Take a closer look at the ten products and trends of 2016
- iPhone 7 Plus
This is a smartphone to lust for, perhaps Apple’s best in years. The iPhone 7 Plus is bigger, better and as usual, expensive. And it’s worth buying. Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus isn’t at all too different from its predecessor the iPhone 6s Plus, but it adds key features that were missing from the previous generation iPhones. Like the iPhone 7, the large screen-sized smartphone has the same design and build. As mentioned earlier, there are key changes that works in favour of the iPhone 7 Plus. For instance, the iPhone 7 Plus is water resistant, meaning it can take a splash of water, without destroying the device. And of course, it’s also the first iPhone to dump the legendary 3.5mm headphone jack. This time around users have to stick to Apple’s proprietary Lightning connector for charging and audio output. If you compare it to the iPhone 7, the iPhone 7 Plus has more guts - we were left spellbound by the innovative dual-camera setup on the iPhone 7 Plus. It is not just a paper tiger - it enables you to get 2x optical zoom and superb depth of field shots. Then there is an improved battery which easily lasted a day and half on a single charge. It’s actually improved - and you will definitely notice the change. The 5.5-inch screen is beautiful, the performance seems satisfactory, there’s more internal memory (although alas, no memory card support even now) stereo speakers,and if you love straight forward software in the form of iOS, the iPhone 7 Plus is quite a good buy. We are not going to say that the iPhone 7 Plus is perfect or somewhat like that, but we can guarantee you that this is the best you can get at this price. The Godphone it remains and definitely is the phone to beat in terms of performance and features. And well, it is now back in black as well!
- Reliance Jio
2016, or rather its latter half, was the year of reliance Jio, India’s newest telecom operator. With its subscriber base crossing 16 million within a month of launching its commercial operations on September 5, reliance Jio has already become hit among the masses, with hundreds queuing up for a connection outside stores. The arrival of reliance Jio has unleashed a war among the country’s top telecom companies. High speed 4G connectivity is the need for the hour, for a country like India - and Jio is offering fast connectivity without charging exorbitant prices. Jio’s cheapest plan begins at rs. 50 per 1GB. And Jio has made it clear that it won’t charge a single penny from its subscribers for all voice calls. Its Welcome Offer, which gives existing subscribers free Jio services including data, voice and video, will end on december 31. However, the real test will begin in January 2017 as by that time reliance Jio’s 4G services would then have to come out of beta stage. The company has also attracted a fair deal of attention from the competition and the authorities with complaints about unfair practices and interconnectivity. Some consumers have also been facing call drops and claim data speeds have been dipping. Jio’s challenge in 2017 is going to be to deliver on its promise of 2016. Not too many would dare bet against it!
- Chatbots
What are chatbots? Are they going to kill apps? From Facebook to Microsoft, all the tech titans are building chatbots. But why? A chatbot is a service designed to provide us information, powered by an artificial intelligence, that you interact with via a text message. The basic idea is to find anything, without having to do a Web search or opening up multiple apps. As an example, if you would like to buy a pair of jeans from Levi’s online store, you simply visit the site, look around for a pair of jeans you wanted, and then you would buy it. But if Levi’s makes a bot, all you would like to do message Levi’s on Facebook Messenger and simply say what you are looking for. Instead of browsing a website and spending hours, you will have to converse with Levi’s bot. It not only saves time, but it will give you the type of experience you would find in your nearby retail store. chatbots learn from the past conversation and even make suggestions before you ask. It’s fascinating, right? chatbots are gaining traction because people are tired of downloading individual apps. Even if you aren’t interested to use a particular app, you will be forced to do so. currently, Facebook is taking bots to a whole new level. Earlier this year, it launched its chatbot platform, more than 11,000 bots have been added to Messenger. right now, chatbots are relatively new, concept-wise. They are good at simple tasks, at least for now, like giving you the weather update and so on. No, they won’t replace humans anytime soon. So be relaxed. But the next time you are chatting to someone online, don’t be too sure it is a flesh and blood person. The era of the chat bot is set to arrive soon. And conversations might never be the same again. Yes, there will be some who will yearn for the “human” touch but we reckon there will be many who will simply appreciate the convenience.
- Dual-camera Smartphones
The world of mobile photography doesn’t look the same as it was a few years ago. Smartphones have become much more advanced, and a few of them now feature a dual-camera setup. It’s baffling to see how the Huawei P9 captures monochrome shots. Or, take the case of the LG G5 that features a second camera with an ultra wide lens. There’s an impression that a dual-camera lens system is just a prop, and has no real meaning. Well, that’s a completely wrong way to judge the dual-camera technology. Some of the most popular smartphones of 2016 have a dual-camera lens setup. Both the Huawei P9 and Honor 8 use a dual-camera where one captures a monochrome (black-and-white) photos and the other captures a color photograph. In our testing, we found that both smartphones deliver excellent results, and images are sharp and colorful. Both smartphones are equipped to take monochrome shots like no other smartphones. The other advantage of a dual-camera lens setup is the ability to create bokeh, the effect that help you focus on the subject in a photograph by blurring the background. A dSLr camera can achieve bokeh, since it has a zoom lens and a larger sensor. On the P9 and Honor 8, when the bokeh mode on, you can adjust your focus after the photo has been taken. There are many benefits of a dual-camera setup on a smartphone. The iPhone 7 Plus, for that matter, can achieve 2x optical zoom by switching between the two lenses, and through software optimization, you can comfortably achieve a 10x digital zoom. This makes the iPhone 7 Plus more like compact zoom cameras. One also need to understand that different manufacturers have different take on a dual-camera setup. Both cameras on the P9 and Honor 8 have the same focus length, but the iPhone 7 Plus uses wide angle and telephoto lens - with 12-megapixel resolutions. They might not be everyone’s cup of tea yet, but dual-camera smartphones are the future of the mobile photography. And they came to the fore this year.
- AR and VR
2016 will be remembered as the year of Pokemon Go. You won’t believe how tough was it to catch a rare Pikachu in Pokemon Go. Literally. People went crazy about Pokemon Go without realizing that it’s just a game application. The game, which shook the world by storm, uses augmented reality technology to allow players to “trace” virtual Pokemons as they view their surrounding through a smartphone screen, all in real time. Although attempts have been made in the past to explore augmented reality technology, there was no killer application available that could attract consumers’ attention. The success of Pokemon Go is proof that you don’t require fancy glasses, or external hardware to support augmented reality. And yes, it’s free. Who was prepared for Pokemon Go? Well, no one because most people were actually betting big on the technological cousin of augmented reality, virtual reality. The Virtual reality (Vr) market has made significant progress, from the days of the Google cardboard the cheapest way to experience virtual reality. Now you have more manufacturers and developers working to make virtual reality a success. Google, HTc, Sony and Oculus all launched their virtual reality headsets in the market this year. Microsoft too plans to expand into the Vr space through its trusted partners. Whilst players like Oculus and HTc have virtual reality headsets for Pcs, Google introduced daydream, a Vr platform for Android devices that’s right built into Android and currently supported on the company’s very own daydream Vr headset. The platform, daydream, is a unique platform where you can experience virtual reality apps and other content while wearing the headset. However, unlike augmented reality which already has a hit in the form of Pokemon Go, virtual reality still hasn’t got a killer app. Plus, there is a cost involved to buy a headset itself - and a tiny selection of compatible apps to go with. Will 2017 change that?
- Live Video
The power of social media in a digital age is enormous. Facebook is home to 1.79 billion users, and not surprisingly, is one of the most popular social media platforms around. But it is one thing to get popular and another to sustain your popularity. Which is why Facebook has kept adding features to its core services. As you might have noticed, Facebook isn’t limited to chatting with friends, or updating your status twice a day. It has become a much more evolved platform. And 2016 saw your Facebook feed suddenly turning into live streaming contest. Live videos had arrived in the world of social networking. Many people and indeed brands found a live broadcast on the social network to be a much more powerful way to share and express their feelings with their target audiences. Imagine yourself as a homemaker, ready to take your hobby of making cakes to the another level. With a live broadcast, you can teach people how to make cakes on Facebook. You can then post the video to a personal profile. It will be visible to anyone who see the post within your friends list. It’s like watching a live broadcast - the only difference would be that, this time around, Facebook will be on the center stage, instead of a TV. It was not just Facebook that got on the live video bandwagon. Periscope, an app by Twitter, emerged as yet another great platform to share live broadcasts from your smartphones. While Facebook is still new into the whole live broadcast domain , Periscope has a head start on it, as the app was initially launched last year. One more advantage of Periscope is that it has a dedicated and interactive audience, with niche appeal. Neither of the two platforms are perfect though; comments can get slow to load and the quality of video is still not great. However, currently, everyone is talking about live broadcasting through smartphones. And the trend is likely to get popular in the coming days. As we go to print there is news that Instagram might be looking at a live video option too!
- Modular Smartphones
Project Ara, Google’s ambitious initiative to build a phone with interchangeable modules might have been scrapped, and although it’s not good news for the tech world, this hasn’t stopped players like Lenovo from trying their luck in the modular phone segment. The year started with a bang with the arrival of the G5, the successor to the G4, the flagship offering from LG. And while it boasted excellent specs, it really turned heads with its modular design. Pull off the bottom of the smartphone, add small accessories, and you are set for an enhanced overall experience. There’s a camera grip that adds physical shutter to the phone, alongside a DAC for improving the audio. Under the hood, though, the device rocked a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset, 4GB rAM, dual cameras on the back, a long-battery life, and USB-c fast charging. At rs. 52,990, the LG G5 however was seen as being a way too expensive proposition for mainstream users. And when Google’s modular device oriented Project Ara was scrapped citing difficulties to manufacture modules and the high costs involved to make a final product, some felt the era of modular phones was over even before it started. But that was not the case. Lenovo showcased the future, a modular one, with the release of the Moto Z and Moto Z Play. For the first time, we have the two phones in the market that somewhat rightly capture the ‘modular smartphone approach’. They are incredibly slim smartphones with a more practical approach to modularity. The modules clip on and off easily, and the implementation is seamless. There is no denying that a standard is missing for modular smartphones at the moment, but there’s also no denying that 2016 was the year that the world discovered the joy of improving a phone by just clipping something on to it.
- OnePlus 3
I t may not be as big as Apple and Samsung in scale, but the geek community loves OnePlus. The original OnePlus kicked off the start of a truly impressive smartphone, and the latest iteration - the OnePlus 3 - takes it to another level in the truest sense of the word. As the year 2016 comes to an end, we confess we haven’t seen a better smartphone than the OnePlus 3 in the vicinity of rs. 30,000. Why? Because the OnePlus 3 is a smartphone with a flagship hardware and specifications, but only costs rs. 27,990. It wasn’t too pleasing in terms of the design, aping the likes of the HTc One M9. But when you held the phone, it felt nice, handy and very solid piece of hardware. It’s obviously lighter and slimmer than the OnePlus 2. The buttons have a solid click, and it’s great to see the slider again. The 5.5-inch Full Hd, Super AMOLEd display is simply gorgeous. Looks aside, the OnePlus 3 performs exceptionally well, with no shutter or freezing. The combination of a Snapdragon 820 and 6GB of rAM will result in uninterrupted long gaming sessions. How about the battery life? Well, the battery life will easily last a day or more, depending upon your usage. The OnePlus 3 doesn’t support Qualcomm’s Quick charging 3, but supports something called the “dash charge” technology. Thanks to it, a OnePlus 3 takes only 30 minutes to charge from empty to 63 per cent. Sounds cool? On the back, there’s a 16-megapixel camera and an 8-megapixel front camera on the front. The quality of the clicked pictures are fairly good and improved low-light performance. OnePlus’software is impressive. It’s called “Oxygen OS” and is is similar to stock Android. Overall, 2016 saw OnePlus release a phone that was benchmark to all those in the budget flagship segment - the OnePlus 3. consumer expectations will never be the same again.
- 3.5 mm Headphone Audio Jack
When Apple killed the 3.5mm headphone jack from the new iPhones, it created confusion in the tech world. Apple’s new iPhone doesn’t have a headphone jack anymore, and users have to live with a Lightning port that’s also used to charge the battery. It didn’t go down well with a number of people including Apple’s strongest critics. The crucifixion of a standard 3.5mm headphone jack had been on the cards for long, and Apple wasn’t the first manufacturer to replace the port. In fact, earlier in the year, china’s LeEco had got rid of the headphone jack and instead introduced a pair of USB Type-c headphones with its proprietary continuous digital Lossless Audio standard. But it was when Apple went ahead with its plans and dumped the 3.5mm headphone jack, that the world erupted. The debate is still open as to why Apple decided to forego the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The biggest question is: would the lightning port be a better option for headphones than the 3.5mm headphone port? Some argued that with the removal of the headphone jack, Apple could manage to make the iPhone 7 thinner and lighter. The 3.5mm jack does take a considerable amount of space, though, and removing of the legacy 3.5mm headphone jack has resulted in making the iPhone 7 water resistant. If you might have noticed, the iPhone 7 features a better camera, now with OIS and the larger battery. Apple never mentioned much about how the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack would lead to improved sound quality. Theoretically, at least, the lightning port is a digital output, whereas the 3.5mm jack is an analog one on the phone. While critics have been divided about sound quality of earphones via the lightning port, one thing is clear that the headphone jack for Apple is dead. 2017 will see if this is the case with other phone manufacturers. Meanwhile, Apple has moved into the wirless zone in headphones - the company will soon start selling AirPods, the true wireless earbuds for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
- Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
Curved display smartphones have so far been seen as gimmicky, and not offering the consumer any “real benefit.” That’s not true anymore, thanks to a device released in 2016 - the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. After seeing the Galaxy S7 Edge, which packs a dual-curved display, people have started to take smartphones with dual curved edges seriously. The success of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge could be measured by the strong sales the device had in 2016. Although we don’t have access to exact sales figures, the Galaxy S7 Edge has been rated high - both critically and commercially. And the biggest proof of its success is the fact that dual-curved smartphones are in the vogue these days. So curved displays are here to stay? The answer is”Yes”! The Galaxy S7 Edge is not just good looking: it feels a lot better in the palm of your hand. Samsung has somehow managed to cram a 5.5-inch QHd display into the body of a smaller phone. Both the Galaxy S7 Edge and iPhone 7 Plus have a 5.5-inch display, but ironically Apple’s phone looks much larger than the S7 Edge (oh, the irony). Because of having a dual-curved display, the Galaxy S7 Edge not only looks narrower, thinner but shorter too. The Galaxy S7 Edge also gets rock solid hardware, decent cameras on board, and a long battery life. The device is IP68 rated, meaning the smartphone can survive in upto five feet of water for a half-hour. The Galaxy S7 Edge does not come cheap but its innovative design and cutting edge hardware made itone of the best devices of the season, and one of the few whose sucess spurred a design change. We are betting you will be getting to see a lot more phones with curved displays in 2017 and when you do, you can thank the Samsung Galxy S7 Edge for setting the trend for them. The S7 Edge is easily Samsung’s best smartphone in years.
