Top 10 smartphone predictions for 2020: embrace 5G, say goodbye to bangs

What new features and new selling points will smartphones have in 2020? In what aspects will they be expected to be improved? Will the new year's mobile phones be able to impress consumers? Please see the top ten predictions for smartphones in 2020.

1. "Bye-bye bangs" to ensure the experience

Saying goodbye to bangs is what everyone wants. When Apple's official social account showed a picture of an iPhone with a new notch-free screen design, although it was most likely a photoshop error, it still made everyone excited. At the same time, there are also reports that next year's iPhone 12 will completely abandon the bangs.

In fact, it is easy to remove the bangs, but the difficulty lies in removing the bangs without reducing the current security and experience to obtain a larger viewing area. How to continue to meet the user's security authentication issues, whether to use an under-screen fingerprint or an under-screen camera; how to meet the user's higher requirements for selfies, multiple selfie cameras also affect the screen area.

If the bangs are removed, but the phone can be unlocked by a black and white photo with red eyes, it is definitely not a qualified product. I hope that in 2020, we can see the perfect smartphone without bangs.

2. The “Second Season” of Folding Screens

Few products can carry out a series of activities such as product release, pre-sale, and sales throughout the whole year of 2019 like foldable screen mobile phones, so foldable screen mobile phones did not usher in a big explosion in 2019. It is more like a "treasure of the store" of mobile phone manufacturers in their own product line, which can only be viewed from a distance and not played with.

However, we can already see the "second season" of foldable phones coming at the end of 2019. On the one hand, foldable phones are officially sold in the market, and on the other hand, with the official release of Motorola Razr, a new form factor of foldable phones has been presented - horizontal bending. Later, it was also reported that the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 will also adopt a similar design.

Motorola Razr will be officially shipped on January 9, 2020, and the second season of foldable phones is about to begin. Is it a gimmick or the future? Let's wait and see in 2020.

3. The arrival of under-screen cameras

Removing bangs or holes requires under-screen camera technology. Currently, Apple, Samsung, Huawei, OnePlus, and OPPO have all begun to focus on this technology.

As early as the beginning of 2018, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. applied to the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) for a patent for a smartphone with an under-screen camera, titled "Mobile Terminal and Display Method", and the patent was officially included on August 29, 2019.

At the 2019 MWC Shanghai and Future Technology Conference, OPPO also demonstrated a prototype of an under-screen camera. It uses a new customized screen, and the front camera area has low reflection and high transmittance characteristics, ensuring that light can fully penetrate the glass when taking selfies, ensuring image quality.

There are also reports that Samsung will officially launch a mobile phone based on under-screen camera technology in 2020. Samsung's vice president of panel research and development also said in 2019 that the future form of mobile phones will be able to hide the camera under the screen without affecting the shooting quality of the front camera.

4. 5G goes mainstream

In 2020, 5G mobile phones will become mainstream. In the layout of mobile phone manufacturers' product lines, 5G mobile phones will be a must-have, and most mobile phones will be released with 4G and 5G models. The reason is that when the replacement cycle of mobile phones is basically locked at 24 months, consumers hope that their mobile phones can meet the network upgrades in the next two years.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said in 2019 that all products priced above 2,000 yuan in the first half of 2020 will be 5G phones, and at least 10 5G phones will be released in 2020. According to forecasts, Apple plans to launch four 5G versions of the iPhone in 2020, which means that all iPhones will support 5G. It is expected that Apple's 5G phones will sell 65 million/150 million units worldwide in 2020/2021, and 12 million/24 million units in China.

It is expected that global 5G mobile phone shipments will reach 250 million and 450 million units in 2020 and 2021, and will reach 750 million units in 2022. It is expected that by the end of 2020, the penetration rate of 5G mobile phones will reach 70%.

5. 5G mobile phones are moving towards perfection

If consumers are still conservative about buying 5G mobile phones in 2019, thinking that the network support is not satisfactory, then 5G mobile phones will be perfect in 2020. 5G global communication and 5G dual-SIM support are all here.

Whether it is the X55 paired with Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 or the X52 built into Snapdragon 765/765G, both support the Sub-6GHz and millimeter wave frequency bands that operators around the world are currently using and will deploy in 2020 and 2021. It also supports NSA/SA and even DSS technology, allowing mobile phones to enjoy a wider 5G network coverage.

At the same time, 5G mobile phones will also be able to return to the level of the 4G era in terms of thickness and weight, improving user portability. For example, the QTM525 millimeter wave antenna module used with the X55 can support the design of a slim 5G smartphone with a thickness of less than 8 mm by reducing the module height. This will also make the thickness of 5G millimeter wave mobile phones basically the same as the current thinner 4G mobile phones, and leave more space for other components and batteries in the mobile phone, indirectly improving battery life.

Consumers will have no worries when buying 5G phones in 2020.

6. Say goodbye to frivolity

Speaking of thinness, we can only say that it has returned to the thinness of the 4G era, but it is definitely not the thinness of smartphones in the past. After all, in 2020, if a mobile phone weighing about 170 grams is produced, the manufacturer can promote it as thin and light, and even in 2019, a mobile phone manufacturer of about 190 grams dares to say that it is thin and light. But if you think about the 172g iPhone 6 Plus, in 2014, many people would think it was a burden in the trouser pocket, and even China Unicom had launched a unique trouser pocket modification activity. Now, perhaps every mobile phone needs to modify the trouser pocket. Speaking of this, let alone recall the wonderful 112g iPhone 5s.

In 2020, most flagship phones may weigh between 190g and 210g, or even move towards the 50g and 50g mark of the predecessors. The reason is that manufacturers are adding larger screens, more cameras, larger batteries, and more components to their designs, making mobile phones more and more like exercise when carried.

Perhaps, we can only use the saying "a loss in one place brings a gain in another" to comfort ourselves for the "degeneration" of mobile phones in terms of thinness and lightness.

7. Multiple cameras

The silver lining is that mobile phone manufacturers have been constantly pursuing the number of cameras in recent years. Once upon a time, every family had a camera, but by 2020, a family of three may have 15 cameras, because each family member’s smartphone has 5 cameras with different tasks.

For example, it is reported that the Huawei P40 Pro, which will be released in the first half of 2020, will adopt a rear quad-camera + front dual-camera design; in the Samsung S20 series, the S20e has a rear 64MP main camera + 12MP wide-angle + 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera, supporting 2x optical zoom. The Samsung S20 and S20+ have a rear 108MP quad-camera combination, a 5x periscope zoom camera, and support up to 100x digital zoom; some of the latest iPhone 12 renderings also show that the iPhone 12 Pro may also adopt a rear quad-camera design.

8. Billion pixels

In addition to the increase in the number of mobile phone cameras, the upgrade also includes an increase in the number of pixels. The Xiaomi CC9 Pro released on November 5, 2019 is already equipped with a billion-pixel sensor. In 2020, more manufacturers may upgrade their mobile phone cameras to 100 million pixels or even 200 million pixels.

It has been reported that the Samsung S20 Ultra will be equipped with a 100-megapixel camera and support 5x optical zoom. Also at the 2019 Snapdragon Technology Summit, Qualcomm has announced that the Snapdragon 865's ISP processing speed is as high as an astonishing 2 billion pixels per second, and supports new shooting features and functions. Users can shoot 4K HDR videos with 1 billion colors, 8K videos, or capture photos up to 200 million pixels. At the same time, it is also claimed that 200 million pixels is not a theoretical value. Users will be able to get such a terminal product in 2020, and they will be able to take 200 million pixel photos using their mobile phones.

9. Strengthen the connection with other equipment

The connection between smartphones and other devices will continue to strengthen. For example, the Dex function launched in the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 series in 2019 emphasizes collaboration with computers. After the phone is plugged into DeX, it can be connected to a Windows computer via USB-C. A mini desktop window of Note 10 will be displayed on the computer. Users can drag and drop files between the two windows, check notifications on the phone, and use a mouse and keyboard to control Android applications on the Note 10 phone.

In 2020, with the arrival of 5G, mobile phones may not only have a closer relationship with computers, but also a closer relationship with smart watches, XR glasses, and Bluetooth headsets. 5G networks may give rise to more ways to use related smart devices, among which the relationship between mobile phones and glasses may undergo unprecedented changes.

On the other hand, in 2019, Apple, the top company in terms of profits, has already told its peers through its financial reports how profitable it is to sell accessories. In Apple's Q3 financial report, the fastest growing category is "wearables, home and accessories", and the main products in this category are Apple Watch and AirPods, with sales increasing by about 48% compared to the same period last year. Some analysts even predict that when Apple announces its first quarter financial report in early 2020, the strong sales of AirPods and Apple Watch will bring "surprises" to investors. Obviously, no one wants Apple to take this coveted cake alone.

10. Upgraded interactive mode

In 2019, smartphones have explored more interactive methods beyond touch screens. The 88-degree ultra-curved screen on Huawei Mate 30 Pro can make the dream of eliminating the volume button come true. Users can double-click the edge of the screen and slide up and down to adjust the volume. ROG phones have added ultrasonic sensors to the edges of the phones, giving them edge touch functionality, which also allows users to control the game in a similar way to the L1/L2 and R1/R2 buttons on handheld game consoles. The Pixel 4 phone has also added a Soli radar sensor, with recognition capabilities upgraded from infrared to millimeter-wave signals, enabling sub-millimeter precision motion tracking and airborne operation.

In 2020, more ways of interaction will surely emerge. Just like the other upgrade trends mentioned above, smartphones are looking forward to a new round of transformation, getting rid of the existing forms and interaction methods, hoping to break through the current bottleneck with one new product after another. Maybe one day, that epoch-making product will quietly appear, leading smartphones to transform into a brand new form.