Normally I consider myself an anti-gimmick person when it comes to consumer tech. When I’m shopping for agaming PC, for instance, I don’t particularly care about flashy LED lighting or conspicuous logos – I want all of my money going towards performance and reliability. With TVs, I don’t particularly care about transparent screens orhanging them like paintings.
The same philosophy often applies tosmartphones, but they’re such personal devices that it makes more sense to hunt for something that stands out – something that feels authentically “me,” as much as a mass-market product can, anyway. The industry could probably use more gimmicks, given that many flagship devices now feel like minor evolutions at best. If phone makers aren’t going to give us overdue features like two-day battery life, a little personality is the least they can serve up.
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1Customizable external lighting
Hopefully it’s useful, as well
Much of the inspiration for this list was thinking about theNothing phone, and of course, one of the first things anyone notices about it is its external “glyph” lighting. It gives the device a futuristic vibe, which is oddly missing from most smartphones for all of their technological advancements. We’re going into 2025, for crying out loud – at least some of the things we own should look as slick as Blade Runner, a sci-fi movie released in 1982 and set in 2019.
It gives devices a futuristic vibe, which is oddly missing from most smartphones for all of their technological advancements.
More importantly, Nothing’s glyphs have practical value. They can signal specific notifications and contacts, or display countdown timers, including ones for food delivery and ridesharing. That makes the cost and increased power consumption of external lighting a little easier to justify, since everyone appreciates not having to pick up a phone to check basic info.
2Unusual patterns and artwork
Fewer gray bricks, please
Most smartphones have unicolor rear panels, with little to distinguish them apart from corners, camera bumps, and corporate logos. Even those colors can be boring – Apple, for instance, won’t let you get aniPhone 16 Proin anything but shades of white, black, or gold.
It makes sense to a degree. Manufacturing every color under the sun is complex and expensive, and you can get a personalized look quickly by slapping on a case, skin, or sticker. Most people use opaque cases that hide a phone’s original looks – but there are plenty of transparent cases out there, and I think more people would gladly adopt those if there was something interesting to stare at underneath. Imagine a phone with artwork commissioned from names like Alex Ross, Olly Moss, or Aidan Hughes. Simply carving abstract patterns into a phone might improve visual interest.
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3Folding and rotating components
Not just folding screens
Before LG shut down its phone division entirely, one of its last products was theWing, a phone that spun out a second horizontal display for better multitasking and video. It wasn’t a hit, clearly, but it was an interesting experiment. These days, it’s a reminder that “folding” doesn’t have to automatically translate into flexible screens.
It’s hard to imagine further folding or rotating gimmicks that would set the world on fire, but some spitball ideas might include cable compartments, tiny rotating side displays, or pro-quality pop-up cameras and flashes. The point is that phone makers aren’t really stretching their designs these days – it’s a miracle we’re getting anything beyond static bricks.
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4E-ink displays
120Hz OLED isn’t the endgame
I’m not convinced that phones limited to e-ink (like theBoox Palma) will ever be more popular than those with an OLED screen, especially without full color. But I certainly support them, since they encourage long-form reading instead of getting stuck in social media apps. They’re easier on the eyes, too, not to mention your battery, since e-ink only sips power when an image changes.
What would be more exciting is customizable display art, or a full-on e-reader for those times when I want to read a book.
What we really need more of are phones with secondary e-ink displays. In some cases, these can provide info at a glance, such as the time and recent notifications. But what would be more exciting is customizable display art, or a full-on e-reader for those times when I want to read a book or long-form article. In an age when manga and other comic books are extremely popular, there’s likely a market for it.
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