Even the best cameraphone optics can't truly justify 8-10 mp, let alone 16-20.
HTC has been wise to resist the marketing urge and put a quality 4mp sensor.
So if this is the case, I guess its the optics or the software that sucks.
My 5S, Nexus 5 and GS4 all ran circles around my HTC One as far as the camera goes. Sad too - other than the camera, the HTC One is near perfect.
If you're point is, the MP don't matter, that's fine. But if you're going to put it all on the optics/software, you have to make sure they deliver.
I think 8 MP is where smartphones should stay while beefing up the optics and software.
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There was a time that whatever Android flagship would be compared to the latest iPhone. Whatever was a non-Apple became some sort if iPhone-killer. Last year, the comparisons became Android vs Android. It was a banner year for the platform. Alot of OEM's stepped up their game. I probably had about 13-14 devices I put on my watchlist ranging from the Huawei Ascend Mate or P6 to the Xperia ZR to the LG G2. You can pretty much pick any flagship or even midranger from last year and the experience would be satisfying enough.
This year, I expect more and more smartphones to drop in price with respectable specs. I'm a little bit hesistant getting a QHD (1440p) screen as it seems that is where most of successors from last year's flagships is where it is heading. Reason is most of my vids are in 720p resolution or lower. Even my photos are taken at 3 MP or less. You start to see more pixelation or grain since the screen magnifies the resolution to fit the screen. Try watching 240p or 360p on a 1080p screen and it looks hideous already.
I'm already content with phones from 2013. Even a Moto X would serve me well for 2+ years using a 720p screen. I think 1080p is already overkill and just wasting battery life, memory space, and more taxing on the GPU for negligible difference. I say 64 GB should be a bare minimum for 720p videos and 128 GB for 1080p. But now we are heading in the QHD era.
Great points - the display resolution race is outpacing the storage race.
Which sucks.
As devices get more powerful, with larger more pixel dense displays, the natural desire is to do more on them. Unfortunately, we're still held back by the 16/32/64 storage bumps. Even if you can get an SD card on there, it doesn't compare to running apps and media from the built in storage.
I'm hoping 2014 is the year 32 GB becomes the standard in high-end devices. Leave 16 GB to the Nexus lines and other low-mid tier (price) devices.
This is an area where HTC stepped up last year. Hopefully other OEMs take note.