Here’s what we expect from smartphones in 2024

The smartphone industry is dynamic and gives a leap in the world of technology every year. From using processors made in 28nm a few years ago to 3nm chips, we have come a long way and of course, in a very short time compared to when humans were alive .

Every year brings something new. Call it a year of touchscreens, cameras, notches and now foldable phones. As we enter 2024, the consensus is that there are a few nascent technologies waiting to flourish this year, including generative AI, the foldable phone market will be even bigger this time and on the contrary, processors will become smaller.

Without further ado, let's take a look at what 2024 has in store for us in terms of smartphones and technology. Trust me, you'll be waiting for these technologies to be massively available by the end of this list.

Longer Battery Life – More Playback Power

One of the most common concerns people have with their smartphones is limited or inadequate battery life. It is true that for a long time, smartphone manufacturers have not kept pace with growing usage. For example, iPhones and Galaxy S series flagship devices such as the Galaxy S22 5G.

Things have started to improve as OEMs are now using a larger battery *than before* on their devices to accommodate the increase in usage and time spent on phones. As we approach 2024, we expect larger batteries thanks to smarter designs as well as powerful, low-power processors that will help extend battery life. It's no rocket science that without decent battery life, it's best to keep your flagship phone at home plugged into a charger if it has a small battery, right?

Additionally, people with smaller phone batteries are charging too often, posing a hindrance for users, the environment, finances and society as a whole. So, a bigger battery will help overcome some major problems that are ruining the conditions of our society as a whole.

Generative AI – Something that takes you to the future

2023 saw a huge leap forward in generative AI. OpenAI's ChatGPT saw an exponential increase in usage this year, with ChatGPT 3.5 and ChatGPT 4.0 dropping as iterations shortly after. Samsung announced Samsung Gauss, an all-in-one generative AI for text and media that will also be part of the Samsung Galaxy S24 series.

Smartphone makers understand the impact that AI can have and that is why chipmakers are developing processors that can handle AI-related features without any hassle. For example, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC pushed the boundaries alongside the Samsung Exynos 2400 and Dimensity 9300.

There is no stopping it since almost every smartphone manufacturer has integrated AI features in one form or another. Dimensity 8300 Ultra, the latest SoC for mid-range phones, supports AI. Likewise, Google Gemini AI is another example of how artificial intelligence prowess is taking shape in 2024.

Soon we will have on-device AI processing instead of cloud processing, which would not only speed up the process but also make it secure for users. We are an example of an exponential leap in mobile photography, AI voice assistants, text and media-based generative AI, to name a few. Most of these features are here and available to the public starting in 2024 with incremental updates to the technology.

Powerful processors – at a cost

Phones are becoming more and more powerful every year. Thanks to LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0, the flagship phones of 2023 and 2024 will devour any flagship phone of yesteryear. But it's not just memory (and it never will be). The processors integrated into the motherboard are the ones that improve performance by leaps and bounds. Currently, Apple A17 Pro is one of the most powerful chipsets built on a 3nm node, while Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has shown how it can make all its predecessors and even competitors seem dwarfed.

Nubia'a ​​RedMagic 9 Pro held its own in the 3DMark Wildlife stress test, even surpassing the benchmarks set by the Apple iPhone 15 Pro's A17 Pro. It turns out things will get even more powerful as we move into the year 2024.

Okay, I understand that people may wonder if these chipsets can maintain their performance. Indeed, the Dimensity 9300 SoC on Vivo . This makes Apple's A17 Pro far superior in terms of sustained performance.

MediaTek is ditching small cores in favor of medium and larger cores, which will help the chipset save a lot of time during multi-core testing which are usually demanding tasks on any phone. It remains to be seen how these chipsets will perform in the long term. Hopefully 2024 will be a year of better results, particularly in terms of sustainable performance and improved energy efficiency.

Improved cameras – especially periscope

Ten years ago, who would have thought you could take a snapshot of the moon and see crazy detail with a phone? Well, that's true today, isn't it? As we move forward, mobile cameras are getting better and there is no reason to believe that 2024 will be any different.

We've started to see a trend with periscope lenses because, let's face it, Apple has it, Samsung has it, Vivo X100 Pro Plus has it and even Honor will soon have a 160MP periscope lens in its hands.

Manufacturers use both optical and digital zoom. Oppo Find For now, 2x and 3x seem to be the weak point of many phones, although we're getting better with the hype around 5x and 10x optical zooms using folded periscope telephoto lenses like the one in the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

As camera hardware improves, so does the software (an integral part of the equation). Google uses computational photography to its advantage, making the Pixel line the best in the Android field. AI has found its way into core features of Android and iPhones, so it's only time that cameras get their hands on AI too.

Note that it's not like we don't use AI in cameras, we do, but it will improve in the coming years.

Swelling Adoption of Foldable Phones

Remember when Samsung had a public disaster by giving away units of its original Galaxy Fold to reviewers? Well, we've come a long way since then and we already have fifth-generation Galaxy Z Fold devices on the market.

We now have foldable phones from Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, Motorola and Honor, to name a few. Global foldable phone shipments are expected to reach 48.1 million units in 2027, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC). It is expected to grow by 27.6% CAGR between 2022 and 2027, capturing 3.5% of the total global market share, which is a huge figure. It is currently 1%, which represents a significant jump globally.

For reference, global foldable phone shipments were 14.2 million and 21.4 million units in 2022 and 2023, respectively, accounting for both foldable and flip form factors. With demand and shipments increasing, one thing is obvious: foldable phones are poised to get cheaper as we move forward.

That being said, Apple has been dormant in the foldable space and it looks like we won't be getting anything like that in 2024 either. We have Apple Vision Pro (priced at $3,499) which Apple is betting on to revolutionize the smartphone industry by replacing the need to own a real phone. It's expected to arrive in early 2024, so let's see where it goes.

Farewell words

Even if you think that any of the innovations mentioned above are still in their infancy as you read this, it goes without saying that incremental updates have proven instrumental in bringing these technologies to maturity. What do you think ? What other trends do you expect to see in smartphones in 2024?

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