The 5G era is coming. How long will it take for smartphones to become obsolete?

In different eras, due to the limitations of different communication technologies, different terminal communication devices have been born. From the 1G era of "big brother" mobile phones to the current 5G, what form will mobile phones evolve into? Will this form of mobile phones be eliminated?

In the 1G era, which was also the analog signal era, communication technology was only capable of transmitting some sound signals, which gave rise to the birth of “big brother” mobile phones that could only make calls and were extremely bulky.

In the 2G era, due to the advancement of communication technology, in addition to some voice signals, some text signals can also be transmitted instantly in the form of text messages. At this time, feature phones that can make calls, send text messages, and even play some simple stand-alone games were born, and the most representative product was Nokia.

In the 3G and 4G eras, wireless communications and Internet technologies were combined, and smartphones that can browse the web and watch videos were officially born. The form of games has also gradually evolved from stand-alone games that do not require the Internet to multiplayer online games. With the further improvement of network speed in the 4G era, the short video and live broadcast industries have officially emerged.

But if you compare carefully, you will find that after the "Xiaolingtong" era, mobile phones have become more and more bulky. In order to handle some complex calculations such as games and decoding videos, the structure of mobile phones has become more and more complicated. More powerful mobile phone chips, matching batteries and complex heat dissipation modules have been born for strong computing performance. All of these have changed our impression of mobile phones since their birth. Today's mobile phones are not only a communication tool, but also a mobile personal computing center, that is, a small personal computer.

As the times progress, it is undoubted that the computing power and performance of smart devices will become more and more powerful. But in the 5G era, do we really need to build powerful computing power into our mobile phones?

Many videos that review 5G always focus on testing the speed of 5G, but the most significant improvement of 5G is that it can reduce the network delay to about 1ms. In the future, the "mobile phone" will only be an input and display device. The content input by the mobile phone is transmitted to the cloud server with powerful computing power through the network. The data is calculated and then transmitted to the terminal display device around us. The whole process is smooth and the time consumed will not exceed 10ms.

What does a 10ms delay mean? In Honor of Kings, a 60-70ms delay is already very smooth and you can't feel any delay or lag. In the 5G era, the performance of the mobile phone itself seems insignificant. In the future, mobile phones will only have signal baseband, screen and battery. If so, is it necessary for the mobile phone itself to exist?

Like the iPhone, the symbol of the 3G/4G era, the smart glasses that Apple is developing will also become the representative of exploring new terminal devices in the 5G era. According to reports, the Apple glasses that Apple is developing do not have very powerful performance, but can use extremely fast wireless transmission technology to instantly hand over the calculation to the iPhone with powerful computing power, and after processing, transmit the information in real time to the glasses for people to receive. Apple glasses are Apple's exploration of new terminal devices in the 5G era.

But I think the Apple glasses currently being developed by Apple are only a semi-finished product. The final product will be free from the iPhone, and all computing will be handed over to cloud servers, making it an independent terminal device.

Looking further into the future, mobile terminals in the 5G era may be the sum of wireless headphones, smart glasses, and some smart devices that we cannot imagine at present. By detecting human brain waves, the instructions are transmitted to the cloud server, and then displayed in real time on terminal devices such as smart glasses. Or even further, the signals are transmitted directly to the human brain through brain waves.

Even in the future, smart devices will be connected to our bodies and obtain electricity to support signal transmission and reception through bioelectricity.

As a digital enthusiast, although I don’t know when, maybe 5 years or maybe 10 years, I am sure that the mobile phone form factor will eventually be eliminated. I am looking forward to the new terminal devices in the 5G era, and I am looking forward to a more intelligent future.