, next Nexus phones, etc all a big whoop de doo to me.

Most people don't engage in the type of debate seen on these forums and view smartphones as a business decision not an extension of ones ego.

So whether you personally find this year interesting or not there is something for everybody that's new and exciting, my prediction is that Apple is going to sell a boatload of idevices over the coming months.

 

[Tig Bitties]

I totally agree. That for a one year period, the smartphone industry seem to stall or stagnate.

Especially Qualcom and their Snapdragon 810, being pretty poor in efficiency, and not much of an upgrade whatsoever over the 805.

- HTC One M9 is no major upgrade over the One M8, a side grade at best
- OnePlus Two is no big deal next to the OnePlus One
- G4 over the G3 = meh
- iPhone 6S actually has a smaller battery than last years' 6, and still only 1GB RAM LOL, and same exact design.

But I do expect 2016 to be a home run for smartphones;

+ Snapdragon 820 is a HUGE upgrade over the 810, the 820 is very efficient, much better on battery, while also being a lot faster
+ All Android phones in 2016 will be running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which is very good for battery life, and smooths out all the bugs from Lollipop.
+ Most new Android phones will all be high quality built, and good design
+ iPhone 7 release, will be completely new design, and brand new iOS10

 

[spinedoc77]

The smartphone industry is in a perfecting mode, perfecting features and adding some here and there. Things won't get exciting until the next evolution, which IMO is foldable screens.

 

[I7guy]

I totally agree. That for a one year period, the smartphone industry seem to stall or stagnate.

Especially Qualcom and their Snapdragon 810, being pretty poor in efficiency, and not much of an upgrade whatsoever over the 805.

- HTC One M9 is no major upgrade over the One M8, a side grade at best
- OnePlus Two is no big deal next to the OnePlus One
- G4 over the G3 = meh
- iPhone 6S actually has a smaller battery than last years' 6, and still only 1GB RAM LOL, and same exact design.

But I do expect 2016 to be a home run for smartphones;

+ Snapdragon 820 is a HUGE upgrade over the 810, the 820 is very efficient, much better on battery, while also being a lot faster
+ All Android phones in 2016 will be running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which is very good for battery life, and smooths out all the bugs from Lollipop.
+ Most new Android phones will all be high quality built, and good design
+ iPhone 7 release, will be completely new design, and brand new iOS10

If 2015 wasn't a home run, 2016 won't be either. It will be an incremental improvement over 2015, which is how people seem to view the market...as a series of increments.

 

[JaySoul]

I totally agree. That for a one year period, the smartphone industry seem to stall or stagnate.

Especially Qualcom and their Snapdragon 810, being pretty poor in efficiency, and not much of an upgrade whatsoever over the 805.

- HTC One M9 is no major upgrade over the One M8, a side grade at best
- OnePlus Two is no big deal next to the OnePlus One
- G4 over the G3 = meh
- iPhone 6S actually has a smaller battery than last years' 6, and still only 1GB RAM LOL, and same exact design.

But I do expect 2016 to be a home run for smartphones;

+ Snapdragon 820 is a HUGE upgrade over the 810, the 820 is very efficient, much better on battery, while also being a lot faster
+ All Android phones in 2016 will be running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which is very good for battery life, and smooths out all the bugs from Lollipop.
+ Most new Android phones will all be high quality built, and good design
+ iPhone 7 release, will be completely new design, and brand new iOS10

The 810 vs 820 battle is fair enough. Hence why many companies went "back" to 808.

HTC are dying anyway.
OnePlus Two is substantially better than the One, but they are a small challenger anyway.
G4 is actually much much much better than the G3, it's bizarre how little love it's getting. (Have had both).
iPhone 6S changed practically everything except the general shape: materials, camera, screen, internals.

I see you conveniently left out Samsung with the S6 Edge which is an incredible leap forward in engineering artistry. And Sony's comeback which is gaining real traction (outside of the USA). Not to mention Motorola. And the Nexus hasn't released yet. Huawei are improving year on year.

Not saying that this year has been good/bad or that next year will be good/bad. But it's so easy to become "meh" with phones, it's good to appreciate the great work that many companies put in.

 

[AppleRobert]

Look to the mid level priced smartphone, enough to peak my interest for purchase (though it does not take much).

LG Stylo, Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3, Asus Zenfone 2 to name a few. Quite frankly I am glad I do not have easy access to the overseas smartphones out there, lots of them intrigue me.

 

[robE89]

I have to agree with most people here. I would call this just the unfinished year, besides samsung selection of phones i really don't see a true flagship that has all the package(good display, good performance, fingerprint sensor, decent build quality and so on.). I can understand that those phones are way cheaper than iphone 6s for example but i still wished that companies would offer more options in the high end.I guess sony z5 can be the best all around android phone, but i'd wished that it come with android 6.0

I just really don't know what phone to buy this year because i hate to buy a phone that will have outdated software in 1 month or i'm just too picky i guess.

 

[nj-morris]

It's subjective. There are some things that have been done this year for the better, for instance proper 64-bit and proper fingerprint scanners, which are both pretty big. And smartphone cameras are approaching the level where a lot of people are using them as replacements to entry level DSLRs. Sure, the changes are evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but there is no perfect phone out there.

- iPhone 6S actually has a smaller battery than last years' 6, and still only 1GB RAM LOL, and same exact design.

Who said anything about 1GB? didn't talk about it, and all the rumours point to 2GB.

 

[AppleRobert]

It's subjective. There are some things that have been done this year for the better, for instance proper 64-bit and proper fingerprint scanners, which are both pretty big. And smartphone cameras are approaching the level where a lot of people are using them as replacements to entry level DSLRs. Sure, the changes are evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but there is no perfect phone out there.



Who said anything about 1GB? didn't talk about it, and all the rumours point to 2GB.

It is not going to matter regardless to me, the 6s did not get a resolution bump and the 6S Plus will be harder to stand using it alot given the weight, much like the Nexus 6 though its width is my biggest gripe.

Oops, reply was for BB about the iPhone.

 

[Tig Bitties]

It's subjective. There are some things that have been done this year for the better, for instance proper 64-bit and proper fingerprint scanners, which are both pretty big. And smartphone cameras are approaching the level where a lot of people are using them as replacements to entry level DSLRs. Sure, the changes are evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but there is no perfect phone out there.



Who said anything about 1GB? didn't talk about it, and all the rumours point to 2GB.

Some early reports saying the 4.7" iPhone 6S, has a smaller 1700mAh battery compared to last years 1800mAh battery, and that this 6S still has just 1GB RAM. But that the 6S Plus did indeed get 2GB RAM.

 

[Tsepz]

I agree. The worst and most boring. I was hoping the Note5 would at least build on what the Note 4 had, but instead it got stripped.
And then the 6S Plus is basically 6 Plus with 3D touch...blehh...

 

[I7guy]

Some early reports saying the 4.7" iPhone 6S, has a smaller 1700mAh battery compared to last years 1800mAh battery, and that this 6S still has just 1GB RAM. But that the 6S Plus did indeed get 2GB RAM.

I don't care about the battery, I care about longevity. 4K, 12 mp and 1gig? I call nonsense on that.

 

[TheRealAlex]

- HTC One M9 and Z4 pretty much DOA due to Snapdragon 810

- Galaxy S6 nerfed/unaddressed ram issues

- One Plus 2 Nerfed/Fail

- Note 5 nerfed/unaddressed ram issues

- iPhone 6s pretty much same as the 6, not really worth upgrading in my opinion, sounds like what the original 6 should of been.

Only really good phone that has my interest is the Moto X Pure.

100% Agree 2015 Worst For Phones and Tablets Have a $500 Best Buy gift card burning a hole in my pocket.

Tablets, iPad Mini 4 Nerfed fail iPhone 6 Specs trying to push 2,048 x 1,536 resolution thats a FAil
when the A8 struggles to push 1920x1080 on the 6 Plus thats why the 6 Plus is slower than the 6

Samsung S2, great OLED display but using old Exynos 5433 32-Bit CPU and running 32-bit OS major fail

Samsung Note 5, great device but memory and battery issues with 4GB DDR4 RAM it has memory issues go figure.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

- HTC One M9 and Z4 pretty much DOA due to Snapdragon 810

- Galaxy S6 nerfed/unaddressed ram issues

- One Plus 2 Nerfed/Fail

- Note 5 nerfed/unaddressed ram issues

- iPhone 6s pretty much same as the 6, not really worth upgrading in my opinion, sounds like what the original 6 should of been.

Only really good phone that has my interest is the Moto X Pure.

I think the S6 Edge is a knock out the park as far a design goes. Fortunately I wasn't affected by the ram issue, or it's only minor for me. My ram stays in around the 70s in percentage usage, but a friend of mine who had the same phone, his stayed in the 90s. He eventually returned it after trying to do everything possible to fix it. I hope Samsung gets it together by the S7. They should since new devices will be on M.

The LG G4 has to be the sleeper of the year. But I think it's size and plastic build has turned consumers off when comparing to the competition.

The iPhone 6s is damn near twice as fast/powerful as the 6. But everything else (besides 3D touch), is basically the same with updated tweaks here and there. I expect the iPhone 7 to have a better resolution display and split screen multitasking at least for the 7 Plus.

As far as the iPad Pro goes, what a freaking joke. All my dreams of what the iPad Pro should have been is down the drain.

One Plus Two ... Seems like a fail to me.

HTC .....

The Moto X Pure seems great for it's price.(One Plus Two Killer). Sad that reviews are saying battery life does not match Moto's claims. I still might purchase one, pending more reviews after release.

The Nexus 6 should get the worst QHD screen of the year award. It's one of those displays that you would have never guessed being QHD until you read it's specs. Just has a dull matte look to it no matter what settings I applied.