by Faisal Kawoosa
Most users look for camera quality, and battery life among a few rudimentary specifications when deciding about a smartphone. But is that all?
Smartphone is an omnipresent gadget. It’s a companion. While some may argue that most of us have become addicts, the fact remains that it brings in a lot of convenience and ease in one’s life besides always being connected. So, deciding which smartphone to own must be well thought through.
With the trend gaining momentum, consumers are now buying more expensive smartphones than before. Every consumer is looking for an upgrade from the next upper segment making a market shift by preferring premium smartphones. This means the repair and servicing cost also goes up, and so does the life cycle. As against an earlier trend, some five years back when users would change their smartphones within a span of two to three years, now users want to retain their smartphones for five to seven years depending on the amount they have spent on their purchase.
Here is a quick guide you should consider while making your choice.
The Key Parameters
Broadly, as a user, you should be worried about three things – Performance, Experience and Personalisation, which I call the PEP framework. This PEP comes in smartphones with certain specifications and features. So, as a consumer, you need to broaden your horizons and look beyond the rudimentary specifications of the camera and battery.
First, only a user can define what is required and expected from a smartphone. If you are a heavy user, then performance is paramount, if it’s about owning a hassle-free smartphone, then experience takes precedence and if it’s about jazzing up your device with a flaunt quotient, then personalisation is all that matters. In an ideal and equilibrium state, all three are relevant.
As a user, you need to define the significance of each of them in your daily life and accordingly prioritise the specifications and features. I leave it to you to define the equilibrium between Performance, Experience and Personalisation to find out your PEP quotient for smartphones, but below I explain what to really look for.
Performance
Performance while measurable is still subjective in many ways. In the case of smartphones, the controlling element that defines its performance is the processor or chipset or SoC (System on a Chip), as it may be called. This like the CPU in a computer is the brain of a smartphone. It draws and defines the contours within which it can operate. For instance, if I want my smartphone to play 4K videos; the feature will be enabled by the chipset. Similarly, every feature and function is dependent on the capability of a chipset.
Even the extent how much power the device will consume and how efficiently it will manage the heat of the device, all depends on the chipset. With the semiconductor world on its own innovation journey, today we have a 3nm chipset available for smartphones. This means occupying less of the real estate (PCB), consuming less power and emitting less heat. So, for someone’s performance to be paramount, the first thing to look for is the processor.
While processor is the limiting factor, RAM or memory also plays a critical role in shaping the performance of a smartphone. Think of it like a workstation. If you have a workstation with optimal dimensions giving you ample space to keep your diary, stationery and other desk objects, and you still have adequate free space, it will increase your productivity and performance. RAM in smartphones defines that workspace accommodating Operating System (OS), apps and other utility software that needs to run simultaneously like an orchestra to result in a melodious symphony.
Then there are other factors as well that impact the performance. These include the capacity of the battery, which defines how much power it can make available to various apps and storage, which allows the installation of multiple apps, storing data, etc.
All these orchestrate together to define the performance of a smartphone.
Experience
Experience is relatively more subjective than performance. What may be a good experience for me might not impress you at all. We see it very frequently on smartphones. For example, a photograph taken from a smartphone might be better for a grandparent than a GenZ child, who will be bothered by the granular results and not be easily satisfied with average photo quality. The main thing to look at here is the OS and the User Interface (UI) layer on top of it.
However, these need to be in sync with the performance elements. An example to elaborate here could be the battery performance. Even if the battery capacity might be great, the OS and especially UI optimisation will define how efficiently the battery is consumed which then defines the overall performance.
This is the reason, we may at times find dissatisfied consumers even after owning smartphones with large battery capacities when their smartphones drain fast. Then there are additional elements like how fast and smooth the transition between various screens and apps is. Again, that’s the role of OS and UI. A user operates multiple apps concurrently and needs to quickly zap between various apps. So, toggling between apps and screens has to be very smooth and efficient.
Just a decade ago, there used to be a significant gap between iPhone’s and Android’s performance. Over the years, Google along with its partner Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have worked specifically on this issue and now Android devices’ performance is at par with iPhone. In some cases, we may even conclude that Android is superior to iPhone. Well, again we have to leave that to individual preferences.
Another very important element defining the experience is the interface. How easy or difficult is it for a user to navigate through the device and configure various settings? This also forms an important part of the overall experience. For example, in iPhone and some of the Android phones there is a dedicated hard button (slider) to put the phone in silent mode. The button makes it very easy compared to navigating through the menus and bars to do so.
Personalisation
This may sound funny or childish at times, but it has its relevance too. Smartphones are very personal to every individual, and they not only reflect your personality but eventually become a part of it. As an individual, you would want the smartphone to become an extension of yours. This means that the smartphone should offer you those elements to personalise it to your preferences.
There are two areas of personalisation. One is relatively easier where you can choose the colour and design of the cover on your smartphone that suits your personality. In some cases, users do not want to have any cover or skin and want to keep it OG (original). The other side of personalisation is customising the UI including the home screen, icons, colours, fonts and styles of the smartphone interface. Now some smartphones also let you customise the photo frames where you can define your elements as a custom signature on every photograph or video you capture. This personalisation became very popular with OnePlus which introduced the Oxygen OS that allowed users to do a lot of customisations and personalisation.
Evaluation Over
As a smartphone buyer, we have to take each of these three elements of the PEP framework and synchronise them to find the most suitable smartphone. The phone should also identify and relate to your personality. The smartphones of the present day do not have very noticeable differences. Just five years back, we had smartphones, which had varied scores upon comparison. Some might get eight out of 10 while others would be just five or six making it easy for any consumer to decide. But now with all smartphone makers trying to give as much as possible within a price segment, any detailed scoring or benchmarking exercise will only result in a very close contest. Similarly, if we check on reviewers, we may find it a complex maze with no clear winners.
As an enabler of information in the right perspective, a framework like the PEP framework identifies all the important things to consider while giving the freedom to the consumer to define and prioritise what’s important. So next time you plan to buy a smartphone, evaluate your options using a PEP framework.
(The author is a recognised industry analyst specialising in gadgets, AI, 5G, IOT and Auto Tech. Founder of Techarc, he offers insights to leading Technology brands and consults startups and mid-sized organisations for digital transformation. Ideas are personal.)
