Next week, Samsung will release its Fold 8 in a new, wider format. They have clearly indicated that themselves. However, it is not different, more or less, new formats that most capture my attention.
Instead, the clearest trend or development in the last year is new ways of interacting. Earlier developments that pointed towards a smooth piece of glass have instead taken the opposite route for the mobile phone. We’ve got extra screens on the back, different types of indicator lights and more, not fewer, buttons. I would probably say that the upstart Nothing has been the driving force here with its Glyph interface in various forms.
Now, ahead of the launch of the Pixel 11 series, Google is showing its interpretation. You can see it in the animation above. It is thus a small LED that can flash in different colors and should be able to inform about notifications and status, without drawing too much attention.
Next week, Samsung will release its Fold 8 in a new, wider format. They have clearly indicated that themselves. However, it is not different, more or less, new formats that most capture my attention.
Instead, the clearest trend or development in the last year is new ways of interacting. Earlier developments that pointed towards a smooth piece of glass have instead taken the opposite route for the mobile phone. We’ve got extra screens on the back, different types of indicator lights and more, not fewer, buttons. I would probably say that the upstart Nothing has been the driving force here with its Glyph interface in various forms.
Now, ahead of the launch of the Pixel 11 series, Google is showing its interpretation. You can see it in the animation above. It is thus a small LED that can flash in different colors and should be able to inform about notifications and status, without drawing too much attention.
Then we have this thing with more and more buttons. On the few occasions I need to put a phone on a tripod to film, it’s a scourge. The stand inexorably clamps down on some button that I don’t want. The whole idea of a touch screen is to have an interface that can adapt to what you want to do at the moment. Steve Jobs mentioned it when he introduced the first iPhone.
A lot has happened since then. The buttons on today’s phones are almost exclusively shortcuts to AI functions in some form and they need to evolve to be truly useful. Today we are not quite there.
The fact is that Samsung, despite being the most prominent in unique AI functions, are the ones that have changed the least in their phones in the last year. We’ll soon see if next week’s launch breaks that trend.