The past 2016 was a very bright and impressive year for new items in the IT field. The powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 mobile processor and the Snapdragon 821 chip that replaced it are worth mentioning – thanks to them we saw how powerful smartphones can be and what games can be played without any problems on your pocket gadget.
and computer hardware allowed all lovers of toys on a PC to enjoy them with even greater comfort on monitors with 4K resolution. This is just a small part of all that 2016 gave us, and today we will tell you about the three main technologies of the past year in the field of mobile gadgets, as well as describe the three main innovations that await us in smartphones in 2017. Also read about the new gadgets from Xiaomi, the Faraday Future electric car and find out in more detail what a smart city is.
Smartphones 2016 – 6 GB of RAM on board
The Chinese revolution and nothing else. In 2016, more than 10 smartphone manufacturers from the Middle Kingdom presented more than a dozen devices with 6 GB of RAM. To be honest, not every desktop PC or laptop can boast of this amount of RAM, but here a handheld device has plugged desktop systems into its belt. It would seem that with so much RAM, Android devices should keep ten or more simultaneously running applications in memory, but the reality, as usual, is very different from the desired result.
You don’t have to go far for an example – the OnePlus 3 phone at the initial stage could not keep more than 4 programs running at the same time and this made users very upset. Representatives of the company at that time justified themselves and their device by the fact that this was not a mistake of engineers and such a decision was connected with the improvement of the energy saving of the smartphone. However, over time, the bug with incontinence of programs in the background was fixed and the owners of OnePlus 3 breathed a sigh of relief.
It may seem that 6 GB of RAM in mobile phones is a marketing ploy and nothing more. We can partly agree with this statement, but with the arrival of the Android 7.0 OS, everything has changed somewhat. If Android 6.0 needed at least 3 GB of RAM to work perfectly, then its seventh version already requires 4 GB of RAM for perfect functioning. Add to everything a few tasks in the background and we will boldly step over the 5 GB line. As folk wisdom says – there is never a lot of RAM, and this judgment is more relevant than ever in our time.
Smartphones 2016 – Dual Camera
We remember the past year not only for the incredible amount of RAM, but also for the dual camera modules in smartphones. Dual cameras are not a luxury in a phone these days, as so many manufacturers have released their own smartphones with dual rear cameras. I would especially like to note the company Huawei, which every now and then produces similar devices with optics from Leica. For example, the current flagship Huawei P9 is equipped with two sensors of 12 megapixels each, while one camera shoots in b / w, and the other in color. Why is this needed? The fact is that by superimposing two images on top of each other, a higher detailing of the final image is achieved, post-focusing is also available (changing focus from one object to another), the photo is less noisy with a lack of light, and the overall picture quality also increases.
The second option for using a dual camera is more primitive, let’s say. For example, in the LG G5, one of the cameras is wide-angle (135 degrees) and covers a larger area, while the other is normal. A very convenient solution for those who love mobile photography, since the possibilities for experimentation are almost endless.
The third option using two cameras in a smartphone is practically similar to the second option – it blows from a regular camera with a standard lens and a zoom camera. The September sensation iPhone 7 Plus has just such modules. The device has a conventional camera, and in addition to it, a module is installed, which has a 2X optical zoom. It is also an interesting solution that will appeal to lovers of portrait photography in many ways.
Two sensors with different lenses or shooting modes in smartphones allow you to experiment and experiment again, thereby opening up new possibilities for creativity.
Phones 2016 – frameless smartphones
It is foolish to say that frameless devices exist, since there is still no phone in which these frames were absent as such. However, progress in this direction is very great, which is only worth the almost frameless flagship Xiaomi Mi Mix. Xiaomi decided to leave a wide edge at the bottom of the smartphone just for the location of the front camera on it. Be that as it may, but this is the first and so far the only representative of smart devices, which has very thin frames on three sides, thanks to which the smartphone has gained very great popularity. Moreover, many other companies were so inspired by the Xiaomi product that they decided to release their own devices without bezels.
2017 Smartphones – 8GB RAM
Samsung recently announced that it has made significant strides in 8GB DRAM. As it turned out, the new generation of 8 GB LPDDR4 RAM is now located on a single chip and is suitable for use in smartphones, tablets and even PCs. The memory itself is made using a 10-nm process technology and operates at a frequency of over 3800 MHz
As for live examples, at CES 2017, ASUS was the first to show its device with 8 GB of RAM – it was the Zenon AR smartphone. In addition to the record amount of RAM, the device has a Snapdragon 821 processor, a 23MP Sony IMX318 camera and a whopping 256GB of internal storage. What can I say, a powerful filling.
If we talk about whether so much memory is really needed, then it is rather difficult to answer this question. For 2017, 8 GB of RAM is a surplus, but given the rapid development of technology, one cannot be sure that in 2018 there will also be a lot of this amount of RAM.
