Rumors say that even the mighty Apple’s iPhone Air is struggling<\/a>, causing it to delay a second Air model \u2014 though poor sales may not be the reason why<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are obviously fans of thin phones, but I am not one of them, and if sales are to be believed, chances are you aren’t either. Good riddance, I say.<\/p>\n As many advantages as a thinner phone has, there are a number of areas where time and money would be better spent.<\/p>\n Here are five of the most important to me, which I think will take phones to the next level.<\/p>\n Larger batteries<\/p>\n Very few of us would change from a smartphone to a “dumb” feature phone these days.<\/p>\n The allure of apps, access to the entire internet, excellent cameras, and everything else we get from those little glass slabs is simply too large.<\/p>\n Still, there’s one area where we all remember feature phones with fondness: The enormous battery lives.<\/p>\n Everyone loves a strong battery life, and while we all have different metrics for judging our phone’s longevity, very few of us will complain if a phone delivers more than we were expecting.<\/p>\n In recent years, battery capacities of flagship phones in the West have largely stalled around 5,000mAh. This is a solid size, but the increasing demands of hardware and apps are starting to take their toll on how far your phone can go on a charge.<\/p>\n But this is largely just a problem in the West. In other markets, device batteries have been steadily increasing in size.<\/p>\n The recently released OnePlus 15<\/a> has made most popular flagship phones look a bit silly, thanks to a massive 7,300mAh battery. <\/p>\n With the potential to last almost three days while still touting flagship hardware, the OnePlus 15 has shown the way forward.<\/p>\n This is basically the opposite ideology from a thin phone, as it requires a phone to have a certain amount of thickness and weight. And while we all love a big battery, nobody wants a comically thick or heavy device.<\/p>\n But it doesn’t have to be; the OnePlus 15 is lighter and thinner than the Galaxy S25 Ultra<\/a>, despite packing almost 50% more battery. <\/p>\n More capable cameras<\/p>\n While it matters to some of us more than others, a strong smartphone camera is a must-have for most of us.<\/p>\n Whether you’re a budding photographer or just need to take quick snaps of business documents, we all want our images to come out clean and crisp.<\/p>\n And to be absolutely fair, that’s the case for 99% of modern smartphones. But there’s always room to improve, whether that be in hardware or software.<\/p>\n Main camera lenses are generally up to snuff these days, and telephoto lenses are too, but there could definitely be some improvements made to ultra-wide lenses.<\/p>\n In general, the lens you rely on to take pictures of wide landscapes or group shots tends to lag behind other lenses, and it shouldn’t.<\/p>\n But that’s a fairly small improvement. For my money, time is better spent on improving camera software.<\/p>\n Smartphone cameras have shown how much you can rely on software to tune a good image into a great one.<\/p>\n The early days of the Google Pixel<\/a> revolved around this, as its strong software allowed a single 12MP lens to punch up to heavyweights with more camera lenses and megapixel counts. <\/p>\n Google has since moved on, but not before adding more utilities to its smartphones, like Pro Res Zoom<\/a>, Night Sight<\/a>, and Astrophotography<\/a>. <\/p>\n Google has its own special heft where software is concerned, due to, y’know, owning the Android operating system.<\/p>\n But a number of these features aren’t beyond other manufacturers. I’d like to see them put a bunch more effort into these sorts of features, especially since even less powerful chips should be able to manage to run them now.<\/p>\n Cheaper folding phones<\/p>\n A lot of us still think of folding phones as new. I know I do \u2014 so it’s always a surprise when I’m reminded that the first generation of Galaxy Fold came out in 2019.<\/p>\n It’s been over six years since the very first foldable phone, and while the tech has certainly moved on, prices for foldable phones haven’t really dropped past what you’d pay for a premium phone.<\/p>\n Sure, you can buy older versions of foldable phones and find a bargain if you’re willing to buy pre-owned \u2014 but there’s a massive gap in the market for a truly affordable foldable phone.<\/p>\n Motorola has come the closest with its flip Razr phones, with the lower-powered versions starting at around $700. But we can do better, right?<\/p>\n Shooting for a budget foldable is a little silly at this point, but there’s no reason why we can’t get a much cheaper foldable Galaxy Z Fold, or some sort of other book-fold device.<\/p>\n Key to this will be making a book-fold, like the Z Fold 7, rather than a clamshell. Yes, the clamshells are cool too, but it’s the book-folds that contain the truly impressive tech, and it’s the style I’d most like to see become a lot more available.<\/p>\n Honestly, I thought this would have happened by now.<\/p>\n If foldable devices truly are the future of smartphones (and they should be, they’re fantastic), then they need to be available to a much wider number of people.<\/p>\n It can’t just be people willing to drop $2,000 on a device getting in on the action, because you’re never going to hit significant numbers that way.<\/p>\n Get those prices down, and experiment with cheaper hardware and lower prices.<\/p>\n Making everything just that bit smoother<\/p>\n For an everyday user, the most apparent difference between a premium device and a cheaper one isn’t performance in games, it isn’t how well the camera performs at night, or even how long the battery life is \u2014 it’s how smooth it feels.<\/p>\n A smooth operating system is a joy to use, and it makes a massive difference to all of your phone usage.<\/p>\n I don’t just mean the refresh rate, by the way. Most, if not all, modern Android devices come with a refresh rate of about 60Hz these days. And that’s great \u2014 but it’s not what I mean.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/oneplus-15-on-charge.JPG\")
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