Why you shouldn’t buy the Galaxy S24 Ultra or the iPhone 16 Pro Max،
I know what you're thinking. This is the next click-baity article without any substance. I'll let you be the judge of this opinion piece, but after spending some time with a very interesting phone that you've probably never heard of, I felt compelled to write it.
We may lament the slow pace of evolution in smartphones, but the truth is that we're all complacent and part of the problem. I mean, even us critics tend to fall down that slippery slope.
Many people think that phones are perfect and that the current design is the best we've ever had. I strongly disagree. We've simply gotten used to the feel and look of modern smartphones, and as adaptive human beings, we've learned to live with all the shortcomings.
The Galaxy S22 Ultra next to the Galaxy S24 Ultra, can you tell the difference?
But let's get to the point. Take the Galaxy S24 series, for example. And let's inspect the cream of the crop, the Galaxy S24 Ultra. People praise it and reviews praise it, but to me it's the same phone as the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which in turn is the same phone as the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
The elephant in the room
Looking at the titanium iPhone Pro and the materials used on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, it is clear that the industry follows trends. Who fixes them? Who decides that Galaxy S24 Ultra will it keep the same design of the rear camera system but replace the frame with titanium?
There are two sides to this problem. I don't think we are responsible, at least not directly. Companies have hundreds of analysts and specialists to evaluate how a certain change would affect sales, manufacturing costs, profits, etc.
iPhone 15 Pro Max next to iPhone 12 Pro Max, there's a trend here
We are, however, an indirect part of the problem, because we keep buying the same phones over and over again and giving the same design high marks in our reviews. Is there a way out of this vicious circle?
The first step: change your point of view
The last phone I tried was the Nubia Z60 Ultra, and while it was far from perfect, it overheated like a shaggy dog in the Georgia sun, and it dug and cut into my hand, this phone m 'showed for the millionth It's time for innovation to come from China today.
Listen, Neo! There's no spoon…I mean a selfie camera…
But all that didn't matter because there was something about this phone that completely changed my perspective. The camera under the screen. I know you're letting out a long wave right now and probably shaking your head. But listen to me.
Using this phone for a week created something magical. It reset my perspective on what a smartphone screen looks like. I realized that I had gotten so used to the cutouts for the selfie camera that they didn't bother me for a long time.
When I switched back to my iPhone 13 mini, the notch seemed unbearable. I tried using an old Galaxy S22, but the cutout still stuck out like a sore thumb. There is another point here, and I should mention it for the sake of objectivity. Samsung is trying to implement the under-screen selfie camera in its Fold line, and I understand that these companies want to perfect the technology without sacrificing selfie photo quality, but come on. If Nubia can do it, a company with billions in revenue like Samsung and Apple could do it too.
How to break the status quo?
Yes, testing an obscure Chinese phone with an edge-to-edge screen is cool and fun, but people still buy Galaxies and iPhones almost religiously. It is really difficult to break the status quo for various reasons. On the one hand, companies like Nubia aren't really popular and people are afraid to take risks and step into the unknown. The same goes for telecommunications providers, large retail stores, and us reviewers. We try to be as objective as possible (I honestly do), but sometimes we tend to give more weight to well-established brands and be wary of unknown brands. And it also happens unconsciously in the minds of millions of other people.
However, there is a way to tell the difference. It's a bit radical, but I think with the latest trend in software support we can do it.
Don't buy the latest flagship product
Blasphemy! I hear the head of the membership department running towards my office with his little feet to give me a lecture. Okay, let's paraphrase that. Don't buy the Galaxy S25 Ultra if it's missing at least one feature that would make you say “Wow!” Whether it's an under-display camera, a completely new design, a holographic screen, a composite back, a new type of camera or a solid-state battery.
You probably don't need it anyway, stick to your Galaxy S22 Ultra or S23 or your good old iPhone 12 Pro, for example if you bought that one. I guarantee that these older flagships will give you 99% of the experience of the newer ones, without any new investment. And it will be a wake-up call for lazy companies.
It's the same for Apple, I won't spare them anything here. Since the iPhone 12 series, everything has looked the same, with incremental upgrades so minor that sometimes you can't even tell the difference. If you have a flagship phone that is a few years old, why not hold on to it and wait for real innovation.
I'm not urging you to buy Nubias, but when Apple and Samsung's sales start to decline, they might wake up and finally invent something.
