There are a lot of phones to choose from in the market. If you’re lucky, there’s already a phone out there that qualifies as being perfect for you. But the amount of smartphones that are available compared to the amount of people who own them – which is a whole lot of people – suggests that for most people the perfect phone probably doesn’t exist yet.
I often think about what I would do to change a phone to make it perfect for me. The easiest thing for me to say when it comes to perfection in a smartphone is to say that every feature is amazing, nothing lags, nothing is broken, security is impenetrable, the design is awesome and indestructible, it will have software and security updates for at least 10 years, and it costs less than $200. But I suppose if we’re talking feasible details, my ambition needs to scale back.
What I’m going to do is take different parts of smartphones that I like, and theoretically smush them together.
Let’s start with the screen and display. A 4.7-inch suits me just fine. It’s a little on the small side these days, but this size lets me continue to use my phone somewhat comfortably with one hand, which is important. I’m also not picky on resolution. In fact, screen resolution hasn’t really mattered to me since Apple introduced Retina display. Every phone I have owned since then has been on par or better, and I have yet to be disappointed by a screen since 2012. I guess if I had to choose one, Retina with True Tone display would be good.
I’m not a very technical person, so when it comes to processing power I’m happy with anything that doesn’t lag often and doesn’t burn a hole through the back of my phone. Snapdragon 820 or something equivalent seems like a reasonable option here.
RAM is becoming increasingly important. 4GB has become the new norm for Android devices, while iOS uses 2GB for the most part. I think I’d spring for the 4GB regardless of what operating system I used; this is good for future-proofing it for a little while.
Memory is something that I also consider important. I’d love to have an internal memory of 128GB as well as an additional microSD card slot. While most of my music these days comes from streaming services, I also have a sizeable library of music, old photos, and videos on my computer that I would love to throw onto my phone without feeling like I’m taking up too much space with it. The more memory, the better.
The camera is also an important feature in my life, both front and back. For this, I’d probably swipe the cameras and software from of the Samsung Galaxy S7. It just seems like a well-rounded experience there.
For the design, I would probably take the front of the S7 (and add in some front-facing speakers) but use the back of… anything else. I’m not, and have never been, a big fan of phones with glass backs. Shiny? Yes. Fingerprint magnet? Yes. Practical? No.
I’m iffy on the platform. I like iOS for its simplicity, ability to run well on lower specs, and consistent updates, but I also like customizing Androids when I have the time. A dual-boot option would be nice between the two, but that would probably cause a glitch in the Matrix. Oh well. This is all theoretical anyway, so dual-boot it is!
I feel like this list of features is super underwhelming, but it doesn’t take much for me to be happy with a phone. But enough about me, readers. When it comes to your perfect phone, what features ad specs would you want to see? Let us know in the comments below!